Customer Reviews

Take the Next Step: Leading Lasting Change in the Church (Discoveries : Insights for Church Leadership)

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Have you gotten fed up with consultants that tell you that the only way for your church to become vital is to throw out everything you've been doing, tell the folks that have supported it for years to go to hell, and generally throw the baby out with the bathwater? If the answer is yes, this book is for you.

Weems identifies the issues that ministers must address to be successful change agents. He reiterates the need for trust, and has a fascinating discussion about using the congregatons history to redefine its future. No don't do what was successful in 1957, but find the underlying things that brought meaning to that period of ministry. As he states "all new visions cross old bridges."

He also spends time discussing the difference in mission and vision and describes discovering a vision as a much more collaborative process than most fundamentalist writers on church leadership describe. The title of the final chapter says it all-"Stay Alive, Keep Praying, and Keep Working.

As is with the case in all of Weems books, they are brief, to the point and extremely helpful. If you need help getting quick handles on your congregatonal reality, this book is the one to grab.

This book was good to read in conjunction with other church leadership books because it brought balance to the discussion. Many books advocate making more radical changes, but that is not always the best approach. This book has a lot of wisdom about how to make changes that fit within the history and context of a church, moving it forward without always necessarily causing a split. I appreciate its approach and wish I had read it earlier in my life.

This book is so good that i actually ordered it for another person who is going to be placed in a responsible position. Many times we think we are ready for the Leadership role, but "Taking the Next Step" walks you through many places your leadership may take you. This book will help to make a better balanced Leader. For those who are just beginning in their Leadership role and those that have been there for a while will be able to reap information and guidance from this book, "Taking the Next Step." hope you enjoy it as much as i have.

I have used this book for several seminars on "Church Leadership". Council persons and "leaders" within our churches have all found a lot of stimulating and interesting reading in this book. It challenges the church leaders to focus their efforts. It gives us all a language to help us define and teach positive, Christian leadership skills. It helps the church leaders to discover "vision" and "mission" directions within the congregation.