Any book that starts with the question, “What if your church could double in one day?” is likely to be of great interest to pastors around the world, and it is perhaps not surprising that Nelson Searcy’s latest book Ignite: How to Spark Immediate Growth in Your Church shot onto Amazon’s best seller list when it was released.
Searcy knows how to create a buzz when selling books, and he applies many of the same types of techniques to growing a church. He recommends that you put on “big days” to reach new people. Christmas and Easter are natural big days, and you should schedule a few others at strategic times. Get your church involved in the build-up to the big day, praying, fasting and inviting their friends. If everyone brings someone else, then the number of people in your church can double in one day.
I learned some useful new things from Searcy’s previous books on assimilation and small groups, but I did not find much new content in this book, given that I have previously read The Purpose Driven Church and a lot of other church growth books. Nevertheless, it is written in an engaging style (thanks, presumably, to the literary expertise of the co-author Jennifer Dykes Henson) and it contains most of what you need to know if you subscribe to Searcy’s Sunday-event-driven church growth model. If you are more a believer in an emerging church / missional community model, this book is not for you.