Change Your Church for Good

by Brad Powell

Every week, more and more people walk away from the church-not because they don't believe but because church has become irrelevant to their lives. Not God but church . In Change Your Church for Good, Pastor Brad Powell rekindles hope for the future. He provides essential tools to shake up a stagnant body of believers and infuse it with love, outreach, cultural relevance, and a renewed relationship with God. Drawing on first-hand experience with the church at NorthRidge, where has served as Senior Pastor since 1990, Brad relays the trials and ultimately the triumph of restoring life and joy to a church that was dying. If you are a leader seeking a blueprint for change-or a member praying for a miracle-this living example can serve as a springboard for your church. Transitioning NorthRidge Church into a thriving congregation, recently named the Midwest's "Fastest Growing Church" and "One of the Top 50 Most Influential Churches," was hard work but eternally worth it. Though once irrelevant and dying, this church is now reaching thousands of people for Christ and providing the hope of renewal to churches around the world. All believers can take the challenge to get the church working right. When we do, the church will become what we long for and what God has always intended her to be . . . "the hope of the world."

Genres: Christianity

300 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Randall Darden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powell masterfully weaves together his personal experiences with theory and practical advice. Many of his illustrations and stories I have personally experienced or seen. I believe it would be incredibly helpful for every pastor to read. He states the book's purpose is to help the church change it's conduct, without compromising the character of God's truth. p. 76 Powell's advice throughout this book is focused on the core principles of church leadership rather than on specific application. Because he doesn't present a cookie cutter church model, he forces the reader to reflect and apply the book to their specific community. To give you an idea of what the book contains, I will list some of my favorite quotes. "God intends the church to be about transformation, not modification." p.43 "The goal of the church should be not to get people to fall in love with their traditions but to get people to fall in love with God." p.51 "We must never allow ourselves to love our way of doing ministry more than we love God and seeing lives change." p.112 "Of course, a confident leader isn't a perfect leader. Even a confident leader makes mistakes. He just makes them confidently and then admits them confidently." p.131 "While every church does have to fulfill the Great Commission, ever church doesn't have to do it the same way." p.185 "People without a burden are content to do nothing." p199 "The goal in change isn't to get rid of the existing people. The goal is to get the existing people committed to being so like Jesus that they're willing to sacrifice what they love in order to reach those whom God loves." p.219 "By aligning our vision to God's eternal principles rather than specific practices, we can stay the course even as we continue to change many of the ways that we do ministry." p.279

[Ben Gresik · Rating 2 out of 5]

At times this book drove me crazy. I think Brad over-generalizes his experience at his church without thinking critically about the ways in which God arranged things for him specifically. I think he is overly dismissive of traditional worship forms without thinking critically about how to use them and why they exist in the first place. At the same time there is a lot of good in this book and I think it's worth reading through the whole thing even if you disagree. A lot of Brad's points about persevering in leadership and vision, making sure the church is "relevant" or at least intelligible to the culture, are really helpful and I'm glad I read the book. If you're thinking about transformation in a church, this is at least worth going through (and it's a relatively easy read).

[Brandt Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, practical, and down to earth. Very well put and very encouraging.