Preaching to Empty Seats: Over One Hundred Steps to Fill God's House with People, Power, and Praise

An epidemic of empty seats has broken out in churches all across America. It has infected storefront churches on side streets, mainline churches on Main St., and megaministries sprawling across suburban campuses on multiple streets. Every Sunday, virtually everywhere, preachers are forced to stand in the pulpit and preach to empty seats. This powerful and insightful book by Dr. C. Dexter Wise III addresses this issue first by identifying nine key contributors to the prevalence of empty seats in our sanctuaries. Then he offers more than one hundred concrete, practical steps that local churches can take to fill those empty seats with people on fire for the Lord.

Dr. C. Dexter Wise III began preaching at the age of nine. Since 1977, he has pastored three large churches and helped lead each of them to filling hundreds of empty seats. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (BA); Harvard University Divinity School (M. Div.); Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (MA); and United Theological Seminary (D. Min.). Dr. Wise is the founding pastor of Faith Ministries Church in Columbus, Ohio, and is internationally recognized as a dynamic preacher, a gifted teacher, a prolific author, and a highly respected community leader. His wife, Dr. Shirley D. Wise, and he have four children and nine grandchildren.