Contributing author
Daniel is a historian by training and a deacon by conscription. He writes on how the church picked up the habits of the firm — and what it looked like before it did. (Placeholder bio — sample author.)
In the funnel model, discipleship is what happens to people after they join. In the older pattern, formation begins in the friendship itself — reading, praying, and practicing before there's a membership record anywhere.
The campaign mindset — targets, scripts, closings — corrupts witness even when it works. On the slower grammar of real conversations, and why efficiency is the wrong measure entirely.
Growth targets, funnels, brand management, attractional programming — the North American church didn't invent these habits. It acquired them. A history of the acquisition.