The Adept Church
Navigating Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Published April 2020
Help congregations take an honest "look in the mirror" to understand their current situation and respond.
A theologically grounded, yet practical, user-friendly guide for church leaders seeking to save their churches. A methodical, logical approach for strategic development and decision-making. A clear process for showing congregations how to define their reality, and a map showing the way to move forward.
- Offers a clear process to help congregations understand their situation by taking an honest "look in the mirror."
- Helps congregations build a realistic roadmap for moving forward.
- Illustrates how the status quo (institutionalism) is rewarded and that seeking transformation goes against institutionalism.
- Outlines what it means to be an adept church, a church that can navigate between a rock and a hard place because it makes decisions based upon where it needs to go and not where it is currently.
- Provides practical, first step for congregations to move forward.
About the Author
F. Douglas Powe, Jr.
F. Douglas Powe, Jr. is an ordained elder in the Baltimore/Washington Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. He is the Director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership and professor of evangelism and of urban ministry at Wesley Theological Seminary. Powe is committed to helping urban congregations and congregations in transitional areas to flourish through community partnering. His research interest are church revitalization, urban theology and Methodist theology. He holds an MDiv from Candler School of Theology and a PhD in systematic theology from Emory University.