Book Review: Advance Strategic Planning by Aubrey Malphurs

Advance Strategic Planning

by Aubrey Malphurs

Book Review

Advanced Strategic Planning was written by Aubrey Malphurs and was first published in 1999 with the over-all purpose of providing the church and its leadership a good strategic planning process that will help it them move from a stage of stagnant growth to a period of change and revitalization . The book offers a nine-step strategic thinking and acting models and diagrams that help illustrate concepts . The updated edition of the book has put emphasis on disciple making

Malphurs , who has authored many

books on church leadership and strategy is a professor of Pastoral Ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary . He specializes in teaching pastors how to think strategically and move their congregation to growth and accomplishment of goals . He is also the president of the Malphurs Group , a consulting organization which provides training and consultation services for churches that sees the need for help in the area of church growth

Malphurs started the book by stating that almost all institutions today , such as churches , go through a sigmoid or S-curve pattern of growth or life cycle , in which a church begins and experiences rapid growth in all areas , achieves a point a comfort zone of routines and programs , and later on declines and eventually dies

Malphurs , in his book , perceives the S-curve life cycle pattern as a problem besetting most churches by stating that

The message or lesson of the sigmoid curve is that all good things (and even some bad things ) end...