North Side Would Fail Church Growth 101 Class

Saturday morning, leaders from North Side gathered together to continue on this journey God is leading us.  We talked about discipleship.  We celebrated the lives that are being changed, and yet we also focused upon those people who are still struggling to follow Christ.

We laid out a strategy that is a little different for a church our size.  In fact, North Side would fail Church Growth 101 class if we were taking it.  Let me explain:

Church growth these days is all about the large groups.  Get more people in the seats and that means that you are winning.  What we are finding is that it is easy to fill seats, it is hard to disciple people.  And in our current church culture in America, people are church hopping, filling out commitment cards, getting baptized, and then dropping off the face of the earth!  The parable of the Seed and the Sower should scare us enough to realize that we might be giving people false assurance of their salvation that way – they need to be discipled!

Here’s some things I took away from Saturday:

  • Jeff Lethco is in his finest element when he is training and equipping leaders.
  • We’ve got to shrink down the crowds to get to the individual.
  • Disciples don’t need programs.  They just get it done.
  • Each person is in a different stage – template cut discipleship does not work.
  • We are trying to get some church members to do algebra and they need to know how to count.
  • The Body of Christ is adequate to get the job done.  Elders, deacons, shepherds, and members can get it done.  God has equipped.

More to come.  Right now, I’ve got my assignment and I’ve got my team, and I can’t wait to begin to disciple some people even further!