Healthy local churches can be and should be both deep and wide, according to Andy Stanley in his book Deep & Wide: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend. It should be both/and, not either/or. Local churches should be characterised by deep roots and wide reaches. Churches should be theologically sound and culturally relevant. We should be bold in our proclamation and winsome in our approach.
The first section of the book tells the fascinating but tragic story of the events leading up to Andy’s decision to resign from his father’s church. During those years, Andy and his fellow leaders had experienced some success in reaching unchurched people, so they decided to start a new church that unchurched people would want to attend. Section two of the book gives a biblical justification of this approach, section three explains the spiritual formation model – the “deep” part, section four explains “irresistible environments” – the “wide” part, and section five discusses the changes necessary in making a church attractive to unchurched people.
Spiritual formation, or discipleship, is often regarded as a major problem for larger churches, so it is interesting to read North Point Community Church’s approach, which essentially rejects the classroom model and the sequential-curriculum approach. Instead, the church aims to engage people with five faith-building dynamics:
- Practical Teaching, which helps people understand what to do with what they are being taught from the Bible
- Private Disciplines, involving personal Bible reading, prayer, self-study, giving, etc.
- Personal Ministry, which enables people to experience the feeling of being useful to God
- Providential Relationships, enabling people to hear from God through someone or to see God in someone
- Pivotal Circumstances, being life events that give people the opportunity to grow closer to or further away from God
Andy writes in an entertaining and at times humorous manner. My favourite one-liner occurs when discussing the pro-circumcision movement that Paul was opposing: “Bottom line, the new members classes were full of women and children — while the men waited in the car.”
The book will not appeal to every reader. Those committed to a more traditional style of church and those committed to a house church style are unlikely to have their philosophy of ministry changed by what they read here. Most readers will probably disagree with at least some of the book’s contents; nonetheless any church leader is likely to gain considerable benefit from reading and considering what Andy has to say.