Whole Life Transformation: Becoming the Change Your Church Needs

2011 Golden Canon Leadership Book Award winner!Ministry to others and growing the church were the center of Keith Meyer's life. And yet he was arguing with his wife about how many nights a week he was spending in meetings. His temper was short, and he was exhausted.Keith writes: "I can see that I was pursuing a twisted idea of 'success'--not in the secular forms I regularly preached against, but in the sanctified activism and workaholism sometimes called 'professional ministry.' A growing church, defined mostly by higher attendance at church services, more and more programs, and bigger budgets and buildings were the marks of a successful ministry in the clergy circles I ran with at that time." In the midst of his pain Keith discovered a new way of living--one that truly depended on Christ to redeem and reform his character. And then as he was transformed, he discovered that the change in him was changing the way that he was pastoring and leading others. Drawing from the riches of church history and the experience of contemporary ministry, Keith Meyer writes with the voice of a prophet and the heart of a pastor.If you're ready to stop trying to follow Christ and start training to be a Christ follower, this is the book for you.

"Whole Life Transformation . . . is not just another analysis of 'what's wrong, ' but, more importantly, is a trustworthy guide to what is right: one drawn both from the author's own experience and from the Bible and the wisdom of Christ, proven in the experience of his people throughout the ages."--From the foreword by Dallas Willard

"I've known Keith for more than thirty years, and what you now hold in your hands is a transparent record of an authentic journey, a window into one man's broken pastoral heart, an honest set of reflections, and the quest for healing for Keith's soul and family. Keith's eclectic approach to spiritual formation leads him to a gentle rule for a sustainable spiritual life that begins at home."--Scot McKnight, Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies, North Park University

"Thank you, Keith, for writing authentically and lovingly about the need for churches, ministries and believers to bridge the transformation gap from a halfway gospel into the abundant life of Christ's kingdom. Sharing the biblical and historical text, as well as the raw material of your personal and ministry life, invites all of us into new and fresh Spirit-breathed directions for the entirety of our spiritually transformed lives."--Dr. Stephen A. Macchia, president, Leadership Transformations, and author of Becoming a Healthy Church

"This is an immensely honest and practical book--a desperately needed book. It tells a hard-hitting story--one that is born out of the depths of harsh experiences and painful admissions in the author's own personal life, relationships and ministry--and moves passionately toward a godliness that comes only from learning to walk with Jesus right in the middle of it all. The author challenges 'the reduced gospel' in order to call all who know Jesus to the work of the Holy Spirit in transforming our lives privately, relationally, communally, publicly and in ministry."--Richard E. Averbeck, professor of Old Testament and Semitic languages, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

"Thousands of pastors, priests and leaders know that something is not right these days with the spirituality of church. In Whole Life Transformation Meyer shines a bright and grace-filled light on the problem. His insights are crystal clear. Best of all, in an autobiographical style, he supplies doable practices toward all of us becoming the change our churches need."--Todd Hunter, Anglican bishop and author of Giving Church Another Chance

"In North American church life, we are strangely plagued by a practice of ministry that separates the pastor from the life in Christ. The result is the empty, mechanical, dry life of the pastor caught in the evangelical machine. Whole Life Transformation speaks directly into this plight. In this fine book, Keith Meyer draws on the deep wells of the church fathers as well as the wisdom of Dallas Willard to offer us a drink of water in the midst of the desert that pastoral ministry has become. As a fine thinker, a student of theology and a pastor, Meyer offers us a clear, practical pathway out because he himself has walked it."--David Fitch, professor of evangelical theology, Northern Baptist Theological Seminary

"A shepherd of souls lost in the far country of ministry distraction is called home through the words of a child. Spiritually expansive for all who minister."--Anthony M. Coniaris, Greek Orthodox priest and president of Light and Life Publishing Company

"Keith Meyer provides us with an honest and thoughtful account of a pastor deeply tempted to find his identity in the busyness and success of ministry. His journey gives us a window into the process of one leader turning his heart back to true transformation that occurs in ordinary places of honesty and reflection such as at home and with people who share a common life in their weakness."--Dr. John Coe, professor of spiritual theology, Talbot School of Theology and director, Institute for Spiritual Formation

"With refreshing candor and honest confession Keith Meyer takes us on a wonderful journey that will pull you in and knock you out (in a good way!) with its potent critique of our modern church compulsions, activities and teachings that dominate church life, yet constantly leave us longing for true and lasting change. This is a book on Christlike (trans)formation, in this life . . . and it couldn't come at a better time! I heartily commend it to all Christian leaders who want to lead a new kind of church."--Keith J. Matthews, D.Min., professor of spiritual formation and contemporary culture, Azusa Pacific University Graduate School

"Not another pastor-tells-it-all book. Keith Meyer understands that he leaned his ladder up against the wrong wall, and when he sees the troubling view from there he tells how he climbed down and enlisted others to help him move the ladder to the wall of life and hope. This is a prophetic book that is not angry, for the author more often points the finger at himself than at anyone else. Not content to simply describe his own wanderings, he graciously and concretely invites Christian leaders to follow Jesus more closely and receive his wisdom and healing."--James C. Wilhoit, Ph.D., Scripture Press Professor of Christian Formation and Ministry, Wheaton College