I first met Andrew Heard in 2015, when we spoke together at a conference for younger ministers in Sydney, Australia. I recognised a man whose analysis of the systematic management, organisation, and structuring of church life necessary for real growth was remarkable. Yet it was also disconcerting, because I could not easily avoid the (rather unwanted) acute challenge I felt in his message by faulting his theology or dismissing his approach as lightweight ‘church growth guruism’! It made me uncomfortable. But I am glad it did, for since then our church has benefitted greatly from Andrew’s wisdom. His generosity in inviting us to visit EV Church, as well as travelling across the world to help us work through structuring our church life, has borne much fruit for the gospel among us. So, I am delighted that in Growth and Change he has made available to a wider audience material from which many, like ourselves, have so greatly benefitted.

The stated purpose of the book is laid out in its opening chapter: ‘to encourage Christian leaders to initiate change’ (p. 10). Heard contends that ‘it is possible for God’s people—especially leaders among God’s people—to make changes that facilitate numerical and spiritual growth’, and this is necessary because the reality is that ‘many of the ways that we are exercising our leadership within our churches … has become a significant hindrance’ to growth (pp. 11–12). But, as every church leader knows, change is hard and often painful. So, the truth is that ‘we won’t change the things that need to be changed until the pain of not changing is greater than the pain of changing’ (p. 12, emphasis original). The rest of the book seeks to help church leaders—who are vital to bringing change—feel that gospel pain and embrace the passion necessary for such change.

However, passion for growth is dangerous, hence chapter 2 is ‘the most important in the whole book’ (p. 27). Here Heard points out the risks inherent in being ‘sinner driven’ and warns leaders against seeking the praise and love of their community or city or embracing ‘cultural relevance’ rather than bearing the reproach of Christ, which will inevitably attend all genuine gospel ministry. Nevertheless, ‘being faithful’ is not enough; passion for growth and willingness to change are essential. Chapter 3 spells out foundational truths Scripture impresses upon the Christian leader to motivate real mission: its ultimate vision for Christ and his church, the reality of heaven and hell, the answer of the cross, the brevity of life, and the love of God for sinners, all of which animate the imperative of the Great Commission. Chapter 4 shows how this imperative is demonstrated in the New Testament’s clear interest in numbers—more and more people coming to know God’s grace and becoming disciples is always the fruit envisaged from mission. In short, the gospel call is a call to faithfulness that brings fruitfulness.

This means we must face up to biblical priorities. And yet, as chapter 5 explains, while ‘salvation from sin is every person’s greatest need’ and gospel proclamation ‘our highest ministry priority’, there are ‘many other vital expressions of Christian love’ (p. 85). This brings Heard to a key point: it is the church as a whole that is central to all growth, and not every member has the same role. Therefore, one person ‘might spend the majority of their own time serving the immediate physical and emotional needs of their community and of the people around them. But they do so as part of a Christian community that, as a whole, prioritizes eternal salvation and growth in Christian maturity’ (p. 87, emphasis mine). We should not think in a reductionist way; rather, ‘we must embrace complexity…. The New Testament might prioritize one thing over another, but it doesn’t therefore despise the lower priority’ (pp. 91–92). His point is that ‘gospel fruit is a much larger category than mission’ (p. 93), even though real fruitfulness will only flow from a right priority for mission.

Chapter 6 further grapples with such complexities, recognising that ‘there is no simple solution that will guard against the dangers of compromise’ (p. 97). All leaders are at risk; younger ones often succumb to the dangers related to a passion for growth, while the older can lose sight of the necessity to retain that passion. So chapters 7–8 address the responsibilities of leaders, both for the faithful inputs and the fruitful outputs of their ministries. Heard deals judiciously with the biblical tension between God’s sovereignty and human agency, principally to insist that leaders cannot escape all responsibility for lack of fruit by recourse to a ‘God is sovereign—we don’t control outcomes’ defence. While I’m personally slightly allergic to the language of finding a ‘middle ground’ (between hyper-Calvinism and Arminianism), it is clear what Heard means: he is articulating that Scripture teaches both the total sovereignty of God and the full responsibility of human beings for their actions before God. It is possible, then, that ‘where there is a lack of fruit, the problem may not be one of faithfulness, but of foolishness, or perhaps just blindness’ (p. 118). Confronting such failings means that ongoing tension and pain will be a normal part of Christian leadership, and ‘we need to learn to live the life of contented discontentment’ (p. 125)—content in God’s sovereign power and providence, yet always feeling our responsibility to labour urgently in hope.

Chapters 9–11 explore the biblically defined freedoms and boundaries of what Heard calls ‘theologically principled pragmatism’. Recognising that God has created a physically and morally ordered world—and that both general revelation and Scripture (especially the Wisdom literature) teach us that certain inputs tend to produce predictable outputs—we should not despise this wisdom but embrace it. Again, Heard displays a high view of the church, seeing it as an end in itself, the chief output of all gospel ministry; not what is planted, but what is reaped. Thus, ‘church is far more important than merely a location for efficient edification. It is far more beautiful than that’ (p. 148). This makes it worthy of structures and systems that promote its health and growth. These things, however, are the means to that chief end, not ends in themselves. For Heard, this explains why the New Testament displays considerable freedom in whether or not specific structures are in evidence or not, according to need. Similar freedom and boundaries apply to the chief task of shepherding the flock, hence ‘titles are not sacrosanct, but clarity in roles is vital’ (p. 171).

The discussion in chapter 11 of freedom and boundaries for pastors may be the most challenging for many, since we all tend to have views shaped by traditions which believe ours to be the biblical model. However, this is perhaps the most important chapter for leaders and churches to digest, particularly its challenge to the oft-accepted fallacy which tends to transfer the totality of every characteristic used to describe the pastoring of God’s people to every individual pastor, rather than focusing on the essence of the shepherding task—which is to see that the church is led, ruled, protected, and tended by feeding it with the word of God. This must be done, but, if anything other than small churches are to be possible, it simply need not be done in an intensely personal way by a single ‘pastor’. Moses and David were ‘shepherds’ par excellence—yet over vast numbers; so we ‘cannot conflate “insistently personal” with knowing everybody’s name and being in their homes’ (p. 169). Paul’s deeply personal concern for those to whom he ministered ‘didn’t prevent him from stepping back, delegating and expanding his work’. While we must eschew a distant or aloof CEO model of ministry, it is no answer to embrace ‘an unnecessarily narrow conception of shepherd/pastor. This profoundly reduces a leader’s ability to grow the work and impact communities’ (p. 170). The flock of God needs to be led, and pastors must lead in ways that don’t just feel biblical but are biblical: with pulpit-centred, but not pulpit-restricted, ministries of the word, which equip and mobilise all the saints for ministry (Eph 4:11–16). The entire discussion in this chapter is extremely thoughtful and thought-provoking and has the potential to help liberate churches to reformulate leadership structures for—still biblical, but much more fruitful—growth.

The book’s final two chapters and conclusion deal with the key change that church leaders must embrace and take responsibility for in order to lead for growth: ‘leaders must be output-focused, rather than simply input-focused’ (p. 179). Churches clearly do this as far as finances are concerned, setting a budget they seek to achieve; how much more important is the ‘target’ of making ever more mature disciples of Christ! Of course, our ‘inputs’ must be theologically driven—and those of us cherishing the same ministry ethos as Andrew Heard will highly value biblical preaching. But the ‘output’ we seek is not just that the Bible is preached faithfully, but that it is preached fruitfully: ‘we preach it to people to change their lives for eternity’ (p. 191, emphasis original). If that fruit is not being seen, we preachers may need to ask hard questions of ourselves, beyond simply ‘Are we getting the text right?’

The same goes for every area of a church’s ministry, and effective leadership is that which doesn’t just ‘oversee’ a particular ministry (which tends to be merely input focused) but actually ‘takes responsibility’ for achieving its purposed outcome. This kind of leadership inevitably weighs heavily, and Heard helpfully deals with how to minister both with a clear focus on God’s sovereignty while also recognising the limits of our humanity. Unafraid to reference the biblical pattern of a six-day working week, against our leisure-focused culture today, there is need for both a pattern of genuinely hard work as well as regular rest—in terms of weekly ‘sabbath’ and planned vacation.

An appendix gives a glimpse into what some instances of leading for change might look like in practice, as well as a starter on the ‘how’ of change: laying some foundations for purposeful ‘Team Pastoring’ for growth. This begins with learning to lead yourself, then leading others, then leading leaders, and finally leading the organisation of the church as a whole—the whole ‘ecosystem’. The goal is a people deep in the word, loving God in community, serving others, and on mission together. Exploring the ‘how’ of change would be a worthy subject of another whole book.

This book, however, firmly focuses on the ‘why’: why real gospel growth will inevitably require change. It is not a critique of the state of the contemporary church in general, nor a discussion of why Christianity in the west seems to be almost universally in decline. That is a bigger issue and part of a far larger discussion. Rather, this is a book aimed at gospel-hearted, mission-loving churches, and particularly church leaders, giving a biblically driven challenge to grapple with our responsibilities under God, be willing to critique our own churches and ministries, and go on making wise and courageous changes in order to be as fruitful in our mission as we can be.

To end as I began: under God, the biblical light shed by Growth and Change has been a great help to our own church leaders, and many others similarly, in guiding us towards greater fruitfulness in the task of mission. I would urge any church leadership team to read it and discuss it together, confident that it will be greatly profitable.