BEAUTIFUL
CHURCH
___________________
SIX STEPS
TO VIBRANT CHURCH GROWTH
“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, Your God reigns!”
Isaiah 52:7 (NIV)
RON DOTZLER
STEP 1
GOD’S HEART FOR THE
UNCHURCHED
AND HOW THE CHURCH MUST RESPOND
STEP 1
CHAPTER ONE
UNLEASHING THE POWER OF CHURCH
HIS BEAUTIFUL CHURCH TRANSFORMING A BROKEN WORLD
“The local church is the hope of the world.”1
Wow.
This truth resonated in my heart from the moment I first heard it stated at a leadership conference.
I wanted to believe in the incredible power and potential of the local church to reach a lost and
broken world, but I knew the hard facts—the church in the USA was experiencing significant
decline. I knew we could do better, but the answers eluded me.
“There’s nothing like the local church when the local church is working right.”2
Again, my spirit soared. The church could change the world if it was working right.
Bill Hybels, the speaker, gave language to what I was feeling for years as a pastor in my church. The
local church, in its imperfect earthly form, is still the hope of the world. While all of eternity hangs
in the balance, God still sees his beautiful bride as carriers of his salvation message to a broken, lost
and hurting world.
I love the local church, and I’m convinced that church vibrancy and conversion growth matters. In
my 28 years of ministry, my prayer has been for God to unleash the power of the local church to
fulfill the kingdom mission to impact those far from Christ. God’s heart is pleased when he sees his
beautiful church transforming a broken world.
A FAULTY CHURCH MODEL
Several years ago, I attended a conference hosted by a prominent church. The helpful workshops
left me excited to implement all I’d learned when I returned home. Without warning, one of the
speakers from Europe shocked me when he predicted a sharp decline in attendance of the North
American church. His announcement left me reeling.
I leaned back in my chair, trying to process his statement. Why did this pastor have such a grim view
of the church? How could he be so bold as to make such a negative futuristic claim?
Constance
Highlight
Without missing a beat, the pastor asked a very intriguing question: why had the church in
Europe died, no longer exerting influence in society? With no real answers, he explained how
the church in Europe had a faulty church model which the States inherited. This faulty model
was incomplete in its ability to reach and receive lost people. If the church in North America
didn’t make changes, he claimed, it would soon mirror the European church—empty, lifeless
and no longer relevant.
My heart sank. I didn’t want to believe his disheartening view. Yet his projection stuck with me, pressing me to work
against the tide when I saw evidence over the years that his prediction was comi ...
BEAUTIFUL CHURCH ___________________ SIX STEPS TO.docx
1. BEAUTIFUL
CHURCH
___________________
SIX STEPS
TO VIBRANT CHURCH GROWTH
“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news, who
proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to
Zion, Your God reigns!”
Isaiah 52:7 (NIV)
RON DOTZLER
STEP 1
GOD’S HEART FOR THE
UNCHURCHED
AND HOW THE CHURCH MUST RESPOND
STEP 1
CHAPTER ONE
UNLEASHING THE POWER OF CHURCH
2. HIS BEAUTIFUL CHURCH TRANSFORMING A BROKEN
WORLD
“The local church is the hope of the world.”1
Wow.
This truth resonated in my heart from the moment I first heard it
stated at a leadership conference.
I wanted to believe in the incredible power and potential of the
local church to reach a lost and
broken world, but I knew the hard facts—the church in the USA
was experiencing significant
decline. I knew we could do better, but the answers eluded me.
“There’s nothing like the local church when the local church is
working right.”2
Again, my spirit soared. The church could change the world if it
was working right.
Bill Hybels, the speaker, gave language to what I was feeling
for years as a pastor in my church. The
local church, in its imperfect earthly form, is still the hope of
the world. While all of eternity hangs
in the balance, God still sees his beautiful bride as carriers of
his salvation message to a broken, lost
and hurting world.
I love the local church, and I’m convinced that church vibrancy
and conversion growth matters. In
my 28 years of ministry, my prayer has been for God to unleash
the power of the local church to
fulfill the kingdom mission to impact those far from Christ.
God’s heart is pleased when he sees his
3. beautiful church transforming a broken world.
A FAULTY CHURCH MODEL
Several years ago, I attended a conference hosted by a
prominent church. The helpful workshops
left me excited to implement all I’d learned when I returned
home. Without warning, one of the
speakers from Europe shocked me when he predicted a sharp
decline in attendance of the North
American church. His announcement left me reeling.
I leaned back in my chair, trying to process his statement. Why
did this pastor have such a grim view
of the church? How could he be so bold as to make such a
negative futuristic claim?
Constance
Highlight
Without missing a beat, the pastor asked a very intriguing
question: why had the church in
Europe died, no longer exerting influence in society? With no
real answers, he explained how
the church in Europe had a faulty church model which the States
inherited. This faulty model
was incomplete in its ability to reach and receive lost people. If
the church in North America
didn’t make changes, he claimed, it would soon mirror the
European church—empty, lifeless
and no longer relevant.
My heart sank. I didn’t want to believe his disheartening view.
Yet his projection stuck with me, pressing me to work
4. against the tide when I saw evidence over the years that his
prediction was coming true.
The church does not have to die as its congregants age. The
beautiful church can effectively reach people far from
Christ and
develop them into vibrant disciples. *Example Pastor who step
down from Faith Temple Church. His members were
older members. There were no young members.
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BUILD A BEAUTIFUL CHURCH?
Like the nine vital systems in the physical body (the circulatory
system, the respiratory system,
the skeletal system, etc.), the beautiful church has three primary
systems: tending to believers,
extending to nonbelievers, and sending new church plants and
missionaries to a broken world. My love and
work with local churches for over 28 years has given me an
awareness that the church has
consistently struggled in one of these three—extending.
The unanimous conclusion from theologians, social scientists
and historians is this: the force and
impact of the church in America is in serious decline. The lost
and confused are no longer looking
to the church for answers to life’s most pressing questions.
Years ago, Peter Wagner found that the best way to reach
unbelievers was to start new churches.
(cite) While this may have been true years ago, Ed Stetzer’s
research has confirmed that for the past
nine years, new church plants are doing no better than existing
churches when it comes to reaching
people far from Christ. In fact, 96% of existing and emerging
5. new church plants are NOT growing
through conversion growth, the natural outcome of an extending
church. This should not come as a
surprise. Pastors are trained in seminary to work with believers,
not unbelievers. If we truly want to
shift the results of our churches, we have to shift our training.
While it’s true that non-Christians are not looking for the
church, most disheartening, however, is
that the church isn’t looking for non-Christians. In other words,
churches are not connecting with
or reaching lost people; we’re simply reproducing a church
model that is failing to extend and reach
people far from Christ.3
WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD
Several years ago, I took my leadership team through a series of
challenging questions regarding our
ability to reach nonbelievers. The conversations were very
discouraging and spoke directly to what
we were missing. We were missing the unchurched.
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
7. Highlight
I asked our team of twelve leaders how many times they’d
shared their faith in the last year.
Combined, we came up with three over an entire year. Yikes!
Our core team considered ourselves
mission-driven, and yet, nothing was further from the truth. We
were simply not doing what our
hearts knew Christ wanted for our lives. We were doing a lot of
ministry activity, but we were missing
the extending piece.
This opened honest conversations which produced radical
changes in and through us as leaders. As
difficult as some of those moments were, we can now look back
and appreciate the bigger picture.
Change is not always easy, but if we can persevere through the
tough moments, we’ll not only be
able to see God’s hand at work, we’ll see incredible fruit.
OUR CORE MISSION
Isaiah 52:7(NIV) says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who
bring good news, who proclaim
peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say
to Zion, Your God reigns!”
Bringing God’s love, grace and truth to a broken world is
central to our calling, and yet, somehow
we’ve become overwhelmed with tending to the needs of
believers and lost an essential focus on
what makes the church beautiful—extending.
Jesus came to save the lost. He was born as the savior of the
8. world; He lived his life to seek and save
the lost, and He died on a cross for the sinfulness of mankind.
Everything about Jesus’ life was
committed to rescuing his lost and wayward children. If
unbelievers matter to Christ, they should
matter to me.
I’ve spent countless hours advocating on behalf of believers in
the church. I’ve worked on
improving preaching, teaching, worship, and children’s
ministry—all essential components of
tending to the needs and growth of believers. Whether I served
as a leader of Bible study groups or
a mentor of discipleship classes, I focused heavily on the
tending dimension of the church.
SIX STEPS TO VIBRANT CHURCH GROWTH
When God moved me and my family to the inner city, I had no
idea what He planned to do. I had
zero experience with the incredible brokenness I encountered
and zero understanding of the new
culture I entered. Nonetheless, our family stepped into our new
community, and somewhat
reluctantly, began to get to know our new neighbors.
My new neighbors faced insurmountable, life-threatening
challenges which prompted me to ask
myself questions. Who advocated on behalf of unbelievers, the
unchurched and those far from
Christ? Who would stand up for the lost, hurting and broken
people around me? Through trial and
error, God broke my heart and broadened my focus and taught
me how to include extending in my
9. church model.
If we’re truly going to get to the heart of transformation, we’re
going to have to address culture—
the way the church thinks, believes and behaves, specifically
regarding the unchurched.
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
10. Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
The following chapters detail six critical steps to build culture
that gets believers out of the seats
and into the streets and reaches unbelievers far from Christ.
STEP 1:
GOD’S HEART FOR THE UNCHURCHED AND HOW THE
CHURCH MUST RESPOND
Jesus came to seek and save the lost, so must we. God’s heart
breaks for his orphaned children.
When our hearts align with God’s heart, conversion growth will
be central in our discipleship
models.
Our leadership team loved Jesus, but we got distracted with so
many other good ministry activities,
we lost connection with God’s heart for the lost. Keeping our
11. focus on what God wants is absolutely
critical to our life mission as the church. While there are many
good things worth investing our time
and energy, our hearts need to align with God’s heart and his
passion to welcome home his wayward
children.
STEP 2:
GOD’S HOPE FOR THE UNCHURCHED THROUGH THE
LOCAL CHURCH
Jesus wants all his orphaned children to come home. This rescue
mission transitions us from
darkness into the loving arms of the only thing Jesus is
building—his church. The local church is
the womb to tomb discipleship mechanism that God designed to
transform our lives. While there
are many good works being accomplished in the world, pastors,
church leaders and Christians must
ensure that God’s work is at the center of all our activity.
God’s hope is eternal. God’s work is eternal. The local church
is God’s means by which He is
transforming the world. Focusing on God’s hope is absolutely
essential if we want to avoid getting
caught up spending time, energy and resources on humanitarian
good things that will not last. The
church truly is the hope of the world.
STEP 3:
LEARNING FROM THE UNCHURCHED AND
UNDERSTANDING THEIR POINT OF VIEW
12. Most non-believers are simply doing what they know best.
When I was a sinner, I was pretty good
at it. Ha. If we’re going to be able to reach people with the good
news of Jesus, we must understand
it’s not us against them. According to Ephesians 6:12, there’s
an enemy at work, and it’s not people.
We were all once deceived. We didn’t change until someone
brought light into our lives.
Having spent countless hours interviewing and talking with
unbelievers, the overwhelming majority
have visited church on several occasions. They want to believe
in God, but they don’t really know
how or what to do. When asked why the church isn’t a viable
option for them to consider life’s
toughest questions, they describe not fitting in or connecting at
church. Learning from the
unchurched is critical to our ability to present the gospel in
meaningful ways.
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
14. Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
STEP 4:
ENGAGING THE UNCHURCHED IN THEIR CULTURAL
ENVIRONMENT
If we’re truly going to engage the unchurched, we have a lot of
learning ahead of us. Working with
church attenders is familiar and natural. Seminaries teach this
and the congregation we serve
reinforces the idea. The church serves attenders through Bible
studies, counseling, weddings,
funerals, and other services. Working with the unchurched is
unnatural, unfamiliar and extremely
unpredictable.
The process was filled with a multitude of questions, but we
knew we could no longer continue
down the path of only impacting believers. Even though it took
several years, we finally made some
powerful and key discoveries that helped connect us with the
unchurched and is now a wonderful
15. and consistent part of our reality.
STEP 5:
ASSIMILATING THE UNCHURCHED INTO THE LIFE OF
YOUR CHURCH
It is one thing to authentically engage and connect with the
unchurched in their own cultural
environment, but it’s another thing to assimilate the unchurched
into your church.
While we made many mistakes in the early years, we sought
feedback from over 300 unchurched
neighbors regarding their view of the church. They described
the church as unfriendly and self-
indulging—only caring about themselves. Their brutal honesty
was hard-hitting, but well worth
hearing.
We discovered that much of our church culture was
unrecognizable to us. Tradition dictated our
routine. We’d always done church this way. We really didn’t
know anything different. Even though
we preferred the way we did church, (i.e. the music, the
preaching, and the fellowship) the
unchurched shared with us a totally different perspective.
STEP 6:
DEVELOPING THE UNCHURCHED AS POWERFUL
WITNESSING DISCIPLES
One of the big concerns we had with our previous discipleship
methods had to do with outcomes
and results. We relentlessly preached the truths of scripture, but
16. sadly, few shared their faith with
others. People had no problem serving or being nice, but
sharing their faith petrified them. Knowing
this, we learned how formative the unchurched were in their
cultural habits and so we built on this
formation process and developed an experience-rich
discipleship process that produced amazing
results.
CONVERSION GROWTH
Throughout this book, I interchange the terms nonbelievers,
non-Christian, lost, unchurched and people
far from Christ to refer to unbelievers who have yet to become
followers of Jesus. Furthermore,
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
18. and truths referenced in this book
are transferable to both rural and suburban areas. The goal of
this book is to help pastors, church
leaders and Christians join Christ in building the kind of
churches—no matter the location—that
experience conversion growth.
Jesus’ heart is to see the power of the church unleashed in its
incarnational mission of being salt and
light in a broken world. May God bless us as we live out Isaiah
52:7 and join together in building
His Beautiful Church.
STEP 1
CHAPTER TWO
REALIGNING OUR HEARTS
Dear Christian,
I’ve been wanting to write this letter for a long time, but I
wasn’t sure talking to you would do any
good. Like you, I’m on my own journey.
Key Concept: There’s nothing like the local church, when the
local church is working right.
Pastors, church leaders and Christians ensure that the church is
19. working right as we focus
on reaching people far from Christ and turning them into
vibrant disciples of Jesus.
Application: Commit to refocusing your time, energy and
attention from simply tending to
believers to extending to unbelievers, thereby empowering your
congregation to reach the
lost.
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
20. Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
I’ve been very frustrated because it feels like you don’t even
listen to me. Do you really care what I
think or feel? I know there has to be more to life, but
everywhere I turn, I face another roadblock. I’m
struggling at work. The bills keep piling up. My kids are
hanging with the wrong crowd, and my mom
just got diagnosed with cancer. I really just want to find peace.
I’m looking for genuine love and acceptance, not spiritual
answers.
You talk about truth and scripture in such a way that seems like
you’re shoving your opinion down
my throat. I often feel judged by you because I don’t understand
your thinking. If you knew the things
I’ve done, would you accept me? Will I ever measure up to your
standard? You have a different
perspective about life that sounds so foreign. When I’m around
you, will you make me feel valued and
loved anyway?
I just want to be happy. I’m not searching for some lofty hope
or someone’s view of truth.
To be honest, your religion seems to make you so serious and
21. angry all the time. It’s a real downer
when you point out everything you find to be wrong in this
world. You seem so against everything, it’s
hard to believe you could really have my best interest in mind.
Your complaints don’t exactly inspire
me to become a Christian like you. If you could just smile and
laugh, your happiness and joy might
attract me.
I want to know you care.
Life is tough. Many times I feel empty and lonely. I’ve been put
down and excluded. When I’m
struggling and you say, “Jesus is the answer,” your simple
statements ring hollow. I don’t want to be
around people who are always judging me or trying to set me
straight. Am I some project of yours?
What I really want to know is if you care about me as a friend. I
need real friends. Friends who stand
by me when I’m alone, afraid, or hurt. If you really care, just be
my friend.
Sincerely,
Your non-Christian neighbor
WOW, WHAT A LETTER
This letter breaks my heart because, in many ways, I was that
Christian.
My heart and lifestyle was too often disconnected and distant
from those far from church. Many
times, I was judgmental and came off as self-righteous. I had
22. plenty of answers, but very little
empathy. I stood on the sidelines pointing out the problems in
our world. Rather than love people
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
and work toward providing solutions, I became critical. People
far from Christ were not at the
forefront of my heart, and sadly, they became projects to me.
23. Not friends.
Never was this more evident than when I left the safety of the
suburbs to live in the inner city over
29 years ago. Until I stared into the faces of broken, hurting and
hopeless children, I was unmoved
and unresponsive to the deepest cries of my city.
The inner city wrecked my heart. The first time I saw my
neighbors across the street, a man ran out
of the house yelling and carrying a machete while another man
chased him with a pitchfork. Two
houses down, the police visited my new neighbors more times in
one week than I’d seen their
presence in all my years living in the suburbs. In a strange
combination, an abundance of drug
addicts, prostitutes, and gang members lived alongside laborers,
daycare providers, and teachers who
made up my block.
The dysfunction was like nothing I’d experienced. The constant
gunfire, crime, violence and poverty
took on new meaning when I began to meet my neighbors.
North Omaha was no longer a faceless community I read about
in the newspaper. The daily trauma
awakened me to the pain God felt and increased my empathy.
God moved beyond getting my
attention to grabbing my affection for my hurting neighbors.
Between my idyllic rural roots and the suburban facade that life
was rosy, I lived life clueless to the
broken reality of people far from Christ. Honestly, I never
seriously thought much about lost people.
While at times I’d preached about reaching unbelievers, I never
really considered the emptiness,
24. despair and hopelessness of life without Jesus. Reaching the
lost was certainly not the heart and
focus of my leadership.
WHO IS THE CHURCH FOR?
Somehow, I missed the point. The church is not only for those
who follow Christ, but also for those
far from Christ.
Jesus came to save the lost. He was born as the savior of the
world; He lived his life to seek and save
the lost, and He died on a cross for the sinfulness of mankind.
Everything about Jesus’ life was
committed to seeking and saving the lost. If unbelievers matter
that much to Christ, they should
matter that much to me.
If I had the cure for cancer, I would tell everyone. Keeping the
cure to myself would be selfish. In
the same way, Christians have the cure and answer to countless
lives without the hope of Jesus
Christ. God challenged me to commit my life and leadership to
loving lost people.
Realigning my heart and rethinking church with a focus on His
25. heart for lost people shifted the way
I saw church. No longer could I focus only on those attending
church, I needed to act on behalf of
those outside the church walls.
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
A RE-FOCUS ON THE UNCHURCHED
26. Beautiful churches include a focus on the unchurched rather
than only think about believers who
are already convinced. They think about those far from Christ
and move beyond their church walls
to connect with them in authentic and relevant ways.
Jesus is building one thing—His church (Matthew 16:18 NIV).
If the local church is the body and
fullness of Jesus Christ, we are the hands, the feet and the
heartbeat of Jesus here on earth. The
church was, and still is, God’s plan for healing a broken world.
The local church is central to
everything God is doing.
Some of Jesus’ first words declared that, “He must be about His
Father’s business” (Luke 2:49 NIV)
which he later explains is to “seek and save the lost.” (Luke
19:10 NIV) Conversion growth,
therefore, must be central to everything we, as pastors, church
leaders, and Christians do.
Rethinking and seeing the church more completely was a
powerful exercise for me because I realized
how ineffective I was at including the unchurched in my
thoughts and church activities. The world
is a dark place, and God’s plan to bring light to the world is
through local churches—churches like
yours and mine. While my heart was right with Jesus, my efforts
to reach people far from Christ
needed to expand. Realigning my heart with Jesus’ heart meant
conversion growth would be central
to everything I would do moving forward.
If I were to fulfill Christ’s mandate, I could no longer focus
only on the needs and activities of
Christians. If unchurched people were to experience conversion
27. to Christ, I needed to include the
unchurched in my strategy, decision making and church
activities. To reach people far from Christ,
I not only had to make some personal changes in my life, I also
had to rethink my church model
and do things differently.
LIVING WITH A SENSE OF URGENCY
My wife and I have been married 37 years and have 14 children.
That’s right, 14 children. We tell
people that our favorite scripture verse is, “be fruitful and
multiply.” Ha. We once lived in the
suburbs where I worked as a chemical engineer until I became a
pastor and moved my family to the
inner city.
Living with the daily reality of violence and brokenness has
instilled a passion within me to see the
church get out of the seats and into the streets to fulfill its
world-changing mandate. I have a murder
map hanging in my home and office as well as five bullets that I
carry in my pocket every day. These
real-life reminders press me to pray and live each day with a
sense of urgency to love and reach
people far from Christ.
Jesus’ heart breaks for the helplessness, heartache and
hopelessness which surrounds me. Lives are
on the line, and it’s incumbent upon us, as pastors, church
leaders, and Christians, to reconnect with
the unchurched in our city. We must live with a sense of
urgency for the countless lives trapped in
28. darkness, waiting for the hope we need to share.
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
29. Constance
Highlight
WHAT’S TRUE OF CONVERSION-GROWING CHURCHES?
As I travel and speak at conferences, I’m often asked, “Is there
a single factor you find in conversion-
growing churches?”
I’ve discovered that God uses all kinds of churches, in all kinds
of different ways, with all kinds of
different methods and styles. We oftentimes say, “There’s one
church, many expressions. Every
expression is valuable and greatly needed to reach the vast
variety of people on this planet.”
However, there is one factor that stands out in every
conversion-growing church, regardless of
denomination or size. Conversion-growing churches have a
passion for lost people and have
translated that passion into regular activities that connect
church people with unchurched
people.
Conversion-growing churches have intentionally developed a
culture where pastors, church leaders
and Christians regularly extend themselves and their
congregations in relationships with the
unchurched. These vibrant churches don’t expect members to
infiltrate the unchurched culture on
their own. Pastors and church leaders with a passion for people
far from Christ act as a catalyst,
30. mobilizing their congregations out of the seats and into the
streets in consistent activities that empower
connections with the unchurched.
DOING CHURCH DIFFERENTLY
Christianity is sometimes described as an upside-down
kingdom. If you want to become greatest, you
must become a servant. If you want to live, you must die. These
commands show the counter-intuitive
nature of Christianity.
In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins makes the case that the
enemy to greatness is oftentimes the
very good you’re currently doing. To achieve greatness, you
don’t do better at the good things you’re
already doing. Rather, achieving greatness requires a whole
different set of beliefs and actions.
Oftentimes, the very thinking and actions that will move you to
greatness are contrary to the good
that is currently being done.5
Consider the sport of high jumping. For years, athletes trained
tirelessly in jumping higher and
higher. They worked on their speed, lifted weights and refined
their technique, but they only
increased their jumping by inches. When Dick Fosbury decided
to jump backwards, this radically
changed everything. The winning jumps increased by feet
instead of inches, completely altering the
sport of high jumping.
31. What if the good things we’re doing in ministry keep us from
accomplishing great things? What if
getting better means doing church differently?
After 29 years of ministry, I’ve found that cutting-edge
solutions for the church are not found in
doing good things better, but rather, in doing completely
different things.
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
Constance
Highlight
REACHING OUR FULL POTENTIAL
Pastors and church leaders have an amazing call to lead local
churches to fulfill Jesus’ mission—a
calling we never take lightly. When we allow God to realign our
hearts with the unchurched, we’ll
rethink church with the unchurched in mind. We’ll do church
uniquely different so that conversion
growth becomes our reality.
Just as God’s heart is for the unchurched so also should we, the
32. church, respond with a heart for
the unchurched. It is with this heart and passion that I join with
pastors, church leaders and
Christians in working toward the day when every local church
reaches its full potential.
STEP 1 SUMMARY
Step 1 challenges us to rethink our church paradigm and reshape
our church model to reach the
unchurched. Unleashing the power of the church is critical to
accomplishing God’s dream for his
church. Thinking about God’s heart for the unchurched
empowers us to help our congregation
come alive and get out of the seats and into the streets to impact
a lost and broken world.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. What impacted you most about Step I?
2. What thoughts do you have after reading the letter from your
non-
Christian neighbor?
3. How would you describe your passion for people far from
Christ?
33. 4. How many people have you led to Christ in the past year?
5. What good things could you stop doing to become great at
seeing
lost people come to Christ?
Key Concept: God’s heart is for lost people. Allowing God to
realign our hearts with the
unchurched is critical. If church is primarily focused on
believers, is it time to consider doing
church differently?
Application: Take an honest look at your church. Is it “faulty”
as the pastor from Europe
described? Is your church structured only for your congregation,
or is it also structured and
ready to reach the unchurched? Pray, search the scriptures and
allow God to realign your
heart with His heart for those far from Him.
Constance
Highlight
GROUP LEADERSHIP MEETING INSTRUCTIONS
The church has three primary systems of ministry. The first
system is
34. tending, tending is improving the church, preaching, teaching,
worship
and children's ministry that is about 90-plus percent of ministry
activities that we currently participate in today.
TENDING
Tending to the needs and growth of Believers is the primary
goal of
tending.
EXTENDING
The second primary Ministry goal of the church is extending
that is
reaching out to the non-believer, the unchurched. The scripture
says
Jesus came to save the Lost. He was born as the savior of the
world, he
lived his life to seek and save the Lost and he died on the cross
for the
sinfulness of mankind. His life was committed to rescuing the
lost.
CHURCH PLANTING
The final Ministry goal of the church is extending. Extending is
new
church plants and missionaries to a broken world to plant
churches.
Primarily starting new churches. For years the church has
consistently
struggled with extending.
THE GOALS
1. The goal for each group is to identify all of the works and
35. Ministries and activities currently at the Church that
demonstrates
extending, reaching the lost. That includes group, auxiliary and
individual efforts at reaching the lost.
2. The second goal for each team is to come up with
recommendations be it individuals, teams or auxiliaries,
methods,
ways and ideas that we as a church can reach the lost.
Over 90-plus percent of the ministry and work at the church is
tending
Ministry, and we want to change our direction to the church as a
whole
spending more time winning the Lost to Jesus and fulfilling the
Great
Commission that God has given the church through Jesus Christ
and the
Holy Spirit.
THINKING OUT OF THE BOX
We want practical logical ideas including, Thinking Out of the
Box that
we can implement toward winning the loss. That includes
adults,
children and all non-believers regardless of age.
DATE IDEAS OF WHAT WE CAN DO
1. Date ideas of what we can do
2. Extending to the laws can be broken down into three
categories:
a. That is what we can do individually
b. What we can do as auxiliaries and
