Customer Reviews

Holy Conversations: Strategic Planning as a Spiritual Practice for Congregations

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This is a great resource and guide for congregations going through the planning process. As a lay member helping our Pastor, it helped me frame questions, lead discussions and develop a spirtual based planning process for our church.

This book is a wonderful resource and encouragement for any churches looking to plan, especially those who want to plan with God. It asks those fundamental questions that we do not seem to remember to ask ourselves: who are we? who are we called to serve? It has more practical resources than you could or should ever use and the authors tell you that - not every exercise will be right for your church. Still, it is nice to have options and it is nice to have a book that actually talks about discernment instead of trying to co-opt the business model for churches.

The book helps a congregation look forward and look backwards. As one looks forward, one has to decide which of the three types of planning described are needed. It also looks backwards to ask what type of things (positive or negative)stamped their imprint on a congregation's DNA.

One of the resources in the back describes why many mainline churches resist talking about numerical growth or being part of small groups.

The book contends that asking three questions (honestly asking them and asking others to help answer them) can be transforming for a congregation.
Who are we? Why are we here? Who is my neighbor?

The authors suggest that scriptural stories can be claimed to describe a particular church's situation. This story claimed can be liberating and transformative.

If you ever wondered how to do church planning in a spiritual manner, I have a book for you.

Holy Conversations: Strategic Planning as a Spiritual Practice by Gil Rendle and Alice Mann doesn't try to separate business approaches and spiritual discernment: it finds a unique way to combine them.

The main plea of the book is for church leaders to create on-going spiritual conversations about what is important to them, and what future they believe God is calling their church to. Many styles of spiritual discernment are explained: Ignatian, Methodist, African and Quaker.

But the book also covers what (besides number of bodies) makes different sized churches different from each other. It offers two creative ways to explore a church's history. Rendle and Mann talk about what really happens when a pastor asks a congregation to complete survey. Twenty-three appendices cover everything from "Types of Planning" to "A Short Guide to Lectio Divina."

This would be a wonderful book if you just wanted to explore deepening the Christian spirituality of groups. It would be a fine book if you just wanted to follow a sound strategic planning process. And it is gold for those who seek a spiritually grounded planning process.

The strength of this book is in this statement on page 13 of the introduction, "we want to talk about the opportunity of planning as discernment."

A fresh approach away from the mere goal setting and problem solving mode of planning, this book offers congregational planning as an on-going dialogue between leaders and with God.

Filled very helpful ideas and guidelines, this book provides a wonderfully new approach to congregational development that treats a congregation as unique expression of God's kingdom.

Thanks So Much! In good condition and received in timely manner. Thanks Again!