I like this book because of a number of factors:

1. Rarely found in a Christian book, it possesses characteristics of and integrates many scopes of knowledge—a book of cases, a biography, theology, church history/movements, management, behavioural science, and sociology. It is full of multi-dimensional and holistic thinking, integrating secular and Christian thoughts through Godly, not secular wisdom.

2. Warren's thoughts are vision-driven. He first perceives from above (using birds' eyes), and then examines complexities on earth. His church's vision statement is about his dreams. I particularly like his views that due to today's rapid changes, a vision may not mean a clear picture, but '..the ability to predict changes accurately and react to them' ; and  as humans tend to lose directions quickly, they need to be reminded of visions regularly.

3. Warren's views are frank and critical, and are backed by Bible verses. He purposely addresses traditional church problems and approaches, without avoiding to face conflicts. A common problem he addresses is: focusing narrowly on individual  functions based on the structure of the church--winning souls, experiencing God, family gathering, classroom teaching, acting as the society conscience, etc—but failing to integrate them to make the church effective as a whole.

4.  Not only is Warren a good trainer, he is also a good 'action learner'. He has observed and taken notes for 20 years; he asks critical questions in search for answers; he advocates actions on theoretical knowledge; he reflects on successful and unsuccessful past experiences, consolidates them and then improves on old methods. He constantly responses to ongoing changes. He learns from the behaviour of Jesus Christ.

5. Sensational thoughts are well balanced by rational ones. The book has contained a lot of Warren's personal feelings and prayers and Holy Spirit experiences. He also believes that most non-believers first come to a church for pain relief, not for Biblical knowledge. On the rational side, he has used systematic analyses, management concepts and approaches. An example on balancing is that in seeking directions, he not only listens to God's voice conveyed through others' prayers and spiritual powers, but also analyses maps, surveys, statistics, etc. and make plans systematically.

6. As a Christian and also a management trainer and writer, I know that Christian thoughts can influence the secular business world; on the other hand, a church can also adopt secular management methods for managing it. My belief is that the former is much more important than the latter. This book can be a good example to show to Christian and non-Christian policy makers that such belief is correct and such approach is workable.

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Comments made by Charles Lam, who can be contacted at clam@kamching.com