A few snippets from the book:

This book emerged through my experience consulting with churches along the Gulf Coast after hurricane Katrina.
Beyond the physical damage to church property, there was extraordinary damage to leadership and programming. Churches lost as many as 60% of their active congregational members. Some died, some relocated, others simply lost heart and faded away, and many faithful professional and lay ministers simply became exhausted.

For many church agencies, another hidden agenda emerges.
Filling gaps, addressing needs, and solving problems are ends in themselves, even if the institution collapses under the weight of unpaid debts. The problem is that without the institution, there aren't trained staff or sufficiently motivated, giving and serving volunteers to keep on filling gaps, addressing needs, and solving problems. So the mechanics of planning is another slight of hand that uses church membership to finance agency survival. That shell game doesn't work anymore either. The church members are aware of it.

Growing churches repeat a strategic planning process every year.

It is as essential as an annual physical examination with a doctor, or an annual maintenance schedule for an automobile, or an annual review of financial investments. In each example, people are tempted by laziness and inattention to assume "everything is all right for another year" and in each example people live to regret their lack of discipline. There are several reasons why regularity and consistency are important.

Spiritual Conditioning continues with specific spiritual exercises each week.
The first two are intentionally interactive with the public: prayer walks and listening-prayer triads. The last two are more introspective, guiding the congregation to define the orientation for mission and focus their experience of Christ. These exercises are all in Appendix 2, and can be customized for use in any small group, committee, or team.