7 Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley

7 Practices of Effective Ministry Reviews

• 
  Al Garlando

  A bit of a different spin on a more famous book with a very similar title.
  This is a very pragmatic (& as one reviewer observed - a very Western philosophy) and simple approach to help clarify what it is you're trying to achieve in your ministry as a Pastor/Leader.
  
  There's nothing really "new" in the book. BUT, it was, for me, invigorating and encouraging to read - it stirred me up (fanned the flame, so to speak) to be more intentional and deliberate in my approach to ministry in my Church and has helped refine some of my priorities.
  
  Big Idea: know what you should be on about and go after it!
  Yes, that means, pursuing and savoring the glory of God in all things - but what this book challenged me to do is figure out a little more closely "What does that look like in MY life and ministry?"
  
  OF the 7 Practices:
  Listen to outsiders & Work on it spoke to me loudest (at this point in time). We need to know who we are trying to reach and we need to be able to step up and out of the detail (i.e. busy-ness) to ensure that we are pursuing God's Glory not just living a church oriented religious lifestyle.
  
  These 7 points would make a great discussion workshop afternoon with young leaders and any go-getters that are keen to move forward in ministry.
• 
  Jesse Ludema

  This book was decent. I do love the practice of "clarifying the win", "thinking steps not programs," and "narrow the focus." However, I wrestle with these being toted as standard ministry practices, rather than practices that may work well for specific congregations. Many of these practices feel like practices that are specific to homogenous mega-churches, I would have loved more content on how these practices may look contextualized to smaller ministries, or multi-cultural ministries. Overall, it was a pretty decent read.
• 
  David Gregg

  This makes a grade-A, excellent management and organizational-systems book! I have since moved past trying to micromanage the Kingdom, so this wouldn't be my first suggestion to you unless a management or organizational-systems kind of book is what you are after.
• 
  Matthew

  This is one of the best books on ministry that I've ever read (I've read it at least five times!)
  
  The first half of the book is written as a parable/allegory. It's a great introduction to the practices that are going to be discussed in greater detail in the second half of the book.
  
  The actual "7 Practices are: (1) Clarify the Win, (2) Think Steps, Not Programs, (3) Narrow the Focus, (4) Teach Less for More, (5) Listen to Outsiders, (6) Replace Yourself, and (7) Work On It.
  
  If you serve in any capacity in a church, this an incredible resource waiting to be discovered and applied to your local church setting.
  
  Some of my favorite thoughts from this book are:
  
  "Most churches do not have a reliable system for defining and measuring what success looks like at every level of the organization."
  
  "Clarifying the win simple means communicating to your team what is really important and what really matters"
  
  "Once you have carefully defined a win for a department or program, you need to spend time keeping it in front of your team, then spread to every area of the organization."
  
  "Churches have a reputation for doing ministry without an end in mind."
  
  "The gravitational pull of a church is usually toward over programming"
  
  "Devoting a little of yourself to everything means committing a great deal of yourself to nothing."
  
  "Your potential to make an impact with your life is directly related to your willingness to narrow your focus."
  
  "Say only what you need to say to the people who need to hear it"
  
  "Good teachers begin by identifying what is most important for their students to know."
  
  "Focus on who your'e trying to reach, not who you're trying to keep"
  
  "Replacing yourself means that you are willing to hand someone else a significant piece of what you do."
• 
  Joel Jackson

  The staff from North Point Community lay out their strategy of ministry in a very concise manner. I feel that the principles laid out in the text are applicable to many churches. I did struggle through some of the book though as I am not a baseball fan. Therefore, some of the baseball analogies were lost on me and my mind got bored when they got too into baseball history or facts. Beyond that, I always struggle with books written as successful in mega churches that established themselves. In some ways they don't neatly fit into churches that have been around for generations. There are details in regards to certain of these principles that are harder to bring into play in an established congregation. An example would be that of listening to outsiders. If your church is so enmeshed by its own history, it is very difficult to emerge from that. How do we celebrate the history of a church while disregarding certain programs or people? I would like for a pastor at a longer established church to write a follow up to this book as to how the principles play themselves out in churches that have a longer history. The text itself was very readable.
• 
  Antho2

  Not big on the baseball analogy and it was referred to throughout the book, BUT the points were helpful. I struggle with looking at ministry so systematically, I trend towards a more Spirit-led ministry. That being said, I can see the value in this approach and my highlighter worked harder the further I got into the book.
  
  I especially appreciated the ministry goals outlined on pages 126-127.
  
  I was challenged by the phrase 'too much information can have a cancelling affect' - I am an information junkie but I can certainly see where information overload loses a lot of people. I've been thinking lately about how important it is to have a clearly communicated central truth - with young people but also with adults. Andy Stanley does a great job of concentrating his messages into one simple message, reinforcing it and repeating it. I'm working on it.
  
  I LOVED the concept of invest and invite. (Pg. 131) This helps insiders think like outsiders and it's completely approachable, where typical evangelism efforts are awkward and ill-yielding with results. I can see where it is essential to have manageable steps in place to move visitors naturally toward the core.
  
  pg. 173 made me 'ahah!' with the realization that God analyzed His work. He's perfect, if He stepped back to assess, so should we.
  
  pg. 173 made me realize that celebration is essential. (the Old Testament is full of celebration) I'm thinking about creative ways to implement this facet of documenting wins.
  
  And now I want to read 'the Tipping Point' by Malcom Gladwell.
• 
  Sasha

  Skip the fictional first half, unless you like that sort of thing!
  
  For us, very relevant: Clarify the Win, Think Steps Not Programs, Narrow the Focus, Teach Less For More, and Replace Yourself.
  
  Work On It is a bit obvious if someone is already reading this book, but always worth incorporating this into your system or calendar.
  
  Very relevant for a lot of community organizations, not only Christian ministry. Intellectual integrity. Learn from those who have already put the ideas through their paces.
• 
  Dylan Johnston

  Quick read with a great and engaging opening parable.
  Overall content was good and well-written.
  I think the parable for the first 60 pages could’ve spanned the entire book with the leadership principles being fleshed our in conversation and storytelling rather than a “here’s what we do” method.
  
  
  All-in-all: good book with good content that will help an organization grow strategically and effectively.
• 
  Salvador Blanco

  While I disagree with a lot of Stanley and Northpoint's ecclesiology and ministry philosophy, one has to acknowledge that what this staff has created is unique and has been effective in many areas. The seven practices given by these authors can enhance any team of any organization or church that is looking to not merely do better, but to instead ask questions that can keep one accountable to do better.
• 
  Ron

  The first half of this book is told as a parable where a church leader meets a businessman and gets advice on various practices. The second half of the book gives more details on the practices:
  1. Clarify the win
  2. Think steps, not programs
  3. Narrow the focus
  4. Teach less for more
  5. Listen to outsiders
  6. Replace yourself
  7. Work on it
  Each chapter gives quite a bit of detail. The book is a quick easy read and has some good, solid advice in it.
• 
  Maui Rochell

  I finally finished reading this book after a long time. It's a helpful tool to guide a church ministry. The seven practices are doable but not commonly practiced to the churches now. What resonated to me the most is the principle of replacing yourself. I learned it first from the other book I read titled Multiplication Challenge and it's a hard task but worth it. I encountered it again here.
• 
  Nicholas

  When I finished Creating Community a month or so ago I knew this needed to be my next ministry read. I love how North Point is able to communicate their ideas with humility. I recommend book for anyone who is leading a ministry organization it will bring alot of clarity to what you do.
• 
  Stephanie Bammes

  We did a book study on this as a church staff. While there were a few things I wasn’t quite sure about, overall it was by far the most practical book about ministry I’ve ever read. It’s one we hope to break apart and dive deeper into chapter by chapter.
• 
  Mike Panton

  This book provides 7 very simple and practical things to think through when trying to build a ministry or really any organization. Each chapter provides questions to talk through that seem good although I did not do that since I read through it alone.
• 
  Jonathan Adams

  This book is foundational for ministry. Many of the practices in here also are relevant to real life.
• 
  Kyle Leadingham

  An excellent book for any church staff. It will open up honest conversations on your team that can be used to establish an even better foundation for your church.
• 
  Jeanette Weaver

  This was very good and followed what I had experienced in various non-church groups that I had been part of and that were effective at what they did.
• 
  Alyssa

  This is a great book for anyone who is either currently active, or thinking about doing doing ministry vocationally. A very quick, informative, and engaging read.
• 
  Sawn Medrano

  great book with great ideas to reach people and live out role of disciple
• 
  Natalie LaRue

  An extremely helpful book on how to make your ministry effective. Must read!
• 
  Cat Caird

  Lots of helpful ideas in this book and you will certainly take something something away from it. It's more of a business approach to running a church.
• 
  Steve N

  probably my favorite book Stanley ever wrote. I read this a decade ago... I'd recommend it to EVERY pastor & or EVERY LEADER.... sLr
• 
  Ean Snell

  Stanley and the other writers of this book tend to forget that every church does not have unlimited resources. There are certainly good practices to pull from this book, but many are just unrealistic for a local church. And just because a local church can’t do all the things that North Point can do, doesn’t mean that the local church is doing things poorly.
• 
  Mark Soone

  I love Andy Stanley (and unlike most he is the only Stanley that I really care to read/listen to), and make everything he writes must read material. Having been such a huge admirer of his ministry, speaking and books I have become accostamed to having high excpectations of him. Perhaps that is why a star rating of him might seem, out of my ordinary scope. I hope that it is not simply a case of having set the bar so high, that the rating is not fair to the work contained in this book.
  
  There are so many books out on 7 practices. as well as how to become more effective in ministry that my major disappointment is not so much at what is contained in the treatsie...but rather that there does not seem to be anything new or majorily enlightening. I wouldn't say it is a bad book or even a waste of time to pastors and/or those in church leadership, but if like me you make reading everything you can on the subject matter of leadership and effective ministry practices there just does not seem to be anything new or reveloutionary, just a new spin on old ideas.
  
  Don't get me wrong, it is still worth checking out and Andy remains towards the top end of my to read authors, I just didn't find it is benificial as I have his previous works. I would recommend it to pastors and church leaders with the caveat that there don't seem to be any major revelations or strategies that are not touched upon in many other works.
• 
  Lynn Smith

  Our pastor gave this book to our leadership team for a group read a couple of weeks ago and I just finished the book. The authors made the book easy to read and understand. Even though the concepts are easy to understand, they are practical, effective and well researched. Anyone would benefit from the principles of this book. While it is written by a church leadership team with church ministry in mind, the principles here could be applied to any ministry or even business. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who serves in any type of church position whether it be paid or volunteer, leader or worker. The principles contained here can improve the effectiveness of an overall ministry as well as your personal ministry. The book will cause you to look at what you are doing and why you are doing it. As it says, your ministry is perfectly designed to get the results you are currently getting. So if you're happy with your results, you don't need to read the book. However, I would argue that even if you are happy with your current ministry and the results you are getting, you should still read this book to evaluate and see if there aren't things you could be doing (or not doing as the case may be) which will take your ministry to new heights and achieve even better results.
• 
  Kelly Hodgkins

  I volunteer as a small group leader for Proverbs 31 Ministries and this book was recommended to us as an insightful read. How right they were! I wasn't sure what to expect when I started the book as it kicks off with an allegory based in baseball. The story is a powerful one though, even for those of us who don't know baseball.
  
  I read with the ministry in mind but also from a personal and business stand point. I'm not a creat mon-fiction reader but this was a page turner! A number of these principles will be useful in my work environment and I look forward to giving them a whirl.
  
  A couple of key phrases and thoughts that resonated with me:
  
  "You don't know what a win is...you need to know when you are getting ahead and your people need to know when to cheer"
  
  "You need to decide where a win happens best... You'll frustrate people more by giving them a clear vision without a strategy for achieving it"
  
  "Fail to give a strong leader clear direction, you give that person permission to go in whatever direction seems right."
  
  "Sum up the win in a simple phrase...what do we want people to walk away and do?"
  
  I highly recommend this book whether or not you are involved in leading ministry.
• 
  Danny

  7 Practices of Effective Ministry is composed of 2 parts. In part 1, the pastor plays hooky from an elders’ meeting to attend a major league baseball game and discovers 7 principles that become the basis of the 7 practices in part 2. Part 2 delves more deeply into each of the practices. There are great questions at the end of each of these chapters. The 7 practices are Clarify the win, Think steps not programs, Narrow the focus, Teach less for more, Listen to outsiders, Replace yourself and Work on it. Some favorite quotes include: “You don’t know what a win is at church, do you?” Programs “can lead to life change or they can just become a way of life.” “Do attendees feel comfortable inviting their unchurched friends?” “discipleship happens best with a group of friends who are ‘doing life’ together.” ”make sure that people walk away and feel like guests” “I have accumulated a lot of knowledge in my life, very little of which is actually helpful on a practical level.” “leaders don’t volunteer, they are recruited”
• 
  Matthew Frye

  The unique combination of narrative, baseball, church and business provides for an easy-to-digest book that applies business principles and ethics to the organization of the church. The seven practices are developed (and utilized by North Point Church)in an attempt to make churches fruitful, relevant, and growing. More so, the text challenges churches to break away from vague and faulty traditions, to hone in on a specific need/ population that is relevant to their area, and to be willing to adjust/ eliminate programs to promote success and longevity. There is a healthy mix within these pages as each business principle is justified by Scripture, thus the book is not a full-on secular approach to making a church successful. Alongside God's blessing, these practices have enabled a small church to be transformed into a mega-church, and to be further cultivated into a franchise as other campuses needed to be built to accommodate the massively growing congregation.