The Leader’s Dilemma: Are You an Answer Guy or a Discovery Guide?

by: Jeff Meyer

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Recently I was asked a question in an email about an apparent discrepancy in the Bible.

I answered it.

And then I got to thinking:  Instead of answering it, what might have happened if I would have led my friend to some resources and supported him as he searched for the answer himself?

Now, I’m not suggesting that every time someone asks me a question, I should avoid answering it, and put the onus back on them.  However, often as ministry leaders,  we play the role of “answer guy” or “answer girl” and in the process keep people from owning their own journey to discovery.

If our goal is to encourage, empower, and equip missionaries, we need to grow in our ability to discern when to simply answer people, and when to lead them to discover for themselves.

Here are four thoughts to consider as you decide whether you will answer or not:

1)  Adults learn when they have to.

Let our first inclination be that of providing support for people where they show a passion to learn.  Let’s not take the growth that comes in the journey away from them.

Ask:  Is this question I’m being asked a Divine moment full of growth potential, or is it a simple question with little real upside for growth?

2)  People grow as teachers when they put effort into their own learning.

Retention is more probable if I go through the journey myself.

Ask:  Is the person asking me the question likely to share the answer I am about to give with someone else?

3)  To give a simple answer is often easier.

I’m busy.  Sometimes it’s just simpler to give the answer and move on.

Ask:  Am I tempted to give the answer because I need to move on with my day?

4)  If I work harder to find the answer for someone than the one asking the question does, something is wrong.

The way we handle these situations can either reproduce consumeristic dependency or personal ownership.  I realize many leaders in the church today like to be needed.  But, God calls us to make disciples.  This is our missional calling.

Ask:  Is there value for the person who is asking the question to engage in their own learning and discovery?

Tags: Discipleship, Duplication, Jeff Meyer

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Is Discipleship the Totality of All Your Church Does in Ministry?

by: Eric Geiger

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Eric Geiger continues his 2013 Discipleship Interview Series with Trevin Wax below. Trevin serves as the managing editor of The Gospel Project and is a prolific blogger.

Discipleship is such a broad term, often a junk-drawer term that has been used to describe many things. How do you define it?

For a lot of church leaders, discipleship is the follow-up to evangelism. That is, evangelism is entering into the church through faith in the gospel, and then discipleship takes you to the next level. Biblically, I don’t think we can separate the two. Discipleship in the Scriptures is about learning to follow Jesus in light of who He is and what He has done, and then making other disciples who follow Jesus as well. We’re not just called to be “disciples,” but to be “disciple-making disciples.”

There are elements of discipleship that need to be stressed today, as they were stressed in Jesus’ teaching. For example, in many of His parables, the portrait of a disciple is one who joyfully renounces some of the most precious things in this world for the sake of the kingdom – a treasure more precious than anything else. There’s a picture of joyful sacrifice at the heart of discipleship.

We also see a number of examples in the Gospels where discipleship could be defined as “knowing what time it is.” In other words, living on earth as citizens of heaven, looking at the world in light of the coming Day of Judgment and bringing our lives in line with that reality.

How do you articulate the holy tension in God’s role in transformation and the believer’s role?

I don’t believe we should look at transformation as if it were a “tension.” Rather, God is working in us and through us to accomplish His good purposes for us and for the world. It’s not “Let go, and let God,” because the Bible clearly teaches we are to put forth effort in our spiritual growth. And yet, the message isn’t “Just try harder” either, because the Bible clearly teaches that our efforts are Spirit-driven. I think we get off track in this area when we make conceive of Christian obedience more in terms of “life for God” than in terms of “life with God.” Put another way, it’s our life with God that undergirds and empowers anything we do for God. Obedience takes place within the context of relationship.

Do you see distinction between personal discipleship (a believer on his own) and corporate discipleship (a believer does in the community)?

I wouldn’t call it a distinction, but different elements of the same thing. We tend to stress personal discipleship today – the image of a Christian on their knees in private prayer or reading the Bible quietly in the morning. Private prayer and Bible reading are important elements to our growth, of course, but let’s not underestimate the power of growth within the Christian community. Loving one another. bearing with one another. Forgiving one another. Serving one another. Witnessing with one another to the lost. Singing together. Etc. There are many “one-another” passages in the Bible. Growing spiritually means fulfilling those passages. Without the Christian community, how are we able to obey King Jesus in this area?

In your mind, is discipleship one aspect of church ministry or the totality of all a church does?

It is the totality of all a church does. The formation of disciple-making disciples should be at the heart of everything we do. Discipleship is not implementing a program, but imitating the Savior who empowers us by His Spirit to engage others with the gospel.

Read more from Eric here.

Read more from Trevin here.

Tags: Discipleship, Eric Geiger, Multiplication, Trevin Wax

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Spiritual Malnourishment: When the Sheep Won’t Feed Themselves

by: Steven Furtick

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One of the greatest critiques of the American Church today is that it’s malnourished. Some would even say it’s our most pressing problem.

When most people voice this complaint, the focus is on the worship experience. From people who leave these churches, you hear, “I wasn’t getting fed.” Or, “I just want some deeper teaching.” From people outside these churches you hear, “too much milk, not enough meat.”

In some cases, I’m sure this is true. But I really don’t think that’s the real problem. Yes, American Christians are malnourished. But I don’t believe it has anything to do with milk or meat.

Most American Christians aren’t malnourished because of what they’re getting fed on Sunday. They’re malnourished because they don’t feed themselves Monday through Saturday.

So you had filet mignon on Sunday and learned about the mystical union of Christ and the church as it relates to the rapture and the design of the tabernacle in relation to Levitical dietary laws as understood by the Council of Trent. Good for you. Have fun starving yourself the rest of the week and letting your pastor read the Bible so you don’t have to.

So you had some milk on Sunday and learned 37 ways to ________. Have fun having 37 new ways to not obey God during the coming week.

The crisis facing the church today isn’t what people are getting fed on Sundays. It’s what they’re not feeding themselves the rest of the days. Who really cares whether you consume meat or milk on Sunday if it’s the only meal you have all week?

I’m not saying this to get pastors and churches off the hook. It is the shepherd’s job to feed the sheep (John 21). And feed them well based on their needs and faith development. But it’s also the sheep’s job to eat:
13Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
Hebrews 5:13-14

Here’s the point. Churches: we have a responsibility. We should serve up the Word, hot and fresh every single Sunday. As church leaders, it is our job to create and sustain processes and systems that responsibly enable people to grow in their faith after receiving Christ.

People in our churches: you also have a responsibility. If you refuse to study the Word, apply it, pray some during the week, join a small group and dig deeper with others, there’s not much we can do to help you. Your malnourishment won’t be cured by anything we give you on Sunday.

So are you an infant and need milk? Drink it for now, but the only way you’re getting more mature and will be ready for meat is by training yourself. Constantly. Do you want meat? From these verses, it seems like meat is doing the milk. On your own. Constantly.

Not getting it served to you once a week.

Tags: Discipleship, Scripture, Steven Furtick, Worship

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Leaders Must Understand the Reality of Spiritual Transformation and Design for Growth

by: Eric Geiger

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Church leaders must craft opportunities where people will encounter the grace of God. Simple church leaders are designers, not programmers. They excel in designing a ministry process that leads to spiritual growth and vitality.

Spiritual growth is a process. It always has been. Thus, it would make sense for church leaders to design their churches around the process of spiritual growth.

In 1 Corinthians 3, believers are called God’s children (v. 1), God’s field (v. 9), and God’s building (v. 9).

1. We are God’s children. We begin as spiritual babies because we are born again (John 3:3). Our movement into spiritual adulthood is a process. That process is critical. Just as babies need the right environments to grow physically, people need the right environment to grow spiritually.
2. We are God’s field. Fields do not bear fruit or crops on command. They blossom in process, and to do so properly, they need the right environment and the right nutrients.
3. We are God’s building, God’s spiritual house. He first built us (created us). He then bought us back (redeemed us) with His own blood. Next, He moved in. He took up residence in our lives. And He is not done. He continually works on us. He is constantly redecorating. Continual transformation is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Our wives and the Holy Spirit have a lot in common. It is not enough for our wives to move into a home. That is only the beginning. Redecorating is a must. And this is not a one-time redecorating. It keeps going and going.

The same is true with the Holy Spirit. Continual work is inevitable. It is never done. It is a lifelong process.

Children, fields, and buildings grow in process. They do not mature overnight. They are not built in a day. They are constantly redecorated.

Children, fields, and buildings need the right environments to facilitate the process of growth. Children need nurturing, touch, food, and love. Fields need water, care, and farming. Buildings need workers, materials, and someone like Ty.

Simple church leaders get this.

Not only do simple church leaders understand that spiritual transformation is a process, but they also respond to this reality. They do so by implementing a ministry process to facilitate this spiritual growth in people. They design a simple process and abandon everything else. They rely on their simple process to create the environments conducive to spiritual growth.

Read more from Eric here.

Tags: Discipleship, Eric Geiger, Transformational Discipleship

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7 Things Pastors Should Teach Those in the Marketplace

by: Lukas Naugle

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The marketplace, the everyday world of trade and economic activity, is where most people spend the majority of their days. In modern history, the marketplace has played an unparalleled role in shaping our world. Globalization has turned countless local markets into one massive global market. Advances in technology and communication have managed to bridge enormous geographical and cultural gaps with blinding speed.

Meanwhile, the language and norms of the marketplace have changed the way other social institutions, including the church, think and operate. Even family life has been shaped by the marketplace in seemingly indelible ways.

Yet the marketplace is not a single homogenous entity. It is a complex organism that defies easy definition. The marketplace experience of a plumber is not the same as a venture fund manager, and the work of a banker is different from the work of a teacher. Indeed, work happens

• in a variety of locations (from home, remotely, in the air, from a car, in an office, in a cubicle, in a warehouse, in a field, in a sky rise, underground, on the water),
• in a variety of employments (freelancers, employees, contractors, consultants, employers, sole proprietors),
• and in a variety of organizations (firms, small businesses, large corporations, franchises, practices, partnerships, governments, schools, nonprofits).

Therefore, as a pastor seeks to teach biblically about marketplace dynamics, it is helpful for him to deepen his empathy and broaden his understanding of the vocations represented in his congregation.

So what should pastors teach to those called to the marketplace?

Read Page 2

Tags: Discipleship, Lukas Naugle, Ministry in the Workplace

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7 Things Pastors Should Teach Those in the Marketplace

by: Lukas Naugle

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1. Teach them how Scripture informs their work. One of the most foundational texts for understanding work is the “creation mandate,” where God commands Adam, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen. 1:28). Though it is impossible for a pastor to keep up with the ever-growing complexity of social and economic development since the Garden of Eden, pastors do have the opportunity to devote themselves to the timeless wisdom of Scripture. Helping those in the marketplace love and live the wisdom found in Proverbs will shape how they understand their daily work, and how it can be used to glorify God and to serve their neighbors.

2. Teach them to fear the Lord. The marketplace is a place of fear. A worker may fear his boss, an executive may fear very public failures, and others fear market instability, unemployment, and government regulations. Globalization, media, and technology all serve to amplify the sense of not being in control. Like anger and pride, acting from fear produces a range of insecurities, sins, and failures.

Throughout Scripture, the people of God are commanded not to be afraid. Paul reminds us, “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Tim. 1:7). We are, however, commanded to fear God: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10; Ps. 111:10). Unfortunately, there are many professing Christians whose work life is dominated by fear and anxiety, which cuts them off from living in the wisdom of God.

3. Teach them to pray. Many Christians do not feel equipped to pray about their work, much less to actually pray in the marketplace. Given the fear that is so rampant in the marketplace, coupled with hostility toward Christian faith and practice, the best thing for workers to do is to pray. Yet the kinds of prayers needed in the marketplace may not be the kinds typically heard on Sunday mornings. Pastors have the opportunity to teach Christians how to pray for courage, against temptation, for integrity, that they might work with skill, for their coworkers, and that God would establish the work of their hands. And in response to the many blessings of work, they should be equipped to give thanks.

4. Teach them that their ultimate worth isn’t found in their performance. There is massive pressure in the marketplace for workers to earn their keep, meet their quotas, and climb the ladder. Without vigilant resistance, Christians too can come to believe they are nothing but a job title, a level of responsibility, or a unit of production.

The psalmist teaches that, unlike man, God does not judge us like one evaluates the strength of a horse. Rather, “the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love” (Ps. 147:10-11). At the end of the day, our approval and identity are found in being adopted as children of God by grace through faith in Christ—not on the basis of anything we do for ourselves.

5. Teach them they are more than “useful” to their local church. There is a subtle tendency for pastors to see members of their congregation in terms of their utility in supporting church programs or contributing to the budget. This temptation becomes even greater when a church member is known to be talented in their craft or successful in the marketplace. In this regard, pastors apply the same pressures on them that they likely experience throughout the week from their employers, leaders, and supervisors. Before churches are about budgets and programs, they are about people. The members of a congregation need to know they matter for more than just their utility.

6. Teach them that they’re not inferior to pastors and missionaries. Many churches, perhaps unwittingly, subtly propagate the myth that pastors and missionaries matter more, or are intrinsically holier, than carpenters, call center workers, or entrepreneurs. The church may employ pastors and send missionaries, but the silent majority of kingdom work is done by those of diverse callings in the marketplace. Pastors should find ways to disciple members for the variety of vocations represented in the congregation, and not just those in so-called “Christian ministry.”

7. Teach them to love what they do, and to do it well. It is easy to love one’s work for a time, but when circumstances, opportunities, relationships, and rewards change, difficulty and discouragement quickly set in. A certain degree of this is inevitable, but if work is dominated by a sense of pessimism or fatalism, the worker will not do his work well, he will not be content, and his gospel witness will shrivel up and die. Believers need the reminder of Colossians 3:23 that in a broken world they ultimately work for the Lord. In every task and in every season, it is this truth that provides the motivation to do all work with passion and excellence. Pastors face difficulty and discouragement in their work as well. But those who have found new, life-giving ways to rekindle the love for what they do will in turn be able to share that wisdom with those in different occupations.

February 2013

Read Page 1 here.

Read the original article here.

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Tags: Discipleship, Lukas Naugle, Ministry in the Workplace

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Epic Quotes on Discipleship from Prof Howard Hendricks

by: Will Mancini

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Howard G. Hendricks, known affectionately as “Prof” to more than 10,000 graduates of Dallas Theological Seminary, leaves behind an incalculable legacy which he would call “the work of Christ in me.” Auxano Founder and CEO Will Mancini was a student of Prof, and recently wrote the following upon hearing of his death.

Prof died today but his ministry continues to expand through the lives of over 13,000 students that were impacted over his 60 years of teaching at Dallas Theological Seminary. While working on a tribute, I first reflected on the sticky ideas that he planted in my mind through teaching and embedded in my heart through modeling. All but one quote below is straight from memory. There are literally hundreds more…

DISCIPLESHIP

• You cannot impart what you do not possess.
• You can impress from a distance, but you can only impact up close.
• If you cannot be accused of exclusivity, you are not discipling.
• You teach what you know, but you reproduce what you are.
• You never graduate from the school of discipleship.
• When God measures a man he puts the tape around the heart, not the head.
• Jesus never discipled one-on-one.

INFLUENCE

There are many things in life you “can do” for God. And the more success you have, the more opportunities will come. (You will know more people, you will have more resources, etc.) But most opportunities are distractions in disguise. Therefore find the one thing you “must do” for God.

• You focus on the depth of your relationship [with God]; let Him determine the scope of your ministry
• A good leader has a compass in their head and a magnet in their heart.
• Spend the rest of your life doing what God prepared you to do.
• The secret to concentration is elimination.
• Nothing is more common that unfulfilled potential.

SCRIPTURE

Many of us want a word from God, but we don’t want the Word of God. We know enough to own a Bible but not enough for the Bible to own us. We pay the Bible lip service, but we fail to give it “life service.” In a world where the only absolute is that there are no absolutes, there is little room left for the authoritative Word of God as revealed in the Bible.

• The Bible was written not to satisfy your curiosity but to help you conform to Christ’s image.
• The goal is not to make you a smarter sinner but to make you like the Saviour.
• Put the cookies on the bottom shelf (talking about making teaching accessible to everyone).
• Dusty Bibles lead to dirty lives.
• It’s a sin to bore people with the Bible.
• Christian education is a bomb with a long fuse— it takes a while to go off.
• Our problem is that we are in the Word but not under the Word.

PROCESS

• Most people don’t think, they just rearrange their prejudices.
• Your strengths develop your confidence; your weaknesses develop your faith.
• My greatest fear is not your failure, but your success.
• If you want to use your testosterone to grow hair, that’s up to you.

Attending Prof’s memorial service yesterday, Will said “Incredible memorial service for Prof Howard Hendricks today. It was an eternal perspective workout for mind & heart.”

Read more from Will here.

Tags: Discipleship, Howard Hendricks, Will Mancini

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Outward vs. Inward Focused Churches

by: Tony Morgan

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Over the last several years, I’ve worked with church leaders from close to 200 different churches in consulting and coaching relationships. These churches are all different shapes and sizes. There are denominational and non-denominational churches. Traditional and contemporary churches. Small churches and megachurches. Church plants and churches who have existed for over a hundred years.

After working with all those churches, though, this is probably the key distinguishing factor when it comes to the health of the church: It’s whether the church is outward-focused or inward-focused. That issue is always what creates the most tension when it comes to the potential for change.

At the heart of the issue is this basic question: What are we willing to do to reach people outside the church and outside the faith? For some churches I’ve worked with, the answer is just about anything short of sin. For others, it’s just about nothing if it means losing people who already attend the church.

Here’s what I’ve found to be true about these two types of churches:

• The Outward-Focused Church — The primary challenge will be how to we help people take steps in their spiritual journey after they accept Christ. The fact is, though, most outward-focused churches are very sensitive to this challenge. These leaders are uncomfortable with people getting stuck spiritually, and they recognize that people with vibrant relationships with Jesus want to continue to reach people outside the faith. Maturing Christians join the mission.
• The Inward-Focused Church — The primary challenge will be how do we reach people who don’t have a relationship with Jesus. Most inward-focused churches are not sensitive to this challenge. These leaders are uncomfortable with any changes that might address that challenge for fear that it might push insiders away and, frankly, impact the bottom line. Ironically, any organization, including a church, that doesn’t focus on reaching new people has already started to decline and will eventually die.

This may be hard for you to hear, but I’ve seen most (though not all) outward-focused churches have a very intentional path for spiritual development. Many offer discipleship opportunities to help people take steps toward Christ outside the weekend service. And, of the churches I work with, most of the students and adults who attend those churches are engaged in that discipleship path.

On the other hand, I’ve never seen an inward-focused church have an intentional path for reaching people outside the faith. In those instances, the inward-focused churches hope (and sometimes pray) people outside the faith will somehow join what the church is already doing for existing church members. When it comes to reaching people outside the faith, I’ve never seen that strategy work.

What kind of church are you leading? In either instance, are you willing to engage the primary challenge your church faces? I’m hoping you will step up to the challenge…even if it makes others (including you) uncomfortable.

Read more from Tony here.

Tags: Discipleship, Multiplication, Tony Morgan

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Closing the Back Door of Your Church: Moving from Entitlement to Servanthood

by: Thom Rainer

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Numbers of gifted persons and organizations have studied the phenomenon of the church “back door,” the metaphorical way we describe people leaving the church. And there will always be the anticipated themes of relocation or personal crises. We should recognize those issues, though we can respond to the latter more than the former.

But all the research studies of which I am aware, including my own, return to one major theme to explain the exodus of church members: a sense of some need not being filled. In other words, these members have ideas of what a local congregation should provide for them, and they leave because those provisions have not been met.

Certainly we recognize there are many legitimate claims by church members of unfulfilled expectations. It can undoubtedly be the fault of the local congregation and its leaders.

But many times, probably more than we would like to believe, a church member leaves a local body because he or she has a sense of entitlement. I would therefore suggest that the main reason people leave a church is because they have an entitlement mentality rather than a servant mentality.

Look at some of the direct quotes from exit interviews of people who left local congregations:

• “The worship leader refused to listen to me about the songs and music I wanted.”
• “The pastor did not feed me.”
• “No one from my church visited me.”
• “I was not about to support the building program they wanted.”
• “I was out two weeks and no one called me.”
• “They moved the times of the worship services and it messed up my schedule.”
• “I told my pastor to go visit my cousin and he never did.”

Please hear me clearly. Church members should expect some level of ministry and concern. But, for a myriad of reasons beyond the scope of this one blogpost, we have turned church membership into country club membership. You pay your dues and you are entitled to certain benefits.

The biblical basis of church membership is clear in Scripture. The Apostle Paul even uses the “member” metaphor to describe what every believer should be like in a local congregation. In 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, Paul describes church members not by what they should receive in a local church, but by the ministry they should give.

The solution to closing the back door, at least a major part of the solution, is therefore to move members from an entitlement mentality to a servant mentality. Of course, it is easy for me to write about it, but it is a greater challenge to effect it.

May I then offer a few steps of a more practical nature to help close the back door by changing the membership mentality? Here are five:

1. Inform church members. Though I do not have precise numbers, I would conjecture that more than one-half of church members do not have a biblical understanding about church membership. Providing that information in a new members’ class can move an entire congregation toward a servant mentality.
2. Raise the bar of expectations. We have dumbed down church membership in many congregations to where it has little meaning. Clarify expectations of members. Again, doing so in the context of a new members’ class is a great way to begin.
3. Mentor members. Take two or three members and begin to mentor them to become biblical church members. After a season, ask them to mentor two or three as well. Let the process grow exponentially.
4. Train members. Almost 100 percent of pastors agree that their role is to train and equip members. But almost three-fourths of these pastors have no plans on how they will train them (see Ephesians 4:11-13). I will address this issue more fully on my blog next Wednesday.
5. Encourage people to be in small groups. Those in Sunday school classes and small groups are more likely to be informed and functioning church members. In others words, there is a much greater likelihood of a member with a servant mentality to be in a small group than not.

What are you doing in your church to close the back door? What are you doing to move members from an entitlement mentality to a servant mentality?

Tags: Connect, Discipleship, Serve, Thom Rainer

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Are Groups Really Important in Your Church?

by: Eric Geiger

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I believe groups (classes, Bible fellowships, etc) should be important to churches because God has supernaturally ordained community to sanctify His people. God, who is an eternal community of three Persons, created community for our benefit and His glory. And small groups help believers live in community with one anther.

Though most pastors say that groups are important, the research for the upcoming book Transformational Groups revealed that for many churches there’s a major discrepancy between the stated importance of groups and the actual priority. For many churches, contrary to what is articulated, groups are really not that important. At least two alarming facts were discovered:

For many churches group content is treated haphazardly.

The majority of pastors and church leaders have no clue what is being studied. In fact, almost two-thirds of pastors tell us that the person primarily responsible for selecting the curriculum for the group is the group leader, and a large number of those do so without any oversight or direction from the pastor and/or staff. In most cases not only are group leaders not given studies that are built on a particular theology and discipleship strategy, but they aren’t given anything: not a plan, not a recommended resource list, nothing.

Now if the church has a group training mechanism in place on the front end and group leaders are tested and vetted theologically, are taught to choose resources in accordance with the theology of the church, and are equipped to think strategically about a spiritual growth plan for their group, then handing the responsibility to the group leader would be empowerment. If, however, the above doesn’t exist, there is ministry negligence. A wise pastor would never treat the teaching from the pulpit with that type of haphazard planning. And group content shouldn’t be treated this way either.

As a leader, you must guard the doctrine of your church—that means caring about the content that is being studied in groups.

The majority of church attendees don’t believe groups are that important to the church.

Though pastors say that groups are important to the church, sadly the majority of church attendees don’t say the same thing. In other words, in many churches groups being important is largely an aspirational value for church leaders and not actual in the culture of the church. Church leaders should ask themselves why the people in the church don’t consider groups more important. The following questions could be helpful to consider:

• Are the pastors and leaders in a group?
• Do the people in the church continually hear about groups?
• If someone wanted to join a group today, what would you tell them to do?
• Are stories of transformation occurring in community shared with the church?
• In comparison to the weekend services, how much energy is poured into group strategy, leader training, etc?

The reality is that most church leaders devote much more energy to the worship services than to groups. Caring less about the worship gathering isn’t the solution; caring more about groups is. In worship gatherings that are grounded in Jesus, God supernaturally uses the preaching of His word and the worship to transform hearts and affections. And in groups grounded in Jesus, God supernaturally uses the community to mature His people. Both are important. Both should be important to your church.

Read more from Eric here.

Tags: Discipleship, Eric Geiger, Multiplication, Small Groups

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