Download or read book 25 Reasons Why Small Churches Aren t Growing written by Marvin Scott and published by Xulon Press. This book was released on 2006-12 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "25 Reasons Why Small Churches Are Not Growing" gets right to the point, giving hands-on advice that the author experienced while growing up in church. (Practical Life)
Download or read book The Grasshopper Myth written by Karl Vaters and published by . This book was released on 2013-01-10 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 90% of the churches in the world have less than 200 people. What if that's not a bad thing? What if smallness is an advantage God wants us to use, not a problem to fix?
Download or read book Comeback Churches written by Ed Stetzer and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2007 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Church growth experts Stetzer and Dodson explain why most congregations plateau and then eventually decline, and they reveal how to revive a body of believers. Readers can learn the importance of lighting a spiritual fire, intentional evangelism, making disciples, forming small groups, and then watch pews fill up again. (Church Life)
Download or read book Communicating for a Change written by Andy Stanley and published by Multnomah. This book was released on 2008-08-19 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When You Talk, Are People Changed? Whether you speak from the pulpit, podium, or the front of a classroom, you don’t need much more than blank stares and faraway looks to tell you you’re not connecting. Take heart before your audience takes leave! You can convey your message in the powerful, life-changing way it deserves to be told. An insightful, entertaining parable that’s an excellent guide for any speaker, Communicating for a Change takes a simple approach to delivering effectively. Join Pastor Ray as he discovers that the secrets to successful speaking are parallel to the lessons a trucker learns on the road. By knowing your destination before you leave (identifying the one basic premise of your message), using your blinkers (making transitions obvious), and implementing five other practical points, you’ll drive your message home every time! “Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” “Once upon a time…” “In the beginning…” Great stories capture and hold an audience’s attention from start to finish. Why should it be any different when you stand up to speak? In Communicating for a Change, Andy Stanley and Lane Jones offer a unique strategy for communicators seeking to deliver captivating and practical messages. In this highly creative presentation, the authors unpack seven concepts that will empower you to engage and impact your audience in a way that leaves them wanting more. “Whether you are a senior pastor with weekly teaching responsibilities or a student pastor who has bern charged with engaging the hearts and minds of high school students, this book is a must-read.” -Bill Hybels, Senior pastor, Willow Creak Community Church “A very practical resource for every biblical communicator who wants to go from good to great.” -Ed Young, Senior pastor, Fellowship Church, Grapevine, Texas “To communicate effectively, you have to connect. Andy has been connecting with people for years, and now he’s sharing his insights with the rest of us.” -Jeff Foxworthy, Comedian Story Behind the Book Andy Stanley and Lane Jones are on staff at one of America ’s largest churches, North Point Community. Leaders of thousands of people, they regularly speak in front of large groups. They also listen to numerous speakers and know the disastrous effects of a poorly delivered message. This book is the result of their efforts to make public speaking—one of the most common fear-inducing activities known to mankind—simple, easy, and even enjoyable, so that God’s messages will readily produce the life-changing results they should.
Download or read book Battling Unbelief written by John Piper and published by Multnomah. This book was released on 2009-01-16 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pastor John Piper shows how to sever the clinging roots of sin that ensnare us, including anxiety, pride, shame, impatience, covetousness, bitterness, despondency, and lust in Battling Unbelief. When faith flickers, stoke the fire. No one sins out of duty. We sin because it offers some promise of happiness. That promise enslaves us, until we believe that God is more desirable than life itself (Psalm 63:3). Only the power of God’s superior promises in the gospel can emancipate our hearts from servitude to the shallow promises and fleeting pleasures of sin. Delighting in the bounty of God’s glorious gospel promises will free us for a less sin-encumbered life, to the glory of Christ. Rooted in solid biblical reflection, this book aims to help guide you through the battles to the joys of victory by the power of the gospel and its superior pleasure.
Download or read book So You Don t Want to Go to Church Anymore written by Wayne Jacobsen and published by Windblown Media. This book was released on 2008-09-02 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jake Colsen, an overworked and disillusioned pastor, happens into a stranger who bears an uncanny resemblance (in manner) to the apostle John. A number of encounters with John as well as a family crisis lead Jake to a new understanding of what his life should be like: one filled with faith bolstered by a steady, close relationship with the God of the universe. Facing his own disappointment with Christianity, Jake must forsake the habits that have made his faith rote and rediscover the love that captured his heart when he first believed. Compelling and intensely personal, So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anything relates a man's rebirth from performance-based Christianity to a loving friendship with Christ that affects all he does, thinks, and says. As John tells Jake, "There is nothing the Father desires for you more than that you fall squarely in the lap of his love and never move from that place for the rest of your life."
Download or read book One Size Doesn t Fit All written by Gary L. McIntosh and published by Revell. This book was released on 1999-08 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Different churches grow in different ways. This book will help you figure out your church's orientation and show the way to healthy growth.
Download or read book The Great Evangelical Recession written by John S. Dickerson and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2013-01-15 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2006, few Americans were expecting the economy to collapse. Today the American church is in a similar position, on the precipice of a great spiritual recession. While we focus on a few large churches and dynamic leaders that are successful, the church's overall membership is shrinking. Young Christians are fleeing. Our donations are drying up. Political fervor is dividing us. Even as these crises eat at the church internally, our once friendly host culture is quickly turning hostile and antagonistic. How can we avoid a devastating collapse? In The Great Evangelical Recession, award-winning journalist and pastor John Dickerson identifies six factors that are radically eroding the American church and offers biblical solutions to prepare evangelicals for spiritual success, even in the face of alarming trends. This book is a heartfelt plea and call to the American church combining quality research, genuine hope, and practical application with the purpose of igniting the church toward a better future.
Download or read book Pastor Unique written by Lavern E. Brown and published by WestBow Press. This book was released on 2016-07-27 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ADVANCED PRAISE FOR PASTOR UNIQUE: Becoming a Turnaround Leader Each year thousands of books are written, published, and distributed. Few are really significant works. Pastor Unique is, in my view, a significant book. Gary L. McIntosh, D.Min., Ph.D. Talbot Seminary, Biola University Helping pastors understand themselves and their role is crucial and fundamental. So is training them in the tactics and strategies of change. Furthermore, they must learn how their personalities help or hinder leading change. I believe the process described in this book is targeted more specifically than any other I know to provide this training . Paul Borden. Ph.D. Director, Church Health Initiative I am grateful to the authors for including The Birkman Method in their work with pastors. My father, Roger Birkman, was passionate about helping people of faith gain a clearer, more accurate understanding of self and others. The authentic kind of leadership development recommended in this book will profoundly impact pastors and the people they lead. We are proud that Birkman can play a role in the important initiative represented in Pastor Unique. Sharon Birkman Fink, CEO Birkman International, Inc. Are you still searching for that killer church health conference, that rock star pastor to imitate, or the perfect formula that will tell you how lead your church to effective service in Jesus mission? Pastors who chase dreams of high powered ministry by looking for answers outside of themselves are inevitably discouraged when they learn that what works for others wont work for them. If thats your story, Pastor Unique is what youve been looking for. Inside you will learn how to use all the tools the Head of the Church has already given you your identity, your personality, and your life experience to become a turnaround leader in your church.
Download or read book The Unstuck Church written by Tony Morgan and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2017-05-16 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acclaimed church leader, blogger, founder and chief strategic officer of The Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan unpacks the lifecycle of a typical church, identifies characteristics of each phase, and provides practical next steps a church can take to move towards sustained health. Think about your church for a moment. Is it growing? Is it diminishing? Is it somewhere in between? Acclaimed church leader, blogger, and founder and chief strategic officer of The Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan has identified the seven stages of a church's lifecycle that range from the hopeful and optimistic days of launch, to the stagnating last stages of life support. Regardless of the stage in which you find your church, it carries with it the world's greatest mission—to "go and make disciples of all the nations . . ." With eternity at stake the Church should be doing most everything within its power to see lives changed forever. The Church should strive for the pinnacle of the lifecycle, where they are continually making new disciples and experiencing what Morgan refers to as "sustained health." In The Unstuck Church, Morgan unpacks each phase of the church lifecycle, and offers specific and strategic next steps the church leader can take to find it's way to sustained health . . . and finally become unstuck. The Unstuck Church is a call for honest an assessment of where your church sits on the lifecycle, and a challenge to move beyond it.
Download or read book Small Church Essentials written by Karl Vaters and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2018-03-06 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you lead a small church? Big churches get all the love. Articles, books, conferences—they mostly feature leaders of large congregations. Yet big churches are a small part of the ecclesial landscape. In fact, more than 90 percent of churches have fewer than 200 people. That means small churches play a big part in what God is doing. Small Church Essentials is for leaders of these smaller congregations. It encourages them to steward their role well, debunking myths about small churches while offering principles for leading a dynamic, healthy small church. Based on the popular six-hour lecture that Karl Vaters delivers to church leaders across the country, Small Church Essentials will affirm small church leaders and show them how to identify what they do well, and how to do it even better. Readers will: Be assured that leading a small congregation does not make them ministry failures Come away inspired to lead with passion, regardless the size of their church Have field-tested principles for leading a church in their context Possess new metrics for biblically measuring vitality in small churches Have a toolkit of resources to use in their everyday ministry Karl Vaters has been a small church pastor for 30 years, is the author of The Grasshopper Myth: Big Churches, Small Churches, and the Small Thinking that Divides Us (2013), and travels extensively to churches and conferences to speak about leading a small church well. If you are pastoring a small church, this book will be a breath of fresh air. It will affirm your calling while giving you fresh tools to help you lead. It will help you: Stop believing lies about small churches Lead your church to fulfill the role only small churches can Understand your congregation’s strengths and weaknesses Turn around a dying or unhealthy church Identify good trends and bad in church and culture
Download or read book 100 Ways to Increase Church Attendance written by Albert O. Aina and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-05-13 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: God called me in September 1994. It was during my quiet time before going out for my consulting practice. I was then the Chief Executive Officer/Managing Consultant of Alaryn Management Centre Ltd. I was deeply involved in boosting sales, training and equipping managers and officers of various companies who retained us as their Management/Training consultant. By the grace of God, several small and big companies grew and benefitted from our consulting services. I heard God clearly telling me on that fateful morning thus "The same things you are giving to the business world, package it, give it to my church, beginning with the Bible..." I have been doing just that since 1994, as CEO Christian Leadership Skills Inc. The divine call is one of the reasons why I wrote this book. I have been involved in Christian leadership since 1982. But I started pastoring in 1995, as Senior Pastor. It has been my motivation, desire and passion to see God's work grow and progress. Most of the principles in this book, if not all, have been practiced with results in our ministry. When I was privileged to become the President of AGAPE Conference in 1987, only one or two churches attended. By 2003, 203 churches from 85 denominations became regular participants. In other words, I am a fellow student with you dear precious reader in this same school of church growth. This is the second reason why I wrote this book . My wife, Lara, is a Mathematician. She has been teaching Mathematics since 1989. Naturally, she likes computation and percentages. We came back from a Pastors' meeting one evening, Lara analyzed the various reports submitted by about 187 churches. Her statistical conclusion got my attention. She found out that only two churches of the lot were above 1,000 in attendance. Only one church was 500 in attendance, ten churches averaged 300 worshippers. About twenty-four churches were above 100. One hundred and fifty churches were below 100 in attendance. Though our church was above 1,000 at that time, we received a burden, a mandate to seek for what factors make for church growth. When we searched further, we discovered that 87% of churches in Nigeria were below 200 in attendance. This is the third reason why I wrote this book. It is to report our findings on what make churches grow. I have also discovered that success in ministry is more than numbers. What makes for success in the eyes of God, the LORD of the harvest, is not the same indices used by men to bench mark success. There are habits found with successful pastors. In fact, by and large, success in ministry is an inside job. No work can grow faster on the outside than the man behind the work is growing on the inside. This is my fourth reason for writing this book. The challenge of growth is enormous in the gospel ministry in Nigeria and Africa. The problem and challenges we face are not the same as those faced in other lands and under different climes. The few books we are reading on Church Growth are written by foreign authors, far removed from our context. Many are not relevant to Africa. Except from the writings of Dr. Francis Akin-John, Bishiop David Oyedepo, Pastor Mathew Ashimolowo and very few others, there are not many books and literature on what makes churches and ministries to grow in our contemporary African setting. If this gap is filled a little by this book, then the fifth reason for its writing is justified. We need to continually elevate our thoughts in search of solutions to problems that confront us today. We can not solve our current problems with the level of thinking of yesteryears. This book is a little effort to advance the frontiers of knowledge on the subject of church growth. This is the seventh reason why it took me about 25 years of christian leadership experience, over a decade in pastoring small and growing large churches, and 100,0000 hours, to put down 100 ways to increase church attendance.
Download or read book What Makes Churches Grow written by Jackson Bob and published by Canterbury Press. This book was released on 2015-07-02 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores a variety of growing churches to identify what is making the difference between them and churches which are static or declining. In addition to numerical growth, it asks how we measure spiritual growth and identifies the signs of spiritual vitality, laying a practical and theological foundation for continued growth into the future.
Download or read book Servant Leadership 25th Anniversary Edition written by Robert K. Greenleaf and published by Paulist Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic work on leadership for business men and women, government leaders and all persons in positions of authority.
Download or read book De sizing the Church written by Karl Vaters and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2024-04-02 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Big churches didn’t create the problems facing today’s congregations. But our obsession with size has come at a great cost. We’re obsessed with bigness. Supersized meals and TV screens. Square footage. And big churches. “What’s the size of your church?” That question has stirred insecurities or stroked the ego of too many pastors. For a long time, we thought bigger was better. “Church growth” and “numbers” dominated our thoughts and conversations. But more than ever, people are feeling disconnected. Trust in the church is dwindling. In De-sizing the Church, pastor Karl Vaters takes us on a multi-faceted journey through our centuries-long obsession with size, both in and outside the church, and how it has negatively affected those who serve and worship in big and small congregations alike. He also dispels some prevailing myths and affirms what was good and true about the Church Growth Movement. And he invites us to consider how removing church size from the equation can be an essential element in rebuilding trust, restoring relationships, and renewing our spiritual lives. This book reframes the way we see the size of our churches and helps us see health and fruitfulness through de-sized lenses. The result? Renewed congregations that reach surrounding communities and faithfully engage culture.
Download or read book Introducing Christian Education written by Michael J. Anthony and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2001-09 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn how to successfully integrate biblical studies and theology with education, sociology, and psychology in this introductory textbook on Christian education.
Download or read book The American Church in Crisis written by David T. Olson and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2008 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analytical research from a database of more than 200,000 North American churches reveals the population is growing faster than church attendance. This guide shows the problems as well as the potential for American churches.
