From Survival to Sending
This post first appeared on Substack as part of The Strategic Outsider, a space where I share long-form reflections and conversations focused on church health, leadership, and Kingdom-first mission. If this resonates and you want to receive future pieces like it directly, you can subscribe there.
I walked out of my conversation with Pastor Rick Reed and felt that familiar mix of gratitude and holy discomfort. Gratitude because you do not often sit across the table from someone who talks about leadership without turning it into a brand. Discomfort because he kept naming things pastors say they want, but do not always build their churches to sustain.
Rick is the pastor of New Berlin Road Church, and the story of what God has done there in three years is not the kind of story you can manufacture. When he arrived, he brought six to eight people with him and preached to twelve his first Sunday. Twelve. That is not a launch team. That is a prayer meeting with a pulpit. And yet, in a short window of time, the church is now averaging around 150, has baptized roughly 48 people in the last 24 months, is sending about 40 people on mission trips this year, has sent out three full time missionaries in the last year, is actively involved in helping plant churches, and has started a Christian academy with a small first class of nine students.
The numbers are impressive, but Rick kept insisting that the numbers are not the point. What he celebrates is what happened after the baptisms. People are serving. People are growing. People are learning how to share the gospel. People are finding their place in the work. In his words, this is not a spectator sport. Once you give your life to Jesus, you are in the game.
That phrase sits right on the edge of being a cliché, but it did not feel like one when he said it. It felt like a warning and an invitation at the same time.
The quiet problem nobody wants to name
Rick said something that deserves to be repeated slowly. Many churches say they want leaders, but they really want bodies they can manage.
That is not cynicism. It is just an observation from someone who has watched pastors unintentionally squeeze the calling out of people by forcing them into whatever task the church machine needs next. Stack chairs. Cover the nursery. Run the event. Keep the gears turning. Meanwhile, the person standing in front of you is quietly telling you they believe God is calling them to prison ministry, or mentoring young men, or mobilizing for missions, and the pastor keeps steering them back toward whatever keeps Sunday running smoothly.
Rick’s question was blunt in the best way. Are you trying to find leaders, or are you trying to find people you can lead?
There is a world of difference between those two things. Leaders need responsibility and authority. Managers need instructions and oversight. Most churches have plenty of managers. The danger is what happens when the system breaks. Managers come to the person in charge and say, I do not know what to do. Leaders step in, adapt, and move the mission forward.
Rick also acknowledged something pastors do not always like to admit. Sometimes the resistance to empowering leaders is not theological. It is fear. The fear that someone might be better. The fear that you might be replaced. The fear that you will lose control of the room. He did not accuse. He simply named the human side of it.
Then he pushed the conversation toward something healthier. Build the strongest team you can. Let people lead. Bite your lip when they do it differently than you would. Coach them, mentor them, point them toward faithfulness, and then give them room to learn. If you do not create an atmosphere where leaders can lead, you should not be surprised when leaders sit quietly in the wings or leave altogether.
Why New Berlin Road is moving fast
What struck me most is how quickly Rick is willing to move toward mission and multiplication without waiting for everything to be perfect. He admitted they still do not have the volunteers they want. The money is not where they want it. The systems are not all cleaned up. And yet they are planting churches, sending missionaries, and expanding ministry.
His reasoning was simple. If you wait until everything is in order, you will never go. Churches do not become ready by waiting. They become ready by obeying.
That same instinct shows up in how he talks about discipleship. He believes many Christians are expected to disciple others even though they have never been discipled. Many pastors, he said, have been theologically educated but not discipled. That is a sharp distinction. Education is head knowledge. Discipleship is application. It is learning how to follow Jesus in real life with someone close enough to correct you along the way.
So they are building a culture of experiential learning. Mission trips are not just trips. They are discipleship environments. Shared discomfort. Shared trials. Shared stories you will laugh about for the rest of your life. Rick’s line landed hard because it is both funny and true. You cannot explain a mission trip to someone who has never done one. It is like childbirth. No matter how many words you use, you cannot hand someone the experience.
And that is part of why he keeps putting people in environments where they have to try. They might forget the verse. They might stumble through their testimony. They might get awkward. But they are learning. And in Rick’s mind, that is better than keeping people comfortable and inactive.
A pastor who came from somewhere else
Rick’s story is not the typical pipeline. Before ministry, he ran bars across the country and later moved into mortgages and the car business. He talks about learning to read people, posture, body language, and motives. That background gave him instincts that translate into shepherding more than people might expect. It also gave him a strong sense of the business realities pastors face. Whether a pastor likes it or not, church life includes budgets, payroll, facilities, and stewardship. You do not have to love the administrative side, but you do have to understand it.
He also told mission stories that do not sound polished, which is exactly why they carry weight. One of the early moments that broke him involved feeding people at a dump and realizing they did not have enough food. He tried to end the line early so people would not wait. The translator told him the people already knew. They were staying in line to thank them for feeding the others.
That kind of gratitude does something to you if you let it. It made him determined to be better prepared and more intentional. It also fueled a deep conviction that the gospel must be carried with both compassion and competence.
The framework underneath everything
Rick described five pillars that have shaped their culture from the start: prayer, Scripture, worship, fellowship, evangelism, and mission. He is not chasing numbers, he says. He is chasing names. That line is worth keeping.
He also articulated a vision of church life that refuses to become a haven for people who want to hide. He does not want a church where people clock in, clock out, and disappear. He wants a church where people are known, discipled, and mobilized. In his mind, the medium-sized church is uniquely positioned for that because people cannot remain anonymous for long.
And when someone told him they could not stay at a church where the pastor did not want the church to grow, his response was clear. Growth is not always a bigger crowd in one room. Sometimes it is 150 people who plant five churches. Sometimes it is 150 people who send missionaries. Sometimes the church grows by multiplying impact rather than multiplying attendance.
Why this conversation matters for pastors and leaders right now
If you lead a church, you have felt the pressure to keep the machine running. You have also felt the quiet grief that comes when ministry becomes a string of meetings, complaints, and emergencies, and you realize you have not been as intentional about evangelism, discipleship, or developing leaders as you once were.
This conversation with Rick is not a guilt trip. It is a mirror and a map.
It asks the questions we avoid. Do we really want leaders? Do we allow leaders to lead? Do we build frameworks that help people live out the gospel? Do we give people room to learn through discomfort? Do we prioritize mission as part of discipleship? Do we believe obedience has to wait until we feel ready?
Rick’s answer is no. Start now. Build the team. Create space. Equip people. Let them lead. Keep the mission central. And do not confuse running a church with making disciples.
Key takeaways for a church leader
A healthy church culture does not happen by accident. Based on this conversation, here are a few anchor takeaways worth carrying:
If you want leaders, you have to give them authority and responsibility, not just tasks.
If you want disciples who make disciples, you have to disciple people beyond sermon content.
If you want people to share the gospel, you must teach them how and give them space to practice.
If you want mission to matter, it has to be modeled from the pulpit and embedded into the church rhythm.
If you wait until everything is fixed, you will never obey the next thing God is calling you to do.
Why Rick’s story matters to an association
There is also something here that matters beyond one local church. Rick said something near the end that I appreciated deeply. He thanked the association for being involved not just with the big churches but also with churches that need encouragement, counsel, or practical help.
That is the work. Helping churches strengthen their footing so they can pursue mission with freedom.
New Berlin Road is a case study in what can happen when a church refuses to settle for survival, chooses clarity over comfort, and builds a culture where people are actually in the game. That kind of story is not just inspiring. It is instructive. It becomes a shared win for the whole family of churches because it reminds us what is possible when vision is clear, leadership is empowered, and the gospel is treated as something to be lived, not just believed.