Breakout Churches: Thom S. Rainer

Thom Rainer really likes Jim Collins' Good to Great. So much so that he applied to the church. The book is helpful in determining what might be wrong in some churches, and encouraging in that he sees God doing great things in churches. The main issue is knowing what you are all about ... having a clear sense of pupose ... knowing why you do what you do ... having deep passion that drives the entire church. One of the key insights is at the end of the book. His research team came to the conclusion that the best churches didn't often let the "tail wag the dog." Then one of the researchers pointed out that most of the not-so-great churches didn't really even have a dog ... just a bunch of tails. This is an interesting book worth the read - especially if you liked Good to Great. He's not talking about every church that seems successful. And he's not talking about just mega-churches. The research is pretty scary ... The huge majority of churches - large and small - are plateaued, which is a nice way of saying they are in slow erosion. And most of those think they are doing very well. Mostly because they have no "dog" to wag.