Your congregation is perfectly calibrated for the results you are currently getting in mission and discipleship. You agree that a plan of reform is needed. However, before you attempt to craft such a plan, experience shows it is wise to answer the following questions:

What is the mission of God, according to God?
How does God intend for us to participate in His mission?
In the gospels, what is Jesus’ goal for those He is discipling?
According to Jesus, what is a disciple and what does a disciple do?
In the gospels, what process does Jesus use to train His disciples?
How can we optimize our congregational groups and gatherings to accomplish Jesus’ discipling goals?

With those questions answered, we can then see two things more clearly: (1) how to join Jesus on His mission as part of our everyday lives and (2) how to disciple our family, friends and congregation to do the same.

Dwelling 1:14 helps congregations clearly answer the above questions. Once that is accomplished, crafting a mission and discipleship plan is fairly simple. After all, why make up a new plan when we can follow Jesus’ plan?

Our congregation can then be well on its way to becoming a mission outpost and discipleship training center. We will see thousands of people redeemed and restored with the grace and truth of Jesus and then trained to reach thousands more. Sound crazy? Nope. This is called normal when we follow Jesus’ plan. 12 become dozens, dozens become hundreds, and hundreds become thousands. It happened in the gospels and continued in the book of Acts; and it is still happening today in places like Africa and China.

And it can happen here in Iowa, too. Or California. Or Oregon. Or Illinois. Or Texas. Or New York. Or Virginia. (You get the idea.)

But not if we keep trying to do it our way. Our way gets our results. Remember, we are perfectly calibrated for the results we are already getting. If we want Jesus’ results, we will need to reform our way to His way. Jesus’ way for Jesus’ results.

Can you guess what won’t work? “Let’s reform Jesus’ way to our way.” Or, “Let’s tweak Jesus’ way to better fit what we’re already doing.” Or, “Let’s introduce new language and logos but follow our same old strategy and call it good.”

Nope. If you want to see your results continue, continue to follow your way. But if you want to see Jesus’ results, reform your way to His way.

It’s a simple strategy. But because of our ingrained habits, congregational preferences and misplaced priorities, we make it hard. So let us help.

Helping congregations discover Jesus’ way and then stay on course is what Dwelling 1:14 does.

Give us a call at 281-844-7644 or drop us an email at finkeonthemove@aol.com. Let's have a conversation about what that can look like for you.