Download or read book Entering the World of the Small Church written by Anthony G. Pappas and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2000-11-01 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This demonstrates amazingly, with unflinching honesty and a wonderfully redeeming sense of humor, a resource especially helpful in motivating change and growth by mobilizing the natural strengths of small churches. For you who have been looking for a reliable guide to interpret the world of the small church, look no further since this provides all the insights you need. Includes images and models and strategies that reflect the profound uniqueness of the small church. It clearly shows leaders how to lead within the dynamics and culture of the small congregation. This is theologically sound and eminently practical. A must reading for anyone who is or plans to be a leader in a small church. Excellent for small roup study.
Download or read book Inside the Small Church written by Anthony G. Pappas and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2001-11-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even as so-called megachurches capture the attention of many church watchers, small congregations continue to dominate America's religious landscape in both rural and urban settings. Although sometimes obscured by their larger siblings, these small churches play a prominent role and hold a unique place in both local and national cultures. How can leaders help to keep these often at-risk churches alive and to meet their potential for ministry? Small-church expert Tony Pappas has gathered a cornucopia of essays into an indispensable book for anyone interested in the rich life of these small but significant congregations. Drawing on classic and updated articles by a variety of writers from his own small-church newsletter The Five Stones; from Alban journals Action Information and Congregations; and adding new pieces developed especially for this volume, Pappas provides timeless ideas on learning to value, pastor, develop, and lead the small church. In addition to time-honored articles by the editor, other contributors to this volume include Sherry and Douglas Alan Walrath, Gary Farley, Lawrence W. Farris, Loren Mead, Caroline Westerhoff, Steven Burt, Carl Dudley, David Ray, James Lowery, and a host of others known for their work-and love-for the small church. Readers of Inside the Small Church will come away with a renewed love and appreciation for these vital congregations as well as with new skills for ministry.
Download or read book Entering the World of the Small Church written by Anthony Pappas and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 93 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
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 241 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 Church of the Small Things written by Melanie Shankle and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is my ordinary, everyday life actually significant? Is it okay to be fulfilled by the simple acts of raising kids, working in an office, and cooking chicken for dinner? It’s been said, “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments that take our breath away.” The pressure of that can be staggering as we spend our days looking for that big thing that promises to take our breath away. Meanwhile, we lose sight of the small significance of fully living with every breath we take. Melanie Shankle, New York Times bestselling author and writer at The Big Mama Blog tackles these questions head on in her fourth book, Church of the Small Things. Easygoing and relatable, she speaks directly to the heart of women of all ages who are longing to find significance and meaning in the normal, sometimes mundane world of driving carpool to soccer practice, attending class on their college campus, cooking meals for their family, or taking care of a sick loved one. The million little pieces that make a life aren’t necessarily glamorous or far-reaching. But God uses some of the smallest, most ordinary acts of faithfulness—and sometimes they look a whole lot like packing lunch. Through humorous stories told in her signature style, full of Frito pie, best friends, the love of her Me-Ma and Pa-Pa, the unexpected grace that comes when we quit trying to measure up, and a little of the best TV has to offer, Melanie helps women embrace what it means to live a simple, yet incredibly meaningful life and how to find all the beauty and laughter that lies right beneath the surface of every moment.
Download or read book Enter the world of the small church written by Anthony G. Pappas and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Gifts of the Small Church written by Jason Byassee and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why the small- to mid-sized church remains God's best means to make disciples of Jesus Christ
Download or read book Small Is Big written by Tony Dale and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2011-05-25 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Church planters Tony and Felicity Dale and acclaimed researcher George Barna bring a big message to God’s church. How might we change the world if our Christian faith began multiplying at a rapid pace—through a way of life that is explosive and transformational? It happened once before, in the early days of the church; what will it take to bring us to that point of urgency and determination again? Small Is Big (originally published as The Rabbit and the Elephant) offers keys to 21st-century evangelism: leveraging the power of the small—and taking the gospel to where the people are and the pain is. And as God uses us to channel Jesus’ love into a hurting, desperate world, we’ll see his church grow beyond anything we could have imagined.
Download or read book Crushing written by T. D. Jakes and published by FaithWords. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Follow God's process for growth and find hope in life's darkest moments with Bishop T.D. Jakes' uplifting stories and advice from his own faith journey. In this insightful book, #1 New York Times bestselling author T.D. Jakes wrestles with age-old questions: Why do the righteous suffer? Where is God in all the injustice? In his most personal offering yet, Bishop Jakes tells crushing stories from his own journey -- the painful experience of learning his young teenage daughter was pregnant, the agony of watching his mother succumb to Alzheimer's, and the shock and helplessness he felt when his son had a heart attack. Bishop Jakes wants to show you how God uses difficult, crushing experiences to prepare you for unexpected blessings. If you are faithful through suffering, you will be surprised by God's joy, comforted by His peace, and fulfilled with His purpose. Crushing will inspire you to have hope, even in your most difficult moments. If you trust in God and lean on Him during setbacks, He will lead you through.
Download or read book A Place Where Everybody Matters written by Jean Risley and published by Wipf and Stock. This book was released on 2010-02-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Small churches need the work of all of their people to survive, and this means that there's a productive place in the church family for every person, no matter how gifted or challenged. Small churches are uniquely personal, and they provide an unparalleled opportunity for Christians to learn, grow, and live out their faith consciously, every day. Small churches become a family, children of God, and brothers and sisters of Jesus together. There's no place to hide in a small church. The normal human dramas of good and evil, sin and repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation all happen in our relationships in the family. A small church is a place where people can serve an apprenticeship in faith, learning from those before them and passing on their experience to those around them. In a small church the pastor provides context by preaching and teaching, serves as a role model in encouraging the ministry of others, and, by loving the people, helps them see themselves through God's eyes. The rest is up to the people themselves and to God. ""Risley provides from her extensive pastoral experience an insider's view of the essential ministry of small churches today. With theological depth and practical wisdom she celebrates the Christian discipleship possible in a place that fosters a shared life where everybody matters. I highly recommend this work to both laity and clergy; it provides questions for reflection and discussion inviting congregational study."" --Robert W. Pazmino Valeria Stone Professor of Christian Education Andover Newton Theological School ""Butterflies in your soul? You've finished seminary, got credentialed, and now you have accepted your first call to minister . . . in a small church! Well, butterflies (and worse!) are entirely appropriate because you are about to enter a whole new world! BUT in Jean Risley's A Place Where Everybody Matters you have an excellent guide to the fascinating new universe of small church ministry. Let Risley be your mentor-in-print . . . Risley's practical wisdom and love of the small church will become infused in your pastoring and you will be a better minister for it! --Anthony G. Pappas author of Entering the World of the Small Church and Pastoral Stress Jean Risley is an ordained minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and a candidate in the Doctor of Ministry program at Andover Newton Theological School. Her interests include the implications of the Jewish background of Jesus and Paul, the challenge of living faithfully in contemporary culture, and the relationship between religion and science. Her website at www.JeanRisley.com provides a forum for discussing these issues.
Download or read book Small Church Big Impact Ebook Shorts written by Brandon J. O'Brien and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2011-08-01 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By gathering stories about effective churches from small-church pastors, Brandon O'Brien demonstrates that a church's success is not contingent on its size. This is a selection from Brandon O'Brien's book, The Strategically Small Church.
Download or read book Small Matters written by Greg Nettle and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2016-04-12 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Children have always been close to Jesus' heart. As his followers, it's our responsibility to protect, nurture, and pass our faith to children. In Small Matters: Why Children Are Such a Big Deal, authors Greg Nettle and Jimmy Mellado offer a model of discipleship that encourages parents to raise up the next generation to be deeply committed to and in love with Jesus. Ministry pioneer D. L. Moody once said that if he could relive his life, he would devote his entire ministry to reaching children for God. What Moody understood was that, by investing in them, the potential for effective change in a child's life is huge. When we awaken to the fact that children between the ages of four and fourteen are the most likely to make a decision to follow Jesus, and that the discipleship that children receive forms their future, it may give you an idea of the importance of ministering the young. Greg and Jimmy challenge the typical church models of youth discipleship and offer ways to shift into a more effective and more biblical method that begins by empowering parents in their homes and works outward: Discipling children in the home. Discipling children in the church. Discipling children in the community. Now more than ever churches have to invest in the cause of children through advocacy, sponsorship, and children's ministries—all of which need to be committed to holistic child development. Small Matters will transform the way we view children, invest in them, reach out to them, teach them and, ultimately, empower them to be disciples of Jesus. "This is a book about small matters, which are really large matters... God has used the small things of this world to do his work, and he continues to do this today. In Jesus' kingdom, the first are last and the least are the greatest, the servants are the heroes and the small are the biggest winners of all." John Ortberg, author and pastor.
Download or read book Bringing the Church to the World written by Nicholas Thomas Wright and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As he convincingly demonstrates that the Western world is becoming increasingly, overtly pagan, Wright articulates how paganism now manifests itself in Western culture, shows how the gospel confronts it at the roots, and presents a challenging agenda for the church. "An urgent book for the times--passionate, brilliant, filled with hope".--Timothy George, Beeson Divinity School.
Download or read book Ingenuity written by Lisa L. Thompson and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2018-11-06 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ingenuity introduces a theology and practice of preaching that emerges from the faith and wisdom of black women. Preaching has been resourced and taught from a narrow field of cultural or gendered experiences, historically. Without much support from established channels, black women are left to “figure it out” on their own, and others discern how to preach from a limiting scope. The best preachers understand their own voices and the voices of others. They stretch and grow, and this enables them to preach more effectively. Ingenuity equips readers to negotiate tradition, life experiences, and theological conviction in the creative work that makes way for sacred speech. With Ingenuity, Lisa Thompson offers deep insights for anyone seeking to enlarge their understanding, their language, and their sense of lived experiences, and offers practical help through “In Practice” segments for those who preach. "Written from the deep well of the spirituality of Black women, Thompson has given us a remarkable guide for what preaching should be and must be for the times we are in. Accessible, thoughtful, probing, pastoral, prophetic—all come together in this text. A must read for anyone committed to faithful excellence in proclaiming the word." -Emilie M. Townes, Dean and E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society, Vanderbilt University Divinity School
Download or read book Pastoral Care in the Small Membership Church written by James L. Killen and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to pastoral care for pastors of small membership churches. "If you spend your whole life serving small membership churches and doing it well, yours will have been a life well spent." Small membership churches have a real advantage when it comes to incorporating people into a fellowship where they are known and where their needs are met. These churches and their pastors have an opportunity for excellence in this area, and should make the most of it. Good pastoral care can be the key to effectiveness in all of the other ministries of the church.From getting acquainted with your congregation, weddings and funerals, picking up on subtle cues in a conversation to not-so-subtle conflicts, Killen shares insights from years of ministry in a small membership church setting. James L. Killen, Jr. is a retired elder of the Texas Conference, contributor to Circuit Rider, and author of Who Do You Say That I Am? A Personal Reader.
Download or read book Creating a Missional Culture written by JR Woodward and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2013-09-20 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Missiologist and church planter JR Woodward offers a blueprint for the missional church--not small adjustments around the periphery of the infrastructure but a radical revisioning of how a church ought to look that entails changing how we think about leadership and what we expect out of discipleship.
Download or read book SimChurch written by Douglas Estes and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2009-09-22 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The meeting place for the church of tomorrow will be a computer screen. Don’t laugh, and don’t feel alarmed. The real-world church isn’t going anywhere until Jesus returns. But the virtual church is already here, and it’s poised for explosive growth. SimChurch invites you to explore the vision, the concerns, the challenges, and the remarkable possibilities of building Christ’s kingdom online. What is the virtual church, and what different forms might it take? Will it be an extension of a real-world church, or a separate entity? How will it encourage families to worship together? Is it even possible or healthy to “be” the church in the virtual world? If you’re passionate about the church and evangelism, and if you feel both excitement and concern over the new virtual world the internet is creating, then these are just some of the vital issues you and other postmillennial followers of Jesus must grapple with. Rich in both biblical and current insight, combining exploration and critique, SimChurch opens a long-overdue discussion you can’t afford to miss.
