Download or read book Congregations as Learning Communities written by Dennis G. Campbell and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2000-12-31 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In our rapidly evolving religious scene, congregations that are open to continuous learning and willing to respond to external and internal change, will be the ones that achieve new vitality and health. Dennis Campbell describes what those congregations will look like and provides four tools to help a congregation shape its community into what God would have it be. Systems thinking, congregational culture, appreciative inquiry, and scenario planning are explained and illustrated, and readers will be shown how to apply the principles to their setting.
Download or read book Learning Change written by Jim Herrington and published by Kregel Academic. This book was released on 2017-05-27 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How congregations can change into missional, fruitful learning communities "Jim and Trisha understand that profound change roots in individuals before it transfuses systems. Having observed the cycle in themselves as well as in others, they shepherd us into the remissioning work of the Holy Spirit."--Thomas F. Tumblin, professor of leadership, Asbury Theological Seminary In a groundbreaking seven-year experience, Jim Herrington and Trisha Taylor led a cluster of churches in a process of personal and congregational transformation that is producing hope and health. Built on a sound understanding of learning organization theory, adaptive leadership, family systems theory, and recent discoveries in the neurosciences, Herrington and Taylor developed and refined a highly fruitful model of church renewal. This model begins with personal renewal in which congregations learn how to become learning communities and ends with church-wide transformation. Learning Change is the pastor and congregational leaders' field guide to leading change. Each chapter provides training and information, an aspect of the learning change model, stories of real-life experiences in churches, and questions and suggestions for taking this information into a congregational context.
Download or read book How Your Congregation Learns written by Tim Shapiro and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2017 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Change isn't always easy or intuitive. How Your Congregation Learns introduces churches and leaders--both lay and ordained--to the process of the learning journey. By understanding learning dynamics and working to become a learning community, the congregation will be able to move more purposefully to achieve its goals. Congregations face many kinds of challenges. Some are mundane: the roof leaks; the parking lot needs repaving; the microphones don't work well. Some tests are transcendent: How should lives be honored? What is God calling the congregation to do and be? How can generosity be taught? Throughout life people face challenges for which they are not prepared--the death of a parent, a new job offer, making a decision about where to live. So it goes that congregational leaders face challenges that are just beyond the grasp of their abilities. This book addresses the just-beyond-the-grasp challenges and shows how real congregations can learn from them.
Download or read book From Plateau to Transformation written by Jill K. Ver Steeg and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Church As Learning Community written by Norma Cook Everist and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2010-10-01 with total page 523 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Norma Cook Everist contends that it is meaningful to say that in ministries of administration, outreach, and pastoral care, the church is functioning as a learning community. Whenever and wherever Christians are being formed into the image of Jesus Christ through ministry, there Christian education is taking place. Christian education is the name we give to that process of formation. Building on this central insight, Everist has written a major new introduction to the tasks and practices of Christian education. Part 1 of the book focuses broadly on what it means to be the church in the world. Part 2 shows how being a learning community requires ongoing growth in faith throughout the span of life. Part 3 shifts focus to the church as it moves into the community and world.
Download or read book A Congregation of Learners written by Isa Aron and published by Urj Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learning communities and how can they be more effective in reaching and holding the various populations of Jews in the late 1990's?
Download or read book Missional Communities written by Reggie McNeal and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-08-15 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The third book in the trilogy that explores the popular missional movement From Reggie McNeal, the bestselling author of The Present Future and Missional Renaissance, comes the third book in the series that helps to define and illuminate the popular missional movement. This newest book in the trilogy examines a natural outgrowth of the move toward a missional orientation: the deconstruction of congregations into very small Christian communities. For all those thousands of churches and leaders who have followed Reggie McNeal's bold lead, this book details the rise of a new life form in churches. Discusses how to move a church from an internal to an external ministry focus Reggie McNeal is a recognized leader in the missional movement Outlines an alternative to the program church model that is focused on the projects and passions of the congregants This book draws on McNeal's twenty years of leadership roles in local congregations and his work over the last decade with thousands of clergy and church leaders.
Download or read book Becoming a Congregation of Learners written by Isa Aron and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2013-05-02 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can my congregation transform itself? How can we re-dedicate ourselves to learning? Improving spiritual connection in our communities takes work! Combining expert advice and experience garnered from congregations throughout North America, Becoming a Congregation of Learners shows us how transformative change is possible. A complete resource full of ideas, information and support, this is a guide for those of us involved in, or interested in, energizing our spiritual communities. Isa Aron, director of Hebrew Union College's Experiment in Congregational Education (ECE), offers concrete, practical information on how to bring about change and revitalization, and helps us make learning a vibrant, integral part of congregational life.
Download or read book Enhance Learning in Parishes written by John Littleton and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Learning Congregation written by Thomas R. Hawkins and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Congregations today face an adaptive challenge of immense proportions. Many respond with classic signs of work avoidance: holding to past assumptions and blaming authority. Thomas Hawkins's new vision of church leadership can provide a way to break through these defensive routines. The Learning Congregation is a must read for all pastors and church leaders.
Download or read book From Plateau to Transforamtion written by Jill K. Ver Steeg and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Pauline Communities as scholastic Communities written by Claire S. Smith and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2012 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edwin Judge's description of early Christian communities as 'scholastic communities' provides the starting point of a search for a sociological description of the Christian communities portrayed in 1 Corinthians, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. An original methodology uses a multi-layered exegetical approach to study every occurrence of the vocabulary of 'teaching' in the letters. The focus is on the activity of teaching (e.g., participants, method, manner, purpose, result, etc). The vocabulary represents ten semantic groupings, which shed further light on the place and practice of education in the communities ( core-teaching, speaking, traditioning, announcing, revealing, worshipping, commanding, correcting, remembering / imitation, and false teaching ). Claire S. Smith supports and develops Judge's 1960 description, advancing on it by showing that the communities are better described as 'learning communities' with horizontal (human-human) and vertical (divine-human) dimensions.
Download or read book Vital written by Jorge Acevedo and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What behaviors do highly vital congregations have in common? How can all congregations move toward greater vitality? In Vital: Churches Changing Communities and the World, Jorge Acevedo passionately and effectively reveals how Grace Church in Cape Coral, Florida, has developed behaviors that result in vital and fruitful ministry. Focusing on spiritual pastoral leadership, lay leadership development, worship, small groups, and service and mission, Acevedo both inspires and coaches. He helps leaders of congregations act in their own contexts to develop behaviors essential to vitality, as identified by the recent study of 32,000 United Methodist congregations. The book includes brief summaries of learnings from the research and stories from other congregations illustrating vital behaviors in different settings. Approximately 15% of the 32,228 churches (4,961 churches) scored high in vitality based on the vitality index. What this means is that 15% of our churches have figured out some way to remain highly vital in spite of the fact that 85% have not. What this means is that we cannot assign all the blame for our congregational demise at the feet of the “institution” of the church. 4961 congregations have figured out ways to prevail in spite of our denominational condition. To me this is hopeful and promising! This book is my best attempt for us to learn from the 15% of United Methodist Churches that are vital, growing and prevailing. Jorge Acevedo
Download or read book Transforming Congregations through Community written by Boyung Lee and published by Presbyterian Publishing Corp. This book was released on 2013-11-11 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this helpful book, Boyung Lee offers an encouraging vision of the mainline church's future. Lee grapples with some of the greatest challenges facing the mainline church, offering compelling responses to recurring questions: What does faithfulness to the gospel look like in this changing world? What is our distinctive voice in the larger society? How does theological education have to change if it is to serve the needs of a new century? Lee argues that the church's future is a promising one if the church can offer a richer and deeper definition of community--one that moves beyond the excessive individualism of western culture and that helps mainline Christians understand their solidarity with one another and with all of God's people. Lee further explores the crucial role of faith formation at the congregational and seminary levels. More than mere schooling, theological education must engage all aspects of educators' and students' lives to prepare seminarians for the challenges that lie ahead. While not dismissing the mainline church's challenges, Lee offers congregational leaders and seminary educators a vision of a church transformed for the 21st century.
Download or read book A Dialogue Between New Science Learning Communities and Congregational Development written by Elisabeth Gale Davis Morris and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Re forming Christian Education in Congregations as the Praxis of Growing Disciples for a Missional Church written by Craig Mitchell and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study explores the question, How are churches reframing Christian education in order to be effective in growing faith and engaging in mission in Australian society in the 21st century? It is based on qualitative interviews conducted with leaders from thirteen congregations from the Uniting Church in Australia in 2012. The research explores how churches and their leaders are intentionally (re)forming Christian education and formation in the early 21st century in the Australian context. The Uniting Church is Australia's third largest denomination, formed in 1977 from the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational Churches. For the purposes of the study, Christian education was defined initially as the theory and practice of teaching, learning and formation in life-long Christian faith and discipleship, both for individuals and communities of faith. -- Across the western church, the place of Christian education has been changing in response to both institutional and social factors - the age and decline of mainline denominations, increasing pluralism, and relativism. Mainline churches have been influenced by a "missional turn" whereby the church's mission is seen as participation by local churches in the missio Dei. This has raised questions about the place and purpose of Christian education in relation to mission. -- The research interviews were structured around four themes: congregations as learning communities, congregations as communities of practice, leadership of learning communities, and forming disciples for mission. Research subjects were the principal ministers in their congregations. The sample was diverse in terms of geography, church membership, theology, length of ministry tenure, and orientation to mission. -- The research method follows a Shared Praxis approach to practical theology, drawing particularly on Thomas Groome, and uses Bourdieu's notion of habitus along with praxis and practice to frame the field of Christian education in relation to Christopraxis. Consideration is given to the practices of the early church as described in Acts 2, and to the nature of Christian discipleship in John 15, as a way of exploring the being and doing of discipleship. -- The findings include details about the relational climate of congregations as learning communities, the cultivation of Christian practices as teleological participation in the mission of God, the intentionality and improvisation of church leaders, and how congregations learn for, in and from their engagement in mission. Particular teaching and learning programs are also described. -- The key conclusion is that the intentional (re)forming of congregational Christian formation and education is core ecclesial praxis for growing mission-shaped disciples. Christian education and Christian mission are seen as inter-related and interdependent. The research suggests the need for further empirical studies of congregational Christian education, as well as attention by denominational leaders as to how congregations are resourced and led for lifelong learning in discipleship for the sake of mission.
Download or read book Coming of Age Handbook for Congregations written by Sarah Gibb Millspaugh and published by Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. This book was released on 2009 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
