A friend of mine who has recommended several great books to me raved about “Your Church can Grow” by C. Peter Wagner, so I picked it up. I became familiar with Wagner while on staff at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale as they use his spiritual gifts test, which was pretty good.

The book on the other hand, was not so good. My best way to explain these 207 pages of really dated material is that it reminded me of a 70’s leisure suit; there was a time when it was cool, but that time is long past. While I’m sure in its’ heyday the book was very helpful, the book uses so many references to churches that were “flagships” at that time (1981), that just aren’t “model” churches anymore. Thus, it makes the book feel very dated because times have changed so much.

This book was probably cutting edge in the early 80’s as the church growth movement was really getting off the ground. But 26 years later, it’s like watching a “Flock of Seagulls” video. You ask yourself, “What were they thinking with that hair?” I don’t know either.