In Episode 409 of the NewChurches Q&A Podcast, Daniel and Ed discuss how to grow your congregation deeper while also growing it wider.
“From what I’ve seen in my experience churches tend to have a dilemma in growing the numbers of their church and growing the depth of their members – between evangelism and discipleship. If you don’t have the resources to take people through lengthy bible study classes, how do you grow the depth of the church while also spreading out the gospel and ensuring people come to church? I’ve been in churches where some people complain that the church did well to get us into the congregation, but now that we are in we are only getting milk and we need to get hard meat. And those people tend to leave the church and go to look for smaller churches that have more time to invest in them.”
In This Episode, You’ll Discover:
- The importance of defining what deeper discipleship means for your congregation
- How to teach the members of your congregation to study the Bible for themselves
Shareable Quotes (#NewChurches):
- “Early and often define deeper. Here’s what a developed and growing disciple looks like.” – @edstetzer
- “The whole idea of getting deeper came up frequently, but it was all intellectual.” – @danielsangi
- “I wonder how many of our listeners have defined what the deeper life looks like for the congregation.” – @danielsangi
- “Depth in the Bible is often measured by our character.” – @edstetzer
- “How are you talking about your daily Bible reading as you do counseling, as you meet with your congregation, as you preach?” – @danielsangi
- “In my sermon illustrations, I will often have an illustration that starts with ‘as I was in my Bible time this week’ and then tie it in.” – @danielsangi
- “Any behavior you want to see emulated in your people, you need to model as a leader.” – @edstetzer
- “What you celebrate you become, and having that celebration makes a difference.” – @edstetzer
- “Sit down with the people who have these frustrations, and talk to them about what the church is and how it is not a consumeristic religious transaction.” – @danielsangi
Additional Resources:
- Listen to the Ask Me Anything Podcast
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This Episode’s Sponsor: The Overcomer movie has inspired the creation of several resources. For small groups, there is the Overcomer Bible study. For individuals, there is a book called Defined. Both are based upon powerful insights from the Book of Ephesians. Learn more about all the resources at Lifeway.com/Overcomer.
Published August 1, 2019