Have you ever noticed that when someone says, “Don’t look at that!” you immediately look at it? I remember as a kid I used to delight in finding something gross and rotten and disgusting and showing it off to my friends, seeing who would flinch first as we dug around with sticks inside some rotten…
I did not know what to expect from Stealing Sheep. The book was recommended to me and I purchased it sight-unseen. All I knew of its content was the subtitle: “The Church’s Hidden Problems with Transfer Growth.” I assumed this was a book written by an author opposed to the church growth movement who would…
Reformed Christians are increasingly divided over how they ought to worship God. For many Reformed believers, this is an issue of great urgency. D.G. Hart and John R. Muether wrote With Reverence And Awe (Returning to the Basics of Reformed Worship) to address this topic. They call the book a primer on worship, “a brief…
Brian Flynn is the founder and director of One Truth Ministries and leads “Now Age” seminars before churches and groups around the United States. But long before he felt such love and concern for the church, he was a psychic medium who hated Christianity with every fiber of his being. Running Against The Wind is…
There is little reason to describe the author’s purpose in writing Testing The Claims of Church Growth, for the title makes it self-evident. My initial interest in this book was based on the description which says, “For 13 years prior to entering the ministry, Rev. Rodney E. Zwonitzer was a high-level corporate marketing executive for…
Josh Harris is all grown up. The man who brought us I Kissed Dating Goodbye when he was just twenty-one, and who is best known for bringing courtship to a whole new generation, is now senior pastor of a large and growing church and no longer speaks at conferences. Stop Dating The Church is his…
If The Purpose Driven Church is the “what” and “why” of the church growth movement and all things Purpose Driven, Transitioning represents the “how.” “If the thought of switching from a traditional church to a purpose-driven church leaves you with mingled feelings of excitement and fear, good! It means that, as a pastor, you know…
The silence. This book is all about the silence. Whether that silence is part of the religious practice of Buddhists, Hindus, Sufi Muslims, New Agers or Contemplative Christians, Ray Yungen, author of A Time of Departing argues convincingly that it is all one and the same. As the subtitle suggests, a universal spirituality is changing…
I have often lamented the overuse of the term “life-changing” amongst Christians. It is not unusual to hear people walk away from a particularly captivating sermon or conference saying “that changed my life!” The real measure and test of life change is time, for only in time will we really know what has made a…
Truth be told, I was a little disappointed with 9 Marks of a Healthy Church. The problem is not that it is a poor book but more that I had unrealistic expectations of it. I was hoping this book would be everything the church growth manuals are not; that it would be a knockout punch…
Though I have never met him, Garry Gilley has had a signficant impact on my life. He was one of two people who was most influential in my decision to begin this web site and to review books. His many book reviews were very helpful to me and made me realize that if he could…
Richard Ganz is pastor of a vibrant, growing church in Ottawa, Canada. I have had the privilege of attending that church many times over the years and have always been blessed by Richard’s exposition of Scripture. He truly is a very gifted teacher. While he is primarily a pastor, he has also written several books,…
I finished this book almost ten days ago and have not yet been able to write a satisfactory review of it. I began several times, but each time found I was missing some important aspect of it. I believe the source of my trouble is that I read this book only after reading many others…
Thom Rainer is president of Rainer Group Church Consulting as well as founding dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. As such, we would expect him to have many interesting insights into church growth. He does not disappoint. In Surprising Insights From The Unchurched…
Before I began to read The Upside Down Church I had already decided I was not going to like it. I’m not sure if it was the picture of Greg Laurie sitting on his Harley that turned me off (to my shame) or if it was that I had just read The Purpose Driven Church…
There is little doubt that many modern churches are failing to grow and flourish. New churches are planted only to wither and die while established churches are stagnant, growing only from within. Rick Warren, pastor and founder of one of America’s largest churches, Saddleback Valley Community Church, wrote The Purpose Driven Church to address the…