- Church strengthening
- //
- Evangelism
In the early 90s, a Twin Cities’ Converge congregation found its attendance plateauing around 400. But by God’s kindness, its growth has been explosive.
What changed? And far more, how have they become powerful, contagious ambassadors of Jesus Christ?
In Acts 2, we read of thousands coming to Christ at a time. And as world population swells, it seems God globally responds with evangelism and discipleship in kind.
The compelling nature of Eagle Brook Church today proves challenging to comprehend. Christmas Eve services with 68,000 in live attendance, 103,000 with livestream added? How…?
More vitally, each number represents transformed life—like 3,481 choosing to follow Jesus that day.
Shaping a Culture of Vision
In 1991, preacher Bob Merritt sat before the board of Eagle Brook Church in Minnesota—and counseled them not to hire him. “Unless you’re serious about reaching lost people.”
The board accepted Merritt’s challenge. Yet how do you rally a traditional church around a godward vision, to embrace it unafraid?
They targeted three shifts:
- They believed God wanted to do something in the Twin Cities, and made themselves willing and available.
- They focused on weekend crowds as their opportunity to present the Gospel via methods both relevant and transformational. If an event wasn’t both, it was axed—which admittedly, was unpopular. There went the women’s brunch and the softball team.
- Beyond the senior pastor’s vision, they’d create a culture of compelling vision for who this church was, what they were called to do, and how they’d get there.
Merritt leveraged his communications Ph. D, believing the Holy Spirit could employ Word-centered preaching as a key tool.
Thirty years later, with each sermon simulcast live to fourteen locations, senior pastor Jason Strand at the helm—surveys indicate lifechanging, Word-anchored preaching remains a primary magnet for Eagle Brook attendees.
Merritt, and later Strand, knew believers and unbelievers all struggle with similar issues. So they’ve utilized Scripture to speak to felt needs. Are you full of anxiety? Your first step is to trust Jesus.
When Jesus = Revolutionary
Meanwhile, staff set about condensing Converge’s theological documents into bite-sized, usable, memorizable bullet points.
This is what we believe at our core. We’ll differentiate what we’ll die for, what we’ll defend, and what we’ll discuss.
In the church’s drive for relevance, it deleted weekly altar calls and evangelistic home visitations. But they regularly shared the gospel, beckoning the congregation to respond. The surrounding Catholic- and Lutheran-raised population, compelled to bring their kids to church, expressed amazement. This counts as church?
Eagle Brook leaned heavily into the Great Commission and its undergirding in the Great and second commandments.
It’s a God-fueled purpose they could get excited about.
The congregation’s surging enthusiasm overflowed into Spirit-filled invitation: Jesus’ sweeping work in their lives meant they now had the right to invite others into that life change. I’m so changed, I can’t help but tell my neighbor.
Eagle Brook was becoming a ministry of relationship with Gospel contagion. “It’s not a competition to see how big we can get,” emphasizes Dale Peterson, Training and Coaching Pastor. “God loves these people and has given us the responsibility to reach them.
“We’re constantly reminding our people, ‘Every number is a real person, a real story. They’re somebody God loves.’”
They’re talking stories like Jeremy’s [watch it on YouTube], a man who found Jesus at Eagle Brook after being horrifically widowed…twice. Jeremy began showing livestream services in his bar and grill on Monday nights. Weekly, up to sixty community members in trucker caps and hoodies gathered to worship God—many who’d never darken the door of a church building.
But Wait! There’s More
Peterson believes the Great Commission “isn’t just go save a bunch of people. It’s baptizing them and teaching them to obey.”
So Eagle Brook trains its entire congregation in five key behaviors of a disciple—essentially, the church’s Word-based beliefs, mission, and values:
- Following Jesus.
- Spending time with God. Ministry programs, including for kids and students, prioritize spiritual disciplines and help people spend time in Scripture.
- Connecting in community, namely small groups with well-trained leaders and supportive pastors.
- Serving others, to the tune of 10,000 volunteers.
- Living generously.
Strategies change with every cultural context to deliver the never-changing Gospel in relevant, excellent, authentic (versus “performing”) methods. Yet beliefs, mission, and values remain the same in Scripture-centric congregations around the world.
Goals for the Gospel?
But Eagle Brook believed God wasn’t stopping there. “We got brave and started praying: ‘Let’s set a goal for each one of those five values.’ How many people do we sense God is asking us to lead to Christ this year, given what He’s entrusted us with?”
The church set a goal of 10,000 coming to faith this year, and are halfway there. They monitor goals for small groups, attendance, serving, giving, users of their app’s Bible reading program. Are data points of life transformation trending upward? Are these methods effective and relevant for an unmuted display of God’s Kingdom?
The church praised God for baptism services held at a local lake last summer, requiring three whole days (check out this video from the baptisms in 2021), each campus assigned a day and time. Thousands applauded hillside.
“Some will say, ‘That feels so corporate!’” Peterson shrugs. “But when Peter preached, three thousand came to faith.”
When Ministry Multiplies
With all the ministry tools painstakingly acquired over the last thirty years, effectively multiplying their congregation by approximately 250 times its size—Eagle Brook has mobilized to share hard-won strategies with congregations longing for revitalization. Around 2006, Peterson began meeting with pastors from a variety of denominations. His team built a curriculum for a two-day church leadership intensive.
The resulting Eagle Brook Association equips leaders to create vision culture, manage change, develop themselves and their teams, and host invitational experiences. The Association asks no fees for trainings—only that pastors let them know how many come to Christ.
Peterson clarifies, “Our goal has never been to replace that inner-city or immigrant or small Hispanic church. It’s to help that pastor from that culture reach his community. We don’t get into strategy; we get into principles—what the Church is and how to lead it. I can’t tell you how to do ministry, say, in Nicaragua. We’re doing everything we can to help every church that’s hungry to get better.”
And via the Association’s coached churches last year, 68,000 gave their lives to Christ. “That gets me excited. If you take the time to help a church be successful in their community, they’re going to reach people,” Peterson grins.
Eagle Brook doesn’t talk much about their success; it feels uncomfortable. “Our senior pastors never make speaking circuits at conferences. We’re the ‘biggest church in America no one knows about.’ We stand amazed at what God is doing. If there’s a main character here, a main idea, it’s Him and His glory.”
Know a church that could use this vital training for the Kingdom of God? Send them to the Eagle Brook Association.
