Good to Grow!

One of the things that I have been giving time to over the last twelve months has been the writing of a book - essentially it is the story of the last fifteen years at King’s and the leadership lessons we have learned during that time. Entitled Good to Grow it has also given me the opportunity to explain some of the principles behind what we are looking to build in south-east London.


I was glad to be able to send early copies to some fellow-leaders, all trusted friends, and receive their comments. Steve Nicholson has been a good friend to me and to the church at King’s – his experience as head of church planting in the Vineyard movement in the US has been invaluable to us at critical times in the life of our church. Here’s his comment about the book...

‘This is a book for leaders who really want to work with God to grow their church. It's practical and realistic. And it doesn't offer a "magic bullet" that will be the answer to everything. Rather, it addresses the complex mix that allows a church to become healthy, mission oriented, growing and reproducing. I think King's church represents a kind of urban church of the future showing that it is possible to have an impact in the great urban multi-ethnic cities of the world in spite of the obstacles often encountered in leadership, finance, land and government relationships. Reading this book will expand your faith in what God can do and give you ideas on how to work that faith out.’

Steve Nicholson is Senior Pastor of the Evanston Vineyard, USA and serves on the Vineyard USA national board as the Church Planting Task Force Director.

What we are learning about... High Sundays

Continuing a series of blogs quoting from resource papers which others have found useful.

From the paper on High Sundays by Steve Tibbert:


‘... Over the years we have worked out that the leading indicator of growth is the number of ‘Like to Know More’ forms which are handed in at our Welcome Desk on a Sunday. I pray for 5 a week - we have 3 meetings (Feb 09). If we get 5 a week I now know we are going to have 100 more people in a year’s time. This is incredibly helpful information. From this we can then forward project numerical growth which shapes all our forward financial planning. We have a 5-year budget forward projection which helps to shape our staffing needs and our building requirements. All from new connection forms’.

http://www.kingschurchlondon.org/downloads/highsundays.pdf

What we are learning about... the Cross

Continuing a series of blogs quoting from resource papers which others have found useful.

From the paper on The Cross by Mick Taylor...

‘... while penal substitution is not the whole truth about the atonement it should be central to our understanding of Christ’s achievement for us on the cross. It is part of the truth and not the whole but it is central not peripheral, and not optional! Or to put it another way, penal substitution is an essential foundation but not the whole structure. Penal substitution is an answer to a specific question about the work of Christ not the answer to every question. It does not endeavour to explain every benefit or consequence of Christ’s sacrifice but it does reveal how a holy God can justly forgive sin and so becomes the source of all the other benefits.’

http://www.kingschurchlondon.org/downloads/TheCrossMickTaylor.pdf

What we are learning about... diversity

Continuing a series of blogs quoting from resource papers which others have found useful.

From the paper on Diversity by Steve Tibbert...

‘Food is an issue. When we began Alpha at church and were providing food there, we served white western (bland) food! We were trying to reach out to local people with the gospel and were giving them a hurdle to overcome by providing food they found difficult. I used to sit at an Alpha table in a diverse group and I would be the only one eating the food. ‘It’s alright – we ate before we came…’ they would say – it took me about three Alphas to work that one out!’

http://www.kingschurchlondon.org/downloads/diversity.pdf