Gary L. McIntosh, There’s Hope For Your Church: First Steps to Restoring Health and Growth (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2012). 195 pp. $18.

About the Author

Dr. Gary L. McIntosh is the president of the Church Growth Network, a church-consulting ministry he began in 1989. The CGN is located in Temecula, CA. Dr. McIntosh also serves as a professor of Christian ministry and leadership at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, in La Mirada, CA. He holds degrees from Colorado Christian University, Western Conservative Baptist Seminary and Fuller Theological Seminary.  He is a highly sought after speaker, especially in the field of Church growth and revitalization.  He has pastored two churches, each of which, were revitalization projects. He has written several books on the subject of Church health and growth.

Author’s Intent and Purpose

McIntosh states that the purpose of his book is to be a “personal coach” (13) for those who desire a mentor to help them navigate through the various difficulties of leading a church through a turnaround. He offers for the struggling pastor that “God is in the practice of restoring, renewing, and revitalizing people and churches, if they are willing to follow him and pay the price to see it happen.  There is hope for your church” (24)!  It is from this foundation that McIntosh launches into the following chapters to provide a framework for church revitalization.

Summary of Content

The one word that comes to mind when reading this book is “practical.” When it comes to revitalizing a plateaued or declining church, theories and philosophical ideas are of little help. What one needs is tested and proven methods that are backed up by extensive research and communicated in such a way that a revitalization leader can easily apply them to their particular ministry setting.  In There’s Hope for Your Church: First Steps to Restoring Health and Growth, McIntosh does this very thing.  He states that this book “is the distillation of four decades of working as a coach and consultant with over one thousand churches, most of which were in need of revitalization” (13).

McIntosh does not offer a myriad of speculative ideas laced with theological and philosophical tidbits.  Rather, he provides the reader with the “First Steps to Restoring Health and Growth.” These steps are organized into thirteen steps with each having a chapter devoted to their explanation.  These chapters are followed by a very practical Appendix that provides the reader with information concerning both rebirthing a church and merging one church with another.

Critique

This book is full of helpful and practical information and data. McIntosh, from the very beginning, hedges in the prospect of revitalizing a church in chapter one by stating that in order for a church to experience “fresh vitality,” one must believe that their church’s situation is not without hope” (17).  If the pastor and the key leadership does not believe that the necessary change can happen, the situation is truly hopeless and destined to fail. He provides several reasons for such hope. He suggests that “God wants your church to grow…God revitalizes and restores people, nations, and churches that have lost spiritual energy…and God is revitalizing churches right now” (22-3).  He rightly bases these three rationales firmly in Scripture.

In chapter three, McIntosh provides a valuable litmus test to determine if a church is desperate.  He defines a desperate church as one that “is in danger of closing” (48). It has been said that desperate people will do desperate things.  Perhaps that can be applied to the desperate church as well. The five characteristics that he lists of a church that is in danger of closing are public worship attendance of fifty people or fewer, twenty-five or fewer giving units, less than one leader for every ten people, average membership tenure of ten years or more and little identification with the community (48-50).  If one or more of these warning signs are present in one’s church, the potential of a church disaster is most certain.

The main problem with this ideology is that it seems to take God’s providence out of the equation.  Critics might tout that McIntosh is centering his argument for a church being in danger strictly on external issues without any thought of the spiritual factors.  For example, his first warning sign, “worship attendance of fifty people or fewer,” is a slap in the face to the small, yet healthy, congregation.  Small does not always indicate danger nor a lack of spiritual health.  Overall, however, I do feel that McIntosh would agree that each of these warning signs must be considered within their respective contexts.

When it has been established that a church is most definitely in danger and in urgent need of revitalization, a pastor or leader must make a decision if they are ready to commit to the sometimes long and painful process that will be required to lead the church in a new direction.  McIntosh states that “it is unethical to lead a congregation to adopt a new form of ministry and then abandon it” (69).  Many churches are very resistant to change because they have experienced a myriad of pastors begin the process of revitalization and walk away in the middle of it after initiating many changes before seeing them through.  Therefore, the next pastor who utters the word change, will surely be met with a certain level of resistance.  To many churches, it is the same old song and dance, just a different performer.  So a pastor must make certain that God is calling him to the ministry that is in need of revitalization.

Chapter eleven might be one of the most valuable chapters in the book.  In this chapter, McIntosh attempts to prepare his readers for the unavoidable conflict that will arise from any attempt to bring about change; change, that must take place in order for revitalization to occur.   McIntosh is wise to highlight exactly what it is that causes the friction during these volatile times.  He states, “it is not changes that cause resistance to a church moving in a new direction but rather the sense of loss experienced in the process  To revitalize any organization, something must be changed and something will be lost” (141). It is when this realization sets in for many within the church that many will put up their defenses.  While this might be true of a large percentage of revitalization churches, it cannot be said of all.  The Holy Spirit can work in peoples’ hearts in such a way to overcome any and all potential resistance. So, McIntosh cannot say exclusively that conflict will always come as a result of change.

Concluding Evaluation
Ministry is tough.  Ministry in a healthy, vibrant and growing church is at times difficult. However, a church in need of revitalization might prove to be the most difficult of them all. A church planter struggles to find the people and resources with which to build a church.  A revitalization leader, however, inherits decades of traditions, routines, and ideas about how things should be. McIntosh provides for his readers a handbook to help lead them through the trenches of church revitalization.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who feels God is calling them to this daunting yet noble ministry.