"There are few leaders who have the integrity of character, breadth of ministry, and years of experience shaping leaders as Dr. Gene Getz. When I was a young college student, his writings were already helping to shape my understanding of a biblical church. Once again, utilizing the lenses of Scripture, History, and Culture, Gene carefully examines the unique mission and focus of the church as Jesus intended it to be. I highly recommend this completely updated Sharpening the Focus of the Church. It may revolutionize your understanding of the most powerful organism God designed to accomplish His purposes on earth."
Mark Jobe, President, Moody Bible Institute

"Gene Getz has given his life to serve the church and has poured that rich experience into this book, filled with examples, wisdom, and, above all, biblical roots. Distinguishing form from function is a key focus, but even more than that is sorting out what is cultural from what is transcultural. Sharpening the Focus sorts out those differences well and illustrates them repeatedly. After fifty years of serving churches, the author has given this important book new life in this reworked form."
Darrell L. Bock, Executive Director for Cultural Engagement at the Hendricks Center and Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary

"The original Sharpening launched many of us on a movement of doing church biblically and effectively for an always changing culture. In a full rewrite, Gene once again serves as a reliable and much needed guide for the challenges and opportunities facing the church today. You will find the new Sharpening to be biblically rich, historically insightful, culturally astute, and surprisingly comprehensive. As Gene's pastoral successor, I'm excited about helping our current leaders to take a fresh look at the enduring truths that should guide us in doing church."
Jeff Jones, Lead Pastor, Chase Oaks Church

"For over forty years, BEE World has provided a course based on Dr. Gene Getz's original book Sharpening the Focus of the Church. This outreach began behind the Iron Curtain and eventually expanded to over sixty other countries. Over 100,000 pastors and church leaders have used this text. And now Gene has completely updated this book! I unreservedly endorse its timeless and cross-cultural truths."
Joseph Dillow, Th.D., Founder of BEE World

"As a young pastor in an unreached area of Romania, I was invited to study a course using Sharpening the Focus of the Church. This experience laid the foundation for a biblical philosophy of ministry for almost thirty years. Since then, I have taught these biblical principles in my local church, shared them with fellow pastors locally and nationally, and with my students from the Baptist Theological Institute of Bucharest. This new and expanded edition will continue to impact churches throughout Romania and other European countries."
Daniel Fodorean, Associate Professor and Academic Dean at Baptist Theological Institute of Bucharest, Romania

"It's no secret that the world has dramatically changed since 1974, when my seminary professor, Gene Getz, published his impactful first edition of Sharpening the Focus of the Church. The cultural issues are different now, but the fundamental principles of a biblical view of the church and its strategic role in society have not changed. Our challenge is to adjust the application of these principles to be empowered as church leaders to effectively impact a changed world while staying in the lane of biblical truth. When I think of this new edition of Sharpening the Focus of the Church, words like wise, in-tune, relevant, insightful, practical, and stimulating come to mind."
Joe Stowell, former president of Moody Bible Institute and Cornerstone University

"Reading and watching Gene Getz is always a fresh exposure to the Word of God and the profound wisdom that comes from a lifetime and commitment to ministry shaped by the Scriptures. This book shows how timeless are the biblical principles and how relevant they are for contemporary application. I had the unique privilege to pastor one of the churches Gene helped plant, and the foundation laid proved to be a great blessing. May this completely updated edition further sharpen the focus of the church as Jesus Christ meant it to be."
Mark l. Bailey, Chancellor and Sr. Professor of Bible Exposition, Dallas Theological Seminary

"The original edition of this book transformed a generation of pastors. I was one of them, sent out by Gene Getz and the elders at Fellowship Bible Church North to plant a new church. Now enriched with fifty years of hard-won practical wisdom, Gene's complete rewrite of Sharpening the Focus of the Church will open your eyes to enduring biblical truth applied to current issues, including racism and sexuality. When he shares what he would do differently, he proves inspiring and surprising. Read this book with your leadership team."
Bruce B. Miller, Senior Pastor, Christ Fellowship

"When I became a student at Dallas Theological Seminary, three encounters shaped my future life and ministry. First, Gene Getz became an amazing teacher, mentor, pastor and friend. Second, I read his Sharpening the Focus of the Church, and it changed my distorted view of the church. And finally, I saw the application of biblical principles in real time when I became a part of the ministry team at the first Fellowship Bible Church. This new version is filled with more biblical insights, lessons learned, and practical applications. I urge you to read Sharpening the Focus of the Church and use the QR codes to listen to Gene as he teaches and shares insights from his pastoral journey."
Dave Krueger, Former VP Search Ministries, Former PGA Tour Chaplain

"The initial edition of Sharpening the Focus of the Church had a profound influence on my life and caused a veritable paradigm shift in the way I approached ministry in Japan. Taking God at His Word and letting culture have its proper place and influence without letting it change the biblical focus of the church seeped into my mind and heart and helped me to differentiate between essential and nonessential elements as I led teams in successful church planting and renewal. This new and updated edition of Sharpening the Focus of the Church is a must-read for worldwide church leaders, just as a level or a plumb line is indispensable in the tool chest of a carpenter."
Jon Junker, second generation TEAM missionary in Japan

"I remember well those days in the early '70s as I sat in the classes Gene Getz describes in the introductory chapters in this new edition of Sharpening the Focus of the Church. They were life-changing hours spent searching Scripture, considering our mission in life, and making significant decisions that altered the course of our service for God. The simple concept of evaluating life and ministry through the lenses of Scripture, History, and Culture has been profound. It has impacted what my wife and I have done over the past fifty years across eastern Europe and now worldwide with Global Church Movements."
Edward Murray, Emeritus Professor, Global Academy for Transformational Leadership

"In my early twenties (fifty years ago!) I read Sharpening the Focus of the Church. That book had a foundational, profound, transformative impact on my thinking about the nature of the church and how it should function. The churches I have helped to plant and the church that I served as pastor for fifteen years—Fellowship Bible Church, Roswell, GA—have been shaped by the biblical principles and insights found in this treasured resource. That's why I am thrilled that Gene Getz has done this new and updated version of Sharpening the Focus of the Church. What a strategic, encouraging gift this is to the body of Christ!"
Crawford W. Loritts Jr., author, speaker, radio host, president, Beyond Our Generation

"It was like living in the book of Acts! The most fruitful years ever of evangelizing our neighbors occurred when we joined the staff at the original Fellowship Bible Church. We saw believers living out the principles in the first edition of Sharpening the Focus of the Church. We had freedom and motivation to win our neighbors to Christ as never before! Whole families became believers and formed the foundation for another Fellowship Church in our own neighborhood! We can only imagine the impact this new and fresh edition will have on local churches worldwide! Read it! Experience it!"
Norm and Becky Wretlind, cofounders of NeighborHope Ministries, International

"When your professor walks into class halfway through the semester and tells you to trash the syllabus, you know something is happening. Students were asking penetrating questions about the relevancy of the church and Gene Getz felt he needed to take us back to the New Testament story to address these questions. The result was Sharpening the Focus of the Church. Subsequently, my wife and I started Midlothian Bible Church, where for forty years I served as pastor and saw the effectiveness of these biblical principles. In this brand-new edition, Gene has sharpened his focus even more clearly, and now challenges another generation of church leaders to be bold, to get serious about discovering a New Testament perspective."
David Wyrtzen, Founding Pastor, Midlothian Bible Church