Research Lab — Multiply
Multiply Research Lab

Measuring what happens between
Sundays.

We listen to Black churches, study our digital discipleship systems, and turn raw observations into benchmarks, playbooks, and tools — so pastors can build on evidence, not assumption.

19
Research Articles
2
Active Studies
7
Studies Planned
Currently in the field
Prayer Care Study
When someone asks a Black church for prayer online — what actually happens?
Phase 1 underway Apr → Jun 2026
Research Foundation
Read the full paper
Multiplication Model · Pastoral Care Systems

Word, Witness,
and Walk With

What happens when the Learn → Connect → Live It Out framework is deployed not just by pastors, but by every member of the body — in response to a real need, in real time, without a login? You get a many-to-many discipleship network. This is what the Lab has been building toward since 2019.

22 min read
10 sections
January 2026
Read the Paper
01
Word
A Sermon Experience
A 5-minute Learn–Connect–Live It Out encounter drawn from a real sermon preached by that church's pastor. Not generic content — the pastor's own voice, deployed as a personal response to a specific need.
Isaiah 55:11 · Romans 10:17 · Learn, Connect, Live It Out™
02
Witness
A Testimony
A real story from a real person in that congregation. Where the Word says here is truth, the Witness says here is evidence of that truth lived out. Together they form the complete proclamation.
Revelation 12:11 · James 5:16 · Testimony Library
03
Walk With
A Scheduled Follow-Up
Not "I'll check in sometime" — a calendar commitment to return in 7–14 days, pray, and ask what God has been doing. This is what makes the chain pastoral care and not content delivery.
Galatians 6:2 · John 11:35 · Implementation Intentions
The thesis: Pastors preach one-to-many. They shepherd one-to-one. This model enables the church to care many-to-many.
Word Witness Walk With
All Research Articles
Featured Resource
Where Is Your Church on the Movement Spectrum?

The five conditions every pastor needs to know. A diagnostic framework that shows where your church's discipleship culture sits right now, and exactly what each condition calls for. Dormant → Emerging → Growing → Moving → Multiplying.

Movement SpectrumPastoral Leadership
16 min
Leslie B. JamesLeslie B. James · Oct 2025
Featured Resource
The Multiply Field Guide

The foundational roadmap. Covers the architectural shift required to turn a passive Sunday audience into an active mid-week movement. Essential reading for leadership teams.

Field GuideStrategy
Full Guide
Leslie B. JamesLeslie B. James
Research Article
Addition vs. Multiplication

American church strategy increasingly operates with two different logics. Why church growth and discipleship require different metrics, models, and theologies.

Black Church FuturesPastoral Leadership
15 min
Leslie B. JamesLeslie B. James · May 2026
Decision-Maker Research
Simple Experience Benefit
Why Church Tools Fail

Most discipleship tools are purchased, announced, and quietly abandoned within 90 days. The problem is not the tool — it is three adoption conditions that almost no platform satisfies simultaneously. A Rogers-grounded framework for pastoral decision-makers and denomination leaders.

Discipleship ToolsPastoral Leadership
18 min
Leslie B. JamesLeslie B. James · Jan 2026
Research Foundation
Word, Witness, and Walk With

The 59 "one another" commands in the New Testament were not addressed to clergy — they were addressed to the whole body. This paper shows how Multiply's library infrastructure enables distributed, many-to-many pastoral care grounded in behavioral science and a 7–14 day follow-up rhythm.

Discipleship SciencePastoral Leadership
22 min
Leslie B. JamesLeslie B. James · Jan 2026
Series · Part 1 of 3
When Algorithms Become the Pastor

The algorithm has better attendance, more repetition, and stronger reinforcement than the local church. A field guide for Black pastors facing a formation battle they didn't choose.

Digital DiscipleshipBlack Church Futures
12 min
Leslie B. JamesLeslie B. James · Apr 2026
Series · Part 2 of 3
When Online Communities Feel More Like Church

27% of Americans now identify as "spiritual but not religious." Here's where the hunger is going — and how the church can meet people at the well before alternative communities do.

Digital DiscipleshipBlack Church Futures
11 min
Leslie B. JamesLeslie B. James · Apr 2026
Series · Part 3 of 3
Doomscrolling and the Discipled Mind

This is not a screen time problem. It is a discipleship emergency. Research-backed pastoral strategies for treating the feed as a rival spiritual discipline — and winning.

Digital DiscipleshipBlack Church Futures
11 min
Leslie B. JamesLeslie B. James · Apr 2026
Black Church Futures
From Exodus to Reconstruction

Black church membership has dropped nearly 20 points in two decades. But 9 in 10 Black "nones" still believe in God. They're not gone — they're in between. Here's how pastors can walk with them.

Black Church FuturesPastoral Leadership
12 min
Leslie B. JamesLeslie B. James · Feb 2026
Leadership & Ecosystems
When the Classroom and the Timeline Don't Talk

Deep theology without reach. Wide reach without depth. Black seminaries and digital pastors are operating in separate rooms — and the people who need them most are falling through the gap.

Leadership & EcosystemsBlack Church Futures
11 min
Leslie B. JamesLeslie B. James · Mar 2026
Digital Discipleship
Skool vs. Multiply

Your members are already online. Thousands of spirituality communities — many using Christian language but operating outside biblical truth — are growing on Skool. What pastors need to know.

Digital DiscipleshipGen Z
11 min
Leslie B. JamesLeslie B. James · Jan 2026
Discipleship Tools
RightNow Media vs. Multiply

Both say "discipleship." Both cost money. But they solve fundamentally different problems. Understanding the difference will save your church time and real budget.

Discipleship ToolsSermon Extension
9 min
Leslie B. JamesLeslie B. James · Mar 2026
Discipleship Science
Beyond the Pews

The five circles of commitment. Learn how to track the spiritual journey of your members using real movement data, from first visit to core leader.

Discipleship ScienceMovement Data
14 min
Leslie B. JamesLeslie B. James · Nov 2025
Pastoral Leadership
Numbers with a Soul

Numbers without narrative are inert. Learn the art of telling the movement story to your congregation, elder board, and staff to inspire real momentum.

Pastoral LeadershipMovement Data
12 min
Leslie B. JamesLeslie B. James · Dec 2025
Sermon Extension
The Second Life of a Sermon

Without reinforcement, humans forget 90% of what they hear within a week. Discover how the Weekly Learn step beats the forgetting curve and deepens retention.

Discipleship ScienceSermon Extension
11 min
Leslie B. JamesLeslie B. James · Oct 2025
Discipleship Science
The Belonging Metric

Knowledge without community is incomplete. See how Connect engagement acts as the relational bridge that makes behavioral change actually possible.

Discipleship ScienceDiscipleship Tools
11 min
Leslie B. JamesLeslie B. James · Jan 2026
Discipleship Science
The James 1:22 Metric

The Live It Out commitment rate measures the most persistent failure mode in discipleship: the gap between understanding and actual obedience.

Discipleship ScienceDiscipleship Tools
12 min
Leslie B. JamesLeslie B. James · Nov 2025
Movement Data
Counting the Harvest

Attendance is a lagging indicator. Discover why measuring mid-week testimonies provides the truest proxy for real spiritual fruit in your congregation.

Movement DataChurch Health
10 min
Leslie B. JamesLeslie B. James · Feb 2026
Volunteer Culture
The End of the Volunteer Scramble

Stop reacting to volunteer shortages. Learn how to proactively identify readiness through the gifts-surfaced and hands-raised metric.

Volunteer CulturePastoral Leadership
11 min
Leslie B. JamesLeslie B. James · Dec 2025

No articles found

Try a different search term or category.

The Foundation
Read the whitepaper
Learn, Connect, Live It Out™

Every Multiply experience is built on one framework.

The research the Lab produces isn't just academic. Every finding feeds directly into experiences built on the Learn, Connect, Live It Out™ framework — a multidisciplinary synthesis of adult learning theory, behavioral psychology, and historic ecclesiology designed to permanently close the Sunday-to-Monday gap. Word, Witness, Walk With is the next evolution — the framework deployed by the whole body, not just the pastor.

90%
of sermon content forgotten within one week without active reinforcement
91%
goal attainment rate when a micro-action is anchored to a specific time and place
5%
of a sermon retained by Wednesday if the congregation never processes it in community
01
Learn
Defeat the Forgetting Curve
The sermon is the spark — not the finish line. The Learn step re-delivers the core truth mid-week through reflection, recap, and targeted reinforcement before cognitive decay sets in. Rooted in Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle and the neuroscience of spaced repetition.
Adult Learning Theory · Andragogy · Kolb
02
Connect
Shift the Burden to the People
Discipleship was never meant to be a solo sport. The Connect step moves the sermon from pulpit to community — using peer discussion and relational accountability to transform the text from abstract study into living reality. Modeled on the ancient Hebrew practice of Havruta.
Dallas Willard V.I.M. · Havruta · Yada
03
Live It Out
One Micro-Action. Automatic.
Vague application doesn't change behavior. The Live It Out step assigns one specific, time-anchored micro-action — turning Sunday's inspiration into a pre-determined behavioral anchor before Monday arrives. Built on BJ Fogg's B=MAP model and Gollwitzer's Implementation Intentions.
BJ Fogg B=MAP · Implementation Intentions · Habit Formation
Data Reports
Releasing as studies complete
In the field now
Prayer Care Study
What actually happens when someone submits an online prayer request to a historically Black church?
30–50 churches · April–June 2026 · Report releasing Q3 2026
Running now
Anonymous to Known Study
How do online viewers move from passive exposure to identifiable participants?
Stream audits · CTA mapping · Landing-page review · Report releasing Q3–Q4 2026
Q4 2026
Evidence of Movement Study
How consistently are Black congregations extending Sunday sermons into weekday discipleship?
Sermon & channel audit · Leader interviews · Report releasing Q4 2026
Link copied
30-day free trial