If I’m preaching elsewhere
on a Sunday I will receive a text message from a staff member at Kings at the
end of the day which gives me the numbers of people who attended and the
numbers of responses – all this comes in as I drive back. I’m motivated that way. Some of my team think that at my funeral
people will say, ‘Well… Steve would have been pleased, you know, because we’ve
done the count. There were 415 at the
funeral …’
I believe if we’re going
to impact a nation we have to be intentional about mission. I live in a big
city with 250,000 people in the borough of Lewisham alone, so King’s needs to
reach thousands of people. I don’t know
many pastors who say ’I want my church to be smaller’ - in the end it’s about
having a heart for people - you must prioritise growth and mission right up
front and this will impact your Sunday programme.
We know that historically our
church grows most in September and January - we have also had times when we’ve
grown very fast and the usual trend has gone out of the window. We build what we’re doing on Sundays around
that knowledge. We plan quite far ahead and
we aim to be Spirit-led too! So in
September we have a Vision Sunday and prior to that date a personal letter goes
out from me to everyone in the church and also to everyone who’s visited the
church in the last 12 months, inviting them to come along for the Vision Sunday. I sign a lot of invitation letters in the
run-up to those particular Sundays!
I find there is a need to
repeat our vision to the church - time and time again - this is very important
because people often just don’t get it first time – or the second! So I keep telling the story and explain why
we do what we do, keeping the vision before the people - constantly.
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