About Us

1. Name & Motto: Early in 2019, Ben & Jody led a small group of families to begin preparations to start planting a new church adopting the name “Multiply” Christian Church.

o Several of the families and individuals first on the launch team were formerly members of “Havendale” Christian Church, in Winter Haven, which closed in 2018. We believe that HCC was the “seed of wheat” (John 12:24) God provided to start

Multiply Christian Church.

o  The reason “Multiply” was chosen as our name comes from two scriptures: Luke10:2 and John 12:24. We believe “the fields are ripe and ready” for God’s workers “to harvest,” and we believe the “seed of wheat” God provided should be used to plant more seeds of the gospel. In this way, our legacy will be to “multiply” the number of souls saved in the next generation of “harvesting” for God’s kingdom.

o  Our Motto: “Every Seat Filled.”

2.  Vision: “Make God the priority in our lives.” We believe God wants us to faithfully pursue His kingdom and righteousness as our number one—personal and corporate—priority. 

***NOTE: In July of 2024, we decided to sell the church campus at 3900 Lake Blue Drive, Winter Haven, Florida. This was a direct result of faithfully following God's vision.

We believe obedience to God's direction is key to understanding what steps He wants to guide Multiply to next. Currently, we believe God is guiding us to create environments where disciple-making will thrive" which will result in seeing "every (church) seat filled" in our county. To help us to do that God has relocated us to the historic City of Bartow, the Seat of Polk County, Florida.

3. Goal: We believe God’s goal for Multiply in 2025 is to: “Create environments where disciple-making will thrive" and see "every (empty church) seat filled in Polk County, Florida.”

We have some interesting ideas on how to carry out this ambitious new goal, however, we’re not fully ready to reveal them just yet. We are praying for clarity, and preparing our meeting, prayer, and office spaces. We want to test our ideas to ensure they align with God’s Word and how we see the Holy Spirit guiding us. We hope to be ready to launch our new ministry efforts by the spring of 2025 and hopefully share what we've discovered soon afterward.

4.    Our Mission:

o  Reach people who are spiritually far from God. Jesus said "Go into all the world and make disciples" (Matthew 28:19). We believe we must accept that challenge and "go" and actively be disciples who make disciples by reaching out to B.L.E.S.S. people who are far from God.

o  Restore: Another part of our mission is to restore God's kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.” As Christ followers, we feel we shouldn’t just talk about serving the needy or idly complain about the growing lack of morality in our culture. Instead, we should seek God’s guidance and learn how to address these issues and tangibly carry out solutions.

Jesus said, "God has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor" (Luke 4:18).

As Christ’s hands and feet, we must endeavor to bring the gospel to the needy as well as the rich! (The gospel doesn't care about someone’s economic situation or ethnicity—It cares about connecting people to God's love—by bringing the good news that the one true God wants to restore His relationship with all people.

o  Reproduce: We want to see God’s kingdom multiply. For that to happen we must reproduce Christ’s mission in others. Christ desires to see the gospel spread from "Jerusalem...Judea...Samaria...to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

As Christ's followers, we must adopt His desire. Jesus commissioned His followers to make disciples, who make disciples, who make disciples. Therefore, at Multiply we’re trying our best to apprentice, coach, and teach new disciples, and equip existing disciples to make more Christian disciples.

To help the process we encourage accountability with both old and new Christians to reproduce new disciples to pass on Christ’s desire and commission to others. Disciple-making is not just for church leaders; it’s meant for all of Christ’s followers!

o  Release: We believe the responsibility to continually encourage and release disciple-makers into Christ’s mission field (Luke 10:2) is vitally important. Jesus promised his followers to become “fishers of men” and sent them out saying, “Just as the Father sent me, so I send you" (John 20:21).

At Multiply, we’re trying to live out the mission and the purpose that Jesus has for us by creating relationships and environments that encourage disciple-making to happen.

o  B.L.E.S.S.: Reach Restore, Reproduce, and Release—this is how we intend to bless our neighbors and our fellow Christian brothers and sisters of faith. Additionally, we will B.L.E.S.S. others by teaching them to: Begin with prayer, Listen with care, Eat with sinners, Serve specific needs, and Share their testimonies of faith (see: B.L.E.S.S. by Jon & Dave Ferguson: Salem Books, 2021).