When the Church Gets Better but the People Don’t
Five-week seriesWhen the Church Gets Better · Five-week series
Preaching & Teaching Guide
A five-week series for helping your church grow people, not only ministry.
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 church to people.
- One messageA single sermon from Hebrews 5–6 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: Better Church, Same People?Matthew 28:16–20 · Colossians 1:28–29
- Week 2: Fed, but Not Yet FeedingHebrews 5:11–6:1 · 1 Corinthians 3:1–3
- Week 3: When Truth Becomes ObedienceJames 1:22–25 · Matthew 7:24–27
- Week 4: Formed by the Spirit, in Practice and in FireGalatians 5:16–25 · 1 Timothy 4:7–8 · James 1:2–4
- Week 5: Equip the SaintsEphesians 4:11–16
Five Sundays, from a better church to better-formed people. 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, 8, 15 and 18.
- Meet with staff or elders using the leadership sidebar, and have each ministry leader complete What Does This Ministry Form?
- Choose the one simple personal practice you will give everyone in Week 2.
Two weeks out
- Print cards for Week 1 and Week 3.
- Print copies of Carry It Into Monday for Week 3.
- Ask two or three people whether they would share a small sign of change 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 1–3
Week 1: Better Church, Same People?
Matthew 28:16–20 · Colossians 1:28–29
This week at a glance
- Big idea
- A church can get better at doing church without its people becoming more like Jesus, and Jesus sent us to make disciples, not only gatherings.
- Prepare
- Cards for every seat with two lines printed on them: “What I attend” and “Who I am becoming.”
Show full outline for Week 1Hide full outline
Preach it
On the text
- “Teaching them to observe” (v20) is the commission's method. Jesus does not say “teaching them all I commanded,” but teaching them to keep it.
- “Some doubted” (v17). Jesus gives the commission to worshippers who were still unsure, not to a finished, polished group.
- Paul's goal in Colossians 1:28 is “everyone mature in Christ.” He names the outcome, then the toil and the Spirit's power it takes to reach it (v29).
Read before you preach
The message
Describe a good Sunday at your church: full rooms, strong worship, smooth volunteers. Then ask the question the book opens with: are the people becoming more like Jesus at the same rate the church is improving?
Jesus sent his church to make disciples who obey, not only crowds who attend. · Matt 28:19–20 · Ch 3
Attendance
Tells us where someone is.
Discipleship
Tells us what someone is becoming.
Better ministry is not automatically better people. · Ch 1
What we count can quietly become what we chase. · Ch 2
The goal is everyone mature in Christ. · Col 1:28–29 · Ch 1, 3
Return to Matthew 28:20 and the promise behind the command: “I am with you always.” The call to make disciples is not a burden we carry alone. It is work Jesus keeps doing with us.
Where Jesus is in this text
Jesus did not only gather crowds. He called twelve to be with him, watched them fail, and kept forming them. The risen Lord who sends us is the same teacher who apprenticed his first disciples.
Lines from the book
The church can become better without the people becoming better at the same rate.
A proxy becomes dangerous when it quietly turns into the outcome.
A disciple is not merely someone who is present around Jesus.
Illustration prompts from your own church
- One way your church has clearly improved in the last five years, and what has changed in the people who use it most.
- Someone faithful in attendance who has quietly stopped growing. Tell it with care and without details that identify them.
- The number your team checks first each week, and what it can and cannot tell you.
Lead the response
On Sunday
Two lines on a card
Hand out the cards. Invite each person to fill in both lines privately: what they attend, and who they hope to be 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 do you attend that has genuinely changed you? What do you attend out of habit?
- If someone watched your week, what would they say you are becoming?
- What is the difference between being around Jesus and following him?
Bridge · Next week: how good ministry can train people to receive and never learn to feed themselves.
Chapters 4–7
Week 2: Fed, but Not Yet Feeding
Hebrews 5:11–6:1 · 1 Corinthians 3:1–3
This week at a glance
- Big idea
- Good ministry can train people to receive. God wants a church that can feed on his word, practice it, and begin feeding others.
- Prepare
- One simple personal practice to give everyone, and a slide or card that explains it.
Show full outline for Week 2Hide full outline
Preach it
On the text
- “By this time you ought to be teachers” (Heb 5:12). The writer measures maturity by what believers can now give, not only by how long they have attended.
- “Dull of hearing” (v11) describes a slowness that has set in, not an inability to understand. They once heard well.
- Verse 14 says the mature have their powers of discernment “trained by constant practice.” The Greek word behind “trained” is the root of our word gymnasium.
Read before you preach
The message
Tell the story of a strong, faithful believer who, in a crisis, did not know how to meet God alone. Chapter 6's Robert and Nathan is one example; one from your own church will land harder.
Busy is not the same as growing. · Ch 4
Knowing more is not the same as growing more. · Heb 5:11–12 · Ch 5
Maturity is trained by constant practice. · Heb 5:14 · Ch 6
Churches train expectations. Train people to give, not only to receive. · Heb 5:12; 1 Cor 3:1–2 · Ch 7
A recipient naturally asks:
- Was it good?
- Did I like it?
- Was the teaching relevant?
- Did the worship connect with me?
- Did the church meet my family’s needs?
Those questions are understandable.
But disciples eventually learn another set of questions:
- What did God say?
- What must I do?
- Where do I need to repent?
- Who can I serve?
- What responsibility should I carry?
- What am I learning to practice?
- What is God forming in me?
Do not end by scolding people for wanting to be fed. The book says it plainly: churches often trained them to expect it. Own that as a leader, then invite the church into practice together.
Where Jesus is in this text
Jesus fed the five thousand, and then he sent his disciples out to do what they had watched him do (Luke 9:1–2, 12–17). The one who feeds us is also training us to give his bread away.
Lines from the book
Church activity can create a convincing appearance of spiritual progress even when the inner life has changed very little.
When that happens, a congregation can become highly educated and poorly trained.
A church can become excellent at feeding people while quietly leaving them dependent on the next meal.
Illustration prompts from your own church
- A ministry in your church that feels like growth whether or not anything is changing.
- A truth your church has taught well that most people have never been helped to practice.
- What your gatherings teach people to expect, even though no one ever says it out loud.
Lead the response
On Sunday
One practice, alone with God
Give everyone the same simple practice for the week, such as reading a single psalm each morning and praying one line of it back to God. Next Sunday, invite a few people to share what happened.
Take it home · For households
Choose one short passage this week and read it alone before reading anything about it. Write down one sentence you think God is saying to you.
Small-group questions
- Where in your life are you mostly a receiver? Where are you beginning to give?
- What spiritual practice do you understand well but rarely do?
- What would it look like for you to “feed yourself” this week?
Pastoral note: Some people in the room are tired, depleted or grieving and truly need to be fed right now. Say so. The aim is to grow people over time, not to shame anyone for needing care.
Bridge · Next week: the point where truth stops being information and starts becoming obedience.
Chapters 8–10
Week 3: When Truth Becomes Obedience
James 1:22–25 · Matthew 7:24–27
This week at a glance
- Big idea
- Truth forms us when it reaches the will and enters ordinary life, and no one else can say yes to God on our behalf.
- Prepare
- Two minutes of silence after the sermon, and a card for each person's one next step.
Show full outline for Week 3Hide full outline
Preach it
On the text
- James's mirror (v23–24) is a picture of a quick glance. The hearer sees clearly, walks away and forgets. The doer “looks into” the law (v25), a word for stooping to look closely.
- In Matthew 7, both builders heard the same words and both faced the same storm. The only difference was what each did with what he heard.
- Jesus ends the Sermon on the Mount here, not with a summary but with a call to act on everything he has just said.
Read before you preach
The message
Ask how many sermons the average person in the room has heard in their life. Then ask how many of them they could name one thing they did because of it.
Hearing alone can deceive us. · James 1:22–24 · Ch 5, 8
Truth forms us when it reaches the will. · Matt 7:24 · Ch 8
A sermon
can end with a specific next step.
A group
can ask what faithfulness looks like this week.
A mentor
can follow up on a decision.
A prayer ministry
can help someone name what they believe God is asking them to do.
A leader
can normalize the question: What are you going to do with what you just heard?
Faith has to be portable, carried into Monday. · James 1:25 · Ch 9
No one can obey on your behalf. · Matt 7:26–27 · Ch 10
Give people silence. Ask one question: “What is God asking you to do with what you just heard?” Then let them write one step on a card before anyone sings.
Where Jesus is in this text
Jesus is the only one who heard the Father perfectly and did everything he heard (John 5:19; 8:29). Our obedience is not the price of grace. It is the life of the obedient Son being formed in us.
Lines from the book
Truth becomes formative when it reaches the will and then enters the life.
Portable faith is the ability to carry the life of discipleship into ordinary life.
But no one can obey on another person’s behalf.
Illustration prompts from your own church
- A truth you preached that someone actually acted on, and what it cost them.
- A moment from ordinary life (work, traffic, a hospital room) where you saw someone's faith work with no program running.
- A season when you hoped the church would do for you what only you could do with God.
Lead the response
On Sunday
One step on a card
After a time of silence, invite each person to write one concrete step of obedience for the week and keep the card where they will see it daily. Give everyone a copy of Carry It Into Monday to track the week.
Take it home · For households
Before bed each night, ask: “Where did I respond to God today, and where did I walk away from the mirror?”
Small-group questions
- What have you heard from God recently that you have not yet acted on?
- Where does your faith work best, and where does it seem to switch off?
- Who has helped you obey, without obeying for you?
Bridge · Next week: who actually does the forming, and why some of it only happens in hard seasons.
Chapters 11–13
Week 4: Formed by the Spirit, in Practice and in Fire
Galatians 5:16–25 · 1 Timothy 4:7–8 · James 1:2–4
This week at a glance
- Big idea
- The Holy Spirit is the one who forms us. Practice builds capacity, and some formation only happens in the fire.
- Prepare
- Someone ready to lead a gentle time of prayer for people walking through hard seasons.
Show full outline for Week 4Hide full outline
Preach it
On the text
- “Fruit” is singular in Galatians 5:22. Paul pictures one life grown by the Spirit, not nine separate achievements.
- “Keep in step” (v25) is a military word for walking in line. It assumes the Spirit leads and we follow, step by step.
- In 1 Timothy 4:7, “train” is again the word behind gymnasium. James 1:3 says the testing of faith “produces steadfastness,” but only as faith stays engaged (v4).
Read before you preach
- The Holy Spirit Is Not a ProgramChapter 11
- Practice Produces Spiritual CapacityChapter 12
- Some Formation Only Happens in the FireChapter 13
The message
Ask who in the room can play an instrument or a sport. None of them learned it by listening to someone describe it. Read Chapter 12's three short lines, then turn to 1 Timothy 4.
The Spirit bears the fruit. Programs can only make room for it. · Gal 5:22–23 · Ch 11
Keep in step: neither passive nor striving. · Gal 5:25 · Ch 11
Train yourself. Practice builds spiritual capacity. · 1 Tim 4:7–8 · Ch 12
An athlete
does not build capacity by listening to someone describe the movement.
A musician
does not become fluent by reading theory alone.
A surgeon
does not become skillful by memorizing procedures without practice.
Some formation only happens in the fire. · James 1:2–4 · Ch 13
Do not tie suffering up neatly. Pray for those in the fire right now, and remind the church that the Spirit is present and working there too, not only on good Sundays.
Where Jesus is in this text
Jesus “learned obedience through what he suffered” (Heb 5:8), and the same Spirit who led him into the wilderness and raised him from the dead now dwells in his people (Rom 8:11).
Lines from the book
Spiritual formation is responsive participation in the work of the Holy Spirit.
Prayer becomes easier to initiate because it has been practiced.
The trial becomes formative when faith remains engaged.
Illustration prompts from your own church
- A time a program could not change someone, and something the Spirit did that no plan could have scheduled.
- A practice you built slowly that later held you in a crisis.
- A hard season in which you, or someone you love, was formed in ways that could not have happened any other way. Tell it without making the pain sound good.
Lead the response
On Sunday
Prayer for those in the fire
Invite anyone walking through a hard season to stand or raise a hand where they are, and ask people nearby to pray for them quietly. Close by asking the Spirit to keep forming the whole church, in practice and in pressure.
Take it home · For households
Pick one small practice for the week, such as praying before you check your phone each morning, and keep it every day even when it feels small.
Small-group questions
- Do you tend more toward passivity (waiting on God for what he has asked you to practice) or striving (trying to do his part)?
- Which small practice has helped you most when life got hard?
- What has God formed in you through a difficult season?
Pastoral note: Some in the room are in acute pain. Never imply that suffering is a lesson they needed. Chapter 13 itself warns that suffering is not automatically formative, and the passage does not call pain good in itself.
Bridge · Next week: what it looks like when a whole church is built to form people, and leaders become less necessary.
Chapters 14–18 and the Conclusion
Week 5: Equip the Saints
Ephesians 4:11–16
This week at a glance
- Big idea
- Leaders are given to equip the whole church for ministry, so that people grow up into Christ and carry his life outside the room.
- Prepare
- A commissioning prayer, and a way for people to name one person they will help follow Jesus.
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
- The Goal Is Not Fewer ProgramsChapter 14
- Design Programs That Produce PracticeChapter 15
- Measure What You Are Trying to ProduceChapter 16
- Equip People to Walk With God Without YouChapter 17
- When the People Begin to ChangeChapter 18
The message
Ask the church to picture the pastor on a long vacation. Then ask: what would keep happening, and who would keep it going?
Leaders are given to equip, not to do it all. · Eph 4:11–12 · Ch 17
Design every ministry for what people carry home. · Eph 4:12 · Ch 14–15
Notice and celebrate what is being formed. · Eph 4:13 · Ch 16
A body that builds itself up in love. · Eph 4:15–16 · Ch 18, Conclusion
- A man who used to call the pastor immediately begins by praying.
- A woman who once avoided conflict makes the difficult call.
- A group member notices someone in pain and follows up without being assigned.
- A couple prays together at home.
- Someone who has received prayer for years begins praying for someone else.
- A leader admits a mistake without defending it.
- A believer opens Scripture before searching for someone else’s answer.
Commission the church. Pray over the whole congregation as people given gifts for ministry, then send them out to help one other person follow Jesus.
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 every equipped saint is his gift to the church.
Lines from the book
The deeper question is what the person can carry when the ministry is over.
The church becomes stronger when ministry no longer depends on one person’s constant initiative.
It learned to notice what walked out of it.
Illustration prompts from your own church
- A ministry that grew healthier when a leader handed it off, even though it looked less polished for a while.
- A small sign of change you saw this year: someone who prayed, served or forgave without being asked.
- What you would want people to carry home from your church, if they could only carry one thing.
Lead the response
On Sunday
Commissioned to equip
Invite everyone to stand. Pray a commissioning prayer over the whole church, then ask each person to name silently one person they will help follow Jesus. Leaders can use What Does This Ministry Form? to plan what comes next.
Take it home · For households
Name one person you will help follow Jesus this month, and pray for them by name every day this week.
Small-group questions
- Where have you been receiving ministry that you might now begin to give?
- Which small sign of change in yourself or others encourages you most?
- Looking back on this series: what do you hope our church carries out of the room?
Bridge · Close with the book's final question: “What kind of people are we becoming?” Let the church leave holding it.
One-message version
“You Ought to Be Teachers”
Hebrews 5:11–6:3
Big idea
God wants more than a church that serves people well. He wants people who are trained by practice to walk with him, and who begin feeding others.
A church can grow better while its people stay the same. · Heb 5:11 · Introduction, Ch 1–3
Fed, but not yet feeding. · Heb 5:12–13 · Ch 4–7
Trained by constant practice. · Heb 5:14 · Ch 8–12
God does the growing, even in the fire. · Heb 6:3 · Ch 11, 13
Go on to maturity, together. · Heb 6:1 · Ch 14–18
A church can feed people well without teaching them how to feed themselves.
Pick one illustration from your own church for movement 2 and one for movement 3; those two carry the message. Keep movement 4 gentle, then give the response below before the final song.
Response
One step on a card
After a minute of silence, invite each person to write one concrete step of obedience for the week, and one person they could help take a step of their own.
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 keep Carry It Into Monday for one week, then spend the final session sharing what happened and who each person might help next.
Leadership sidebar · For staff and elders before the series
Leading a Church That Forms People
The last section of the book is written for leaders. Before you preach Week 5 to the church, spend one meeting with your staff or elders on Chapters 14–17.
There comes a point when good leadership has to risk becoming less necessary.
The Goal Is Not Fewer Programs
Which of your ministries provides well but forms little, and what one change would help it form people?
Measure What You Are Trying to Produce
What does your team celebrate most often, and what does that teach the church to value?
Equip People to Walk With God Without You
What are you still carrying that someone else is ready to learn, even if they will do it less polished at first?
Handouts for your team
- Staff & leadersTeam Discussion GuidePDF: download Team Discussion Guide
Staff or elders: read the book together before the series starts.
- Staff & leadersWhat Does This Ministry Form?PDF: download What Does This Ministry Form?
Ministry leaders, four weeks out, then again three months after Week 5.
- PDF: download Carry It Into Monday
Three months later
After the series
About three months after Week 5, have each ministry leader complete What Does This Ministry Form? again and compare the answers with the first time.
- Which small signs of change have leaders noticed since the series?
- Is anyone still keeping the Week 2 practice, and who did they bring along?
- What ministry is now being carried by someone it used to depend on staff for?
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 When the Church Gets Better but the People Don’t, 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.