Church Planter Training Network Started by Former CRC Missionary Expands

The Multiplication Network, started in 2000 by Christian Reformed missionary John Wagenveld, recently moved to a bigger Zeeland, Mich., office to accommodate expansion.

The Multiplication Network has helped plant churches in 72 countries, including Spain, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Cambodia. Its vision is “to see a healthy church representing the Kingdom of God in every community” by equipping “leaders with the tools to strengthen and multiply healthy churches.”

They dedicated the new office space Aug. 18. “We outgrew our space, and we needed more space to handle the growth that we're experiencing globally,” Wagenveld said, noting a local team of about 12, with 23 in the U.S., 100 around the world, and 350 global partners who contribute to the Multiplication Network’s work. Because “we’re in over 70 countries, the work is getting more and more complex. We’re doing all this training out and all this reporting in, and so we just need to have a little bit more of office culture to be able to sustain this amazing growth that’s taken place the last few years.”

Wagenveld, who is now a member of Pillar Church in Holland, Mich., grew up in Argentina as the son of a missionary pastor with Resonate Global Mission, formerly known as Christian Reformed World Missions. He later became a Resonate missionary himself, serving in Puerto Rico for 15 years. That’s where the Multiplication Network got its start.

Wagenveld was teaching in a Reformed seminary and got a request to start doing church planting boot camps in different parts of Latin America. From there he was recruited to work at Bible League International. Before long a group of four men from different denominations “put our strengths together to try to start these trainings on holistic church growth and on healthy church planting” in what was then a volunteer-based Multiplication Network. After about 10 years operating that way Wagenveld said Resonate and Bible League of Canada provided grants, and the network was able to grow.

“We just started with 200-300 church plants, and the next thing you know more people were asking us for training. Then we had 500 church plants that got started, and then 1,000, and then 2,000, and the Lord just grew it and grew it,” Wagenveld said. In 2024, 14,531 new churches were globally planted in verifiable ministry—a category that Multiplication Network uses to confirm a “church” is not just in name only but active with monthly reports and continued participation in the leadership training.

Multiplication Network uses a model, action, reflection style of training—a modular way of learning—to equip church leaders in steps, 12 over the course of a year, to teach the new church leaders in an incremental fashion.

“It's just been incredible. It's a lot of work, but also, we've seen God's blessing through it all,” Wagenveld said. “Our vision for 2030 is to have 20,000 churches started each year.”

To celebrate 25 years of ministry the Multiplication Network is hosting 137 leaders from 72 nations on the island of Zanzibar Sept. 28 to Oct. 1, to celebrate the past and further discern the future.