Ignite: How to Spark Immediate Growth in Your Church

I have been reading many books these past 4 years since spending time with Nelson Searcy in a Coaching Network. What Nelson has done in this book is to organize some of his best ideas, practices and learnings into a coherent and useful tool for those who are trying to figure out how to work in the church in the current environment. I do best when I try to find my top learnings from a book so here are the things that hit me the most in this read.There is plenty here to keep you thinking and doing for quite a while if you put what you find most challenging into practice in your context.1. I was struck by the Easter survey. To get a test of where people are in their spiritual journey - follower, 1st. time commitment, considering and don't believe. P. 148 What a great way to know if you are connecting people to Christ or not.2. The follow up process for new believers - knowing myself what I would want them to do in 1st. hour, day, week, month is a great possibility for following up with people who take the first step. p 1563. "Next steps for Your Journey" read and should devise my own plan (or use much of this one) p. 155 This piece is one of the benefits of buying the book and going to the book's website. more info for free!4. Jason Eason's 6000 minutes of prayer - just saying things in this way is an awesome thing. I could adapt for our people 2000 minutes of prayer for an event. P.154 It sounds bigger and it is powerful.5. When the Spirit of God prompts someone to attend church for the first time or for the first time in a long long time what will make them think of us? p 131 Have they seen or heard from us 7 times? This book made me think if what my church is doing to be on the minds of people in the community for that time when they decide it is time to cross the church door threshold in some way.6. Are we risking enough to put it all on the line to reach people for Jesus Christ? Most of the UMC is not into risk. Are we at our church taking risks for the Kingdom work? p. 1257. Empower people by expecting and challenging them to give their best .... AND challenging the Staff to do same. P74 I must be more bold.8. Most likely to see new people in Feb,, Easter and one month after school begins. Pps. 70, 71 (for us it is also Christmas Eve) I am ramping up for this right now.9. Pastor's primary role is to keep the evangelism temperature RED HOT! p. 53 which means that the evangelism buck stops with me. Ouch, think I just got burnt.10. Big day, big Day, big day... do it! And something to offer to help them want to come back again the next week. (Most wars are won in the training of the troops)

As an avid reader, I've read many of the big books on evangelism/church growth.As with all of Nelson's books to date, he writes with clarity and simplicity that energizes the reader for action - which is what we imply when we read "how to" books. So, read with a highlighter in hand, then personalize YOUR "Big Day" on a legal pad. This book will help you have the confidence to do it and the tools to succeed...whether or not you've done it before or you think you know how.Our first "big day" after reading the book was an 18% growth - and that was with only one month of prep. Just wait till the next one! Thanks Nelson...

exactly what i ordered.

One of the things I love about Nelson Searcy's books is that they are so practical. Many books for church leaders are heavy on theory, or have lots of inspiration, but rarely get into the practical ways to do things. This book gives you a real approach to growing your church. In addition, it provides links to free downloadable resources that enhance it greatly. Here's a snapshot of what I took away from it.1. God wants lost people more than you do.2. Your Fall big day should be 1 month after school starts because people are still getting their schedule established until them.3. February is a good time for a Big Day4. February is accompanied by a host of emotional needs that stay repressed during other months. This is an excellent time to deal with these real needs as a Big Day initiated series.5. When your members are praying with an "alert mind" and for "opportunities to speak" (Colossians 4:2-3) you have gone a long way towards establishing a minset for evangelism in the congregation.6. If you do a Big Day without an effective assimilation process in place, you will quickly go back to the status quo.7. The four corners of the evangelism system are the pastor, personal evangelism, promotion, and preservation8. Say something like "If you found today's message helpful, whu not invite a friend to join you next week?" at the end of EVERY service.9. Make a heart for evangelism one of the standard prerequisites for all new hires.10. We don't double every week because as church leaders we aren't mobilizing people for evangelism.

Nelson's book is filled with many practical ways to raise the evangelistic temperature of your church, and I will share my top ten takeaways below. What I was not prepared for was how God challenged my own evangelism. I needed this reigniting of my heart.My takeaways:1. The path of discipleship IS the road of evangelism.2. There is value in "Big Days" in the church for reaching new people, growing believers, and building momentum.3. I need to know the evangelistic temperature of our church.4. As the pastor, my job is to keep the evangelistic temperature in our church hot--I cannot hand this off!5. Our staff, starting with me, need to model praying for the lost and serving in evangelistic activities.6. Our staff needs to be praying for each other in the area of evangelism.7. People do what is urgent--how urgent is evangelism at our church?8. We need to celebrate evangelistic activity among our people.9. God will never bring us more than we are prepared to receive.10. We cannot "push" all year long; there is a need for rhythm and rest in the church.Good stuff here that gets really practical and doable.

to learn more about Church growth and get a more in depth study about how to do it and what success the other person has had with his approach

Ignite is good solid practical advice for growing a church. It is geared to an already establided church where more than one small group is formed. Some real wisdom gems but the author takes too seriously the old saying: tell them what you are going to say, tell them, then tell them again. Very repeatative so I ended up skimming material.

I guess giving a three star might be a little harsh...there is nothing wrong with the book in itself. It's well put together. As a British church planter living in very secular northern (Estonia), it's just for me the church world, even Christian culture that this book lives in (assumes?), is a long way ahead of where we are at here.Useful for American churches, I'm sure. Just not so helpful here (sadly). This is no reflection on the book, it's just a reflection on Godless Europe!

Although it is American and I'm in the Church of England, there are many transferrable principles. Implementing the whole system as it stands would not work in that context. However, it gave me lots of ideas. Thanks.