The longer a congregation exists, the more concerned it tends to become with self-preservation - and the less concerned with its original purpose. Time, money, staff, and even the prayers become increasingly inward-focused. The result, not surprisingly, is that the church stops growing. The foremost principle says that leaders must keep, or turn, the focus of their church away from themselves and back to their primary goal -and Christ's primary goal - of making disciples. This happens through prayer, engaging the Bible, programming, budget, staffing, and evaluating all the church's ministries on their contribution to increasing the number of Christian...