Customer Reviews

Me to We: A Pastor's Discovery of the Power of Partnership

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book Me to We by Alan Nelson has a great title, but little new content. The entire book could fill two or three chapters, max. I will summarize the book's salient points a little later so you will not waste $20 as I did. Actually a better idea is to go to Rev.org and you can find all the stuff there. The book is full of clichés and as one reviewer said "the conversational style of the book comes across as contrived in parts and does get tiresome" is all too true. I became skeptical as I looked up the other reviewers for this book. The first two reviewers who both gave the book 5 stars, I would suspect are plants of Group Publishing. My cynicism evidenced by the fact that most of the reviews that these two gave other books are 4 and 5 stars and all from Group. They must be professional Group reviewers.

One thing I really hate is when I read a book that is one long advertisement for a product or group of products. This book certainly falls into that category. The main character, which is an older sage pastor constantly, told a younger confused pastor how to improve his church by becoming an equipping church. I have no problem with that. It is when he is told to go to web sites or buy other books or go to conferences or referred to speakers who are all in some way associated with Group. That really bugs me.

Now with that off my chest I believe that the idea of creating an equipping church is a fantastic idea and one worthy of serious consideration. There are other very good books out there. Sue Mallory (who now is connected to Group through Church Volunteer Central) wrote an excellent book called The Equipping Church that is very helpful and will give concrete advice and examples. Where as Me to We tells you that you need to build an equipping church without actually telling you how.

As a parting shot I must admit that Group Publishing has some great material. Though the concept behind this book is solid and the church need equip its saints the book itself will not help you accomplish this.

I found this book to be a decent read, but did not glean anything new. Maybe this is due to my MBA background. While I do believe the book gives the view of the direction the Church needs to go, I did not find any concrete steps in it that I could latch on to if I were a Pastor. I would suggest that a Pastor might read The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge if they are looking for some meat and potatoes. But if you are new to thinking outside of the organizational Church box, then this might be a good place for you to start.

Our minister of 23 years is retiring in May. She bought the "Me to We" book to share as our church goes through our search and selection process for her replacement. My co-chair of the Board of Trustees and I were amazed at how well the book dealt with many of the issues we've struggled with in the past. We have been the typical pastorial model of a church where the minister knows and is in charge of every aspect of church business. Seven years ago we tried to move to a program church model only to run into resistence, it appears our members only wanted our minister to lead us. Slowly we have moved to a halfway between model, which has been working but needs further development.

This book is a rapid read and entertaing look at the pastoral model and its tole on the minister's energies and ability to serve the spiritual community when the minister is doing everything. A successful pastor of a program church takes on the mentoring of a pastor of a pastorial church who is truly burning out. His wife and children are floundering because he is always involved in church activities leaving no time for growing together as a family. He has come to the conclusion that he may have to leave the ministry.

This book looks at all the questions that come up and need to be answered in order to change the church into a vibrant, contributing community that thrives and grows, where every member has a part. It was so well written that the Board of Trustees co-chair and I bought a copy of this book for all the members of the search committee and asked them to read it before beginning the search process.

If your church needs a blueprint for sucess, this is the book. It is written in an easily understandable format. You will chuckle at the questions the pastorial minister asks because you should be able to identify with his concerns about the program model being feasible. If your minister needs support and you wish to help I strongly recommend this book, at least as a starting point for your journey to a cohesive, spritually growing chuch community. Blessings.

I've been going through one of the short chapters daily as I help bring improvements to our church. I serve as the small group and children's pastor. Other duties too! This book just clearly spells out all the details of what it takes to build a church beyond the personality of the lead pastor. So many lead pastors, pastors, and church staff are overwhelmed because we have never raised up teams into their God given giftings. Love how this message deals with the heart and the mechanics of making this a reality. It's all about the priesthood of every believer! Thanks a million to the author. You will have some major rewards for how this message changes our church and all the churches affiliated with us. Blessings in Christ!!! [...]

Nelson takes on the task of guiding the reader to an understanding of what an equipping church is. He wants particularly pastors to give up the notion of a "pastor-centric" mentality and move to a "lay-centric" mentality so that more and more people are doing ministry. Nelson accomplishes his goal by creatively framing the discussion as an interaction between two pastors from the same community. One pastor leads an equipping church and willingly shares his insights and practices with the pastor who is struggling. I appreciated Nelson's creativity in presenting the concepts in this narrative format. It was much more engaging than books typically written to explain concepts and principles. I would very much recommend the book to any ministry leader seeking to empower the church to do the work of the ministry. It helps pastors see their task from a better biblical perspective as found in Ephesians 4:11-12.

This book casts the vision for what an "equipping culutre" looks like in a church and provides practial steps for how to get there. Nelson does a fine job of providing his readers with great ideas and suggestions. This book will answer many of your questions if you are curious about equipping ministry. The conversational style of the book comes across as contrived in parts and does get tiresome, but the content is right on target. Highly recommended to church leaders and volunteers.

This is an excellent book that all in church leadership should read. Though it is written for the large church, the principles can be applied in the smaller church.

This book is a must read for those who are in or thinking about ministry. It is cleaverly crafted and I found it hard to put this book down.

The reveloutionary shift in ministry focus creates a new way of looking at life and ministry. I'm sure this will be a book a re-read often.

So far I've enjoyed the book, haven't had much time to finish it. It was in great shape when I recieved it. Thank you