Church Management
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40 Days To Excellence In Church Management
$16.99Add to cartThe modern church is being poorly managed but does not know it. The level of inefficiency and waste in today’s churches is staggering. 40 Days to Excellence in Church Management was written specifically for churches to convey basic business wisdom, management principles, and the best business practices. Unlike intimidating business textbooks, it includes forty short vignettes designed to be read like a daily devotional. Each chapter deals with everyday challenges and offers real-life examples derived from the author’s more than thirty years of experience. It shows how to (and sometimes how not to) handle each situation of conducting business for the church.
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Empowering Leadership : How A Leadership Development Culture Builds Better
$19.99Add to cartPastor and author Michael P. Fletcher asserts that a leadership pipeline can’t be bought, rather it has to be built from the ground up. Fletcher guides the reader on how to build better leaders faster by creating a leadership development culture in your church or organization.
The key to continued success in any church or organization is a steady stream of healthy, growing leaders; but not just any leaders-leaders who carry the culture and embody its core values. But where can you find leaders like this?
Author and leadership consultant Michael Fletcher says these types of leaders can’t simply be “bought” nor can they be hired off of someone else’s “assembly line.” These types of leaders have to be built through a leadership pipeline.
A good leadership pipeline will help articulate the values of the church or organization and define the process required to move forward in it. However, to develop leaders at every level in the organization, to create an environment that attracts potential leaders, and to build better leaders faster, an organization needs more than a pipeline-it will need a culture that develops leaders organically.
If your organization needs good a leadership development structure, then you’re holding the right book. Empowering Leadership details Michael’s greatest insights on how to build better leaders faster by creating a leadership development culture in your organization-naturally, organically, continually.
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Microaggressions In Ministry
$26.00Add to cartCarlos-a third-generation U.S. citizen from New Jersey whose family emigrated from Colombia many years before Carlos was born-is often complimented on how articulate he is and asked how long he has been in the United States.
Deborah, a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) who is up for election as church treasurer, has her qualifications questioned, debated, and scrutinized by the congregation far more than any of her male predecessors who were elected with a simple vote.
Lisa, a male-to-female transgender person, attends a Sunday school where her classmates continue to refer to her with masculine pronouns (he, him, his).
The three examples above portray microaggressions: subtle slights, insults, and indignities expressed to persons of varied minority statuses. Although microaggressions are usually unintentional, they occur on a regular basis in education, the workplace, and daily life.
This is the first book that addresses the concept of microaggressions in ministry and church life. Drawing from their background as ordained clergy, Sanders and Yarber introduce ministry leaders to the concept of microaggressions and look specifically at microaggressions directed at race, gender, and sexuality in the church. Sanders and Yarber help readers become more aware of these subtle and often unconscious communications, offering realistic examples and guidance for grappling with this issue in preaching, religious education, worship, spirituality, and pastoral care and counseling. Microaggressions in Ministry equips congregations with methods for assessment and tools for action that will ultimately help create stronger, more welcoming faith communities.
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Leading In DisOrienting Times
$26.99Add to cartJack Mezirow, a leader in education theory, suggests that all transformative learning begins with a ‘disorienting dilemma’: an idea or experience that challenges or shifts fundamental values and assumptions. Gary Nelson and Peter Dickens, pastors and teachers with vast experience working with congregations and organizations, believe it is time for Christian leaders to be ‘disoriented,’ for the fundamental values and assumptions of Christian leadership to be reframed and broken down so they can see the leadership task in new ways. Blending current literature from both Christian and secular scholarship with individual and organizational examples, Leading in DisOrienting Times provides support for the concept of servant leadership that may be initially disorienting, but is ultimately liberating.
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Time Management For The Christian Leader
$17.99Add to cartGod gives each of us the same 168 hours a week. Why is it that some of us seem to spend our time more effectively and more efficiently than others? Our time is too short and our ministries too important for us to waste any of the hours God has entrusted to us.
Author Ken Willard outlines some best practices, time wasters to avoid, and examples designed to apply in your life and ministry. How do we plan for the long-term, the short-term, and the daily? What are the connections between our tasks and our goals? Is there space between your load and your limit?
Time Management for Christian Leaders challenges readers to identify why they are interested in improving their time management skills, where they currently struggle, and where they want to spend more time.
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More With Less Church
$19.00Add to cartIn our challenging economic times, it is no surprise that churches must get creative with their resources. But the authors of The More-with-Less Church believe pastors, leadership teams, and planning committees should look on times such as these not as hurdles to overcome but as opportunities to reconsider entrenched but inefficient ministry practices that are siphoning time, money, and energy from their churches. Drawn from time- and field-tested strategies, this practical resource helps church leaders avoid costly mistakes and maximize the return on their investment in four areas of church life–ministries, staffing, facilities, and finances.
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Managing Stress In Ministry
$14.99Add to cartPastors are leaving ministry. Faced with pressures and stresses in their marriage and family, in their career and employment, in their personal sense of self-worth and success — all too often pastors leave ministry tired and discouraged. How can a pastor manage the stress that comes with ministry before the point of burn out? Managing Stress in Ministry will help pastors and spouses find fresh hope, discover new tools for coping with stress, and help them move forward to more effective life and ministry. Through real-life stories and clear application, authors David and Lisa Frisbie will help pastors identify key stressors that affect ministry and provide realistic ways to implement habits to lower stress level. Much-needed resource for anyone in ministry.
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Conflict : Causes And Cures
$19.49Add to cartConflict is serious and needs the church’s serious attention. Every eight hours a pastor is terminated. Every year over a thousand churches disband; often because of conflict.
Supported by over thirty years of academic research and based on real-life experiences in ministry, Conflict: Causes and Cures presents practical perspectives, solutions, and resources for dealing with conflicted churches.
Dr. Smith shares the top ten causes of conflict in a lively case study format and discusses three necessary approaches to conflict-education, mediation, and restoration.Complete with scripture references and biblical applications, Conflict: Causes and Cures is essential reading for those who are concerned about this critical problem that confronts our churches today.
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Mediating Faith : Faith Formation In A Trans Media Era
$29.00Add to cartThe church struggles with media. Whether it is a denomination negotiating the 24-hour news cycle or a church evaluating how Facebook or online games are influencing the youth group, media is raising questions and placing demands on communities of faith in ways that could not have been imagined just 20 years ago. Thus the importance of understanding media for the church has never been greater.
In Mediating Faith, church leaders of all kinds will find Clint Schnekloth an engaging and insightful guide to this new and sometimes wondrous world. In doing so he offers an evaluation and theological response to the trans-media era that highlights its potential to transform our work and world.Far from frightening, Schnekloth highlights the opportunities and the riches of this fascinating time.
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How To Be Team Player And Enjoy It
$13.99Add to cartMatt Williams has been an associate pastor, Christian college administrator, and has worked with church ministries around the country for over 40 years. He combines his experiences as a secular business manager, church staff member, and Christian leader with ministries to present practical principles that are invaluable in serving the Lord. How To Be A Team Player and Enjoy It is the result of working with pastors, staff members, and ministries across the country and seeing the problems faced in churches and Christian school ministries. Matt takes principles from God s word and applies them to our relationships and working with others as leaders. Christian leaders have encouraged Matt to relate these principles in printed form. This book reflects Matt s heart for people and the Lords work. How To Be A Team Player and Enjoy It should be required reading for all Christian leaders and workers.
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Pastoring With Elders
$14.99Add to cartKevin is a preaching elder in an Associated Gospel Church in Canada (AGC). Their elders have had a growing influence on other congregations and have frequently been asked to share their effective shepherding-elder model. So, how do you grow elders? Many pastors are looking for another program or quick fix to accomplish this end. However, the answer is rooted in the theology of ministry and the need to focus on the biblical mandate given to pastors rather than the tyranny of expectations inherent in pastor-led churches.This book is designed to help senior pastors walk through a process of deconstructing their understanding of pastoring and redirect them to a focused ministry within a plurality of shepherd-elders.
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Church Transfusion : Changing Your Church Organically From The Inside Out
$24.95Add to cartIn Church Transfusion Neil Cole and Phil Helfer, co-founders of Church Multiplication Associates, will first point out that change is possible with God, but only with God. In the second half of the book they will lay out some of the actual practical considerations to weigh if you want to release real organic health in your church.
Using multiple examples of very different kinds of churches that have been through the process, the authors present ways that leadership and practices need to change in order to release organic church movements from their midst. Chapters cover:
*Leadershifts necessary
*Detoxification from dependence issues
*How to ignite change virally
*How to grandparent movements
*How to measure success in movementsThis book (another in the Leadership Network series) applies organic life principles to established churches with practical help that is holistic and natural. The content in this book will be helpful whether you are pastor of an established church or wanting to revitalize a small organic church.
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Better Together : Making Church Meregers Work
$30.00Add to cartThousands of Protestant churches are perplexed by plateaued or declining attendance, while other congregations nearby thrive. Is there a way for them to combine forces, drawing on both their strengths, in ways that also increase their missional impact? Church merger consultant Jim Tomberlin, with co-writer Warren Bird, makes the case that mergers today work best not with two struggling churches but with a vital, momentum-filled lead church partnering with a joining church. In this new book, they provide a complete, practical, hands-on guide for church leaders of both struggling and vibrant churches so that they can understand the issues, develop strategies, and execute a variety of forms of merger for church expansion and renewal to reinvigorate declining churches and give them a “second life.”
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Leading Gods People
$21.99Add to cartWritten by an acclaimed patristics scholar with firsthand parish experience, this book presents the key principles of church leadership as they were taught by some of the great pastor-theologians of the early church. Over the centuries, countless leaders from all church traditions – Eastern and Western, Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox – have turned to the classic works on pastoral ministry for inspiration and guidance. Here Christopher A. Beeley draws on the wise teachings of early Christian leaders as he offers warmhearted pastoral advice to fellow ministers and candidates for ministry. Topics covered include the nature of Christian service, pastoral authority, spirituality for leaders, pastoral care and healing, Scripture and theology as resources for ministry, and the transformative power of word and sacrament.
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Grow Your Churches Income
$19.99Add to cartIn these recessionary times, churches are as hard hit financially as anyone. Here is a simple, practical guide to making your church’s resources go as far as they possibly can in the short, medium and long term. In non-technical language this provides a basic guide to: Managing money and budgets, controlling your expenditure, ways of increasing income, how to address falling numbers and falling income, identifying ways to raise income from outside sources, getting the best prices for utilities and other services, group purchasing schemes etc. Illustrated with real examples from churches of all sizes and in all states of financial health, here is an indispensable guide.
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Other 80 Percent
$24.95Add to cartHow can you shift more of your church from sitting toward serving, and from being spectators toward engaging more deeply? Would doing so help more people to grow and develop spiritually?”-From the Preface
The Other Eighty Percent is a practical guide for church leaders written by respected researcher Scott Thumma and noted author Warren Bird. The authors draw upon new research across a broad range of Protestant attenders and churches of all sizes.
Thumma and Bird listened to thousands of church members’ voices to discern what motivates less connected, inactive members to move toward a life of discipleship and of living out the faith in community.
The authors explore societal norms influencing involvement and identify distinctive qualities of churches that shape patterns of better volunteer participation. They also examine the sometimes faulty and limiting perspectives leaders have about ways to increase involvement. The book proposes practical steps to develop listening and learning teams to assist church leaders in uncovering membership patterns, cultural norms and leadership blind spots common to Evangelical and Mainline congregations alike.
The Other Eighty Percent includes a wealth of creative ideas that can expand what it means for people to engage more fully with their church. The authors reinforce the idea that spiritual growth is directly related to participation and involvement and that spiritual nurturance of the entire congregation should be at the heart of this effort.
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Church Administration And Management
$34.99Add to cart* Achieving excellence in church management * Vital information on proper, ethical conduct for God’s servants * Clear information on achieving the frugal use of resources * A valuable and timely resume of the full-time ministry * Takes you beyond mediocrity in church administration One night while studying in a remove town of Ghana, God miraculously anointed Dag Heward-Mills as he waited upon the Lord. He supernaturally heard the words, “From now on you can teach…” This supernatural call is what has ushered him into a worldwide ministry. Today, his Healing Jesus Crusades are conducted throughout the world with thousands in attendance and many accompanying miracles. These phenomenal miracles, attested to by medical doctors have included the opening of the eyes of the blind, the restoring of hearing to the deaf, the emptying of wheel chairs and even the raising of the dead. Dag Heward-Mills, an author of several bestselling books also founded the Lighthouse Chapel International has become a worldwide denomination. His radio, TV and internet programs reach millions around the world.
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Sticky Teams : Keeping Your Leadership Team And Staff On The Same Page
$19.99Add to cartLarry Osborne exposes the hidden roadblocks, structures, and goofy thinking that all too often sabotage the health and harmony of even the best intentioned ministry teams. Then with practical and seasoned advice he shows what it takes to get a leadership board, ministry team, and an entire congregation headed in the same direction, sticking together, unified and healthy for the long haul.
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Best Advice : Wisdom On Ministry From 30 Leading Pastors And Preachers
$30.00Add to cartThis book gathers a diverse group of leading pastors and preachers and asks them: What is your best advice to colleagues in ministry about preaching and being a pastor? The responses are full of wisdom and practical advice, illuminating and helpful for all who are pastors and preachers.
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Leadership Handbook Of Management And Administration (Revised)
$33.00Add to cartThis substantial resource offers pastors and church leaders practical insight into the daily issues of running a church. Conceived and compiled by the editors of Leadership journal, this book covers the full spectrum of ministry practice. Readers will learn about perennial topics such as time management, negotiating the terms of a call, handling crisis and conflict, hiring and managing staff, conducting special fund drives, spending church money, and dealing with tax and law considerations.
This revised and expanded edition of a proven ministry resource contains new contributions from prominent ministry leaders. Contributors include Leith Anderson, Rick Warren, Brian McLaren, Luis Palau, John Ortberg, Aubrey Malphurs, and many others.
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Administration In The Small Membership Church
$18.99Add to cartFor many pastors, church administration may be their least favorite area of ministry. This book helps pastors create and maintian effective structures that will enable them to spend more time on what they truly value.
Outlines key steps to organize and manage time, staff, and resources of the small-membership church including multi-point chargesGives practical methods for creating and maintaining viable structures for effective church management
Helps pastors get organized so they can focus on what gives them the most satisfaction in ministry
Helps church leaders recruit and retain the right people for the right jobs, especially where resources are limited. -
Organic Church : Growing Faith Where Life Happens
$29.95Add to cartAbout Leadership Network.
Foreword.
Preface.
Introduction.Part One: Roots Of The Organic Church.
Part Two: The Organic Nature Of The Kingdom Of God.
Part Three: From The Microscope To The Telescope.
Part Four: The Epidemic Kingdom And How It Spreads.
Part Five: The Call To Organic Church.Notes.
Acknowledgments.
About The Author.
Subject Index.
Scriptural Index.Additional Info
Churches have tried all kinds of ways to attract new and younger members – revised vision statements, hipper worship, contemporary music, livelier sermons, bigger and better auditoriums. But there are still so many people who aren’t being reached, who don’t want to come to church. And the truth is that attendance at church on Sundays does not necessarily transform lives; God’s presence in our hearts is what changes us. Leaders and laypeople everywhere are realizing that they need new and more powerful ways to help them spread God’s Word. According to international church starter and pastor Neil Cole, if we want to connect with young people and those who are not coming to church, we must go where people congregate. Cole shows readers how to plant the seeds of the Kingdom of God in the places where life happens and where culture is formed – restaurants, bars, coffeehouses, parks, locker rooms,and neighborhoods. Organic Church offers a hands-on guide for demystifying this new model of church and shows the practical aspects of implementing it. -
Leading From The Second Chair
$26.95Add to cartAbout Leadership Network.
Foreword (Greg L. Hawkins).Preface.
1. Living In The Paradoxes.
2. Am I A Second Chair Leader?
THE FIRST PARADOX
Subordinate-Leader.3. Taking It From The Top.
4. Crossing The Line.
A Word To First Chairs On The Subordinate-Leader Paradox.
THE SECOND PARADOX
Deep-Wide.5. A Matter Of Perspective.
6. Building The Team . . . One Relationship At A Time.
7. Putting It Into Practice.
A Word To First Chairs On The Deep-Wide Paradox.
THE THIRD PARADOX
Contentment-Dreaming.8. Contentment In The Second Chair.
9. Dreaming In The Second Chair.
10. Leaving The Second Chair.
A Word To First Chairs On The Contentment-Dreaming Paradox.
Epilogue.
The People Behind The Stories: Profiles Of Second Chair Leaders.
Bibliography.
Acknowledgments.
About The Authors.
Index.
Additional Info
LEADING FROM THE SECOND CHAIR will raise awareness of the need for strong leaders in secondary positions. It will describe the value they can bring to their organization and to primary leaders when they are serving at their full potential. It will reshape the way they view their role, with an emphasis on their own responsibility as leaders. It recognizes the unique challenges and frustrations of serving in a subordinate position and equips these leaders with the attitudes and skills that they will need to survive and thrive in this new paradigm.
Because of the scarcity of resources for second chair leaders, particularly those in the church, this book will offer a practical way to improve the performance of any organization. Leading Congregational Change discussed the importance of a “vision community”–a diverse group of key members who discern and implement the vision for a congregation–to guide the transformation of a church. This work will extend the theme of an empowered leadership team as we explore how individual clergy and laity can lead effectively. -
New Perspectives On Breaking The 200 Barrier
$12.99Add to cart1. What Are Choice Points?
2. Common Choice Points
3. A Choice Point Growth Strategy
4. The 200 Barrier
5. Spiritual Preparations
6. Planning
7. Implementing
8. Leading
9. Conclusion: You Can!Additional Info
Your church can rise from its plateau and Break The 200 Barrier!New Perspectives On Breaking The 200 Barrier is directed to both the pastor and the layperson and offers insights and strategies that will help your church move beyond the average and into the extraordinary. Based on current church trends, new research, and years of experience, strategist Dr. Bill Sullivan returns to the topic of his earlier work, Ten Steps To Breaking The 200 Barrier (1988), and revisits the challenges churches face when trying to grow beyond an attendance of 200. This time he focuses on how the decisions of the congregation affect the church as a whole. He stresses why it is important to train the people, as well as the pastor and church leaders, to understand and accept the changes that come with growth and the desire to expand Christ’s kingdom.
New Perspectives On Breaking the 200 Barrier will help your church:
* Examine the decisions made toward church growth and understand how to make better choices
* Develop a strategy for dealing with tacit assumptions that remain fixed and unresponsive to change without placing all of the responsibility on the pastor
* Focus on prayer and faith with new insight
* Recognize that the gate of change is locked on the inside and it is the congregation that holds the key -
7 Power Principles I Learned After Seminary
$12.00Add to cartGod is moving with power in the world today. From the operational role of the Holy Spirit to warfare worship, from prophecy to miraculous healing, from demonic deliverance to powerful prayer and the new power levels taking place. God is at work in our daily lives. But are we actively taking part in His manifestation of power? Whether readers are seminary graduates or not, everyone who reads this book will come away with important lessons and practical applications of the power of the Holy Spirit. God wants to work with power in and through individuals, churches and seminaries in more ways than we may realize.
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Understanding Church Growth (Revised)
$34.99Add to cartAuthor Donald A. McGavran is considered a founder of the Church Growth Movement in America. In this 3rd edition of his standard work, McGavaran analyzes the causes, methods and strategies for successful church growth both in America and abroad.
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Culture Shift : Transforming Your Church From The Inside Out
$27.00Add to cartAbout Leadership Network.
Foreword (Erwin Raphael McManus).Preface.
PART ONE: Awakening To Culture.
1. Why Culture Matters.
2. Your Destiny In Seed Form.
3. What You Think Is What You See.
PART TWO: Birthing The Culture.
4. Totems: Identifying Your Church’s Culture.
5. How To Shift Your Church’s Culture.
6. Divine Partnership.
PART THREE: Growing The Culture At New Hope O’ahu.
7. Identifying New Hope’s Totems.
8. Culture Setters.
9. Plug-and-Play Subculture Vs. Authentic Culture.
10. Creating And Re-Creating Culture.
PART FOUR: Growing The Culture At Fellowship Bible Church.
11. Identifying Fellowship Bible’s Totems.
12. The Power Of A Disciplined Vision.
13. Learning To Spot Opportunity.
14. Courageous Adjustments To Safeguard The Values.
PART FIVE: Advancing The Culture.
15. Irresistible Culture.
Notes.
Appendix One: Involvement And Satisfaction Survey.
Appendix Two: Sample Pages From A Life Journal.
Bibliography.
Acknowledgments.
About The Authors.
Index.
Additional Info
Culture Shift, written for church leaders, ministers, pastors, ministry teams, and lay leaders, leads you through the process of identifying your church’s distinctive culture, gives you practical tools to change it from the inside-out, and provides steps to keep your new culture aligned with your church’s mission. Real transformation is not about working harder at what you’re already doing or even copying another church’s approach but about changing church culture at a foundational level. -
Solving The Missing Member Puzzle
$16.95Add to cartSomething is wrong. People are going missing, right in front of your eyes! One minute they are staring back at you from their favorite pew, the next Sunday you are looking at an empty spot in that pew. Is there a way to determine ahead of time which members are the likely “religious dropouts”? Often the clues are clearly visible – but can you recognize them? What’s more, do you know what you can do now to keep your “missing members” from drifting away? The secret lies in knowing and understanding the attitudes and belief systems that people hold, because certain sets of attitudes are linked to inactivity.
A detailed examination of this distressingly common experience, Solving The Missing Member Puzzle can help you spot potential dropouts in advance, learn the reasons why they become inactive, and counteract the process with a proactive strategy for reaching them while they are still within your grasp. Based on “blind” interviews with individuals from ten different congregations, it reveals the underlying attitudes and belief systems that encourage or discourage dropping out of church.
Solving The Missing Member Puzzle is a valuable tool for leaders of any church or organization – it shows how you can develop more faithful members, and assists in their growth, participation, and retention. Don’t wait until people drop out before you take action. Learn ways to anticipate which members of your congregation might become inactive and the preventive measures that you can take to help keep them in the pews.
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Help Im A Pastor
$30.00Add to cartRichard Armstrong and Kirk Morledge present this practical guide for pastoral ministry, offering counsel about a wide range of topics related to a pastor’s professional ministry and personal life. Topics include beginning a new ministry, balancing one’s personal life and ministry, wrestling with conflict, worrying about church finances, and preaching. This introduction to ministry can function as a textbook as well as an invaluable handbook or desk reference for pastors in the midst of congregational ministry.
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Gospel Driven Church
$29.99Add to cartCharismatic renewal has at the core of its ideology an aspiration for revival. This is a laudable aspiration, but in recent years, in the absence of a largescale evangelistic impact, it has encouraged a faddist mentality among church leaders.
The Gospel-Driven Church documents this development and the numerous theological and pastoral distortions that take place when genuine revival fervor transmutes into revivalism. Moreover, Stackhouse aims to show how a retrieval of some of the core practices of the church, such as preaching, sacraments, the laying on of hands, and prayer is essential at this crucial stage in the trajectory of the renewal movement in the United Kingdom. He commends to church leaders a recovery of these means of grace – including Spirit baptism – as a way of keeping the church centered on the gospel rather than mere pragmatic concerns about size and numbers.
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Church Safety And Security
$14.95Add to cart(with John M. Edie, Dennis K. Lewis, Edward L. Spain & Donna M. Washburn)
The church has always been regarded as a safe haven – a spiritual sanctuary where people can come to worship God free from worries about violence or unethical behavior by those involved in church ministry. But our culture is changing, and church leaders can no longer assume that “it won’t happen in my church.” Like the rest of society, churches need to ensure the safety and security of their facility, staff, and worshipers.
This book provides a wealth of practical information on preparing for and responding to the challenges of a dangerous world. Robert Cirtin draws on more than two decades of law enforcement and investigative experience, and with his team of professionals outlines a “how-to” approach full of specific proactive steps churches can take to protect themselves and reduce the risk of costly lawsuits. Church Safety And Security is a must-have resource for anyone participating in or preparing for church leadership.
Topics covered include:
? Utilizing background screening to protect your congregation
? Safety and security issues for church-run preschool and day care programs
? Preparing for and responding to medical emergencies
? How to deal with issues pertaining to child abuse
? Legally mandated responsibilities of church staff members
? How to utilize security/surveillance cameras in the church facility
? Organizing a church security officer program
? Effectively coping with intruders
? Responding to violent acts when they occur
? How to conduct a thorough investigation -
Hidden Lives Of Congregations
$30.00Add to cartFaced with crisis, lack of direction, or just plain “stuckness,” many congregations and their leaders are content to deal only with surface issues and symptoms-only to discover that the same problems keep recurring, often in different, and more serious, ways. In The Hidden Lives of Congregations, Christian educator and consultant Israel Galindo takes leaders below the surface of congregational life to provide a comprehensive, holistic look at the corporate nature of church relationships and the invisible dynamics at play.
Informed by family systems theory and grounded in a wide-ranging ecclesiological understanding, Galindo unpacks clearly the factors of congregational lifespan, size, spirituality, and identity and shows how these work together to form the congregation’s hidden life. He provides useful tools for diagnosing and understanding how one’s congregation fits into the various categories he names and suggests what leadership skills are necessary to get beyond the impasse of surface issues and help the congregation achieve its mission.
The Hidden Lives of Congregations provides one of the most far-reaching looks into the invisible nature of faith communities written in recent years. For seminaries and divinity schools, it provides a standard text for getting a solid start in congregational practices; for experienced pastors, it provides support for renewing ministry; for lay leaders and committees, it offers insight to deepening mutual ministry. Israel Galindo has written an indispensable manual that leaders will return to repeatedly for new wisdom and guidance on the unseen mechanisms that drive congregational life.
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Becoming Barnabas : The Ministry Of Encouragement
$28.00Add to cartWestern culture has made a cult of success, and the church has accepted the larger culture’s definition, focusing on success as growth in membership and budget, rather growth in faithfulness as disciples of Jesus. When we do not measure up, we become discouraged, disillusioned, and perhaps even envious.
Paul Moots offers a welcome antidote: a vision for the ministry of encouragement. Based on his study of the book of Acts, Moots has identified five incidents from the ministry of Barnabas, an easily overlooked character, that provide a starting point to explore encouragement and how it can work in a congregation. Moots then examines five components of this ministry: partnership, hospitality, courage, reconciliation, and authenticity.
Moots details numerous examples to show how the ministry of encouragement offers a workable, effective pattern for church leadership. “I am convinced,” he writes, “that accepting Barnabas as my model has changed my ministry for the better and that Barnabas’s example can benefit any pastor and congregation who take his lessons seriously.”
Barnabas and his ministry of encouragement offer us a focus for the vital, messy, and exhilarating work required of us as faith communities. Foreword by Robert Reber
“At last! Here is a leadership book that provides practical help for congregations of every size and setting and pastors with a variety of gifts. Drawing from his own experience as a pastor, Moots shares a model of faithful ministry that is within the reach of every pastor, layperson, and congregation.”-Rueben P. Job
“In an age when so many pastors and leaders are discouraged, no work of the Spirit is more needed or more welcome than encouragement. Moots’s book moves beyond diagnosis and actually shows readers how to ‘become Barnabas’ in ministries of partnership, hospitality, courage, and reconciliation.”-Donna Duensing
Paul Moots has served as pastor in a variety of settings in his 22 years of ministry: associate pastor, campus ministry, pastor of an urban congregation, and his current position in the village church of First United Methodist in Mount Sterling, Ohio.
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Bivocational Pastor : Two Jobs One Ministry
$15.99Add to cartSucceed in bi-vocational ministry. Bi-vocational ministers face unique challenges. Often times, you are called to lead smaller churches with few resources, many of which have plateaued or are in decline is looked at by some as a “second-class” ministry performed by people who do not have the opportunity to serve a larger church. Along with your family and church responsibilities, your second job also requires a large amount of time each week.
But you have a special calling, as both of your jobs can provide opportunities for ministry. In his new book, Dennis Bickers provides solid advice to help you succeed in bi-vocational ministry. You’ll learn how to:
*Manage time wisely
*Define success on your own terms
*Develop a vision for your church
*Maintain a passion for the ministry
*And much more! -
Walking The Small Group Tightrope
$12.99Add to cartA time-tested resource for pastors and small group leaders to help them understand how to manage the tensions that result when a variety of good objectives compete for a group’s attention Foundational resources such as Building a Church of Small Groups and The Seven Deadly Sins of Small Group Ministry were written for those who launch and lead small group ministries. Now there is a proven resource from Willow Creek created specifically for small group leaders who serve in the trenches of small group life. Walking the Small Group Tightrope applies “polarity management” training to group life. Polarity management teaches that in every area of life we must learn to manage the tension that exists between two good things rather than choosing one over the other. There are six challenges or “tensions” every small group leader faces and must learn to manage well. Each challenge must be met by managing two good values that exist along a continuum: * Learning Challenge: Truth_Life Continuum * Relational Challenge: Friendship_Accountability Continuum * Development Challenge: Care_Discipleship Continuum * Reconciliation Challenge: Kindness_Confrontation Continuum * Impact Challenge: Task_People Continuum * Connection Challenge: Openness_Intimacy Continuum
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Search To Belong
$19.99Add to cartA 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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Completing The Circle
$21.00Add to cartOn his second day as association minister for the United Church of Christ, David McMahill received three phone calls from lay leaders who were looking for resources on “how to evaluate our minister.” He knew of several churches in which a poorly constructed process for evaluating the ministers had spun out of control, however, and had gradually come to believe it is probably better for a church not to attempt an evaluation process at all than to do one carelessly or to naively use a design intended for a secular organization.
Based on the needs he saw, McMahill began to work with numerous congregations looking for ways to review both leaders and ministries and developed the feedback/reflection process he lays out in this book. Based on sound principles of effective communication, this simple system of asking for descriptive feedback about various aspects of a congregation’s life together takes into account the specific setting and the unique relationship between minister and congregation.
The results: a respectful, constructive, helpful review of leaders and ministries in a congregation, and the creation of a culture of healthy communication in the congregation. Foreword by Clyde J. Steckel.
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Find A Niche And Scratch It
$26.00Add to cartJesus was uniquely adept in the art of “reading” people. He fit his approach to the precise needs and interests of the person with whom he was dealing, and he spoke the cultural language of that individual. In this book, Robert Perry takes what Jesus and others have done intuitively-niche marketing-and provides a framework for applying those principles in everyday practice.
Convinced that congregations can learn from the wisdom of secular disciplines and apply that wisdom to congregational life without damaging the integrity of the Christian faith, Perry offers a detailed process for using sound marketing principles to identify a congregation’s strengths and the needs of its community, and to develop strategies for effective ministry.
Perry’s plan: to create a common vocabulary that will bridge the communication gap between the disciplines of business marketing and congregational outreach strategizing. The key: to keep in mind the reason we are working to reach people-not to make money for shareholders, but to share the Good News that God loves us. The goal: to foster genuinely healthy, growing congregations! Foreword by Robert D. Dale.
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Our Structure : Carrying Out The Vision
$14.99Add to cartLeading effectively in a congregation begins with identifying a vision for the future and then carrying it out. This book shows a variety of ways to organize your congregation, promote hospitality, set boundaries, recruit volunteers, plan work, and build a team.
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Our Stewardship : Managing Our Assets
$14.99Add to cartGod gives resources or assets to each person and every congregation. Yours may include a church building, grounds, equipment, or credibility and trustworthiness. “Our Stewardship” looks at why your congregation has the gifts it has and how best to use them. Use this book on your own or with your congregation council in planning and management.
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Our Community : Dealing With Conflict In Our Congregation
$14.99Add to cartConflicts will arise in your congregation. Right now, you may be experiencing the storms of conflict, dealing with storm cleanup or trying to put a past conflict behind you. Although we can’t prevent conflict from occurring altogether, we can develop skills to make sense of a past controversy, better understand a current situation, and promote forgiveness and healing. Use Our Community: Dealing with Conflict in Our Congregation on your own or with your congregation’s council, committees, or staff. The book includes reproducible tools that can be downloaded and customized at www.augsburgfortress.org/CLS.
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Our Gifts : Identifying And Developing Leaders
$14.99Add to cartThis book explores how to recruit leaders and volunteers into your congregation. It provides a definition and description of Christian leadership, identifies how to match members with opportunities to lead and serve, and helps you create your own leadership development plan. Use this book on your own or with your congregation’s council, staff, new member classes, mutual ministry committee, and more.
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Our Mission : Discovering Gods Call In Us
$14.99Add to cartThis new title provides four strategic planning steps to help your congregation fulfill its mission:
–STOP to pray and discern if your congregation is fulfilling the will of God–LOOK at God’s word to make sure it is at the heart of your mission
–LISTEN to the mission mandate of Christ to establish goals for the congregation
–GO to implement your action plans with confidence and hope in God’s blessings
This book can be used by pastors and congregational leaders for strategic planning and effective management. Includes reproducible tools that can be downloaded and customized.
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Our Context : Exploring Our Congregation And Community
$14.99Add to cartUnderstanding your congregation and the surrounding community is a key to leadership. This book helps you examine your context as you carry out your congregation’s mission and proclaim the gospel. Exploring your context can help identify potential problems and highlight new opportunities. If you are in a congregation or community that is changing, the process outlined in this book can help your congregation deal with change in a positive manner.