26.1 Hard Things We Need to Hear about Growth and Change (Andrew Heard) | Conversations about Growth and Change
Mar 18, 2024
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Author Andrew Heard discusses the hard truths needed for growth and change in churches. Topics include church effectiveness in Australia, balancing growth and truth in leadership, and preaching challenging realities to drive positive change.
Andrew Heard emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between actions and their resulting impacts in church leadership.
Pastor Heard warns against compromising convictions for growth and stresses the need for a Christ-centered approach.
Deep dives
Reasons for Writing 'Growth and Change' Book
The book 'Growth and Change' was written by Pastor Andrew Hurd over seven or eight years ago but was revisited due to its positive impact on others. Hurd felt led to contribute to the effectiveness of churches and reaching more people for Christ. Despite questioning the need for another Christian book initially, the support and encouragement from others motivated him to pursue its publication.
Focus on Discipleship and Influence
Pastor Hurd emphasizes his compulsion for preaching the Gospel and his passion for seeing Australia won for Christ. He stresses the importance of distinguishing between actions (inputs) and their resulting impact (outputs) in church leadership. Hurd believes in influencing outcomes while recognizing the spiritual burden to make churches more effective and impactful through necessary changes.
Challenges and Dangers in Pursuing Growth
Pastor Hurd highlights the dangers pastors face when focusing solely on external growth while neglecting their personal identity and spiritual pitfalls. He addresses the potential hazards of compromising convictions for growth and the importance of maintaining a Christ-centered approach. Additionally, he cautions against diluting teachings to attract outsiders at the cost of neglecting the spiritual growth of believers within the church.
What are the hard things we need to hear? Andrew Heard spent seven years working on this new book, challenging us to think about how we should think about growth and change. Here is the first of four conversations about some of the things that didn't make it to the book.