Customer Reviews

The In-Between Church: Navigating Size Transitions in Congregations

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A helpful little book that articulates why churches get "stuck" in plateau zones, with worship attendance hovering between 50 and 70, or between 150 and 200, or between 350 to 400, or between 800 and 1000. There are invisible forces at work -- wrapped up in the identity and self-understanding of the church -- that inhibit growth at these levels. This book explains what those forces are, and offers a few suggestions.

I have an interesting history with this book; initially, this book helped me to understand that we should not be counting members so much as we should be counting worshipers. More recently, I have come to think that even counting worshipers is not what we really ought to be measuring. How many people is your church helping to grow spiritually, and what is the rate of that growth? To what degree are people internalizing the gospel and seeking to live by it? Those, I think, are the real questions. Of course, those kind of numbers are difficult to measure!

Nevertheless, this book is helpful if you believe that your church may be stuck!

The author explains well how difficult it is for a church to make a size transition. She explains the systemic dynamics that affect church growth and gives some ideas of how to best deal with the problems. This book is a must read for anyone that has noticed their church growth plateau and doesn't understand why.

As a growing Mennonite church, we were interested in learning the best transitional methodologies. We see our self-image of a "small downtown church" is quickly becoming both incorrect and inadequate and we desire to make our "growing up" as painless as possible. This book is a useful tool in our quest to adapt to our larger congregation.

The author provides useful terminology and metrics for describing a church's congregation. She also helps answer the critical questions of whether to grow, whether to add staff, and whether to add another worship service. Additionally, she points out pros and cons of all those issues. Has served as a great source for our congregation's attempt to learn God's long range plan for our small church.

Alice Mann's book has endured the years well. Her information is easy to understand and lends itself well to helping congregants understand what's happening not just in their own congregations but in most congregations.