Book: The Healthy Church: Practical Ways to Strengthen a Church’s Heart, Author: Bob Whitesel (2013) reviewed by John (Jack) Pladdys, 4/14/15. What section of the book (pages and/or chapter) impacted you the most and why? Chapter 4: The Church as … Continue reading
Emily Enders Odom – August 7, 2013 Move over, Dr. Phil. The church doctor is in. Bob Whitesel, the award-winning author and change theory expert, offered a … Continue reading
by Bob Whitesel D.Min., Ph.D., Biblical Leadership Magazine, 5/29/19. Jesus called His Church to come out from among the restless divisiveness of Jerusalem and be an avenue for God’s remarkable love for neighbor and God. The very words the biblical … Continue reading
Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: During a shutdown, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, churches have an opportunity to prepare for rebounding and renewing into healthier churches. Here are articles I’ve written about how to accomplish this (published by magazines with … Continue reading
2019 was our best & busiest year yet! To celebrate, improvements are coming in 2020! Check out our new logo & URL (reflecting that many of our clients are healthy, yet wanting to maximize Kingdom impact).
1. Visibility (communication system) The communication system should increase the visibility of the good deeds and good actions of those who bring good news (Acts 13:32). Visibility was historically created by a church’s physical building. A spire would stand out … Continue reading
Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: I created a new typology for understanding multicultural churches: The 5 Types of Multicultural Churches and ranked each based on how well they create reconciliation (to God) and reconciliation (to one another). See my address to academics … Continue reading
I was honored to learn today that Fuller PhD students are using charts/figures from my The Healthy Church book. Below is the ‘grid” and analysis of a “BOOK ©Whitesel EXCERPT – HEALTHY CHURCH Multicultural Models” from The Healthy Church: Practical … Continue reading
by Bob Whitesel D.Min., Ph.D., 8/15/17. I have categorized “7Marks of healthy churches” from the exhaustive research of the American Congregations 2015 Survey (available at http://www.faithcommunitiestoday.org/sites/default/files/American-Congregations-2015.pdf) The 7Systems.church are: Visibility (communication system) Embracing a growing culture (reconciling system) Supernatural worship (numinous … Continue reading
by Bob Whitesel D.Min. Ph.D. As a former church planter, I concur with Barna and believe we must find a better method to plant churches. What I call a “Ripple Model” involves medium to large churches getting more involved. I … Continue reading
by Bob Whitesel, D.Min., Ph.D., 9/24/15. A sub-congregation is a group within the church, that functions, in Asbury Professor George Hunter’s words, as “a church within a church.” (For a definition of a sub-congregation, click HERE) A student once responded, … Continue reading
Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: I wrote about Pete Scazzero and the church he leads as one example of an organic congregation in my book “Inside the Organic Church” (Abingdon Press). That is because this church has embraced practices that keep … Continue reading
by Bob Whitesel PhD, 8/3/15. There are various models to describe churches that are multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-racial, etc. To evaluate which is best for you, I have created a ‘grid’ that looks at each model through a dozen factors, including … Continue reading
Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: When is it time for a leader to leave a church? And how is the centrality of Christ enhanced or undermined by our transitions? What happens afterwards? And, how does the centrality of Christ figure into … Continue reading
Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: “The thing that impressed me most about 12Stone© Church in Atlanta (a Wesleyan congregation) was that every Saturday night the pastors and leaders join together in the sanctuary to pray for the Sunday worship services. Lead … Continue reading
by Bob Whitesel, 10/20/14 A student once shared about a church that advocated fostering a multicultural church by blending the different styles of ethnic/cultural diversity into one “blended” worship service. The student noted, “At the time of the writing of … Continue reading
Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: Almost 15 years ago when analyzing healthy planted churches, I found that most planted churches preferred to lease or rent their space rather than build buildings. This freed them up for flexibility and to put their … Continue reading
by Bob Whitesel D.Min., Ph.D., Church Revitalizer Magazine, 4/27/21. Learn more about the changes needed in your hospitality ministries in the course, Church Guests 101 part of ChurchLeadership.university on uDemy. When leading a church it is very easy to miscommunicate … Continue reading
by Ericka Andersen, USA Today, 3/28/21. … Attendance at worship in decline …How eager has the rest of the country been to file back into the pews as churches ticked open nationwide? Not very. All but 3% of churches in … Continue reading
