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Magnify Your Vision for the Small Church

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I found this book to be one of the most thought-provoking mission books I've read in the last several years. Not only does it tell the amazing story of how God used a small church that stepped out in faith, but it spells out the biblical principles behind the story. It repeatedly drives home the point that "It is not the size of our resource pool, but the limits of our faith and our vision that determines our impact for the kingdom of God." While this goes totally contrary to our American "bigger is better" mentality,it is a message that the North American evangelical church needs to hear.

"Magnify Your Vision For The Small Church" should be read by the pastor/leadership/missions team of every small church and also by the leadership of every mission agency. I believe God can use this book to unleash what is undoubtedly the greatest untapped resource for the cause of world evangelization - the small local church.

Bill Smith, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. I highly recommend this book for pastors of small churches, missionaries, church planters, or anyone interested in what God can do through ordinary people. It sets forth some challenging ideas in the most effective format, a story. What makes the book so compeling is that the story is true.

It has been rightly said, "A church which is not mission-minded has ceased to be the church. It has lost the Gospel and is dead to the Cross." John Rowell's deeply moving book, "Magnify Your Vision for the Small Church," is the story of the evolution of Northside Community Church, a small church in the USA from the typical approach to missions, applying $12,000 to world missions from the general budget, to a church mobilizing its whole membership into church planting teams, adventuring by faith into a dangerous and desperately needy part of the world to reach an unreached Muslim people group.

The journey began by exploring ways of maximizing the impact of their limited financial resources by identifying and partnering with gifted national evangelists on the front lines of evangelism in Africa and Asia.

Then came the next step, from supporting to sending. By adopting the "Faith Promise" approach to mission giving, resources grew to match the challenge of sending someone from their own membership into the field. Laurie Nelson, a skilled computer programmer became the first full-time misisonary mobilized by the church. Within just a few years Northside had members serving as new missionaries or tent-makers in Russia, Singapore, Germany and Japan.

The third step was the call to adopt an unreached people group. "Professional missiologists taught us that as a mission-minded church, we should give priority attention to identifying a specific unreached people group target of our own - one for which we could pray and toward which we could plan to take the Gospel."

Tears and excitement move the reader as the story unfolds of how God used the ordinary praying people of Northside Community Church to plant a church among the faraway and largely unreached Muslims of Bosnia, a culture so different to the culture of suburban Atlanta.

Part 2 of this book begins with Isaiah 54:2, "Englarge the place of your tent; stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not..."and it is titled "Principles of Church-based Missions."

This half is packed with a wealth of instruction for the pastor seeking to disciple the people of his church into productive Christian living and leadership, with a view to making an impact both in the local community, and over the horizon where millions live who have no way to hear the Gospel.

Under the heading "The Small Church, God's Key to World Evangelism," Rowell states that "the most advantageous missions alternative is a model that succeeds by using a pattern of church growth which is indefinitely reproducible."

Success has so often been measured in terms of the mega-church, and more lately the meta-church, emphasizing the "bigger is better" mentality. However the mega-church is not easily reproducible, nor is it conducive to the in depth personal all-member involvement in the church planting, church reproducing mission to which every church is called. Rowell points out that 94% of the world's churches are smaller than 350 members. Therefore "in the real world, smallness is an observable characteristic of the overwhelming majority of churches in every culture." On the other hand, Dr. Richard Halverson discovered when serving as pastor of a 7,000 member church, "It would require only 365 to do the work that was required to maintain the program of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood." Rowell observes that in such a situation where most of the church is inactive, the strength of the local body declines and the 'muscle tissue' atrophies."

"Community Ecclesiology" is put forth as a healthy alternative and must preceed a change in missiological practice. The local church must recover the original mandate of Christ to the church to "make disciples." All too often good pastors have had to leave the professional ministry of the institutionalized church in order to find the time "to make disciples." The average church member can go from month to month and year to year without ever being in an accountability or discipleship group let alone being active in evangelism or church planting.

The "Training Scope and Sequence" chart on pages 252-255 is a brilliant format for the mobilization of the entire membership of the small church, taking them from level of Active Members to becoming Aspiring Leaders, to being Ministry Leaders, to Congregational Leadership, to Mentoring Leaders to Church Planters. And this is happening at Northside Community Church!

The later part of this book deals with relationships between agencies and the churches, how to develop a powerful synergism as the various expressions of the Body of Christ learn to cooperate and mutually prosper in the fullfilment of the great Commission.

John Rowell, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and with years of proven experience, has created a book which is not only a work of art, and a prophetic contribution to both ecclesiological and missiological theory, but also a powerfully practical text book for both pastors and missionaries. He closes his call to the Church with a prayer "that both churches and mission agencies accept the challenge and blessing of the synergistic mission model and in the process form strong partnerships to finish the task that remains."

In this day when the emphasis is bigger and better, sadly, the same attitude has hit the small church. As one who visits nationally with pastors and missions committees of these churches who mostly are under 200 in membership, I often get the sense these churches feel their worthlessness and insignificance in the Kingdom of God. As a result, they feel the need to trust what little they are willing to do into the hands of the "professionals", those who they feel are better equipped to work in the international arena.

John Rowell's book gives hope and shines fresh light on how a small church can do great exploits for God. And really this is not a new concept. Going back to the church in Antioch which sent out Barnabas, Paul and John Mark, Rowell shows God is still perfectly capable of using anyone, or in this case, any church He desires. And it still is true, availability is far more important to God than is ability.

The case study in this book is the Northside Church's involvement in Kosovo, an area where most churches in the US would never ever launch a work. Yet Kosov is exactly where they sense God's leading. And they are quick to try and find the indigenous church to work with and partner alongside them.

Frankly, this book should be required reading of every pastor and of every seminary student and of course for everyone interested in missions. Were Rowell's principles to be seriously considered, who knows how much more could be accomplished in the Kingdom of God using the current amount of money and manpower we now have available. (Not to mention how involving church members in the pews would bring even more in churches into the mission fields.)

In this day when the emphasis is bigger and better, sadly, the same attitude has hit the small church. As one who visits nationally with pastors and missions committees of these churches who mostly are under 200 in membership, I often get the sense these small churches feel their worthlessness and insignificance in the Kingdom of God. As a result, they feel the need to trust what little they are willing to do into the hands of the "professionals", those who they feel are better equipped to work in the international arena.

John Rowell's book gives hope and shines fresh light on how a small church can do great exploits for God. And really this is not a new concept. Going back to the church in Antioch which sent out Barnabas, Paul and John Mark, Rowell shows God is still perfectly capable of using anyone, or in this case, any church He desires. And it still is true, availability is far more important to God than is ability.

The case study in this book is the Northside Church's involvement in Kosovo, an area where most churches in the US would never ever launch a work. Yet Kosovo is exactly where they sense God's leading. And they are quick to try and find the indigenous church to work with and partner alongside them. I personally find this most refreshing that his church is not trying to "reinvent the wheel" and compete with the established chruch but to come along side it and become an Aaron/Hur type ministry.

Frankly, this book should be required reading of every pastor and of every seminary student and of course for everyone interested in missions. Were Rowell's principles to be seriously considered, who knows how much more could be accomplished in the Kingdom of God using the current amount of money and manpower we now have available. (Not to mention how involving church members in the pews would bring even more in churches into the mission fields.)

While I enjoyed reading the recounting of Northsides faith journey into missions I found the rest of the book to be of little importance to a small church leader. It seems to me to be a opportunity for Rowell to carry on about how bad mega-churches, seminaries, and traditional mission agencies. This applies to the small church leader how?

Don't get me wrong I believe all small churches need to raise their vision for mission in the world and I believe God will equip small churches who are faithful for reaching the lost however and this book raises that vision but most of the book is unnecessary for small church leaders. Instead I would recommend Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby as a better book about increasing faith and vision.

Lastly Rowell tries to pass of his church as a "small church" however it was a church plant begun with a vision for missions from the get-go. It is not a surprise that the church grew quickly under their vision, but how is an established church without a clear vision for missions going to apply this book (and I purposefully don't say principles because Rowell falls short in this)?

If you are a small church pastor/leader think twice about this book. If you are a denominational leader get this book because it will reform your priorities about the small church and about developing leadership for the future.

While I enjoyed reading the recounting of Northsides faith journey into missions I found the rest of the book to be of little importance to a small church leader. It seems to me to be a opportunity for Rowell to carry on about how bad mega-churches, seminaries, and traditional mission agencies. This applies to the small church leader how?

Don't get me wrong I believe all small churches need to raise their vision for mission in the world and I believe God will equip small churches who are faithful for reaching the lost however and this book raises that vision but most of the book is unnecessary for small church leaders. Instead I would recommend Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby as a better book about increasing faith and vision.

Lastly Rowell tries to pass of his church as a "small church" however it was a church plant begun with a vision for missions from the get-go. It is not a surprise that the church grew quickly under their vision, but how is an established church without a clear vision for missions going to apply this book (and I purposefully don't say principles because Rowell falls short in this)?

If you are a small church pastor/leader think twice about this book. If you are a denominational leader get this book because it will reform your priorities about the small church and about developing leadership for the future.

While I enjoyed reading the recounting of Northsides faith journey into missions I found the rest of the book to be of little importance to a small church leader. It seems to me to be an opportunity for Rowell to carry on about how bad mega-churches, seminaries, and traditional mission agencies are. This applies to the small church leader how?

Don't get me wrong I believe all small churches need to raise their vision for mission in the world and I believe God will equip small churches who are faithful for reaching the lost however and this book raises that vision but most of the book is unnecessary for small church leaders. Instead I would recommend Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby as a better book about increasing faith and vision.

Lastly Rowell tries to pass off his church as a "small church" however it was a church plant begun with a vision for missions from the get-go. It is not a surprise that the church grew quickly under their vision, but how is an established church without a clear vision for missions going to apply this book (and I purposefully don't say principles because Rowell falls short in this)?

If you are a small church pastor/leader think twice about this book. If you are a denominational leader get this book because it will reform your priorities about the small church and about developing leadership for the future.