The question remains: What is a Simple Church, and for our tactically oriented Western minds, what does a Simple Church do?

A Simple Church is made up of two primary components: the circle and the triangle. Or, more accurately, the triangle inside the circle. The circle represents the culture that connects and integrates the Simple Church, and the triangle represents the core weekly rhythms that ground the Simple Church.

For us, that means the circle of Acts 2 Culture and the three weekly rhythms of Gathering, Huddle and Evangelism.

The Circle: Acts 2 Culture

The circle of Acts 2 Culture is the most important component of Simple Church, though the triangle of Huddle, Gathering and Evangelism tends to get more attention, as it’s easily identifiable.

What do we mean by Acts 2 Culture? We see Acts 2 as the blueprint for the church, not just an idealistic era that we have moved beyond. Acts 2:42–47 describes the core form of the church that Simple Churches are called to embody. Simple Churches can measure their success by their willingness to live into the culture.

We have codified Acts 2 Culture into six “everyday practices”:

Spiritual Hunger: The genuine desire to know God and walk in relationship with him. Our Daily Devos (daily Scripture study) is the primary tool we use to cultivate this hunger. A culture centred on God’s Word is a culture that will inform all the other components.

Church at the Centre: The commitment to covenant family relationships and the decision to build our lives around our church family, rather than exclusively around our biological families, careers or other factors.

Sacrificial Living: The decision to live humbly to serve others, including our Simple Church, our wider church family, and those who do not know Christ.

Open Home: We invite people into our homes as part of the natural rhythm of living on mission. We see our homes as tools to bless others instead of a place of private refuge.

Intentional Proximity: Actively living lives that are integrated with our church family through the intentional sharing of space, time and resources. Proximity starts by living close together, but extends beyond that to intentionally integrating our whole lives with our covenant brothers and sisters.

Passion for the Lost: Seeing those outside the family of God invited in is not just an activity we do (evangelism), but a passion we cultivate. By praying for and living lives dedicated to expanding the family of God, we live with evangelism as a central mission, not just a side hustle.

The culture must precede the tactical rhythms. Otherwise, a Simple Church can end up stuck in a rut of monotony that is disconnected from the vision.

The Triangle: Weekly Rhythms

If the above practices serve as the wraparound culture, the triangle serves as the grounding rhythms:

Huddle: Weekly time in Scripture to foster new relationships, provide a context to discuss questions, share burdens and invite non-believers to explore faith. Huddle is the most natural weekly invitation point to start and grow relationships within a Simple Church.

Evangelism: We divide evangelism into serving-focused initiatives and Gospel-sharing initiatives. The serving initiatives tend to focus on addressing physical and relational needs as a vehicle to share the Gospel and invite non-believers into the context of serving alongside Christians. Gospel-sharing initiatives include cold-contact evangelism, events and weekly hangouts.

Gathering: Every week, all the Simple Churches gather together with the other Simple Churches in the city to sit under God’s Word and worship. The Gathering is essential because it provides a minimal weekly touchpoint to reconnect with members of Simple Churches that have multiplied, whom you were formerly close with but now see less frequently.

Interestingly, we find that nominal Christians prefer the Gathering as their primary entry point into the church, whereas non-Christians prefer Huddle or serving initiatives.

Simple Church Is More Than Its Rhythms

The key point:

The blend of attending to a culture while anchoring in specific rhythms is perhaps the part that makes Simple Church unique.

Simple Churches DO three things a week. But they are not those things. For example, Huddle is not Simple Church any more than a church service is the church. The church is a covenant family of relationships on a mission. Likewise, a Simple Church is just a minimal expression of that principle lived out.

There is a lot more to be said about how Huddle, Gathering and Evangelism work in the details, which I will unpack in future weeks.

I’m equally comfortable (and uncomfortable!) slotting Simple Church into micro church, house church, Disciple-Making Movement (DMM), small group, connect group, or even good old-fashioned “Bible study,” but it’s not quite any of those.

At its core, Simple Church is a means to accomplish five primary goals that work in a reproductive cycle together:

1. Evangelize the lost

2. Make disciples

3. Develop covenant relationships

4. Raise leaders

5. Plant churches to repeat the cycle

Here is our official working definition of Simple Church:

Simple Churches are small churches where people can build relationships focused on being disciples of Jesus. Through Simple Church, everyone is invited to discover Jesus, be discipled, and ultimately learn to disciple others in fulfilment of the Great Commission.

You’ll notice that Simple Church’s core emphasis is relationships. It’s not a program, event, or system. Simple Churches form a relational environment that includes other Simple Churches, enabling people to discover Jesus, journey toward maturity in Christ, and build covenant relationships that let the mission Christ has called us to flourish.

To put it another way, Simple Church is an attempt to distill all of the components of “full-size church” into the smallest reproducible unit that we can.

To help make sense of Simple Church, especially for this platform’s audience, it helps to compare and contrast it with related concepts. (Note: I offer these as a way of comparison to draw out some of the unique characteristics of Simple Church. There is value in lots of different strategies; we are not the silver bullet!)

How Is Simple Church Different from Connect/Small Groups or Other Variants?

Typically, connect/small/life groups are a relational assimilation strategy for a church. They primarily help people build relationships within a larger church. Generally, they don’t have a specific leadership-development emphasis, and they rarely integrate into a broader church multiplication strategy.

In contrast, our Simple Churches are how we plant churches and also serve as our most important leadership-development environment, where every committed member (ideally, at any rate) is instilled with the core skill of planting a church.

Simple Church shares the relational strategy with traditional small groups, but rather than an assimilation strategy, most newcomers to our church start by attending the smaller Bible study (huddle) setting for Simple Church before attending a large-format gathering.

How Is Simple Church Different from House Church or Micro Church?

Typically, house or micro churches operate from a somewhat minimalist or deconstructionist angle on church. Eschewing large gatherings, these smaller churches emphasize staying small in their primary gathering format and omit large sabbath gatherings. (Of course, this is a broad brush, and not all house church movements operate this way). The shared vision and mission with a larger network for micro/house churches range from tight to non-existent.

In contrast, one of Simple Church’s core convictions is that good and beauty come from large-format Christian gatherings where preaching, worship, and fellowship with those outside our social sphere are central. While there is beauty in the small, the large also has irreplaceable beauty!

How Is Simple Church Different from a Bible Study?

A Bible study, although fantastic, is typically a short-term program that emphasizes both content and individual formation. In this regard, a Bible study typically operates as a program offered by a parachurch or church.

The core differentiator is that Simple Church emphasizes long-term covenant relationships. Simple Church only stops meeting when it multiplies, and some Simple Churches may exist for years on end. Although Simple Churches study the Bible, they emphasize serving the youngest/newest believer in the group, with minimal emphasis on adhering to a particular plan of study, curriculum, or format.

How Is Simple Church Different from Disciple-Making Movements (DMM)?

Simple Churches share the most characteristics with DMM strategies around the world. Like DMM, Simple Church emphasizes evangelism, disciple-making, and multiplication. Interestingly, Simple Church is not a pure DMM strategy, and to my knowledge, DMM movements around the world generally do not have a strong track record in the post-Christian West, where cultural assumptions about church run deep. My research suggests DMM tends to succeed in non-Christian contexts where no Christian memory shapes assumptions about what church ought to look like.

Simple Church differs from DMM movements by emphasizing the collective gathering and the formal organization of the church into a large body of covenant relationships. DMM movements, at least in my experience, place less emphasis on covenant relationships and collective gathering, opting instead for disciple-making and evangelistic speed.

Conclusion

So, perhaps you can see the quandary: Simple Church has elements of all of the above strategies but is also somewhat different. Next week, I will write about what Simple Churches actually do by introducing the Acts 2 Culture and Simple Church Triangle frameworks.

Although Simple Churches are at the heart of pretty much everything we do at LIFT Church, they are only the means to accomplish the five goals listed above: evangelism, disciple-making, leadership development, and church planting in the context of covenant relationships. If we ever find a better way to do those four things, we’d happily change strategy!

However, we navigate so much of our lives in the digital space. Increasingly, we are ruled by algorithms, AI bots and apps that mostly exist to bear the fruit of discontentment and loneliness in our lives.

Technology has, more often than not, harmed our relationships and connectedness rather than amplifying them. The creation of infinite-scrolling algorithms that continually feed us dopamine hits is perhaps one of the most destructive innovations in modern times, particularly to our relationships.

I was recently on a campus, and it felt like a zombie-land as hundreds upon hundreds of students in the library just scrolled with vacant stares at whatever the algorithm had decided would be sufficiently enticing.

What could it look like if we were to also think about intentional proximity in the digital world?

A Digital Home for Real-World Relationships

Five years ago, I launched Engage Spaces, largely because I sensed the existing tech strategy wasn’t oriented around enabling real-world relationships to flourish. What if technology could actually enable communities to flourish? That meant rethinking everything from the software itself to the way we fund and develop software.

Because my life is saturated with the pursuit of disciple-making, proximity, and intentional missional decisions, our software naturally reflected those values. This came as somewhat of a surprise, because we didn’t set out to do that, but upon some deep reflection, the parallels are obvious.

Engage Spaces is a digital home where communities can care for and love their people. At the core, that means moving software development from algorithm-driven to relationship-driven. Everything we do is designed to help relationships flourish.

Intentional proximity in a digital context enables real-world relationships to flourish by leveraging the normal rhythms of life to facilitate community, belonging and connectedness. Engage Spaces is basically the digital expression of those values.

Four Pillars of a Digital Home

I want to share how we’ve leveraged this technology to facilitate our real-world relationships at LIFT Church. There are four core pillars to how we think about this: Belong, Gather, Grow and Know.

Belong

At the core, this means enabling the work that is happening in our real-world relationships to be shared with others in our community despite geographic separation as we send farther and farther away.

We have dozens of “channels” to enable sharing, celebrating, praying and learning together. Everything from silly social channels to serious work conversations, deep theological conversations, and everything in between.

Sharing photos, not through algorithms but genuine social connection, allows us to be together, even as we send.

It also makes it much easier to work together, hop on a video call, or encourage one another.

Gather

Making it easy to bring the right people together. Communities are all about relationships, and those relationships are organized into a structure (Simple Churches in our case). Enabling people to engage with that structure, without even knowing it, is essential. This means registrations and events. Just as our church needs to make it easy to connect with the right people at the right time, our software home needs to accomplish the same goal.

Events and registrations should reflect and funnel into real-world relationships. We do just that.

Grow

Training can never be reduced to online modules. Real training is all about real-world relationships between a more experienced disciple and others. While there is value in asynchronous, independent learning, the best learning happens in community.

The training and equipping tools are all centered on real-world relationships. By leveraging video calling in our courses and linking coaches, instructors and students together in a relational web that reflects our actual relationships, the learning is much deeper than just completing modules.

We do this through dozens of courses that bring together a community of learning at every stage of the journey. Simple Church apprentices, campus pastors, missionaries, team leaders and so forth are all on their own dedicated learning pathways that help them flourish.

Know

One of the great challenges of leading a decentralized, relational community is having some awareness of what is going on in people’s lives and the movement as a whole as we spread out. There are a million “data” tools in the software industry. But data and analytics are not the point. If anything, data by itself is counterproductive. However, knowing, understanding and supporting our relationships is vitally important.

By using our automated surveying tools, we can genuinely listen to what is happening in the life of our movement. We can identify stories and difficult situations and surface them for prayer or celebration as needed. We can identify trends in real time and then discuss those trends with those whom they affect. In short: we can actually know our people and how their lives are integrating into the broader mission and community.

A Digital Home for Others

This is just a quick snapshot of how our ‘digital home’ enables our real-world relationships to flourish. But it really is the secret sauce that enables us to live and work together in community while moving fast to plant churches.

It’s been a wild journey. I started building Engage Spaces mostly because of an intuitive sense that we needed something better. But now, years later, I’m so grateful that we’ve persevered to build a platform and tool that is serving the mission at LIFT, and tens of thousands of people all around the world in other communities.

Historically, I’ve talked about the two forces that we need to leverage in church life: mission and relationship, or alternatively, sending and togethering. There is certainly a sense in which going deep together while simultaneously thinking about expansion is important. But, as I pondered Philippians, and as I’ve reflected over the years, I’m not sure that positioning mission and relationship as complementary forces is helpful, as it could lead to the misunderstanding that mission and relationships are somehow at odds with each other.

Why is that?

The Mission Brings Us Together

Firstly, the mission is what brings us together.

The only reason that any members of the church have relationships is because someone chose to live missionally to reach them.

While it is true that we want to see people saved, the transaction of salvation is not the mission in itself. Inclusion in the family of God is a better and more holistic description of the mission of making disciples.

Everything we do from a missional standpoint is motivated by love and compassion for each other. If we do not love each other well in the process, then no amount of missional activity can occur. We are just a clanging gong, to quote a wise man. The mission is only possible if we are relationally invested and committed to loving one another and the lost.

The Mission Keeps Us Together

Secondly, the mission is what keeps us together.

There is no shortage of conflict, friction, and reasons to go our separate ways in church life. In many instances, our mutual commitment to the mission (including loving one another) enables us to persevere in the commitment to reaching others and walking together in relationship.

The mission gives us a purpose beyond ourselves that enables the relationship to continue to flourish when it may be easier to go our separate ways.

Mission Cannot Be Separated from Love

Treating the mission as separate from relationships is to imagine that mission could occur outside of the bounds of love. However, that is simply not possible. We could do missional activity without love, but we cannot do mission without love. The mission and loving one another are so interdependent as to be inseparable.

Mission and relationship are not, therefore, in tension with one another, but rather complementary expressions of the same underlying force: love.

The Same Thing: Love

So, can we just say relationships are the mission and the mission is relationships? They are one and the same thing: love expressed in the form of missional relationship!

The cost of sending almost half of our key leaders has been high. Of the dozens of leaders we sent, each person carried a substantial ministry load and was deeply connected relationally.

For example, a few years ago we sent the director of our weekly soup kitchen, which feeds between 50 and sometimes even 100 people a week; his name is Tim. Then we sent the replacement leader, Yousaf. Then we sent the three instrumental team members, Brianna, Liz, and Morgan. Then we sent the latest replacement leader, Neo.

Maybe that sounds romantic, but it’s been quite painful. When I spent time with that team in the spring and summer, it was clear they needed focused attention to rebuild. Consequently, a new leader was appointed, who happens to be a new-ish Christian, and we are rebuilding.

It’s not an accident that the greatest movement of sending in the Scriptures was on the heels of persecution in Acts 8. Sending is costly and painful to us, and sometimes we really don’t want to do it.

It’s painful to send those relationships. We miss our friends.

It’s painful organizationally because those leaders held things together.

Churches that send aren’t in denial about these pains. In fact, we may be even more keenly aware of the costs. However, we send regardless.

Why Do We Send and Plant Churches?

Sending, Like Pruning, Stimulates Growth

I recently moved houses, and our new house has many trees. I’ve been learning that when a branch is pruned, especially a healthy branch, it stimulates more growth.

Sometimes the pruning metaphor is that you only prune dead branches. But that’s not the case. Pruning helps the church grow. By sending great leaders, we intentionally create space and capacity for new leaders to rise up.

Pruning is painful and is like a wound on the tree. But it causes the tree to allocate increased energy to new growth.

Healthy sending is the same. Although it’s painful, when properly cultivated, it causes the church to rally and new leaders to step up.

I should add: new leaders don’t automatically step up. Often the sending is followed by a period of organizational chaos. And the pain of that chaos can be catalytic in getting new leadership to step up.

Sending Protects the Mission

It’s easy for a church to end up a lot like a tree that has never been pruned: lots of weird, unhealthy, and unproductive branches. Much of church life can be spent on petty issues, irrelevant theological discussions, or idle debates. Moreover, even if a church is growing, it will eventually topple under the weight of its own growth if not carefully tended to.

One of the best ways to keep the mission of the church at the centre is to continually send new people out so that the existential reason for the church’s being in the first place is always front and centre.

This way, we don’t just build ministry for ministry’s sake, but continually raise and send new communities of disciples to reach those who have never heard the Gospel.

Sending Keeps Ministry Alive

By sending our leaders, we have no choice but to give opportunities to younger, fresher, and often untested ideas.

These leaders bring fresh concepts to church life. If older leaders don’t hand over ministry responsibility to young leaders, inevitably the ministry will die a slow, sad death. The only way to preserve ministry for generations to come is for leaders to expand the ministry to new places while handing responsibility to younger leaders.

Of course, these leaders are often untested, inexperienced, and perhaps naive. But they are also creative, eager, earnest, and willing. By sending our best leaders, new leaders inevitably have to step up into the holes they leave, and often those holes are big!

We Will Never Feel Ready

In short, if we wait until we’re “ready” to send, we will never send. It’s just too painful organizationally and relationally. My encouragement is for every church, house church, or mega-church to have in its DNA from the very beginning a desire to send its best leaders out!

Jesus makes it clear that the great threats to our faith and fruitfulness are the reality of spiritual battle, the inevitable sufferings we experience, and the temptation of a nice life.

The call to the Christian life is built on these simple facts:

We have an enemy.
We must be willing to suffer for Christ.
We must resist worldliness (especially wealth).

I noticed something in the parable of the sower that I hadn’t seen before: losing the spiritual battle results in no conversion. Persecution causes people to fall away. But worldliness eliminates our fruitfulness.

Mark 4:19: “of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful”

If the word of God is not bearing fruit by multiplying to others, then we can examine ourselves for worldliness and consider whether there are too many distractions to see the word of God multiply.

It is fascinating how many Scriptures focus on fruitfulness and multiplication. The Lord isn’t just interested in us receiving information or reading the word, but also in reproducing it in others.

Distractions are… distracting

In our discipleship, it is the third thing in Jesus parable, worldliness, that most often challenges us. Our enemy knows that he doesn’t have to take us out of the game altogether; he just needs to choke our fruitfulness.

Many challenges come to the Christian worldview and the invitation to yield our lives to Christ. But by far the most common challenge we run into is the distractions of a nice, busy life.

This has even crept into the very message of the Gospel we present. If our Gospel is merely that Christ has paid for our sins and given us salvation, then we have a clear task to take up in response.

Presenting the Gospel Honestly

How can we present the Gospel more honestly?

Focus on a relational Gospel: I prefer to think of the Gospel as the invitation to relationship with God and the invitation to co-labour with him in the renewal of all things, a work made possible by Jesus paying for our sins on the cross.

Be honest about the cost: We push too quickly for salvation, without inviting people to count the cost. As Bonhoeffer wrote, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him to come and die.”

Preach the same three things Jesus warned us of: We have an enemy, we will suffer, and we ought to be wary of distractions.

By skipping these three things, perhaps in an effort to increase our evangelism effectiveness, we ironically short-circuit the very goal that we have: to see people come to Christ.

The most effective evangelism strategy is simply believers who have received the word, counted the cost, and given their lives to joining what the Lord is doing in saving people.

I would rather have 11 sold-out disciples who’ve carefully counted the cost than 1,000 followers who haven’t, any day. So would Jesus.

Perhaps no demographic is as under-activated for mission as children. That’s why today is exciting: I want to share the official release of Living Sent Kids.

Children Can Make Disciples

6 years ago, we released Living Sent, and we have seen so many people come to know Christ or experience the joy of discipling someone through this resource.

However, as has been my life’s message for almost 20 years, disciple-making is not the domain of the mature Christian; it is meant to be part of every believer’s life, including our children. Yes, even children can be discipled and make disciples.

Living Sent Kids

That’s why we redeveloped the content from Living Sent: Discovering Jesus into a version specifically aimed at children ages 8 to 12.

We cover the exact same topics as the original version, including introductory apologetics and foundational doctrines such as the Trinity, sin, redemption, the Church, Scripture, and the Holy Spirit. The entire resource is saturated with Scripture throughout and calls our kids to thoughtful response and intentional action.

Our illustration team has done a fantastic job, including beautiful illustrations to make the content more engaging for kids (and adults!).

Every Believer on Mission

I’m announcing it here for a simple reason:

To encourage those who read this blog to step into disciple-making and to leverage whatever resources you can in the process so that every believer can be a part of God’s saving work in this world. If you’re stuck, Living Sent or Living Sent Kids might be a helpful tool.

Living Sent Kids is available on Amazon (Canada)!

Living Sent Kids is available on Amazon (USA)!

If you’re interested in a bulk order, just let me know. We’ll get them to you at cost!

A special thank you to John, Laura P., Laura W., Tarrah, Anny, and many others who worked so tirelessly on this project!

I’ve been reflecting on this, as there is a trend that has taken root in our church to affirm that we love each other through this simple phrase. I cannot speak to the experience of the women in our church, but amongst many of our guys, we have been making a point of letting each other know that we love each other.

When I stopped to reflect on this habit, it struck me as profound, precious and, in many ways, profoundly counter-cultural. It’s well known that many men struggle to form deep friendships (as do many women). So, to find myself in a community where our mutual affection for one another is pronounced with words (and actions) is worth reflection.

Ample words have been shared by those much more eloquent than myself on the power of phileo, brotherly love. Yet, even though we as Christians know a lot about the nature of love as evidenced on the cross, I am grieved that so few of us experience it from one another.

How could we think about cultivating this kind of love?

Love, like all love, is a sacrificial choice:

This love we have for one another is rooted in the fact that we have chosen to love one another. Every member of our church, especially those who are close, has made an intentional and sacrificial decision to be present in our community. Because our church has a high missional calling that is specific to university campuses, it requires a great deal of intentionality to even be present. For many people, it is the invitation to walk in these relationships of love that causes them to make the commitment to the mission.

All big missions are fueled by deep relationships.

The fact that everyone has chosen to be here, in part because of the sacrifice involved, means that our bonds of friendship are that much deeper. It is counterintuitive that mutual sacrifice in ministry would be the means to foster deeper relationships, but that is exactly our experience. It is also, incidentally, I think, the experience of the Apostle Paul. Give 2 Timothy another read to see what I mean.

It’s a choice to persevere:

The choice for friendship requires perseverance. Many of these brothers from whom I hear “I love you,” or with whom I share “I love you,” did not start as those with whom I had a natural affinity. In almost every case in our church, they are more than a decade my junior! However, as I have chosen them, and they me, we have formed deep friendships.

That is not to say that the friendship is now easy. Sometimes my responsibilities, life stage and particular burdens threaten to drive a wedge between those friends and me. However, I cannot and must not let that be the case. I must choose these friendships over and over again. That is what makes them beautiful.

To quote Pete Greig, “There is no place in the Christian community for the serial monogamy mentality where each new friendship comes with a shelf life.”

Covenant relationships are the basis:

This is perhaps the most important. The contractual mode of church has profoundly impacted and compromised our essential calling. We are called to be brothers and sisters in Christ who demonstrate our allegiance to one another through the way we love each other.

However, much of church life is dominated by employment contracts, boards, committees, congregational votes and other concepts foreign to the Scriptures.

That is not to say that these things serve no purpose whatsoever, but we must remember who and what we are called to be: a family that loves each other through thick and thin. That which belongs to the domain of contract can never be used to usurp the call to covenant love.

I hope that we can champion this way of love more clearly, practically and diligently. It’s part of why church planting is so beautiful: church planting together with brothers and sisters is the perfect context to cultivate these kinds of missionally loving relationships.

I asked the leader of this church, my friend Jesse, what he attributed the growth to. He responded, “I realized I was the leader and decided to act accordingly.”

In church life, everything rises and falls on leadership.

Of course, strategy, tactics, team, and the move of the Holy Spirit are undeniably important. But sometimes I wonder if we undervalue the importance of catalytic leadership within a community.

For example, a lot of leadership writing, teaching, and thinking over the last few decades has focused on the fact that leaders are called to act as servants towards those they lead. However, the emphasis on servant-hearted leadership has led to confusion between acting as a leader and acting as a servant. Leaders are called to be servants, but a servant is not always a leader.

What, then, is leadership and what do leaders actually do?

What Is Leadership?

Over the last few years, when teaching our leadership development course, I’ve developed the following definition:

Leadership is about helping people accomplish something they couldn’t or wouldn’t accomplish on their own.

The job of the leader is to help people accomplish a goal, vision, or purpose that they have not naturally self-organized to accomplish.

The job of the leader is to help activate the community towards an objective they haven’t already achieved themselves.

The two words here, couldn’t and wouldn’t, point to something important.

Couldn’t: Competency and Coordination

A community might not be able to accomplish a goal without leadership for two reasons: competency and coordination.

1. Competence: a group may not contain the necessary skills to accomplish the task. The job of the leader is to identify the missing skills and inspire people to gain those skills, either by going through a learning process or by recruiting those who already have them.

2. Coordination: the group may contain all of the necessary skills, but they are not properly organized. This is most often the case in church communities. In this case, The job of the leader is to act as the organizing force that brings people together.

This is why so much of leadership involves meetings. Before the leader can help people accomplish something, they first need to convene the people so they can be coordinated.

Wouldn’t: Overcoming Inertia

“Wouldn’t” is the much more difficult part of leadership. Addressing skill deficiencies or even organizational coordination is not that difficult. However, “wouldn’t” addresses the internal motivational factors within a community.

In most cases, there is tremendous inertia to stay the same. People are often hesitant to change because most change involves some dimension of loss. It is not change itself that most people are afraid of, but losing something they find valuable. [1]

I once watched a church die a very slow death over a period of 20 years. They knew they needed to change, but they were not willing to let go of their old methods and preferences. I talked to the 80-year-old church administrator, who said, with tears in his eyes, that he remembered the glory days, but that they hadn’t updated their methodology in more than 50 years. Sadly, that community is now gone and the building has been sold to a condo developer.

Leaders are change agents. Our job isto motivate a community towards change so that we can fulfill a mission that is worthwhile. It is to energize the community, even in the face of painful losses to things we once held dear.

The Tools of Leadership

To help others accomplish what they couldn’t (external skill) or wouldn’t (internal motivation) on their own, a leader must communicate the vision clearly and instill instill motivation to fulfill that vision.

To accomplish that, we have a few primary tools, if they could be called that:

Vision: Routinely remind the community of why we are doing what we are doing.

Values: Clarity around the culture that we will cultivate while we fulfill that vision.

Trust: If everything rises and falls on leadership, then everything rises and falls on relationships. A leader’s efficacy is limited by the depth of trust they have in their most important relationships.

So, in short, a leader is taking responsibility for a community to ensure there is clarity about what we are trying to accomplish, why we are trying to accomplish it, how we are going to do it, and investing in the relationships that will make it a reality.

Next week, I will write about the three primary pitfalls I’ve observed in our leadership.

[1] I recently discovered this framing through Tod Bolsinger’s book, Canoeing the Mountains and have found it a tremendously helpful tool to understand the emotionally charged responses that people can have to change.

The last few weeks have been especially hectic for a few of us in leadership in our church, myself included. This past weekend, we moved homes by selling our house to one of our key leaders, Melanie, who had been living just outside one of our primary neighbourhoods.

My wife and I had been feeling a need to make a shift for our family for about eight months, but had struggled to figure out how to apply it. After inviting our leadership team to pray and discern with us, and after a period of fasting on my behalf, we felt that we should try to sell our house to Melanie so that she could be closer to our church family and our mission field—despite only being a few minutes away as it was.

I’ve often reflected on Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of John 1 when he says, “The Word became flesh and moved into the neighbourhood.” It’s a brilliant rendition in some ways because it captures the heart of God so well: to be in intentional proximity with His people.

Why is proximity so important?

1. Spontaneity

It takes a long time and a lot of effort to build meaningful relationships. By my observation, it takes at least five years to really get to a place of substance. One of the essential ingredients is spontaneity. We need to be bumping into each other.

Sometimes these bumps are literal, as when I gave my friend Paula a high five as she ran past our house last week—or figurative, as we naturally interact with each other.

These small touchpoints are more valuable than we realize in speaking to our often pervasive sense of loneliness. When people in our church move into the neighbourhood, they often remark how much more relationally integrated they feel. Unfortunately, the reverse is also true. When people are not in the neighbourhood and the unplanned touchpoints are eliminated, the relational connection drops off precipitously.

2. Eliminating Barriers

A ten-minute car drive is not a huge deal, except that it is. To get into a car, drive, find parking, and navigate to a friend’s house is a bigger barrier than we realize, as it requires access to a vehicle, a pre-made plan, and likely an invitation.

In Canada, where the winters are long and the weather is terrible much of the time, these barriers can amount to a blockade on our relationships.

This elimination of barriers makes it far easier to coordinate planned get-togethers and unplanned ones alike. Running a meal over, popping by for a coffee, or meeting up to pray together is easy.

3. Shared Support

Missional living is hard. By living in community, often in shared housing, no person should be walking alone through the challenges of life. This includes a whole host of support: moving, childcare, yard maintenance, cleaning, games, discipleship, and everything in between.

When we are close together, it’s much easier to support each other in moments of need.

4. Proximity to Mission

In our church, proximity to mission is often the primary discussion point for moving into the neighbourhood. But we’ve learned that proximity to each other is actually more important in many ways. If our relationships are strong, and our mission is clear, then we will find a way to reach the people God is calling us to. However, if our relationships are not strong, then the sustainability of mission is called into question.

For example, we’ve had people living on opposite sides of the same campus. But because of the distance between them, they’ve struggled to connect. We’ve found that by being close to each other, even if it means being farther from campus, both the church family and engagement in mission are strengthened.

So, what lengths are we willing to go to foster intentional proximity?

Entangling Personal Finances

This might seem crazy, but we have often deeply integrated our personal finances. For example: non-biological families buying together, mixed rentals with homeowners, strategic rentals with a bunch of girls or guys, and often leaving a room open on purpose so that we can host people intentionally.

Our most recent house sale was based on what Melanie could afford for our house, and to a lesser degree, what our house was worth. While we worked to make sure it was fair on both sides, ultimately the motivation was communal blessing, not maximal financial return.

Did I make the most amount of money on my house? Probably not, but neither did Melanie on her sale. Does it matter? Not really. From an eternal perspective, we will both reap a beautiful reward as a bunch of people have moved into the neighbourhood!

Scary Patience

Housing can be a stressful subject. In almost every case—and I’m speaking from experience—there seems to be a test of our faith, as the provision of the right house often comes at the last moment. It’s tempting to try to solve the problem with a less-than-ideal solution instead of waiting for the right location.

Almost every person I know who has made a missional move was required to trust the Lord in scary ways. It seems that the way of the Lord is to invite Him into the process and then actually have to trust Him to make a way. And yet, He does make a way!

A note: this doesn’t mean we are foolish or don’t put the work in to make wise and strategic decisions. Rather, it means that we trust that our hard work and His provision will make a way as we walk in step with His leading.

Going “Backwards”

One of my good friends couldn’t afford to buy a house in our neighbourhood, but they could afford to rent. So they sold their home—at a loss, in fact—and then rented a basement apartment in our neighbourhood.

That’s not “how it’s supposed to go.” He has said to me many times that it was one of the best decisions they ever made. The strength of their faith and relationships has dramatically improved as a result.

If our only metric is to move upwards in life, and home ownership can be a real idol here, we may be missing the tremendous potential.

Choose the Lesser Option

Often the home near church is not our preferred style, format, or level of luxury. However, it’s worth taking a hit on personal preferences if it means we can be relationally strengthened.

There is a heavenly irony in this: I sold a beautiful house to move near our church family, and bought a student house that I spent a lot of energy updating so that it felt like home. We sold that house to Melanie, and the Lord opened a door for us to buy a beautiful home near our mission and our church family—far more than we ever imagined! The Lord appears to have really honoured our faithfulness over these last eight years of using our home.

This isn’t just our story. I’ve seen God’s hand of blessing on those who have trusted Him.

My encouragement today is to make the missional decision that will best serve your church family and the mission. In the long run, it will be by far the best investment you could ever make.

I was visiting Western University a couple of weekends ago, and it was a ghost town. Despite being one of the largest universities in Canada, there was hardly a soul on campus. Nevertheless, some of our team had a lovely and very productive conversation with a Buddhist who was interested in Christianity.

Despite the overall slower pace, summer is probably our busiest season as a leadership team. At the end of August, we run our major team training weekend for all of our missionaries and members to be inspired, equipped and encouraged for the season of fall ministry.

We also tend to do a lot of “wheels-off” work on our structures and leadership systems. I thought it might be interesting to share what we are working on behind the scenes and how we use the quiet season to prepare for maximal effectiveness heading into our more important ministry season, from an evangelism standpoint, in September.

Culture:

1. Have we observed cultural trends, and are we adapting what we are thinking about to best intersect with those trends?

I’ve personally spent a fair bit of the summer trying to wrap my head around what is happening culturally. I don’t yet have anything brilliant to share, but reflecting on the state of our ministry context and adapting to those changes is an important part of the process.

2. Are we preparing anything new, or are we running the same old playbook?

The cadence of resetting over the summer allows us to naturally jettison old ideas that are no longer working while brainstorming new ideas to engage on mission.

I’m a bit of a believer that we should be regularly making changes, tweaks and running experiments while we live on mission. I have a few experiments that I’m hoping to run in the fall to see if we can learn… stay tuned, maybe I’ll share our findings here.

Leadership:

3. Do we have the right people in the right seats?

To borrow the famous Jim Collins metaphor from Good to Great, we often evaluate our various leadership role assignments over the summer to make sure we have the right people in the right seats. We try not to make too many changes mid-season so we can focus on outreach.

4. Did we take time to rest appropriately so that we can push hard?

To make the most of the coming harvest season, it will take a lot of hard work. Long days, late nights, consecutive ministry days and lots of relational output.

We encourage our leaders to make sure they’ve taken a proper rest in these months so that we can have the energy to invest.

Groups (Simple Churches):

5. Are all of our Simple Churches positioned for impact?

   1. Are the leaders energized with a spread of new leaders stepping up?

   2. Is there a concrete plan for integrating non-believers?

A huge amount of the focus is on making sure our Simple Churches are set up for success. A big part of this is our summer training program for missionaries, who will take on new roles in the fall. The second part of this is making sure we have the best setup in terms of existing leaders, up-and-coming leaders, new believers, and non-believers.

We’re often trying to balance strength of the group versus maximal leadership development opportunities and entry points for non-believers.

This year, we’ve been encouraging strength as opposed to breadth. Some years we’ve tended to favour more groups, even if some are a bit under-resourced. This year, we’ve been encouraging our leaders to organize so they can a bit stronger than usual, even if it means fewer points of entry for people.

Church Culture:

6. Have we adapted for the new context of our church?

A church is not a static entity - praise God! Because the church is growing, multiplying new churches, launching new families and discipling new believers, there are always some changes.

There are lots of beautiful changes such as new children, new believers or new campuses. There are also difficult challenges such as running into bureaucratic challenges with venues, relational friction or personal difficulties.

Taking stock of the lay of the land is part of our summer rhythm to make sure that we can focus on reaching effectively in the fall. We don’t want to be distracted dealing with in-house issues when there is a world that the Lord has given us a mission to reach!

7. Where have we grown weary of fighting the fight or allowed cracks in the culture, convictions or character to set in?

Perhaps this last one is the one that often takes my attention; I often see my role as “chief encouragement officer”. As I go around, I try to remind people of why we do what we do, and more importantly, why it matters in light of eternity. It’s very easy for passion to give way to routine, which can give way to malaise, which is deadly.

So, we return again to the scriptures and ask for a Holy Spirit renewal to enable us to continue to be faithful to that which we have been called: to make disciples of all nations.

This has been a year of weddings for our church. Almost every weekend of the summer we have had a precious brother and sister covenant together in marriage. It has been so encouraging to see our church family gather repeatedly to celebrate this gift of marriage. I have been deeply encouraged by the desire of each couple to use their wedding as an opportunity to proclaim the name of Jesus.

Yet, while a wedding is an exciting day, most of marriage is actually pretty boring and mundane. My wife is my most important friend and partner, yet it is easy to see her as a hindrance to my personal freedom.

In many ways, this serves as a helpful metaphor in thinking about disciple-making and church family.

Isn’t it funny that the things that are the most precious in life are the most easily resented?

Perhaps one of the greatest challenges in the rhythms of church life is the expectation that everything is exciting, when in fact the opposite. Most of church life, indeed most of life, consists of the mundane.

It’s worth adding that the recent advent of influencers and the broader media culture we live in makes it almost impossible to be satisfied in the slow, often difficult grind that is disciple-making. We’re constantly being pressured to believe that the results of our efforts and presence should be exciting.

Yet, most of the best things in life are slow, and the best rewards take time. Just as in marriage, if we are committed to and invested in our church family, it really can grow sweeter with time.

The fruit and blessing come when we can remind our souls of this patient process.

Choose the long road.

The only way to get lifelong friendship is not to give up on our lifelong friends. The best of disciple-making and church family is the invitation to build a lifelong family of covenant relationships on mission or the cause of Jesus.

I often plead with our younger people when they grow weary, usually between years 4 and 8, to not throw away their friendships in the church because it is getting hard or seems boring. It will take them at least the same amount of time to recover, if not longer, since making friends only gets harder as life goes on and the opportunities for meaningful connection decrease.

The best relationships come when we choose to walk the long road together, serving Jesus, no matter what.

Every gathering, meal, worship event, and serving opportunity is a small deposit in the bank. And just like financial savings, the benefits don’t come in the early days; over time, the results compound.

Choose the boring road.

There can be an expectation, rooted in our obsessively consumeristic context, that church life should be exciting all the time. That church gatherings should be entertaining and invigorating. That disciple-making should involve amazing stories.

Maybe I’m doing it all wrong, but most of church life is pretty mundane, even boring. I’ve preached possibly thousands of sermons, and heard just as many. Most are forgettable.

Week-in-and-week-out of setup and teardown, sermon writing, meetings, meetings, meetings and then more meetings.

But, what if the mundane gatherings are actually good for our soul? What if we weren’t made to be constantly entertained and invigorated but instead made to slow down and practice faithfulness and diligence? What if the sensation is actually evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work, teaching us to be faithful and obedient and sensitive to his gentle leading?

In our devotional rhythms, often scripture study feels dry. The Psalm doesn’t relate, and Paul’s writing feels obtuse. Yet, when we study, day in and day out, we are sowing the seeds of a beautiful harvest later. For example, I recently went through a very anxiety-inducing experience for about 3 months involving the sale of our house (a story for another day). I was so thankful that over the decades of following Jesus, I have memorized countless Scripture verses that I can call to mind to calm my spirit.

What was sown in boredom was harvested as a treasure in my time of need.

Choose the same road.

The grass always looks greener somewhere else. It’s easy to believe that another church, another community, or a better pastor will solve our spiritual listlessness. But it won’t. It never does.

I’ve pastored thousands of students over the years, and I have (almost) never seen someone leave our church for greener pastures to subsequently not suffer a repeat bout of spiritual malcontent. I wish this wasn’t a fact I carried, but it is. Why is that? Because the evidence of frustration in a church community is not an indication that something is wrong but that something is right! Barring egregious theological error or abuse, it’s better to stay on the road with the people among whom the Lord has in his sovereignty placed us.

Choose the hard road.

It’s easy to give up because it’s hard. It’s easy to focus on the obstacles, the challenges, the difficulties and say “it’s not worth it, today.”

My calendar is largely governed by a set of non-negotiable rhythms that establish a cadence and frequency of disciple-making, time in the word and an enjoyment of the family of God. But these rhythms can feel like strictures that limit my freedom and quash my ambition.

More than just inhibiting my desires, they can be frustration, difficult and tiresome. If I’m honest, it often would be easier to just stay home.

Yet, by showing up, time and again, especially when it is hard, we are sowing the seeds of something beautiful.

Our church is experiencing an overflow of joy at weddings because for more than 20 years we have been building relationships.

So, what do we do?

1. We show up again.

2. We don’t stop showing up.

3. We show up with a positive attitude.

4. We bring our best, even if our best that day is weak.

5. We open the Word, even when we don’t want to.

6. We pray, even when we face silence.

7. We make the meal, open our home, make the phone call.

8. We commit to our rhythms with our church family, especially when we don’t want to.

9. We confess our temptation towards desiring greener pastures, and invite a brother or sister to hold us steady.

10. As the writer of Hebrews says, we fix our eyes on Jesus.

If that sounds too complicated… perhaps the author of Ecclesiastes summarizes it best.

A Framework for Our Gatherings

Regardless of the format or size, I’ve often found myself asking, “When we gather together, what should we seek to accomplish from a leadership standpoint?” Of course, the central objective of the gathering of the church is to glorify God. But what should we seek to accomplish together in the body of Christ when we gather?

This is a serious question because, if we can’t answer it clearly, the natural inertia of a gathering is to drift toward larger, more sophisticated, and more time-consuming events that attract larger and larger crowds. This carries the added danger of feeding the egos of those leading the gatherings by equating praise from people with success in ministry.

Alternatively, we could eschew any pursuit of growth for fear of being corrupted by the perceived success that comes with it. The resulting actions can sometimes even sabotage the very mission we’ve been called to.

Whether we are growth obsessed or fearful of it, we need a grid to help us aim at something when we gather together.

The example of the Apostle Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14 provides a helpful framework based on how they interacted with churches they visited. I’d like to draw out four primary goals of gathering. We developed this a number of years ago as the “transformational gatherings framework”. Notably, these goals apply regardless of size or format.

Acts 14:21–23

They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said. Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.

1. Inspire Faith

“They preached the gospel…”

We preach the gospel. That is to say, we inspire people toward faith in Christ.

Perhaps this is one of the most important components of a gathering: inspiring our brothers and sisters in their faith in Christ.

Inspiration comes by reminding people once again of the hope they have through Christ Jesus. The three greatest tools we have for this are preaching, worship, and testimony.

Inspiring faith is not reserved only for believers. It is equally an evangelistic activity. Toward this end, our gatherings should always include a meaningful number of non-believers.

2. Multiply Disciples

”…strengthening the disciples…”

When Paul and Barnabas returned to places where they had previously won disciples, they focused on encouraging and strengthening them. There was a clear connection between inspiring people and strengthening them, motivated by a desire not merely to make converts but to multiply disciples who, in turn, would multiply disciples.

The heartbeat of our gatherings is to see people become disciples who make disciples. This is primarily accomplished by ensuring that every person is integrated into an intentional discipleship relationship (what we call Simple Church).

It should be impossible to be merely a consumer or an attender of church. The idea that someone could repeatedly show up at a gathering without being called to obey Christ by making disciples is unthinkable in the New Testament paradigm.

3. Strengthen Family

”…encouraging them to remain true to the faith.”

A church gathering should feel more like a family reunion than a congregation of a crowd.

In fact, I take some issue with referring to a church as a “congregation.” A church is much more than people who have congregated. A church is a miraculous family made possible by the precious blood of Jesus.

When we gather, we do not gather to serve ourselves or to see our own needs met. We do not come expecting to be satisfied or fulfilled. We come to strengthen and encourage one another as we serve the Lord together.

Our objective in coming to church should be to seek out our brothers and sisters in Christ and encourage them.

This isn’t just about investing in those closest to us. We also strengthen the family by intentionally seeking out those who are struggling, weak, or becoming disconnected, and drawing them back into the life of the church.

4. Build Leaders

Everything rises and falls on leadership.

Every one of the various functions that take place during a gathering should contribute to developing the leadership capacity of others. The teams that serve together provide opportunities for people to develop practical leadership skills that will one day serve the Kingdom far beyond the particular ministry they have been entrusted with today.

Interestingly, the vast majority of our leaders go on to build successful business careers where they make good use of the emotional intelligence, leadership, and administrative experience they gained while serving as team leaders.

More important than résumé building, however, is that every church needs leaders in order to multiply. Our gatherings are one of the primary environments where we identify and develop the skills, competencies, and character of those who may one day be sent to plant a church in a new city.

A Simple Grid for Every Gathering

So, if you are leading a gathering, perhaps these are the questions you should ask as you think about where to focus your energy:

• Does this inspire faith?

• Does this multiply disciples?

• Does this strengthen the family?

• Does this build leaders?

I would submit to you that if it doesn’t accomplish one of those things, it’s probably not worth doing.

We are blessed to own a facility next to a major university that serves as the operations hub for our movement and as a community centre for relationship-building and discipleship. It’s sort of like the shared home for our church (and just like a home, we all take turns cleaning it… but that’s another story for another day). At the entrance to the building is a sign with our house rules.

One of those rules is: “No headphones when not sitting and working.” This is to combat the trend, exacerbated by wireless headphones, of people spending time in communal spaces while wearing them.

This is a “rule” I’m particularly passionate about, even though sometimes our students roll their eyes and give me a look that says, “OK, boomer.”

It’s All About Trust in Relationships

Why am I talking about headphones, and what does it have to do with disciple-making, church planting, and leadership development?

The small actions we take have a profound impact on how people perceive our availability and trustworthiness.

As disciple-makers, we should aim to teach our people to be as winsome, approachable, friendly, welcoming, and hospitable as possible. As leaders, it is our job to create an environment where people are encouraged to trust us from their very first interaction. Whether someone is attending an event for the first time, meeting us during evangelism, or being welcomed into our home, they are drawing all sorts of conclusions about whether they can trust us before we’ve ever spoken.

We need to do everything we can to win their trust!

The Power of Small Signals

I was recently introduced to the broken windows theory by my friend Jaden while we were studying Scripture together this week. The broken windows theory suggests that relatively small environmental factors, such as broken windows or graffiti, strongly signal that a neighbourhood is neglected and therefore more likely to experience increased crime. This is actually good news, because it means that by addressing simple things like cleanliness, a neighbourhood can reduce a much more complex issue.

Returning to the headphone example, it’s a small thing that strongly signals that the people around us are not that important or worth listening to. It communicates, “I’m not listening to you,” in much the same way as being on your phone or looking at your (smart!) watch in the middle of a conversation.

But in highly relational contexts, we must ask ourselves: are people dismissing us before we have a chance to genuinely connect because we haven’t properly attended to the basics?

Attending to Excellence in the Basics

Let me give a practical example.

We meet in many different locations every week for our Sunday gatherings. All of them are set-up and teardown environments. It is important that we pursue excellence in the basics as a means of winning trust and starting new relationships.

• Starting on time communicates that we value and respect people’s time.

• Wayfinding and signage communicate that we are organized and thoughtful.

• Sound and lighting enable people to clearly see and hear, without distraction, what we are trying to communicate.

• The team briefing communicates that we are preparing to put our best foot forward in engaging non-believers.

• A genuine welcome team communicates, through focused attention and warm smiles, that we recognize the bravery it takes to simply show up.

• Prepared speakers communicate the message we want people to hear in a way that motivates them to take action.

• Energetic team members communicate that we believe what we say.

• Thematically relevant worship reinforces both the message that was preached and the broader theology we teach.

The list could go on and on. What little signals do we tend to overlook that would help build trust?

The goal is not to make our gatherings increasingly complex or sophisticated. Rather, the goal is to win and keep people’s trust so that we can build and strengthen relationships that lead to genuine discipleship.

Are any of these things going to change a person’s life? No, of course not. But they might open someone up to a relationship that will.

Let’s attend to excellence in the basics as we create spaces for people to explore who Christ is.

This strategy of starting small and allowing growth to come over time is intentional. Rather than requiring church planters to have all the necessary skills and experience as a prerequisite, they can develop those skills as they go. This widens the pool of prospective planters from a niche personality type to include almost anyone.

However, despite making the process as simple as possible, not every simple church leader is well-suited to starting a brand-new location. A simple church leader may have a tremendous track record of disciple-making but struggle under the unique burdens of leadership that come from beginning a new work in a new place.

What are the skills that separate a house church leader from a house church planter in a brand-new city?

Largely, the skills that separate the two are not disciple-making and evangelism, but leadership capacity.

It is this distinction between disciple-making and leadership that sets our campus pastors apart from our disciple-makers in terms of skills, expectations, and responsibilities. Our simple church leaders, missionaries, and disciple-makers are responsible for a specific community of disciples, but they do not bear responsibility for the whole. A disciple-maker’s responsibility is bounded by those they are reaching. A campus pastor, in contrast, has a long-term and unbounded responsibility for both the present reality and the future growth of the community.

There are many ways leaders interact with others, but leadership begins with an internal set of convictions that enable them to relate to others in ways that instill confidence. This internal sense of self starts with accepting responsibility, developing personal competence, and facing the unknown with courage.

1. Accepting Responsibility

Leaders accept full responsibility.

A leader takes responsibility for what happens under their care, both good and bad. While we provide all the support we can, there is no bailout option on the ground. The success or failure of a church plant ultimately rests on the shoulders of the leadership team serving there.

This does not mean they carry the burden of responsibility alone. A key dimension of leadership is learning to empower those within your care to carry the burden with you. However, leadership begins by owning the outcomes.

I recently asked one of our campus pastors what key idea he had learned that enabled him and his wife to become effective leaders. He responded, “I had to accept that I was driving the bus. No one else.”

2. Developing Personal Competence

Alongside accepting responsibility, leadership means taking responsibility for developing your own competence in the areas under your care.

By competence, I mean developing the technical skills necessary to win and keep the trust of those you lead.

In our context, these competencies include preaching, running meetings, organizing and scheduling, reliably showing up, managing finances, delegating, and many other day-to-day functions.

To use Tod Bolsinger’s analogy from Canoeing the Mountains, it is the development of these competencies that enables people to trust us “on the map,” with things they understand and circumstances that are familiar, so that they will trust us “off the map,” in unknown contexts and an uncertain future.

3. Facing the Unknown with Courage

It is when we face unknown situations that leadership becomes necessary.

If every situation is familiar and every decision is easy to understand, leadership is not really required. In those situations, leadership can often give way to management. Leadership thrives when navigating the unknown.

In uncertain environments, it is the strength and vision of the leader that inspires those who follow to move forward with courage. In church planting, we face many unknowns, along with challenges, setbacks, and uncertainty. A leader does not despair or shrink back from these challenges. Instead, they invite others to press into them with courage and conviction.

Leadership Flows from Formation

In every case where I have seen a leader thrive, they have intentionally cultivated all three of these internal convictions. Another way to describe this is developing a differentiated sense of self that is secure in Christ.

This security in Christ brings us back to disciple-making.

These three leadership convictions are not developed in isolation. Ultimately, they are rooted in our security in Christ. Strength of character flows from our formation in Christ and our confidence in Him.

While not everyone is called to be a great leader, everyone can play a part in developing great leaders by helping disciples fix their eyes on Jesus.

Note: For keen readers, you may notice the influence of ideas from Failure of Nerve by Edwin Friedman. It’s my favourite leadership book!

Note 2: I’ll be off for a week on holiday with my family as a part of our bi-annual sabbath week. No post next Monday!

Making disciples is a form of leadership because it requires walking with an individual along a directed path toward Jesus. Without a doubt, disciple-making overlaps significantly with community leadership, particularly in emotional intelligence.

However, the overlap between disciple-making and leadership can lead to confusion about the differences between the two. We could misunderstand that because everyone is called to make disciples, there is no particular leadership gifting or skills to be cultivated. Effectiveness in disciple-making does not automatically mean that a person is gifted, equipped, or competent for organizational or community leadership in the family of God (or elsewhere).

• The challenge is that we need both leaders and disciple-makers in disciple-making movements. This challenge presents itself in a few different ways: Leadership systems: Overcoming the inertia and assumptions around traditional leadership systems that tend to prioritize program or platform requires investing energy in systems that cast a wider net for people. Even though organizational leadership differs from disciple-making, we must be careful not to unquestioningly import corporate leadership ideals into the family of God.

• Skill Development: The skills of localized disciple-making are not the same as those for leading communities and movements. They are almost completely unrelated. Creating a development path for both simultaneously is resource-intensive.

• Expectations: The conflation of disciple-making with organizational leadership erodes both disciple-making and leadership by blurring expectations and qualifications for who can lead.

Disciple-Making and Leadership Are Not the Same

Let’s start by differentiating a leader from a disciple-maker.

Disciple-making focuses on an individual and their disciples. It is a primarily relational activity focused on helping people follow and be transformed by Jesus, while inviting the modelling, training, and empowering of others to do likewise.

Leadership focuses on the community as a whole. While leadership is primarily relational, it also encompasses many other hard and soft skills. For example, the following skills are necessary for a leader but typically do not show up in disciple-making:

• Casting vision

• Developing and implementing a strategic plan

• Navigating interpersonal dynamics beyond the leader’s direct relationships

• Organizing, managing, and administering

• Motivating large groups

As a leader, many of these functions occur beyond the bounds of direct relationships and through distributed responsibility.

Why the Distinction Matters

We could quibble that this distinction between leadership and disciple-making is somewhat arbitrary. However, without the distinction, the requisite development of differentiated skills between leaders and disciple-makers will fail to materialize.

I submit this thought as I reflect on our own discipleship and leadership systems and the fruit of each over the last eight years. As we have emphasized disciple-making relentlessly over the years, we have come to realize that our leadership development and systems are somewhat underdeveloped. As a result, a current major focus for our team is strengthening our leadership development.

What We’re Doing About It

To help make this happen, we have done and are doing a few things:

• Added specific leadership equipping to our primary missionary training pathway through the VITAL framework.

• Assessing and reassessing our leadership structures to ensure they are clear regarding accountability and the expectations of each role.

• Evaluating our senior leadership to ensure we are continually developing depth in our teams while resisting the urge to solve problems ourselves.

• Regularly observing the leadership development environments of other movements; the echo chamber of our own thinking is our greatest enemy.

• Systematically evaluating whether we are “doing the right things” and “doing them right. The larger we grow, the more essential it is that we are very clear about doing the right things.

Over the coming weeks, I hope to continue exploring the intersection of leadership and disciple-making to hone my own thinking and communication. I hope you come along for the journey, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

There is a lot of talk about church planting in the broader church leadership world. Church planting is a great thing. The local church is one of the primary means by which the gospel is sent out and the wisdom of God made known.

While I enthusiastically support church planting in all sizes and shapes, the prevailing approach has some real downsides.

The Challenges of the Prevailing Model

Firstly, it is very expensive. Right at the outset, the community is on the hook for venues, staffing, equipment, and other components. The financial model often becomes the tail that wags the dog in church planting.

Secondly, it is very difficult to develop leaders who can effectively lead this kind of community. A church planter often has to be skilled as a fundraiser, communicator, manager, musician, event director, and visionary all at once. While some exceptionally gifted people come to the table with all of these gifts, they are rare. Moreover, people who could be great initiators of gospel work are passed over because they are not the full package.

Thirdly, it requires overcoming substantial organizational inertia. The requirement that only highly skilled leaders be sent, in conjunction with large budgets, means we are less likely to plant churches because the consequences of losing budgetary capacity and leadership muscle from an existing congregation are too great.

All of these factors combine to pressure church plants to centre on the leader’s personality, prioritize transfer growth from other churches to meet financial targets, and place the evangelism of non-Christians on the back burner in favour of quicker growth objectives.

In cultural contexts where there are large numbers of nominal or disaffected Christians, the prevailing approach makes a lot of sense. In those contexts, there are essentially loads of free-agent Christians waiting to be drafted.

On the other hand, where the culture is post-Christian and there are few free agents, we need to think differently.

Returning to Biblical Basics

What would be a better approach in our cultural moment?

We return to the biblical basics of starting churches. A healthy church should be the overflow of evangelism and discipleship. Instead of focusing primarily on planting churches, we should focus on sharing the gospel and discipling new believers.

If we start with the basic conviction that a church is the overflow of evangelism and discipleship, we can eliminate much of the complexity from the process.

With respect to leadership, while not many leaders can lead a community of several hundred, many can lead a community of ten or fifteen. Instead of identifying leaders based on their potential to lead a large community, we can focus on those who have demonstrated fruitfulness in the basics of evangelism, disciple-making, and Bible teaching.

With respect to budget, launching small, evangelism-focused church plants need not cost anything at all. The basic requirement at the outset is simply the presence of a team of believers in one another’s lives and in the community they desire to reach.

By focusing on simpler and smaller approaches, leaders can grow into the role over a longer period of time without the pressure of financial or growth targets hanging over them.

What We Look for in Church Planters

What do we look for in prospective church planters who launch churches in new cities where we do not yet have a presence?

1. Evangelism fruitfulness
Are they faithful in sharing the gospel?

2. Discipleship faithfulness
Have they discipled new believers who, in turn, have made disciples?

3. Relational depth
Do they have meaningful and long-standing relationships with the sending community that they can rely on for support?

4. Demonstration of our five discipleship emphases
Do they demonstrate:

• Gospel fluency

• Secure identity

• Missional living

• Radical generosity

• Capacity for courageous conversations

(Read more about our discipleship emphases in Living Sent 1: Discovering Jesus and Living Sent 2: Discovering Disciple-Making.)

A Long-Term Perspective

Our expectation is generally that growth in the first year will be minimal. In most cases, the fruit does not begin to emerge until three to five years and beyond.

That may sound slow to some. Yet if churches truly are the overflow of evangelism and discipleship, then the most important work is not building an organization. It is faithfully making disciples who make disciples. Churches will emerge naturally from that work, and when they do, they will be built on a much stronger foundation.

To answer that question, I first need to explain our cultural context.

Our basic strategy is quite simple: identify a person’s primary point of engagement with the Gospel: identity, purpose, belonging, or morality. From that point of engagement, we invite them to take the next step that will help them continue exploring who Jesus is.

But, first…

Understanding the Context

We live in a highly pluralistic society in Canada, where diversity of beliefs is the norm. However, talk of pluralism can be confusing, as it is often misunderstood to mean that everyone has a completely syncretistic set of beliefs or lacks core convictions.

Canada—particularly the Toronto area—is one of the most diverse regions in the world. The reality on the ground is much more complex. When we engage in evangelism with strangers, we regularly encounter both devout and cultural believers who are Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Baha’i, Buddhist, and Jewish. These committed (or not-so-committed) believers are also accompanied by a substantial proportion of the three “A”s: atheist, apathetic, and agnostic.

To further complicate matters, Canada is a nation of immigrants, which means people’s religious affiliations are often closely tied to their family or national origins.

Allow me to illustrate.

A few days ago, I was doing evangelism by myself. We were only a group of three at the time, so I opted to go out solo. During that time, I had meaningful conversations with an apathetic atheist who had no religious convictions at all, a cultural Catholic who had never seriously thought about his faith, and an ex-Buddhist who had spiritually encountered Jesus. All three were first-year students at our local university.

Herein lies the challenge with evangelism: there are no silver bullets or solutions that work universally for everyone.

For this reason, although we have used Gospel-sharing tools, we have not overleveraged them. Almost every Gospel-sharing tool I have encountered assumes some form of shared moral framework.

With all of that said, this is how we are practically engaging in evangelism.

Our Primary Strategy: Spirituality Surveys

Our primary strategy is to engage strangers in conversations about faith.

We do this by approaching people, explaining that we are from a church, and asking if they would be willing to share their perspectives on faith and spirituality.

The conversation typically starts with basic biographical questions before gradually focusing on their worldview or approach to faith. Our hope is to maintain a genuine listening posture so that the Holy Spirit can guide us in understanding how best to speak to their core needs.

At some point, we will often ask whether they have ever heard the Gospel. Surprisingly, the answer is usually no, which naturally gives us an opportunity to share a contextualized version of the Gospel based on what they have already told us.

The goal of these conversations is to extend an invitation to a next step that will help them continue exploring faith. It may be an invitation to a church gathering, Bible study, social event, or whatever seems most helpful in their particular situation. We call these next steps “pocket invites.”

In more mono-cultural or nominally Christian contexts, this strategy can be remarkably effective. In our experience, roughly one in ten conversations results in a substantial next step.

Secondary Strategies

These secondary strategies are often paired with spirituality surveys as natural next steps.

Large Public Events

We will often invite a speaker to address a topic of interest to a particular audience.

Over the years, we have hosted science-and-faith lectures, philosophy lectures, debates with Muslims or atheists, and a variety of formats in between.

The goal of these events is simply to engage interested people and connect with them afterward, where we can invite them into a Bible study or further conversation.

Social Activities

We recognize that many people are deeply in need of meaningful social connections.

For that reason, we regularly organize game nights and other social gatherings that allow people to connect with us in a non-threatening environment. This is particularly helpful for people who have preconceived notions about Christians or Christianity.

International Student Dinners

We regularly host free dinners for international students at Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter. These meals typically include a short Gospel presentation.

I’m pretty sure everyone who works with international students does some version of this!

Marketing

Thankfully, we live in a part of the world where we can freely promote what we are doing through social media, advertisements, and posters.

All of these channels have some value in helping us connect with people who would not otherwise encounter our community.

Intentional Presence

A surprising number of people explore faith simply because our larger gatherings take place in public venues where others can hear our singing, teaching, and conversations.

We often choose locations that allow passersby to naturally interact with us.

The Key Idea

These tactics are just tools.

They are backed by two basic principles:

1. Make sure we share the Gospel

I have often observed Christians doing genuinely kind things for people while never actually sharing the good news of Jesus’ resurrection and the gift of new life in Him.

2. Consistency matters more than strategy.

Showing up again and again, with as many people as possible, is where the fruit comes from.

When we keep these two principles in mind, evangelism becomes a lot of fun—and can be adapted to virtually any personality.

Honest question: What are you doing for evangelism in your community?

Working at the intersection of technology and following Jesus for quite some time, I’ve watched the development of general-purpose AI models, LLMs, over the last few years with more than a passing interest. Our company, Engage Spaces, is actively investing in AI tooling and many of our disciples work either directly on LLMs or in related software industries.

So, when I finally sat down to write some theological and discipleship guidelines for AI use in the context of the church, it felt very overdue.

How should we as Christians think about AI and technology as a whole, and how do we integrate it, or not, into our discipleship rhythms? What follows are a few general principles, followed by a simple grid for usage:

1. Humans Uniquely Bear the Image of God

In a purely mechanistic worldview, where value is often determined by capability, human value is under threat from AI superintelligence. In many ways, AI systems already surpass us in certain forms of reasoning, and that is likely only to grow. If human value is tied to output, then we perhaps have something to be concerned about.

However, the Biblical view on the value of humanity is disconnected from our productivity.

Genesis 2:7
“Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.”

It is the image of God in us that sets humans apart, and as image-bearers, we carry a reflection of God’s creativity and life. Consequently, our value is not tied to our intellectual capacity, speed or productivity. Our value is innate and immutable.

But our value is not under threat, and our productivity is designed to flow out of a relationship with God, not merely the requirement to produce to survive. We are not merely information processors or complex mathematical systems; we are co-labourers with God, carrying His creative breath within us.

2. We Were Made for Real Relationships

AI large-language models can mimic human relationships with an incredible, and sometimes scary, amount of accuracy. However, we should be cautious about the way technology impacts our relationships.

In my 20+ years in the tech industry, I have been almost universally negative about the impact of social media. Social media substantially distorts our relationship and, I believe, has substantially increased our sense of isolation and loneliness in many cases.

Genesis 2:18

“Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper corresponding to him.’”

Humans are uniquely designed for authentic, embodied relationships—integrating the physical, spiritual, and emotional dimensions of life. However, over the past century, we have shifted from high-quality, embodied relationships toward lower-quality, disembodied experiences.

In The Anxious Generation, sociologist Jonathan Haidt argues that relationships flourish when they are:

• Synchronous: We must listen before speaking; only one conversation happens at a time

• Embodied: We are physically present with one another

As we move away from embodied, synchronous relationships, the depth and quality of our friendships erode.

This is the context in which we must evaluate AI.

Because AI can mimic human relational dynamics through language. It can feel personal, responsive and even “authentic.” But this is an illusion. AI is designed to keep us engaged. It will often tell you what it thinks you want to hear, based on your past input.

Because of this:

• AI is, in many ways, the most disembodied and anonymous form of interaction

• AI can subtly replace real relational engagement, which eliminates the need for vulnerability and authenticity on our behalf.

All meaningful and valuable relationships require risk on our part. Through an investment of embodied conversations, investment of time and vulnerability, we form genuine relationships. But AI conventions are neither embodied nor patient, nor do they require vulnerability.

Therefore, we should not use it to meet or supplement our relational needs.

3. There Is Meaning in Struggle

Not all struggle is bad. In fact, our patient, often toilsome, effort is essential to discovering and deriving meaning. However, AI promises to speed up our work so much so under the promise of being faster, easier, that we potentially rob ourselves of value.

As Christians, we believe we were created for work, and that hard work is valuable in and of itself. Work is not a curse to be avoided at all costs. Yet culturally, we are constantly seeking more comfortable solutions that minimize the effort while maximizing the output.

Genesis 2:19

“The Lord God formed out of the ground every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and brought each to the man to see what he would call it. And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.”

The danger is that our pursuit of convenience robs us of meaning.

Technology that was meant to connect us has often made us lonelier. Technology that was meant to make life easier made it feel more meaningless

God is not primarily interested in what we know or even what we produce. He is concerned with who we are becoming as a result of our work.

It’s not just about the means; the process matters. The way knowledge is gained or the way goods are produced shapes the heart.

Practical Guidelines

We have a few guidelines below for recommended AI usage. However, I offer these with substantial reservations and may change in the future. For example, when Instagram was first released, I was skeptical, then mildly supportive and now wholeheartedly opposed to it. I may take a similar path with AI, but I believe more time is needed to evaluate.

Using AI is like driving through a busy city. Being attentive and thoughtful can help you reach your destination. But you cannot switch to autopilot. You must stay aware of both your surroundings and yourself.

🟢 Green Light (Use with Wisdom)

• Research and synthesis

• Grammar and writing clarity

• Coding support

• Comparative feedback

• Other tasks where automation

🟡 Yellow Light (Use with Caution)

• Increasing efficiency in professional work, so long as it doesn’t disrupt our personal development.

• Ask yourself:

  • Is this assisting or replacing my thinking?

  • Am I turning to AI impulsively?

  • Am I treating this as a source of truth or just a source of information?

• Consider the long-term cost of over-reliance

🔴 Red Light (Never use)

• Letting AI think for you

• Using AI for personal devotions or prayer

• Replacing in-person interactions with AI

• Discernment, counselling or advice

• Cheating or shortcutting meaningful work

• Engaging with sexual content

I taught on this topic to our church members recently. You can catch the full teaching here:

As a quick reminder: this is a point-in-time snapshot of a subset of our students. We surveyed about 250 people who were present on a single Sunday.

1. Evangelism works… with non-believers.

When asking those who did not grow up in the church, we found that 61% were connected to our church through either a marketing initiative or overt evangelism. That’s huge! There can be a lot of emphasis on reaching friends or coworkers with the Gospel — and we need that! But this data shows that a substantial portion of people who are open to faith are being connected through intentional outreach efforts, probably because they didn’t already have a believer inviting them.

Key Learning: It is important to talk to find creative ways to reach outside of our existing social networks and provide a pathway to connect them to church life.

2. Nominal Christianity is a challenge

One of the criteria we assessed was whether or not a student grew up in the church. A particularly interesting category was those who were nominal or cultural Christians. Think “Christmas and Easter” Christians.

If you compare this chart with the previous chart, you will notice the outsized role that relationships play in engaging them in Spiritual life.

Friends are almost 2x more effective, while evangelism and marketing are only 50% as effective. In other words, it is the influence of a trusted voice that will engage these students in their faith.

Interestingly, family plays almost no role at all. If a teenager is raised in a home where church is not a priority, they are more difficult to reach at university, as our existing outreach methods are not as effective.

When starting a new church and not having a peer network to tap into, reaching these students becomes much more challenging.

Key Learning: Students need to be exposed to a vibrant faith that places Lordship of Jesus and participating in Church life as a priority if they are going to eagerly engage in church post-high school.

3. Christian students are reached the same way as non-Christians

Looking at students who were raised in regularly attending churches, we can see that the breakdown of how they were reached is remarkably similar to that of non-Christians, except that family referrals play a more substantial role.

We can clearly see that friends are a dominant source of influence and that a mix of marketing and evangelism efforts plays a role in connecting them to church life.

This clearly shows that our outreach strategies are less about looking for a silver bullet and more about a diversified approach. A plurality of strategies are required to reach a diverse and dynamic campus.

Key Learning: If we focus on effective outreach to non-Christians, we will also engage Christian students!

4. Daily Devos are awesome

I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again: our daily devotions are the single greatest discipleship tool that we have.

We have a synchronized rhythm of reading scripture together as a church family, with the entire church studying the same passage every day. We then integrate that passage of scripture into our preaching, Bible study and other rhythms.

As you can see, even for newcomers, this rhythm results in regular scripture study, averaging 3 days a week. By the end of 4 years, or an undergraduate degree, the average person is reading scripture 5 days a week! Praise God.

I cannot think of a better gift to give someone in their 20s than a well-established habit of time in the Word.

Key Learning: Making scripture study in community a priority results in people studying scripture in community!

5. As devos go, so do tithing and social media

The question is, are we seeing fruitful discipleship habits formed in our disciples as they study scripture? Two of the metrics we assessed were tithing and social media use.

Tithing is a notoriously difficult discipleship principle to instill in young people, so we see it as a helpful metric of our discipleship efficacy.

The following chart shows that as students engage over time, they are learning to tithe towards their local church.

The negative effects of social media use are well documented (see Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation, for example). We would hope to see a reduction in social media use as students engage in an embodied, authentic community of Jesus followers.

The following chart shows the reduction of social media use per day in hours over time between our first years and our upper years. With our upper years using 33% less than upper years. Personally, I’d like to see this lower, but it’s still a great indicator.

Key Learning: All of these habits (devos, tithing and social media use) are cultivated slowly and over time. With consistent communication within an integrated faith community, strong, healthy habits can be formed. However, it takes several years of consistent work to see the fruit come.

6. Mental physical and spritual health are connected

We were particularly interested in the connection between mental, spiritual and physical health within our people. Given that we are embodied creatures with mental, physical, and spiritual components to our being, we expected that an improved or worsened condition in one area would correlate with similar changes in the other areas.

That is exactly what the data shows. If a student is struggling physically, then they are more likely to be struggling mentally or spiritually.

Key Learning: We are integrated humans, and we need to attend to all parts of our being as Christians, not just the spiritual dimension.

This is the beginning

This research is tremendously encouraging as it validates that the work we have done in wrestling with obedience to the scriptures in evangelism and discipleship is bearing fruit.

This was the first time that we conducted this study. There are many more dimensions we wish to explore, but they require multiple years of data to conduct comparative analysis.

We hope to do this again at the end of this year and will report back on those findings!

Note: I am indebted to the brilliant Jaden Kropf (PhD Candidate, University of Toronto) for bringing his expertise in survey design and data analysis to this work. I am also thankful to the tireless efforts of Tarrah Martin on our operations team, who coordinated the survey! Thank you to both of you!