S5 Episode 2: The Question That Reveals Your Strategy

What question is quietly shaping your church?

Most church leaders ask some version of this question every week: “How many people came?”

It is not a bad question. Attendance matters. Gathering matters. But when that question becomes the dominant question, it can quietly shape what your church prioritizes, rewards, celebrates, and ultimately produces.

In this episode of Breaking the Addition Addiction, Brian Phipps and Jason Phelps compare two very different leadership questions: “How many came?” and “Who is becoming more like Jesus?”

One question can build a gathering engine. The other begins to build a formation engine.

This conversation helps church leaders examine the questions that dominate staff meetings, leadership conversations, ministry reports, and public celebration. Because the questions you repeat do more than measure culture. They aim it.

You’ll hear why attendance cannot be the only scoreboard, how language reveals what we believe about discipleship, and why inherited questions often produce inherited outcomes. Brian and Jason also offer a simple exercise for leaders: write down the top five questions that show up most often in your leadership culture and ask what those questions are actually building.

If your church says it values disciple-making, but your meetings, metrics, and celebrations are mostly built around attendance and activity, this episode will help you see the gap without shame and begin leading with greater clarity.

Take the free Disciple Multiplication Capacity Assessment:
https://disciplesmade.com/assessment