by Gary L., McIntosh
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Product Description
Framed as a discussion between a pastor six months out of seminary and a veteran pastor, this book tackles the issues of how churches grow and how church size determines effective strategy for ministry. The pastors Saturday morning dialogues reveal ten areas that will help readers understand their own churchs psychology, addressing questions such as: -How do churches grow?
-How does change take place?
-What is the churchs orientation?
-How is the church structured?
-Who sets the direction?
-What is the pastors role? This is a vital resource for any new pastor, church planter, or lay leader concerned about his or her local church. Each chapter concludes with a Taking It Home segment.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Stop Beating Your Head, and Buy the Book, 2008-12-16
This was a fantastic read in the dynamics of church growth. The book is a narrative of a dialogue between two ministers over the challenges and the opportunities for the various size congregations. The book basically deals with the small church 35-200, the medium church 200-400, and the large church 400-1000. The book talks about the process of growth with a practical understanding of the various situations and problems at each level. As I was reading the book, I was thinking that often different sizes congregations are trying to use small or large or medium methods to grow the congregation, but this is a pointless endeavor. This book was one of the most helpful books I have read on ministry in the last year. The sections on how are decisions made in the various size congregations was extremely helpful. The problems that one faces in the different sizes was excellent. The book deals with all the major questions one might have in helping a congregation grow. It dealt with how the minister should operate, to how the leaders perceive the church. This book will help any minister to engage in the best practices that will lead to growth in the congregation. Preachers quit beating your head against the wall and go buy this helpful book on church growth.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Simple and Helpful, 2008-08-27
I found this book to be a simple and helpful take on the various challenges and benefits of churches of various sizes.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Falls Short, 2007-12-24
This book focuses on church administrative structure and related insights that are intended to smooth the path to church growth and making disciples (p. 11).
The book's older fictional pastor who presents McIntosh's ideas says: "'According to my figures, most churches could grow around 5 percent a year if they retooled and refocused their resources on making disciples.'" (p. 118)
What does "making disciples" mean. McIntosh doesn't really say. He doesn't look to scripture for ways of measuring success in making disciples. Even disciple making factors like difference in lifestyle from secular culture or biblical literacy are not used. Growth in church attendance is the only clearly defined goal.
To facilitate growth rate McIntosh looks to American corporate structure. The pastor is seen as a business administrator. Thus, the pastor of a church with 800-1,999 attendance needs to act like a corporate president, 250 to 349 attendance as middle manager, 200 to 249 as a supervisor, 75 to 199 as a foreman. (p.65) To be successful, the pastor must "'understand where the leadership power resides and work with it. . . .'" (p. 57)
So, what is the success rate for churches following the McIntosh plan? The book's young fictional pastor sees phenomenal growth--going from 35 in his church to 280 five years later--a 50% a year growth rate! As for real world success rate, McIntosh gives no stats from the 500+ churches he has served.
He does mention one real example of churches implementing a size-based strategy similar to his own. (p. 19) Unfortunately this mid-sized denomination posted a small negative growth rate from 2000 to 2005 (according to information compiled by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research taken from The Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches).
This book seeks to give pastors and churches helpful advice on being more successful at making disciples. Sadly, even in the limited area of church growth, the evidence points to major flaws in the plan.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A good starting point, 2007-07-20
This book is a good discussion starter for why your church may be stuck at a certain level. It offers some good tips on how a church mught break through a given attendance barrier and what obstacles need to be overcome.
This is a book for church leaders to read together. The first question they must answer after reading the book is, "Do we want growth badly enough that we are willing to change?"
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
A Pastor's Best Friend, 2006-06-08
Did I get your attention? I realize that the pastor's best friend is God and best human friend is a spouse. I realize the most important book in the pastor's library is Scripture. But this book is VALUABLE with big letters!
This book is valuable because it is solid and practical. None of it is novel. None of it is new. It is not experimental. It is all based on time tested proven data, readily available from a variety of sources and should be taught in any pastoral leadership course.
This book is valuable because it is written with an easy to understand, step-by-step style that will open the eyes of laity on church boards. I took my church boards through this book, 3 chapters/week for 4 weeks. By the time we finished we had prepared an action plan that is turning our church around.
This book is valuable because it lays down unmistakable guidelines to expose dysfunction. By the time our boards had finished this book there were few people who could hide dysfunction behind pious language. The people saw it for what it was.
DRAWBACKS:
The book does have a couple of drawbacks. It is written in story form. Some of my congregation did not like the story. They just wanted the meat of the material. Chapter after chapter added to one overall chart. By the time the book was half finished I had people who skipped the chapters we were on and went to the final chart.
RESPONSE TO CRITICS:
Most critics of this book point to its lack of theology and spiritual depth. That is not the point. Some pastors are competent but do not have a godly character. Others have character but lack competency. Some leaders have great personal spiritual depth, but lack public presence. Today's churches and church leaders need to have it all. Granted, this book has limited scope, but it doesn't pretend to be a theological work. It attempts to be a management tool. Leadership doesn't have to be "either/or", "it should be both/and".
ADVICE:
The drawbacks do not compare to the advantages. EVERY church board in EVERY church should go through this book, if for no other reason than healthy self-diagnosis.
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