by Mike Cantrell

As I remember back over my last years as part of church staffs, some of the more “heated” debates was over this term – numbers.

Anytime a church leader begins to discuss their desire to reach people, build a big church, break a numeric barrier, get off a growth plateau or add numbers there is usually a confrontation from the super-spiritual.  Comments are fired at the leader like, “God is worried about quality, not quantity,” or “bigger is not always better,” or “now, don’t be prideful pastor.” Often as pastors prepare to give their “vision speech,” they open with a disclaimer like, “Not that I am worried about numbers, but…” or “Not to compete with the church down the street, but…” or “If God’s will is for us to stay this size then fine, but…”

Why is that we as church leaders feel compelled to make excuses for growth? Is church growth bad? What about numbers are they holy or unholy?

Well, good news for us church growth fanatics…

* There is an entire book of the Bible called Numbers. (Numbers 1:1-2)
* Jesus himself drew crowds. (Matthew 8:1)
* God takes the credit himself for growth. (1 Corinthians 3:6)
* The book of Acts has several numerical growth indicators.  After Peter preached the church grew from 120 to 3,120. (Acts 2:41)

I don’t know, maybe its the old football coach in me, but the idea of a scoreboard makes sense.  I think as the church we ought to know the score.  Call it my carnality or sin nature, but deep down inside I want to win!  After all didn’t Apostle Paul call this a spiritual wrestling match? That is “rastlin” in Tennessee!  (Ephesians 6:12-13) And didn’t Christ come and deliver a knock-out punch on the cross? (1 Corinthians 15:57)

Thanks to one of my church leader heros, Nelson Searcy, I have coined (or stolen) a new term called, “Maximum Redemptive Potential” (MRP). Now, that term helps to spiritualize growth.  It helps to make numbers holy!

Here is the concept… God’s desire is that every individual, small group, ministry, and church reach its Maximum Redemptive Potential.  As followers of Christ we have a MRP and God wants us to get there.  As a church its the same.  This is equally true for our small groups and ministries.

God’s Word says that we have been handed the ministry of reconciliation, as God is making His appeal through us. (2 Corinthians 5:18-20) Jesus died for the redemption of the world. God commissioned his disciples to make redeemed disciples.  Through our individual and corporate Maximum Redemptive Potential God’s plan continues!  We all have a part to play in God’s redemptive master plan.

Here is the question…

* For you personally: are you reaching your MRP?
* For your small group: are you reaching your MRP?
* For your church: are you reaching your MRP?

I feel better about numbers already and I hope you do.  If you have reached your MRP, then you have grown enough, your small group can end, and your church can be satisfied.  If you haven’t then let’s concern ourselves with numerical growth!  Imagine what it would be like if we all achieved our Maximum Redemptive Potential…

Mike Cantrell, a former teacher and football coach,  is the lead pastor of Bethel Community Church in Clarksville and the author of MikeCantrell.org

by Steve Murrell

Every Nation’s Yoda of church planting, Kevin York, is conducting a three-day “Coaching 101” seminar at our Asian Pastors Equipping Conference (APEC’09) in Singapore with 160 Asian leaders from 26 nations.

Here are some quick coaching quotes from Kevin:

1- Stats show that church-planters with a coach, build churches double the size of those without a coach in the first four years.

2- There are smart people everywhere who have all the answers, but the great need is for wisdom.

3- Smart people are known by their answers. Wise people are known by their questions.

4- Coaching is not about giving the right answers, but about asking the right questions.

5- Asking good questions forces people to think and come up with their own solutions, and it forces them to own those solutions.

6- People with all the answers are often frozen, indecisive and do nothing.

7- There were five frogs on a log. Four decided to jump off. How many were left? Five, because deciding and doing are two different things.

8- Coaching provides the accountability that helps put good decisions into action. Coaching gets the frog off the log.

9- Silence is NOT the same as listening.

10- Some silent people are not listening, but quietly plotting their response, ready to win the argument as soon as their opponent shuts up.

Steve Murrell is a missionary, pastor, and the author of “The Reluctant Leader” and “The Accidental Missionary.”

by Walter Walker

This is another brief excerpt from a foundation class I taught to college student last summer (2009). In this particular class I found myself teaching not just important foundations but the importance of teaching foundations. I was not so subtly suggesting that the best gig in the church is the foundations class because that is where your life and words can have the greatest impact.

The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

“According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work” (1 Cor 3:9-13).

It is very easy to begin constructing extensions to our spiritual house that “technically” still rest on the foundation of Jesus Christ but hang far out over the foundation. Below is an example of such a creative building project:

Proposition #1:  God loves us so much that he sent his son to die for us.

Prop #2:  I am now a child of God and ambassador for his kingdom.

Prop #3:  God want to show the world through us how much he loves them.

(Building project is going petty well so far.)

Prop. #4: We are heirs to all the promises of God

Prop. #5: Where God guides, he provides.

Prop. #6: We are to be the head not the tail.

(And so on, and so on until..)

Prop. #12: It is God’s will is for me to be rich.

Prop. #13: If you really want God to heal you, you need to give $XXX to my ministry.

Prop. #14: My minimum fee for preaching at your church is $30,000, a limo, a five star hotel, and a green room with…

To me (as it would be to those who taught foundations to me) propositions #12 through #14 are absurd. However, people who actually believe those things didn’t begin there. One thing was built upon another until their faith and spiritual house took on that configuration. Eventually, what they built extended so far out beyond the original foundation that the concept (i.e. prop #14) could no longer be supported. It’s just too far out there. The two options at that point were: 1)  demolish that portion of the building, or 2) create some other type of additional support. See the illustration above.

And there it is – right there. Your church, your faith, or your life (represented by what you have built) has come to be founded upon and supported by something other than Jesus Christ. This is precisely the kind of thing that (as Paul said) will be tested by fire at the last judgment.

Though a new believer will remember few details of your foundation class ten years down the road, foundation classes taught thoughtfully and passionately will impart a kind of moral compass or plumb line. Even though the details of your teaching points may be forgotten, what remains is a discernment or sense of what is right and true (i.e. “true” as in straight, true, and plumb), an inner alarm that tell you that you are building outside the foundation.

Let’s hear a big “hoo-rah” for the foundation classes.

Walter Walker is the Director of Communications and Donor Relations of Youth Life Learning Center and is the author of   Walter’s Blog.

by Steve Murrell

Focus, simplicity and clarity are essential tools of leadership. Rather than narrowing the focus, too many ministries try to do anything and everything that can possibly be done in the name of God. This is rarely effective. Better to do one thing with excellence, than to do 100 things halfway. Focus means we can’t do everything.

Here’s the Every Nation Churches & Ministries focus, as clear and simple as I can blog it:

Why do we do what we do?
To honor God

What do we do?
Establish churches and campus ministries

What kind of churches and campus ministries?
Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered, socially responsible

Where do we establish churches and campus ministries?
In every nation

In short, Every Nation Churches & Ministries exists to:
Honor God and establish
Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered, Socially responsible
Churches and campus ministries
In every nation

Steve Murrell is a missionary, pastor, and the author of “The Reluctant Leader” and “The Accidental Missionary.”

by Clayton Bell

I’m a young(ish), hip, in-the-know Christian, so I’m know I’m supposed to be relevant, emerging, unique and not perfect. But you know what very few voices in Christianity are telling me to be?
HOLY

What happened to holiness? Was it found incompatible with relevance? Too old fashioned? Too much of a focus on everything being permissible, but not enough attention to the fact that not everything is beneficial?

This is not a blog to trumpet legalistic rules and regulations in an attempt to gain God’s approval. This is a call to be who Jesus called us to be so we can do what he’s called us to do.

Our world will not be transformed by a church that seeks to be just like them. We must show that life in Jesus means one of victory over sin, of leaving our old selves behind and becoming a new person in Jesus’ victory, in the grace he gives to us. Even if it is little by little, day by day. This is the only way we can truly be holy.

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” 6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. SEND ME!”

Clayton Bell is the lead pastor of Trinity New Life Church and the author if Clayton Bell Online.