Gaining By Losing Why the Futu

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.

J. D. Greear is the pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, which has grown from 300 to over 14,000 under his leadership. He has a bold vision to plant 1,000 new churches by the year 2050.

J. D. has authored several books, including Twelve Truths and a Lie (2023), What Are You Going to Do with Your Life? (2020), Not God Enough (2018), Stop Asking Jesus into Your Heart (2013), and Gospel (2011). He hosts Summit Life, a daily thirty-minute radio broadcast and weekly TV program on 200+ stations nationwide, as well as the impactful Ask the Pastor podcast.

J. D. completed his PhD in theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is on the board of directors for Chick-fil-A and recently served as the 63rd president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

J. D. and his wife, Veronica, live in the Research Triangle of Raleigh, North Carolina, with their four kids, Kharis, Alethia, Ryah, and Adon.