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Twelve Keys to an Effective Church, Study Guide: Strategic Planning for Mission

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I'm impressed by this work, because it is so far ahead of its time. Published in 1983, Callahan's work, in my mind, bucks the notion that "newer is always better." Indeed, as you read this book you will be familiar with it already-- because so much of what you read about today must have, in some way, found its roots in Callahan's ideas (i.e. many have read "Purpose Driven Church," by Rick Warren, which is also an informative read, but have no idea that many of the concepts put forth by Warren seem to originate here).

Callahan's book is straight-forward-- and is applicable in any church, in any size, in any location, and in any setting. He doesn't presume that you need a certain worship style-- his writing is not so shallow as that. Or, that you need a contemporary building (or a traditional one). No, he goes beyond the "surface" issues that we so often get stuck in and looks at the church in light of its MISSION.

That would be a central idea to Callahan in this-- and in all of his writings, as a matter of fact-- THE MISSIONAL CHURCH. In this work, he describes how the mission is central, and how various aspects of the church (he deals with facilities, visibility, mission and vision, finances, relationship, leadership, etc.) fit together to fuel the mission (rather than detract from it, or run as separate, disjuncted aspects of the organism).

A great read. You will benefit from the two introductions (on planning and hope, and mission and success) and chapter 1 ("Specific, Concrete Missional Objectives") alone. Those twenty pages are worth the price of the book, which is good... again... not because it is trendy, but because so many trendy works have stood on the shoulders of this groundbreaking work.

I have used this book in a long range planning program in one church with excellent results. I am now using it in a second church and believe it will give us significant information and guidance.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for guidance in evaluating present ministry and planning for a more effective outreach.

I read this book as part of a class in Seminary (Bethel Theological Seminary, Arden Hills, MN). As the title says, the book pays for itself by the end of the two part introduction. The intros include a great set of information/ideas/practices that many pastors have thought about at various times, but have never condensed into one place so simply and clearly. This book is a tool box for those in ministry. I would put it on my "must have" list of books that I will keep handy in the years to come.

The only (small) criticism I might offer on the book is that a few of the practices are in need of review in light of the modern church setting. The one that comes to mind is the suggestion that the preaching pastor spend 1 hour counseling for every minute they spend preaching Sunday morning. Most sermons exceed 20 minutes in my experience, and in some traditions exceeding 45 minutes is acceptable. Nobody in a senior pastorate can spend 45 hours counseling and still have time to write a sermon worth preaching, plus guide and lead the church. This is a very isolated case in this book, and I have no hesitation in reccomending it to other students and pastors I know who are not fortunate enough to be in the class I am in.

I am in the middle of a research paper on Church Marketing and I LOVED this book. Its straight-forward, no-nonsense writing style made it very readable and I really liked that it provided tools for doing your own evaluation. I will recommend that this book and its tools be used for strategic planning exercises for my own church.

Kennon Callahan-highly influential in the area of church leadership-writes "Twelve Keys to an Effective Church" to assist congregations in identifying their strengths and building upon them. Yet Callahan emphasizes that not all congregational strengths are created equal; rather there are definite areas in which a congregation will get more "bang for their buck" should they emphasize it over other strengths. The particular strengths Callahan covers are twelve in number (hence the title) but stresses the development of mission-oriented objectives, a strong visitation program, and excellence in public worship.

The strengths of this book are too numerous to list; every page has "ah-ha!" statements and wise paradigm-shifting analyses. It is helpful that the twelve strengths are ranked in order of effectiveness and that the earlier strengths are treated more thoroughly than the latter ones. The fact that Callahan seems to focus his narrative on medium-sized congregations (100-150 in worship) is also helpful as the majority of churches are around this size or can easily adapt these "moderate" evaluations to fit their particular situation. This leads to yet another strength: Callahan's focus is clearly on principles and not on specific techniques; he continually reminds the reader that each congregation is unique and should be creative in applying their mission and practices.

The weaknesses are few, but they include a small font-size (admittedly aesthetic) and occasionally-dated statements in the narrative. Yet even though Callahan often looks forward to seeing how the 1980s shape up, his societal and sociological analyses still hold water and the congregational leader can use them to spur his own future-oriented ideas.

I recommend this book most highly for pastors and other congregational leaders.

Where the book has interesting topic, the writing is poor, repeating numerous times. I found myself tending to skim rather than read in detail. The thoughts are good however.

Our church has started a special focus group using Twelve Keys to an Effective Church.

This revision of Callahan's classic work strengthens an already excellent book. I have studied with Callahan on several occasions and have found his approach to strategic planning for local congregaitons the most practical and useful of any that I have used. I highly recommend this book and the supplemental study materials to anyone thinking about leading a congregation in planning for the future.

I had read a review of The Purpose Driven Church that indicated that this book was much better. That was not my experience. The Purpose Driven Church certainly has weaknesses. In that book, Warren constantly tries to show biblical bases for his points, sometimes finding support where none exists. However, his writing is clear, generally well written, and interesting. And while he deals mainly with his experiences in just one church, he at least has one church where he can illustrate that his ideas did work.

Callahan, on the other hand, refers vaguely to a great deal of research in many churches, but provides no data to support his conclusions. I was left wondering whether he drew his conclusions from his observations or whether he observed what he had already concluded. He offers no evidence that he has actually tried what he suggests, or that he has participated in a church where the leaders tried what he suggests.

Furthermore, the book is tedious. If you are at all familiar with churches, you will understand most of what is in the book after reading the first few pages. While there are occasional details of interest in the rest of the book, it takes a lot of reading to find a few good suggestions.

Callahan's suggestions are generally good, but rarely significantly new. They tend to be more along the lines of, "If you're going to do a job, do it well." I don't know if Poor Richard said that, but it's certainly not new.

Callahan offers charts for rating your church in several areas, but he offers no evidence that these ratings have helped even one church. The fact is, any church is better off for seriously thinking through what the church is doing, and Callahan's charts could be used to aid in that process, but the book offers no evidence that the this group of items rated is better than any other. In fact, a church that tries to do all that Callahan suggests in self-rating is likely to get very bogged down in the kind of activities that he would argue are not helpful.

The Purpose Driven Church should be read as a "How We Did It" book. Twelve Keys to an Effective Church should be skimmed--maybe letting two or three leaders look at the charts to find ideas that would apply locally.