Pivot: The Priorities, Practices, and Powers That Can Transform Your Church into a Tov Culture

by Scot McKnight, Laura Barringer, John Rosensteel (Foreword)

A practical guide to help you build a culture in your church or organization that resists abuse and cultivates goodness.

After the release of their groundbreaking book, A Church Called Tov, which recorded the stories of abuse and toxic church cultures at some of the most prominent churches in the United States, New Testament scholar and blogger for Christianity Today Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer heard from a flood of people who had experienced similar instances of abuse. After all they’ve seen and heard, they still believe it’s possible for church cultures to be transformed from toxic to tov—from oppressive to good.

In Pivot, Scot and Laura help churches to implement practices,establish priorities, and cultivate the Kingdom Gospel-centered qualities that form goodness cultures. Readers will find answers to the four most common questions people have about culture can I transform the culture in my church or organization to make it tov?I believe my workplace has unhealthy values. How do I initiate change?How do I unleash a culture of goodness in my ministry?I’m not in a position of church leadership. What are some red flags that indicate a toxic culture, and what can I do if I see them?Pivot also includes the following practical “Tov tool,” a survey to help you discern your organization’s culture and to promote spiritual conversationsA “getting to work” section at the end of each chapter with questions and next steps for applicationTransformation is never easy. But for the sake of the next generation, we must do it.

Genres: Church, Leadership, Audiobook, Christianity

230 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 19, 2023

About the author

Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author or editor of forty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL. Dr. McKnight has given interviews on radios across the nation, has appeared on television, and is regularly speaks at local churches, conferences, colleges, and seminaries in the USA and abroad. Dr. McKnight obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Nottingham (1986).

Reviews

[Samaria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was eye opening. It helped me understand what is meant by the term “spiritual abuse”, and how to avoid it. It’s good for anyone interested in positively influencing the culture of a church, but would be especially good for a leadership team to work through together. It is full of cautionary words to passionate leaders, practical help and diagnostic style questions. I appreciated the emphasis that transformation is hard and slow, requiring teamwork and utilizing all the spiritual gifts of the church. A culture of goodness is possible but perfection is not. It will require humility, being honest about what’s broken in our hearts and our churches.

[Gavin Restifo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a timely and necessary read for anyone in ministry. From cover to cover, this book is brilliant and highly practical and is designed to be a guidebook to walk you through the hard work of building a healthier (tov-er) church culture. The way that Scot and Laura combine the Biblical wisdom from A Church Called Tov with real-life examples of people working this out in real-time is just such a gift. I recommend reading this book in a cohort of people to utilize best all the reflection/discussion questions they have at the end of each chapter. Overall I highly recommend this book, but I encourage you to take your time to do the hard work of processing all the emotions and responses this book provokes. You will be better for it, and through the Holy Spirit, we may just be able to put forward the bride of Christ as a holy and blameless church free of any blemish.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Tyndale for the early-release copy of this book in exchange for this honest review.

[Julie Powers · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writings apply to churches starting, transforming or just hanging on and in need of a pivot.
I enjoyed this book even more than A Church Called Tov which in my opinion took half the book to explain the problem. That’s fine but I was ready for the meat and potatoes when I started Tov. Be patient with it though.
I love the Tov Tools given and application questions.

[Persis · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Pivot” is the second book by Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer. Their first, “A Church Called Tov” confronts the problem of church abuse and the need for churches to form cultures of goodness. “Pivot” offers very down-to-earth wisdom on how to transform those culture. It’s very realistic and doesn’t shy away from the cost, opposition, and heartache involved. But it clearly puts the work of transformation in the right place. It’s the work of the Holy Spirit that flows from character formation.

Definitely in my 2024 favs and picks up where “Bully Pulpit” leaves off. It also answers questions that BP didn’t answer. I want to reread “Pivot” with a print copy so I can underline and reread “A Church Called Tov.”

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great and practical follow-up to A Church Called Tov: Forming a Goodness Culture That Resists Abuses of Power and Promotes Healing. They said in the intro that you don't have to read Tov first for Pivot to be useful, but I'd still recommend it. This book pivots (get it) from the theoretical foundations laid in Tov to the practicalities of how to shift an organization's culture toward one of goodness. I listened to this on audio and decided about 1/4 of the way through that I needed to get the hard copy and work my way through a little more slowly and deliberately. Definitely worth reading for anyone who leads in the church or in other Christian organizations.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and necessary work for those in church ministry. PIVOT offers both hope for a healthy and good (tov) culture, as well as a cautionary tale for leaders and systems who choose not to put in the work and drift toward unhealthy or toxicity.

Practical, filled with excellent and provoking review questions, PIVOT offers a realistic guide to a long view of transformation. This is not a “7 steps to health” guide to mastering anything, but a step by step look at the slow and hard work of cultivating culture over months and years to produce healthy fruit.

Those who take these words seriously and put in the work will be rewarded with the fruit of the Spirit evidenced in their churches.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scot McNight and Laura Barringer (Scot's daughter) follow up their book "A Church Called Tov" with "Pivot." Where "A Church Called Tov" mourned the toxicity of many churches and called for churches to become places of tov (good), "Pivot" maps a course to become a tov church.

Our Executive Leadership Team went through both "A Church Called Tov" and "Pivot" and found both helpful in assessing and strengthening our culture. There isn't much that is surprising in "Pivot"-- it is fairly basic. The simplicity of the model is encouraging: fostering health is hard (it requires sacrifice and courage), but not complicated.

Probably the best thing about the book were the questions at the end of the chapters. Those led to great conversations on our Exec Team. If you pick up the book, I would encourage you to do it with another leader at your church and to make sure you spend time on the questions.

For more reviews see thebeehive.live.

[Dan Curnutt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the companion book to TOV. In TOV (the Hebrew word for good) McKnight explains how some churches become toxic due to the fallen nature of their church leaders. It was kind of disheartening to read. But it makes an honest assessment of the “State of the Church” in America at this time.

In PIVOT McKnight and Barringer (his daughter) give us the tools necessary to take a church from toxic to TOV. There are many examples and also some assessment tools. But most of all, and I believe this is the key point, we all need to learn to depend on the Holy Spirit to guide us, change us and encourage us as we do the hard work of changing “church culture.”

If you haven’t read TOV you might want to read that first before reading this companion book.

God bless you as you strive, along with others, to help restore our churches to a culture of TOV.

[Ashley Hoss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much needed companion to A Church Called Tov. Highly recommend!

[Avery Amstutz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was pretty good. If you find yourself in a church of organization that feels toxic, this book and the first one, Tov, is recommended.

[Darcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like their first book (A Church Called Tov), McKnight and Barringer provide a work that is compelling in its honesty and frank in its assessment of what ails the church in the West. As good as each chapter is, the real strength of this book is its resources. The depth of research that went into this work is worth tracking, providing many valuable additional reads. McKnight and Barringer leverage these many other resources and curate their own tools to take the teachings to another level. While at times too general or expressed in ways that would be hard to assess, the lists and questions will certainly spur reflection and excellent conversations. And this points to the ideal use of this book: it is best read together slowly and patiently with a group of believers who long to see the transformation of the church into a community of Tov.

[Karl Mueller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't know what to expect when I started reading this book. In fact, I had forgotten why I had purchased it. But, I'm so glad I did. This is an excellent book that is, in many ways, a manual for bringing cultural change to your church, or any organization. While the authors have a very specific perspective of what local churches should look like and be like, the principles enunciated in this book can be adapted to almost any situation where change is necessary. I facilitate courses for pastors, Christian leaders, NGO workers and marketplace leaders. Last year my 590+ students came from 33 nations of the world. The insights in this book are relevant to all of them, and I have already begun to make changes to my course materials because of this book.

In the past 6 months I have read 4 books (among all the books I've read) that I think are vitally important for Christian leaders. I would put Pivot right alongside "The Scandal of Leadership" by JR Woodward and "Holding Up Half the Sky" by Graham Hill and "Mission is the Shape Of Water" by Michael Frost.

If you are a church leader or pastor, or just a Christian that is interested in your church or ministry reflecting Jesus in a meaningful way in the middle of a rapidly changing world, this is an excellent book to read. I would highly recommend it.

[Dominick Degilio · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is a lot of great stuff in this book. Unfortunately, they are backed up by unbiblical, even anti-biblical, means.

The enneagram causes spiritual abuse. It disunities and segregates per each Typing. And this by doing it right (as the argument has been, “You must be doing it wrong then,”).To suggest its use based on “it works” or “it helps” is anti biblical. Heroin works too, but that doesn’t make it biblical. Its origins are in new age practices (automatic writing) and it has no scientific backing.

Richard Foster is also dampening. He has misused scripture to promote a small view of God who is dependent on humanity to determine the future. Foster has also dabbled in New Thought.

Last, why are any of these necessary for the point of the book? Especially that of Beth Moore. It has nothing to do with her being female. While she is spot on in many biblical themes, she is outright antithetical to biblical prayer. It is all contemplative, a practice (not a prayer life) that is not found in scripture unless it is taken out of context.

Rid the book of these and it still works. It is disappointing they had even been placed.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book reminds us that Christian leaders should be chosen for their character, not just their abilities.

Power should be used to empower others.

Leaders should only preach what they’ve first committed to practice.

Collaborative leadership, receiving the gifts of the Spirit that are already distributed to the congregation with love, and consciously depending on the Holy Spirit to direct us as a community toward growth together—these are marks of a tov church.

How we practice our faith matters as much (if not more) than the words we preach.

Who do we want to become?

Are we presenting a faith practice worth emulating?

Do we follow Jesus?

And are we willing to be corrected?

[Ryan Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75/5⭐️ When I read this book, I felt like I was reading about my own life and experiences, as if a scar was being removed from an old wound.

I can appreciate the time and effort that went into this book. It was written with care, tact, and grace. It not only helped me name and articulate my own experiences, but it helped me understand why things that were the way they were. It also helped define what a healthy culture is supposed to look like.

The only reason I didn’t give this five stars, is because it didn’t provide a clear, strategic pathway forward. However, they did that in their follow-up book, Pivot, which I highly recommend.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The star rating for me is between a 3 and 4. Their information about spiritual abuse and ways of helping to build a tov church are great.
The missing stars are because I was very disheartened to see them promote the enneagram, Richard Foster and the like. I think there were some people and things that they included that could have been left out and they still could have made their points but having included certain things it leaves people like me a little weary.

[Ryan George · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absorbed Scot McNight and Laura Barringer’s sequel to A Church Called Tov, during a week where my faith community was raising flags about the health of its co-leader: me. So, my antennae were tuned for this content. I found the authors’ remedies to be more countercultural than counterintuitive—more difficult to do than to understand. They balanced big-picture ideas with practical small steps for people of various levels of ministry involvement.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a challenging guide to church leaders who want the original intent for churches. TOV means "good" in Hebrew. We want to be the light of world and full of the grace that only Jesus can offer each of us. McKnight gives us the call to transform the world through the second Incarnation of Christ.

[Grace Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that I will return this book eventually as a physical book, I read it as an audiobook and it was simply far too repetitive and for me in that format. Regardless of that, the advice and emphases of this book were incredibly helpful and I will add it to my eventual physical book list.

[Kelby Rucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the ideas in this book and suggestions on how to create an environment in churches that is flourishing, and where people feel seen and heard. What a hopeful look at ways that churches can grow not necessarily in numbers, but in caring and stewarding well and moving towards reflection.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great follow up to conversations that the authors had with others asking for more practical advice on how to create a healthy culture.

[Nathan Detweiler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful companion to "A CHURCH CALLED TOV". Such great and timely stuff.

[Sydney Tooth]

Really helpful follow up to Tov. Some powerful and hopeful stories of successful culture change but realistic about the potential pitfalls and hard work involved.

[Sophie Nicoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some absolute nuggets of GOLD in this book. Again it’s a 4.5 stars but just can’t quite bring myself to give it a 5.

[Amanda Buhler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent follow up on how to implement the ideas found in A Church Called Tov.

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not the intended audience but I believe this is an important topic and a great book

[Becky Castle Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

How to actually change church culture toward goodness. Pulls from research on institutional change.

[Hkunes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good follow up to the Tov book

[Ronald D Richmond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Encouraging

Our church is in the middle of a big change. This helped provide a road map and to see that it's not us changing, it's God changing us.

[Mary Reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought provoking on audiobook about the church as communities in search of character formation by God’s grace