1. Welcome to a day about Transforming Church
Making disciples in Smaller Churches

5. Growing the church….
Is about growth in three dimensions – spiritual, numerical & vitality
Healthy churches grow in all three dimensions together
Growing churches get deeper and more effective as well as bigger
Jesus told us not to be churchgoers but to be his disciples
He told us not to make churchgoers but to make disciples
And he promised us the power of the Holy Spirit to help us

6. Matthew ch 28v19,20 & Acts ch 1v8
“Go and make disciples of all nations….teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”

7. So what does it mean to be a witnessing disciple?
A witness is, literally from the Greek, a martyr – a ‘blood-witness’ to Jesus in a hostile world.
A Christian witness testifies to their experience of Jesus by how they live and what they say
As a result, others begin to follow Jesus as well

8. So what does it mean to be a witnessing disciple?
A disciple is committed to their rabbi or master – an imitator of them, trying to become like them, part of their team, learning from them in order to be able to teach and influence others
A disciple is not just an acquaintance of the master, a disciple’s life is shaped around serving the master
We are called to be Jesus’ disciples ourselves and to help others grow as disciples as well

9. Who are we helping to become disciples?
We are Anglicans – we are there for everybody! But the most responsive people tend to be children, teenagers, young adults and families…………….

11. Who are we helping to become disciples?
We are Anglicans – we are there for everybody! But the most responsive people tend to be children, teenagers, young adults and families……………. We are there to help both people who are close to church and those who are a million miles away………………..

12. Growing witnessing disciples in the NT
Judea …
Fringe?
Samaria …
De-Churched?
The ends of the earth ….
Non-Churched?
Churched
Jerusalem

13. What challenge will help you grow as a disciple
What challenge will help you grow as a disciple? It may be a church job, a contribution to the wider community, or a new piece of Christian learning
Churched
Jerusalem

14. How can you bring fringe people and the church children into the centre? Give them a role? Get them into a small group? Get to know them, mentor them?
Judea …
Fringe?
Churched
Jerusalem

15. What ways can you find to befriend and invite people who have drifted away or fallen out with church, including the teens who have left Sunday School?
Judea …
Fringe?
Samaria …
De-Churched?
Churched
Jerusalem

16. How can you go to the foreign countries and speak the foreign languages of the tribes among whom you live? This may not be about inviting them to ‘your’ church but about forming new shapes of church around and with your different people-groups
Judea …
Fringe?
Samaria …
De-Churched?
The ends of the earth ….
Non-Churched?
Churched
Jerusalem

17. What sort of church is yours?
Is your main effort going into Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria or the Ends?
Are you growing in depth and vitality as Jesus’ disciples?
Are there plenty of you but it’s a bit shallow?
Does it feel like the Holy Spirit pours life into you?
And does that life overflow into making new disciples and serving the community?
Or is it all a bit stagnant?
If your church was a lake, what sort of lake would it be?
(Caution – Marmite Moment)

27. If your church was a lake what sort would it be and what sort of growth does it most need?

28. Archbishop Justin’s vision
There is no reason why the C of E could not double in size in the next years if we renew our prayer life, achieve reconciliation within the church & beyond it, and recover the priority of evangelism at every level of the church:
Boards, Councils, committees, PCCs – our agendas, diaries and budgets should be dominated not by money, buildings & internal conflicts but by evangelism – by the drive to become witnessing disciples
Every Christian should routinely invite people to their church, should be informed & confident in their faith, and should be capable of witnessing to it

29. Routinely invite people to church - Samaria
3m people say they would come to church if invited
They are not inclined to gate-crash someone else’s private club
But so far nobody ever has invited them
Pray about whom to invite – find one of the 3m
Pray for the courage and opportunity to invite them
Back to Church Sunday
But what about Christmas? In fact, any Sunday?
Create regular opportunities in the church calendar

30. Routinely invite people to church - Samaria
Most people need inviting several times before self-starting
You need some confidence in your church’s events, services & community to risk inviting people-so make church a great experience for newcomers!
Always offer to bring people with you, to call for them or meet them
Be cunning – ‘Would you like to come to church at then to our house for Sunday lunch?’
‘Would you like to come one Sunday?’ – takes away the ‘Sorry I’m busy this week’ excuse
Use a Sunday with an invitation card. Pick the right one – invite a young family to Mothering Sunday, an old soldier to Remembrance Sunday

31. Routinely invite people to church - Samaria
Smarten up the welcome – do ‘Everybody Welcome’ or ask Rhiannon about doing some ‘Welcome’ training with you
Appoint a ‘Welcome Team’
Develop a church culture in which friendliness quickly moves on to friendship

32. Routinely develop your foreign language skills – The end of the earth
Develop links with your unreached people-groups
Find the open and sympathetic people
Work with them at developing new ways of being church

33. Be informed & confident in your faith
Courses for Christians to deepen faith & understanding (Pilgrim)
Small groups – be in one, be used to discussing life and faith-issues
Read Christian books or use new media
Study the Bible regularly at home
Absorb what weekly worship and sermons can give you
Be honest about your gaps and go out of your way to plug them
Don’t be afraid to ask the naïve questions – others will be grateful
Confidence comes from experience of God in our lives so we need churches in which it is normal to share our experiences – in services, in small groups, in conversations and one to ones

34. Be capable of witnessing to your faith
Apparently +Justin was ‘absolutely terrified’ of evangelism until he did the ‘Lost for words’ course from CPAS, which he found ‘transformative’
Check out the ‘Lost for words’ course and consider using it in your church
Look out for a major ‘Lay Discipleship’ conference to be put on by ‘Church of England – Birmingham’ on November 15th 2014 – we are hoping for 1000 people at it

35. Faith-sharing courses
Blowing Your Cover Evangelism training course – 6 sessions
Becoming a contagious Christian Willow Creek – 6 sessions
Lost for Words CPAS Courses for children, youth & adults – 6 weeks
Mind the Gap Gap between church & popular culture agape.org.uk
Time to Talk to God From the Methodist Church

36. Be capable of witnessing to your faith
We are called to be witnesses not evangelists
To tell our story not explain substitutionary atonement theory
Learn to tell your own story in the safety of a small group of Christian friends
Hone it down – two minutes not twenty
Make it up to date not all about 30 years ago
Make testimony a regular feature of church services
When you are confident about telling a story pray for opportunities to tell it