Faith of Our Fathers

Episode: Expand or Expire by Howard Hendricks

Date: January 22, 2026
Host: WDAC Radio Company
Speaker: Howard Hendricks (“The Prof”)

Episode Overview

In this powerful message titled "Expand or Expire," Howard Hendricks exhorts evangelical Christians to embrace growth, both personally and collectively, warning that stagnation will lead to spiritual decline. Drawing from Matthew 9–10 and other Biblical passages, Hendricks urges listeners to adopt the message and the methods of Christ, to see the lostness and need around them, to expand their teams of workers, and to live with robust faith in the God who “specializes in the impossible.” The call: growth over complacency, action over apathy.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Challenge of Expansion: Spiritual Growth or Spiritual Death

(Starts at 02:00)

• Main assertion: Every evangelical Christian now faces a stark choice: "Expand or expire. It's either growth or the grave, progress or perish."

  • Notable Quote (03:03):

    "Peter Marshall… described 20th century Christians… like deep sea divers, encased in suits designed for many fathoms deep, marching bravely forth to pull plugs out of bathtubs."

• The signs of authentic, first-century-style Christianity—challenge, cost, conflict—are, he laments, largely absent from the modern church.

  • The gap between the early Church and today's Church is one "of contrast, not of comparison." (04:30)

2. Returning to Christ’s Message and Method

(05:15–07:00)

• Hendricks highlights the common call to “return to Jesus’ message” but insists it's equally critical to "return to the method of Christ."
  • Jesus not only spoke truth but lived it out with consistency (“I do always those things that are pleasing”).
• In Matthew 9–10, Jesus models how to shape disciples for a worldwide mission and instills "basic principles of expansion."

3. Principle One: Enlarge Your Field – See with Compassion

(07:10)

• Matthew 9:35–36: Jesus, amid teaching and healing, sees the “multitude” and is “moved with compassion.”

• Hendricks presses listeners to ask:

  • Do people "bother you or do they challenge you?" (09:15)
  • Do we see crowds “as souls for whom Christ died,” or merely as spectators?

• Memorable Story (10:50): Hendricks tells of witnessing an elegantly dressed woman faint at an airport:

  • “That is how my Savior sees men… We are living in the generation of the facade, the front, the veneer, and behind the neatly manicured lawns and the lovely air-conditioned homes are frequently empty hearts.”

• Key Insight:
  It’s not about acquiring a “bigger field,” but "a bigger view of the field you now have." (16:00)

  • “So many of us are asking God for a bigger challenge, when… we need a bigger challenge concerning the task God has already given to us.”

4. Principle Two: Expand Your Force – Multiply Laborers

(17:15)

• Matthew 9:37–38: “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.”

• The “unemployment problem” in the church: “Too many drones in the divine hive.”

  • Notable Quote (19:10):

    "There are only two groups of people in the church: the pillars that support it, and the caterpillars who crawl in and out week after week..."

• Memorable Analogy (20:05):

  • Quoting football coach Bud Wilkinson: “Football is 22 men on the field desperately needing rest and 22,000 in the stands desperately needing exercise. What a definition of the church!”

• Jesus’s solution is practical and spiritual: “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers.”

  • Warning: Prayer can make you part of the answer! (22:10)
    • Story of Dr. L.L. Legters being prompted to donate exactly what the group was praying for; “It’s a dangerous thing to pray.”
      • Quote (23:45):

        “When you pray, don’t be surprised if He taps you on the shoulder and says, ‘You’re my man. You’re my woman.'”

5. Principle Three: Expand Your Faith – Live by God’s Power

(26:00)

• Matthew 10:9–10: Christ sends the disciples with nothing extra—"Provide neither gold nor silver, nor brass in your purses..."

  • The "by faith" principle undergirds spiritual ministry.

• Faith Is Learned by Living

  • You “don’t communicate faith by lecture; you learn it in the laboratory of life.”
  • Illustration (28:40): Jesus tells the disciples "let's go to the other side" before a storm, and when they panic, he asks, "How is it that you have no faith?"

• Old Testament Example (Numbers 13):

  • The Israelites at Kadesh-Barnea: 10 spies see only giants; Joshua and Caleb see God.
    • Quote (33:30):

      “Your real problem is your God is too small, for the size of your God will always determine the size of your faith.”

• Modern Application:

  • The story of Dallas Seminary’s 1929 near-bankruptcy, prayed through until a timely financial miracle. “God sold the cattle.”
  • Ministry must never lose dependence on the God “who specializes in the impossible.” (37:50)
  • If a movement relies on human strength, “God will write Ichabod over this movement: the glory has departed.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Expand or expire. It's either growth or the grave, progress or perish." — Howard Hendricks (02:40)
• "They are, he said, like deep sea divers… marching bravely forth to pull plugs out of bathtubs." (03:03)
• "I'm not asking you to get a bigger field. I'm asking you to get a bigger view of the field you now have." (16:00)
• "There are only two groups of people in the church: the pillars that support it, and the caterpillars who crawl in and out week after week..." (19:10)
• "Football is 22 men on the field desperately needing rest and 22,000 people in the stands desperately needing exercise. What a definition of the church!" (20:05)
• "It's a dangerous thing to pray." (23:45)
• "The size of your God will always determine the size of your faith." (33:30)
• "God sold the cattle." (37:50)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00 – 02:00: Introduction to Howard Hendricks and his ministry
• 02:00 – 05:10: The “Expand or Expire” challenge
• 05:15 – 07:00: Returning to Christ’s message and method
• 07:10 – 15:30: Principle 1 – Enlarge your field, compassion for the lost
• 16:00 – 26:00: Principle 2 – Expand your force, laborers in the harvest
• 26:00 – 32:00: Principle 3 – Expand your faith, living by trust in God
• 33:00 – 37:50: Old Testament examples, the “size of your God”, Dallas Seminary story
• 40:00 – End: Final exhortation and prayer

Final Exhortation

• Hendricks prays listeners will be “inflamed” with God’s compassion and go out with “an enormous God... the one who specializes in the impossible.” (43:00)

Summary

Howard Hendricks’s "Expand or Expire" is a stirring call to the Church: embrace growth, break out of comfortable patterns, and step into Christ’s harvest field—not just with bigger visions, but with more laborers and deeper faith in God’s power. The challenge is as contemporary as ever: Will we focus on the obstacles—or on a God big enough to do the impossible?