Some difficult advice here

books:


	• Go Big: Lead Your Church to Explosive Growth Bill Easum, Bil Cornelius Abingdon Press, 2006 - 129 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Think BIG

All across the U.S. there are 10s of thousands of churches in decline or dying, many of which are in growing population areas. Easum and Cornelius put forth a clear, concise, and unmistakeable call to action, to reach out and bring people to Christ and the Church.

This book is worth the price if all it does is shatter the self-imposed limitations that clergy and churches place around themselves in terms of the potential for making disciples in most locations. But there are also many practical suggestions to consider and apply.

The book is written in easy to understand language and a no-nonsense approach. It's short enought to read and start putting into practice, rather than try to decipher what it means. I personally appreciate the direct approach.

Highly recommended.

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Worth Checking Out

A decent church leadership/church growth book. Some things raised my eyebrows in a, "Huh, I should try that," kinda way. Others raised my eyebrows in a, "Hmm, not sure about that," kinda way.

Lotta people poo-poo on anything church growth related, but those people typically aren't pastors (in my limited experience). Like every other book, church growth books should be read critically. This book is worth checking out, particularly by church leaders.

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A Church-Renovating Book

I love the ideas in this book.

As a missionary for many years, I have seen church pastors, leaders, and members with very little Bible training put together wonderful churches. Now that I am a pastor in the US I am amazed at how tenaciously people hold to the ideas that more Biblical training or a deeper devotional life will produce a bigger, stronger church.

It isn't always Bible training or deeper devotion that grows a church. Often what is needed is just a new set of ideas to help navigate a paradigm shift or to see perhaps for the first time what is being done poorly. Our church is probably not alone in being able to say, "We have found the enemy, and it is us."

This book offers fresh perspectives, and I look forward to implementing as much of it as I can.

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Some difficult advice here

This book is filled with tough advice. One of the toughest concepts for me is that the pastor should be making all the decisions, including the hiring and firing of all staff. Also, that after a staff member is hired, he has a year or maybe two to bring in enough people that he has paid his own way. I noticed that one other reviewer counted these things to arrogance, but I really don't think that is the case. I haven't met Easum, but I have met Cornelius and found him to be anything but arrogant. He is, however, very passionate about growing the kingdom of God. This is the way that has worked for him, and it definitely has worked. Either I haven't had the vision focused intently enough to do these things, or perhaps their is more than one way to get things done. The overarching concepts of the book, however, I found indisputable, there must be vision or a church will never be what God wants it to be and the church must be single-minded in its desire to win a lost and dying world. One of the best chapters was on using different forms of media to get the church moving past various numerical barriers. Overall, it's not a book whose concepts I could embrace entirely, but it one forces one to examine one's own ideas for achieving the Great Commission.

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Helpful Suggestions

Our church hired a professional church growth coach to assist us to reach more people for Christ and to improve our ministry.

The coach recommended this book to our pastor and we have been reading it as a staff.

It has been helpful to present things we have never thought about. Sometimes ministry can be a routine and this book assist in breaking the routine.

The chapters are...

1. The Difference is in the Zeroes
2. A Wild and Crazy God
3. Structuring Your Church for Growth
4. It's Time to Lead, Pastor!
5. Double Your Vision
6. Preparing to Break Church Growth Barriers
7. The Growth Barriers
8. Staffing the Church for Explosive Growth
9. Saved to Serve
10. Make a Big "Ask" of Yourself
11. Handling Problem People
12. Positoning Ourselves for Explosive Growth

This book will challenge what you do and what you believe. You will be joyful, excited, and sometimes frustrated while reading it.

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