The Healthy Community

The Healthy Community: Moving Your Church Beyond Tunnel Vision is the title of my most recent book.  It became available March 1 and seems to be selling very well.  It is a book that will both challenge your church and give it hope at the same time.  The book will challenge you because it examines several problems I call heart diseases that exist in many churches that prevent them from fulfilling the purpose God has for their church.  Hope is offered because each of these problems can be resolved if the church is willing to do the hard work to address and resolve these problems.  The book is divided into two sections: one addresses the problems and the second one offers a cure.  To give you an idea of the material covered in the book here is a list of the chapters.

• Part One - The Problem
• Chapter One - A Lack of Biblical Authority
• Chapter Two - A Lack of Grace
• Chapter Three - A Lack of Mission
• Chapter Four - A Lack of Pastoral Leadership
• Chapter Five - A Lack of Discipled Believers
• Chapter Six - A Lack of Denominational Excellence
• Chapter Seven - A Hardened Heart
• Past Two - The Cure
• Chapter Eight - Ask the Tough Questions
• Chapter Nine - Pursue Congregational Health
• Chapter Ten - Pay the Price of Change

Each of the problems discussed in Part One can damage your church.  A combination of several of them can be critical.  They are not only critical to the church itself but to those who are not being ministered to by the church.  Unless these conditions of the heart are addressed the church will never be what God envisioned it to be and can never have the impact on our society that it should.

This is not a book for people looking for easy answers.  Radical treatment is required when an individual develops heart disease, and it will often take radical change for a church with heart disease.  It is a book for persons looking for answers to some of the tough issues that might exist in their churches and for those who are willing to do the hard work to bring about the necessary changes.

You can now find it available on amazon.com as well as other online book stores and in many Christian bookstores as well.