Jon Ferguson

A tried-and-true classic in dynamic ministry growth, church building, and discipleship momentum. From professional church-planters Dave and Jon Ferguson comes the anchor book in the Exponential Series—envisioning new and practical methods of building churches, communities, and organizations on the cornerstone of Christ.Many of today's Christians consider the missional challenge of Jesus—feed the hungry, comfort the lonely, bring people to God's Word—as inspirational but not something achievable. Or they've heard the challenge of Jesus and are frustrated with how little they've done. Jesus gave his followers this mission because he wants them to hear it, be inspired, and then actually do it. And it is possible.Exponential lays out a concise and effective reproducing strategy, giving practical steps and case studies as you follow the growth of a church movement through four mains stages:The initial navigation of ministry image, set-up, and gradual growth.The gathering of a community around a cause and the conversations that take place at this point.The reproduction of communities into multisite growth and wider impact.The infrastructure and networking of large missional movements and how to stay focused on the bedrock of the Gospel.Weaved throughout this book is the amazing story of Community Christian Church, which was started by five friends who used these reproducing strategies to grow one of the most influential churches in the U.S. and develop a network of reproducing churches.Exponential is designed to help Christian leaders, groups, teams, churches, and networks experience rapid and spiritually healthy growth.

Community Christian Church embraced the Big Idea and everything changed. They decided to avoid the common mistake of bombarding people with so many “little ideas” that they suffered overload. They also recognized that leaders often don’t insist that the truth be lived out to accomplish Jesus’ mission. Why? Because people’s heads are swimming with too many little ideas, far more than they can ever apply.The Big Idea can help you creatively present one laser-focused theme each week to be discussed in families and small groups. The Big Idea shows how to engage in a process of creative collaboration that brings people together and maximizes missional impact. The Big Idea can energize a church staff and bring alignment and focus to many diverse church ministries. This book shows how the Big Idea has helped Community Christian Church better accomplish the Jesus mission and reach thousands of people in nine locations and launch a church planting network with partner churches across the country.This book is part of the Leadership Network Innovation Series.