Gary L. McIntosh - Theres Hope for Your Church: First Steps to Restoring Health and Growth

A s you consider the future of your church, do you ever wish you could talk with a person who could answer your questions and point you in the right direction? As you consider the challenges and opportunities before your church, do you ever wish you had someone to coach you? Do you ever wish you had a mentor who could help you gain confidence in leading your church through a turnaround?

Well, allow this book to be your personal coach. It is the distillation of four decades of working as a coach and consultant with over one thousand churches, most of which were in need of revitalization. As you might expect, some did well and others did not, but lessons were learned from all of themlessons Ill share with you in the pages of this book. Ill also share lessons discovered from pastoring two churches that were in desperate need of leadership. In one I faced traditional resistance to change and not much happened, but in the other, I was modestly successful. My experience in those two churches helps me to understand the dynamics and challenges that church leaders face in difficult situations. In addition to my position as professor of Christian ministry and leadership at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University in Southern California, I read numerous books, research studies, and doctoral dissertations that focus on various aspects of how to renew a churchs vitality. So while I cant promise to know all the answers (Im a learner as much as anyone), my hope is that Theres Hope for Your Church will give you confidence and direction as you seek to revitalize your local church.

For simplicity, Ive written in a down-to-earth, practical style. However, if you desire to explore church revitalization in more depth, an extensive reading list is included in appendix C. Support for the concepts taught in the following chapters can be found in these resources.

While I present a logical, step-by-step approach, revitalizing a church is messy. In real life, the following chapters often take place all at once, rather than step-by-step. Read the table of contents and feel free to jump into any chapter you feel might be helpful in light of your challenges. Fundamentally, however, it will be good for you to read the entire book straight through to gain a perspective of the entire process. Theres Hope for Your Church is presented primarily to pastors, but anyone who is interested in helping his or her church move toward renewal will find the ideas helpful.

The church revitalization chart found at the beginning of each chapter will serve as a guide. The first step on the way to revitalizing any church is to see the possibilities. If you see potential for your church, start reading chapter 1 and keep going until youve thought about how each chapter figures into your churchs ministry. Then when you finish reading the book, continue immersing yourself in the literature of revitalization (see appendix C). After youve spent time reading and reflecting on how to bring about renewal in a church, youll begin to think and act differently. Hope begins in your own heart and mind, after which it seeps into your speech, practices, and body language. Your hope becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you honestly believe there is hope for your church, your actions and attitudes will change.