Every congregation in the United Church of Canada, the denomination in which I am credentialed, is mandated to provide its minister up to three weeks of Continuing Education leave per year and an allowance to boot.

In the early years of ordained ministry, I preferred to spend this time and money attending seminars and workshops on such vital subjects as preaching, pastoral care and counselling. Much of the training was nuts and bolts stuff that could be applied once you returned to the field.

All of that changed in 1999, when a group of three from Rosemont United in Regina (the congregation I was serving at the time) attended the “Worship, Arts & Technology Conference” at Centre Street Church in Calgary.

I did not know much about this church before I went to the Conference, but soon discovered that it was one of the largest congregations in Canada. They had 4 services every weekend, averaging 1500 per service.

At the Conference they shared how they managed to experience such explosive growth in a relatively short period of time.

I had been under the impression that their creative use of technology and the arts attracted new people to their church. They, on the other hand, made it perfectly clear that they were forced to add all the technological elements to keep up with the growth that was happening at a rapid rate.

It was very apparent to me after talking to some folks at the church that the growth was a direct result of their emphasis on person-to-person evangelism. They equipped everyone to reach out to their family, friends, co-workers and even strangers and connect them to something or someone in the church.

Do the simple math. 2 people bring two more, then all four bring four more, all eight bring eight more…now the growth is exponential and before you know it, the initial two turns into 4096 when this process is repeated a mere 12 times. No wonder they had just added a fifth service to be able to offer every member an opportunity to worship!

More than any technical knowledge I may have gained, what really happened at that Conference was that I got a vision of what the Church could be when we take the Great Commission seriously and equip everyone to “go make disciples of the nations.”

Ever since that experience, I have made it a point of spending at least part of my Continuing Education Leave attending an event where the primary emphasis is not on teaching the nuts and bolts, but on sharing and imparting a vision that grips the attendees and leads to transformation—first of the leader, then their church.

What happened at Centre Street Church in 1999 happened again in 2005 when I attended a Pastors and Leaders Conference at Catch the Fire Toronto. I did not come home with a lot of notes and manuals, but I caught the vision of a modern day church that resembled the book of Acts in so many ways.

This is why Sulojana and I are here this week for the tenth year in a row. Every time I come, the Lord enlarges my vision and Holy Spirit empowers me to grow some more. This always translates to growth in the churches I serve—not always numerical, but certainly spiritual growth—in breadth and in depth.

We have been encouraging our people for quite some time now to also take the time to go to similar events. It has been my observation that those who go and catch a vision also grow themselves, in turn becoming catalysts for growth in their congregation.

Dear DWOD friend, no matter what field you may be working in right now, would you take this counsel to heart? Make a point of attending events that will expand your horizon and cause you to envision greater realms of achievement that you may not have thought possible previously.

And you too will discover that when you go, you will grow.