Emmaus Life Ministries

I recommend reading "Building a Discipleship Culture" (BDC) before reading "Small Church on a Big Mission" (SCBM). SCBM is the story of a pastor implementing BDC practices in his small church.


“This book celebrates the blessings of being a part of a small church on a BIG Mission.”

“If you are looking for a resource that will provide you with a ‘let’s grow the church fast’ strategy or provide you with the next program to inspire your church forward, this is probably not the resource for you.”

“If, however, you are looking for practical principles for moving and shaping your culture toward discipleship and mission that celebrate the bigness of God’s Kingdom, then this book is definitely for you.” --Jeff Allen

Loving Church

I love church now more than ever before in my life. I couldn’t say that five years ago. In fact, I might have said the opposite. The change came with a simple question from my friend Joe Woodruff, “What would church look like if you didn’t have a building or programs?”

That simple question made the scriptures come alive. The New Testament church was about relationships and community…not buildings and programs.

Prior to Emmaus Life Ministries I was a professional fundraiser. I raised money for children’s homes, inner city ministries, overseas missions, family ministry and churches. Why is it that when God gives a vision to believers in 21st century America it seemed to always come with a 30 year mortgage? We are mortgaging today’s resources for a future that it out of our control. The emphasis on buildings seemed to be more of a costly distraction than a necessity for growing the Kingdom.

The 20 years prior to starting Emmaus Life Ministries I was the Founder and Executive Director of Family Time Training. Family Time challenges families and church leaders to shift the primary method of teaching children the faith from church programs back to parents and grandparents. Family Time presents a paradigm shift for churches away from programs and back to the biblical model of home-centered spiritual training. A shift almost all churches ignored or refused to make. One pastor said, “You are right. Families are to be the spiritual trainers but we are good at running children’s ministry programs and that is what we are going to do.” We spend more on children’s ministry than ever before in the history of the church and we are losing more children to the faith than ever before. Why the commitment to programs? Is one major factor that programs bring people into the church to pay the mortgage?

Over time, what I saw as the misuse of resources and the dependence on church-based, programs led to my falling out of love with the church.

Joe asked, “What if church is more about the relationships God has already placed in your life and less about the one hour worship service on Sunday morning?” Joe introduced my wife Trudi and I to Advocate, a church whose primary expression is not Sunday morning. We agreed to try Advocate for six months. More than two years later, Advocate remains our primary model for doing church.

After dinner with a couple, mentoring with an individual, meeting as a community in our home, and serving together we will say, “Now that was church!” We still attend a Sunday morning service were we enjoy worship music and communion with brothers and sisters in Christ. Sunday service also gives us more friends where we can learn, live and build Christ-like relationships.

"The Meaning of Missional" by Dick Wiedenheft.