“Developing entrepreneurial pastors is the number one issue facing us all.  One of the challenges of the coming decade is to acknowledge the need for and to anoint the emerging apostolic leaders who will devote the time to overseeing the reproduction movement.”

“The only common denominator to growth is a transformational pastor--one who doesn’t mind leading, making the hard decisions, and handing off ministry to others.  Intuition is a basic skill.”

“The top three roles of the pastor are:       

• Creating, casting and managing a vision for the city
• Raising up future leaders & coaching paid staff
• Ensuring the multiplication of Kingdom ministries by parenting new church   plants and multi sites.”

2.  Democracy is not a Biblical Idea

“The more democratic a church is, the less likely it is to grow.”

“If you dig under the covers of healthy churches you won’t find much structure and the sheep aren’t leading the shepherd.”

“We think it is better to err on the side of giving the leader too much freedom to lead, than on the side of having so many checks and balances the leader can’t lead.”--from the book, “Go Big”

“Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but to trust the Lord means safety.”--Proverbs 29:25

3.  Leadership Development Never Ends

“Leadership development never ends--when it does, growth ends.”

4.  Get People Involved in Ministry as Soon as Possible

“The quicker you get people involved in ministry the quicker they come to Christ.”

“The early Christians were called, ‘people of the way,’ not ‘people of the book.’  They followed Jesus on the way.”

“Do for God what you said you’d do--he is, after all, your God.”--Psalm 76:11 (TMV)

“Conflict is over when people are equipped to serve and actually serve.”

5.  Absolutely No Triangulation

“The only reason I could stay at my last church for 24 years and transform it from an almost dead church was because I had a District Superintendent over me who would never listen to the complainers who wanted to take back control of the church.  Understand Matthew 18.”

“Healthy churches do not tolerate disunity but instead shows such people to the door if they don’t change.”

“Drive out the mocker and out goes strife; quarrels and insults are ended.”--Proverbs 22:10

6.  Church Planting & Multi-Site are Here to Stay

“Only dumb people make predictions.  So I predict that in 20 years multi-site ministry will be the norm.”

“A net gain of 3,200+ churches annually is needed to keep up with population growth. The best way to revitalize an existing church is by planting a church.”

7.  Denominations Need to Sell Old Church Buildings and Put the Money into Church Planting

“They must develop healthy established congregations.  This does not mean propping up existing churches that insist on functioning like hospices, hospitals, and museums.  Mainline leaders are so caught up in trying to save non-savable churches that too much of their energy is diverted from church planting. The number of churches being closed is not a factor in the health of a denomination. In fact, just the opposite is true.”

8.  People Who Have Done it Make the Best Coaches

“Denominational leaders need to function more as scouts and coaches of church planters rather than merely generic resources to churches.  They need to come from the ranks of church planters so they can coach.”

“Training, however, isn’t done by armchair theologians but by people who have actually grown churches.”  

9.  Flexibility is Critical

One of the key texts of our time is I Corinthians 9:22: “I have become all things to all people that I might by all means save some.” The goal is to expand the Kingdom by whatever means possible.

“Leaders need to accept that the world has and is changing and acting accordingly.  It’s not a ‘National Park’ world anymore; it’s a ‘Jungle’ out there.”

“National Park” world:

• Are neatly laid out
• Predictable and slow to change
• Warn you about dangerous animals
• Provide adequate shelter
• National parks change very slowly
• You are entitled to the experience because your taxes paid for it
• National Parks can be traveled alone
• You don’t need a compass or GPS
• When you look up you can see the horizon
• No problem seeing the horizon
• You don’t need a compass
• There are no bottom lines
• People aren’t totally broken
• Christianity is King and Queen

The “Jungle”

• Nothing is neatly laid out
• Nothing is predictable and changes are fast
• Predators are everywhere
• You are on your own for shelter
• Changes from day to day
• You’re not entitled to be there because it belongs to the animals
• No one goes into the Jungle alone
• You have to have a compass or GPS
• When you look up you can’t see the sky, much less the horizon
• Most people are basically broken
•  Values no longer are ultimate or universal
• There is no bottom line
• Christianity is nothing to the culture

“Church structures must become nimble and adaptable to the cultural changes.  Instead of reacting to change, leaders need to create the change. This means fast action and structures that follow the mission.”

“The Key Question:  Are our leaders willing to change their habits and priorities in order to reach a new world?”

10.  It’s Not About the Church, it’s About the Kingdom

“Leaders have to quit worrying about growing their church and focus on changing their city.”

“Most leaders still view the church as an institution that must be grown and a machine that must be fixed when in fact it is neither. Both Jesus and the prophets chastised the religious leaders for focusing on the institution.  Christianity is a movement of God throughout history. Our history is not the growth or health of organizations. The church is an organic part of one big puzzle called the Kingdom of God. The church was never meant to be thought of as an institution.”

“The goal of movement DNA is not to grow a church as much as it is to contribute to Kingdom growth. Institutional viability is never the measure. Is our church contributing to the greater movement of God in history? We are called to be disciples committed to a radical movement rather than entitled members protecting our institutions.” 

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