Member Reviews
Mancini and Hartman lay out the paradigms that have held the church back from relevant, significant spiritual growth, not just growth in the quantity of attenders. This book is helpful for staff, lay leaders (like deacons, elders, ministry leads, group leaders). They acknowledge a lot of what the organized church does is necessary but not sufficient to accomplishing its mission. I like how they suggest alternative metrics for ascertaining whether the church is doing well or not. I like how they focus us back on the important reasons the organized church exists. Because of my church involvement as a volunteer, I tried to focus on what they said about discipleship ("Development" as a disciple) and appreciate what they've learned on how you engage listeners to become learners and then become go-ers. One example of what they wrote shared an analogy one of their client pastors used. He is also a tennis coach and asks his potential clients, "Do you want to improve your weekend game or win a tournament?" The former requires a few tweaks; the latter, a complete revamp of our game. Mancini and Hartman are offering a way to revamp our game.