There's Hope for Your Church: First Steps to Restoring Health and Growth
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
It's easy to feel discouraged by shrinking attendance and slow spiritual growth in your church. But the first step to turning things around is hope. God can and does restore churches to new life, even as he restores individuals. Church health expert Gary McIntosh offers you real hope by showing you the first things you need to do to make a new start for your church. The street-smart ideas and step-by-step instructions found in this book are ones that you can put to use immediately in your church to bring about solid growth and renewed hope for the future.
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- Presents its teachings in a down-to-earth, practical style
- Provides questions at the end of each chapter to encourage reflection
- Seeks to give pastors and leaders direction, confidence and resources to help them know how they can revitalize their local churches
- See the Potential
- Commit to Lead
- Assess the Situation
- Learn the Principles
- Discern God’s Vision
- Build a Coalition
- Lift the Morale
- Make Hard Decisions
- Refocus the Ministry
- Equip for Change
- Deal with Resistance
- Stay the Course
- Breaking Through
Top Highlights
“Second, God revitalizes and restores people, nations, and churches that have lost spiritual energy.” (Page 23)
“One way to understand vision is to see it as the intersection of the pastor’s leadership passion, the passion and gifts of the congregation, and the community needs (see fig. 5). Where these three concepts intersect is the vision God has for your church.” (Page 74)
“Leaders of healthy, growing churches constantly ask two critical questions: What is our purpose? How are we doing?” (Page 41)
“Roughly three-fourths of established churches in North America are either declining or on a long-term plateau” (Page 20)
“To revitalize a church, you need to know two things: where the church is and where you want it to go.” (Page 73)
"There's Hope for Your Church provides a wealth of wisdom for anyone seeking to turn around a declining or plateaued church. McIntosh skillfully draws on his three decades of church consultations to forge a step-by-step strategy for restoring vitality to struggling churches. This book gives you hope and will show you the way to revitalize your church."
--Ed Stetzer, author of Viral Churches
"Gary McIntosh has written a down to earth practical book for those who look at the task of pastoring a church and don't know where to begin or what to do. There's Hope for Your Church is a coaching experience bound in the pages of a book. Gary McIntosh has consulted with over 1,000 churches, so he has seen most the problems, and there are very few difficulties in the church that he has not faced. Now Gary makes his wisdom available to help a pastor begin and carry through with a project of leading a church to become healthy and carry out the Great Commission."
--Elmer Towns, cofounder Liberty University, Lynchburg, Virginia
"I like this book because it helps me understand 'where' the church might find itself today and 'what' contributes to 'why' we have to wrestle with spiritual and pragmatic issues. But it doesn't leave me there. Gary McIntosh moves beyond mere analytical explanations and gives practical 'how-to's'. This book will take you from concept to completion. You'll not only read this book yourself but will want church leaders to read it as well."
--Samuel R. Chand author of Cracking Your Church's Culture Code (www.samchand.com)