Leaving the Church part 3 of 4

Craig Groeschel, Pastor of LifeChurch.tv just concluded this series of posts over at his SWERVE blog. I thought they were worth posting here.

One year I taught on our church’s vision. I boldly but lovingly asked everyone to “sell out to Christ through a local church.” If it was at Life, great! But if they couldn’t fully buy into the vision, I asked them to find another church.

I explained that in the lobby, I had brochures from ten other churches in town that I recommended. (I had relationships with these pastors and completely trusted their leadership.)

The next week, we had about 500 new seats for people who could get excited about the vision. Within a short period of time, God filled those seats with passionate people. Many of those who left our church found great, biblical churches where they could worship and use their gifts.

Everybody won!

That’s why I sometimes say, “You can grow your church by asking people to leave.”