In the book 100 Days To A Healthier Church, pastor and author Karl Vaters, takes us on a journey to bring our church to health. Vaters writes: “The church doesn’t exist merely to do no harm or be a safe place for hurting people (although it’s good when we are). We’ve been given a mission, and we need to take it seriously. Don’t mistake the absence of conflict for the presence of God.”
Vaters states there are “…three essential elements to a healthy and effective church: The Great Commandment, the Great Commission, and the Pastoral Prime Mandate ("equipping God’s people," from Ephesians 4:11–12).” These three elements make up the basis for the rest of the book, working our way to church health.
While mission statements and church purpose are not the focus of the book, Vaters does talk about them. But he writes: “…the truth is, mission statements don’t make great churches. Doing the mission makes great churches. The mission is already in place. It’s Christ’s, not ours.”
This is a very practical book, walking people through the process of becoming healthy church. Vaters gives great tools that can help any church. I would highly recommend this practical how-to-guide to becoming a healthy church. I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

100 Days to a Healthier Church is a step-by-step guide for pastors and leadership teams, although the voice of the book is definitely directed toward the pastor as leader of this process. As a lay person having been in various leadership positions in our church over the past forty years, I embrace the need for change in order to improve the health of the church. The weekly foci outlined in this book seem to be a good prescription for this. The author gives many useful tips to make the process go more smoothly as well as pitfalls to avoid. It does seem to me that a pastor and leadership team would have to decide if the actual structure outlined in this book is feasible for their setting. Building a team that can commit to fifteen consecutive weekends would limit our church to mostly senior citizens and even then to ones without grandchildren events to attend. Overall this process is Scripture-based, organized, and would indeed lead to a healthier church.

I am grateful to have received a copy of this book from Moody Publishers via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. I was under no obligation to provide a positive review and received no monetary compensation.

What does a healthy church look like? And can an unhealthy church get healthy in just 100 days? I’ve read lots of books on “healthy church.” This is not one of those books. But I recommend this book for any pastor. This book is not for someone not in ministry. It will be useless to you. But for the pastor or elder, it’s the most practical book I’ve seen, and you could implement it in your church right away. And if you're in ministry, you know Karl Vaters is an expert on this topic.

What’s the best way to summarize this book? It’s like a 100-day devotional book. Except, it’s not for personal use; it’s for the Church Leadership Team. And it’s more like a manual than like a quiet time devotional. That’s the format.

The purpose of this manual is to outline practically and specifically all the things that the church must be doing to be healthy. Some things the church may be doing fine, while other practices may have been ignored. This is not a theology book of thoughts and purposes, nor is it like a business book of strategies or church growth. It is a rigorous undertaking by some key leaders of the church to make sure the church has healthy purposes and practices by the end of 100 days. Each day and important leadership meeting is carefully thought out with purpose and ideas. For example, Day 93 is Launch Day (of project) and Day 94 is Assessment. Each day includes “Today’s Big Idea” “Key Verse” “Passage of the Day” and “Thoughts to Consider.” Every single day. There are also about 8 major meetings that are also detailed. Within the 100 days, important issues are tackled, like mission, church culture, culture shift, intentional projects, evangelism, discipleship, spiritual gifts, leadership training, etc.

The last 20 pages of the book covers how to assess after these 100 days have been completed. There are also forms, takeaways, and conversation starter worksheets for the big all-day meetings. Yeah, this is more of a practical handbook, not just an ideas book.

I haven’t taken my own church on this 100-day ride, so I can’t say how well this works. That’s the only way to properly evaluate this book, because it shouldn’t be judged merely on its ideas. There are no new ideas in this book, just like many books out there on physical health are not new ideas. However, does this book work well in the real church world? This book/manual looks well thought out, and practically detailed. Apparently, it has also been used in the real world several times, so it does work in some contexts. Will it work in mine? Will it work in yours? It’s still a good book to pick up. So check it out.

Karl Vaters, Author, blogger and now the go to for growing a healthy church and resources on “small church” has written a book which in my opinion is valuable in the hands of all church leaders.

100 days to healthier church is a book which delivers a tested system to those who desire to develop a healthy atmosphere/context/life within their church. It should be stated this is not a biblical mandate of church growth or health but instead is a proven formula within todays church culture. I would also add health is not about numbers but the actual life of the church, though numbers may in fact be the outcome of a healthy context.

What I enjoyed in the book was the breakdown of each week and day which can be changed according to a specific context, and outlines the way this process has worked in the church Karl leads. Which speaks to the value of this book, it’s not written by statisticians and data collectors trying different things. This is a pastor on the ground with the ‘saints’ building a culture of health within the body of Christ.

The are sections as well for the days leading up to the 100 day process for successful preparation, things to do after the 100 days are complete and resources for day 1 and 99 of the process.

Is this the ultimate guide for solving all the problems in your church, not likely, if will help us toward a healthy context but if there is an unified, toxic or otherwise hurtful culture within that has be dealt with ahead of the process, otherwise you will find yourself leading no where.

All this said, 100 days is a great resource for leading your people to a healthier context, so if you’re in leadership you won’t regret picking up this book and walking the process, even if you find yourself in Karl’s definition of health.

*I received this book free from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. These are my personal thoughts.

“Reading this book will be easy. Doing this book will be hard.” That is an accurate description of 100 Days to a Healthier Church.

Many churches are thriving, many are not. Whether your church is thriving or not, there are areas that can probably use some work. Just announcing that something is going to change won’t work in most cases. Neither will just talking about it. This book gives a process that you can use to help your church get healthier.

Each step is clearly written and simple to understand. Karl Vaters makes the process something that church leaders can use no matter the church size or condition. He does a good job of ensuring the process can be adapted for each congregation. Included with each step is a series of devotionals to help keep the team from straying from the true purpose of doing God’s will in their local church.

Seeing your church decline is never something you want to encounter, but there is always hope if you turn to God for guidance. 100 Days to a Healthier Church gives you a way to focus on seeking God’s will on how to use what He has provided.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.