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!

That data was then compiled and analyzed to try to answer a few questions:

1. Who is here / what is our demographic makeup?

2. How did they get here / is evangelism working?

3. Are people being discipled effectively?

4. What habits make up our students’ lives?

It turns out we generated a treasure trove of information about what is working and what is not working in our engagement with Gen-Z. While the findings are obviously specific to our context, there is good reason to believe the data would be relevant to any context working with the next generation.

1. The campus is global, so is the church.

Of the responses, more than 35% were not native to Canada. 35 nationalities and 26 languages were represented. Given that the sample size was less than 250, that is remarkable. If we were to conduct a comprehensive survey of everyone involved, we expect the numbers to be much higher still.

Key Learning: Engagement on university campuses must take into account the global context. We are not a mono-cultural context. For Canadians on campus, this is a bit of a “duh” moment.

2. Reaching the Humanities is a Challenge

I’ve spoken in many contexts about the popular myth that science threatens people’s faith. In our experience, it is science and engineering students who are the most open to faith. On the other hand, the humanities remain very difficult to build inroads in many cases.

Looking at a single campus, McMaster University: The first chart shows the breakdown of the entire student population at McMaster.

This second chart shows the representation of students as reported by our survey. It shows that we reach roughly proportional numbers of students in each faculty (science, engineering, health sciences), but have very little penetration in the humanities (1% at LIFT vs 7% at McMaster).

The situation is not quite as dire across our entire movement, but it does illustrate the ideological challenges of reaching students in the humanities. Our interpretation of this trend is that the ideological capture of the humanities and the more overt anti-Christian bias make it more difficult to reach humanities students.

Key Learning: The church needs to strengthen its apologetic for the post-Christian, critical-theory-framed worldview within the humanities.

3. Newer Students are Less Churched

Of those who responded, 37% reported not having grown up regularly attending church. That number has consistently increased over the last 3 years. Note the first two columns in each year below:

This is a very encouraging trend! It could mean a few things:

1. Younger students are more open to Christianity

2. Or our evangelism efforts are working

Key Learning: We are potentially in a cultural moment of greater openness to the Gospel!

4. Students Love Evangelism

We found that 74% of our students are engaged in overt evangelism. Primarily through our monthly “everyone talk to strangers about Jesus” weeks. We started several years ago as a way to get everyone that’s connected to our church engaged in evangelism activities. We found that by specifying when/where do evangelism it reduced barriers it and enabled people to easily jump into engaging in evangelism for the first time.

While it has been incredibly encouraging that many students are engaged in evangelism, that was not particularly surprising. We were, however, surprised at how overwhelmingly positive they were about it. The most common feedback we received in the free-text responses was gratitude for the way we are encouraging and equipping them for evangelism.

Key Learning: This generation is willing and eager to tell people about Jesus — they just need someone to encourage and help them to do it!

4. Those who evangelize are 5x more likely to have a non-Christian attend Bible Studies

It is not just amazing that many students are engaged in evangelism. It’s better than that. Those who participate in evangelism are five times more likely to have a non-believer regularly studying scripture with them.

There are two ways to understand this finding. The first is that when people engage in evangelism, they are effectively inviting others to study scripture.

The second option is that evangelism doesn’t directly result in people coming to Bible study, but it causes the people in the Bible study to be more broadly open and intentional about integrating non-believers into their faith rhythms.

Our sense is that it is likely a combination of the two. However, both of these are very good news!

Key Learning: Evangelism works! by reaching people, but also in forming Christians to be more effective at integrating non-believers.

Conclusions

I hope you are as encouraged as I am about these results! They are incredibly encouraging about the effectiveness and importance of intercultural engagement as well as evangelistic priority in this generation.

Next week, I will unpack the mechanisms of fruitful evangelism as well as discipleship fruitfulness. Make sure to subscribe to receive that article.

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!

We then compiled and analyzed the data to help answer a few key questions:

1. Who is here—what is our demographic makeup?

2. How did they get here—is our evangelism effective?

3. Are people being discipled in meaningful and transformative ways?

The implications for campus ministry and reaching the next generation are profound.

What we discovered was a treasure trove of insight.

In this video, Jaden Kropf and I share the findings from the research and engage in a Q&A on what it means for reaching the campus more effectively.

In the coming weeks, I will share a deeper analysis of the data and its implications for ministry. Make sure to subscribe so you gain access to those posts!

I’m especially grateful to Tarrah Martin, who coordinated the project, and to Jaden Kropf, who brought his research expertise to make this possible.

Our team had been experimenting with how to plant churches on university campuses that were evangelistic first, discipleship-oriented, cost-efficient, and failure-tolerant. We wanted models that did not require an unending and ever-growing stream of finance, and where we did not need a 100 percent success rate to be considered fruitful. Sometimes it would not work, and that had to be okay.

We explored all sorts of ideas. Many of them were truly terrible, and I am glad they remained conceptual.

At a high level, we wanted to shift to a more bi-vocational and simpler approach to starting campuses, but it was difficult to implement those changes without creating confusion in our existing church.

A Question That Became Reality

In mid-2018, we began designing a church strategy around a simple question: What if we could not gather on campus? This question was driven by the changing culture around us and a real sense that the question was more of a “when” question, not just “if.”

Even though we were in a sense planning for the worst from a culture shift perspective, we had no idea how prophetic that question would be and how the answers we had begun to come up with would equip us to navigate 2020.

The COVID era gave us the exact circumstance we had been brainstorming about for two years. We were unable to gather in any formal sense on any of our campuses. Rather than doubling down on a modified version of the existing paradigm through livestreaming, though we did that as well, we were able to test our ideas about multiplying evangelistic first, discipleship-oriented, cost-efficient, and failure-tolerant churches.

As a result, much of who we are today was shaped during that season of widespread global lockdown. In short, the crisis became an opportunity to rethink what we were doing.

Seeing Crisis as Creative Opportunity

I try to look at major challenges, especially those outside of our control, as creative opportunities. They invite us to question our assumptions and explore new options.

If we can learn to embrace the never-ending stream of challenges as creative opportunities, we can unlock a great deal of ministry potential. As a bonus, we may even find more joy in navigating a changing context.

Why is that?

Crisis Reshapes Our Plausibility Structures

I first encountered the idea of plausibility structures through Lesslie Newbigin. It refers to the underlying assumptions about what is possible in our world. For example, my plausibility structure includes the supernatural, while an atheist’s would not.

In a church leadership context, when significant challenges come, the Holy Spirit may use them to expose where we have attached ourselves to assumptions about how things must be that are not actually essential.

We should not discard the hard-earned traditions we have received too quickly. But crises can help us distill what is truly vital and what we must hold on to.

Crisis Unlocks Our Missional Imagination

If crises help us clarify what is essential, it also creates space for imagination and innovation.

As an engineer by training, I learned that every project has constraints. There are limitations, requirements, and scenarios we must work within to achieve a goal. Great engineers thrive by creatively designing solutions within those constraints.

The challenge comes when we grow accustomed to solving problems with the same constraints over and over again. Creativity begins to diminish. But when the constraints change drastically, we are forced to think differently.

The same is true in ministry. We always operate within constraints, and a crisis represents a sudden shift in those constraints. It forces us to look at the problem in an entirely new way.

The beauty of the church is that we operate within a defined plausibility structure, anchored in the sovereignty of God and the beauty of the gospel. Within that, we are invited to be deeply creative.

Crisis may be one of the primary ways the Lord expands our missional imagination.

Crisis Exposes My Lack of Faith

Jesus promised that he would build his church.

My tendency toward panic, anxiety, or fear does not reflect his heart. More often, it reflects my desire for control and the absence of faith. When a crisis goes unaddressed in my heart, it can surface as fear, anger, or even panic.

None of those responses are godly or desirable.

I often return to the prayer, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”

In many ways, crisis becomes an invitation for me as a leader to deepen my intimacy with Jesus and grow in trust.

There Is No Crisis

Jesus is never surprised.

He is building his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

That simple truth may be all we need to respond with a quiet confidence:

“Well, this is interesting, Lord. What are you doing? It is your church. You build it.”

Despite the situation being somewhat outside of his control, he was confident that the Lord would use it for his good and would ultimately build his church. His courage in the face of loss was remarkable.

The Weight of Many Goodbyes

We have said many goodbyes as a church over the last year. Some of those are because we have sent church planters to new, far-away cities. Others, like the brother I mentioned, are circumstances outside our control.

Layered into the grief that comes from sending leaders is another annual rhythm. Every April, at the end of the academic calendar, many of our students graduate and move on to new adventures. While some choose to stay invested in our church, many continue on.

In total, Laura and I have said goodbye to many thousands of people over the years. Many bittersweet goodbyes, and some, if I’m honest, just bitter. Flowing from this, a very real prayer of mine every April is that the Lord would help my heart stay tender despite the underlying sadness of saying goodbye to dear friends.

Saying goodbye, even when it is faith-filled and healthy, is painful.

An Eternal Frame

I was reflecting on Romans 8 this week in the context of this kind of grief, specifically the section at the end of the chapter that reminds us that neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That means that distance cannot separate us from the love of Christ. Though a brother or sister may be physically far away, if they are in Christ and I am in Christ, then from an eternal perspective, we are not that far apart.

Maybe this feels too abstract theologically, but for me, it is very practical. So much of life on mission, church planting, and disciple-making only makes sense if we have an eternal frame.

What an Eternal Frame Produces

An eternal frame helps us persevere in loss. One day, we will be reconciled to one another.

An eternal frame helps us get up and keep going when we face setbacks. One day, every knee will bow, even if, right now, it feels like none will.

An eternal frame reminds us to keep counting the cost of following Jesus. Relative to what we gain in the riches of Christ, the price we pay is inconsequential. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (2 Cor 4:17).

An eternal frame helps me release control. I am not the builder of the church; Jesus is.

Cultivating an Eternal Frame

Church history

By studying the church’s faithfulness throughout history, I am reminded that I am part of a much larger story. One that began long before me and will continue long after me. There are few ailments that a foray into church history cannot speak to. Right now, I am reading Water from a Deep Well, which surveys Christianity from the first martyrs onward. Although the content is not new to me, it is encouraging and refreshing to revisit the stories of the saints who have gone before.

Cherish the present

When faced with loss, it is tempting to harden my heart and simply push through. But the grief is healthy and is best shared with others. By choosing to embrace the loss with those around us, especially others on our leadership team, we bear it together and strengthen one another. Vulnerability as a leader can be tricky, but when we learn to strengthen each other, we can point one another toward a hopeful future centred on Christ.

Intimacy with Jesus

As time goes on, my daily time in Scripture, as part of our devotions, feels like the most important component in keeping my heart healthy and my perspective aligned. There is no substitute for personal time in Scripture to shape our lives around what is eternal rather than what is immediate.

This decade has brought some of the most disorienting experiences in generations. It began with a global shutdown caused by the pandemic. That pandemic triggered the largest cash stimulus in history, roughly $15 trillion globally, and has been followed by a turbulent economic reality, especially for young people. Inflation has surged, housing has become increasingly inaccessible, and the job market feels unpredictable at best.

Layered on top of this is the rise of the AI age, reshaping everything from industry to the nature of relationships. As if that were not enough, we are now trying to make sense of multiple military conflicts involving major world powers, along with the resulting uncertainty around energy supply and even the stability of democratic systems that underpin our societies.

On a global scale, it is a wild time. No doubt.

In Canada, Christians are nervously watching the evolving legal context for proclaiming the Gospel, which is under very real threat.

So what do we do as Christians? How do we think as church planters and missiologists?

Do we get political? Do we despair and grieve? What do we do?

We place our hope in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Only Message That Endures

After speaking with thousands of people through relational evangelism, I am convinced that the Gospel is the only answer that sustains through the ever-changing forces of culture. Only the Gospel reconciles us to God, to ourselves, and to one another. Only the Gospel gives us a durable hope for the future.

In our evangelistic conversations, we encounter a wide range of responses. Many people are not asking deep metaphysical questions. They are simply trying to get by. Others are passionate activists, seeking to repair the world through their chosen framework. Still others are deeply committed to other faiths, convinced they have found the way to life.

Whether it is the disconnected survivalist, the engaged activist, or the religious zealot, every person is trying to make sense of the world. And even though our social, economic, and professional realities are shifting at a rapid pace, the fundamental questions remain unchanged.

Who am I?

Where do I belong?

What is my purpose?

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Why Our Strategy Must Remain the Same

This is why our primary hope and strategy must remain rooted in the Gospel. It is the unchanging good news for a world constantly searching for answers.

Our focus must be on forming people with Gospel clarity and deep scriptural foundations, far more than chasing popular topics, offering life advice, or reacting to the latest news cycle.

Relevance is a mirage. The more we chase it, the further it seems to move away.

Instead, we anchor ourselves in what does not change.

Five Anchors for Disciple-Makers

Here are a few foundational practices that can ground us personally and communally as disciple-makers:

Cultivate Gospel clarity

Help people understand emotionally, intellectually, and practically, the significance of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The Gospel is not a message we move on from. It is the message we return to every day.

Prioritize Scripture formation

The Gospel is not an abstract idea. It is rooted in the testimony of Scripture. As we learn the heart of God through His Word, we are formed into His likeness.

Emphasize the Lordship of Jesus

Jesus is Lord. He is sovereign over this world, which means we can trust Him. It also means we are called to submit to Him. We may not be able to change the world, but we can allow Christ to change our world by changing us.

Prepare people for suffering

We are not naturally inclined to accept suffering, yet even a surface reading of the New Testament makes it clear that hardship is part of the Christian life. We do not need to fear the future. We can embrace it, trusting that Jesus will give us the strength to endure and ultimately bring justice.

Provide context

When we place our current challenges within both historical and global perspectives, we gain perspective. Our brothers and sisters throughout history have demonstrated courage, faith, and resilience in far more uncertain conditions.

Do Not Despair

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

So do not despair, friends. Place your hope in our God who saves.

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

1 Corinthians 10:13

I also plan to share some of the findings in future posts. Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss anything.

A Different Path into Ministry

For the first 12 years of serving with our church, six of which were as Lead Pastor, I had full-time obligations in the professional world. When we were working on planting our fifth campus, and with a very specific sense of calling, I walked away from my professional career.

In the years of serving co-vocationally, many of my experiences with vocational pastors were discouraging. Generally, fellow pastors would respond to the co-vocational nature of our ministry with one of two critiques.

First, they would suggest that if I were a person of faith, I should trust God for provision through the ministry. Second, I would often hear that I was destined for burnout.

Both of these critiques were missing something.

Rethinking Faith and Provision

The source of one’s paycheck has little to do with faithfulness. Paul makes the case that the opposite can actually be true in Acts 20:34–35. Sometimes, our faithful obedience requires that we work with our hands to provide for ourselves.

The simple reality is that for many people in ministry, the financial burden is a tremendous weight. While some may be called to trust the Lord for provision through a full ministry salary, is it not possible that the means of provision could come through professional work?

Both require faith. It takes faith to see the Lord provide financially through ministry. It also takes faith to trust that the Lord will sustain us in co-vocational work.

The Real Source of Burnout

This leads naturally to the second critique of burnout.

Ministry is impossible in our own strength. Regardless of where our income comes from, the work of making disciples is simply too demanding to sustain for the long haul on our own.

Over the years, I have become convinced that burnout does not arise from too much work or from juggling many demands. Burnout is a product of labouring without the ongoing empowering of the Holy Spirit (Philippians 4:13).

In working with almost 100 co-vocational missionaries every day, I have the joy of witnessing how the Holy Spirit sustains, strengthens, and encourages us to continue serving faithfully, even when life is demanding, discouraging, or difficult.

So how do we sustain ministry for the long haul while juggling jobs, disciples, family life, and everything else?

1. Reliance on the Holy Spirit

I’ve already said this, but it bears repeating. We need God’s help. We need the strengthening of the Holy Spirit.

I am thankful for the physical and emotional hardships of ministry life because they have taught me to rely on His Spirit when I am weak. And since I am often weak, I need His Spirit every day to strengthen me for the work of making disciples.

We must not forget that everything we do in ministry is supernaturally enabled. Talk of strategy, tactics, and forms is useful only if we have first surrendered our lives at Jesus’ feet and asked Him to help us.

2. Integration

We cannot sustain ministry if our lives are scattered. If the components of our lives are streams of running water, they must all flow into the same river.

The ideas we teach, such as intentional proximity, open homes, and covenant relationships, are not just ministry strategies. They are part of the essential structure of a life that is sustainable in mission.

Integration means we can naturally incorporate ministry into our day-to-day lives. If I have to drive an hour to meet my disciples, it becomes a burden. If they are already in and around my home, it becomes natural.

Integration also means we have friendship and support around us.

3. Simplicity

As we move through life, we accumulate things that eventually weigh us down. This makes it difficult to remain flexible and responsive to ministry opportunities.

Simplicity means attending to the basics: eating, sleeping, exercising, and resting.

To create space for these, we need to practice the art of saying no.

Generally speaking, if a “yes” will detract from ministry responsibilities or undermine long-term health, then it is likely a “no.”

At the time, we were in the midst of a fairly intensive season of formation as a church. Driving that formation was a simple goal: to see everyone in our church equipped and empowered for disciple-making.

If you boil down most of my thinking on church life, church planting, and mission, much of it centres on a single question: are all believers called to ministry?

In almost every church context, people would agree on the universal call of believers to some kind of ministry focus. There is a general consensus that all Christians ought to contribute to the Kingdom of Jesus. However, if the answer is yes, then two follow-up questions become equally important.

First, is the local church the best place to engage in disciple-making ministry? Second, how do we as a local church ensure that we are faithfully providing the means by which all believers can be trained and equipped for ministry?

Disciple-Making Belongs in the Local Church

With respect to the first question, disciple-making is the domain of the church. We were not commanded to plant churches by Jesus. We were commanded to announce the gospel and make disciples. When we are faithful to evangelism and discipleship, the result is church planting.

Alternatively, when discipleship is disconnected from the local church, we end up with confusion. Either our discipleship becomes unclear, or our ecclesiology does, because discipleship is not naturally flowing into the life of the church and its covenant relationships.

The logic then follows like this: because every believer has a mandate to make disciples, and because disciple-making best happens in the local church, the local church has a responsibility to ensure that every person is maturing toward fruitful disciple-making ministry.

Engaging Everyone

As a baseline, it is the responsibility of church leaders to work how to engage everyone in mission. It is with this basic principle in mind that we have worked out the “everyone” value.

Everyone serves

This is our starting assumption: being and making disciples is intimately connected with serving others.

Consequently, it is our hope that every person connected to our church will intentionally seek out opportunities to serve others alongside their church family. If every person is regularly serving both the church and the wider community, the soil for ministry becomes rich.

Everyone experiences discipleship

Everyone needs to be in intentional contexts where they can experience the joy of life-on-life discipleship in an accountable way.

At LIFT, we use our Simple Churches toward this end. Every person is integrated into a smaller family of disciples that intentionally engages non-believers. This provides the practical context to be discipled while also engaging in evangelism.

Everyone disciples

Because everyone is in discipleship relationships, it is only natural that, over time, everyone is empowered to reproduce disciples themselves.

The vast majority of our energy is given to this challenge: how do we ensure that we are providing discipleship opportunities that are appropriate for each person’s stage of maturity?

Keeping It Simple

All of these implications of the “everyone” value require support systems, processes, and deep relational commitment.

When I try to explain what we are doing as a church, I often make the mistake of getting lost in the details. There are many moving parts and tools that we have developed. But underneath it all is a simple assumption and objective:

We are all called to make disciples. So, we lead in such a way to equip the saints in our church so that all of them can flourish in that pursuit.

One of the most common forms we can become attached to is the particular size of a gathering or community. Should we start house churches or aim for large format gatherings? Is one more biblical than another? Is the size or location of a gathering really the most useful or relevant question to ask?

The size or form of a church gathering is not a helpful starting point. From a fair reading of the Scriptures, it seems clear that the church gathered in both large and small spaces, in public and private settings.

Different Group Sizes Serve Different Purposes

Social psychologists have talked about this for years: Different sized groups accomplish different purposes.

• 2–4 people is the intimate space (think life on life discipleship).

• 5–12 people is the personal space (think house church).

• 20–50 people is the social space (think fun events and community connection).

• 50+ people is the public space (think large format gatherings).

All of them are scriptural, helpful, and necessary for cultivating a healthy community.

This framework is helpful because it suggests that a healthy church will need ways to engage all four spaces of belonging. The objective in church planting is not the size or format of the group, because different group sizes serve different purposes. The goal is to make disciples who make disciples.

When Form Replaces Mission

However, in many church-planting contexts, the commitment is to the form rather than the mission.

For example, we might commit to “launching gatherings” or “starting a house church.” Both approaches suffer from the same pitfall of a form-first approach to church planting. Rather than starting with the question, “Who can we reach with the gospel who has not yet heard it?”, both begin with a commitment to a particular structure.

If our goal is to launch large-format gatherings and reach financial sustainability as quickly as possible, we will likely need to grow through transfers from other churches.

On the other hand, if our goal is to start house churches, we can quickly end up with insular communities that are detached from the larger body and struggle to discover a clear raison d’être.

Starting With the Right Goal

I would suggest that every church plant should begin with the objective of making disciples who make disciples.

While there is scriptural precedent for rapid growth, that growth often occurred in cultural contexts where people were already familiar with Judaism or spirituality. In the post-post-Christian West, evangelism is often a much slower process. In our experience, it typically takes about a year for someone who is exploring Christianity to accept the gospel from the point they first engage with a Christian.

The real question becomes this: how do we stay focused on the mission without letting the form drive the agenda?

Four Practices That Keep the Mission Central

1. Cultivate Patience

Rather than viewing church planting on three to five-year time horizons, we would often be better served by extending the timeline to at least ten years. Church planting, disciple-making, and evangelism often require a great deal of patience and resilience. This is especially true in contexts with little history of gospel penetration.

2. Find and Engage Non-Christians

In my context, Canada, there are certainly many Christians, but our society is so fragmented that Christians do not naturally rub shoulders with non-Christians.

We need to identify places where there is no faithful Christian witness and determine ways to be present among those people. If we have a clearly articulated people group to whom we are sent, it becomes much easier to remain faithful to that mission.

3. Remove Financial Pressure

The financial pressure for most church plants to succeed can have a corrupting influence on the mission.

If the ability to pay tomorrow’s bills requires the church to grow, it becomes very tempting to begin seeking out existing Christians who can contribute financially.

This is one reason why bi vocational church planting can be so advantageous. It allows planters to remove the pressure to grow quickly and instead grow at the pace of their capacity to reach people with the gospel and disciple them.

4. Focus on Evangelism

Ideally, church planting would not rely on transfer growth but would instead consist of net new people entering the kingdom of Jesus.

That means from the very beginning, our church planting efforts should focus on building relationships with people who do not know Jesus and inviting them to discover life in him.

Holding Form Loosely

You will notice that none of these suggestions assumes a particular form.

There is space for many different expressions of church. The key is making sure the mission remains central as we plant healthy churches that make disciples who make disciples.

Innovation occurs when we work within a defined set of boundaries that compel us to find creative solutions to challenges. Deconstruction is the discarding of boundaries in an attempt to address deficits in the existing forms. Innovation is healthy and helpful, whereas deconstruction often results in jettisoning foundational ideas that are necessary and can easily give way to cynicism.

It is important that we can ask questions, challenge assumptions and open the door to new possibilities. But we don’t need to tear down what has been built over the previous 2000 years to do so. Instead, we should build upon those foundations.

When innovation within church life happens within the guardrails of Christian orthodoxy, the church can flourish in virtually any context and take on almost any form without drifting from the core fundamentals.

Seven Non-Negotiable Guardrails

We have seven guardrails that provide an environment that allows for innovation based on context. It’s worth noting that these are not doctrinal guardrails (we need those, too). Rather, they are existential guardrails that help us remember what we are trying to do in the first place. Additionally, the underlying assumption behind each of these non-negotiable guardrails is that scripture is the supreme authority from which we devise all innovation in church life.

Evangelism

Churches have good news about the death and resurrection of Jesus, and we need to proclaim it clearly to as many people as possible. We are about the church sharing and announcing the unimaginably good news of salvation through Christ.

Disciple-making

Churches are not just offering information or events but inviting people to submit the entirety of their lives to the Lordship of Jesus. The mandate to make disciples who make disciples is what sets the church apart from functioning as an insular community or a social services agency.

Reliance

Churches are only possible because of the Holy Spirit’s enabling and Jesus’ grace. We are ultimately participating in something that is a mystery and bigger than any one of us. Any attempt to own or control the entire outcome is to take into our hands what belongs only to the Lord.

Church-Family

Churches are not institutions, organizations or even communities. We are called to participate in the growth of the eternal family of God. As a result, one of the most precious things that churches have is mutuality in relationship as we submit to Jesus.

Radical Generosity

Our posture toward the world must be one of generosity and grace. Power is a temptation that will destroy the soul. We are called to be a humble people who serve each other and the world around us without any expectation of reciprocity.

Sending

We do not just exist for the here and now, but for those who have not heard the Gospel. We are an outward-oriented people, not just an inward-oriented people. A church must exist for more than just what is today.

Everyone

Everyone within a church has a role to play. There can be no mere observers. Every person, from the oldest to the youngest, from the least talented to the most gifted, has a responsibility, obligation and calling to contribute to the mission to make disciples and love the body.

A Simple Definition of Church

From this, our working definition of church is pretty simple: a church is a committed group of disciples. Committed to the scriptures, the Lordship of Jesus, each other as family and the mission to make new disciples.

When you put all this together, there is plenty of space for creativity in form and style.

Can I be honest?

We don’t have a model, and we don’t follow a model.

What we are doing didn’t come from reading books on church-planting strategy and trying to implement a strategy. What we are doing is simply a product of trying to figure out how to plant churches on every campus for the last 20 years.

We have borrowed ideas from all kinds of movements throughout history and across the world. While we do have a way of doing things in our church, I do not think of us as being committed to a particular model or school of thought with respect to methodology.

We plant churches that look like bi-vocationally driven house churches, but we pray that they mature beyond that. We leverage large events, small events, one-to-one discipleship, small-group discipleship, evangelism, large-format preaching, small-format preaching, and just about anything else that will help us make disciples. To quote the apostle Paul, “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.”

Jesus Gave a Mission, Not a Model

Jesus didn’t give his followers a specific model for the church. He gave the church a mission.

Whatever models we find to frame our approach to disciple-making and church planting are merely contextual responses to that mission.

Virtually every movement that has inspired our thinking didn’t start with a model. They started with a mission that was relentlessly pursued over many decades. Yes, there are principles that can be distilled.

We spend a lot of time in church leadership circles trying to distill the strategies of communities that are working into repeatable models that we can train others to use. While there may be some value in that, in most cases I think it makes a grave error. The source of the power is not in the model or the strategy. The form of a church is not where the power lies.

It is easy to copy the form of a church and assume that because the model has been copied, the fruit will follow. This is just not true. There are churches of every size, shape, style, and format that are equally healthy or unhealthy. A church’s effectiveness in making disciples is less likely to be a direct product of the form and more likely to be a product of the mission, vision, values, and relationships that enable that form to function.

With that in mind, here are four places I would focus energy instead of focusing on the form or model of a church.

1. A Clear Mission Is the Starting Point

Broadly speaking, the mission to make disciples of all nations must be central. Disciple-making is one of the core mandates that separates churches from social service agencies.

As churches, we need to focus our mission down to specific people and places at particular times. Rather than fixating on the model to fulfill the mission, I think most churches would be better served by clarifying, with precision, what their mission actually is.

2. Relational Depth Enables Experimentation

Far more important than the forms we use to plant churches are the people we do it with along the way. If our relational roots are deep, we can innovate and experiment to find the particular forms that will help us reach the people God has called us to reach.

3. Values Are More Important Than the Model

Our values form the basis of the non-negotiable principles that allow us to experiment without drifting from our core identity. By having clear values and convictions that are cultural rather than tactical, we can experiment with all kinds of formats and models while remaining coherent and united as a church family.

4. Use Scripture as the Reference Point

Ultimately, Scripture is our reference point for what innovation in the church looks like. Almost every model can point to Scripture to explain why it is the best way. Of course, the inverse is also true. We can quickly claim that different approaches are unbiblical.

Instead of providing a rigid prescription for church life, the Scriptures give us a rich descriptive framework in which to operate. That framework has enabled the church to thrive in almost every culture, tribe, and tongue for 2,000 years.

Praise Jesus. He really is building his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

Conclusion

My hope in this post is to encourage people to focus less on seeking out the silver-bullet model and spend more time thinking about how to faithfully form covenantal relationships rooted in the Scriptures that enable faithful obedience in fulfilling the Great Commission.

Next week, I will unpack some of the non-negotiables we hold as a community that frame our approach to innovation.

The week after that, I will share how we use theories around how the size of social groups creates different approaches to engaging people in disciple-making, and how each has an important role to fill.

As I’ve reflected on them as a couple, it has struck me that many of the themes I often write and teach about have parallels with how scripture speaks about this couple.

I’m convinced it was not their great talent, but their faithful devotion to some foundational principles over the long haul that yielded so much fruit. These are the exact principles we’ve been teaching in our church for years, and I share them as encouragement as we all work to make disciples who make disciples.

Work as a Team

Every time Priscilla and Aquila are mentioned, they are mentioned together. They worked as a team in ministry, business, and life.

Because disciple-making is an all-in activity that affects every part of our lives, who we marry is of huge importance. Without a doubt, the most important team member for most people is the person we marry.

Often, Christians have focused on making sure someone dates and marries “a Christian.” But that’s not a very helpful metric.

The goal should be to find a spouse who deeply loves Jesus and His Church. It’s pretty hard to go wrong if we find a spouse who loves Jesus and loves serving His people.

First Things First

Priscilla and Aquila arrived in Corinth, we can assume, as refugees. I’m sure they could have treated many things as more important than opening their lives to Paul.

But the job they worked and the city they lived in were never the point. The point was always to make disciples and serve the church.

We see this in the way they moved cities multiple times (Rome → Corinth → Ephesus → Rome → Ephesus). There is every indication they continued to serve Christ faithfully in each context.

Keep first things first. Career, vocation, schooling, and even family can end up taking precedence over the mission and purposes of God. By seeking first the kingdom, we can trust that all these other (good!) things will be properly ordered.

Embrace Hospitality

In every place we read about Priscilla and Aquila, they are engaged in ministry in their home — over many years, in many cities. Clearly, they were intentional about opening their lives.

Making disciples is really not that complicated:

Find someone who doesn’t know Jesus that well.

Invite them into your home to study Scripture.

Repeat until you die.

Receive the “well done” from your Father.

For this reason, I genuinely believe the church needs to recover hospitality as a requirement for anyone who wants to serve in church leadership.

Disciple Head and Heart

Priscilla and Aquila intentionally take Apollos aside to help him better understand the implications of the gospel. More specifically, the text indicates he was missing the empowering role of the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1–7 provides the natural explanation for the Apollos interaction in 18:24–28).

Apollos had great knowledge, but it seems he was missing power and lived experience.

In our world — especially with the advent of AI — knowledge is cheap. Authentic experience is priceless.

Discipleship has never been about information transfer. Making disciples is about walking with people so they can know the full power of the gospel themselves through a life-on-life encounter.

Love Your People

Priscilla and Aquila are on the short list of people Paul thanks at the end of his life in 2 Timothy. He specifically thanks them for risking their lives for him.

Perhaps the most radical thing we can do in our cultural moment is choose loyalty. Choosing to love our friends — and keep choosing them over the long haul — is as counter-cultural as it is rare.

Yet we all crave deep, lifelong friendships.

The only way to have lifelong friends is to keep loving the people God has given us — today, tomorrow, and the next day — choosing to walk together in mutual submission to one another.

The Point

In all of these things, it turns out that Priscilla and Aquila simply made disciples the same way Jesus did. Do you notice that every one of these patterns is first modelled by Jesus Himself?

Work as a team.
Keep first things first.
Embrace hospitality.
Disciple head and heart.
Love your people.

Maybe that’s the point. If we want to make disciples of Jesus, we should probably just do what Jesus did.