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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
How to enhance ministry effectiveness, July 26, 2011
It may be impossible for us to tell the secrets of people's hearts, but it really is possible to know whether the people in church congregations are truly growing more in love with God and extending that love to other people, according to Greg Hawkins and Cally Parkinson in this book. The book describes findings from surveys which probe much more deeply than the typical "number of attenders", "number of baptisms", and "number of participants in small groups" figures which are traditionally used to gauge the health of churches. The "Reveal" surveys used by the authors measure the state of respondents' spiritual growth by asking questions relating to spiritual beliefs, attitudes, motivations, behaviours and satisfaction. Based on their responses, the respondents from each church can be divided into four groups: Exploring Christ, Growing in Christ, Close to Christ, and Christ-Centred. Some 250,000 people from more than 1,000 churches have taken the survey, and the results allow the authors to draw some interesting inferences about the catalysts which move people in their spiritual journeys from one group to the next, and about barriers to growth and how to overcome them, and about what steps church leaders can take to help the spiritual growth process. I recommend that church leaders get a copy of the book and study carefully the various catalysts of spiritual growth at each stage of the journey. The catalysts for growth from "Exploring Christ" to "Growing in Christ" are different from those for growth from "Growing in Christ" to "Close to Christ", and these are different again from those for growth from "Close to Christ" to "Christ-Centred". Apart from these catalysts, the authors identified some actions taken by churches which had markedly higher-than-average results in the surveys: * Get people moving, by having a clear pathway for people on their spiritual journeys. * Embed the Bible in everything the church does. * Create ownership by inspiring people to adopt the vision of the church as part of their identity. * Pastor the local community by taking responsibility for addressing local community needs. Interestingly, the churches with the best results in the surveys ranged in size from small to very large. Some were predominantly white, some predominantly African-American, and some were multicultural. Very few of the pastors of those churches are famous, and most seemed surprised to discover that their churches ranked well above the average for spiritual growth.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For church leadership..., October 8, 2011
This review is from: Move: What 1,000 Churches Reveal about Spiritual Growth (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I admire the authors of this book as they are willing to go against the flow. Modern churches and ministries are often focused on attendence, buildings, and cash. This leads to gauging success on how full the building is, the state of the art facilities, and the offering amount. Nothing is farther from the truth as the Bible does not gauge success that way. God says, "Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you...", (Matthew 28:19-20a). Success in God's eyes is equated with the above Great Commission. It includes the balance of winning souls to Christ and discipling them so they will grow in their faith. In the eyes of the world, Willowcreek Community Church is an tremendously successful. Yet, Greg, one of the authors asked, "Are all the things we do at Willow that these people so generously support really helping them become fully devoted followers of Christ or are we just giving them a nice place to go to church?" The research results to answer that question are as follows... 1.) Increased participation in church activities by themselves barely moved their people to love God and others more. 2.) They had a lot of dissatisfied people. 3.) They had a lot of people so dissatisfied that they were ready to leave. 4.) All the great things they were doing and their people were barely moved. A survey was done to check out other churches and to get an overall picture of churches in America. This led to a comprehensive approach to re-focus Willow's ministry and assist other churches too. The book, "Move", is about having an action plan to move people from exploring Christ to growing in Christ, from growing in Christ to close to Christ, and from close to Christ to Christ-centered.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Helpful evangelical study on spiritual development, September 28, 2011
This review is from: Move: What 1,000 Churches Reveal about Spiritual Growth (Hardcover)
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This year, when I attended a simulcast of Willow Creek Church's Global Leadership Summitt, I heard the leadership of the church talk about this recent study they had done about spiritual growth, and how the people at Willow Creek wanted to share what they learned about spiritual transformation with leaders everywhere. Now, they have recently released their gleanings of their study on how people grow spiritually in the new book Move. Move shares about a well thought out, revealing, and somewhat surprising picture of how people grow. One thing the study revealed is descrete describable phases of spiritual development. Another thing that the study revealed were best practices of churches that effectively help people mature in their faith, instead of feeling "stuck" in an immature, stagnant faith journey. Many churches feel stuck. This fine book will be helpful for many leaders in identifying where their church has stalled, and it will help those leaders to think through how to wisely lead people to take thei next step(s) in their faith. A great purchase for pastors and churches across the country, and well worth the cover price.
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