How Bible Reading Can Jumpstart Your Church’s Discipleship, with Matt Lucas (ep 90)

The research is in. Daily engagement in the Bible is the behavior that's most likely to build someone's spiritual maturity.

November 21, 2024

by Karl Vaters

Discipleship. It may be the most neglected essential element of modern church life. Just getting a congregation started on the discipleship road feels like a challenge for a lot of pastors.

But one of the best ways to jumpstart discipleship is also one of the most basic — reading the Bible as a congregation.

Matt Lucas is the CEO of Our Daily Bread (known for their quarterly devotionals) and The Center for Bible Engagement. In this episode, he and I talk about starting your congregation on the road to spiritual maturity through increasing their Bible reading. Specifically, how reading the Bible at least four times a week is so powerful, it’s been called “The Power Of Four.”

Subjects include:

What is The Power of Four?
Why does reading the Bible 4+ times a week make such a difference in spiritual maturity?
The importance of reading and hearing the Bible in church
Helpful ways to gauge spiritual maturity
How to use Power of Four to help a congregation become more mature

Links from this Episode

Bonus Content

A Congregational Survey to Help Track Your Congregation’s Spiritual Maturity, with Matt Lucas

How do you know if your congregation is maturing? Tracking church attendance is not enough.

Matt Lucas and the team at Our Daily Bread are creating a powerful new tool to help pastors and their congregations. In this Bonus Material, I talk with Matt as he shows us this new tool, explaining what it will do, how easy it will be, and how you’ll be able to use it to lead your congregation well.

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Credits

Producer: Veronica Beaver

Editor: Phil Vaters

Music: Composed and performed by Jack Wilkins

Logo: by Solomon Joy

Correspondence

Author

Karl Vaters

Karl Vaters produces resources for Helping Small Churches Thrive at KarlVaters.com.
He's the author of five books on church leadership, including his newest, De-Sizing the Church: How Church Growth Became a Science, Then an Obsession, and What's Next. His other books include The Grasshopper Myth and Small Church Essentials.
Karl also hosts a bi-weekly podcast, The Church Lobby: Conversations on Faith & Ministry, featuring in-depth interviews about topics that concern pastors, especially those who minister in a small church context. He has served in small-church ministry for over 40 years, so he speaks and writes from decades of hands-on pastoral experience.
You can follow Karl on Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, and LinkedIn, or Contact Karl to inquire about speaking, writing, and consultation.

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