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."… (meer)

I don’t know what to give this book for a rating. Let me explain.

Brad Powell is the lead pastor of a church in Detroit that went from traditional and ineffective to relevant. In this book, he shares a number of keys to the transition: both the things they did right, and the mistakes we should learn from. Unlike most of the literature on church growth I’ve read, Powell’s book has a substantial amount of content. He’s clearly concerned with staying faithful to scripture in all he does. You would expect a great rating, right?

The problem I have is with Powell’s understanding of church. I think it would be fair to say that he views the church as an evangelism centre whose main goal is to reach the lost. That’s a laudable goal, but it’s not the primary goal of the church. The church’s purpose is to come together as Christ’s body to worship, then to go out into the community to spread the kingdom.

With the true purpose in mind, I found it difficult to read passages where he talked about letting go of the people who hold you back from your mission to reach the lost. Those people who “hold you back” are your mission. I’m a pastor—I certainly sympathize with the sentiment—but I can’t agree with it.

In the end, I’ll give this a mid-field rating. If the problem I have doesn’t bother you (or if you just think I’m plain wrong), this really is an excellent book.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free as a member of Thomas Nelson’s Booksneeze program.… (meer)