Brothers Dave and Jon Ferguson, who wrote The Big Idea (with Eric Bramlett), talk about their second book Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement, which is one of the inaugural books in the Exponential Series presented by Leadership Network, the Exponential Network and Zondervan. Dave and Jon will be at the Exponential Conference April 19-22.
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Why did you write Exponential?
We have always wanted to write this book, it really is our story of reproducing from a small group of friends to what is now becoming a movement. In the process we provide some great information and tools to help you reproduce leaders, artists, coaches, directors, campus pastors, churches and networks.
Who is the book for?
This book is written for any Christ follower who believes the Acts 1:8 vision can be accomplished and wants to reproduce other Christ followers.
Where did your ideas come from?
The idea for this book came from our story as a church and a network designed to help share the reproducing vision and provide tools and resources to make that vision a reality.
What is new about what you have to say in Exponential?
Our first book, The Big Idea focused mostly on our creative content development and how we communicate one clear and concise message across all campuses and all age groups. Exponential tells our story of how God brought a handful of friends together to start a missional church movement and how others could do the same. The principles we share come from the very message that Jesus communicated to His first followers when he said, “Come follow me.” So, there may be very little that is actually new about this book, but it is the one book you can read if you want to reproduce yourself, your ministry and your church.
Are there any big surprises in the book?
The surprise in this book is that you and your friends can start a missional church movement. I’m not sure most people get that but hopefully after reading this book they will believe that.
What’s something readers can start doing right away?
The one thing in this book that I think anyone can begin to apply today and make a difference immediately is to have an apprentice. It doesn’t matter if you’re leading a small group or the lead pastor of a very large church, you need to be asking the question, “Who is walking beside you? Who are you equipping to do what you are doing?” That is absolutely foundational to developing a reproducing culture in any church.
What do you hope the reader takes away from Exponential?
The “BIG IDEA” or take away from this book would be that you can do this! There is a perception that starting a church is hard or leading a network is only for the mostly highly gifted leaders, but I’m telling you that everything we’ve learned about reproduction started in a small group. We both (Dave and Jon) lead small groups, develop apprentices and invite people to join us in community. Soon our apprentices will start a second small group and so on and so on.
How can readers connect with you and/or join the conversation?
We are really excited about the reproducing leader assessment and the reproducing church assessment that we’ll have online soon that will aid readers in evaluating their capacity for reproducing leaders, artists, missional teams, small group, and even campuses, churches, and networks. We will also be introducing a tool through www.DailyDigital.me so that you can read the book along with us and interact with us; it will launch April 20th. We hope to have many conversations with people based on their own findings and discoveries from the very practical principles they find in this book. Seriously, we can’t wait to talk to many of you so follow us on twitter at @daveferguson or @jonferguson or through Dave’s blog: www.daveferguson.org.
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Stephanie Plagens is the Publications Manager for Leadership Network.
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