Deep and Wide: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend - Softcover

Stanley, Andy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0310526531 ISBN 13: 9780310526537

Publisher: Zondervan, 2016

Synopsis

A Close Look at What It Takes to Create an Irresistible Church.

This isn't a book about how to make your church bigger. This is a book about how to make your church more appealing to the people who don’t usually—or have never—gone to church.

Deep and Wide provides church leaders with an in-depth look into North Point Community Church and its strategies, its goals, its methods, and its story. You'll learn how to create a church that unchurched people absolutely love to attend. Pastor Andy Stanley explains:

• His strategy for preaching and programming to both mature believers and skeptics.
• North Point's spiritual formation model: The Five Faith Catalysts.
• Three essential ingredients for creating irresistible environments.
• How to tackle the challenge of transitioning a local congregation.

 

Updated & Expanded edition includes discussion guide, church staff resources, and a Q&A with Andy!

"Andy Stanley is on the front lines of a major shift in how both Christians and non-Christians experience "church" in America. In Deep and Wide, Andy opens up his playbook for how North Point Community Church grew into one of the nation's most effective churches, openly shares their victories and failures, and shows you how to take your own church deeper in the Word and wider in appeal." —Dave Ramsey, New York Times bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio show host.

About this title

About the Author

Communicator, author, and pastor Andy Stanley founded Atlanta-based North Point Ministries (NPM) in 1995. Today, NPM consists of eight churches in the Atlanta area and a network of 180 churches around the globe that collectively serve over 200,000 people weekly. As host of Your Move with Andy Stanley, which delivers over 10.5 million messages each month through television, digital platforms, and podcasts, and author of more than 20 books, including Irresistible; Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets; and Deep & Wide, Andy is considered one of the most influential pastors in America.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Deep & Wide

Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend

By Andy Stanley

ZONDERVAN

Copyright © 2016 Andy Stanley
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-310-52653-7

Contents

Acknowledgments, 9, 
Introduction, 11, 
Section One: My Story, 
Starting Up and Starting Over, 
1. Not All That Deep, 21, 
2. Family Matters, 35, 
Section Two: Our Story, 
Walking Toward the Messes, 
3. Words Matter, 57, 
4. Just As I Ain't, 69, 
5. Defying Gravity, 85, 
Section Three: Going Deep, 
Rethinking Spiritual Formation, 
6. My Big Discovery, 103, 
7. Playing My Part, 111, 
8. From Out of Nowhere, 131, 
Section Four: Going Wide, 
Why They Love to Attend, 
9. Creating Irresistible Environments, 157, 
10. Rules of Engagement, 193, 
11. Double-Barrel Preaching, 227, 
Section Five: Becoming Deep and Wide, 
Transitioning a Local Church, 
12. Coming to Blows with the Status Quo, 265, 
13. Mission and Model, 277, 
14. Led to Lead, 293, 
Conclusion: What If?, 307, 
Appendices, 
Appendix A: North Point Survey Cards and Results Sample, 319, 
Appendix B: Starting Point Ministry Description, 327, 
Appendix C: Measurable Ministry Wins, 331, 
Appendix D: North Point's Mission, Strategy, and Beliefs, 337, 
Appendix E: North Point Community Church Charter Members, 339, 
Appendix F: The North Point Covenant: An Introduction and Explanation, 347, 
Q & A with Andy Stanley, 357, 
Team Discussion Guide, 377, 
Notes, 393, 

CHAPTER 1

Not All That Deep

My earliest memory of church was my dad baptizing me when I was six. I still remember what he said: "A pastor has no greater privilege than to baptize his own children."

He was right.

I've baptized all three of mine.

As a preacher's kid, there was never a time in my life that I was not involved in church. And unlike a lot of PKs, I don't remember ever being forced to go. I liked it. Church was always the center of my social life. It's where I made lifelong friends, several of whom I'm still connected with today.

My parents began their ministry together in 1957 in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. After graduating from seminary, my dad accepted a call to pastor Fruitland Baptist Church. In addition to pastoring the church, he was invited to teach at the Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute, located directly across the parking lot from the church. FBBI was established in 1946 to assist local pastors who lacked the opportunity or means for theological training. So there he was, all of twenty-four years old, teaching men almost twice his age who had been pastoring for years but who lacked formal training. And he loved it.

Fortunately for me, there was no hospital in Fruitland. Equally fortunate was the fact that my mom did not want to deliver me at home. So technically I'm not from Fruitland. I was born right around the corner in Hendersonville.

From Fruitland we moved to Fairborn, Ohio, where my sister was born. Then my dad accepted a call to First Baptist Church of Miami, Florida. We lived in Miami seven years before transitioning to First Baptist Church of Bartow, forty miles east of Tampa, Florida. We were there only fifteen months when a friend called and asked my dad to pray about coming to First Baptist Church of Atlanta as the senior associate pastor. He wasn't the least bit interested. We loved Bartow. But he assured Felix that he would pray about it, hoping Felix wouldn't call back. But he did. And he kept calling. And apparently so did God.

In

Edition details

• Publisher: Zondervan
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0310526531
• ISBN 13: 9780310526537
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400