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Product Description

Praise for Whole Church

"Mel is a thoughtful analyst of church life today. Best of all—he actually does what he writes about. This book can lead to new levels of engagement for your church."
—John Ortberg, author and pastor, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church

"Mel Lawrenz's vision of a local church that actually reflects the wholeness and beauty of God as it engages with the Lord, one another, and the community is a much-needed call back to God's original Plan A – a plan that has too often been cast aside in the name of specialization, church growth, and expediency."
—Larry Osborne, North Coast Church, and author, Sticky Church and Spirituality for the Rest of Us

"Wow! This book is for every Christian leader who wants to move their church from a narrow self-focus to active engagement in the world with all the resources and possibilities of heaven."
—Mike Slaughter, Ginghamsburg Church

"While Mel Lawrenz's 'four kinds of engagement' aims at congregational application, it also creates a template that individual Jesus-followers can use for self-evaluation of what it means to be the church today. The final 'dynamics' section is worth the price of admission for church leaders."
—Reggie McNeal, author, The Present Future and Missional Renaissance

"Having known Mel Lawrenz for thirty-five years in various capacities as student, intern, colleague, and eventual successor as senior pastor of Elmbrook Church, I can testify to his keen mind, his profound respect for and knowledge of history, his forward-looking curiosity, and his undoubted communication gifts. Add all these to his many years as a seasoned practitioner of church ministry, and the result is this very helpful book, Whole Church."
—Stuart Briscoe, author, Flowing Streams and broadcaster, Telling the Truth

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #287146 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

From the Inside Flap

"I am sick of fragmentation. How about you? The one community that should understand wholeness—and explore it, embrace it, luxuriate in it, model it, enhance it, promote it—is the church."
—Mel Lawrenz

In this timely book Mel Lawrenz—pastor of one of the most innovative churches in America—outlines his proven model for "whole church/whole ministry." Church leaders and congregants can embrace this model to reinvigorate their mission by engaging with God, each other, their community, and the world. A "whole church" means that a local congregation believes it is called to the whole purpose of God in and through the church, rather than some narrowly defined specialization.

As Lawrenz explains, all too often the church talks about God's great provisions (grace, salvation, mercy), but they are not applied in real and practical ways in people's lives. As a result many Christians have become disengaged. Step by step, Lawrenz shows how to apply the four types of engagement that will integrate a church:

• Engage with God—expand the life of worship and personal devotion

• Engage with God's people—through small groups and other means

• Engage with your community—become involved in meeting social needs

• Engage with the world—develop an awareness and involvement in global mission

The dynamic whole church model is not merely a list of functions or stages of growth. It offers practical, down-to-earth ways to connect the church to its true mission and purpose.

About the Author

Mel Lawrenz is senior pastor at Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin. His Internet ministry, The Brook (www.ComeToTheBrook.org), offers text, audio, and video content to a general audience and to church leaders. Lawrenz is also the host of a weekly regional radio interview program, Faith Conversations, and is the author of several books.

About Leadership Network

The mission of Leadership Network identifies and connects innovative church leaders, providing them with resources in the form of new ideas, people, and tools. Contact Leadership Network at www.leadnet.org.

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Customer Reviews

Whole Church great for integrative thinking
Whole Church is one of those books that a reader might respond to with,"This makes so much sense...I'm surprised no one captured this before!" Eschewing siloed ministries Mel proposes that connecting to God, the church, the community and the world can be a seamless and interactive learning experience that serves us well in both spiritual formation and mission. For leaders who want to integrate ministry emphases...this is your book

Pastor to Pastor
Pastors need to hear from fellow pastors. There's a place for pastors listening to biblical experts -- when they study the Bible. There's a place for pastors listening to theologians -- when they need to study theology. But there's a place where only a pastor can speak to another pastor. I've been there, and I have to sit back and listen and sometimes I can't even enter into the conversation because it's out of my (pastoral) depth. I know what the words mean, but they don't resonate with my experience.

Hence, I recommend a new book by Mel Lawrenz, pastor at Elmbrook outside Milwaukee, and his new book addresses bringing the whole church into a whole ministry: Whole Church: Leading from Fragmentation to Engagement (J-B Leadership Network Series) . His vision is for a "whole" church -- with God, God's people, the community, and the world. This book is for pastors and by a pastor who has been there: with fragmentation and the concrete steps involved in healing and bringing back to wholeness. I really liked part two:

It addressed closing the gap with God through worship and teaching;
closing the gap with people through real fellowship;
closing the gap with the community through more than a thousand points of light;
closing the gap for the whole world by engaging the world.

One of the illuminating features of this book for me was about the dynamics and how Mel emphasized fostering a culture of change and shifting. His last section was on choosing wise leaders, and I don't know that I've read anything quite like this.

Now here's the point: pastor, you can trust Mel; he's been there; he's experienced it after all these years at Elmbrook; he's been there and he's been through it and he's lived to guide others through that experience.

The Key Word is Engagement
Whole Church by Mel Lawrenz is right on target with the key conept for all effective New Testament congregations. Engagement. Another word for this is discipleship. A key conecpt is relationships. While the most important thing that can captivatge the passion of a congregation is God's ideal vision for their spiritual Strategic journey, the most important activity of congregations is disciplemaking.

Engagement as explained in the Whole Church frames the disciplemaking process. It is about engagment with God, God's people, the congregation context, and the world. To be a whole church it is necessary to have full engagement that focuses on all four of these emphases.

The reason I feel so good about this approach by Mel Lawrenz is that it is a full affirmation of what I say in Pursuing the Full Kingdom Potential of Your Congregation (TCP Leadership Series)about the concept of Relationship Experiences. These experiences flavor the spiritual strategic journey of a congregation. How a congregation handles engagement around disciplemaking is its crucial ongoing activity.

A great thing about ths book is that is goes into depth on each of the four areas of engagement. If you want your congregation to be a whole church you will find yourself fully engaged with Mel's message.

BTW, a secondary theme I pulled from the book relates to avoiding unhealthy conflict by having a clear foucs on the four areas of engagement. This is an important point not to be missed that I cover in Every Congregation Needs a Little Conflict (TCP Leadership Series).

Thank you, Mel.