Learnings from Christ’s Church of Flagstaff
It has been two years since we installed a Lap One Intentional Growth Plan (IGP) at Christ’s Church of Flagstaff (CCoF). In a community not open to the gospel, we are blown away by the massive headway their team has made with Great Commission impact! Attendance has climbed around 30% over two years and they have baptized almost 3x the number of people. In January 2019, we installed an advanced Lap Two IGP and here are a few learnings:
A Church Really Can Grow During Succession.
There was an exceptional handoff between the long-time Senior Pastor and Chris Reed, the new Senior Pastor. Chris reminded the Church of the vision to reach 25% of Northern Arizona for Christ. He honored the past and courageously threw down the challenge to reach friends, neighbors, and co-workers relationally.
Parking, Kids Space, and Seats Still Matter on Sunday Morning.
With all of the great thinking about making disciples and growing your Church, we must still provide enough space for these three key capacity issues between 10-11am on Sunday morning. CCoF was hitting a lid in hallway flow and kids space two years ago. Once they addressed it strategically, it unlocked a new wave of growth.
Speaking the Language of Your One is a Discipline.
In this Advanced Lap of IGP, we did a deep dive on Aaron, their One (from Luke 15). The team became convicted to push into and eliminate Church-ese language that was not effectively communicating to Aaron or their unconnected 99.
Church-wide Alignment is Powerful.
Rick Warren showed us the way years ago. When you fully align across ministries, you get massive movement in disciple-making. CCoF launched Rooted, a simple method for making disciples, and have had over 450 already attend. The result has been a lot of behavioral movements, such as 100+ more volunteers serving.
Your church is unique and the answers to your challenges are unique too. But we know sharing learnings like these can help you in your leadership, no matter your church’s size or style. We hope these encourage you and move you toward greater Kingdom impact.
