What is Seeds of Change
Pastor Doug Beutler
What is Seeds of Change? I get this question all the time. People usually think I am selling a product like another discipleship resource. Some think I am selling a new book, maybe someday. Some think I am developing a new denomination, absolutely not. Some think I am a type of ministerium. Some think I am a consulting firm, we do some coaching but Seeds is so much more.
My wife soon after we created Seeds of Change told me that I needed to explain what Seeds of Change is by creating an acrostic of Seeds. So I tried and failed. Tried again and failed. Tried again and failed. Finally, after 1 ½ years I finally figured it out. Here is what Seeds of Change means:
Small Church Network
Seeds of Change is a network of churches specifically for small churches. You may ask what are small churches. We started out specifically targeting churches under 100 people because as many as 70% if churches in America are under 100 people according to 2020 Faith Communities Today Study. The median attendance is just 65 people, meaning that half of all congregations have 65 or fewer attendees. A Life Way study found that 23% of churches have fewer than 50 attendees each week. Most denominations and evangelical networks stretch “small” churches up to 200 people in worship. We at Seeds now consider small church to be under 200 people and usually have less than 2 full time staff or a combination of 3 part-time staff employed by the church.
Encouragement of pastors by pastors
It has always been frustrating to me when I hear of a small church pastor being encouraged or coached by a large church pastor. Large churches and small churches are different animals. Large church pastors and small church pastors are facing different difficulties and challenges. Large churches don’t understand small churches and small churches don’t understand large churches. In a Arlin Rothauge’s book “Sizing up a Congregation for New Member Ministry” found that pastors have more in common based on the size of their church than denomination or church tradition. At Seeds of Change pastors come together from different denominations to encourage and pray for each other. These times are extremely important because these pastors understand that they are all small church pastors. Survey after survey show that these special encouraging prayer times are what pastors look forward to the most when they attend our quarterly cohort meetings. I had one pastor tell me, “I wouldn’t even consider Seeds of Change if you were not pastoring a small church”.
Education through training and coaching
There are so many resources out there on discipleship it is overwhelming. Just try Googling “Discipleship”. You will get literally thousands of hits. It is amazing how much information that is out there on discipleship. If information guaranteed success in discipleship, we would be the most successful country in the world at discipleship. But we know it is not just about resources, books, and manuals on discipleship. What sets Seeds of Change apart is that from the beginning we model relational, multiplying disciple making to our pastors. It is not about owning the best disciple making material, it’s about watching, learning, discovering the first and next steps needed to create a multiplying disciple making movement in your church. We want pastors walking along side pastors. Spending time with them. Praying with them. Listening to them. Empathizing with them. Brainstorming with them. Sharing with them. Suggesting with them. This is not a weekend retreat or special event. This is a long runway walking with pastors because disciple making is a long runway. As we grow one person can only do so much just like the pastor can only do so much in disciple making. So we model what multiplication looks like. We have coaches who work with church building their own Seeds of Change Networks in their areas. As they learn they pass on that information to other pastors in their areas who have joined the Seeds of Change. Relationship building, spiritual conversations, sharing how to share the gospel, walking with pastors, and multiplication are all modeled through the work Seeds of Change does with pastors.
Denominational Diversity
Jesus prayed in John 17:21a, “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one-as you are in me, Father, and I am in you…”. Also in John 17:23b, “May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me…”. As Jesus prayed for us in the future He prayed for something very important, UNITY! How we have missed the mark so often. We have reduced faith into denominational silos. We compete trying to reach the same few Christians in a community. Instead of rejoicing over a church’s success in salvations we get angry and envy what is happening “over there”. We refuse to work together because we allow for minor differences to get in the way. I could go on and on. What has been amazing to me is the diversity that we have seen in the denominations that are represented in Seeds of Change. There is nothing wrong with denominations and in fact many of them do a very good job supporting and holding accountable the biblical accountability for theological doctrine and pastors. But that does not negate the fact that we serve the “Big C” church. We can work together. It is so fun to see denominations like the Wesleyans and the Nazarenes sit at the disciple making table. Or the Missionary Church and independent churches sitting together at the disciple making table. Or the Evangelical Presbyterians and the Church of Christ sitting together at the disciple making table. Or the Church of the brethren and former United Methodists sitting at the disciple making table. It has been exciting to see these denominations and more working together as they make disciple makers of Jesus Christ.
Synergy for Community Impact
Unity leads to trust. Trust leads to cooperation. And cooperation leads to transformation.
We’ve watched churches across the street—once disconnected—now worshiping together. We’ve seen congregations partner for service projects and community meals. And we’ve seen the spark of disciple-making movements ignite in pastors’ hearts, spilling out into their cities.
When pastors catch this vision, excitement grows. Cooperation grows. Mission grows. Impact grows. We are truly better together.
This is my dream for Seeds of Change. That this movement will spread throughout the country one church at a time and one community at a time and one state at a time.
