The Church That Works

The Church That Works: Democracy vs. Theocracy is a focus on how giving back His church releases followers of Jesus Christ to serve and unleashes God's power to back them. When authority rises from the people, the enabling power for ministry goes no higher than their heads. When authority flows from the Head of the Church through the offices He gave, it brings His power, all power in Heaven and earth, to bear on human needs.

The church that works wins its own children, reaches its neighbors, blesses its community, and makes God known to its generation, and the next, around the world. That church necessarily will be one in which the people, not just the clergy, do the work of the ministry. More than a body of believers, the church is a body of Christian workers.

When the people falter in ministry, the church fails in its mission. The church cannot work if the people who are called to lead are forced to follow or if those called to follow are trying to lead.

The Church That Works explores giving Real Power to the People. Chapters include: How Churches Become Deacon-Possessed, When Churches Are Deacon-Blessed, and Becoming a Church that Works.

Rick DuBose oversees 530 churches and 1750 credentialed ministers as a district superintendent for the Assemblies of God. As a pastor in Sachse, Texas, he built 17 people into a church of more than 800 and one of the nation's top mission givers. He speaks widely across the U.S. and in other countries. Rick arbitrates church conflicts and, when necessary, administers discipline according to the district by-laws.

Mel Surface shares a passion for healthy churches and the Great Commission from his background as a missionary, evangelist, church planter, pastor, and both national and district denominational staff member. A journalism graduate of the University of Houston, he has served as a newspaper and magazine reporter and editor. His work regularly appears in a variety of print and Internet publications. He also records radio reports for AG News.