A Pastoral Triad: Three Distinct Books, One Pastoral Conversation with Gary L. McIntosh

Gary L. McIntosh may have started my ecclesiological deconstruction before I knew I was constructing anything. I will talk about that later.

For that, I need to thank Gary L. McIntosh for breaking me. A few years ago, I read a few of his books, which seemingly set me on a trajectory that perhaps I did not see at the time. Recently, Gary L. McIntosh sent me three of his newest books. The stack from McIntosh included The Solo Pastor and The Ministry Answer Book for Pastors, both published by Baker Books, as well as the self-published Connecting People to the Church: A Guide for Turning First-Time Guests into Lifelong Disciples. This is a triad of books that I wish I had been handed to me when I started serving the church a few decades ago. Though I now have three master’s degrees, I had no education when I first began serving the church, just the experience of a Vineyard Church with a deeply invested and loving ethos that I soon learned not every church community shared. Together, these books revisit themes McIntosh has spent decades wrestling with: church health, pastoral ministry, discipleship, and helping churches become healthy communities where people are genuinely formed into the life of Christ.

These books met me as both a younger pastor and a weary older one.

I do need to apologize to Gary for taking so long to review them.

Encountering Gary L. McIntosh

I came back to the Church in 2004. It was also around that time that I began reading theological, ecclesiological, and biographical works in depth. I was always an avid reader, but I believe the direction shifted around this era. Somewhere along the way — though I no longer remember exactly how — I encountered the work of Gary L. McIntosh.

I had only been back in the Church for a short time, but several people — especially our local pastor — were already recognizing capacity in me and encouraging me toward leadership. Looking back now, I suspect I sensed that calling, too, even while trying to run from it more times than not. The reading may have been a way of experimenting with this sense of call.

From the eighties to the late 90s, church-growth conversations were at their peak as churches grew bigger, boxier, more programmed, and more branded. In addition to the church-growth conversations famously happening at Fuller Seminary, Gary L. McIntosh was rising, largely known as what we might call a traditional church-growth voice during that era, and a few of his books reached me from a different angle while I was attending a small local Vineyard church (and serving as an intern under the pastor). The first McIntosh books I encountered were One Church, Four Generations (2002) and One Size Doesn’t Fit All (1999). I especially remember being shaped by his argument that healthy churches do not need to conform to a single traditional mold. His vision of the Church as something broader than an insular community of cloned behavior or isolated age groups resonated deeply with me. Instead, he described the Church as a richly integrated community made up of multiple generations learning to live together in Christ. These two books gave me a larger view of what defines a healthy church.

I can also say that those books — especially One Church, Four Generations — eventually became some of the earliest sermon material I ever preached, as I learned to teach and shepherd others. Somewhere these books still sit on my shelf, and though the generations have changed, his argument has not. We need a church that is spiritually invested in each other, learning, discipling, and encouraging—across all age stratification and differences.

About Gary L. McIntosh

A few years ago, I came across McIntosh again on social media. To my surprise, he willingly connected with me. Since then, I’ve enjoyed following his work, along with a handful of thoughtful text conversations we’ve exchanged over time. I’m hopeful I may even get the opportunity to interview him in the near future. When I was recently sent three new books from him to review, I was genuinely excited to dig in with a familiar voice. 

Gary L. McIntosh has published dozens of books since the early 1990s. Beyond his authorship, McIntosh oversees the Church Growth Network. The Church Growth Network describes itself as, “The Church Growth Network helps churches expand their reach, enhance their leadership, and grow their congregations. We provide customized solutions tailored to the unique needs of each church, ensuring effective and sustainable growth.” McIntosh also serves as Distinguished Affiliate Professor of Christian Ministry and Leadership at Biola University. In addition to his role at Biola, he also co-leads the Growing and Multiplying Churches cohort within the Doctor of Ministry program. It is noteworthy how many thoughtful, practical theologians and trusted voices for the Church are currently connected to Biola. 

McIntosh earned both a D.Min. and Ph.D. from Fuller Theological Seminary — where I also studied, though years after Gary — along with an M.Div. from Western Seminary and a B.A. from Colorado Christian University, then known as Rockmont College. Over the years, through both experience and scholarship, McIntosh has become a widely recognized voice in conversations surrounding church growth, church health, leadership, and congregational unity. Many pastors, ministry leaders, and organizations around the world have been shaped by his coaching and consulting work over more than forty years.

I had not given this much thought until recently, but in hindsight I wonder whether some of my own vision for downward mobility in the Church — and for smaller, integrated, intergenerational communities rather than flashy, program-driven ministry models — was shaped in part by McIntosh’s earlier work. Even when I eventually moved in somewhat different ecclesiological directions, some of those early seeds may have been planted through his writing.

A Familiar Voice Despite Shifted Ecclesiology 

Somewhere along the way, I stopped wanting to build a platform and started wanting to build a table. However, even a table needs structure, so I am thankful for these reads.

This triad of books, which McIntosh signed for me on March 2, was read in this order: The Solo Pastor (2023), Connecting People to Church (2026), and The Ministry Answer Book for Pastors (2025). In reading these books, I realized how my ecclesiology has shifted over the years. In addition to my years in the Vineyard, I helped some friends with church plants (diverse denominations), attempted church planting, and then served two Anabaptist Churches and another Vineyard Church since I last read a book from McIntosh.  I believe that I have lived into greater downward mobility, simplicity, deconstructed church models, and plural leadership since I first started. I have personally moved further away from measuring church health through branding, buildings, budgets, and butts in the seats. Somewhere along the way, I quit wanting to be a pastor when I grew up and instead want to sell T-shirts on the boardwalk and drink coffee.

Despite the ways my own ecclesiology has shifted over the years, I found myself deeply appreciative of the work McIntosh has done in these three books. They are deeply statistically researched, seasoned by tested experience, and packed with practical wisdom forged through decades of ministry engagement in pastoring and coaching. I also found myself reading them through a different lens than I might have twenty years ago. To borrow a phrase often attributed to John Wimber, I found myself “chewing on the meat and spitting out the bones.” I do not mean to imply there are “bones” or “ignorable” aspects of McIntosh’s work. Instead, at times, books within the church-growth world can drift toward formulaic approaches to ministry that risk reinforcing the very models of church life I increasingly believe the Church should move beyond — overly strategic, overly programmatic, and too easily disconnected from the slower, relational, Spirit-formed life of genuine community. 

I believe McIntosh would largely agree with this concern, and I know he has consistently argued that there are many different models and patterns through which healthy churches can flourish. Yet far too often, church-growth conversations become the addictive fuel for an unhealthy ministry culture — one obsessed with bigger buildings, tighter programming, aggressive expansion, and overly formulaic approaches to church life. In those environments, people can slowly cease being formed as disciples and instead become functional pieces used to sustain the institution’s machinery rather than participants in the mission of God in the places they live, work, worship, and play. 

Even amid those tensions in my evolving ecclesiology, I realize that leaders need to be resourced, and in these three books, there is much worth listening to. McIntosh’s experience, writing style, and research still offer valuable insights, especially for pastors navigating the practical realities of shepherding people, forming healthy congregations, and sustaining ministry in resilient ways over the long haul. I am actually grateful for the tension, because I believe it was Gary L. McIntosh who started my ecclesiological deconstruction before I had a chance to be shaped by the lure of the mega and programmed models. Now, he is the one holding intention for me, a person moving away from the institutionalized church, to practices that any community really does need to institutionalize for health and hospitality.  

A Pastoral Triad from Gary L. McIntosh

For the sake of this introductory review, I am treating these books in something of a trinitarian fashion — three distinct works sharing a common essence. I recognize they were written years apart, and each stands on its own rather than functioning as a sequel or extension of the others. Together they form a pastoral triad: distinct in focus yet united by a shared concern of resourcing pastors serving in difficult or under-supported ministry contexts. In blog posts to follow, I will engage more fully with the uniqueness and special value of each book, but for now, I found it most helpful to read them collectively—not as the same book, but as companions participating in the same pastoral conversation. If you don’t see it the way I do, no problem. After all, the trinity is a mystery that cannot be fathomed by human minds.

The Solo Pastor is a practical guide for pastors leading churches with limited staff, resources, and support systems. Drawing from decades of coaching and research, Gary L. McIntosh offers wisdom on leadership, relationships, communication, priorities, and sustaining spiritual health in the often isolating realities of solo ministry. In this book, I found myself both agreeing with McIntosh and arguing with him in the margins. This book is an education for the new leader.

Connecting People to the Church focuses on helping churches move guests beyond first impressions into meaningful belonging and long-term discipleship. McIntosh argues that healthy churches must intentionally cultivate pathways of connection, relational integration, and spiritual formation rather than simply attracting attendees. This is a book to wrestle with as a team or a church to discuss what makes hospitality work.

The Ministry Answer Book for Pastors serves as a practical ministry reference, offering concise guidance on the everyday questions and challenges pastors regularly encounter. Covering leadership, administration, conflict, church dynamics, and pastoral care, the book serves as an accessible field manual for both emerging and experienced church leaders. This is the book you keep within reach and look at before you lead a meeting or make a decision.

I recommend you read each book slowly enough for the book to argue with you.

Taken together, these three books form a helpful triad for younger pastors, solo pastors, bivocational leaders, or leaders serving in churches where formal theological education, mentorship, or healthy ministry support may be limited. 

Why These Books Still Matter

Much of pastoral ministry is learned on the job, often through failure, fatigue, and isolation. Books like these cannot replace wisdom gained through faithful community and lived experience, but they can provide guidance, perspective, and practical encouragement along the way. Whether or not one agrees with every assumption or strategy presented, there is enough experience, reflection, and hard-earned insight here to benefit nearly any pastor willing to read thoughtfully and discern carefully.

In the coming posts, I will look at each: The Solo Pastor, Connecting People to the Church, and The Ministry Answer Book for Pastors. Each approaches ministry from a slightly different angle, yet all three carry the seasoned voice of a leader who has spent decades observing churches, coaching pastors, and wrestling with the realities of the communal life of the church. Even where I found myself disagreeing or pushing back because of my own evolving ecclesiology, I still found these books thoughtful, practical, deeply researched, and worth engaging carefully.

I still offer caution for readers. Healthy churches cannot be manufactured like fast-food franchises, though a fault of the church-growth movement has made the franchise idea too easy.

• Buy The Solo Pastor
• Buy The Ministry Answer Book for Pastors
• Buy Connecting People to Church
• Visit the Gary L. McIntosh Profile at Biola University

Thanks for stopping by. I am Jeff McLain, and I write about the Quiet Way—a life shaped by the Lord’s Prayer, spiritual disciplines, and sustaining habits. Much of my work explores theology at the intersections of everyday life and the invitation of the scriptures to lead a quiet life. If this post encouraged you, consider sharing it with a friend, leaving a thought in the comments, or subscribing so you don’t miss future reflections. You can also find more of my writing at the Lead a Quiet Life blog on Patheos, and you can listen to the Discovering God Podcast, where we explore the scriptures and the life of faith together. I genuinely enjoy conversation. If something here resonated with you, feel free to reach out by email or connect with me on Facebook or Instagram.