Only one model of fitness?

"Building the Body" by Gary L. McIntosh and Phil Stevenson offered a great many insights into how to be a fit church. Being a runner, I was able to grasp unto the metaphors used throughout the text to speak of fitness. I can identify with the five points of fitness readily: Cardiovascular Endurance, Muscular Strength, Muscular Endurance, Flexibility and Body Composition are certainly necessary for the runner. I train the athletes on my Jr. High Track team to appreciate and excel in all these areas as much as their different bodies allow. Knowing much about this, grasping the application to the church was easy.
McIntosh and Stevenson take these five areas and divide them among twelve necessities for church fitness: Outreach, Effective Evangelism, Community Engagement, Personal Ministry, God-Honoring Stewardship, Leadership Development, Christ Exalting Worship, Disciple Making Strategies, Pastoral Leadership, Loving Community, Vision Directed Systems, and Divine Empowerment (Prayer). Each section was explored with expertise and gives great insight to how the church can thrive in today's culture. Particularly enlightening are the various sub-points they make for each category of fitness. For example, under evangelism they offer four insights that can assist a church in declaring the goal for evangelism-leading others to Christ-without being dependent on a particular method. These parts of the book were helpful.
Unfortunately, throughout the book, I felt McIntosh and Stevenson were addressing a particular type of church or a particular model that every church should become -- that of the large, multi-staff, multi-site church. Not every church is called to become this type of church; in fact many are not. The church I serve does not fit this paradigm and does not dream to. The church I serve is in a rural environment. It is also a very traditional church founded in the late 1800s. Could we aspire to this model, sure. Yet, this is not where our church is called. It would have been beneficial for the authors to consider how their idea of a fit church applies to different structures outside of that which they envision for the church--the multi-site/multi-staff church is a fairly recent phenomenon in church history and it is also very mired in the culture of the United States. This is not the only model for a fit church.
I received this book for review from Baker Book Bloggers