Mark Sentell
The Garage at Living Faith · Book Three

Turn the Key

A Church Leader's Guide to Starting Outreach Ministries That Last

It started with one man fixing cars in his driveway. A decade later it serves hundreds of families a year from a small rural church. None of that was planned. All of it was faithful.

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3 formats on Amazon · 149 pages · Pastors, elders, ministry leaders, and small and rural churches

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Cover of Turn the Key

This book exists because of a driveway

No vision statement. No strategic plan. No committee approval. Just a man with a gift, a willingness to use it, and a church culture that said: go ahead and try it.

A decade later, The Garage at Living Faith has a permanent facility, thirty to forty volunteers, a 501(c)(3), a partnership with Grove City College's Center for Rural Ministry, and a funding model that doesn't lean on any single source. In one eighteen-month stretch it went from five cars a year to five hundred. It now serves more people in a year than have attended the church in the last decade.

Turn the Key is for the pastor, the elder, and the motivated layperson who looks at their community and thinks, someone should do something about that, and suspects that someone might be them. It lays out the theology of going out, the frameworks that make a ministry last, the full story of how The Garage was built (mistakes included), thirty ministry ideas that fit a small church, and a step-by-step guide to getting started.

You don't need a big church or a big budget. You need a real need, a few willing people, a church that says yes, and the courage to turn the key.

This book will help you

  • Find the one need your church is equipped to meet, by listening before you launch
  • Test a ministry idea with four simple filters and the one question that matters most
  • Build a volunteer team across generations that stays because they remember why they came
  • Fund your ministry without draining the church budget
  • Plan for the long haul, with systems, successors, and rest, so the ministry outlasts you

Includes thirty ministry ideas for small churches with a quick-reference chart, discussion questions for leadership teams and elder boards, and a Scripture index.

From the book

“The church does not exist for itself. It exists for the world.”

“We are not running a repair shop. We are running a relationship ministry disguised as a repair shop.”

“Clarity about roles is not bureaucracy. It's kindness to your volunteers.”

“Forgotten places are not forgotten by God.”

“Would someone still come if we never invited them to church?”

“Nobody partners with you because you have a vision. They partner with you because you have a track record.”

Inside the book

Five parts, twenty-seven chapters

The theology, the frameworks, the full story of how The Garage was built, a catalog of ideas, and a step-by-step guide to getting started.

Part One: Why the Church Goes Out

Mission is the church's permanent posture, outreach and discipleship belong together, and the gospel travels through relationships.

  1. 1The Mission Has Always Been OutsideOutreach is the church's defining orientation, not something added once everything else runs well.Matthew 28:18–20
  2. 2Two Structures, One MissionThe local church tends the found. The mission structure seeks the lost. The body needs both.1 Corinthians 12:14–17
  3. 3Frontier and HomesteadOutreach and discipleship aren't rivals. They feed each other.Ephesians 4:11–12
  4. 4The Relational BridgeThe gospel travels through presence, genuine care, and honest faith.John 1:14
  5. 5Tier One, Tier Two, Tier ThreeBuilding for the broadly evangelical church. The big-C Church is bigger than any one church.Philippians 1:3–5

Part Two: What Makes a Ministry Work

The frameworks behind a ministry that lasts, and the costs nobody warns you about.

  1. 6The Sweet SpotSeven characteristics of a ministry that lasts.
  2. 7The Three-Legged StoolThe people you serve, your volunteers, and your infrastructure must grow together or fail together.
  3. 8Discipleship Happens HereOutreach is something God does for the church. Let the work be the curriculum.James 1:22
  4. 9The Founder and the OrganizerThe person who starts a ministry rarely scales it. You probably need both.
  5. 10White Hats, Blue Hats, Red HatsA simple leadership structure that cuts the chaos out of volunteer ministry.
  6. 11The Hidden Costs Nobody Warns You AboutWhat happens after the ministry succeeds.

Part Three: The Case Study

How The Garage grew, phase by phase, from a driveway to a nonprofit.

  1. 12Ideation: Start with Someone's PassionTop-down initiatives make programs. Grassroots passion makes movements.
  2. 13Experimentation: What Did We Try?Learn fast by failing small.
  3. 14Iteration: Getting Better at ItYou can create the conditions for fellowship. You can't manufacture it.
  4. 15Formalization: Building Systems and PeopleFrom five cars a year to five hundred.
  5. 16Expansion: When the Community Catches the VisionPartners, funding, and why the 501(c)(3) was a partnership strategy.
  6. 17Multiplication: Beyond This GarageMultiplication doesn't require cloning. The principles travel.

Part Four: Ministry Ideas for Small Churches

The model underneath every model, thirty ideas, and how to evaluate yours.

  1. 18The Affinity PrincipleCreate spaces around shared interests, and love people there.1 Corinthians 9:22
  2. 19Thirty Ideas for Small ChurchesFrom car care and tool libraries to homework clubs and dinner church.
  3. 20Evaluating Your IdeaFour filters, and the test that matters most.

Part Five: Getting Started

Listen, focus, build the team, fund it, connect, sustain it, and begin.

  1. 21Become a Listener FirstBe genuinely curious before you are strategically useful.
  2. 22Solve One Problem WellThe path to becoming indispensable is a track record.
  3. 23Building Your TeamRecruit for character first, and keep people through stories.
  4. 24The Funding ModelThe funding will follow the faithfulness.
  5. 25Become the ConnectorWe don't solve systems. We connect people to the people who can.
  6. 26The Long GameBuild a ministry that survives your absence.
  7. 27Turn the KeyA letter to the church that is ready to begin. You may be the someone.Philippians 4:13
Articles

More on Turn the Key

All 15 articles on Turn the Key →

For leadership teams

A twelve-week planning series, or one retreat

Read it with your elders or ministry team, one chapter per meeting, using the discussion questions at the back. Planning a retreat? Parts Four and Five together, the ideas catalog and the getting-started guide, make a full weekend. The goal isn't inspiration. It's clarity: what to start, why it matters, and your first three steps.

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Mark Sentell is the Founding Pastor of Living Faith Church in Fombell, Pennsylvania, and the director of The Garage at Living Faith, a ministry that fixes cars for free. By day he runs companies.

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The Garage at Living Faith Series

Read the whole series

Four short books from a church that fixes cars for free: one for the people whose cars we fix, one for the volunteers who fix them, one for leaders who want to start something like it, and one for the pastor who does all of it with a day job. About the series →