Turnaround Pastor is the story of a 75-year-old church, once 2000 in attendance, which declined to 150 and experienced a resurrection, and is now moving towards 1,000. It reveals the triumphs of faith and the agony of frustratingly slow progress. This story contains pain and healing, insight and recovery, as they faced a deep culture change, financial crisis, and continued decline until breaking through. Out of this experience emerged a nine-phase process that any church can use to find a path to experience a genuine turnaround. It is a story of hope that will benefit a pastor leading a church of any size.
Dr. Donald Ross is the founder of the Turnaround Church Coaching Network, which helps pastors of plateaued or declining churches move forward. He is part of the Northwest Ministry Network and has a Doctor of Ministry degree from Bakke Graduate School. His dissertation, “Re-Engineering the Large Declining Church,” focused on leading turnaround churches, drawing on his own experience turning around Creekside Church in Seattle.
Don has 30 years of experience as a pastor, church consultant, and leadership coach, and has worked with churches ranging in size from 35 to 5000 members. Don and his wife Brenda live in Kenmore, Washington, and have three married children and seven grandchildren.