Hybrid Strategy

The Hybrid Strategy is a dual-engine ministry model that integrates an attractional, Sunday-centric gathering (the Come engine) with a decentralized, multiplicative disciple-making movement (the Go engine) within a single local church.

I spent twenty-five years building an attractional, seeker-sensitive church in Kansas City called Shoal Creek Community Church. We did everything right according to the church-growth manuals of the 1990s, yet I eventually came to a crisis I am willing to say out loud: the disciples we were making were not making disciples. We had built a highly effective "Come" engine—our Sunday services designed to attract spiritual seekers—but we were completely missing the "Go" mandate of the Great Commission. The brutal fact we had to face was that about half of our target audience would never step foot inside our building, no matter how great our music, how comfortable our seats, or how engaging our sermons.

This realization brought us to a burning platform. We couldn't simply ignore the fifty percent of our community who are far from God and completely closed to traditional church programs. At the same time, we couldn't just burn down the attractional church we had spent decades building. The "Come" engine was still highly effective at reaching the other fifty percent who *were* open to a Sunday gathering. We needed a way to live out two seemingly contradictory values: loving seekers who come to us, and building Jesus' kingdom on earth by going to those who won't. If we went "all-in" on one at the expense of the other, we would abandon half of the harvest field.

That is where the hybrid metaphor rescued us. Just like a hybrid car uses both a gasoline engine and an electric motor to achieve its single mission of transportation, a local church can utilize two distinct power sources to fulfill its mission. On the "Come" side, we continue to gather on Sundays and guide people through semester-based Journey Groups—which are structured environments for people exploring faith within the church. On the "Go" side, we deploy Disciple-Making Movements (DMM)—a strategy focused on turning average followers of Christ into event planners rather than salesmen, so they can invite friends to discover God. This track operates through decentralized Discovery Groups—small, simple gatherings where seekers read the Bible and hear from God directly where they live, learn, work, and play.

But putting these two together is no easy task. At times, they are seemingly opposite or even contradictory in nature. The temptation is always there to let them bleed into each other—to use our Go-side Discovery Groups as a marketing funnel to grow our Sunday attendance. We had to make a hard, fundamental decision: we must be willing to build Jesus' kingdom on earth even if it means not growing our church's Sunday attendance. If we use DMM merely to prop up our Sunday crowd, we short-circuit the movement, because an invitation to a church building is counterproductive for the fifty percent who will never come.

Here is the reframe: We must stop treating "attractional" and "missional" as rival camps in an either/or civil war. The choice is not between growing your local church or expanding the Kingdom of God; the challenge is learning how to run both engines in one vehicle, allowing each to operate when and where it is most effective without letting them destroy each other.

Let’s explore how these two engines can work together to mobilize your entire church for multiplication.

Sources drawn from: Spent Matches