The Church Growth Workshop

Applying insights from the Parable of the Soils, we can gain personal momentum.

Make sure you are hearing God's voice to move towards what God is calling you to do.

Obstacles and resistance can keep us from moving forward.

Often the choices we make can be what derails us or slows us down from making progress.

Busyness does not lead to effectiveness! Determine areas you need to sacrifice or adjust to make progress.

Our gratitude to God can motivate us to move forward and make the sacrifices necessary.

Too often our churches suffer from mission creep. When we clearly communicate the vision God has for us, our team and church family can live this vision out.

Creating the space for skeptics and those who do not yet believe is essential for reaching new people. Through our personal relationships, through our Sunday services, and through our ministry efforts, we can connect new people to our local church.

God's heart for the stranger or the foreigner is clear throughout the Scriptures. Consider those around you as potential friends with whom you can connect with personally and even spiritually.

We have a unique opportunity to make a difference in the lives of our family, neighbors, co-workers, and friends.

Changes in our culture require changes in how we reach out and connect new people.

When we seek to meet the needs of those around us, we will find "persons of peace" who are open to moving towards spiritual conversations.

We can move from superficial to spiritual conversations. It is important we share Jesus with them based on their story so that we can help them understand. Rather than leading with truth, we need to start with grace and move towards truth.

Consider the layers of relationships with Jesus' ministry as you organize your local church and communicate a next step for those in your community to take. A Sunday service at Gateway in Austin is like the Sermon on the Mount. The 70 that were sent out were there at the Sermon on the Mount. The 70 included the 12 apostles, and Jesus had his 3 closest disciples. The goal is to move people from Sunday mornings into a serving team and then to a small group and then in even smaller accountability groups.

In Exodus 18, Moses served the people of Israel day and night. He was overwhelmed, and his family and the people were frustrated. Moses' father-in-law Jethro points Moses towards a new way of organizing his time and efforts.

Too often we give into leadership myths that keep us from adding others to our team or keeping strong leaders with us.

Effective leaders never serve alone. We can learn to recruit others by finding, motivating, and guiding those around us to serve.

We are called by God to become obsolete by raising up leaders to replace us. Rather than giving into consumerism, we can invite people to lose their lives in serving so that they might find their life as Jesus promised.

When we connect people to serve in areas where they are passionate or gifted, they are motivated beyond a volunteer serving out of obligation.

Help people see how even the smallest roles are part of the bigger picture of our cause.

When we fail to entrust authority to those we have given responsibility, we hijack them from the opportunity to grow and undermine our own efforts to involve strong leaders.