Bill Taylor is the Executive Director of the Evangelical Free Church of Canada. He is Canadian born and bred, has served small churches and understands the diversity of the country.
“I just download my knowledge into somebody, and now they’re a disciple? And somehow Jesus did it? I don’t think that’s what he had in mind. It’s usually a journey. That’s a relational journey. And yes, there’s information involved, but small churches, I think, are uniquely designed to do that, if they’re healthy.”
“When I’m talking to pastors, when they’re going to be in a small church, I want to say, look, really, really embrace the shepherd, Pastor model. Remember what pastor means and get over yourself and get over the hubris of being the celebrity preacher.”
“Preaching as we know it as a post-reformation creation. I’m not against it, I just don’t believe that you make a disciple by preaching. So that’s the other thing. I tell pastors, if you think that your week is well spent by spending 30 hours to talk at people for 45 minutes, and then you’re done making a disciple, you preaching alone does not make a disciple. You’re going to want to be relational, you’re going to want to really embrace that Shepherd motif.”
“I think the churches, whether big or small, the churches that had deep relationships between the believers, you know, really good, healthy, small groups, those churches are going to come out of COVID, I think, fine.”
“One of our largest churches is a new Korean church. I think they have, I don’t know, 4000 people. I asked the pastor. What’s the core of his church? You know, what’s his core responsibility. The senior pastor, he didn’t blink. He just said, All he said was, our small groups, that’s where we make all our disciples. And he spends chunks of his time. big chunks of his time developing small group leaders, and that’s where they make disciples. Sunday mornings, great, but it’s not where they make their disciples, right. That’s where you worship and encourage each other.”
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