Publisher's Synopsis
Are you a new pastor at a well-established church? You know it's dying for change but you're afraid of destroying it in the process. Or perhaps you're a long-time pastor who's grown tired of the rut and are sick of endless new church growth techniques.
Ignite Your Church isn't a church growth book. It's a guide to renovating your church and bringing it to full potential. As a pastor who revitalized a church with nearly 100 years of history and a consultant that has coached over 300 pastors through relaunching their own churches, Dr. Jones will provide you with the tools you need to light a fire under your church without burning it down.
From the Introduction:
Because all churches drift, this book is for any and every leader who wants to either ignite a fire under their church or keep the fire lit. I've been in ministry for thirty years and spent the last seventeen years leading New Life, a church with an incredible foundation of nearly a hundred years but that was in desperate need of major renovation. I've paid the price and made all the mistakes. I've also coached countless pastors of established churches and seen the good, bad, and ugly of leading God's flock.
Over that time, I discovered and developed the MCI Relaunch Strategy-a revolutionary and practical technique that can change everything. A match that lights the fire. But fire is dangerous stuff. It can excite and energize a congregation or destroy, in one hour, a church that took one hundred years to build. After getting burned more than once, I've also developed seven hard-won practices you'll want to master before striking that match.
These principles and tools apply regardless of the age of your church and you don't necessarily need to be the lead pastor to implement them. But this book is uniquely focused on established churches because they aren't typically addressed in church-growth books or at leadership seminars. Leaders like Rick Warren, Andy Stanley, Craig Groeschel, and Steven Furtick are all great men who made great contributions to the Church (and have enriched my life), but they planted their churches. They haven't experienced the challenges you face pastoring a church with decades of history. Remodeling a house and building a new one may look similar to outsiders, but any architect will tell you that they take radically different skills, and this book focuses on those skills.
Dr. Troy Jones is passionate helping well-established churches like yours rediscover their vision and excitement. From the Introduction, "I believe that the greatest potential for reaching America lies in waking up our countless established churches and helping them recapture their purpose."
He is the lead pastor of New Life Church in the Seattle area and is a sought-after speaker, coach, and consultant. Troy and Jana, his wife of 32 years, live in a 125-year-old-house that they literally picked up and moved down the street to save from demolition. Their painstaking renovation stands as a testament to their love of old things made new.
