Church Leadership

This is not yet another book about surviving the COVID-19 lockdown. It is about possibilities that have been raised through Flockdown, the unprecedented separation of the Church’s flock from their places of worship. Could it be that this is not about the virus or even the virtual world it has forced on most of us but, rather, that it is a window of opportunity provided for the Church?

Many people today think the most effective means to reach this postmodern world for Christ is for the church to become more attractive and relevant to the culture. It must reinvent itself, adjust its gospel message, be less dogmatic, more therapeutic, tolerant, and entertaining. It must pander to the culture, take up its social causes, even conform to it - but never oppose it. Yet such a position is totally foreign to scripture and therefore mitigates the power and blessing of God.

Speaking of the Greek priests of Korfou, the erudite bishop of Lincoln, lately deceased, has remarked, “There is something very picturesque in the appearance of these persons, with their black caps resembling the modius seen on the heads of the ancient statues of Serapis and Osiris, their long beards and pale complexions, and their black flowing cloak, - a relic, no doubt, of the old ecclesiastical garment of which Tertullian wrote.”

Leading churches is so much harder than it used to be. You used to be able to grow by improving the preaching or the music or the children’s ministry. But that’s just not the case anymore. That’s frustrating! And it makes us feel like failures. Eventually, most of us realize that getting our churches to be bigger and better is not God’s top priority. We begin to understand that what God really wants is to heal the world.

For too long, we’ve ignored the issues that plague church planting movements and church planters. Filled with practical, down-to-earth Biblical advice about church planting, leadership, and spiritual health, Leading the Other Way presents a thoroughly Biblical and principle-centered—not program-centered—approach to planting effective churches which focuses on the leader whom God has gifted and called. If you care deeply about the future of the church as a whole, JD’s book will encourage you, irritate you in a healthy way, and motivate you to lead for change.