Leadership
Showing 451–500 of 579 results
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Emerging Worship : Creating Worship Gatherings For New Generations
$26.99Add to cartWhere are the 18-35 year olds? Churches are aging, and even among mega-churches with all the tech and big crowds there are generations now missing. Churches need to incorporate alternative services for emerging generations! Here’s why: 1) New models and methods are needed for new generations 2) Postmodern ministry requires a different missionary approach 3) Blended services are not generally effective today 4) Intergenerational community does not happen by sitting in the same service 5) Church congregations naturally age and must plan for long-term health and life 6) Sharing facilities honors God and makes wise usage of finances In a very conversational, narrative, and full-of-anecdotes tone (from author Dan Kimball’s own experience at Graceland), he will help guide church leaders on how to create alternative services from start to finish. Kimball will cover areas such as developing a prayer team, evaluating your local mission field and context, determining the leader and vision-based team, why youth pastors are usually ideal staff to start a new service, determining the values will you hold to that will be different from rest of the church, and asking the critical questions before you start. In addition, Kimball offers nine models—-Life-stage outreach service, service for “young adults,” multi-Congregational, teaching Model Approach, video Services with different music, Church within a Church, Church Services that are birthed within and plant, Youth Churches, and Church service plants—as well as several real-life examples of each, so the reader can more easily relate to these models. Finally, several of the profiled church services will appear on a DVD in the back of the book. Here’s an outline: Starting New Services within Your Church For Emerging Generations Chapter 1: The problem today: Where are all the 18-35 year olds? Raising the big felt need. Where are the 18-35 year olds? Churches are aging, and even among mega-churches with all the tech and big crowds there are generations now missing. Chapter 2: Reasons why we should start new services within a church Building a case for why these services are good options for churches to explore. 1)New models and methods are needed for new generations 2)Postmodern ministry requires a different missionary approach 3)Blended services are not generally effective today
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Shepherd Leadership : Wisdom For Leaders From Psalm 23
$24.95Add to cartThe Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
He leadeth me bedside the still waters;
He restoreth my soul.Today’s professionals need reliable models to teach them how to become better leaders. In this remarkable book, leadership experts Blaine McCormick and David Davenport introduce us to a new kind of leader by offering a new image of leadership- the leader as shepherd.
Drawing on the wisdom of the timeless Twenty-Third Psalm, King David’s psalm, the authors provide professionals with ancient wisdom for grappling with today’s leadership challenges. Shepherd Leadership offers a much-needed lens through which to consider our own leadership as well as the leadership of those around us. This important book teaches us important lessons about leadership: we can be vigilant without being adversarial, we can serve without being passive, and we can guide without commanding. Shepherd Leadership offers a visionary new model for transforming leadership practices in both corporate and small business settings. This is whole-person leadership. It’s not just a matter of thinking or doing things a certain way. It’s a fully integrated life- a matter of head and hand and heart. It’s a way of thinking and doing and being. -
Take The Next Step
$25.99Add to cartTransformational leaders know how to build on their church’s identity. They know how to make the story of change the next chapter in the book of the congregation’s life, rather than throwing the book away and trying to start over. An astute student of management and leadership theory, Weems offers congregational leaders essential insights into how they can bring about authentic and faithful growth. Includes congregational case studies, visual illustrations of key ideas, and insights from other leadership experts.
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Developing The Leaders Around You Workbook (Workbook)
$17.99Add to cartDr. John C. Maxwell is committed to more than just being a leader_he’s also committed to nurturing and mentoring thousands of potential leaders around him. This passion is what caused him to found INJOY and EQUIP, and it is the driving force in his ministry. Both practical and inspirational, Developing the Leaders Around You is crammed with strategies that help you effectively transform your goals into reality by building leadership in the people around you. Emphasizing that an organization can’t grow until its members grow, Dr. Maxwell encourages readers to foster a productive team spirit, make difficult decisions, handle confrontation, and to nurture, encourage, and equip people to be leaders.
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Empowered Church Leadership
$25.99Add to cartIVP Print On Demand Title
Have you been guiding your church using secular marketing ideas and leadership strategies? Instead, Dodd issues a clarion call for pastors and laypersons to build their ministries on the New Testament apostolic principles of prayer, followership, partnership, servanthood, and willingness to run against the current. Learn to lead where God wants you to go.
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From Pastor To Pastor
$9.99Add to cart25 Chapters
Additional Info
From Pastor to Pastor provides encouragement for pastors from someone who knows what it’s like to go through the trials and the triumphs of the job. Part memoir, part devotional, these reflections will help both new and experienced pastors improve their leadership skills as they learn from the reflections of a pastor who’s been in ministry for over 20 years. -
They Smell Like Sheep
$17.99Add to cartJesus the Good Shepherd did not lead his flock from a distance; he got dirty with their problems and struggles. And that, says Anderson, is the only kind of leadership that will move the church forward in the new millennium. The practical leadership principles he shares will help you become the effective leader you’re meant to be!
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Leader As Communicator
$19.95Add to cartIn turbulent times, the ability to communicate with power and purpose becomes a crucial leadership competency. Smart executives realize that leadership communication isn’t a matter of “making nice,” but a strategic necessity. Organized around an original model defining the important communication roles a leader must fill, The Leader as Communicator examines roles as diverse as trust-builder and critic, renewal champion and navigator, learning advocate and provocateur. The book presents case studies of organizations including Cadillac, Emerson, and Saturn, plus dozens of other examples. Packed with strategies and tactics showing how leaders can shape the communications climate of their organizations, the book culminates with assessment exercises that let readers measure their own communication skills. This insightful book demonstrates how to become a stronger, more confident leader — one who can use communication to build alignment, enthusiasm, and productivity.
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Executive Values : A Christian Approach To Organizational Leadership
$16.99Add to cartWhat does it really take to add lasting value to your organization today? In Executive Values, Kurt Senske demonstrates how Christian values support long term organizational success. This original and practical guide provides Christian leaders with a game plan for Christ-centered leadership that stresses the development of a healthy organizational culture, values-based strategic planning, mentoring, and balancing professional and personal lives. Executive Values is a must for leaders who want to add lasting value to organizations, employees, customers, shareholders, and constituents, and to society at large. Now, perhaps more than ever, Christian values in leadership practices can help navigate the post-September 11, post-Enron marketplace.
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17 Indisputable Laws Of Teamwork (Workbook)
$19.99Add to cartWhether leading in business, church, sports, or in your family, teamwork is essential. In this new book, John Maxwell walks readers through the various laws of leadership showing the importance of working together.
Everyone who works with people is realizing that the old autocratic method of leadership simply doesn’t work. The way to win is to build a great team.
John C. Maxwell has been teaching the benefits of leadership and team building for years. Now he tackles the importance of teamwork head on, writing about teamwork being necessary for every kind of leader, and showing how team building can improve every area of your life.Written in the style of the bestseller The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, this new book not only contains laws that you can count on when it comes to getting people to work together, but it tells them in such a way that you can start applying them to your own life today. And it’s illustrated with great stories of team leaders – and team breakers – from history, business, the church, and sports.
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Who Am I
$26.99Add to cartThe great British historian Arnold Toynbee emphasized that “God revealed himself through human history,” and he related that to leaders. That is true-God is calling his people for his kingdom and glory on the earth. When God called Abram, Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, and Saul, they all obeyed him. Leaders are important. They determine the future and human history. Our society needs spiritual leaders because they teach us God’s will. In this complicated, immoral society, true leaders are essential for spiritual movement and cultural improvement. What is spirituality? It is not Plato’s dualism, which classifies the body and spirit. But it does include the total personality. Christian spirituality represents a deep relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ-a spiritual, deep, meaningful experience with God.
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Apostles : Spiritual Fathers To The Church
$13.49Add to cartDr. Michael Pangio presents a fresh look at the ministry of the apostle as a spiritual father. In this book you will discover biblical principles that are essential to releasing and receiving the blessing of God upon your life and ministry. As you examine the truths revealed in this book, you will learn about: Building God’s way Apostles: spiritual fathers to the body of Christ Biblical parenting principles, and the release of “the blessing” David and Solomon, the pattern for spiritual fathers and sons The lasting influence of the apostle Faithful to the house You may reach Dr. Pangio for ministry and leadership training by contacting him at: Phone: (724) 962-2232 E-mail: mikepangio@worldnet.att.net Or you may write to: Dr. Michael Pangio 6993 RonJoy Place Boardman, Ohio 44512 U.S.A
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Unexpected Journey : Reflections On Pastoral Ministry
$26.00Add to cartJ. Philip Wogaman offers candid reflections on his service as Senior Minister at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C.- an unexpected journey that he began at the age of sixty – following a career as an ethics professor. Wogaman chronicles the task he faced as a new pastor, tasks with which every pastor deals-effective and faithful preaching, balancing pastoral and prophetic roles, presenting the church to the public media, dealing with prominent church members, and addressing stewardship. He also discusses the challenges of succeeding a long-loved pastor who departed under a cloud, the responsibilities of pasturing to a president, and his efforts to balance the roles of a pastor against such a dramatic backdrop. Identifying his own successes and mistakes, Wogaman provides fresh insights on parish ministry that are sure to become guideposts for all pastors.
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Projects That Matter
$26.00Add to cartProjects That Matter is a primer for project leaders and teams about basic project planning and evaluation. Intended for the nonexpert, the book introduces readers to the five basic elements of project design and describes in detail a six-step process for designing and implementing a project evaluation and for disseminating evaluation findings. Project leaders in congregations, colleges and seminaries, camps and other specialized ministries, and other religious settings will find Cahalan’s guidance clear and invaluable.
Cahalan presents evaluation as a form of collaborative inquiry and shows how leaders can use evaluation design to develop effective project plans and prepare case statements for donors or grant proposals for foundations. She introduces project planning and evaluation as mission-related practices and invites leaders to consider how their tradition’s particular mission and beliefs influence the way they plan and evaluate. In the final chapter, she makes explicit her own theological presuppositions-that the virtues of discernment, stewardship, and prudence are essential for good project planning and evaluation. Foreword by Craig Dykstra.
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Leading The Way
$18.99Add to cartIVP Print On Demand Title
As we enter a new millennium, there is a growing vacuum of leadership among the younger generation. The need is great for young men and women who will rise to the challenge-in the face of great opportunities and great obstacles-to be obedient to the call of leadership. This is the rallying call Paul Borthwick puts forth in Leading The Way. He asserts that leadership is not just reserved for those with the right education, abilities, status or background. Rather, God is calling all young Christians who have the vision and responsibility to persevere, to fill this growing leadership vacuum.
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Fire Inside : Keys To Accessing Passion Purpose And Destiny
$24.95Add to cartKeys to Accessing Passion Purpose and Destiny by James L. Giles It is scientifically proven that humans use only ten percent or less of the capacity of their brains. Could it also be true that they only use a mere ten percent of their hidden talents and potential? Is there a potential world-class gift or talent inside every human on earth? Can greatness be buried under timidity, fear of risk, lack of courage, fear of adventure, lack of discipline, or lack of interest in maximizing one’s potential. Is there a process for discovering the gift or genius inside you? Can everyone bypass mediocrity and underachievement? Having conducted over twenty-five years of research, James Giles releases powerful new information and strategies to help individuals search, discover, develop and master their talent and genius. Discover your Fire Inside and accomplish your predestined greatness for God’s Glory. Furthermore, you will learn about the force of creativity, the steps to becoming a master learner and the phenomenon of genius. After reading this book, you will learn that God has fully equipped you to stoke that fire inside of you. Some refer to it as a calling, purpose or destiny. However you put it, God puts every person on the earth to achieve something noteworthy. However, don’t confuse achievement with celebrity or fame. A celebrity is someone who is famous for being famous. Instead I am talking about something much deeper, the fire inside, in the deepest part of you. It burns with unquenchable intensity. Every cell in your being is consumed with the passion for something. It may be music, physics, poetry, painting, architecture, teaching, writing, parenting, cooking, writing software, starting a company, running for congress, building a great church, becoming the top salesperson in the company you work for or any one of a thousand other things. This is not simply a wish or fantasy. You have a raging fire inside that will not leave you alone. You must respond or pay a dear price. That’s because God has created you to succeed. He has endowed you with amazing capacities and made available to you the miraculous force of faith. accomplish what was predestined for you. In this book, you will learn about these amazing capabilities that God has given you so that you can achieve your destiny. You will learn about the power of your magnificent brain, your marvelous mind, your powerful memory. You will learn about your intelligence and giftedness.
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On Purpose Leadership
$15.99Add to cart22 Chapters
Additional Info
After 20 books and three decades of developing innovative, need-meeting ministries, Galloway is recognized as one who trains the leaders of leaders of leaders. Now he offers the best of his best on multiplying your effectiveness through others. Building on Christ’s own model, he offers powerful insights for encouraging, equipping, and reproducing lay leadership. -
Biblical Role Of Elders For Todays Church
$14.99Add to cartNEW TESTAMENT LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES FOR EQUIPPING ELDERS
What is an elder?
What qualifies an elder?
What is an elder’s responsibility?
How are elders chosen and trained?
How can a leader and a team work in unity?
How does a team deal with discipline issues in the church?
How do you resolve eldership team conflicts?
Find answers for these questions and more! Discover how every member of the body of Christ is affected and empowered for ministry when elders give healthy oversight to the church. This biblical model communicates the family character of the church as teams of servant-leaders equip, protect and love the local church.Complete with evaluation questionnaires, sabbatical guidelines, sample church by-laws, keys to developing a vision statement, biblical steps to make godly decisions, maintaining a leader’s health, and much more.
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Making Of A Vision
$24.99Add to cartThe development and encouragement of Christian leaders has been a hallmark of Frank Damazio’s ministry. In The Making Of A Vision he tackles the breathtaking goal of imparting virtually all the steps necessary for understanding and achieving one’s vision, to discerning and pursuing one’s own vision, and on through implementation and impartation, this is a masterful teaching guide. Extensive scriptural references enrich this ambitious outline. Leaders at every level of ministry will find this challenging and rewarding.
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Power Of Spiritual Alignment
$13.99Add to cart1. First Seek The Kingdom Aligning Your Priorities
2. First Remove The Log From Your Own Eye Aligning Your Attitudes
3. First Be Reconciled To Your Brother Aligning Your Relationships
4. First Bind The Strong Man Aligning Your Authority
5. First The Greatest Commandment Aligning Your Heart With Gods
6. First Cleanse The Inside Aligning Your Inner World
7. First Day Of The Week Aligning With His BodyAdditional Info
In a masterwork inspired by seven of Christ’s priorities found in Matthew’s gospel, Frank Damazio challenges the reader who would aspire to be like Jesus and not deviate from His purpose for their life. Discover what Jesus said we must do if we want to align our experiences with His priorities. Learn to enjoy days filled with meaning, not moods: days filled with victory, not just survival. The author invites us to explore the “first things”, which are the core values we need to discover and follow our individual God-given goals. -
Running With The Giants
$30.00Add to cartOld Testament heroes can teach 21st-century believers invaluable lessons about life and leadership—if we’re willing to listen! In this engaging volume, best-selling author and “leadership guru” Maxwell discerns timeless principles from the lives of David (“Overcome adversity!”); Noah (“Don’t fear the impossible!”); Rebekah (“Give and serve generously!”); and others.
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Redeveloping The Congregation
$26.00Add to cartWhat makes it possible for a church to reverse course from decline or stagnation into longlasting vitality? How can a church immigrate from a congealing present into a compelling future? What can a congregation do to experience continuous, deep change rather than just temporary, surface improvement? How does a person lead redevelopment?
The three authors of this book address these and other questions by building on an eight-step framework for lasting change developed by John P. Kotter, noted former professor of organizational behavior at Harvard Business School. His work on organizational change is heralded in the secular world as foundational, and Smith, Sellon, and Grossman have found that his findings hold true for congregations as well.
Each chapter in this book comprises three sections: mentor, companion and coach. The mentor section discusses principles and concepts to be addressed in each of the eight steps; the companion section gives readers a sense of what leading change is actually like for a congregational leader; and the coach section provides specific ways for leaders to develop the unique change processes that will be effective in their church. Foreword by Anthony G. Pappas.
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Apostles : The Fathering Servant
$13.99Add to cartBill Scheidler has illuminated the qualifications and function of an apostle today by approaching the subject from a purely biblical point of view. Apostles compares this biblical view with current apostolic trends found in the church today. If you are a leader or pastor, Apostles will serve as your roadmap to understanding the function of an apostle today.
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Called To Lead
$4.99Add to cartCalled to Lead contains basic information to help council members and committee chairs carry out their leadership roles: the biblical and theological foundations for leadership, how congregations function, the role of the larger church, strategies for effective leadership, the decision-making process, enlisting and encouraging volunteers, dealing with conflict, and maintaining spiritual foundations. The book includes a short course in small group communication.
Who might find it helpful
*Council presidents
*Council members
*Committee chairs -
Bible On Leadership
$18.95Add to cartMillions have been inspired by the Bible’s spiritual lessons. Now, Lorin Woolfe provides a unique way to view the Bible . . . for leadership lessons that can be applied to our modern business world. Consider David’s courage and innovation in slaying Goliath with just a stone and a sling; Moses’ outstanding “”succession planning”” in picking Joshua; Joseph and the political skills that brought him to the seat of power; and of course, Jesus’ compassion, communication skills, and vision that launched Christianity (a long-term success by any measure). These are leaders among leaders. Their achievements — and their inspired methods of achievement — offer a wholly different perspective on business leadership. For the dozens of Biblical stories presented, the book provides: * A concise retelling of each story * One (or more) leadership lessons suggested by each story * Examples of contemporary business leaders who exhibit some of the inspired traits of these ancient leaders, including: Fred Smith of FedEx, Howard Shultz of Starbucks, Tom Chappell of Tom’s of Maine (a “toothpaste with a mission”), Roy Vagelos of Merck, and many more. The chapters cover these universal topics: Courage * Purpose * Communication * Honesty and Integrity * Power and Influence * Performance Management * Team Building * Humility * Compassion * Justice * Encouragement and Consequences * Wisdom * Creating the Future Each topic concludes with a list of key points to keep in mind as readers continue on their own leadership journeys.
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Servants Manual : Christian Leadership For Tomorrow
$16.00Add to cartChristians and their institutions are stuck, says Michael Foss, stuck in the thinking and dilemmas of the past. This short volume is a plea for Christians to rethink their point and purpose in light of larger cultural changes and a crisis in leadership. Foss detects a crisis in leadership in declining rates of church participation, stagnant levels of students preparing for ministry, and burnout among clergy. To energize a new generation of leaders able to transcend yesterday’s thinking, Foss encourages a new style of ecclesial thinking. He first traces the larger cultural shifts that affect the church’s position in the world and styles of leadership. He then diagnoses church thinking as largely reproductive of past successes and ineffective in this new context. Advancing to productive thinking empowers Christians to leave behind the most important and frustrating dichotomies or polarities in today’s church: evangelism vs. social justice, control vs. freedom, growth vs. discipleship. Foss’s model of moving from issues into conversation and then into compassion is a blueprint for new leadership “equipped to think productively for the sake of the reign of our God in the world.” This book is aimed in part at bringing the key ideas and energy of Foss’s earlier book, Power Surge, to a wider audience of concerned Christians, potential leaders for the next generation.
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Difficult But Indispensable Church
$19.00Add to cartWhy is it so difficult to be church today? Of course, Christian community is marked by ennobling worship, mutual care, and joyful celebration. But just as often it is marred by staid routine, insularity, and disagreement over leadership, budgets, ethical stances, or even the shape of congregational prayer itself. Alienation, blame, and power struggles ensue. Is church worth it? In this volume of fresh thinking about life in Christian community, twenty-one theologians from Wartburg Seminary strongly attest to Christ-centered community, offering new views of church as the indispensable site of radical Christian commitment and an essential healer for a hurting world. Reflective churchgoers will find here a virtual theological guide to church renewal. In part 1 the authors show how church can model an alternative vision of community, helping people achieve well-being and health, even as their differences are affirmed. Part 2 gets to the heart of Christian practice through creative discussions of belief, fellowship, encounters with Scripture, preaching, and moral deliberation. Part 3 finds the church in motion in new ways of understanding discipleship and mission near and far. Part 4 shows how a Christ-inspired openness can reveal new perspectives on tough issues of public policy, race and class, and ordination of gays and lesbians. Modeling what they espouse, the authors find unanimity in affirming the strengths of diversity, the unsuspected key to church renewal. Contributors include: James L. Bailey, Karen L. Bloomquist, Norma Cook Everist, Roger W. Fjeld, Ann L. Fritschel, Paul Hill, Peter L. Kjeseth, L. Shannon Jung, Duane H. Larson, Elizabeth A. Leeper, David J. Lull, Craig L. Nessan, James R. Nieman, Daniel L. Olson, Winston Persaud, Duane A. Priebe, Ralph W. Quere, David A. Ramse, Gwen B. Sayler, Thomas H. Schattauer, and H. S. Wilson.
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If It Could Happen Here
$17.99Add to cartIn this informative book, Jeff Patton describes six “levers” for transforming a small-membership church: prayer, discerning a clear vision, indigenous worship, growth groups, membership that means something, and lay pastoring. Filled with solid insights on how the principles Patton has developed can be applied in different contexts, this book will offer hope to all leaders of small-membership congregations who know that there is more to life in Jesus and want to experience it.
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Spiritual Maturity : Preserving Congregational Health And Balance
$19.00Add to cartLike all human bodies, the body of Christ that we call “church” needs to attend to its health or it may become ill. Renowned pastor, preacher, and teacher Frank Thomas believes that many congregations exhibit a number of dysfunctional habits in conducting business that lead to rifts, divides, and even congregational splits. Often they are caused by leadership styles that are ineffective and controling. Thomas examines how poor congregational leadership is often the result of personality conflicts among leaders and how many key leaders–both clergy and lay–participate in keeping unhealthy methods alive. Thomas’s book will help lay and clergy leaders improve the health of their congreagation by taking a close look at the styles of church leadership, methods of information flow, and levels of participation that exist within the body. Thomas offers a holistic solution based on a model of spiritual maturity for creating and preserving a healthy comgregation.
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Pastors Guide To Effective Ministry
$14.99Add to cart12 Chapters
Additional Info
Systematic theology. . . Philosophy of religion. . . Old Testament exegesis. Just about every seminary-trained pastor is educated in these areas. But how about nurturing the congregation? Don’t forget administration of the church and pastoral counseling. And on a more personal note, they must keep their family life in shape, care for their own physical and emotional health, manage their finances, and maintain a pure life and witness.Larry Burkett, Dallas Willard, William Willimon, and Dale Galloway, along with other well-known church leaders, provide solid advice for the personal and professional development of pastors. This book will be a desktop companion for pastors who are in the trenches and facing the day-to-day challenges of ministry.
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5 Dysfuncions Of A Team
$27.00Add to cartIn The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Patrick Lencioni once again offers a leadership fable that is as enthralling and instructive as his first two best-selling books, The Five Temptations of a CEO and The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive. This time, he turns his keen intellect and storytelling power to the fascinating, complex world of teams.
Kathryn Petersen, Decision Tech’s CEO, faces the ultimate leadership crisis: Uniting a team in such disarray that it threatens to bring down the entire company. Will she succeed? Will she be fired? Will the company fail? Lencioni’s utterly gripping tale serves as a timeless reminder that leadership requires as much courage as it does insight.
Throughout the story, Lencioni reveals the five dysfunctions which go to the very heart of why teams even the best ones-often struggle. He outlines a powerful model and actionable steps that can be used to overcome these common hurdles and build a cohesive, effective team. Just as with his other books, Lencioni has written a compelling fable with a powerful yet deceptively simple message for all those who strive to be exceptional team leaders.
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Fling Open The Doors
$26.99Add to cartThe temptation to focus only on their own internal problems and issues is powerful for congregations. Without realizing it, even churches that have a long tradition of outreach and social involvement become centered on issues of institutional survival and preservation. Worst of all are congregations that adopt a “fortress mentality,” addressing the larger community rarely, and only in the “language of Zion” when they do. In this book, Paul Nixon paints a picture of what community-based ministry is all about. Drawing on his experiences within a congregation that has seen twenty-five years of increased worship attendance, he lays out practical steps that churches can take to plant themselves firmly within the lives of the communities they serve. Written with an infectious sense of hope, this book will become a critical tool for church leaders seeking to transform their congregations into outward-looking.
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UnFreezing Moves : Following Jesus Into The Mission Field
$22.99Add to cartAt the dawn of the third millennium two kinds of churches fill the Western landscape: stuck and unstuck. Most Protestant congregations are stuck in the muck and mire of their institutions with little or no movement toward joining Jesus on the mission field. To these “Controllers,” faithfulness means supporting their church and keeping it open. For churches to be faithful to their God-given mission, they need Dreamers who are freed from their slavery to their institutions, freed to live for others on the mission field, and emancipated to function in a constantly changing world. The same can be said for denominations. This book focuses on how to place disciple – making at the core of a church’s identity. He describes four spheres of congregational culture, and he shows how the Dreams can thaw their congregation by using Nine Unfreezing Moves that will unstick any church.
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Jesus The Pastor
$22.99Add to cartThere are times when the best training, the wisest principles, and the most effective procedures break down in the face of the realities of pastoring. How often have you wished not for a method, but a mentor? Someone caring enough to join you in the trenches and wise enough to guide you unerringly through your most impossible problems? A pastors’ pastor. There is such a person: Jesus. Remember his promise never to leave you or forsake you? He’s ready to take it personally if you are. Jesus the Pastor may well be the book that transforms your ministry. Read it if you’re ready to admit that your toolbox of personal resources is limited. And prepare for one of the most wonderful surprises of your life. Because the Good Shepard stands ready to equip you with his power, his insight, his very heart–so you can fulfill with undreamed-of effectiveness the calling he himself placed within you.
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Performance Avenues : Knowing How We Work
$14.99Add to cartAdd to your knowledge of what it is to be a leader, a learner, an innovator, a manager and a promoter.
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Allow you to discover your performance type as determined by your two most dominant performance avenues using the Despard Performance Type Test.
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Help you understand people better and recruit, train and assign them more effectively.
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Demonstrate how to balance and blend your performance avenues and achieve peak performance. -
And You Welcomed Me
$37.99Add to cartThis book presents a collection of early Christian texts regarding hospitality and its practices. The range of experts both in time and space shows just how central a role of hospitality played in Christian life throughout the early centuries. Yet this book is not a set of instructions for hospitality, nor does the word “hospitality” even appear in many of these excerpts, and this in itself is good cause for reflection for us today. The excerpts come from letters, diary accounts, instructions, sermons, travelogues, and community records and rules. They are windows into a world of early communities that saw it as their moral duty and also privilege to care for the sick, to safeguard the pilgrim, and to host the stranger. Abram and Sarai hosting the three angels at Oaks of Mamre, and Jesus and his disciples feeding the crowds are two familiar biblical examples, but this book also delves into lesser know texts that offer rich insight to those willing to read and then integrate the early fathers’ and mothers’ wisdom and hospitality into their own lives.
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Community Ministry : New Challenges Proven Steps To Faith Based Initiatives
$29.00Add to cartIn this era of “faith-based initiatives,” congregations increasingly find themselves in the business of establishing and supporting community ministries-daycare for infants and toddlers, respite care for elders, and programs for housing rehab and home repair, tutoring, and social justice advocacy. In this volume, Carl S. Dudley revises and updates his earlier book, Basic Steps toward Community Ministry, which Loren Mead called “the most valuable book on parish ministry I’ve seen in a decade.”
Once again, Dudley offers guidance for congregational leaders who need to create tools, get started, and take next steps to respond to God’s call to extraordinary ministry in their community. With thought-provoking discussions about congregations as learning organizations, the relationship between ongoing faith formation and social action, examples from outstanding new ministries, and an updated resource list, Dudley rounds out this essential, practical, and readable manual. Foreword by James P. Wind, President of the Alban Institute.
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Moving Beyond Church Growth
$18.00Add to cartAre unrealistic expectations for church growth sapping your morale and putting you at risk of burnout? Do you sense dissension within your congregation? Issuing a clarion call to church leaders for bold new thinking, Olson envisions faith communities that are radically centered on God, profoundly compassionate and engaged, and sustained in relationship.
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Multigenerational Congregation : Meeting The Leadership Challenge
$26.00Add to cartCongregations need to learn new cultural languages and practices in order to speak to and be heard by new generations of people. But how do congregations enter the wilderness of ministry with these new generations when many of those in the entourage do not appreciate the trip?
In contrast to many writers about church growth, Rendle works with three important observations:
Most congregations are not “pure markets,” discrete groups with uniform values and behaviors, that can be targeted to the exclusion of all other audiences;
Some of the differences and discomforts experienced in the congregation are based on the members’ tenure, or length of membership, rather than their age;
Leadership in congregations is not a matter of marketplace savvy but of spiritual authenticity in which we continue to shape our faith tradition to be heard and understood by a changing culture.
Rendle shows us how to talk with and really understand one generational cohort while another cohort is present “looking over one’s shoulder.” Foreword by Lovett H. Weems, Jr., President, Saint Paul School of Theology. -
Raising The Roof
$26.00Add to cartPastoral-to-program size change is frequently described as the most challenging of growth transitions for congregations. Now Alban senior consultant Alice Mann, author of The In-Between Church: Navigating Size Transitions in Congregations, addresses the difficulties of that transition in this resource designed specifically for a congregational learning team.
Conceptualized and developed by Mann for an Alban on-line seminar program test event conducted with 12 congregations in transition, her newest book features a five-step process enabling the learning team to engage a wider circle of congregational leaders and members in study, discernment, and planning. Never-before published resources include discussion of a major new concept-passive barriers to growth-plus Mann’s “System Change Index” tool to help congregations measure their progress from pastoral-size to program-size ways of operating.
From preparing the congregation’s board and members, selecting the person to guide the learning process, and recruiting the learning team, to creating and celebrating a plan for congregational learning and action, Mann provides all the resources a congregation needs to address this significant size transition period.
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Womans Place : Leadership In The Church
$17.99Add to cart“Women have achieved relative parity with men in virtually every area of society–except the church,” writes C.S. Cowles, challenging the long-held practice and belief that a Christian woman’s place is in the pew but not in the pulpit, lectern, boardroom, or other places of leadership. Through a careful study of key biblical texts, Cowles refutes what he terms the church’s “institutional discrimination against women” and calls for it to open leadership positions to “whomever the Holy Spirit should call and whomever evidences gifts for public ministry, without regard to race, social class, or gender.” “It is time for the church to discover the richness, beauty, and spiritual power that can be released only through the full expression of women’s unique gifts and special sensitivities.”
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Power Of Team Leadership
$15.99Add to cartMost leadership in today’s churches comes from “solo practitioners”–individuals who bear the burden of providing all the direction the ministry they direct requires. Inevitably, this results not only in burned-out leaders, but underutilized lay people who merely attend and observe rather than becoming actively engaged in ministry, growing in discipleship, and freeing professional staff to focus on pastoral priorities.
In The Power of Team Leadership, noted researcher George Barna demonstrates the incredible difference lay-team leadership can make in a church’s ministry. Based on Barna’s latest national studies, the book sets forth clearly what churches need to know in order to recruit, train, and deploy lay leadership teams for maximum effectiveness in the Kingdom of God.
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Truths That Build
$17.99Add to cartTruths That Build provides 14 foundational principles that Dick Everson calls the “Truths That Build A Premier Church.” Each principle explains what every Christian should focus on and gives practical insight to Christian living. These Truths That Build will encourage the reader who puts them into practice and ultimately strengthen the local church.
