Outgrowing the Ingrown Church

Miller tackles the subject with an open mind strategy. Love the practical aspect approach.

Good common sense ideas

This book was printed 40 years ago yet the church looks so much like he did way back then. The church described in this book is the church I grew up in. It is surreal how Mr Miller puts to words the decription of an ingrown church. I kept wondering if he must've been a visitor unknown to us. It is so sad the way the church is not what it could or should be. Every minister and congregation needs to read this book and change!!!! We will give account one day!

As a companion to John Stott's book on Mission this book pointed to the comfortable and closed nature of my church life. It encouraged me to look outside my comfort zone and develop relationships with people culturally and theologically different.

I have read, re-read, and read this book again and again. Each time I come back to it, I am called deeper into humility, weakness, and a larger expectation of God to work mightily through His Spirit in the church. I get called to make God's glory my aim, and to take on His great command to His church to make disciples, knowing also of His great promise to be with us. I have read this book while in a thriving church community and felt encouraged and strengthened in what God was doing. I have most recently read this book while in a more ingrown church environment and have felt encouraged to raise our expectations of God and to embrace change. Read this book for the encouragement it has for you. Be ready to be confronted! But if you have a soft heart to the biblical truths Miller expounds, you will be richly rewarded in the long run.

The late Jack Miller makes his own life and ministry a transparent window to show us strategies and tactics in taking an ingrown church and turning it back into one that has a sense of its kingdom mission. This process begins with recognizing the leader of the church as the pace setter. The repentance required to return a church to that for which it was called must generally start with those who are the leaders. Miller urges such leaders to first repent themselves and then to begin moving their congregations to repentance through a process of asking diagnostic questions. The church is called to fulfill the missionary mandate by means of the filling of the Spirit as the empowering agency of its call. This mandate is accomplished through deeds of love and empowered through private and corporate prayer. Upholding all of this is an understanding of God's unconditional love toward sinners. By contrast, the problem often faced by the ingrown church is that of "religious cushioning" in which we focus on preserving our own comfort level instead of seeking the filling of the Spirit. At the end of each chapter, there are "action steps" that take the principles presented and illustrated and put them into practice within specific church situations. These give the book a "how to" quality. It seems to me that the shotgun approach to dealing with the ingrown church might have differing effects depending upon the size of the church. At the same time, Miller's action steps can find ready application in churches of all shapes and sizes. Miller makes a call both to personal prayer and to moving the church to a greater sense of community prayer, giving practical action steps to bring this about in a gradual but persistent manner. He reminds me that, in this endeavor, I am "in the toughest battle facing the Christian church." "People come to a church where they are wanted and they come to a pastor who wants very much to introduce them to Christ" (Page 112).

This is a great book to use as a study for new church plants. Insightful, well researched, bibilical. Including genuine personal experiences, Jack Miller shares important insights regarding how to identify the self-serving ingrown church, and how leaders can help their churches break free to become God serving and outward reaching, through the merits of Christ.

In C. John Miller's book, Outgrowing the Ingrown Church,I found an answer to why the Church seems lacking in vitality and growth. Miller explains this as a failure of an ingrown Church to accept the challenge of living out its missionary purpose. I was amazed to find myself taking on the ingrownness of my own Church, renewing our vision, and leading us through the trials that followed with greater spiritual energy and deeper contentment that I'd ever known. Though I first read this book eight years ago, I continue to go back to soak up Miller's message. I encourage anyone who cares about the Church to read this book. You will find yourself saying "yes, yes!" as Miller renews your passion for the Church's great mission.