I am about two weeks posting this, so my bad. When I received Dave and Jon’s book Exponential for this for the blog tour I was excited to read it. As I continued to read I found it intriguing and thought provoking, just maybe not as relevant to me at this point in my life and ministry.
There were several things that I struggled through. First would be the idea that leadership is obviously a main theme of the book, yet I feel a lack of emphasis on spiritual leaders. It almost feels as if the Ferguson’s can give some leadership principles to anyone and they can lead a site/church. I am all for developing leaders, but I am personally looking for spiritual leaders who reproduce disciples. This is simply my preference. Also, the brothers stress much about church planting and multi-sites (hence the title of the book, duh), but we rarely hear about the success/failure of the sites. I might think the goal is not the just start multiple sites, but successful multiple sites. Finally, a little petty critique is the style. I wasn’t crazy about it and there seemed to be an enormous amount of charts. I was a bit overwhelmed.
However, there are many things that I found beneficial. I really appreciated their passion for reaching more people with the Gospel. I know that these guys are called and are pursuing their call. Reading Exponential made me think about how we are developing leaders in our church and what we can do better. If I was rating Exponential, I would rate it three out of five stars.
Paul, I agree that too much emphasis is put on quantity and not quality of reproducing plants. On that same note, I believe that if one focuses on developing those strong leaders (in the Spirit), then the disciples will follow. As you know from Leadership classes that not all focus is on this principle. I agree with you, this is absolutely imperative for the future of our tradition, because without the Great Commission what’s the point?
Yes I agree, but it almost comes across in the book that if you give a guy Good to Great and Built to Last they can lead sites. It’s not ONLY leadership, but I think it’s a combo of walking with God and leadership. Most of the emphasis in this book is on the latter. Plus, it’s almost like sites are becoming the new Sunday School class, but that is for another post…
Thanks for the review Paul. It really means a lot to me and Dave that you would take the time to read the book and post a review. Dave and I love to read books like Good to Great and Built to Last, so I’m sure that you accurately picked up on some of our preferences. While I think most church leaders can benefit tremendously from how God has worked through the wisdom of business leaders, I’m with you and remain convinced that unless a leader is Spirit-led (Acts 1:8) his leadership will fall flat. Thanks again for taking the time to review the book, and I hope some of the practical lessons Dave and I have learned over the years will be helpful to you.
Jon
Jon, thanks for stopping by. I did find the book helpful. I do agree that we can gleam wisdom from the business world. I believe all truth is God’s truth. Thanks for the opportunity to read y’alls book (I’m from the South)!