This month we offer you a summary of Leading Beyond the Walls: Developing Congregations with a Heart for the Unchurched by Adam Hamilton (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2002). This book, with 208 pages in 18 chapters, is hailed as “…the best book I have ever read on how to be an effective parish pastor.” These are the words of Lyle Schaller, who has written some pretty good books of his own!

Adam Hamilton is a young pastor who planted Church of the Resurrection (COR) in suburban Kansas City in 1990. The church has become the spiritual home of thousands of Christians, many of whom had no church background before joining COR.

Why would “Church Over 40” promote a book written by a church planter? Two reasons: first, we visited COR in 2000 and met Adam Hamilton. We applied some of his insights to our church renewal context with positive results. Second, COR is a mainline congregation (United Methodist), and most of our Church Over 40 subscribers are in churches with mainline heritage. COR is mastering the art of relating to secular people in contemporary culture, and any church, regardless of age, doing this will succeed in reaching new people.

“Many established churches that were once in decline,” writes Hamilton in the Introduction, “are experiencing renewal and growth.” He argues that the strategies and concepts used in successful new church starts also work in renewal settings.

Hamilton begins by outlining the role of pastor as shepherd-leader. He declares that every church leader should commit to memory Luke 19:10, “The Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” Hamilton has a shepherd’s heart, but he is also an equipper. No congregation can grow beyond 100-200 in worship without an equipping leader. The biblical imperative for equipping comes from Ephesians 4:11-13.

Before launching a new church (or a renewal emphasis) Hamilton suggests wrestling with three questions:

1. Why do people need Christ?

2. Why do people need the church?

3. Why do people need this particular church?

A fourth question soon demands an answer as well: “To whom does our church belong?” Pastors and lay leaders in churches over 40 will understand the significance of this question.

COR has developed a knack for marketing, and Hamilton devotes an entire chapter to the topic. If you believe that marketing is a dirty word, read this chapter with an open mind. We agree with the author when he says, “Direct mailings … built up the congregation’s own self-esteem and created a public image of our congregation that made it easier for members to invite their friends.” (p. 36).

COR is not content simply to attract crowds; their goal is to disciple people. Borrowing from Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Church, Hamilton and a team of COR leaders designed a clear path to spiritual growth and encouraged members to follow it. (Instead of the baseball diamond analogy, COR uses mountain climbing.) Along the way, members learn to give generously, identify and use their spiritual gifts, and serve others through one of the church’s many ministries.

Hamilton is a man of prayer. He is remarkably humble, given the incredible success of his congregation and his national stature as a church leader. Time and again he calls the reader back to the necessity of focusing on one’s personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Learning to depend on the leading of the Holy Spirit, Hamilton says, is what makes the difference between work wrought by human hands and what’s accomplished through the mighty acts of God.

Subsequent chapters offer counsel on preaching and worship, pastoral care, weddings and funerals, leadership, and managing paid and unpaid staff. Hamilton is not trying to produce more CORs, or even more large churches, necessarily. He writes in his conclusion, “The information in this book was aimed, in part, at helping small and medium-sized churches to reach their full potential in service to Christ and in reaching nonreligious and nominally religious people.” (p. 201).

As we all know, such churches are always happy for help when they find it. Adam Hamilton is a trustworthy source.