The 2 Questions That Transformed Greg Nettle and RiverTree Christian Church

Transformative Stories From Exponential Learning Communities

Lindy Lowry

Over the last several years, church leaders around the nation have journeyed together, in an attempt to hear and understand what God is saying to them about the next years of their ministry. Specifically, what they will focus on–building their church or building the Kingdom? Guided by missional thought leader Alan Hirsch, this inaugural group, eventually called Future Travelers, met several times to learn together and wrestle with the implications of these questions.
As a result of this journey, each of  these churches has initiated transformative changes and practices. We talked to Greg Nettle, president of Stadia and former lead pastor of RiverTree Christian Church in Northeast, Ohio, about the transformative impact RiverTree Christian has seen as a result of RiverTree leaders’  involvement in Future Travelers. Below, Nettle shares his experiences in Future Travelers—one of two Exponential Learning Communities this fall—and  why this yearlong gathering has proved to be such a milestone for him and RiverTree.
Greg, looking back, what are the most noticeable ways you have changed personally as a result of your Future Travelers journey with like-minded leaders?
Future Travelers was a launch pad for an entirely new way of thinking about how to be the Church and how to lead the Church. As a result, I am much more committed to helping the Church produce disciples and not consumers.
 Share with us 3 to 5 of your most important takeaways from your learning communities experience?

• That I wasn’t alone in my dissatisfaction with the type of disciples the Church has been producing.

• That if we really want to be effective at making disciples. shifting from an attractional church model to a missional model which is attractive is a necessary step.

• That discipleship begins at “Hello.”

• That discipleship is a lifestyle, not a program.

How did those learnings play out at RiverTree Christian?
There were so many ways that RiverTree transitioned as a result of our involvement with Future Travelers.

• We changed our metrics. We still keep track of how many and how much, but we also look for the “so what.” In other words, are we actually making disciples who make disciples who transform their communities?

• We launched more than 50 missional communities that are living out their faith in their neighborhoods and networks of friends.

• Our weekend gatherings became more committed to equipping rather than designed for consumption.

• We became a much more generous church, literally giving away millions of dollars for life and community transformation outside the walls of the church building.

Greg, what one conversation during your time in Future Travelers did you put into action at RiverTree and as a result saw the most impact?
When I began with Future Travelers, the burning question was, “How do we produce disciples who are committed to following Jesus rather than consumers of church goods?” As we wrestled through this question throughout our time during Future Travelers, we began to see ways to transition RiverTree in our core teachings about what it means to be a follower of Jesus, and in our core practices about how we live as followers of Him.
We implemented two simple but transformational questions:

1. What is Jesus saying to me?
2. What am I going to do in response?

As a result, rather than a Christian being fed more and more information, these two discipleship questions force the information to be transformational. It moves us from asking, “What have I learned?” to “How does what I have learned change the way that I live?”