Why Good Churches Still Produce Spiritually Stalled Christians
Five-week seriesWhy Good Churches Still · Five-week series
Preaching & Teaching Guide
A five-week series for helping your church move from activity to friendship with God.
Includes 72 slides with speaker notes, this guide as a PDF and 3 team handouts.
Start here
How are you using this book?
- Five-week seriesOne Sunday per week, following the book's movement from activity to friendship with God.
- One messageA single sermon from John 15 that carries the whole arc.
- Class or small groupFive or six sessions of 60–75 minutes, with discussion built in.
Your first three steps
Download the Preaching & Teaching Kit
Slides, this guide and the handouts in one ZIP. Download it above ↑Read Week 1
and the book sections it lists. Go to Week 1Send your team the handouts
Each one says when to use it. See the handouts
The series
Series at a glance
- Week 1: Busy Is Not the Same as GrowingLuke 10:38–42 · Ephesians 4:13–15
- Week 2: Friends, Not Just StudentsJohn 15:12–15 · John 5:39–40
- Week 3: Formation, Not Just ActivityMark 1:32–38 · Psalm 27:4, 8
- Week 4: How God Forms His PeoplePsalm 105:17–19 · James 1:2–4
- Week 5: A Church That Forms Friends of GodEphesians 4:11–16
Five Sundays, from a busy church to friends of God. Each shows the week's text and response. Select a week to jump to it.
Before the series
Planning checklist
Four weeks out
- Read the book through once, or at least the Introduction and Chapters 1, 3, 8 and 9.
- Meet with staff or elders using the leadership sidebar, and have each leader complete The Three Mistakes Review
- Choose the one simple personal practice you will give everyone in Week 3.
Two weeks out
- Print the two-line cards for Week 1.
- Print copies of Where Am I in the Cycle? for Week 4.
- Ask two or three people whether they would share something God has been forming in them in Week 5.
- Send small-group leaders the five weeks of questions.
The week of each Sunday
- Read that week's “Read before you preach” chapters.
- Choose one illustration from your own church for each prompt you use.
- Prepare a slide with the big idea, the featured line and the diagram.
Before Week 4
- Arrange people to pray with anyone walking through a hard season.
- Prepare the commissioning prayer for Week 5.
Introduction and Chapters 1–2
Week 1: Busy Is Not the Same as Growing
Luke 10:38–42 · Ephesians 4:13–15
This week at a glance
- Big idea
- A church can be full of faithful activity while its people quietly stop maturing. God is after more than what we do. He is forming who we are becoming.
- Prepare
- Cards for every seat with two lines printed on them: “What fills my week” and “Who I am becoming.”
Show full outline for Week 1Hide full outline
Preach it
On the text
- “Distracted with much serving” (Luke 10:40) pictures being pulled in many directions. Jesus does not rebuke Martha's service. He names what she is missing: “one thing is necessary” (v42).
- Mary “sat at the Lord's feet” (v39), the posture of a disciple learning from a rabbi (compare Paul “at the feet of Gamaliel,” Acts 22:3).
- In Ephesians 4:14–15 the opposite of maturity is being “children, tossed to and fro.” The goal is to “grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”
Read before you preach
The message
Describe a believer every pastor has met: hungry and eager at the start, then years later still attending, still serving, still sincere, and somehow no longer growing. Ask how many in the room have felt that in themselves.
Activity can look like growth without being growth. · Luke 10:40 · Intro, Ch 1
Activity fills a calendar.
Formation reshapes a soul.
Martha was serving. Mary was becoming. · Luke 10:39, 42 · Ch 1
Believers plateau when they stop recognizing how God works. · Ch 2
The goal is to grow up into Christ. · Eph 4:13–15 · Ch 1
Do not end by making busy people feel guilty. Martha was loved, and her service was good. End with Jesus' invitation to the one necessary thing: to sit with Him and let Him form you.
Where Jesus is in this text
As crowds grew around Jesus, “he would withdraw to desolate places and pray” (Luke 5:16). The Son who did more than anyone stayed closest to the Father, and He invites us into the same life.
Lines from the book
Spiritual maturity is not primarily measured by activity. It is measured by transformation.
Spiritual maturity is not primarily about what a believer knows. Nor is it primarily about what a believer does. It is about who a believer is becoming.
Most believers do not plateau because God has stopped working. They plateau because they stop recognizing how He works.
Illustration prompts from your own church
- A season when your calendar was full of ministry and your soul was running on empty.
- Someone faithful in church life who has quietly plateaued. Tell it with care and without details that identify them.
- A time growth started again for you, and what helped you recognize God working.
Lead the response
On Sunday
Two lines on a card
Hand out the cards. Invite each person to fill in both lines privately: what fills their week, and who they hope they are becoming. Ask them to keep the card in their Bible for the rest of the series.
Take it home · For households
At dinner this week, ask each person: “What is one way you are different because you follow Jesus?” Let the quiet answers count too.
Small-group questions
- What fills your week that is good, but is not forming you?
- When did you last feel you were growing? What was different then?
- If someone watched your life for a month, what would they say you are becoming?
Bridge · Next week: the goal of discipleship that many churches have quietly lost, and how knowing about God can replace walking with Him.
Chapters 3–4
Week 2: Friends, Not Just Students
John 15:12–15 · John 5:39–40
This week at a glance
- Big idea
- The goal of discipleship is friendship with God. A church can teach a great deal about God while its people never learn to walk with Him.
- Prepare
- A short guided time of listening prayer after the sermon, and someone ready to lead it.
Show full outline for Week 2Hide full outline
Preach it
On the text
- In John 15:15 the difference between a servant and a friend is what each one knows: “all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” Friendship is shared access to the Father's heart.
- Jesus says this in the upper room, hours before He lays down His life (v13). His friendship is defined by sacrifice before it is defined by feeling.
- John 5:39–40: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life… yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” The problem was never the study. It was stopping short of Him.
Read before you preach
The message
Ask the room to name someone they know well, not someone they know about. What is the difference? Then ask which of the two describes how most of us know God.
Jesus calls His disciples friends, not servants. · John 15:15 · Ch 3
Friends know what the Master is doing. · John 15:15 · Ch 3
You can search the Scriptures and still not come to Him. · John 5:39–40 · Ch 4
Teach people to walk with God, not only to know about Him. · Ch 4
Give people a few minutes of quiet. Ask one simple question: “Jesus, what are You saying to me?” Let them sit with it before anyone sings or speaks.
Where Jesus is in this text
Abraham was called “a friend of God” (James 2:23). In Jesus, that friendship is offered to everyone who follows Him. The one who calls us friends is the one who opened the way to the Father.
Lines from the book
The goal of discipleship is friendship with God.
The Pharisees knew the Scriptures. But they did not know the One to whom the Scriptures pointed.
Illustration prompts from your own church
- A season when you knew more about God than ever and felt further from Him than ever.
- The first time you sensed God speaking to you personally, not through a sermon.
- Someone whose friendship with God you noticed before you noticed their knowledge.
Lead the response
On Sunday
Listening, not only learning
Lead a short guided time of listening prayer: read John 15:15 slowly twice, then invite silence. Encourage people to write down anything they sense God saying, and to test it against Scripture.
Take it home · For households
Each day this week, read a few verses of John 15 and ask, “What do You want me to know today?” Write down one sentence.
Small-group questions
- Do you relate to God more as a student, a servant or a friend?
- What do you know about God that you have not yet experienced with Him?
- What would change if you believed Jesus really calls you His friend?
Bridge · Next week: why activity can replace formation, and what happens when the program stops running.
Chapters 5–6
Week 3: Formation, Not Just Activity
Mark 1:32–38 · Psalm 27:4, 8
This week at a glance
- Big idea
- Activity changes schedules. Formation changes people. The church's work is to help people walk with God even when no service or program is running.
- Prepare
- One simple personal practice to give everyone, and a slide or card that explains it.
Show full outline for Week 3Hide full outline
Preach it
On the text
- Mark 1:32–34 describes a crowded evening: “the whole city was gathered together at the door.” Verse 35 follows immediately: “very early in the morning, while it was still dark,” Jesus went out to a desolate place to pray.
- When the disciples find Him, they say, “Everyone is looking for you” (v37). Jesus does not follow the demand. He follows what He has heard from the Father (v38).
- Psalm 27:8 is a picture of response: “You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek.’” God invites first, and the heart answers.
Read before you preach
The message
Ask people to imagine the church building closed for a month: no services, no groups, no events. Would their walk with God keep going, or would it stall? Then read the two questions from Chapter 6.
Activity produces movement. Formation produces maturity. · Ch 5
Jesus' busiest days began alone with the Father. · Mark 1:32–35 · Ch 6
Church-dependent or God-dependent? · Ch 6
Seek His face, in the gathering and alone. · Ps 27:4, 8 · Ch 6
Be careful not to belittle the church. Chapter 6 is clear that the church is essential. End by inviting people to love the gathering and to learn to walk with God when it is over.
Where Jesus is in this text
Jesus loved the gathered people of God and went up to the temple and synagogue, yet He also walked with the Father on hillsides and in the early dark. He is both our way into the community and our way to the Father.
Lines from the book
Activity produces participation. Formation produces transformation. Activity creates movement. Formation creates maturity. Activity changes schedules. Formation changes people.
One question produces dependence on systems. The other produces dependence on God.
Illustration prompts from your own church
- A ministry season you would call successful that did not change many people.
- A time when church was not available (illness, travel, a closed building) and you discovered how you actually walked with God.
- What your church celebrates most often, and what that teaches people to pursue.
Lead the response
On Sunday
One practice, alone with God
Give everyone the same simple practice for the week, such as praying one line of Psalm 27 each morning. Next Sunday, invite a few people to share what happened.
Take it home · For households
Choose one short psalm this week. Read it alone each morning before your phone, and pray one line of it back to God.
Small-group questions
- Which part of your walk with God depends most on church being there?
- What would “dependence on God” look like in your ordinary Tuesday?
- What one practice could you keep this week with no program to prompt you?
Pastoral note: Some people in the room have been hurt by churches or are worn out from serving. Name that gently. The aim is not to pull people away from the church but to help them walk with God within it and beyond it.
Bridge · Next week: what spiritual formation actually looks like, and the pattern God uses again and again to form His people.
Chapters 7–8
Week 4: How God Forms His People
Psalm 105:17–19 · James 1:2–4
This week at a glance
- Big idea
- God forms people before He entrusts them with more. Maturity follows a recognizable pattern: revelation, response, testing, formation, commission, new revelation.
- Prepare
- Copies of Where Am I in the Cycle? for everyone, and someone ready to pray for people in testing seasons.
Show full outline for Week 4Hide full outline
Preach it
On the text
- Psalm 105:19 says of Joseph: “until what he had said came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.” The promise itself became the test during the years of slavery and prison.
- James 1:3 says the testing of faith “produces steadfastness.” Verse 4 adds the goal: “that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” The word for “perfect” also means mature.
- Moses, David and Joseph all received a word from God long before they saw it fulfilled. Chapter 7 reads those waiting years as the formation, not a delay to it.
Read before you preach
- What Spiritual Formation Actually Looks LikeChapter 7
- The Zoé Formation CycleChapter 8
The message
Tell Joseph's story in three lines: a dream of leadership, then betrayal, then prison. Ask how many in the room have received something from God and then walked into the opposite.
God forms people before He trusts them with more. · Ps 105:17–19 · Ch 7
Revelation calls for a response. · Ch 8
- 1Revelation
- 2Response
- 3Testing
- 4Formation
- 5Commission
- 6New Revelation
- Then the cycle begins again at a deeper level.
Testing is not failure. It is formation. · James 1:2–4 · Ch 7–8
Formation leads to commission and new revelation. · Ch 8
Hand out Where Am I in the Cycle? and give people time to mark where they are. Then pray for anyone who sees themselves in testing right now.
Where Jesus is in this text
Jesus heard the Father's voice at His baptism (“You are my beloved Son”), then the Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tested (Mark 1:11–12). Before He began His public ministry, He walked the pattern Himself.
Lines from the book
God forms people before He entrusts them with greater responsibility.
Spiritual maturity is not random. God forms His people through a recognizable process.
Illustration prompts from your own church
- A word or calling you received long before you saw it come to pass, and what the waiting formed in you.
- A time you mistook testing for failure, and when you began to see it differently.
- Someone whose character was clearly shaped by a hidden season. Tell it without making the pain sound good.
Lead the response
On Sunday
Where am I in the cycle?
Give everyone a copy of Where Am I in the Cycle? and a few quiet minutes to mark the stage they sense they are in. Invite those in testing to stand or raise a hand, and ask people nearby to pray for them.
Take it home · For households
Each evening, ask: “What has God been showing me, and how am I responding?” Write down one sentence.
Small-group questions
- Which stage of the cycle do you think you are in right now? Why?
- What has God revealed to you that you have not yet responded to?
- How would it change your current hard season to see it as formation rather than failure?
Pastoral note: Some in the room are in acute pain. Never imply that suffering is a lesson they needed or a sign of God's displeasure. The cycle describes how God works through hard seasons, not a reason for them.
Bridge · Next week: what a church looks like when it is built to form people, and the six practices that help.
Chapter 9 and the Conclusion
Week 5: A Church That Forms Friends of God
Ephesians 4:11–16
This week at a glance
- Big idea
- Leaders are given to equip the church for maturity. A church becomes a place of formation when it teaches formation, celebrates it, and helps people walk with God as friends.
- Prepare
- A commissioning prayer, and a way for people to name one practice they will keep.
Show full outline for Week 5Hide full outline
Preach it
On the text
- “To equip the saints for the work of ministry” (v12). The word for “equip” was used for mending nets and setting bones: restoring something so it can do its work.
- Verse 13 sets the goal as “mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Maturity is measured by Christ, not by activity.
- Verse 16 pictures a body that builds itself up “when each part is working properly.” Growth comes through every member, not only the gifted few.
Read before you preach
- How Churches Create Mature BelieversChapter 9
The message
Ask the church: “What do we clap for?” Name the things your church usually celebrates. Then ask what would change if you celebrated someone learning to pray, forgive or wait on God.
Leaders equip the saints for maturity. · Eph 4:11–13 · Ch 9
Teach formation and how to hear God. · Ch 9
Celebrate formation, not only activity. · Ch 9
Grow up into Christ, together and as friends. · Eph 4:15–16 · Conclusion
Commission the church. Pray over the whole congregation, asking God to make it a place where people become His friends, then send them out to keep one practice.
Where Jesus is in this text
The gifts in Ephesians 4 come from the ascended Christ, who “gave gifts to men” (v8). He is the head the whole body grows up into (v15), and He is still forming His church.
Lines from the book
What gets celebrated gets repeated.
And believers begin maturing in the way God intended. Not merely as church participants. But as friends of God.
Illustration prompts from your own church
- A moment you celebrated something small that God was forming in someone, and what it did for them.
- A hidden season in your church's life that turned out to be formation.
- One thing you would change in your church if formation became the main measure.
Lead the response
On Sunday
Commissioned as friends of God
Invite everyone to stand. Pray a commissioning prayer over the whole church, then ask each person to name silently one practice they will keep. Leaders can use The Three Mistakes Review to plan what comes next.
Take it home · For households
As a household, share one way you have seen God forming someone in your family this series, and celebrate it together.
Small-group questions
- Which of the six practices does our church most need right now?
- What would it look like to celebrate formation in your small group or family?
- Looking back on this series: how are you walking with God differently?
Bridge · Close by reading the book's final line and let the church leave holding it: “Not merely as church participants. But as friends of God.”
One-message version
“I Have Called You Friends”
John 15:1–16
Big idea
Jesus does not only want busy servants. He wants friends who abide in Him, and a church that helps its people walk with God when the program is over.
Fruit comes from abiding, not from activity. · John 15:4–5 · Introduction, Ch 1–2
Friends, not only servants. · John 15:15 · Ch 3–4
Apart from Him, busy churches still stall. · John 15:5 · Ch 5–6
The Father prunes in order to form. · John 15:2 · Ch 7–8
A church of friends who bear fruit. · John 15:12–16 · Ch 9, Conclusion
The goal of discipleship is friendship with God.
Pick one illustration from your own church for movement 2 and one for movement 3; those two carry the message. Keep movement 4 gentle, since some in the room are being pruned right now, then give the response below before the final song.
Response
Listening, not only learning
Read John 15:15 slowly, then give a minute of silence. Invite each person to ask, “Jesus, what are You saying to me?” and to write down one step of response for the week.
Class version
Teaching this as a class
Use Weeks 1–5 as five sessions of 60–75 minutes. Ask the class to read the matching chapters before each session. Every session follows the same rhythm:
Open with a story
10 min · One person shares a way they have grown, or a step they took last week.
Read the text
10 min · Read the week's passage aloud, then once more slowly.
Teach
20 min · Work through the week's outline and lines from the book.
Discuss
20 min · Use the small-group questions. Let quieter people answer first.
Practice
10 min · Try the week's response, or plan when to do it this week.
Optional session 6 · Practice week
Have everyone complete Where Am I in the Cycle? and keep its evening question for one week, then spend the final session sharing what God showed them.
Leadership sidebar · For staff and elders before the series
Leading a Church That Forms Friends of God
The book names three mistakes good churches make, and its Reader Reflection is written for leaders. Before the series starts, spend one meeting with your staff or elders on Chapters 4–6 and the Reader Reflection.
Because spiritual formation begins with leaders who are willing to be formed themselves.
Teaching about God more than walking with God
Where does our discipleship pass on information without teaching people how to walk with God?
Producing activity instead of formation
What does our team celebrate most often, and is it activity or transformation?
Equipping people for church instead of friendship with God
If every program paused for a month, how would our people walk with God?
Handouts for your team
- Staff & leadersTeam Discussion GuidePDF: download Team Discussion Guide
Staff or elders: read the book together before the series starts.
- Staff & leadersThe Three Mistakes ReviewPDF: download The Three Mistakes Review
Leaders, four weeks out, then again three months after Week 5.
- PDF: download Where Am I in the Cycle?
Three months later
After the series
About three months after Week 5, have your leaders complete The Three Mistakes Review again and compare the answers with the first time.
- What formation have leaders noticed, and celebrated, since the series?
- Is anyone still keeping the Week 3 practice alone with God?
- Which of the six practices from Chapter 9 has your church started, and which still needs work?
For a wider look at measuring what God is forming in a church, see Church Growth and the Metrics That Matter.
About this guide
A guide, not a manuscript
Each week gives you a text, a big idea and an outline, then gets out of the way so you can do your own study and preach in your own voice. The best illustrations will come from the people in your church, not from this page, so the prompts point you there.
Lines marked Lines from the book are quoted word for word from Why Good Churches Still Produce Spiritually Stalled Christians, and the diagrams come from the book too. Everything else, including the notes on the text, openings, outlines, prompts, take-homes and questions, was prepared for this guide. Each week lists the chapters to read before you preach; they will give you far more than this guide can.