Several years ago, I heard a pastor ask a question that has stayed with me ever since. Standing before the congregation one Sunday morning, he said, “How many of you first came to this church because of a television advertisement?” No one raised a hand. He smiled and tried again. “How many came because of a newspaper advertisement?” Again, not a single hand. Then he asked one final question. “How many came because a friend, a relative, a coworker, or a neighbor invited you?” This time nearly every hand in the room went up.
That little exercise illustrates one of the most important principles of evangelism and church growth. Most people don’t come to Christ—or become active in a church—because of advertising. They come because someone they know and trust builds a bridge between them and the gospel. Long before they believe the message, they believe the messenger.
More than seventy years ago, missionary Donald McGavran built an entire philosophy of missions around that observation. After years of serving in India, he noticed that people rarely came to Christ in complete isolation. Instead, the gospel spread through existing relationships. One family member influenced another. One friend invited another. One village reached another village. McGavran called those relationships “the Bridges of God.”
I have never forgotten that phrase because it explains so much about how churches grow.
God Usually Uses People
Think back to your own story.
Who first introduced you to Christ? Who invited you to church? Who answered your questions? Who patiently loved you before you ever became interested in spiritual things?
For most of us, the answer isn’t a billboard, a Facebook advertisement, or a clever marketing campaign.
It was a person.
Perhaps it was your mother. Maybe it was a high school friend. Perhaps a coworker invited you to lunch and eventually to church. Maybe it was a Sunday School teacher who took an interest in your family.
God certainly can reach people in dramatic ways. Saul met Christ on the Damascus Road without anyone inviting him to church. But those stories are the exception. The ordinary pattern of the New Testament is that God uses one person to reach another person.
Andrew brought Peter.
Philip brought Nathanael.
Matthew invited his friends to dinner so they could meet Jesus.
The Samaritan woman hurried back to town and invited everyone she knew to come meet the man who had changed her life.
The gospel crossed one bridge after another.
It still does.
Every Bible Study Has Hundreds of Bridges
This has enormous implications for Sunday School classes and small groups.
Suppose your class has ten members. At first glance, ten doesn’t sound very impressive. But think about what those ten people represent.
Each member has parents, children, cousins, neighbors, coworkers, former classmates, people they play golf with, people they hunt with, and friends they see every week. Collectively, those ten people may have hundreds of relationships with people who are not actively involved in church.
That’s hundreds of bridges.
Most classes don’t have a prospect problem.
They have a bridge problem.
They don’t intentionally walk across the bridges God has already built.
The Best Evangelism Tool May Be Ice Cream
Years ago I stumbled onto something almost by accident.
If I wanted members of my class to invite friends to Bible study, asking them to invite people to church wasn’t always the easiest first step.
But inviting someone over for homemade ice cream?
That was different.
Or a backyard barbecue.
Or a game night.
Or a Christmas party.
Or a Fourth of July picnic.
People who would hesitate to invite a neighbor to a worship service often have no trouble saying, “Our class is getting together Friday night. We’d love to have you come.”
Why?
Because relationships grow in relaxed environments.
The pressure is gone. People laugh together. Children play together. Stories are shared. New friendships begin to form.
By the time Sunday morning arrives, walking into a classroom no longer feels like entering a room full of strangers.
They already know someone.
A bridge has been built.
I’ve often joked that some of the most important evangelistic work our class ever did involved ice cream.
It’s only half a joke.
Fellowship Is Not a Distraction
Some churches view fellowships as optional extras.
“Let’s get to the important stuff,” they say. “We need more Bible study.”
I certainly believe in serious Bible study.
But fellowship isn’t competing with Bible study.
It’s preparing the soil for Bible study.
People learn better from people they trust.
Visitors come back because someone remembered their name.
New believers stay because friendships develop.
Community opens hearts in ways that lectures never can.
That’s why the early church devoted themselves not only to the apostles’ teaching but also to fellowship.
They understood something we sometimes forget.
Relationships are not a distraction from disciple-making.
Relationships are disciple-making.
Why Some Groups Keep Growing
Every growing class I’ve ever known had one thing in common.
Its members genuinely enjoyed being together.
They didn’t have to manufacture enthusiasm when inviting someone to a fellowship. They were inviting friends to something they themselves looked forward to attending.
That enthusiasm is contagious.
No one recommends a restaurant they don’t enjoy.
No one tells their neighbors about a movie they thought was terrible.
Likewise, members naturally invite others when they genuinely love their class.
Growth becomes the byproduct of health.
Bridges Lead to Multiplication
Now let’s take McGavran’s insight one step further.
Suppose your class of ten builds relationships, welcomes new people, and eventually grows to twenty.
Wonderful.
But what happens next?
Many churches stop there. They celebrate the large class.
I think there’s a better approach.
Split the class.
Send out a new leader.
Start another group.
Now something remarkable happens.
Instead of one group with twenty people building bridges into the community, you have two groups building bridges. Two fellowships every month instead of one. Two circles of friendships. Two sets of invitations. Two networks of relationships reaching into neighborhoods, workplaces, and schools.
The number of Bridges of God has just multiplied.
That’s why reproducing groups grow faster than simply enlarging existing ones.
They multiply relationships.
The Leadership Challenge
Of course, every time a group reproduces, it needs another leader.
That’s where many churches hit a wall.
They have enough people to start another class, but they don’t think they have anyone capable of teaching it. Too often we’ve convinced ourselves that every teacher must be an accomplished speaker with years of Bible knowledge and a gift for public presentation.
I don’t believe that’s true.
Some of the finest group leaders I’ve ever known weren’t dynamic lecturers. They loved people. They asked thoughtful questions. They listened well. They kept the discussion centered on Scripture. Their groups flourished because people felt welcome, heard, and encouraged.
That’s one reason I’ve become such a believer in discussion-based Bible studies.
When the questions have already been carefully developed, leading becomes much less intimidating. Instead of preparing a forty-five-minute lecture every week, new leaders guide a conversation. They encourage participation. They help people discover biblical truth together. Before long, they realize they can do this.
And that’s exactly what growing churches need.
It’s one of the reasons I created the Good Questions Have Groups Talking series. Every lesson is designed to save teachers time, encourage lively discussion, and help people apply God’s Word to everyday life. But there’s another benefit that may be even more important. Discussion-based curriculum helps ordinary Christians become confident leaders, making it much easier for healthy groups to reproduce.
Donald McGavran taught us that God has already built bridges to the people we hope to reach. Sometimes those bridges are crossed over a cup of coffee. Sometimes over homemade ice cream. Sometimes at a Friday night fellowship.
Whatever the setting, the principle remains the same.
Healthy relationships build bridges. Healthy bridges bring people to Christ. And healthy groups that continue building those bridges eventually discover they need more leaders than ever before. That’s a wonderful problem to have.
