Transitioning LEADING YOUR CHURCH THROUGH CHANGE Author - Pastor Dan Southerland Publisher - Zondervan

AUTHOR INTERVIEW and BOOK REVIEW OF TRASITIONING
by Pastor Bruce C. Kalish
 

On the heels of the Spring Transitions Conference at Flamingo Road Church, author and Pastor Dan Southerland graciously took time to interact via telephone about his book, Transitioning, leading your church through change, Zondervan, 2000.

“What has been the general response to the book?” I posed.

“Phenomenal.” Came the awestruck reply.

“Does that mean that there is a sequel in the works?”

“We have discussed two ideas.  One would be a series of specific titles on the various areas affected by the transition process.  For instance, one on worship, another on small groups, another on children’s ministry and so forth.  A second idea would be to share further insights on developing the transition process that have surfaced in our conferences and ministry since the original book was written.”

The original book has proven to be a practical guide for any pastor who is in the throes of leading a church through change.  Not only is it a handy size with a readable font, but the page layout also lends itself to an easy scan or a slow grazing of the contents.  The workbook at the end of the text is suitable for personal notes, a group study, or a quick review.

Now, about those contents: Flamingo Road is heir to the Purpose Driven Strategy of Rick Warren’s Saddleback Community Church.  If you are familiar with that strategy, you will feel at home in the pages of this book.  Essentially, Dan Southerland tells the story of what happened in his church through the nineties while it was transitioning from a traditional program-driven church to a contemporary purpose-driven church.  As you might expect, the adjustment was not without its painful lessons.  Those lessons are shared in this manual.

Southerland explains the process of transition by drawing vivid examples from the book of Nehemiah.  He shapes this process around what he calls vision. But Southerland’s definition of vision incorporates the subjects of purpose, target, and strategy, unlike McIntosh and Malphurs, who would use the term in a more restricted sense roughly equivalent to Southerland’s “target.”   Aside from this minor, potentially confusing conflict in definition, Transitioning, is a straight-forward clearly written account of how to implement an eight-step process of vision in a church. Each step of this cyclical process is fleshed out in a separate chapter. The vision cycle explores practical insights on preparing, defining, planting, sharing and implementing a purpose-driven vision in a traditional church. If you’ve tried this, you might guess correctly that the next steps in the vision cycle are, dealing with opposition, making mid-course corrections, and evaluating results.

I recommend this book to any pastor who knows he wants to lead a renewed culturally relevant ministry, but doesn’t know how to bring his church there.  The wisdom found in Transitioning is the much-needed map for the journey.
 

Bruce C. Kalish is the Senior Pastor of Sparta Baptist Church in Sparta, MI., a congregation that is 145 years young and becoming purpose-driven in their committment to lovingly bring people to new life and maturity in Jesus Christ.