This book is now available in print and as an eBook

PREVENTING GROWTH THAT HURTS THE LOCAL CHURCH

 

I have met many who are adrift in the Body because they lost their way when they changed churches. They approached it wrong, doing it for the wrong reasons, causing them to wander like lost sheep. Not everyone makes it safely back into a fold, and not every shepherd has His heart to help them in them process.

 

While the Lord does not mind our changing churches, as it is all His Body, He does care about how and whywe do it. In this book we explore the right way to change churches and give a list of reasons why we shouldn’t and how we should.

 

This study was originally written to help pastors trust the Lord to grow their churches without resorting to the kinds of things that actually hurt church growth.

 

It also addresses the subject of church growth from a biblical point of view.

 

The idea behind this study about gatekeeping comes from John 10, where Jesus used a term to describe how a shepherd would place himself in the doorway of the sheepfold in order to protect the flock. He alone determined who came in or went out of the fold. 

 

For me, gatekeeping has come to describe the process we use in our churches to determine who is allowed to come into our fold to influence our flock. We don’t believe our church is like a public library, where anyone can come in to part of us or benefit from our resources. This book helps us become more discerning about who is going to influence the lives of our people. 

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This booklet is about 75 pages in length.