The success, growth and the health of churches rely on the components that incorporate them. The fundamental base that gives rise to a strong church is the people it contains. These people own the church. When given a chance to own and be the participants of the church, they feel accommodated and vital in the church since they have roles to play in the ministries proceedings. The book by the title Total Church Life (TCL), whose author is Darrell Robinson, directs the growth of churches in an evangelistic way. It is crucial to criticize and enumerate the arguments, ideas and the conclusions provided in this book.
TCL describes the strategy vital in the development of church. It shows that a healthy church congregation can grow when it follows a three-E strategy. In a bid to perform this exploration task, the book refers to the bible for each conclusion it makes. This serves to prove that the bible supports the strategy.
The book describes three factors involved in exaltation of the savior. The health factor shows the church as Christ’s body with a head and body. The book further describes Christ as the head which is the key component of a person and the body as the Christians. The second factor is about the fellowship. The description displayed by TCL about fellowship shows its vitality in the growth of all churches. It teaches the challenges faced, the meaning and the strategies suited to balance life in the church.
Lastly, there is the leadership factor. Organization and coordination of the church relies on leadership. TCL shows that leadership is a necessity in the church that clearly and concisely directs the church. The book shows the roles of a pastor and other leaders in the church ministries.
The other part involves the equipping of the saints. A church can never run without members. We can, therefore, conclude that church members are a fundamental part of any church. Their empowerment in enabling them to discover their potentials, purposes and necessity in the ministry is a growth and development tool in the future. Engagement of the laity described in this book provides proper implementation of a plan to warrant total member participation to achieve church missions and vision.
Each member in the congregation is spiritually gifted. TCL assists to reveal, utilize, equip and realize the power of spiritual gifts. It is also crucial to consider how to coordinate and organize the cohesiveness of the members in the church.
The final step described in the TCL is the evangelism of the sinners. This part shows the way in which the evangelization can be performed in the world. It gathers answers about the probable visions and missions of a church. It also devises a plan, a personnel and power for evangelism. Finally, a church can reach a declining position even after growth and ability to reach people. The church must, therefore, be aware about this and know how to overcome these Ephesus tendencies.
It is significantly crucial to note that TCL assists in the development of evangelism. TCL is acknowledged for its biblical basis which is the word of God. It offers a comprehensive guidance on God’s work in local churches. It guides the church on their mission by providing adequately reliable strategy that is universal to churches. The strategy is stationed to fit all churches without discrimination. It enables churches to acknowledge the difficulties that relate to spiritual gifts in a biblical and spiritual way.
It enables the churches to fetch more members and grow with time. Since becoming a 1st century church in the twenty first century world does not happen accidentally, TCL provides a strategy that has a plan, and an approach uniquely set for church growth. It also provides a biblical strategy to help a congregation to adapt socially and culturally. Christian leaders preach varying church purposes, some focus on how to train, other emphasize on worship and others on church evangelism purposes.
Teaching TCL in the church offers other benefit consideration that include baptism increment, changing a declining church into a growing church, knowing the vision in operating as New Testament church and equipping member witnesses in evangelism.
Certainty to relevance is a key for winning the mindset of members. A significant number of people see the church as being irrelevant and unreachable. TCL does not offer a solution to real problems. We acknowledge the rise in the rate of crimes and divorces. There are realizations that people have become suspicious about the church due to the money contribution made in the church. This is a main point that reaches and significantly affects many people. TCL could have considered it because, without uncertainty control, people retain their fear out of arrogance and ignorance hence affecting the overall growth.
The TCL strategy only directs the activities culminating the results hence leading to limited implications. Although the writer describes the book to apply in every situation without discrimination, this strategy does not practically apply to the western culture. It is coherent that people deviate from change. Most people are resistant to changes in today’s life. Instead, they prefer anonymity and avoid confrontation of the present strategies. The twenty first century has complications, immerse and unexpected variations. Rise of new problems such as the currently growing computer and information technology requires new strategies.
TCL is a key component in the personal life of many people. It provides the reasons for being a church member since people has their roles in the congregation. It designs personal life in a remarkable way that enables Christians build their personality. Christians become evangelists and work tirelessly to disperse the word of God. People following TCL also become role models. This calls them against wrong doing because people keep their eyes on what they do as Christians. These increase the perceptions against crime and hence fight crime.
Also, people realize their gifts and utilize them in doing in accordance to the will of God. In the present century, it is also expected that churches will grow significantly to achieving their missions and visions. When doing this, those who are not church fanatics will receive their calls to serve the lord. All these will lead to a rise in the number of Christians, therefore, allowing the acceptance of Gods will as the leading pathway. This pathway will change the way of living and overall attitude towards life. It will allow a deviation on some of the upcoming issues, such as those churches made to raise money, because God will never allow a revelation of gifts to inappropriate churches.
In conclusion, the moods and fitness of aspirations made by Dr. Robinson will remain a strategy subjective to criticism. The essence to consider is perfecting the arguments, ideas and conclusions provided by Robinson in the book with the title Total Church Life.