A biblical and practical guide for church revitalization
The subtitle of this book captured my attention, which says """"How God can revitalize your church"""", not """"How you can revitalize your church"""". The author recognizes that revitalization is of the Lord and our responsibility is simply to follow His instructions faithfully. This book provides a biblical and practical guide for church revitalization rather than some (man-centered) seeker-sensitive approach to church growth. It begins with the true story of the author's first pastoral ministry in a dying church, which came alive by God's grace as he put the biblical principles for church revitalization into practice. His story aroused my interest in reading the rest of the book to learn about these biblical principles that our Lord can use to take a dying church from embers to a flame. The author first explains why church revitalization is necessary (Chapter 1). He then offers a paradigm (or basic plan) of revitalization based on the Scriptures (Chapter 2), and finally describes ten strategies to facilitate the biblical paradigm of revitalization (Chapters 3 - 12). A critique on Bruce Wilkinson's Prayer of Jabez is included as an appendix. Its purpose is to correct some common misunderstandings about prayer which is an indispensable element in church revitalization. I recommend this book to all those who want to find out """"how God can revitalize your church"""".
