Eddy Hall - The More-with-Less Church: Maximize Your Money, Space, Time, and People to Multiply Ministry Impact

2014 by Eddy Hall and Ray Bowman

Published by Baker Books

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.bakerbooks.com

Ebook edition created 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

ISBN 978-1-4412-2111-7

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2007

Scripture quotations labeled CEV are from the Contemporary English Version 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations labeled Message are from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations labeled NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Scripture quotations labeled NLT are from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations labeled NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations labeled TLB are from The Living Bible , copyright 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

To protect the privacy of those who have shared their stories with the author, some details and names have been changed.

This volume is chock-full of practical insights on how church leaders can free up more money for the real mission of the churchour impact beyond the church in helping people live better lives. The counterintuitive suggestions are just spot on.

Reggie McNeal , author of Get Off Your Donkey !

This book speaks my love language ! The old ministry paradigm find a need and fill it produces overextended and unfocused churches , diluting local church impact . The new mantra for church health is less is more . The problem with many churches today isn t a shortage of ministries , staff , buildings , or finances but an abundance of all these resources that are overprogrammed , underutilized , or poorly managed . The More - with - Less Church shows you how to fully maximize your church s resources to fulfill its mission and vision . Don t start another program , hire another staff member , lay another brick , or raise another dollar until you read this book !

Jim Tomberlin , founder and senior strategist , MultiSite Solutions ; author of Tips for Multisite Churches , Better Together , and Church Locality

As the new pastor of a church that was nearly seventy - five years old with a history of struggles , I was excited that the church was growing and good things were happening but overwhelmed by the many voices telling us what next steps to take . Among our leaders there was no clear sense of what we needed to do when it came to our facility , finances , ministries , and staffing . Some wanted to build , but the church was still saddled with debt . Partnering with Living Stones was the most providential moment for our church , as they gave us tremendously helpful insight in all of these areas as well as how to help our church become even healthier . Our two planning processes with them helped us to more than double our attendance over the next eight years without adding one square inch of space , to eliminate our debt to free resources for ministry and staffing , and to set ourselves on a pathway to increased effectiveness in our ministries . The More - with - Less Church now makes available to a much wider audience the principles that have been so life - giving for Riverside . I thank the Lord for the ministry of Living Stones and how God used them to help us in an amazingly comprehensive way .

Tom Lundeen , senior pastor , Riverside Church , Big Lake , Minnesota

The conventional church growth wisdom calls for bigger , bigger , bigger . Bigger staff , bigger budgets , bigger buildings . The More - with - Less Church is different . It flips the dominant paradigm on its head and shows it s actually possible to impact more people without breaking the budget or burning out your staff . The authors are not ivory tower theoreticians . They ve served in the trenches of ministry and walked alongside hundreds of other church leaders . Their ideas are field - tested and practical . As you read this valuable book , you ll soon be seeing ways you can employ these principles to be more faithful and effective in your ministry .

Drew Dyck , managing editor of Leadership Journal and author of Yawning at Tigers : You Can t Tame God , So Stop Trying