David Platt is one of many who have been captivated by the vision for multiplying groups set forth by Dawson Trotman:

One of the most influential things I have ever read is a little booklet called “Born to Reproduce” by Dawson Trotman. As a college student, I walked into a Christian bookstore, and a man I hardly knew stopped me, handed me what looked like a leaflet, and said, “You need to read this.” I did, and it changed my life.

In a matter of only a few pages, Trotman builds the case that “every person who is born into God’s family is to multiply.” Yet he maintains that most Christians are not multiplying. He laments, “In every Christian audience, I am sure there are men and women who have been Christians for five, ten or twenty years but who do not know of one person who is living for Jesus Christ today because of them.” This is a problem, Trotman says, and it’s the reason the gospel has not yet spread to the nations today.

In contrast, “the Gospel spread to the known world during the first century without radio, television, or the printing press, because [the early church] produced [Christians] who were reproducing.” Trotman uses the illustration of how parents naturally reproduce children in the context of marriage to assert that “every one of [God’s] children ought to be a reproducer.”[1]

David Platt is a name synonymous with radical discipleship, missional living, and a passion for multiplying groups. As a pastor, author, and former president of the International Mission Board (IMB), Platt has championed the cause of making disciples who multiply—both locally in church contexts and globally through mission strategies. Whether leading a local congregation or overseeing a global network of missionaries, Platt’s life and leadership are a testament to the power of multiplying groups to fulfill the Great Commission.

Multiplying Groups at The Church at Brook Hills

In 2006, David Platt became the pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama. At the time, Brook Hills was a large, suburban megachurch. Platt, then only 27 years old, brought a fresh vision for discipleship and multiplication that challenged traditional church models. Platt communicates the vision this way in one sermon:

The key is that we are sending members and leaders, disciple makers and pastors and missionaries throughout Birmingham, North America, and the nations to multiply churches in simple and reproducible ways. This is huge.

Church at Brook Hills, it is not that all the things we have in buildings and programs here are bad. Not at all. They are useful, and we want to use them wisely. But if we want this gospel to spread exponentially, to multiply here and around the world, we’re not going to do it by building more Brook Hills. The gospel has not spread like wildfire across China and Cuba and in places like Bihar, India where I was just a few months ago (where 350 churches were started in three years, starting with two guys) through huge buildings and mega-programs. The gospel is spreading through disciples making disciples and churches multiplying churches in simple and reproducible ways that the commission of Christ requires, and the example of the church in the New Testament demonstrates, and the reality of the world demands.[2]

Radical Small Groups

Under Platt’s leadership, the church shifted its focus from a programmatic approach to a disciple-making movement. The heartbeat of this movement was small groups. Platt emphasized that these groups were not just for fellowship or Bible study but for equipping members to live missionally and multiply.

Obedience-Based Discipleship: Groups studied Scripture with a focus on obedience, asking, “What does this passage say, and how will we obey it?”

Missional Living: Members were encouraged to see their neighborhoods, workplaces, and social networks as mission fields.

Global Vision: Small groups adopted unreached people groups, praying for them, supporting missionaries, and even going on mission trips to engage them personally.

All-in discipleship. A radical vision calls for radical commitment:

I want to be part of a people who have forsaken every earthly ambition in favor of one eternal aspiration: to see disciples made and churches multiplied from our houses to our communities to our cities to the nations.

This kind of movement involves all of us. Every single follower of Christ fishing for men. Every single disciple making disciples. No more spectators. Instead, ordinary people spreading the gospel in extraordinary ways all over the world. Men and women from diverse backgrounds with different gifts and distinct platforms making disciples and multiplying churches through every domain of society in every place on the planet. This is God’s design for his church, and disciples of Jesus must not settle for anything less.[3]

The result was a church culture where small groups were not ends in themselves but launching pads for mission and multiplication. Platt’s vision turned traditional Bible studies into engines of transformation and reproduction.

Radical Giving and Sending

Platt’s call to radical discipleship extended beyond small groups. In his book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, he challenged Christians to forsake materialism and self-centered faith in favor of sacrificial living for the sake of the gospel. This message had a profound impact on Brook Hills:

• Giving: In 2010, the church sold off significant assets and redirected millions of dollars toward global missions and church planting efforts.
• Going: Hundreds of members began participating in short-term mission trips and local outreach projects. Many relocated to serve as long-term missionaries or church planters.

This spirit of multiplication became a defining characteristic of Brook Hills under Platt’s leadership.

Global Multiplication as President of the IMB

In 2014, Platt became the youngest-ever president of the IMB, the mission agency of the Southern Baptist Convention. With over 4,000 missionaries serving around the world, Platt saw an opportunity to bring his vision for multiplying disciples to a global stage.

Shifting the Focus to Disciple-Making Movements

Platt worked to align the IMB’s strategies with the principles of disciple-making movements (DMMs). Key to this approach was empowering missionaries to:

Focus on Unreached People Groups: Platt prioritized sending missionaries to regions with little or no gospel presence.

Train Local Leaders: Instead of relying on Western missionaries to lead, the IMB emphasized training local believers to plant churches and multiply disciples.

Encourage Rapid Reproduction: Platt championed simple, reproducible methods like Discovery Bible Studies to enable rapid multiplication of groups.

Stories of Multiplication

South Asia: Under Platt’s leadership, IMB missionaries partnered with local leaders to start multiplying house churches. In one region, this approach led to over 1,000 new churches being planted in just three years.

North Africa: In a predominantly Muslim context, IMB missionaries used relational evangelism and small groups to disciple new believers. As these groups multiplied, they became self-sustaining churches.

Refugee Camps: Platt highlighted how missionaries were planting gospel seeds in refugee camps, where displaced people were forming their own multiplying groups despite immense challenges.

[1] David Platt and Francis Chan, Follow Me: A Call to Die. A Call to Live. (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Elevate, 2013), 203–204.

[2] David Platt, “Of All Nations,” in David Platt Sermon Archive (Birmingham, AL: David Platt, 2013), 3787.

[3] David Platt and Francis Chan, Follow Me: A Call to Die. A Call to Live. (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Elevate, 2013), 180.