The Ultimate Church: An Irreverent Look at Church Growth, Megachurches, & Ecclesiastical "Show-Biz"

You will profit from some little-known truths about the church growth movement. For instance, in the chapter "The History and Theology of Church Growth Movement" you will discover -probably for the first time-the Great (Growth) Commission given to the disciples (of church growth, obviously):"Go ye, therefore and study growing churches finding out what works. "The credibility of this chapter rests on sixty-two footnotes. most of which are certainly superfluous, but entertaining nontheless. In a more practical chapter, "Ask the Consultant," there is only one footnote, but some wonderfully lucid answers to ludicrous questions such as "How can I tell whether a pastor is really a church-growth pastor?" The two dozen or so chapters manage to convey a great deal of fun filled misinformation and wonderfully entertaining reflection on where the church as come and where it may be going. Hyperbole and humor are good for the soul, and they shouldn't do the mind any harm either. With that in mind, Tom Raabe sets out to capture, if not the essence at least some accidents of the church growth movement and the excesses of megachurches as well as the eccentricities of ecclesiastical "show-biz." Nothing he writes is "fact"; nevertheless the church is like that.