40 Disciples: A Lifetime Vision from Mark 4

by Dave Miller

Multiplication Needs More Than Good Math

We often talk about multiplication in disciple making using the familiar math: two disciples make two disciples each year, and over decades, the numbers explode. But what many don’t realize is that for this math to work, every disciple maker in the chain must keep making disciples—year after year, decade after decade.

That’s not just an equation—it’s a calling. And it’s where Jesus’ words in Mark 4:1–20 give us both perspective and vision.

The Parable of the Soils — Multiplication is Fruit, Not Formula

In Mark 4, Jesus tells of the sower, the seed, and the soils. Only the fourth soil produces a harvest—thirty, sixty, or a hundred times what was sown.

This isn’t about a single season. It’s about a lifetime. Good soil believers bear multiplying fruit over decades, and the yield varies—some 30, some 60, some a even 100 fold!!

But all are faithful and fruitful.

From Yearly Quotas to Lifetime Impact

When we obsess over “two disciples every year,” we can quickly fall into pressure, guilt, or burnout. Discipleship can become a performance metric instead of a relational investment.

Instead, what if we took the long view?

What if my role, over the next twenty or thirty years, was simply to see forty multiplying disciples—men and women who themselves will make disciples over their lifetime?

That’s two a year on average over 20 years, but without the burden of hitting a number every twelve months. It’s a shift from annual quota to lifetime faithfulness. And it is right in line with Jesus expectations of a fourth soil follower. 

Why Forty?

It’s not a magic number. It’s a realistic vision and expectation of Jesus.

• If Jesus’ thirty-, sixty-, even possibly a hundred-fold language maps to the long-term yield of a fourth-soil believer, then forty is right in that spectrum.

  
  

• It’s enough to stretch us beyond comfort, require commitment, focus, and consistency, but not so high it feels unattainable.

  
  

• Over decades, forty multiplying disciples can change communities, regions, and nations—because multiplication compounds.

  
  

The Reality Check — It’s Hard

Seeing forty multiplying disciples over a lifetime is not easy.

• Some seeds don’t take root.

  
  

• Some disciples fall away.

  
  

• Others multiply far more than you expected.

  
  
  
  

Habits and Rhythms  

When we talked about the “church waffle,” we were really talking about how the squares in the waffle are the spaces where life happens—each square holding a different rhythm of community. My personal habits are my daily contribution to disciple making: prayer, Scripture, intentional conversations, and obedience in the small things. But those habits gain strength and longevity when they connect with the rhythms of the community—shared meals, regular gatherings, public witness, and collaborative mission.

The consistency then builds not only from my habitual relationship with Jesus, but also from our community of practice’s habitual relationship with one another as Jesus’ church. It’s the combination of personal habits and shared rhythms that creates fertile ground for multiplication—not one or the other in isolation, but both working together over time.

The point is consistency. Over decades, the yield grows—not because we force the seed, but because TOGETHER WE sow faithfully and tend the soil God gives us.

A Vision to Live Into

The question is simple: Who will my forty be?

• Am I creating space for casual, meaningful, and spiritual conversations that lead to discovery?

  
  

• Am I walking with people long enough for them to become fourth-soil disciples?

  
  

• Am I measuring my success by faithful sowing and long-term fruit rather than yearly quotas?

  
  

The goal isn’t just to “reach people” but to multiply disciple makers—forty lives over a lifetime who will each multiply for the rest of theirs.

A Kingdom Return Worth a Lifetime

Jesus said the good soil produces 30, 60, and some even a 100 fold. What if we, in our lifetime, could see forty multiplying disciples?

It would be enough to start ripples that touch the world. It would be proof that faithful sowing, over decades, bears more fruit than frantic scaling. It would be a return on investment that no market can match—because the yield is eternal.

So here’s the vision:

Forty multiplying disciples.

One lifetime.

Faithful sowing until the end.