When it comes to disciple-making, church-planting movements often use a tool known as the Four Fields. Field One (Go) is the entry strategy. Typically, it involves discovering a person of peace, as in Luke 10:1-12 (for a great description of the role of a person of peace read JR Woodward’s article, “The Person of Peace and Their ‘Oikos’”). Field Two …
How to Break Free from the Numbers Leash and Cultivate Gardens
The Most Difficult Things to Count Starting from the small church of my youth, winding through my last 20 years of vocational pastoring, I have had a decent vantage point on the church growth narrative. When I was in a booming attractional church, we took pride in our voluminous of felt-needs programs. When I was in a liturgical church, there was …
Missional Minimalism
In my first 10 years as a pastor I became accustomed to resources. I worshiped and served with a charitable portion of resources as unidentified supports around me. I had great worship facilities, great budgets and decently funded programs to suit any need or stage of life. I had on-hand artists to paint canvases for my sermons and quality writers …