Shoe Leather Church: Boots on the Ground Faith was written to encourage believers to be more active in seven primary ministries of the church in order to know God better and to forward the kingdom of God on earth.
The theme of Shoe Leather Church is that "He has given us his very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). These "very great and precious promises" apply not just to individuals, but to whole churches. Through obedience to his promises concerning their ministries, whole congregations come to know God better, that is, participate in the divine reality, and not just through a contemporary worship service! It is critical for the ministries in the church to align themselves with these "very great and precious promises" laid out for us in the word of God.
This book deals with seven prime ministries in the church-prayer, evangelism, preaching, sacraments, worship, home groups, and governance-asks hard questions about each, and gives answers. These answers come from the author's 50 years plus experience as a layman in various ministries and seeing the good, the bad, and the indifferent in ministries from the perspective of God's word. For example, does your church do service projects as a substitute for a conversational evangelism outreach like Evangelism Explosion? "You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). Learning to be a trained witness and seeing someone come to faith "in the field" opens our eyes to the power of the gospel. Do they regard communion as a memorial instead of what the scriptures say, that it is a means of communing with God: "Do you not know that this cup of blessing which we bless is a participation in the blood of Christ?"(1 Cor 10: 16) -that is, a participation in the resurrected Christ through the Spirit? Partaking of bread and cup in communion, (shared cup of wine if possible), can bring a congregation together in a remarkable way. Does your preacher mostly preach topics to meet needs or put out fires, such as marriage and anxiety? Is he willing to work through a biblical book that shows the way God deals with concrete situations (i.e., in Corinth) and at the same time gives us fundamental doctrines, such as 2 Corinthians 5: 21, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God"? Are we willing to have seasons of prayer, even extended prayer times, in the face of increasing national chaos and international, danger or are the prayer meetings simply perfunctory gatherings for an hour or less weekly?

These ministries, along with personal spiritual disciplines, can open a new world of spiritual experience, create powerful expectations in a congregation, and bring about their "growth in the grace and knowledge of the Lord" (2 Peter 3: 18). Ultimately, we experience what growing into one new man in Christ means (Ephesians 2:15).
The author has been an active member, teacher, evangelism leader, prayer team member, board member, and library builder in various churches, including Presbyterian, Assemblies of God, and Baptist. He has an MDiv, and MAs in History and Counseling, and has taught part-time at the University of Alabama and Shelton State Community College, and full-time at Stillman College.
Later in life, he worked for the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services as a counselor, from which he retired. He now lives in Auburn, Alabama with his wife.