CNLP 805 | The Reason Your Church Isn't Multiplying and Fresh Trends in Church Planting With Dave Ferguson
The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast
Carey Nieuwhof
4.8 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 19 May 2026
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The vast majority of churches are plateaued or declining, and Exponential CEO Dave Ferguson explains why most churches never grow, let alone multiply.
Plus, he shares the latest trends in church planting in this special episode recorded backstage at Exponential Global Conference in Orlando.
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SUBSPLASH
Church leaders are staring at AI with a mix of fascination and, let's be honest, a fair amount of fear. But at Subsplash, they don't see AI as a way to automate ministry, they see it as a way to accelerate it. The goal isn't to replace the minister; it's to remove the administrative noise that keeps ministry staff stuck behind their desks instead of being present with people.
It's all about stewardship: helping church leaders lead the mission while Subsplash leads the technology.
Brought to you by The Art of Leadership Network
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Art of Leadership Network |
| 0:02.7 | I think a lot of us have been influenced by business. |
| 0:06.3 | Right. |
| 0:06.6 | And I got no knocks. |
| 0:07.9 | I love all the business stuff. |
| 0:09.2 | But here's the part about business. |
| 0:11.1 | Business has taught us that you have a target customer. |
| 0:13.6 | Yeah. |
| 0:14.0 | You have this target customer. |
| 0:15.1 | Here's the people we're going after. |
| 0:16.2 | And one of the large churches do this. |
| 0:18.6 | And if the idea or the concept or whatever you're bringing in front of me |
| 0:23.5 | doesn't fit what that person wants, what that person needs, |
| 0:26.7 | and the answer is no, because you have to say, you know, no to no theory. |
| 0:30.1 | So you can say, on yes to the great things. |
| 0:31.5 | We've all heard that over and over again. |
| 0:33.4 | That's partially too, but it's also, that's not the way movement happens. |
| 0:42.0 | Welcome to the Kiri-Newhoff Leadership Podcast. I'm so glad you joined us, whether you're watching or whether you're listening. Welcome. And if you're a new listener, you get a lot of new listeners every month. Make sure you hit follow or subscribe wherever you're watching or listening because then you'll get great interviews. |
| 0:58.7 | Like the one I have today with Dave Ferguson. So I came to exponential this year to try to figure |
| 1:03.8 | out what's the latest in church planting. And Dave's going to unpack that. And he's going to |
| 1:07.7 | challenge a lot of our, I'm going to say idols, like the mixed |
| 1:12.8 | motives that live inside of us, the, you know, if we really become a multiplying church, what happens |
... |
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