My friend Nelson recommended this book and I am so glad I read it. Growing an Engaged Church by Albert Winseman is a really good read for many reasons, but here’s why I liked it the most: it challenged the church to get back to what’s most important – reaching people with the Gospel! He really drills down on why people attend church but never engage the church. He uses a set of 12 key points/ questions to push the idea home. It’s great stuff.

The church exists to glorify God and our mission is to reach people with the message of Jesus. There are a million ways to do that, but seeing lives transformed is what we do. I think the causes that churches get passionate about are great, but they cannot take the place of our primary calling: to reach people. The causes and programs can be a tool we use, but if we start thinking that the cause is the mission we’ve taken our eye off the ball.

Anyway, Growing an Engaged Church is a great read. It’s also to the point (only 155 pages), which we all can appreciate because I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of books that drone on for 300 pages when it could have been said in 100.