Customer Reviews

Building a Contagious Church: Revolutionizing the Way We View and Do Evangelism

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

For those who long to see the local church organized and intentional about reaching the lost for Christ, Mark Mittleberg's new book will move them beyond merely placing bandaids on the ailments that are holding the church back.

Mark offers a six stage process that begins with the foundational elements that need to be in place in order for a church to effectively reach lost people. As an outreach pastor, I have always known that there were forces in the church keeping us from being as effective as I sensed we should be at reaching people. The result was that no matter what I tryed, I always felt like I was putting bandaids on an unknown disfunction that was holding us back.

Mark's book helped me see that before training will be effective, before our teams can be empowered, and before our outreach events will have the impact we hope they will have, there are three foundational elements that must be in place first. They are:

1. The leadership of the church must own and model evangelistic values. 2. The leadership must strategically work to instill those values in the people around them. 3. An evangelistic point person must be empowered.

With insight, Mark shares ideas compiled from his own experience, the expereince of other churches, and biblical examples, concerning how to actually accomplish these steps within our churches.

In addition, the book is formatted in such a way that it can be used to as a study tool for church leadership. Excellent questions at the end of each chapter are provided for teams to work through and help facilitate thought and planning.

I have been waiting for a book like this. To my knowledge it is the only one of it's kind because where many books focus on issues related to personal evangelism or revival, this focuses on the bigger picture of effecting an entire church system and culture to embrace evangelistic values. It will help us move beyond bandaids and give us insight into providing real help for our churches.

Brian Allen Outreach Pastor Central Baptist Church Sioux Falls, SD

Hi, I have just concluded a one year evaluation (Masters Thesis)of Mark Mittelberg's six stage evangelsim model. It works! Not just in the mega-church, but in the church around the corner. You need to buy the book and spend time digesting it with the leaders and evangelists in your church. We found that once the leadership caught the vision- others joined quickly. For the first time, this model gives churches a well defined plan for evangelism. Now, evangelism becomes driven by values and vision rather than events and strategy. The model is practical and does not require complicated analysis. Mark Mittelberg has done all the work for you. Several benefits we have seen: 1. The senior pastor was energized. 2. Gifted evangelists were more effective 3. Outreach events were better and more numerous 4. More members were evangelisitcally energized 5. More people were praying for unbelievers 6. Leadership watched God work and relied less on human effort.

It's the best investment that your church could ever make. In Christ, Marc Harrienger (mch906@aol)

The authors deliver a good example of how Willow Creek has become a Contagious church. Willow Creek does many great things for the Kingdom of God, this book is not the best work they have ever published. While well intentioned, this book does a good job of presenting a model that would take most modern churches years to see implement.

I know of a few examples of Churches who implemented this model and met it with limited success, and others who thrived on using this model.

What I really appreciated about this work was how the author took ideas from many churches and incorporated them into his work. This was a very strong component of this book. Take for example, Mosaic Church in Los Angeles, the church that is 50 years ahead of everyone else, how they do a night where any questions can be asked, and how that particular service is held in a nightclub in Los Angeles. Thanks again to the author for incorporating many other models and programs into this book.

This book is a great resource for many ideas. It delivers well on that front.

While Canadians highly value their neighbours to the south, we can also be a bit reluctant to embrace ideas developed in the U.S. We wonder if they fit the Canadian context. Mark Mittelberg's Becoming a Contagious Church is a book that crosses the border with ease. The author communicates Biblical values that transcend culture. He does so not with lofty ideals and methods suited only for a resource-rich U.S. mega church...but with highly transferable and effective strategies that can be applied to various church contexts. I have been pleased to use Mittelberg's book to successfully train young pastors starting new churches on both sides of the border. I have also heard a variety of my Canadian colleagues in established churches comment on the book's effectiveness.

My highest recommendation, however, comes from the impact this book is having on our local church's evangelism planning. Our leadership is sold on the concepts the book teaches. Mittelberg's six-step strategy is a brilliant addition to our thinking and promises to be our strategic guide for years to come.

Until I read this lively, resource-packed book, I had no idea of the depth and wisdom that Willow Creek Community Church pours out to help people find Christ. Now I really see how evangelism at Willow Creek works, and just how careful and intentional it is. Every ounce of evangelical effort put forth in this book is designed to teach pastors, staff and church members how to show lost people just how much they matter to God. From post Easter messages carefully designed to keep seekers coming back to church for more week after week, to the scores of ordinary Christians at Willow who are actually trained to lead seekers to Christ using their own personal style, to the loving modeling of evangelistic lifestyles set forth by church leadership, this book demonstrates hundreds of ways to make evangelism a force to be reckoned with in any community . Because of Willow's experience, expertise and above all, love, they've come to understand the needs of seekers probably better than seekers understand themselves. Mittelberg's book puts the theology, theory and strategy of Willow Creek evangelism and other seeker oriented evangelistic churches together in one place. This book tells why evangelism needs to be done throughout all of the ministries of your church, and how to do it. It clearly explains how Willow Creek, and dozens of other healthy, seeker oriented Churches, are bringing people all over the world to Christ. I am so grateful to God for all of the hard, careful, thoughtful work that Mittelberg and his many colleagues in the field of evangelism do to help make believers out of people like you and me. Read it, and make your church contagious!

Some books are optional--books you would like to read sometime and perhaps have your leaders read as well. Other books move immediately to the top of the priority list--where there's no time to wait--this is that book! I've been involved in intensive ministry situations for almost 15 years and wish that I had had this book available BEFORE I started. This will be a defining resource for every leadership team in every church and ministry around the world to read and process. Too many Churches are purposeless and going through the motions without making the life-changing eternal impact that they really desire. Mittelberg's book provides clarifies the values, provides transferrable principles, includes helpful diagrams and provides a resource appendix which network the reader and ministries with one another in a way that is unprecedented. A quick scan of the four pages of endorsements by such leaders as: Luis Palau, Rick Warren, Joe Stowell, Robert Coleman, John Maxwell, Becky Pippert, Paul Cedar and others is an indicator that for every person who attends a church--this book is...not an option--it's a requirement!

As a partner in ministry with Mark Mittelberg in my role at International Bible Society as National Director of the Becoming a Contagious Christian Live Seminars (presented by our professional team of 25 seminar leaders nationally) I want give a rave review of Mark's new book "Becoming a Contagious Church". I had sat under Mark's teaching 3 times related to the 6 ingredients for evangelism impact in the church and have been privileged to dialogue on a regular basis with Mark over the last year and a half. God wants to empower the church to reach those far from God and it does not AND should not happen through the "chosen few". Mark provides the structure for a practical, insightful and proven process to equip an entire church. May God sound the trumpet of outreach through Mark's book!

I would recommend using reading this book with a highlighter and a notepad. I highlighted key thoughts on just about every chapter, and also wrote out new ideas for our evangelism program. I just placed an order for more copies last week, for the Evangelism Leadership Team at our church. Together, we will review and discuss several chapters in the book. You will be challenged to ensure that you have a well-defined evangelistic strategy with a clearly-known pupose. If you're a church leader, I know you'll agree - "There is always room for improvement". Do you want to be challenged? Do you want your creativity and motivation for reaching the lost, kicked up a few notches? Then get a copy of this thought provoking book. Are you and your church really doing all you can with His help to reach the lost? augiechavez@earthlink.net

Over the years I have discovered that there are many kinds of books. Some are not worth reading, some are good for personal enjoyment or learning, and then there are the books that I just have to give to others because I know they will gain as much as I did from reading them!

Building a Contagious Church falls squarely in the third category. It is deeply practical, powerfully illustrative and it offers help in the most important task in all the world...telling others about the amazing love of God! This book is a treasure house of teaching on how to move a church from theory into action when it comes to the Great Commission.

I have already given copies to all our church leaders who are part of our outreach ministry and I have given away over a dozen copies to friends who are pastors. I think a great book is one you feel you must give to your friends. In light of that test, Building a Contagious Church is one of the best books I have read in a long time.

From a fundamentalists perspective this book is 20% garbage and 80% gold. Too many of us are attempting evangelism by using methods that are not really producing fruit and our congregations are growing old and withering. Or, let's be honest, we are not evangelizing at all. I was so thankful to read a book by someone who was saying exactly what I had been thinking/feeling for quite some time.

That said, the 20% that is garbage is disturbing. The evangelism values that Mittelberg commends are fairly well presented except the one on cultural relevance. Mittelberg totally misrepresents 1 Corinthians 9. Moreover, he fails to see that sometimes achieving "cultural relevance" demands a lowering of our Biblically held positions. There is nothing more relevant than God's Word as it is properly exegeted and applied to the life. God is not glorified by evangelism that is fought with carnal weapons! I would recommend this book but with this caveat. Read Dr. David Beale's book: Pursuit of Purity along with it.

Matt