Musings on Spiritual Matters

Main Idea of the Text:

The main purpose of the book was to provide powerful attitudes that would help create growth in a congregation.

The Three Top Ideas of Greatest Benefit:

1. The idea of apostolic leadership is what is needed in congregations. Pastors are trained to be caretakers and managers of the status quo. We need bold leadership in congregations that are fighting against growth.
2. As a leader, you have to always watch for certain controllers in the dying church. There will be a tug-a-war with the new leader. In stagnant and dying churches, the members usually turn inward and become a bit selfish in what is most convenient and comfortable for church members and not what is best for serving the community. This is why there must be alliance with those who desire growth. This takes time and energy. You cannot lead change if there are not enough people wanting growth as well.
3. The information on small groups is superb in the book. It is practical knowledge in how to do these and how to have fun in these environments. This is a great lunching point for a small group ministry.
4. Overall, this was one of the best books so far in this class. It was to the point and practical. It highlighted well a lot of the tensions within a congregation concerning growth.

The Three Ideas of Major disagreement:

1. Probably within the churches of Christ, first year growth is not going to happen in huge abundance because of the lack of any positional authority by a minister in the movement. The first year must be a proving ground to establish trust and relationships. If a minister moved too quickly, he would hurt the work more than help. Noting that growth should happen in the first year might be setting a minister up for failure.

2. Bold can be a dangerous word in the church. It scares a lot of members in a congregation. Also, a minister that does not understand the balance in bold will drive people away and cause too much conflict for growth to happen. Telling a new minister or a young minister to be bold might be setting him up for serious conflict that he will not be able to handle at that point in his maturity.

The Recommendation of the Book:

I would highly recommend this book because it is short but immensely practical and helpful. It cuts to the heart of the issue concerning growth and why some churches grow and some churches die. The lists of healthy and unhealthy signs concerning growth are highly informative.

Related posts:

1. Dying for College Football
2. Review of “What Pastor’s Wish Church Members Knew”
3. Review of “Church Unique”
4. Review of “Missional Church”
5. Review of “Taking Your Church to the Next Level”

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This entry was posted by Matthew on Thursday, June 18th, 2009 at 5:13 pm and is filed under Church News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.