We've got to reach people...

Luke 19:10 says “For the Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost”.  Church life should have at its very heart this sense of ‘we’ve got to reach people’ - that’s the heart of the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.  My own conviction is that as pastors, we have historically tended to lean towards building the church, caring for the saints and teaching them - and rather less towards reaching people. 

Some of us would say that pastoring is our primary gift - that’s extremely valid but if we’re going to make the church an effective outreach family, my conviction is that we have to intentionally lean towards outreach because churches have a tendency to turn in on themselves. If as a leader you’ve got a teaching or pastoring bias in your own gifting, that combination is likely to mean that the gradient of your church will be towards excellent care and going deeper and deeper in the Word and we’ll know more and we’ll be well equipped and well taught but - are we seeking and saving the lost?  For some of you this will raise questions about your primary gifting and make you examine how you shape your whole leadership structure. 

Our own story is that I arrived at King’s about 15 years ago.  The church had been in some decline over the previous 10 years, it had gone from 300 to about 150 and the building was falling down.  I arrived and during that first 15 months the church didn’t grow.  Everyone that joined was matched by someone who left because they didn’t like my leadership style… then after about 15 months we began to grow and that growth has continued.  We’ve grown from, on average, 200 in attendance to about 1200 on a Sunday morning.

During that time we sent 30 of our members to plant into South Central London and then a further 10 went to support Stuart Gibb at the Greenwich church plant. We believed it was right to do that and we did this even while we were looking for a 10% average increase at King’s. We balance these two elements - build the church and reach the lost.  

Growing a Church... 'God made it grow!'

I am often asked by church leaders how to make a church grow. On the basis of my experience and from the best of my knowledge I attempt to provide them with advice that will encourage them in the noble task of leading God’s church. So, it is important to state at the outset of this blog series on this important topic that only God makes things grow! Although there might be times when we can hinder growth, Paul says clearly in 1 Corinthians 3:6, ‘I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow’.

Once this has been stated and acknowledged we need to take seriously another fact - that God has chosen us to partner with Him in the great task of building His church! I firmly believe that God desires His church to grow, both in spiritual depth and also numerically. I live in a big city and, as I look at the communities around our part of London, I am convinced that we need some churches that can reach thousands of people. This does not mean that I think that God loves a larger church over a small one, that’s not the character of the God I love and serve.

My own observation is that many churches do not reach their potential in God because there is a serious underestimation of the importance of leadership and structural change to facilitate God-desired growth. Recently I heard Dave Smith who leads KingsGate Peterborough say, rather provocatively, that the difference between a church of four hundred and one of a thousand is the word ‘management’. That the term management still gets so much bad press in Christian circles continues to amaze me!

If we want to reach more people for Christ we will need to learn how to lead in a different way than we have to date. Exodus 18 recounts that Moses discovered this, following advice from the first management consultant in the Bible (just joking…!). He follows Jethro’s advice and re-engineers the leadership structure of God’s people in order to be able to care for the ever-growing number.

In this next series of blog postings I am going to outline some key themes and factors which we have found worked well at King’s Church, here in the great city of London. As I say in my book Good to Grow,

King’s... reflects my style and flavour of leadership, and the biblical values which are precious to us.... This is not the only way to lead a growing church. (p191)

Having said that, I hope that some of the lessons we have learnt along the way will be of help to you! We will look at topics such as church size matters, growth engines, Sundays, integration, community, leadership, team, raising money and the importance of vision.

Lastly, I want to say that a growing church is normally a healthy one. At King’s this health is reflected in the church’s prayer life, the generosity of His people, our amazing mercy ministries and includes embracing the challenges of building a church that is diverse in culture and age. It’s not all about numbers - but it is good to grow!

Great by Choice!

I’m just finishing reading the new Jim Collins book Good by Choice – and I’m loving it. Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m a big fan of Jim Collins and his books - two previous books by him - Good to Great and Good to Great for the Social Sector - are ones that I highly recommend to the leaders who come to my coaching sessions. This one is up there too! Get hold of it and read it – I defy you not to be impressed!

A vision health warning!

Vision is a powerful leadership tool - but it should come with a health warning. It needs to be handled with wisdom and it requires stamina!


Vision, and clearly expressing that vision repeatedly, is a vital component in keeping the church moving forward.


At King’s we define vision as what God has called us to do. It needs to be God-inspired - as it says in Proverbs 29:18, 'without vision the people perish'.


Vision is different to goals - effective goals have a set time line for achieving them, while vision is about the ‘big picture’ and is something which is humanly speaking beyond your reach! A wise visionary leader will have a sober assessment of his own call, gifting and context before describing a preferred picture of the future to any hearers.


On these grounds a series on vision needs to come with a health warning. A God- inspired vision needs a team, a plan and finance to fulfil it - or very quickly the credibility of the vision and the visionary will be brought in to question. As I read recently,

• Vision without action is merely a dream 
• Action without vision passes the time 
• Vision and action can change the world 

A clearly articulated vision can bring momentum, direction and purpose. In my experience God’s people are generous givers; they just need a vision which is worth giving to!


A clear vision can help you to say ‘no’ as well as ‘yes’ at critical moments. It can  help you stay the distance and fulfil the call of God on your life - and that of your church.

Partners! Come and help!

Outline of vision talk given in January 09

Tibbert Christmas news. Personal: each Christmas and summer holiday I do a personal/family review – cover marriage, spiritual disciplines, how the kids are doing, physical health, emotional state, finances. For this last point – I have a 25 year plan. I have one life and I want to ‘max it’ for God.

On Vision Sunday I do a similar review for the church – possible to set the bar too high so that such a review and analysis demotivates. Also possible to set the bar too low and underachieve.

Lk. 5:1-7 Jesus’ miracle leads to the call – ‘Partners – come and help!’ 

Since Jan 07 we have experienced a Big Catch! Jan 08 I put before you the five challenges that could have sunk our boat

-      Diversity – not remaining a monoculture church

-      Growth – caring for people in small groups and providing enough leaders

-      Facilities – looking at relocation - quote for £12 million was beyond us. Need for further office space.

-      Finance – growth requires large financial demands

-      Apostolic – recovering from church plant into Beacon (40 people sent), 10 people to Greenwich, a further 10 to Beacon. My role in Newfrontiers expanding, Mick Taylor’s involvement in Newfrontiers’ training – a huge gift that benefits us and the wider movement.

Response to the challenges: Gracism series, move to a third meeting. Review how we have met our goals from 2007. Growth in our numbers could be described as ‘a massive catch’ – be encouraged! Recognise parts of our set-up are overstretched, though we have massive momentum. I don’t want us to sink –going to need partners to come and help us! Elders to discuss launch of a 4^th meeting – possibly on another site – please pray for us. 

:7 = key. Signalled to partners to help – or they would sink. Went to those nearest – if you are here we don’t want you to just be here for the (boat) ride – come and help on this battleship, not a pleasure cruiser.

5 ways to help – step up in

- leadership – come and carry some weight

- membership – come and join - sign of commitment

- serving – come and serve - don’t assume that everyone else will do the necessary tasks

- praying – come and pray - especially collective prayer meetings

- giving – come and give - aware of current economic situation but prime way to show where your heart is – by tithes and offerings

Conclusion: ‘Partners! Come and help!’

Nehemiah's Task

Outline of vision talk given in Sept 09

Highlights of summer holiday and study leave in context of new building project. 

Nehemiah’s building project! Neh. 1 and 2. 

Video clip: tallest wave surfed! To do that needed preparation and courage – events move at speed. There’s a potential cost – Nehemiah’s life was on the line in the royal court setting – he began his request with a great prayer – he was God-focused - reminded God of His promises. (For us 10 years ago – a prophecy that we would gather 2000.)

Review of last year: grown faster than ever.

Attending - 780 in 2008, 1000+ in 2009 - on the same Sunday.

Welcome desk – 122 LTKM forms given in Jan – Aug 2008, 230 Jan – Aug 2009.

Crunch moment – collision of needs between team/buildings/finance! Show artist’s impression of new refurbished facility at Lee. Visited USA to see examples of multi-site – an urban church phenomenon arising from a situation where the limiting factor is facilities. Multi-site gives the chance for growth. Remain one church, one leadership, one identity. We need to strengthen the team – through year team members, internships, taking on Robert Kwami to join the Pastoral team as well as Malcolm & Cathy Kyte (Malcolm will oversee the Pastoral team) - all coming to help us build a church of 2000.

Letters coming from me to each of you re our giving. We need to give £750K for the next 3 years and £375K for the following six months – above our current giving levels. Ask some to consider a double title – 20% before tax – something I am already doing. Pledge Days coming up in October. Please give – and please pray! Currently amazing momentum – behind all the figures, the figure of God at work, reaching out to the lost – for His Glory!

20/20 Vision

Outline of vision talk given in January 2010

Tours of new Lee building – one response, ‘You have seriously undersold the building, Steve!’ Primary purpose today – giving thanks to God for what he has done.

Look back – look forward. 20/20 vision – definition: perfect understanding or appreciation of what has already been seen.

1 Thess. 1:7 – ‘...you became a model to all the believers and the message went out.’ Chance to impact a city and model something to other churches in the UK – we are watched by them. If we can go from 200 to 1000 it will give them added faith for their own situation. The important thing is that the message goes out!

Résumé of church journey over last 15 years given. In last 10 years 500 have joined us. Mark event by getting congregation to light 500 tea-lights on tables around the auditorium – each one representing a transformed life.

Interview: Shirley J – joined in Jan 95 – gives her highlights of the decade (new auditorium in 2000, ‘gracism’ series and the changes brought by that, expansion of youth ministry) and her hopes for the future (becoming a huge church; multiple meetings at Lee; growth in maturity and unity as well as size; healings, signs and wonders).

Experience of asking the banks for loans – wanted to know our history. ‘When looking at the future, the best indicator of future trend is past performance.’ For us the past is counted in tens, the future in hundreds and thousands. Want an increase in diversity (culture, class and age), growth in our mercy ministry, sending out more leaders to plant/resource other churches, creativity – books, albums and teaching material.

We need your prayers, your pledges for finances and we need you - to step up and volunteer to be an active participant in the great task before us, for the glory of God.