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Tim Stevens & Tony Morgan, Simply Strategic Stuff: Help for Leaders Drowning in the Details of Running a Church (Loveland Co.: Group, 2004). As the Executive Pastor & Pastor of Administrative Services at Granger Community Church in Granger, Indiana, Tim Stevens & Tony Morgan are hands-on with the daily details of running a church. They have walked with Granger as it has grown from a small church plant to a multi-service mega-church. They speak first-hand of what a dynamic church leader needs to know in the day-to-day activity of planning and implementing the details of a dynamic and modern church, and have a wealth of information to offer the rest of us as we seek to serve God in our local church.

This book is made up of 99 one or two page chapters that delve into a whole host, including staff hiring and firing, decision making, building campaigns, restrooms, technology, teams, stealing from other churches, teaching topics, communication, and everything in between.

This is not a book for pastors/care-givers (those whose primary concern is “how do I counsel or care for this person”) or preachers/teachers (those whose primary concern is “how do I open the Word of God for this flock”) – it is for leaders and administrators – those who’s primary concern is “how do we do execute our mission in the best possible way.” Coming out of the United States where the role of “Executive Pastor” is becoming more normal, even for sub-1000 churches, this type of book illustrates the widening gap between the traditional definitions of “Pastor” and the reality of what it takes to lead a growing church in this day and age. The mere fact that Granger has both an Executive and Administrative Pastor suggests that the needs are very great, and still “pastoral.”

Because these chapters are very small, they often leave the reader with more questions than answers in each area. Many of these topics really need a full-length chapter, or even a full-length book, to do them justice. However, there is enough in these chapters to challenge the status-quo for many churches and open the doors for further conversation. Due to the short nature of each chapter the book does feel rather unstructured and rather chaotic. There is no overriding categorization in the index structure (although a topical index is provided in the rear of the book) and many of the chapters are related and even overlap.

Even though Granger is an American mega-church, there is much to be learned from this book by smaller churches and churches outside of America. While some material is somewhat US-centric, the vast majority applies to anyone in the Western world. Some concepts do assume a Western go-get-em approach and push for a very flat yet regulated leadership structure, which may not work well in very hierarchical cultures. Churches under 200 in attendance (which represents about 95% of churches in the world) will struggle with some of the chapters, especially those that deal with hiring, as these chapters assume that having a multiple staff environment is normal. But even if your church is not at that point, there is tremendous value in understanding these issues before you get there. Many churches will also struggle with leadership model suggested because it is either not Apostolic enough (where the Pastor or Chairman of the Board has to approve everything) or not committee-based and therefore seems un-democratic. Neither of these models are necessarily more “Biblical” than others, and Stevens and Morgan do a good job of explaining the reason behind their particular structure.

Every topic is filled with wonderful nuggets of information and advice that, if implemented well, even in the smallest of churches, will make a significant difference to your ability to implement the mission of your local church. Not every chapter will seem relevant to you, and some of the examples will even contradict what you are doing. But as they say, we should “visit other churches and steel their stuff” (Chapter 10) – and Granger has given us a great way to visit them and interview their senior staff without having to travel to Granger, Indiana (especially when you live in New Zealand).

Stevens and Morgan are also the authors of a weekly podcast (a web-only “radio” broadcast) that talks about the topics in the book. You can subscribe through iTunes. Visit http://simplystrategicshow.blogspot.com/ for more information.