Real Good Church: How Our Church Came Back from the Dead, and Yours Can, Too

Brian D. McLaren praises Real Good Church. . .
"OK, folks: it’s here: the practical, encouraging, field-tested book to help pastors and lay leaders turn declining churches around. Really. This is it! It names the skills you need and books to help you get them, gives you samples of job descriptions and letters and lots of other super-practical stuff. As a veteran pastor, I can tell you that Molly has packed these pages with the guidance you need."


"This is a practical manual of everything our church did," says author Molly Phinney Baskette, "to reverse our death spiral and become the healthy, stable, spirited and robust community it is today—evident in the large percentage of children and young adults in our church, and a sixfold increase in pledged giving in the last decade."

Baskette, pastor of First Church Somerville, UCC in the Boston area, strongly believes her church's strategies will work for any church, in any setting, regardless of denomination, demographics, and political landscape. In this new book, she shares everything her church did, addressing topics such as: outreach and growth strategies, finances and giving, creative worship, church conflict and change, anxiety and humor, and much more.

What makes Real Good Church unique in the field of church growth books? It's practical. It actually tells churches what they can do. . .and how to do it.

It offers beginning and intermediary steps for growth and renewal. Churches, no matter what situation they're in, will be able to jump in and get to work.

It has a sense of humor. Baskette's easygoing, often self-deprecating writing style and approachable strategies will empower the reader and their church to revitalize itself. (If her church could do it, we can, too!)

Real Good Church is a testament to Baskette's and First Church Somerville UCC's success and a gift of hope for all churches that find themselves struggling to keep their doors open.