Warren lists the variables that shape a church’s ministry: background, nationality, giftedness, location, denomination, church size, demographic context, cultural moment. Most of these are sovereign givens — the leader didn’t choose them and cannot meaningfully change them. They are what they are.
There is one exception: “There is one important factor that you do have control over: how much you choose to believe God.” Faith is volitional. The choice to trust God for what exceeds your own capacity is a choice, and it is one the leader makes or does not make daily.
Warren identifies this as the single common denominator across all growing churches he has studied. Not location, not programs, not worship style, not demographic advantage. Leadership that is willing to believe God for outcomes that cannot be explained by the leader’s own skill or strategy. Growing churches have leaders who have made the faith choice — repeatedly, in the face of inadequate resources, impossible situations, and extended invisible seasons.
The inverse is worth sitting with: a leader who only believes God for what is already achievable by human means is not practicing faith — they are practicing competent management. Competent management is valuable. But it does not produce the kind of growth that belongs to God.
This is the closing charge Warren issues for the purpose-driven church: purpose provides the direction, process provides the pathway, but the fuel is the leader’s willingness to believe. Everything else is given. The faith is chosen.
See 2026-04-10-prayer-as-active-devotion-not-petition for the devotional practice that sustains this kind of faith over time.