Book Review: Break Out Churches

Thom Rainer it the nail on the head with this book. Basically, he wrote a book that encompasses to distinct yet interchangeable ideas to focus on. The first focus was on the Pastor as leader and then the second focus was on the churches that broke out of a plateau or declining direction into vibrantly healthy and growing churches. I said they were distinct because each focus is usually their own book, however they are interchangeable. The church can not change or transform without the pastor and the pastor can not change and transform without the church. What makes this book interesting and original is the concept behind the writing of the book. Rainer didn't just begin to write down idea of effective pastoral leadership or how to flip your church. What he did was to take actual churches who did break out of their modes plateaus and decline and then analyze the cause, the pastors own assessment, and the churches response, and then followed the process through to a resolution. As he was telling the stories of these churches he was also interweaving leadership and church growth principles.

I have learned a lot just reading this book. My favorite things I feel that I learned was on pg.98 the author states three things that cause staff to stay with a certain pastor.

1) Compelling and clear vision of and for the church
2) Dynamic leadership skills of the Sr. Pastor
3) Great caring attitude of the Sr. Pastor

As I read this I thought about the Pastors I had served under, and Thought about the average stay of staff pastors at churches in general. This book brought out the point that the one thing special about break out churches was all of their Sr. Pastors, Staff Pastors, and even support staff had been at the break out church for an average of 10 - 11 years. I saw probably the best principle ever when it comes to church growth. Long, consistent and stable Leadership teams! Not a long stable Sr. Pastor, or staff pastor, or a secretary--But TEAMS!

One of the strong points of this book is that the author did not define which "break out churches were good or the best", but he picked churches that had turned around from the direction they Had been going. And often these churches that the author considered "break out" were still in the messy stages of chaos, problems, and frustration of feeling like defeat. Again, the difference in these churches was the willingness of the leadership team to be open and honest about where they were and openly share and discuss the feelings, hurts, fears, and experiences with their congregations. Another really good point was on pg. 116. It gives us the idea that we apart of the local churches history and we enter at different stages and need to learn to lead through plateaus, growth, hurts, loss, and even sometimes periods of decline!

What impresses me about this book is the motivation of its intention. The book is not intended to give us a blue print, or another program to turn around our churches. But this book invites us into a new discussion on what is happening in our church and why it is happening, and how we can be apart of a change. This book showed that often times it was the Sr. Pastor that needed to change, and as he changed, then the staff, then the church! What motivates me from this book is the idea of re-thinking the whys, the how's, the what ifs... developing my own theology of church, ministry, and the role of the pastor! I would say this book challenges me the pastor to walk in a new courage. A courage that gives me permission to ask what if, to believe in things to come, and to hire not based on a need but on future outcomes!


I would recommend this book to those who understand something is wrong, but unclear to what it is. And then they are willing to seek discovery of whats wrong and have the courage to do something about it! Regardless of you level of leadership, place of ministry, vocation! This book is a necessity for anyone who really wants to lead with integrity, and clear vision!

This is a book I wonder why I haven't read in seminary?