Your church is only as strong as its discipleship. Remember, measuring attendance numbers is great, but attendance numbers only account for the passive participants in your church. The true measure of a church’s impact is most accurately measured in those who heed the calling to go from audience to action – your disciples.
And your church’s environment – its physical, relational, spiritual and operational components – all factor into the success of your ministry and its disciples.
But as always seems to be the case, there are often too few hours in the day to accomplish all that we need to keep every element of our church environment thriving.
The true measure of a church's impact is most accurately measured in those who heed the calling to go from audience to action - your disciples.
So it begs the Ephesians 4 question: How can we continue to manage the day-to-day operations of our church while still being mindful to cultivate a culture that nurtures and engages intentional disciples?
A subtle shift in mindset – and the adoption of practices that reflect the importance of disciples – can help tip the scales from attendance to action.
And you can perform a quick ‘welfare check’ on the health of your church with the following questions.
Does your church ...
- … make a good first impression?
- … welcome new people?
- … make new people want to come?
- … make new people want to return?
- … follow up with new attendees?
- … take the necessary steps to make the services user-friendly?
- … make it easy for them to explore faith and discipleship?
- … actively promote a community of growing disciples?
...starting by asking the right questions will yield the honest answers you need to ignite growth.
Just as one person can’t change the culture of a church, one quick welfare check can’t either – but starting by asking yourself the right questions will yield the honest answers you need to ignite growth. And the kind of growth that encourages intentional discipleship requires long-game strategy and attention to have sustainable longevity.
We all want to foster an environment that helps people discover faith and grow as disciples of Jesus, but it takes work – a lot of work. And to fulfill our Lord’s Great Commission, our greatest investment will be the time and effort we dedicate to equipping our saints.
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