Know to Grow

If your congregation struggles with growth (or just want to grow more), you’re probably aware of the bewildering number of offerings out there.

Virtually none of them work very well. That’s because they lack an intensive focus on the primary purpose of the church. The formal way to say this is “we’re here to form disciples of Jesus who participate in God’s mission in the world.” We also say “we’re here to live and love like Jesus and help others to do the same.”

All our trainings and resources are designed to give you what you need to know to grow: trainings on the purpose of the church, the Missional church, creating a culture where growth can happen, and discipleship and leadership of various kinds.

Using them, we help you waste energy on attacking the wrong problem and the disappointment (and discouragement) that come from trying and failing over and over again.

Training Sessions

If you are interested in any of our offerings, or would like to have an assessment done, please contact us here.

Your Congregational Growth Assessment

Three 90-Minute Sessions or One Daylong Retreat
For growth, it is important to step back and take an honest look at how effectively your congregation is engaging the church’s primary purpose of forming disciples of Jesus Christ. Through this process, the congregation can lay the groundwork for effective action – rather than waste energy (and hope!) on efforts that can’t work because they don’t address the real problems at hand. This assessment is done with the clergy leadership and top 12 lay leaders of the parish and can be done with three meetings. Follow-up steps are set up at the end.

Living Into Our Primary Purpose

Three 90-Minute Sessions or One Daylong Retreat

Designed specifically for vestries, this workshop introduces the church’s leadership to its primary purpose: living and loving like Jesus and helping others to do the same. Together, we explore challenges to this thinking, benefits that come from it, gauge our initial buy-in, and define steps to create this culture.

Creating a Missional Church

Three 90-Minute Sessions or One Daylong Retreat

Well-known author Reggie McNeal suggests that a “missional church” understands and lives into three specific principles. These principles, first laid out by Bishop Lesslie Newbegin in the 1960s and 1970s, have transformed Christendom thorought the Western church. In this workshop, you will gain a working understanding of this essential information and develop a simple plan to put it into action.

Discipleship for Episcopalians

Staff and clergy of the Diocese of New Jersey developed a major resource for Episcopalians to use in getting used to the word “discipleship” and harnessing its power for personal transformation in Jesus Christ. Opening with a letter from Bishop Stokes, Discipleship for Episcopalians gives individuals and groups everything they need to help each other grow in their Christian faith.

RenewalWorks

To date, 10 congregations in the Diocese (and almost 300 nationwide) have used RenewalWorks to assess their effectiveness in providing resources and experiences for Christian spiritual growth. Through an anonymous online evaluation of each parishioner, and a series of guided workshop discussions with our staff, the RenewalWorks process helps churches (and the individuals in them) refocus on spiritual growth and identify ways that God is calling them to grow.

The methodology has been tailored to the Episcopal tradition, adapting over 10 years of research that has uncovered key characteristics of flourishing congregations. It will inspire your congregation and leadership to rediscover who Jesus is, and what it means to follow him.

Know to Grow Study Groups

In addition to Discipleship for Episcopalians above, many excellent books can help churches create the potential for growth. We strongly encourage congregations to form study groups around them. While all of them can be extremely helpful, they are listed in the order we recommend for most churches.

· Joining Jesus on His Mission, by Greg Finke

·Missional Renaissance, by Reggie McNeal

·Good to Great, by Jim Collins

·Leadership Without Easy Answers, by Ronald Heifetz

·Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? by Roland Allen

·The Bridges of God, by Donald McGavran

·Transforming Mission, by David Bosch

Please note: Transforming Mission is a major scholarly work., quite dense, but considered one of the best books ever written on the mission of the church. It’s a must-read for clergy who want to know what their church is really for.