One Decision

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If you’ve read James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, you’ve given thought to the power of small things – small decisions, tiny habits, and decisions that may seem insignificant at the time but will ultimately bring powerful, lasting consequences. While I could write about a number of decisions I’ve made as a pastor or helped church leaders make when I’ve coached their churches, but the one decision that has affected many other decisions is the choice to focus on church health instead of church growth.

While working on my Doctor of Ministry degree in church growth, my school changed the focus of my program to church health. That should have been an indicator to me that I needed to change my personal focus, but it took me a few years. My church could focus on formulas and strategies to bring people into the building, but the fruit of that focus may not be spiritual in the end and wouldn’t honour the Lord Jesus. When we began focusing on health instead of growth, God began doing a wonderful thing in us and through us.

I learned that a healthy church is a growing church in more ways than just attendance. When I first came to pastor my church seventeen years ago, loving relationships were our lowest quality of the eight qualities of a healthy church. After focusing our attention on that minimum factor, loving relationships are now one of our top areas. We also grew in stewardship and ministry leaders. Our vision grew from trying to figure out how to survive to how to reach our world for Jesus.

The NCD principle is called the “All By Itself” principle. When you invest in becoming a healthy church, your church will seem to grow “all by itself.” I’d spent years trying to implement church growth principles and strategies to no avail, but real growth came after shifting our attention to becoming a healthy church. A healthy church is not only a growing church but also a God-honoring church.

I wish I had made that one decision when I first started as a pastor, but I’m so grateful that God led me to Natural Church Development some years ago. It has changed the focus of my life and the results of my ministry.