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| Christian Education | |||
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Educating Congregations: The Future of Christian Education |
A practical guide for revisioning and reworking the church's educational program After identifying the weaknesses in current education programs (which depend on the public school model), Charles Foster offers an alternative vision of Christian education that is more corporate, more attentive to the whole of the congregation's life, and helps people critically correlate the Bible and Christian tradition to their experience. By drawing from the theories of writers such as C. Ellis Nelson and Maria Harris, the author moves beyond their work to make a unique contribution to the field. He incorporates a series of exercises in congregational analysis so that readers can revise and perform the exercises in terms of their own congregational settings. By providing a practical guide for the pastor or Christian educator interested in reworking the church's educational program, Educating Congregations will appeal primarily to church leaders, with additional use as a supplementary text for introductory courses in Christian education. | |
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Jesus The New Way DVD Curriculum
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Wright's acclaimed scholarship is delivered in a winsome and understandable way, showing how Jesus is the fulfillment of Israel's ancient hopes and humanity's deepest dreams. You will see Jesus as you have never seen him before in the context of his Jewish and Roman world. You will find explosive new meaning in his familiar words and deeds as Wright unfolds his incomparable life and shows how it remains an unavoidable summons to our world and way of thinking. "Jesus the New Way is a magnificent account of the life and message of Jesus of Nazareth. N.T. Wright is truly one of the most outstanding contemporary Jesus scholars, which is evident throughout this entire production. I highly recommend this series for youth and adults alike." - Josh McDowell *Program 1, Getting the Kingdom Started: Into what kind of world was Jesus born? What do we learn from the Dead Sea Scrolls, John the Baptist, and the kingdom announcement of Jesus? *Program 2, Startling Surprises: How did the kingdom announced by Jesus parallel the expectations of the Jewish people that they derived from their study of Scripture? Why was Jesus' news shocking and offensive? What was he really saying? *Program 3, Longing for a King: In a Jewish world weird for the welcome and recognition of a Messiah, how did Jesus redefine what that should mean? What were the implications for the main symbols of Israel’s life such as the Holy Temple? *Program 4, Why did Jesus die? What were the charges? What was the real and great battle being fought? How was history racing toward its climatic moment, and how did Jesus understand and undertake his role therein? *Program 5, Who was Jesus? How do we begin to understand the meaning of Jesus by reexamining what we really mean by God? How did Jesus understand himself? How did the early church view Jesus? Was Jesus divine? *Program 6, The New Claim: Was Jesus really raised from the dead? What about all the skeptics’ explanations as to why that is impossible? What did resurrection mean to first-century Jews? How does the resurrection of Jesus address our individual lives? PDFs Included on the DVD: - 96-page leader's guide with background information, discussion questions, and program scripts - 16-page participant's workbook - Questions and answers by Bible teacher Dr. Ted Coleman | |
| Discipleship | |||
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The Relational Way: From Small Group Structures to Holistic Life Connections |
The Relational Way: From small group structures to holistic life connections is a prequel to Scott Boren’s excellent book on transitioning entitled How Do We Get There From Here?) With all the excellent books on small group ministry on the market today, one would think the subject has been covered completely. However, the foundational basis for holistic small group ministry (a highly relational set of values) must be in place before holistic small group ministry will thrive. In this new release, Scott Boren does an excellent job dispelling the most common myths about small group ministry. | |
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Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony |
In this bold and visionary ebook, two leading Christian thinkers explore the "alien" status of Christians in today's world, and offer a compelling new vision of how the Christian church can regain its vitality, battle its malaise, reclaim its capacity to nourish souls, and stand firmly against the illusions, pretensions, and eroding values of today's world. Hauerwas and Willimon call for a radical new understanding of the church. By renouncing the emphasis on personal psychological categories, they offer a vision of the church as a colony, a holy nation, a peole, a family standing for sharply focused values in a devalued world. | |
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The Search to Belong: Rethinking Intimacy, Community, and Small Groups |
Community is a fundamental life search. We need to belong. In our time, we search with some increasing desperation as terms like neighbor, family, and congregation are being redefined. A practical guide for those struggling to build a community of believers in a culture that wants to experience belonging over believing Who is my neighbor? Who belongs to me? To whom do I belong? These are timeless questions that guide the church to its fundamental calling. Today terms like neighbor, family, and congregation are being redefined. People are searching to belong in new places and experiences. The church needs to adapt its interpretations, definitions, and language to make sense in the changing culture. This book equips congregations and church leaders with tools to: Discern the key ingredients people look for in community Understand the use of space as a key element for experiencing belonging and community Develop the chemical compound that produces an environment for community to spontaneously emerge Discover how language promotes specific spatial belonging and then use this knowledge to build an effective vocabulary for community development Create an assessment tool for evaluating organizational and personal community health | |
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Reimagining Spiritual Formation: A Week in the Life of an Experimental Church |
Reimagining Spiritual Formation isn't about quick-fix methods or bulleted, how-to lists. And it's certainly not a dry lecture about a heady theological topic. Instead this book is about striving, about trying, about experimenting with the idea that the old ways of approaching spiritual formation may not be the only avenues toward living lives in harmony with God in our day. Inside these pages you'll spend a full week with Solomon's Porch-a holistic, missional, Christian community in Minneapolis, Minnesota-and get a front row seat at the gatherings, meetings, and meals. Along the way, you'll also discover what spiritual formation looks like in a church community that's moves beyond education-based practices by including worship, physicality, dialogue, hospitality, belief, creativity, and service as means toward spiritual formation rather than mere appendices to it. Specifically, you'll glimpse into the lives of six people from Solomon's Porch and track their growth through their journals as they wrestle with various approaches to spiritual development. Reimagining Spiritual Formation is ideal for thinkers, pastors, church leaders, and anyone else seeking fresh ways of experiencing life with God. | |
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A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society |
Exploring the Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120-134), Eugene Peterson encourages us to persevere and grow in joy, service, humility, and community. This revised 20th anniversary edition of Peterson's discipleship classic now includes the Psalms of Ascents in THE MESSAGE paraphrase. | |
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Simple Church: Returning to God's Process for Making Disciples |
The simple revolution has begun. From the design of the iPod to the uncluttered Google home page, simple ideas are changing the world. Simple Church clearly calls for Christians to return to the simple gospel-sharing methods of Jesus. No bells or whistles required, so to speak. Based on case studies of four hundred American churches, authors Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger prove that the process for making disciples has quite often become too complex. Simple churches are thriving, and they are doing so by taking these four ideas to heart: Clarity. Movement. Alignment. Focus. Each idea is examined here, simply showing why it is time to simplify. | |
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Living on Purpose: Finding Gods Best for Your Life |
Christine Sine, a former medical missionary, and Tom Sine (Mustard Seed vs. McWorld) here challenge overachievers afflicted with "hurry sickness" to discover "God's best" for their lives. The Sines' premise is that the values of contemporary American culture, which they represent allegorically as those of "Boom City," are counter to the values of "the City of Shalom." For example, they state that the purposes of Boom City "elevate the individual pursuit of happiness as the cardinal goal of life," while "the good life of God is found through losing our lives in service to God and others." In order for people to remove themselves from the hustle of Boom City, the Sines provide a roadmap constructed of "off-ramp" reflective exercises structured by biblical principles and interwoven with anecdotes. The ultimate goal of the book is to provide readers with steps for developing a life-changing personal or family mission statement, which can then be fine-tuned as individuals reflect on how they are meeting their spiritual, physical and financial goals. The Sines differentiate their book from others that encourage mission statements, such as Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families, by stressing that it is grounded in Scripture and the question "What kind of people does God want us to be?" The steps and exercises that the Sines provide are practical and their principles compelling, but one wonders how their intended audience will ever get off the highway long enough to listen. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Book Description In this era of ''life makeovers,'' personal coaches, and success-oriented mission statements, many people are working hard to get it together. They're looking for a good life, which at its core includes wanting their time to count for something, to be meaningful and mindful. But as Christine and Tom Sine point out, ''more and more people are missing the best and settling for less.'' Living on Purpose presents a true life-changing strategy-one rooted in God's greater purposes for our lives, not merely our own desires for success. The book has a laser-focus on God's mission and vocation for each of his children, and it shows how staying on his course will lead to the very richest and most fulfilling life. Questions for reflection and discussion make Living on Purpose ideal for group use. The Sines help readers make the connection between their everyday pursuits and goals and God's will for their lives. They show how to draft a personal or family mission statement to reinvent ''timestyle'' and lifestyle, using relevant examples from the Bible and other writings. Packed with inspiring stories and practical how-to, Living on Purpose leads readers to a more relaxed, festive, and meaningful life that truly counts-for today and eternity. | |
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Church on the Edge of Somewhere: Ministry, Marginality, and the Future |
Most congregations today exist in what George Thompson calls the "middle of anywhere." They live comfortably with their surrounding culture, focusing their energies on serving the needs of the current members. These congregations have many strengths and gifts that they can exercise without changing a thing. But Thompson envisions a deeper, more prophetic call for congregations to explore the meaning of being in the world but not of it—a church on the "edge of somewhere." | |
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The Divine Embrace: Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life |
One of the most popular current views on spirituality is that there are varied paths to God. In this new Ancient-Future series book, Bob Webber evaluates this common misunderstanding of spirituality as separated from God's story, extremely self-focused, and shaped by our surrounding culture. This challenging work offers a corrective, calling us to an alternative Christian spirituality, one that reveals two sides-that of God's ''divine embrace'' of us and our passionate response. The Divine Embrace is a fresh, grounded look at true spirituality that will be embraced by pastors, thinking Christians, and anyone looking for an engaging and thorough treatment of this topic. Learn to live out true Christian spirituality in today's world In The Divine Embrace, part of his acclaimed Ancient-Future series, Robert Webber lays the foundation for understanding Christian spirituality by tracing it from the ancient church to the present, showing how biblical teaching has been developed theologically and informed by changes in culture. He then explores how we can return contemporary spirituality to its biblical source, living out God's story in our individual lives and in our life together as the church. You will be encouraged and equipped to live out your spirituality as a deeper and more delightful response to God's divine embrace. "Robert Webber's new book places him in the good company of Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, and Eugene Peterson as one of our most important thinkers about spiritual formation for authentic Christian living. It provides fresh, wise, and challenging guidance that is rooted in a career of Christian leadership development. It draws from decades of research in church history and spirituality, and flows from the mind of a scholar and the heart of a practitioner. I am a fan of all his work, but I think this is his best and most important book to date."-Brian McLaren, author/speaker, brianmclaren.net "Do not read this book alone! Bob Webber is right: authentic Christian spirituality is a shared response of believers to God's actions on our behalf. Get your small group, Sunday school class, or church to study this challenging message together."-David Neff, editor, Christianity Today magazine "Robert Webber-one of our most trusted voices on worship and discipleship-takes spirituality out of the closet of privacy and individualism and locates it smack in the middle of friendship and community. His is a wonderful, unique vision that cuts across the grain of the 'spirituality industry.'"-James K. A. Smith, associate professor of philosophy, Calvin College Robert E. Webber is Myers Professor of Ministry at Northern Seminary and the president of the Institute for Worship Studies. He is the author of over thirty books, including Ancient-Future Faith and The Younger Evangelicals. | |
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The Divine Conspiracy |
Dallas Willard, an acclaimed theologian and professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California, fulfills the longing of many Christians who want to live as true disciples of Christ rather than distant dabblers. Likewise, he scoffs at consumer Christians who are simply banking on admittance to heaven as their payoff for attending church. Or worse still, those who use Christianity to advance their political agendas rather than their spiritual ones. But this is not a scolding book. Rather, Willard devotes his efforts to discussing specific and inspiring ways to develop a discipleship to Jesus--not as an act of sacrifice or even one of spiritual luxury--instead, as everyday people committed to the teachings of Christ. "The really good news for Christians is that Jesus is now taking students in the master class of life," writes Willard. "So the message of and about him is specifically a gospel for our life now, not just for dying. It is about living now as his apprentices in kingdom living, not just as consumers of his merits." | |
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The Great Omission |
Jesus's last command was to go and make disciples. We have responded by making Christians. Willard challenges the idea that we can call ourselves Christians without applying our faith to every aspect of life. "The New Testament is a book about disciples, by disciples, and for disciples of Jesus Christ.," explains the author. "All the church needs to fulfill Christ's purposes on earth is the quality of life he makes real in the life of his disciples ...the greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heart-breaking needs, is whether those who are identified as Christians will become disciples." This title includes sections on being apprenticed to Jesus; Spiritual formation and the development of character; discipleship of soul and mind; and learning from classics on spiritual living. | |
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The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives |
To perform appropriately in the moment when you're "on the spot" you must be preparing when you're "off the spot." We understand this principle when we think of great athletes or musicians, but rarely see it's application in our own efforts to be a "good Christian." The Spirit of the Disciplines presents a way of living that enables ordinary men and women to join with God and realize their highest aspirations of well-being and -doing. The key to this self-transformation resides in the practice of the spiritual disciplines. Readers will learn why the disciplines work and how their practice affirms human life to the fullest. The Spirit of the Disciplines places solitude and silence, prayer, simple and sacrificial living, meditation upon God's word and ways, and service to others at the heart of the gospel. "We can increasingly resemble Christ in character and in power by following him in his overall style of life ... This was the method of his earliest disciples, and it is as valid today as it was then." After all, if Jesus regularly engaged in these activities, how is it that we simple humans expect to get by without them? To enter into the spirit and practice of the disciplines is to move toward the authentic life of faith in Christ and active participation in the Kingdom of God around us. If it's your desire to become the kind of person who can live in the fulness of the life God has for you, the observation of the disciplines is your first step. It sounds challenging and, besides, where will you find the time? But take note of the word "easy" in the title of chapter one: It really will be easy once you get the hang of it. The Spirit of the Disciplines is a thoughtful guide to an enriched spiritual life, a book about how to live as Christ lived, directed to those who hope to be his disciples in deed as well as intention. It details why the disciplines are essential to our deliverance from the concrete power of sin, and outlines the ways that they can help each of us achieve the blessings of the companionship of Christ. | |
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Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense |
IMPLY CHRISTIAN is essential reading for anyone who wants to consider the real fundamentals of Christianity or is intrigued by its claims about the place of justice, beauty and love in our daily lives. Written in a lively and accessible style, though rooted in solid scholarship, this book describes the exciting relevance of the Bible and the Christian story for the contemporary world. It is laid out helpfully in three sections. The first opens with the frustrated longings of humanity for justice, spirituality, relationships and beauty: why are things like this, do they have to be so and can life be lived differently? Tom Wright then sets out the central Christian belief about God and his creation, and explores the biblical analysis of what's wrong with the world. He explains God's plan for its renewal, and the central importance of Jesus. In the final section, he explores what it means to follow Jesus, to be energized by the Holy Spirit and to advance God's plan for our world. | |
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Surprised By Hope |
What do Christians hope for? To leave this wicked world and go to
'heaven'? For the 'kingdom of God' to grow gradually on earth? What do
we mean by the 'resurrection of the body', and how does that fit with
the popular image of sitting on clouds playing harps? And how does all
this affect the way we live in the here and now?Tom Wright, one of our
leading theologians, addresses these questions in this provocative and
wide-ranging new book. He outlines the present confusion about future
hope in both church and world. Then, having explained why Christians
believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus himself, he explores the
biblical hope for 'new heavens and new earth', and shows how the
'second coming' of Jesus, and the eventual resurrection, belong within
that larger picture, together with the intermediate hope for 'heaven'.
For many, including many Christians, all this will come as a great
surprise.Wright convincingly argues that what we believe about life
after death directly affects what we believe about life before death.
For if God intends to renew the whole creation - and if this has already begun in Jesus' resurrection - the church cannot stop at 'saving souls', but must anticipate the eventual renewal by working for God's kingdom in the wider world, bringing healing and hope in the present life.Lively and accessible, this book will surprise and excite all who are interested in the meaning of life not only after death but before it.It is intended for readers of Tom Wright's other books, such as "Simply Christian" and "Evil and the Justice of God". |
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Total Ministry: Reclaiming the Ministry of All God's People |
Used successfully in Episcopal dioceses and congregations, Total Ministry describes a new way for local congregations (especially small ones) and judicatories to organize their response to God's call and to provide resources, support, and encouragement for ministry-a way that is not dependent only on full-time, seminary-trained, ordained leaders. | |
| Leadership | |||
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If This Is the Way the World Works: Science, Congregations, and Leadership |
In If This Is the Way the World Works William O. Avery and Beth Ann Gaede ask two primary questions: First, what principles from science are so broadly accepted that scientists themselves are willing to say, "This is the way the world works"? Second, how do congregations and their leaders behave when they operate in concert with these seemingly universal principles? Avery and Gaede explore five principles form the philosophy of science that suggest an alternative way to view congregational mission and leadership: openness to new information, complexity, diversity, interrelatedness, and process. Their premise is that when faith communities align themselves with the way the world--God's world--works, they more faithfully carry out their vocations as witnesses to God's reconciling work and as servants to one another. By following these basic scientific principles, Avery and Gaede argue, we arrive at a different view of leadership in the church. If this is truly the way the world works, leaders will find strength through relationships, hope in diversity, and above all trust in the love of God. | |
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Choosing Partnership, Sharing Ministry: A Vision for New Spiritual Community |
Like many clergy, Marcia Barnes Bailey began her work as an ordained leader with a vision of the pastor as leader extraordinaire, empowered by education, authority, position, and resources. She soon found herself thinking: “There has to be another way.” In Choosing Partnership, Sharing Ministry, Bailey invites pastors and congregations to a new understanding of ministry, leadership, and the church that challenges hierarchy by fully sharing responsibilities, risks, and rewards in mutual ministry. This model took shape over 10 years as Bailey, pastoral colleague Marcus Pomeroy, and the congregation they served began writing their own definition of partnership—creating their own map, trusting their own instincts, making their own mistakes. For Bailey, this kind of partnership began when she discovered the courage to listen to herself and to the Spirit for the inklings of another way—to incarnate Jesus’s example, a ministry that was widely inclusive, delegated power, shared authority, and thrived with the multiplication of gifts. | |
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Faith in Leadership : How Leaders Live Out Their Faith in Their Work-And Why It Matters |
"This book raises a potentially divisive question that we have tended to avoid," writes leadership expert DePree in the foreword to this serious collection of essays: "What is the connection between people's personal convictions and their public responsibilities?" Various contributors from the wide spectrum of the Christian tradition explore whether and how faith should play a role in the workplace. While the collection as a whole suffers from repetition of key ideas among contributors, individual essays stand out. Isabel Lopez writes of "Finding Wisdom and Purpose in Chaotic Times," while William Diehl cogently addresses the complexities of sharing personal faith with co-workers. | |
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Direct Hit: Aiming Real Leaders at the Mission Field |
Lead the kind of ministry you’ve always dreamed of… Many congregations are declining due to an inward focus, and see their pastor as someone who should only minister to their needs. But pastors must anticipate a better future. Direct Hit offers hope to leaders of congregations that have lost their outward focus. By preparing for and leading systemic change, pastors can bring new life into the culture of a congregation, guiding it to answer God’s call to reach people with the good news. Direct Hit offers practical explanations for how to: * Develop a vision and communicate a strategy for its implementation * Motivate a congregation to embrace the vision * Develop resources, ideas, and personnel to prepare for change * Embrace and implement change * Embed a new DNA into the life of a congregation Systemic change occurs as a result of hard work, but the gain far outweighs the pain. Once change has occurred, a whole new world of opportunity opens up—a world in which you are privileged to equip, lead, and oversee a congregation that has joined God’s mission. Ready. Aim. Go for it! "Church leaders need more than motivation and inspiration. In Direct Hit, Paul Borden explains how to change dysfunction to health and decline to growth." Leith Anderson, Senior Pastor Wooddale Church, Eden Prairie, MN "Direct Hit gets to the heart of the matter. Pastors--it's about Christ and leadership. Congregation--it's about Christ's purpose and mission. There is plenty of interpretation and coaching here for both sides of the pastoral relationship, but above all there is urgency. It's time to stop dithering and get on with it." Tom Bandy, President Easum, Bandy, and Associates | |
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Hit the Bullseye: How Denominations Can Aim Congregations at the Mission Field (Convergence Series.) |
This book is not an attempt to offer hope, help, or even advice on what denominations need to do. However, it is a book about a significant turn-around of a middle-level administration of justice in one Protestant denomination and it does offer hope that other like administrations might be able to experience a better and more effective existence. Everyone's experience is unique and therefore cannot be replicated. However, the implementation of foundational all-encompassing principles, the development of new strategies, and the performance of specific tactics that are successful in one situation does offer hope to others that their modeling of the principles, adapting the strategies, and creating specific tactics to fit their context can bring change. "This book is a gutsy look at denominational life, leadership and vision, and offers new paradigms for the local church, middle judicatories and national denominational life. A must-read for anyone interested in bringing renewal to the local church and our denomination. Clearly, Borden has hit the bull's-eye with regard not only to our denomination's needs but also how renewal begins in the local church." - ABE News | |
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Effective Church Leadership: Building on the Twelve Keys |
Kennon Callahan shares a new understanding of leadership, and helps missionary pastors grow their leadership by cultivating new understandings and practices in seven key areas. Callahan guides pastors and key leaders in building on their creativity and imagination in order to revitalize their local churches and advance their missions...Provides a new model of church leadership through effectiveness principles applied to the day-to-day workings of the local church. | |
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Shaping Spiritual Leaders: Supervision and Formation in Congregations |
Supervision—the shaping of spiritual leaders—occurs formally and informally in many aspects of congregational life. Every year, thousands of pastors supervise field education students and interns; staff members and lay leaders often supervise committee members or other staff; clergy and lay leaders supervise each other as a way to offer support and establish accountability. While supervision enhances the work of all concerned, it is rarely explicitly addressed in congregations...This book provides a hands-on approach to supervision, addressing key areas such as identifying a learning focus, covenanting, managing conflict, understanding and using power and authority, offering and receiving feedback and evaluation, and celebrating and ending the supervisory relationship. Supervisors who pay attention to these and other key areas will help those they supervise develop their gifts for ministry in all forms. | |
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Growing Future Leaders:The Enormous Potential of Followers |
This is the third book in the series on leadership by Dr Tony Keys. It examines the characteristics required of people if they are to function effectively as leaders and also provides instruction on mentoring and coaching techniques found to be successful in the equipping of those leaders. The thing that distinguishes leaders who run with horses from those who walk with footmen, those who shuffle along under the anointing (Jeremiah 12:5), is their ability as leaders to live a life of purpose that stretches beyond their own time. This ability allows them how to implement a succession plan by recruiting and growing future leaders to become giants: leaders of great purpose and direction for the Kingdom of God. There is no greater thing a transformational leader can do in the Kingdom of God than to invest their life into another through the skills of mentoring and coaching. Transformational leaders who take-up the responsibility of mentoring and coaching will be highly-valued and esteemed by their protégés and their peers. They will leave a lasting legacy for future generations. This book and its companion work book take the leader on a journey of developing the skills necessary to not only influence the present generation but also our future generations. This third leadership series has five sessions that can be completed in 60 to 90 minutes session. | |
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Leading Transformational Change:Leadership Practices for the 21st |
This is the first book in the series on leadership by Dr Tony Keys. Challenging the status quo of an organization with a dynamic strategic vision and plan of transformational change, then leading that organization through the transformational change, is both an exhilarating and daunting experience for any leader and leadership team. New thinking and the development of new leadership practices are required if we are to venture across the new horizons of transformational change that God has set before us. This book and its companion work book deal with the intricacies of leading transformational change. They have been produced after extensive research and discussions with over 500 church leaders across the world, as well as my own personal experience of successfully leading several non-profit organizations through transformational change. Together, the books are designed to assist the Christian leader and their leadership team by firstly providing practical assistance in implementing executive leadership principles found to be effective in leading Christian and non-profit organizations through transformational change. Secondly, the books offer insight and understanding to the Christian leader and their leadership team as to the human response to the transition of change. They have been designed to enable the Christian leader and their leadership team to guide both their organization and all its members successfully through the transition of change and on to the new horizon that God has for them. This first leadership series has six sessions that are completed in 60 to 90 minute sessions. | |
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Strategic Leadership:The New Discipline for 21st Century Leaders |
This is the second book in the series on leadership by Dr Tony Keys. We live in turbulent times. On an almost-daily basis we are confronted with news headlines of terrorist activity, which some world leaders speak of as “unconventional warfare operated by adaptive adversaries”. We in the church have long been familiar with the struggle against the powers of darkness but now, along with the spiritual conflict and age-old difficulties in taking the Gospel out into the world, we face new difficulties where the church must compete in a global market. Leaders within the church and para-church organizations are now called upon to think differently, to create a long-term strategic plan with a compelling vision for the organizations and churches they lead. There is an expectation for strategic leaders within the church to possess a special mental and physical readiness to deal with the uncertainties and ambiguities of the times and to take the initiative in the conflict with the powers of darkness. This book and its companion work book are written for those leaders who essentially want to be effective strategic leaders in church and para-church organizations. As well as dealing with the spiritual strategic arena in which the strategic leader operates in these times in which we live, this is a very practical book, covering such things as the gathering and analyzing of strategic information, the art of a general, formulating and implementing strategies and emotional resilience to see the vision of the organization come to fruition. Yes, we do live in turbulent times… but as Christian leaders there is much we can learn from the new disciplines and strategies being developed by our global leaders. This leadership second series has seven sessions that can each be completed in 60 to 90 minutes. | |
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Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement |
Written by church consultant Will ManciniÑan expert on a new kind of visioning process to help churches develop a stunningly unique model of ministry that leads to redemptive movement. He guides churches away from an internal focus to emphasize participation in their community and surrounding culture. In this important book, Mancini offers an approach for rethinking what it means to lead with clarity as a visionary. Mancini explains that each church has a culture that reflects its particular values, thoughts, attitudes, and actions and shows how church leaders can unlock their churchÕs individual DNA and unleash their congregationÕs one-of-a-kind potential. Church Unique offers church leaders a way to transform their leadership and vision with missional effectiveness. Church Unique is written by church consultant Will Mancini-an expert on a new kind of visioning process to help churches develop a stunningly unique model of ministry that leads to redemptive movement. He guides churches away from an internal focus to emphasize participation in their community and surrounding culture. In this important book, Mancini offers an approach for rethinking what it means to lead with clarity as a visionary. Mancini explains that each church has a culture that reflects its particular values, thoughts, attitudes, and actions, and shows how church leaders can unlock their church's individual DNA and unleash their congregation's one-of-a-kind potential. Mancini explores the pitfalls churches often fall into in their attempt to grow, such as adding more programs, using outdated forms of strategic planning, or adopting the latest conference technique. He explores a new model for vision casting and church growth that has been tested with leaders in all kinds of congregations, including mainline, evangelical, small, and large. The practices and ideas outlined in Church Unique will help leaders develop missional teams, articulate unique strategies, unpack the baggage of institutionalism, and live fully into their vision. Whether leading a megachurch or church plant, a multisite or mainline, a ministry or parachurch, Church Unique will provide inspiration as a practical guide for leading into the future. There is a better way. | |
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Temporary Shepherds: A Congregational Handbook for Interim Ministry |
Effective interim ministry depends on strong partnership between the interim minster and congregation. Lay leaders of congregations preparing for such a transition will value the expert guidance provided by over a dozen experienced interim pastors. What is interim ministry all about? What needs to happen during the interim? What should leaders and members expect from the interim pastor and themselves during this transition? What other resources are available for congregations? | |
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Leading Change in the Congregation: Spiritual & Organizational Tools for Leaders |
Many books have been written about leadership and change, but until now none has focused on the kind of change that tears at a community’s very fabric. Alban senior consultant Gil Rendle provides a respectful context for understanding change, especially the experiences and resistances that people feel. Rendle pulls together theory, research, and his work with churches facing change to provide leaders with practical diagnostic models and tools. In a time when change is the norm, this book helps to “lead change” in a spiritual and healthy way. | |
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When Moses Meets Aaron: Staffing and Supervision in Large Congregations |
With the number of large congregations rising in the U.S., these congregations are increasingly dependent upon a greater number of staff to meet the needs of their diverse collection of members. As leaders of multi-staff teams, senior clergy must play the dual role of both Moses and Aaron—both visionary and detail-oriented leader—in order for their large congregations to thrive. They need to be skilled with the tools of human resource management, while at the same time setting a vision and inspiring both staff and congregation...Alban senior consultant Susan Beaumont and Gil Rendle have developed When Moses Meets Aaron to help clergy responsible for several-member staff teams navigate these unknown waters. They have taken the best of corporate human resource tools and immersed them in a congregational context, providing a comprehensive manual for supervising, motivating, and coordinating staff teams. Rendle and Beaumont give both detailed and big picture guidance on hiring, job descriptions, supervision, performance evaluation, staff-team design, difficult staff behavior, and more. Their combined experience in consulting and training with staff and leaders of large congregations proves invaluable in this manual for today’s leadership demands. | |
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The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World (J-B Leadership Network Series) |
Missional churches are not about a particular program or isolated projects (such as mission trips or youth ministry). At the very heart of a missional church is a gathering of people who are concerned with the bigger purpose of bringing God's word into the larger community outside their walls. In The Missional Leader, consultants Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk give church and denominational leaders, pastors, and clergy a clear model for leading the change necessary to create and foster a missional church focused outward to spread the message of the Gospel into the surrounding community. The Missional Leader emphasizes principles rather than institutional forms, shows readers how to move away from "church as usual," and demonstrates what capacities, environments, and mindsets are required to lead a missional church. Experts in the field of missional leadership, Roxburgh and Romanuk outline a strategic change model that can be implemented to help transform a congregation and its leaders. They also present the factors that define the character of an effective missional leader and show how a pastor and other clergy can lead their congregation to best serve their church and larger community. Ultimately, this book helps to guide church leaders to cultivate a local church environment where God is the center of conversation and God shapes the focus and work of the people. | |
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The Sky Is Falling: Leaders Lost in Transition |
This is more than a book, it is a manifesto, a proposal for a new way of imagining a common life together as the pilgrim people of God seeking to fulfill God’s purposes for the world in our time. If we need new kinds of churches, we cannot develop them with old kinds of leaders. We ourselves need to become those new kinds of leaders, even as we all look to the next generations to help them be formed in new apprenticeships in the kinds of skills this book describes. Alan Roxburgh’s most radical and powerful insight: having new kinds of churches with new kinds of leaders is not the point. In the end, even though we in the church talk and talk (and write and write) about church, church, church, church … it’s not about the church. The church exists for something bigger than itself. Understanding that one thing alone will be worth your expense, time, and effort in turning this page and reading on–with an open mind and an open heart. | |
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Healthy Disclosure: Solving Communication Quandaries in Congregations |
Knowledge is power, and the way knowledge is shared in a congregation can build up or break down community. When congregational leaders are sensitive to the ways that information should be shared, the congregation can become safe and strong. Unfortunately, congregations can easily fall into patterns of communication that lead to disastrous interpersonal and organizational outcomes. Even in times of crisis, however, congregations can learn and practice new skills and healthy communication management. Congregational consultants Kibbie Ruth and Karen McClintock show clergy and laity how to appropriately handle information. From proper ways to respond to rumors to relating information about a staff firing to the congregation, Healthy Disclosure is filled with step-by-step ideas for handling different types of sensitive material. It helps clergy and other congregational leaders understand levels of disclosure, including how and when to reveal information, the difference between privacy and secrecy, legal issues related to public knowledge, and the power of secrets from a congregation's past. What we don't know can hurt us. The more conscious congregational leaders are of the information they have and how they pass it along to others, the better off the congregation will be. Information management is both a technical process and a spiritual undertaking. Leaders need the ability to spiritually discern, not just intellectually decide, the solutions to congregational dilemmas. Ruth and McClintock guide readers in developing the skills needed to create a congregational environment of healthy disclosure. | |
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21 Bridges to the 21st Century/the Future of Pastoral Ministry (Ministry for the Third Millennium) |
The past five decades have altered the role of the churches. The third millennium will bring an even more radically different context for ministry. How the parish minister meets the challenge of that change is the subject of this latest book by best-selling author Lyle E. Schaller. Schaller makes the statistics speak by discussing four dozen factors that will provide challenges and opportunities in the next millennium. These include the emergence of thousands of new independent congregations, economic factors that affect rural congregations, the inability of most churches to be truly inclusive, the fact that the church has replaced the home and school as the primary channel for learning values, the growth of the Christian day school, the almost total disappearance of the geographical parish, the increasing competition for communication, the change in women's role in the community. "Change is the dominant theme of this book. The response of church leaders to the changes identified here will shape the future of their institutions. More important, however, these responses will determine who will be most effective in proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in the early decades of the millennium". | |
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Create Your Own Future! |
"This book is for church leaders, both clergy and lay, who seek to challenge the status quo and implement change in their congregations. Schaller's plan of intervention suggests that the long-range planning committee is the most effective vehicle of change. He systematically addresses the issues this committee faces, such as knowing when to intervene, how to decide which issues to tackle, how to face financial concerns, when to implement the plan, and how to overcome resistance. Key Features: * Involves volunteer leaders in planning for future * Suggests long-range planning committee as vehicle for change * Presents a plan for implementing change in congregation Key Benefit: * Addresses demands for higher quality congregational life * Discusses when to choose tradition or market * Explains when to study and when to act * Show how to implement a plan * Illustrates how to overcome resistance" | |
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Benchmarks of Quality in the Church: 21 Ways to Continuously Improve the Content of Your Ministry |
This definitive handbook can help church leaders to understand the powerful tools available that lead to continuous improvement in ministry. Charts, diagrams, statistics, and 'quality jargon' are kept to a minimum. An appendix on Total Quality Management will aid leaders who wish to explore more carefully the literature on the quality movement. | |
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The Meandering Way: Leading by Following the Spirit |
How often do you feel overwhelmed by the pace of your life? These days it’s easy to work harder and harder, constantly pushing ourselves and those around us so that we and our congregations can be “successful.” We forget that our drive to succeed can prevent us from taking the time to stop and listen for what God is calling us and our congregations to be...The Meandering Way offers a contrarian take on the more popular practices of leadership found throughout the church today. Meandering leaders are attentive to the promptings of the Spirit. They are guides and mentors who patiently journey alongside those they love and lead. Ultimately, being a meandering leader is about being on a journey with God—personally and corporately slowing down the pace of our lives and following God’s Spirit. In the faith journey, we are not so much racing toward a physical finish line as we are meandering toward becoming all that God has in mind for us to be. This book is an invitation to journey into the depths of your own soul and to follow the Spirit’s lead in the next chapters of your life. | |
| Mission Planning | |||
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The Honest to God Church: A Pathway to God's Grace |
Pastor and church consultant Doug Bixby considers the many ways churches can fall short of their potential to be grace-filled places. He also shows what the church and the life of discipleship look like when we get honest with God and get real with one another. Bixby makes it clear that "honest to God" churches are always come-as-you-are churches. Drawing from the gospel and real-life examples, Bixby explores pathways to a more open and authentic Christian life and spiritual community between the extremes of liberal and conservative, judgmental and permissive, mean and merely nice. He provides action steps for church leaders seeking to begin shaping their church into a conduit for God’s grace. | |
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Biblical Perspectives on Evangelism: Living in a Three-Storied Universe |
A fresh consideration of how the Bible thinks and speaks on evangelism. Brueggermann offers clear definitions of biblical categories of evangelism, consideration of key biblical texts, and challenges readers to test their assumptions on evangelism. | |
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In Dying We Are Born: The Challenge and the Hope for Congregations |
Deeply ingrained in Western culture, and in the minds of most church leaders, is the belief that there is a solution to every problem. Peter bush offers a powerful challenge to this approach, arguing that for new life, energy, and passion to arise in congregations, they must die--die to one way of being the church in order that a new way may rise. Bush identifies two types of dying congregations. Some congregations need to close their doors, bringing to an end years of ministry. Other congregations need to dramatically change their culture and ways of doing ministry. Such change may not entail literally closing the congregation's doors, but it will require people giving up deeply held understandings of the life and purpose of the congregation. All congregations, Bush contends, even ones that see themselves as healthy, need to be prepared to die, to take up their cross, so God can make them alive. A skillful storyteller, Bush shows readers why churches must confront their mortality. He examines the role of the prophetic leader, who proclaims both the congregation's death and its resurrection. He explores spiritual practices and the habits of wonder, remember, and risk taking for congregations that know they are dying--or need to die. Only by dying, Bush says, will a congregation find resurrection life, given by God who raises the dead to life. | |
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Twelve Keys to an Effective Church (The Kennon Callahan Resources Library for Effective Churches) |
Kennon Callahan has written a number of books for "effective churches." This book, the cornerstone of the collection, is designed "to assist local churches in their strategic long-range planning to be effective churches in mission." It includes an overview of strategic long-range planning and twelve "keys" that distinguish effective and successful churches. The first, and most important, is that a church have "specific, concrete missional objectives." The other keys are: pastoral and lay visitation; corporate, dynamic worship; significant relational groups; strong leadership resources; a streamlined structure and solid, participatory decision making; several competent programs and activities; open accessibility; high visibility; adequate parking, land, and landscaping; adequate space and facilities; and solid financial resources. The book includes good descriptions of these characteristics and advice on how to achieve them. While particular keys will apply to some churches more than others, congregational leaders will want to consider each of these keys and select those which best fit their mission and profile. | |
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Twelve Keys to an Effective Church: The Leader's Guide (The Kennon Callahan Resource Library for Effective Churches) |
In this indispensable companion volume to Twelve Keys to an Effective Church, Kennon Callahan offers a practical, step-by-step guide for the most productive long-range planning. This guide will help both pastors and church leaders assess the strengths and weaknesses of their churches in 12 areas -- ranging from specific mission objectives to solid financial resources -- and shows leaders how to determine which methods will work best to advance their church and move their congregations toward action, accomplishment, and success. | |
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Holy Places: Matching Sacred Space with Mission and Message |
Buildings communicate. Stained glass windows, high altars, multi-purpose worship/gymnasium spaces, Plexiglas pulpits, padded pews—these and all other architectural elements say something about a congregation’s theology and mission. They point to a faith community’s beliefs about worship, identity, purpose, and more. From the stark simplicity of a Quaker meetinghouse to the splendor of a Romanesque Revival building, sacred spaces speak loudly. What they say can either reinforce a congregation’s mission or detract from it. Holy Places is designed to be used by congregations who are involved in or are contemplating work on their facilities. This could include renovation, remodeling, expansion, or building. No matter how extensive the project, approaching the work with mission at the forefront is the key to having a final result that strengthens the congregation’s ministry. | |
| Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture Frost, Michael Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers |
Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture presents a biblical, Christian worldview for the emergent church-people who are not at home in the traditional church or in the secular world. As exiles of both, they must create their own worldview that integrates their Christian beliefs with the contemporary world. Exiles seeks to integrate all aspects of life and decision-making and to develop the characteristics of a Christian life lived intentionally within emerging (postmodern) culture. It presents a plea for a dynamic, life-affirming, robust Christian faith that can be lived successfully in the post-Christian world of twenty-first century Western society. This book will present a Christian lifestyle that can be lived in non-religious categories and be attractive to not-yet Christians. Such a worldview takes ecology and politics seriously. It offers a positive response to the workplace, the arts, feminism, mystery and worship. Exiles seeks to develop a framework that will allow Christians to live boldly and courageously in a world that no longer values the culture of the church, but does greatly value many of the things the Bible speaks positively about. This book suggests that there us more to being a Christian than meets the eye. It explores the secret, unseen nooks and crannies in the life of a Christian and suggests that faith is about more than church attendance and belief in God. Written in a conversational, easy-to-read style, Exiles is aimed at church leaders, pastors and laypersons and seeks to address complex issues in a simple manner. It includes helpful photographs and diagrams. |
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The Ministry of the Missional Church: A Community Led by the Spirit |
In a time when churches are focusing on finding strategies and techniques to guarantee success, a movement toward the missional church is emerging. Missional churches are communities created by the Spirit with a unique nature and identity. Purpose and strategies of the church are derivative dimensions, the activities that flow naturally from the church that is focused on Spirit-led ministry. The Ministry of the Missional Church leads pastors, ministry leaders, and laypersons through three simple argumentsthe church is; the church does what it is; the church organizes what it doesin order to make sense of how missional churches work. And by focusing the work of the church as the work of the Triune God, this unique book will change the way readers think about the church and the world. Join the missional church conversation Theres a different kind of church conversation going on these daysone that moves beyond just focusing on purpose, strategies, or recovering early church practices. Craig Van Gelder argues that understanding the nature of the church is foundational for clarifying the purpose of the church and for developing and organizing its ministry. Moving beyond methods and techniques to create or sustain church growth, Van Gelder shows that when a church is focused on Spirit-led ministry, growth and development are the natural outcome. The Ministry of the Missional Church brings together theology and organizational theory in a way that inspires biblical and theological imagination about how to let the church be the churcha Spirit-led, missional community that seeks to participate fully in Gods mission in its particular place in the world. Van Gelder is a master at mapping the history of social structures and ideas. Here he applies that mastery to the missional activities and organizational structures of the church, framing the complex of dynamics in which leadership and decision making take place. This is an important resource for anyone who cares about the future of congregations in America.George R. Hunsberger, professor of congregational mission, Western Theological Seminary This is no mere cookbook for effective ministry, nor is it a self-help manual for struggling ministers. It is rather a richly biblical and theological meditation on how the church should minister to the world, and how ministers should minister in the church. Craig Van Gelder skillfully joins the best theology with the best organizational theory in a way that will help leaders lead and congregations grow. His book takes us to the next level in understanding what it is to be a missional church.Stephen Bevans, Louis J. Luzbatek, SVD Professor of Mission and Culture, Catholic Theological Union Craig Van Gelder serves as professor of congregational mission at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the author of The Essence of the Church and the editor of Confident WitnessChanging World. | |
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The Missional Church in Context: Helping Congregations Develop Contextual Ministry |
There is an increasing realization in American churches that they are now their own mission field. In light of this awakening, many conversations have begun and work been contributed toward a solution. The Missional Church in Context addresses the realization and offers new insights. Based on the first annual Missional Church Consultation hosted by Luther Seminary, this book is organized into two sections. The first section consists of four essays explore the engagement of the missional church in relation to contextualization. Contributors explore biblical, theological, and historical dimensions regarding how the church is to engage in ministry within and to a specific cultural context. The second section examines four case studies in order to provide readers with concrete examples of how missional understanding of the church can be brought to bear on particular denominations and particular contexts. The Missional Church in Context will extend the conversation by taking it in new directions, while maintaining the foundations of what it means to be the church of Jesus Christ in the world. | |
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The Continuing Conversion of the Church |
Western society is now a very different, very difficult mission field. This insightful book shows how the church can more effectively carry out its missionary calling by building a new theology of evangelism for today's world. After charting the church's historical shift away from a biblical theology of evangelism and highlighting the contemporary challenges to evangelical ministry, Darrell Guder discusses what a truly missional theology will mean for the current institutional structures and practices of the church. | |
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The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church |
Alan Hirsch is convinced that the inherited formulas for growing the Body of Christ do not work anymore. And rather than relying on slightly revised solutions from the past, he sees a vision of the future growth of the church coming about by harnessing the power of the early church, which grew from as few as 25,000 adherents in AD 100 to up to 20 million in AD 310. Such incredible growth is also being experienced today in the church in China and other parts of the world. How do they do it? The Forgotten Ways explores the concept of Apostolic Genius as a way to understand what caused the church to expand at various times in history, interpreting it for use in our own time and place. From the theological underpinnings to the practical application, Hirsch takes the reader through this dynamic mixture of passion, prayer, and incarnational practice to rediscover the dormant potential of the modern church in the West. | |
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Church for the Unchurched |
CHURCH FOR THE UNCHURCHED A rebirth of the apostolic way. This work shows that there is an apostolic way for a congregation to live out the gospel. This book calls for revolution--the revolution that must take place if the churches in America are to thrive and to fulfill the Great Commission. Church for the Unchurched is about the "abolition" of the laity. God's dream for his church from the earliest time has been that we practice the priesthood of all believers, that we be a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6). In its first 300 years of history, the church had no clergy. Rather, it was made up of believers who understood they were to be apostles, sent on mission by the living Christ. With the phenomenal growth of that early church, both numerically and in influence, two classes of Christians emerged, leaders and spectators. The spectators were supposed to learn sound doctrine, to pray, sing, listen to sermons, and pay the bills. But when the question is asked, as it often is, "Why doesn't the church do something about...," "the church" is synonymous with "the clergy." This book studies a number of apostolic congregations from various traditions and assorted geographical locations that are successfully reaching the unchurched. It is full of recipes that any serious congregation could copy and use. Reading this book could result in a Copernican revolution in the church-the empowerment of the laity. | |
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Winning on Purpose: How to Organize Congregations to Succeed in Their Mission |
Do you really want the mission to succeed? Are you prepared to live within clear boundaries? Are you ready to align yourself with a greater purpose? Do you have what it takes? Winning on Purpose, by Dr. John E. Kaiser, offers leaders a way to organize congregations for success by creating structures that enable church life and health. The book sets forth a strategy of Accountable Leadership, which brings together standards for mission, boundaries, and accountability. It then shows how these standards come to life through four key players: the board, the pastor, the staff, and the congregation. | |
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We Are Here Now: A New Missional Era |
Pat Keifert has experiences as pastor, theologian and consultant. He works at the intersection of those perspectives in this primer on leadership and transformation for churches that want to attend to God’s initiatives in the world. While Keifert is not enamored with the language of “post–” whatever, he is an informed guide concerning what is different, challenging, sometimes traumatizing, and perhaps invigorating about these decades that he calls a “New Missional Era.” In addition to providing historical perspectives and an orientation to recent missiological/theological resources, he also goes to the heart of why and how churches and their leaders too often encounter confusion, denial and missteps in their efforts. Especially important is the framework that he develops after discussing the difference between organizational change and cultural change. If a few leaders are committed to significant congregational change, the process is neither predictable nor controllable – but there are on-the-ground practices of attentiveness and experiments that can make a substantive and hopeful journey for those ready to embrace the risk. Keifert believes that theology matters – that we can be genuine participants in the Trinity’s initiatives. Keifert also believes that we can be shaped by scripture and Holy Spirit, by attention to each other and neighbor. And, as discernment and experiments and conversations and appropriate planning are implemented, a people called a church can find themselves living with new wisdom, competencies and hope. For those who want knowledgeable sources, Keifert draws on some of the best – Everett Rogers, Ronald Heifetz, George Lakoff, Paul Ricoeur. Also, we hear the best of recent theological/missiological conversations – Newbigin, Bosch, Sanneh, Schreiter. (I would have liked footnotes, but the bibliography is helpful.) For pastors and other church leaders who want a lay-of-the-land for cultural change in their churches, We Are Here Now provides a map and some primary resources. Keifert’s is the second book offered by ACI Publishers (following Alan Roxburgh’s The Sky Is Falling: Leaders Lost in Transition); this indicates a new phase of maturity and engagement for the missional church conversation. For those who want additional assistance, this book connects with tools offered by Church Innovations. Those of us who are working in churches and other organizations need each other for stories, insights and courage. Keifert is a remarkable partner for the journey. | |
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In Search of the Unchurched: Why People Don't Join Your Congregation (Once and Future Church Series) |
What's working and not working in your congregation? You'll explore the factors that inspired and motivated changes to reverse decline as other congregations wrestled with the same issues you're facing: ministry to current members, ministry to the unchurched, worship, changing neighborhoods, and more. | |
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Stepping Forward: Synagogue Visioning and Planning |
Drawing on his extensive and fruitful consulting work in diverse synagogue contexts, Alban senior consultant Robert Leventhal presents his Synagogue Visioning and Planning (SVP) model to a wider audience for the first time. Using this substantial yet accessible model, Leventhal has helped numerous congregations with visioning and planning, leadership development, and team building. | |
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Tribal Church: Ministering to the Missing Generation |
Many churches are seeking ways to reach out to the younger generations. Unfortunately this often manifests as either a “come be just like us!” attitude—suggesting an unwillingness to change in order to be inclusive of young people—or as a slick marketing campaign that targets young adults in much the same way secular advertising does. Both of these approaches often leave young adults feeling that their particular spiritual gifts and needs are unwanted by the church. “We only want you for your demographics” is the message given. | |
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How to Implement the 3 Colors of Ministry |
This book is one of three implementation resources to be used with the main text, The 3 Colors of Ministry. Specifically it is for the leaders in a church who have responsibility for supervising the implementation of The 3 Colors of Ministry approach to spiritual gift development. The book The 3 Colors of Ministry is written for individual Christians. It aims to promote self-discovery and motivation to act in the area of spiritual gifts. This is in accord with the NCD principle of stimulating "all by itself" growth within believers and churches. It is therefore difficult to write a book such as "How to Implement…" because of the risk that pastors will resort to using The 3 Colors of Ministry in a very programmatic way, with the attendant emphasis on controlling rather than releasing. | |
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How to Use the 3 Colors of Ministry |
This book is one of three implementation resources to be used with the main text, The 3 Colors of Ministry. Specifically it is for the leaders in a church who have responsibility for supervising the implementation of The 3 Colors of Ministry approach to spiritual gift development. The book The 3 Colors of Ministry is written for individual Christians. It aims to promote self-discovery and motivation to act in the area of spiritual gifts. This is in accord with the NCD principle of stimulating "all by itself" growth within believers and churches. It is therefore difficult to write a book such as "How to Implement…" because of the risk that pastors will resort to using The 3 Colors of Ministry in a very programmatic way, with the attendant emphasis on controlling rather than releasing. | |
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44 Steps Up Off the Plateau |
"Lyle E. Schaller defines a ""plateau"" as a stagnant holding point in the size and energy of a congregation - a level at which energy is focused entirely on maintenance of past structures. He shows how to move an established congregation up off a plateau. The three most important steps up off the plateau are quality, responsiveness, and productivity. This important guide by America's most influential religious leader also contains 44 handles to organize information." | |
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Innovations in Ministry: Models for the Twenty-First Century (Ministry for the Third Millennium) |
Asserting that the good news greatly exceeds the bad news, Innovations in Ministry celebrates what's working in American Protestantism. Lyle E. Schaller identifies the new, emerging models for ministry, with heavy emphasis on paradigm shifts toward laity driven ministries, which include: (1) market-driven "niched" ministry to reach diverse populations; (2) ownership and initiative in ministry; and (3) regional definitions of church. The purpose of this book is found in chapter 5: A new partnership that redefines the role of denominations, raises expectations of the laity, and implements the Key Church Strategy (described in chapters 6 and 7). Another strategy similar to the Key Church model is found in chapter 8, where multi-site campuses are investigated. Takes seriously the shift from small, local churches toward large, seven-day-a-week regional churches; presents several dynamic, effective, and successful models of ministry that are emerging within contemporary Protestant churches; contributes a voice of hope to ministers who perceive their churches as threatened or even dying; provides concrete examples of how effective ministry is actually taking place in the contemporary church; and illuminates the "Key Church Strategy" and provides support for those engaged in (or considering) a multi-site basis for ministry. | |
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Looking in the Mirror: Self-Appraisal in the Local Church |
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The Seven-Day-A-Week Church |
With brilliant insight and engaging description, Schaller reveals the reasons behind the worldwide emergence of Seven-Days-a-Week megachurches, which are more likely to be inclusive and pluralistic while small churches are more likely to be homogeneou | |
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Center City Churches: The New Urban Frontier (Ministry for the Third Millennium Series) |
Since the 1950s, conventional wisdom has insisted that ciries are not supportive environments for large, active missionary churches...[H]owever, church growth expert, Lyle Schaller debunks this myth. In fact, states Schaller, research shows that more than one-half of the largest Protestant congregations in the United States are to be found in the large central cities-as are more than on-half of the forty fastest growing Protestant churches. | |
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The 3 Colors of Love |
Love. It is one of the most central words of Christian theology, and yet one of the foggiest words on planet earth. Many Christians who use this term communicate a clearly secular understanding rather than a fully biblical concept. Sometimes it almost seems that as Christians we haven't even really begun to grasp the full scope of the biblical concept of love, let alone put it into practice. But what is the biblical understanding of love? When you choose to grow in love, you are not dealing with a weekend hobby that may be of interest to you, but others can safely ignore. You are dealing with the heart of the Christian faith. At the same time you are dealing with the heart of church development. The motive of church development is love, the message is love, and it is empirically demonstrable that there is no better church growth method than love. This book focuses on the three fundamental dimensions of God's love that every believer can reflect in his or her life: justice, truth and grace. Depending on your starting point, your personal growth path may be very different to someone else's. The 3 Colors of Love offers practical tools to help you identify your starting point and experience the revolutionary power of God's unconventional love in your life. | |
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Color Your World with Natural Church Development: experiencing all that God has designed you to be |
With Natural Church Development, Christian A. Schwarz has introduced a fascinating approach to church growth that really works and has been accepted all over the world. Now he shows how the biblically-based principles of Natural Church Development can also be a blessing for the spiritual development of the individual believer. Color Your World is a powerful, graphically-written book for people who seek to live out their faith with balance and passion. It also serves as the ideal introduction for Pastors and Lay Leaders looking to engage in the NCD process. | |
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How to Study the 3 Colors of Ministry |
This book is one of three implementation resources to be used with the main text The 3 Colors of Ministry. Specifically it is for the small group leaders in a church who are introducing The 3 Colors of Ministry approach to spiritual gift development into their groups. A key element of Natural Church Development is exploring the power of the Trinitarian faith in the lives of believers. One way of doing this is to explore the spiritual gifts of group members through a Trinitarian framework. This book is designed to achieve that, doing what Christian Schwarz describes as "helping add new dimensions to existing groups". | |
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Natural Church Development: A Guide to Eight Essential Qualities of Healthy Churches |
Critics of the church growth movement have often emphasized the need for quality congregations. We should not focus on numerical growth, but rather, we should concentrate on qualitative growth. Christian Schwarz has done extensive research world-wide and found that healthy, growing churches seem to share eight quality characteristics. These characteristics are: *Empowering leadership *Gift-oriented ministry *Passionate spirituality *Functional structures *Inspiring worship service *Holistic small groups *Need-oriented evangelism *Loving relationships Schwarz uses the illustration of a barrel with eight staves to symbolize the eight quality characteristics. The barrel can only hold water to the height of the lowest stave. So too, Schwarz argues, a church can only grow as far as their 'Minimum factor,' which is the lowest of the eight quality characteristics in their church. He challenges churches to resist the temptation to work on improving areas in which they already excel, for by doing this they do not increase their minimum factor or their church quality. This revised version of Natural Church Development now includes Schwarz's "3 Colors" teaching. About the Author Christian A. Schwarz is the founder and president of the INstitute for Natural CHurch Development (NCD International). His books on theology and practical church development have been published in more than 40 languages. | |
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The 3 Colors of Ministry : A Trinitarian Approach to Identifying and Developing Your Spiritual Gifts |
Would you like to use your spiritual gifts to their full potential? The 3 Colors of Ministry presents a holistic approach to identifying and developing your spiritual gifts. It is based on the three dimensions of God's nature, for which the author has chosen the colors of green, red and blue. In addition to emphasizing the critical importance of using your gifts in an authentically trinitarian way, this book shows you where you most need to focus your energies in order to bring this kind of balance to your Christian service. The natural result will be increased effectiveness. A gift test is included with this resource. | |
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Churches That Make a Difference: Reaching Your Community with Good News and Good Works |
Churches over the past generations have been weakened by a failure to meet both the physical and spiritual needs of their communities. Many have adopted a narrow vision, focusing on only one aspect of ministry. But in today's environment of faith-based opportunities many Christians are eager to start reaching out to their world with both Good News and good works, and therefore they are searching for appropriate ways to integrate both into their ministry. In Churches That Make a Difference, best-selling author Ron Sider and his coauthors give those involved in community outreach a comprehensive resource for developing holistic ministry-a balance of evangelism and social outreach. Illustrations and helpful organizational tips detail the how-to's of an effective holistic ministry. User-friendly tools are included as well for congregational studies, surveys, evaluations, and community assessments. The authors draw on extensive experience with church ministries and faith-based organizations as they share the life-changing vision and biblical mandate for living the whole gospel. Church leaders will be encouraged in their process of developing and maintaining a holistic ministry, and local churches will rediscover a passion for loving the whole person the way Jesus did. | |
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Winning Grants to Strengthen Your Ministry |
Ministry leaders possess the compassion, creativity, and knowledge about community needs that grant funders appreciate. Yet ministry groups are often less experienced than other types of nonprofit organizations in discerning which funding to seek, understanding how to build relationships with funders, and putting together proposals. This book offers a pathway to strengthening new and existing ministries. | |
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Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community |
Across North America, many pastors are excited to see churches growing as they achieve their mission to connect the message of the gospel with the community at large. Still others are equally frustrated, following the exact same model for outreach but with lesser results. Indeed, just because a "missional breakthrough" occurs in one place doesn't mean it will happen the same way elsewhere. One size does not fit all, but there are cultural codes that must be broken for all churches to grow and remain effective in their specific mission context. Breaking the Missional Code provides expert insight on church culture and church vision casting, plus case studies of successful missional churches impacting their communities. "We have to recognize there are cultural barriers (in addition to spiritual ones) that blind people from understanding the gospel," the authors write. "Our task is to find the right way to break through those cultural barriers without removing the spiritual and theological ones.". | |
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The Multi-Site Church Revolution: Being One Church in Many Locations |
This book captures the story of a widespread movement of churches that are expanding their ministries to include multiple formats, venues, and locations, using dozens of in-the-trenches examples, identifying the primary reasons churches succeed as well as how they overcome common snags on the route to one churchmany congregations." Fueled by a desire to reach people for Christ, a revolution is underway. Churches are growing beyond the limitations of a single service in one building. Expanding the traditional model, they are embracing the concept of one church with more than one site: multiple congregations sharing a common vision, budget, leadership, and board. Drawing from the examples of churches nationwide, The Multi-Site Church Revolution shows what healthy multi-site churches look like and what motivates congregations to make the change. Discover how your church can: cast a vision for change ensure a successful DNA transfer (vision and core values) to its new site develop new leaders fund new sites adapt to structure and staffing change use technology to support your worship services Youll identify the reasons churches succeed and how they overcome common snags. The Multi-Site Church Revolution offers guidance, insights, and specific action steps as well as appendixes with practical leadership resources and self-diagnostic tools. | |
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The Church of All Ages: Generations Worshiping Together |
Many congregations today experience collisions between parents who ant to spend time with their children and age-segregated church programming, as well as between the children worshiping in their pews and the increasing number of seniors in the same pew. Among the questions these congregations struggle to address are these: Should we try to hold the generations together when we worship/ Is it even possible? Led by pastor and resource developer Howard Vanderwell, nine writers--pastors, teachers, worship planners, and others serving in specialized ministries--offer their reflections on issues congregational leaders need to address as they design their worship ministry. In addition, numerous sidebars illustrate the diversity of practices in the church today. Contributors do not propose easy answers or instant solutions. Rather, they guide readers as they craft ministries and practices that fit their own community, heritage, and history. Each chapter includes questions for reflection and group discussion, and an appendix provides guidelines for small group use. The thread that connects these varied contributions is the belief that there is no greater privilege for Christians than worshiping God, and there is no better way to do that than as an intergenerational community in which all are important and all encourage and nurture the faith of the others. | |
| Worship-Multimedia | |||
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Multi-Sensory Together |
15 complete sessions of creative Bible exploration for small groups with material from both the Old and the New Testaments. Practical and easy to follow directions with a flexible menu approach. Suitable for small groups, church services, youth groups and special services | |
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Multi-Sensory Parables Due: June 2008 |
Fresh, innovative, imaginative, inspirational - this collection of 15 complete sessions will breathe life into your understanding of the parables of Jesus in your church service, small group or youth group. Practical and easy-to-follow directions will help you make the most of exploring the Bible text together, with activities that appeal to a wide range of learning styles. Uses a flexible menu approach, with sessions that stand alone or can be used to create a series. Fully photocopiable. | |
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Multi-Sensory Parables Due: June 2008 |
15 ready-to-use sessions on God's messengers - for creative churches and small groups Fresh, innovative, imaginative, inspirational - this collection of 15 complete sessions will breathe life into your understanding of the prophets in your church service, small group or youth group. Practical and easy-to-follow directions will help you make the most of exploring the Bible text together, with activities that appeal to a wide range of learning styles. Flexible menu approach, with sessions that stand alone or can be used to create a series. Fully photocopiable. Contents 1. Moses: The pattern for the prophets - Duteronomy 13:1-5; 18:14-22 2. Samuel: The listening prophet - 1 Samuel 3:1 - 4:1 3. Elijah: The fighting prophet - 1 Kings 17:1 - 19:18 4. Elisha: The confident prophet - 2 Kings 5:1 - 8:6 5. Isaiah: The royal prophet - Isaiah 6, 36, 37, 38, 39 6. Isaiah: The messianic prophet - Isaiah 40; 52:13 - 53:12 7. Jeremiah: The prophet of judgement - Jeremiah 1 8. Jeremiah: The weeping prophet - Lamentations 3 9. Jeremiah: The prophet of hope - Jeremiah 29 - 33 10. Daniel: The dreaming prophet - Daniel 7 11. Hosea: The forgiving prophet - Hosea 11 12. Amos: The prophet of social justice - Amos 2:6-16; 5:1-17 13. Malachi: The prophet of diversion and distraction - Malachi 1 - 4 14. John the Baptist: The prophet from the wilderness - Luke 3:1-20; 7:18-35 15. Agabus and beyond: Prophecy in the Church - Acts 21:7-15; 1Corinthians 11:2-16; 14 | |
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Multi-Sensory Message Due: June 2008 |
Fresh, innovative, imaginative, inspirational - this collection of complete sessions and varied additional ideas will breathe life into your understanding of mission in services and group settings. Practical and easy-to-follow directions will help you make the most of exploring the Bible text together, with activities that appeal to a wide range of learning styles: everything from games and drama to meditation and music - and more! Nine complete sessions plus loads of additional varied activities and easy to follow directions will appeal to a range of learning styles. Produced in partnership with the interdenominational Christian missions agency Interserve who have contributed expertise and case study material. | |
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Multi-Sensory Seasons |
15 sessions for small groups that can be used any time or tied in to the church calendar with material from both the Old and the New Testaments. Practical and easy to follow directions with a flexible menu approach | |
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Multi-Sensory Church |
Following on from the success of Multi-Sensory Prayer, this great photocopiable resource book has new ideas for prayers using more than just reading and writing. | |
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Multi-Sensory Prayer |
What on earth have candles, autumn leaves, magazines, sandpits, pebbles, seeds, mirrors and labyrinths got in common? Well, the answer is they can all help you pray. | |
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Multi-Sensory Scripture |
The Bible is life-giving and life-changing! As we explore it with creativity and imagination which touch all the senses, we release it to richly impact our lives. This book contains 50 creative and practical ideas for using different senses to expand understanding of the Bible. | |
| Worship-Preaching | |||
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Choosing the Kingdom: Missional Preaching for the Household of God |
Today the Christian faith is moving through one of the greatest sea changes in its two thousand year history, and we can no longer assume we know exactly what kind of animal preaching is or ought to be. Choosing the Kingdom is both a work of theology and a how-to guide for preachers who want to rethink both the form and the content of their preaching to move a congregation from maintenance to mission. As a post-Christendom church reorients itself toward the mission of God, what might preaching look like? If we're truly living through one of the great sea changes in the history of the Christian faith, can preaching remain the same? Do we speak as bureaucrats in an imperial hierarchy, anticipating automatic acceptance of our message, or as servants of the reign of God, bringing news of God's activity in history as fresh as today's headlines? Is the announcement of the gospel a demand for submission or an invitation to wisdom? Choosing the Kingdom explores these issues and offers an entirely new orientation to sermon preparation. It offers concrete suggestions for a reconception of preaching for those whose imaginations have already been captured by the possibilities inherent in a missional identity. | |
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When God Speaks through You: How Faith Convictions Shape Preaching and Mission |
"Holy and active listening" means listening openly and attentively to one another with the expectation that God will speak in and through the conversation. In When God Speaks through You, homiletics professor Craig Satterlee helps preachers and their congregations learn to listen to one another with such grace. Satterlee demonstrates how individuals and groups can identify, clarify, and articulate their convictions about the Christian faith and share them in a nonthreatening manner. He also helps readers discover their expectations of and reactions to preaching itself. The preacher will come to better know what people listen for, and parishioners will better understand what the preacher hopes to accomplish in the sermon. Creating discussion groups about preaching frequently results in spiritual growth, renewal, deeper appreciation for difference, new perspective, and motivation for the preacher and the discussion group members and, through them, the congregation. These conversations can prepare congregations for broader conversation about how people's faith convictions shape both their lives and the congregation's worship, life together, and mission. | |
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Preaching Ethically: Being True to the Gospel, Your Congregation, and Yourself |
How do clergy preach to meet the legitimate needs of their congregation and live up to standards of professionalism and personal integrity? Preaching Ethically offers guidelines for preaching in light of a range of factors that might tempt a preacher to misuse the pulpit. How do you preach about controversial issues? What do you say from the pulpit when your marriage is in trouble? What are the ethics of preaching in times of local or national crisis? How do you draw from resources found on the Internet and elsewhere without plagiarizing or misleading listeners about the source of the materials? How do you write a sermon when you know very little about a subject? Why and how do you feed a congregation a balanced sermonic diet? To be true to ourselves and our calling, says Sisk, we must examine how the many factors that can influence our preaching come into play. the calling to preach to gospel compels us to preach in ways that keep the gospel foremost, treat the congregation fairly, and are true to our own convictions and our personal integrity. From his own twenty years as a parish pastor, his training in Christian ethics, his attempts as a seminary professor to help fledgling pastors grow, and a lifetime of listening to sermons preached ethically and otherwise, Sisk offers the wise counsel found in this book. | |
| Worship-Liturgy | |||
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Introducing the Uncommon Lectionary: Opening the Bible to Seekers and Disciples |
This book lays out the plan for a collection of readings from Scripture designed for the needs of seekers and the unchurched. | |
