Purpose Driven

I just finished reading The Purpose Driven Church. The Author, Rick Warren is pastor of the enormous Saddleback Church - you may have heard of him as author of the more famous Purpose Driven Life, which has been something of a movement in the States.

The claim is that the model presented in the Purpose Driven Church offers church leaders a "unique, biblically-based approach to help them establish, transform, or maintain a balanced, growing congregation." The approach centres around the core activities of worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and missions, and much of the book is geared towards communicating more effectively with those within and outside of the congregation, according to their level of commitment, to encourage growth. Although the language of the book tends towards management-speak at times, and is in some ways something of a church marketing manual, it is easy to read and thought-provoking. Don't let the size of the book put you off - it is large, but the font-size is also generous, so it's quicker to read than it appears!

Occasionally there are comments which perhaps would not apply outside the USA, but the model could be applied anywhere in the West, and probably beyond. It's also worth noting that as the model is largely a communication planning framework, courses such as Alpha fit well within it. Being involved in a church-plant, I found myself continually asking 'how do we put that into practice in our setting?' I particularly appreciated the chapter on music in church, which recognises how much the worship style drives who will attend a particular service, and advises how to work with that to the best effect.

I'd recommend Purpose Driven Church to anyone into strategic thinking and planning, church planting and growth (both in numbers and spiritually). Further Purpose Driven resources relating to the Church are also available at purposedriven.com