Introduction
Randy Pope is a church leader and founding pastor of Perimeter Church. The church is located in Duluth, Atlanta Georgia. The church has a following of more than 6000 members who are devoted to reaching people in North Atlanta and the whole world who are “unchurched.” Pope’s vision and dedication to train disciples is praised in the Christian community.
He has authored three books and his book; The Intentional Church: Moving Church Success to Community Transformation which was previously released as the prevailing Church is a handbook for church leaders and teaches on importance of transforming the spreading of the gospel.
Elements found in the book
Randy pope offers a blueprint for church leaders and their congregations in his book. He begins by pointing out that the church and it leaders must model itself in a way that attracts many followers. Part of the blue print advocates for a faith-oriented commitment, a Christian job, a faith oriented commitment and many more. The book is made up of 21 chapters with each tackling different aspects of church leadership as well as living.
Several things stand out in this book. The author talks of the prevailing church idea, which he takes from the confession of Christ by Peter in the Bible, Matthew 16, and the response Jesus gives about how the gates of hell would not prevail against the church. The author argues that the main function and identity of the church is prevailing.
Discussion
The author tackles the importance of strategic ministry plan. The book advocates for a strategic ministry that will be arrived at via reading the Scriptures, prayers and following the words of the Scriptures. The author shows how strategic planning lacks in ministry and how if implemented would change and improve the results of evangelism. Randy goes on to discuss on analysis of culture in chapter 16 of the book.
The chapter is dedicated to a “Culturally Oriented Strategy,” and writes about his observation of the Christian culture. In one of his anecdote is his story about his attempt to disciple a follower using one of the strategies he once used in college. His strategy included at least three meetings in a week although the follower used to work 60 hours in a week and used to travel a lot.
He gives the story citing how modern day culture has changed and thus discipleship strategies needed also to change. This change should accommodate not only the believers but should be modeled in a way it reaches and attracts the non-believers.
Pope has the view that senior pastors have the responsibility to build transformational ministry, which influences not just an individual’s life, but as a church in matters regarding church culture and also the secular community. This transformational ministry necessitates the senior pastor to heed God’s message, implement the vision in ways that will help potential leaders to spread the gospel and carry the word of God.
Pope is a staunch Christian and speaks frequently to church leaders and congregations preaching to them about the need for transformational ministry. Although his goal is evangelism, he realizes that if we emphasize on discipleship and grow it to maturity then it will help in the transformation of how the church ministers. Pope understands that when people talk about discipleship it does not only happen by speaking about the Bible.
Instead, discipleship happens when our lives entwine with the lives of others and we encourage each other to live the mission. The book is made up of talks about ways of how a pastor should help and strengthen the congregation to carry out the work of the ministry. With in the book, the author shows the church as a vessel for carrying out God’s work. In his delivery of the message, the author models initiative and innovation.
He constantly argues that what the church is doing in spreading of the gospel may seem good on paper but may not produce the desired results. Instead, a church needs to identify their goals and enforce strategies, which will help in achieving these goals.
The author writes he expects some of the book’s readers may find his ways unorthodox and may be unconvinced by him emphasizing on strategic planning. He writes that he does not advocate for the church being run like a company. He claims that he do understand but he believes if the church implemented some of the time tested principles they might help increase effectiveness in serving God.1
However, the persistence emphasis on adopting best practices used in the business world blurs the distinction between the church and a company. This runs the risk of changing the motive and need of transformational ministry. The author makes many assumptions in his book. First, he assumes that the church should treat and think the non-believers as customers, which clearly blurs the difference between the church and a company.
He questions the biblical warrant of concluding that church leaders and senior pastors talk directly with God in a different way with how the elders do. He advocates for the church and believers to change their views as well as their actions in pursuit of non-believers which begs the question of what might happen in this changes?
In addition, how will this undermine the delivery as well as content of the message? These unanswered questions make it hard to adopt the book2. However, sometimes the author attempts to answer some of the questions in his conclusion, his argumentation is very thin to be persuasive.
This however does not mean the book message on using insight gained from experience rather than Scriptures should be discarded, but in its implementation care should be taken not to change the church foundation, which is the Scriptures.
The author is very thorough in his arguments and offers a practical solution to reaching the “unchurched.” In his book, he gives personal encounters of how he has implemented the strategies. He gives case studies of how our cultures are changing while the church still uses the same old strategies to maintain and attract followers.
Though some of the points he gives seems to contradict with strong church beliefs and advocates for the church to be run like a company, others are brilliant and if implemented will see the church hosting multitudes of followers. A church leader can learn a lot about the congregation and in his quest to spread the gospel apply the ideas brought forward by Pope.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The book is a good read and a practical manual for church leaders who are looking to expand the numbers of their followers. The strong points of the book lie in the fact that Randy Popes has done a lot of research as well as working in one. His proposal of having a transformational ministry, which changes as times changes, is not only realistic but is of great importance if church leader are going to reach to different generations needs.
An example is in the anecdote he gives about the man he tries to disciple, he shows the need to change how ministry work is carried and then gives solution to how we can transform the ministry.
He states that a church to be successful it must first identify the problem it is facing, formulate a plan of action and then implement it. He makes it clear about our tendencies to work hard to get a sense of vision and mission, but lacking to do the detail work of implementation.
The greatest weakness that the book and what the author tries to put across is how he plans and details a church to be run. Though he says, he does not try to advocate for the church to be run like a company, his methods certainly do and makes it hard to distinguish both. He works to fill the church with followers but does not tackle how he will maintain them by nourishing their spiritual need.
This can be compared to a company that mostly will use the mantra, “the end justifies the means,” but does this really solve our problem? I beg to differ. To sustain the multitude of followers who join the churches, there is need to give them the spiritual nourishment that will make them come again and bring their friends.
Bibliography
Randy Pope. The intentional church: moving from church success to community transformation. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2006.
Footnotes
1 Randy Pope. The intentional church: moving from church success to community transformation. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2006.
2 Randy Pope. The intentional church: moving from church success to community transformation. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2006.