Live Blog From 2014 Orange Conference – 23 Leadership Quotes From Geoff Surratt

This week I am being dispatched by Injoy Stewardship Solutions (ISS) to attend the 2014 Orange Conference.  In an effort to grow in my skills to better add value to pastors and church leaders, I will be live blogging throughout.

The second breakout session was conducted by the Geoff Surratt, Pastor of Church Planting at Southeast Christian in Parker, Colorado.  Geoff’s session was entitled The Life Cycle Of A Church.  The following are 23 leadership quotes I captured during the session:

1. Most churches eventually die.
2. The churches the Apostle Paul planted eventually died.  Either Paul did it wrong or there is a natural growth cycle to churches.
3. The goal of a child-church is to survive.  They say, “If we don’t have anymore money or anymore people we won’t survive.”
4. If the senior leader is taken out of the picture immediately, the question is “How long would we survive?”
5. The goal in the adult stage is maturity.  We know we’re going to survive.
6. A child-church measures nickels and noses.  It is weird when a church is in a different stage and still measuring nickels and noses.
7. In the adult stage we measure growing disciples and developing leaders.
8. We use SPREAD to measure discipleship.  Are you Serving in your local church?  Do you have a consistent time of Prayer?  Are you Reading your Bible?  Are you Engaged in biblical community?  Are you Actively involved in community transformation?  Do you Develop other disciples?
9. The one thing all disciples have in common is a consistent time of Bible reading.
10. Evangelism is the first step of discipleship.
11. The goal of a parent church is multiplication.
12. 95% of churches in America never reproduce.  We are closing in America between 3,000 – 4,000 churches per year…We are not keeping up with population growth.
13. The most evangelistic thing a church can do in North America is start another church or launch another campus.
14. The goal of grandparent church is mentoring other churches.
15. Churches are looking at other churches not as competition but how they can bless other churches.
16. Senior citizen church is a church that has been around awhile, attendance leveled off a long time ago, no young people, finances have leveled off and the writing is on the wall.
17. A Senior citizen church has to think of its legacy.
18. A closed church is a loss of a Kingdom asset.
19. In the child and adult stage you need a Catalyst leader.
20. Then you become a Coach.  You’re not the one starting everything and coming up with all the ideas.
21. Finally, you become a Sage.  Getting old doesn’t make you wise.  Becoming wise is learning lessons and sharing them with others.
22. A difference between a church and natural life is the church can go back through the stages.
23. A church can grow for about 15 years and then you plateau.

As a gift to everyone reading this post, ISS would like to provide everyone a FREE copy of the Ebook 5 Mistakes That Will Kill Your Church Fund Raising.  Simply click here or on the image to the left to receive your complimentary resource.