About the Author
Cecil Sharp, church leader, physician and strategist with an MBA who is used to taking complex problems and finding practical solutions, is the ideal person to help churches build a fit culture. For Faith Fitness, he analyzed thirty academic studies on church growth and performed a categorical analysis on forty books written by theologians on church health to prioritize the drivers that build a fit culture. Sharp studied enthusiasm and congregational growth in over 800 churches and published the results in a leading economics journal. He helped birth and has been a resource for one of the fastest growing churches in Georgia.
Why this topic
Out of my growing concern for our churches, I began a journey of seeking to understand the church’s missional role in the United States. I uncovered too many churches that were struggling to exist, much less do the will of the Father. I looked closer at the roles both of ordained leadership and non-ordained leadership in churches by studying the subject from the quadrilateral of Scripture, tradition, experience, and reason. My investigation suggested that over time many churches lose their level of spiritual fitness and intimacy with the Lord and develop a dysfunctional heart. I also discovered some healthy churches that lacked the ability to reproduce fit followers.
Join My Journey
With other leaders from your church, form a group who will read Faith Fitness, follow the prescriptions, and answer the questions in the Fitness Exercises found in Appendix Four. Develop the Mind of Christ for your church and a strategic plan to connect with community. Follow me on facebook.