Steve Andrews, Lead Pastor, Kensington Community Church has said: I planted my church, and God grew it big. We've done externally-focused,
church planting, and multi-site, and we'll keep doing them. But
there are not enough years left in my life to simply keep growing this
thing bigger.
I'm interested in something more viral. I'm interested in
changing the conversation from 'where is our next one' to 'how do we release 250 of our members to take our city?'
I quite agree - and I think, so does Scripture.
Whether large or small, the missional purpose (and strategy?) of the Church (and each local congregation) should be not so much about getting people into church (i.e. building, our programs, etc.) but more about training, equipping, encouraging and releasing God's people that they may be missioners in their community.
It's not about getting people to come; it's about getting God's people to go - or just to return to where they live and play, work and work-out, daily, Monday through Saturday.
After people are introduced (by being shown and told) to Christ, they will then want to come together into the community of God's People. But that is not where mission and evangelism happens; that is rather where the fruit of such witness gathers. We have mistaken where to fish, where the harvest truly is and where the harvesting is primarily to occur.
