Takeaways from “Ignite” by Nelson Searcy

My takeaways from "Ignite" by Nelson Searcy

This is my fourth Searcy book to complete in the past four months: Activate, Launch, Fusion, and now Ignite.  His books are easy to read, chock full of practical advice and experience, and they read like I think.  I'm a sucker for his books now, I even pre-ordered this one before they stocked them at Amazon.

Searcy is a former pastor at Saddleback Church in California (where Rick Warren is Senior Pastor).  His experiences there combined with his practical church planting experiences in NYC create a powerful testimony to focus, vision, and staying intentional.

This book is no different, although everything from cover design to the "feel" of the book had a different feeling than the first three Searcy books I read.  Each one of those felt more like a planning manual, whereas Ignite came across as theory more often peppered with a few practical examples.

The power in all of Searcy's works are that he challenges you to localize and not copy verbatim.  The books gives great blueprints but each pastor must adapt the plans to fit a particular culture.

Key Takeaways:

• If your church is so great – you ought to regularly be bringing people you know that have no authentic community to come experience community in Christ.
• Evangelism is not a one-time event – sowing the seed wide and far is our job.  God is the one who gives the return and harvest.
• 1 out of 4 people will respond positively to a first invite to church.  3 out of 4 respond positively when asked just one more time!
• Stretch and release is a reality.  Big days force a sense of urgency followed by a recoup period of time, much like exercise.
• Easter is a big day – but we can open other opportunities throughout the year that are easy to invite people to and give them a reason to attend church on a specific day.
• The pastor sets the evangelistic temperature of the church through his personal passion for reaching the lost and unchurched.
• Only about 5% of Christians have the gift of direct one-on-one evangelism.  There must be a renewed emphasis on John 1:42 evangelism of people bringing others to the feet of Jesus.
• Churches often face growth barriers at the 65, 125, 250, 500, 1000 and 2500 size.
• Prayer and fasting are absolutely essential for a church to reach the unchurched.
• When your church begins to make progress for the Kingdom of God, that's when the devil will unleash his worst attacks.  Never give up.
• "God's Kingdom has never been and will never be built on a foundation of complacency"
• It is the Pastor's job to keep the church focused outward because the natural humanistic tendency is to slip to becoming increasingly inward focused.