Breakout Churches

I have finsihed Breakout Churches by Thom Rainer and would recommend it. Rainer and his team did their homeowrk in this book. The book does not look at the successful mega churches but churches that have been successful, declined, and successful again. Part of the criteria for the churches selected was that the same pastor had to be there for both the decline and the breakthrough. Here are some particularly interesting tidbits from the book.

It is a sin to be good if God calls us to be great.
We always must seek a reasonable human excellence when doing ministry.

Positive outside influences- breakout leaders had an insatiable appetite to learn and a persistent drive to improve- outside counsel, conferences, books, consultations etc.
There is no excuse in these information days to not have these positive outside influences. This speaks well for the need for a coach as well especially when planting a church.

In the chapter "The Who What Simal-track" Rainer writes about the importance of getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats, and then figuring out where to drive the bus.
This is easier said than done but so necessary. This job is so much harder in an established church. You know, where the treasurer has been the treasurer for eighty years and still types out her reports.

Mission is a general statement of any church’s purpose.
Vision refers to God’s specific plan for a specific church at a specific time in its history.
Jim Griffith says mission and vision are overrated. I am beginning to agree. We all have the same mission. All mission statements say something about making disciples of Chrsit, fully devoted followers etc. I am starting to be believe that vision finds us more than we find it.

In the majority of comparison churches in the study, merchants within a half mile radius of the church couldn’t tell us where the church was located.
The church was irrelevant to the community.
This would be interesting to try. Go and ask the merchants near your church if they can tell you where your church is and what they know about it.

Everything we did revolved around those who were not there yet.
This is the lens through which we must view all decisions so that those far from God might become close to God and glory be brought to God.

Builders of great churches made as much use of stop doing lists than to do lists.
The "Stop Doing" list- great idea. Mine is getting long.