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Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to…
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Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send (Exponential Series) (edition 2015)

by J. D. Greear (Author)

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363170,231 (4.33)None
People are leaving the church J.D. Greear pastors. Big givers. Key volunteers. Some of his best leaders and friends. And that's exactly how he wants it to be. When Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commission, he revealed that the key for reaching the world with the gospel is found in sending, not gathering. Though many churches focus time and energy on attracting people and counting numbers, the real mission of the church isn't how many people you can gather. It's about training up disciples and then sending them out. The true measure of success for a church should be its sending capacity, not its seating capacity. But there is a cost to this. To see ministry multiply, we must release the seeds God has placed in our hands. And to do that, we must ask ourselves whether we are concerned more with building our kingdom or God's. In Gaining By Losing, J.D. Greear unpacks ten plumb lines that you can use to reorient your church's priorities around God's mission to reach a lost world. The good news is that you don't need to choose between gathering or sending. Effective churches can, and must, do both.… (more)
Member:DianeFrancisco
Title:Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send (Exponential Series)
Authors:J. D. Greear (Author)
Info:Zondervan (2015), 256 pages
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Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send (Exponential Series) by J.D. Greear

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J.D. Greear is the pastor of the multi-site Summit Church in Raliegh-Durham, North Carolina and the author of several Christian books. While I am generally suspicious of mega-churches, I am impressed by the substance of Greear's teaching. He is passionate about biblical teaching, discipleship and getting people to live out their faith in risky ways. His new book, Gaining By Losing: Why the Future Belongs to Churches that Send unpacks ten kingdom 'plumb lines' for church leaders to lead their churches in becoming a sending church. When Greear took over the helm at Homestead Heights Baptist Church, he relaunched a traditional Baptist church as a contemporary missional church. They went from a congregation of three-hundred to a mega church, to a multi-site church. Greear has a passion for growing missional leaders and releasing them to make a kingdom impact.

At the heart of Greear's approach is a passion for sending. While other pastors focus on growing their church or movement, Greear and his leadership team do not hold on to their most gifted leaders. They train them and send them out. In this book, Greear shares 'plumb lines' --short memorable phrases that he repeats ad nausem to help keep his leadership and congregation on mission. These include:

The Gospel is Not Just the Diving Board, It is the Pool
Everyone is called.
The Week is as Important as the Weekend
A Church is Not a Group of People Gathered Around a Leader but a Leadership Factory
The Church Makes Visible the Invisible Christ
The Point in Everything is to Make Disciples
Every Pastor is Our Missions Pastor
We Seek to Live Multicultural Lives, Not Just Host Multicultural Events
Risk is Right
When You are Sick of Saying It, They've Just Heard It
While the stated purpose of the book is to get churches to be sending churches (through both church planting and short term missions), the above "plumb lines" illustrate an approach to ministry that is gospel soaked, rooted in the priesthood of all believers, puts a priority on discipleship, and actively cultivates diversity. The church that I pastor is not at sending stage but a small church that needs to pursue growth. Nevertheless Greear has plenty of things to say which apply to my context, and casts a vision for where we can grow to.

As a pastor, I appreciated the practical nature of this book. I like that Greear is not confused about technique, models and methods. His vision for a sending church is firmly grounded in New Testament faith. Two appendixes give practical insights for setting up an international mission strategy, and developing a strategy for domestic church planting. For my context, many of Greear's recommendations don't work, but I still felt myself stretched and encouraged to take Kingdom risks. I give this four stars.

Note: I received this book from Cross Focused Reviews and Zondervan for the purposes of this review. I also would be remiss if I failed to mention how much the cover evokes 80's era video games for me. Ah, memories. ( )
  Jamichuk | May 22, 2017 |
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People are leaving the church J.D. Greear pastors. Big givers. Key volunteers. Some of his best leaders and friends. And that's exactly how he wants it to be. When Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commission, he revealed that the key for reaching the world with the gospel is found in sending, not gathering. Though many churches focus time and energy on attracting people and counting numbers, the real mission of the church isn't how many people you can gather. It's about training up disciples and then sending them out. The true measure of success for a church should be its sending capacity, not its seating capacity. But there is a cost to this. To see ministry multiply, we must release the seeds God has placed in our hands. And to do that, we must ask ourselves whether we are concerned more with building our kingdom or God's. In Gaining By Losing, J.D. Greear unpacks ten plumb lines that you can use to reorient your church's priorities around God's mission to reach a lost world. The good news is that you don't need to choose between gathering or sending. Effective churches can, and must, do both.

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