Customer Reviews

I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church!

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Paul Nixon's book is a challange to every pastor to be proactive and transformative in their ministry. He pulls no punches and warns that what is needed in our churches to turn them into efective centers of ministry that will challange our current status quo and even create unheavals in the local church. However the time to have gradual change is over and the only thing that will turn a local church around is transforamtional leaders within the parish pushing for life giving, community oriented, fun, bold, frontier ministry today.

This is the best ministry book I have read in years. Refreshing and practical insights into what it takes to turn a church around. Written from a pastors view point it hold scads of good information for every church member who wants to see their church thrive. A MUST READ Book

There is more good stuff in these 122 pages than in volumes of "how to" books by 'Mega Church' bestselling authors.

As any minister in the United Methodist Church, I am expected to go to a lot of meetings, and inevitably have to fill out a lot of forms. Nixon's book challenges that enitre enterprise and instead focuses our attention on what the truer mission of the Church Universal should be, choosing life over death. Then in a quite provocative manner he proposes 6 options that boldly suugest how to pour new wine into the old wine skin of the aging church, that which like any other institution exists to maintain itself all the while ignoring that is slowly declining into ultimate oblivion. This is a should read book for amyone interested in church growth and spiritual development.

Paul Nixon asserts that there is no time left for business as usual in the mainline protestant churches; the time for radical change is NOW. I personally found it unsettling as I began to read it. Frankly, it made other lay people at my church angry and they were not able to finish it.

Paul Nixon builds his case well and I am convinced that it can no longer be business as usual in the church. Although it is a quick read and written clearly, it is not an easy read because it provokes emotions and change is painful. I recommend it for group study with forward thinkers of all ages or those who feel restless with the way things are. It is also a recommended read for anyone under 50 who loves their church. A more recent book, "Who Stole my Church" by Gordon MacDonald will probably work better for those over 50 who aren't convinced that change is the answer.

Perhaps because I pastor a tiny rural church with no attenders under 45 years of age, I don't think everything in this book will apply to my situation. But I liked it well enough that I am asking the members of my church council to read it. We're trying to assess what kind of a future we can have, and this book offers some options.

Main Idea of the Text:

The main purpose of the book was to provide powerful attitudes that would help create growth in a congregation.

The Three Top Ideas of Greatest Benefit:

1. The idea of apostolic leadership is what is needed in congregations. Pastors are trained to be caretakers and managers of the status quo. We need bold leadership in congregations that are fighting against growth.

2. As a leader, you have to always watch for certain controllers in the dying church. There will be a tug-a-war with the new leader. In stagnant and dying churches, the members usually turn inward and become a bit selfish in what is most convenient and comfortable for church members and not what is best for serving the community. This is why there must be alliance with those who desire growth. This takes time and energy. You cannot lead change if there are not enough people wanting growth as well.

3. The information on small groups is superb in the book. It is practical knowledge in how to do these and how to have fun in these environments. This is a great lunching point for a small group ministry.

4. Overall, this was one of the best books so far in this class. It was to the point and practical. It highlighted well a lot of the tensions within a congregation concerning growth.

The Three Ideas of Major disagreement:

1. Probably within the churches of Christ, first year growth is not going to happen in huge abundance because of the lack of any positional authority by a minister in the movement. The first year must be a proving ground to establish trust and relationships. If a minister moved too quickly, he would hurt the work more than help. Noting that growth should happen in the first year might be setting a minister up for failure.

2. Bold can be a dangerous word in the church. It scares a lot of members in a congregation. Also, a minister that does not understand the balance in bold will drive people away and cause too much conflict for growth to happen. Telling a new minister or a young minister to be bold might be setting him up for serious conflict that he will not be able to handle at that point in his maturity.

The Recommendation of the Book:

I would highly recommend this book because it is short but immensely practical and helpful. It cuts to the heart of the issue concerning growth and why some churches grow and some churches die. The lists of healthy and unhealthy signs concerning growth are highly informative.

Working with some churches on living out God's mission of making disciples of Christ is just plain hard work. Paul Nixon encourages us, teaches us, and inspires us to get excited about the challange of growing, not dying.

a must read, a guide, a template for all denominations struggling with decreased attendance, budget shortfalls, and His Spirit often missing in the sanctuary. The "job description" for professional and lay leadership. The motivator that can take us from the talk to the walk.

howie watts

This is an excellent book that I want all of my leaders to read. It describes what I am trying to do in my church as senior pastor.

The book is written to get attention, and it does. Oriented to youth ministry, the author seems to write from experience. Some may wish for ministry attention to the boomer generation, who are aged 47 to 65 in 2011. I particularly wish the term church vitality was more clearly related to the presence of the Holy Spirit, and not just to the presence of young people, as in age groups. The description of an "aging church" is a stereotype that was meant to describe an increasingly complacent and stagnant church, not a church populated by the elderly. Like it or not, the age group of 80 to 89 is the fastest growing population segment of industrialized nations worldwide, and is worthy of ministry. But the work is valid for its viewpoint, and is worth the read. The attention stirred up can be built upon, and that is good.