Reclaiming the Great Commission: A Practical Model for Transforming Denominations and Congregations

In the last fifteen years or so there have been a zillion books written about mainline renewal. Most of them were written by consultants like Lyle Schaller or academics like Will Willimon. Most of them show a lack of real world concreteness. Payne and Beazley provide an cure for that problem They take the changes made in the ministry of the most hidebound, change resistant group in the Protestant world-the Episcopal Church-and show what they did in Texas. They deal with real world problems and real world solutions. They call the organizational structure of the church to again become responsive to the needs of local churches and communities and work to accomplish the ministry of the church instead of perpetuate the structure at any cost. The one particular tool they developed that caught my eye was Team 1000 a plan to raise $1 million yearly for church development. Also important was the reminder that some churches we start will never be self supporting, but we as a church have an obligation to support them because the ministry is the right thing to do. Further it shows how important it is to have a leader who is willing to expend his/her leadership capital to accomplish what needs to be done I highly recomend this book for anyone who has an interest in structural reorganization of denominations, or for those who have given up on the possibility of reform within their own judicatory bodies.

In a time of "Church Growth" gurus, books, and workshops - it is very refreshing to have a book that doesn't focus on bells and whistles and technological ways to manipulate, but calls the church back to the mission given by Christ - to go into the world with the transformative Christian faith. If only those of us in mainline denominations would be willing to lift our eyes off of agendas, useless meetings and other distactions and consider "Reclaiming the Great Commission." Mission, not maintenance, is the call of this book, bringing the focus of the church on God, people, and relationships. Shared vision founded in Biblical faith is the key for the local congregation and the larger church. I recommend this to pastors, priests, lay leaders, bishops, and all who are interested in sharing the Gospel.

Our church is using this book as a model for its vision for the year 2001. Our Daughters of the King prayer group is using this book as its study for the coming year.

This is a book that should be read by lay persons, clergy and judicatory executives. It is directed at mainline churches that have been in decline for fifty years, and it gives some valuable directions for reversing that decline. While it is not a program that can be slavishly followed in a diocese or congregation, it provides some very helpful directions. I have been aware of most of the material he cites for a number of years, but the authors have put the material together in a most helpful way.

This is a no-nonsense book about serving Christ through serving other people. Episcopal Bishop Claude E. Payne explains the REAL Gospel message of Jesus Christ in plain, "unchurchy" language. The book has the prescription needed to heal the mainline Church that has been in ill health since the 1950's and continues to decline. Mutual, shared, total ministry between the laity and the clergy is explained and promoted. The theme of the book can be summed up with one sentence, "Shepherds do not make new sheep; sheep make new sheep". If one is interested in real Christian evangelism the miracle of the transformation of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas from "Father knows best" to the "Priesthood of all belivers is a "must read" irrespective of one's denominational preference!