In The Honest to God Church Bixby promotes the idea of an “I’m not okay, you’re not okay approach” to church ministry. He writes, “in the church we talk about having faith and being faithful, but rarely do we talk about experiencing grace and being gracious. Churches are at times some of the most ungracious places on this planet, and Christians are at times some of the most ungracious people in our universe.” The “I’m not okay, you’re not okay” approach is a liberating approach to ministry that allows Christians and their congregations to embrace more grace and to be more gracious.
In Challenging the Church Monstor Bixby recognizes that our imperfections often lead into a significant amount of conflict and anxiety. He also points out that much of the structures in our churches has been built on mistrust. He identifies mistrust as a cancer that is eating away at many of our congregations. He makes a variety of suggestions to help churches to simplify the way they do things and to help congregations to begin building more trust in their relationships and more momentum in their ministries. He believes that churches have way too many meetings and he tries to get your focus off of meetings and onto ministry.
This book was published by the Pilgrim Press in 2002. It is now out of print and the Pilgrim Press sold out of stock. It is currently being printed by Wipf and Stock. You can get a discount by ordering it from:
