Overview: Change Your Church for Good (Brad Powell)

In this book, Brad Powell outlines his strategies and lessons learned from from leading change at Temple Baptist Church (now NorthRidge Church) in Detroit, Michigan. Temple Baptist had a rich heritage of growth and expansion, and was even included in Elmer Towns' list of the ten largest Sunday Schools in 1969. But we all know that the city of Detroit fell on hard times in the decades that followed. With the rise of suburban lifestyles and loss of downtown glamour, the churches of Detroit needed to make a change - and that included Temple Baptist. Powell became the Senior Pastor of the church in 1990, and this book is a broad stroke compilation of his advice to church leaders who find themselves in similar positions today.

In his own words, Powell says, "This books is about changing the church in its conduct (practice) without compromising the character (principle) of God's truth. It's about allowing the church to be a clearer reflection of who God is and what He does" (p. 76).

He tries to base all his advice on verses of Scripture, but it feels like he "backs into" a lot of those verses (ie. he started with his point and then searched a concordance to find a verse that says something along the same lines). That doesn't mean his points are bad, they're not, but it just means that he tried to base his words of wisdom on a higher authority that was really necessary.  

This is book is a good starting place if you find yourself in a church in need of transition, and feel that responsibility falling upon your shoulders. The book has 5 parts, none of which are too academic, and all of which provide some helpful thoughts:
Part 1 is about the church as Powell thinks it should be.
Part 2 is about leadership and change.
Part 3 is about naming and proclaiming the vision.
Part 4 is about investing and persisting.
Part 5 is about seeing the big picture.


disclosure: This book was given to me by Thomas Nelson Publishers. All opinions expressed are my own.