Download or read book Helping the Small Church Win Guests written by Desmond Barrett and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2024-04-25 with total page 117 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The heart behind any revitalization effort is to see the church reach the community and new people with the gospel. It should not be about membership, tithing, or even more people in the pews. Those will come if the church is willing to prepare for guests for the greater good of the community. There is no silver bullet in winning and keeping new guests, but may you find strategies in this resource that will make you think about what more you could do to prepare, retain, and invite guests into the local church.
Download or read book Helping the Small Church Win Guests written by Desmond Barrett and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2024-04-25 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The heart behind any revitalization effort is to see the church reach the community and new people with the gospel. It should not be about membership, tithing, or even more people in the pews. Those will come if the church is willing to prepare for guests for the greater good of the community. There is no silver bullet in winning and keeping new guests, but may you find strategies in this resource that will make you think about what more you could do to prepare, retain, and invite guests into the local church.
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 At Your Best written by Carey Nieuwhof and published by WaterBrook. This book was released on 2021-09-14 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A perceptive and practical book about why our calendars so rarely reflect our priorities and what we can do to regain control.”—ADAM GRANT “Carey’s book will help you reorganize your life. And then you can share a copy with someone you care about.”—SETH GODIN You deserve to stop living at an unsustainable pace. An influential podcaster and thought leader shows you how. Overwhelmed. Overcommitted. Overworked. That’s the false script an inordinate number of people adopt to be successful. Does this sound familiar: ● Slammed is normal. ● Distractions are everywhere. ● Life gets reduced to going through the motions. Tired of living that way? At Your Best gives you the strategies you need to win at work and at home by living in a way today that will help you thrive tomorrow. Influential podcast host and thought leader Carey Nieuwhof understands the challenges of constant pressure. After a season of burnout almost took him out, he discovered how to get time, energy, and priorities working in his favor. This approach freed up more than one thousand productive hours a year for him and can do the same for you. At Your Best will help you ● replace chronic exhaustion with deep productivity ● break the pattern of overpromising and never accomplishing enough ● clarify what matters most by restructuring your day ● master the art of saying no, without losing friends or influence ● discover why vacations and sabbaticals don’t really solve your problems ● develop a personalized plan to recapture each day so you can break free from the trap of endless to-dos Start thriving at work and at home as you discover how to be at your best.
Download or read book Help for the Small church Pastor written by Steve R. Bierly and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 1995 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Churches with fewer than 150 people will always be a bastion of Christianity despite today's megachurch emphasis. Pastors dealing with the strengths, problems and opportunities of smaller churches will value Bierly's timely guidance and encouragement. Knowing what makes small churches tick helps their leaders invest time and energy wisely into the kind of growth that matters.
Download or read book Future Church written by Will Mancini and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2020-12-01 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Church growth models have often been long on promises and short on disciple-making. We continue to watch consistent church attendance shrink, and our desire to reach the lost is infected with a need for self-validation by growing our numbers at any cost. If we believe that God wants his church to grow, where do we go from here? What is the future of the church? Drawing from his 20 years and 15,000 hours of consulting, author Will Mancini shares with pastors and ministry leaders the single most important insight he has learned about church growth. With plenty of salient stories and based solidly on the disciple-making methods found in Scripture, Future Church exposes the church's greatest challenge today, and offers 7 transforming laws of real church growth so that we can faithfully and joyfully fulfill Jesus's Great Commission.
Download or read book The Gifts of the Small Church written by Dr. Jason Byassee and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2010-09-01 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dizzying changes have taken place in American religious life in the last half century. Yet in spite of that fact, taking a snapshot of a “typical” Christian church in America would reveal a surprising number of small-to-mid-sized congregations, rooted in a local neighborhood or community, tied to a specific denomination, where most of the members know each others’ names, and hence are blessed (and cursed) with being the church together. In this clear-eyed, humorous appraisal, Jason Byassee contends that the “church around the corner” occupies a particular place in the divine economy, that it is especially capable of forming us in the virtues, perspectives, and habits that make up the Christian life. Not that he romanticizes these churches, however. Having been a rural, small membership church pastor, Byassee knows too well the particular vices and temptations to which they are subject. But he also knows the particular graces they’ve been given, graces like the “prayer ladies,” those pillars of the congregation who, “when one told you she was praying for you it meant something. When one hugged you, you remembered all week. When one cooked for you the casserole tasted like love. And when you were around them you were in the presence of Jesus.” Anyone who serves, or belongs to, a “church around the corner” will find their ministry strengthened by this enlivening, inspiring book.
Download or read book Fusion written by Nelson Searcy and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-10-27 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Creating an environment that both embraces our newcomers and excites them enough to return does not happen by chance. We must be prepared to be effective stewards of those God brings us. And, why shouldn't the Church be the epitome of service at its best, as modeled by the greatest server of all time? Built on The Journey Church of the City's As...
Download or read book How to Thrive As a Small Church Pastor written by Steve R. Bierly and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 1998 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Practical and encouraging wisdom to help small-church pastors understand why they often feel the way they do abounds in this book, as well as tips on how to recover personal well-being and the joy of a small-church ministry.
Download or read book Rediscover Church written by Collin Hansen and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2021-07-28 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A Christian without a church is a Christian in trouble." Since a global pandemic abruptly closed places of worship, many Christians have skipped church life, even neglecting virtual services. But this was a trend even before COVID-19. Polarizing issues, including political and racial strife, convinced some people to pull away from the church and one another. Now it's time to recommit to gathering as brothers and sisters in Christ. In Rediscover Church, Collin Hansen and Jonathan Leeman discuss why church is essential for believers and God's mission. Through biblical references and personal stories, they show readers God's true intention for corporate gathering: to spiritually strengthen members as individuals and the body of Christ. In an age of church-shopping and livestreamed services, rediscover why the future of the church relies on believers gathering regularly as the family of God. Published in partnership with the Gospel Coalition and 9Marks.
Download or read book Preaching to People in Pain written by Matthew D. Kim and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering an important corrective to a pain-averse culture that celebrates individualism and success, veteran preacher and teacher Matthew Kim encourages pastors to preach on the painful issues their congregations face. Through vulnerability and self-disclosure, pastors can help their congregants share their suffering in community for the purpose of healing and transformation. The book includes stories, shares relevant Scripture texts imparting biblical wisdom, and offers best practices for preaching on specific topics. Each chapter ends with discussion questions and a sample sermon.
Download or read book The Winning Welcome written by Stan Toler and published by Nazarene Publishing House. This book was released on 2004 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Develop a welcoming church that not only creates a good impression but invites visitors to make themselves at home. The Winning Welcome is a valuable resource for achieving the church’s main goal of increasing the kingdom. Sections such as ’Ten Things First Time Guests Need,’ and ’Turning Visitors into Attendees’ supply insight and helpful ideas for church members wanting to make the new guest feel welcome. The Winning Welcome will help your church:Develop a plan to effectively welcome visitorsMake your building more inviting to guestsEquip greeters and ushers to make guests feel welcomeProvide visitors with helpful information about your churchTurn visitors into regular attendees, and much more!
Download or read book The Winning Welcome written by Sharon Bushey and published by Beacon Hill Press. This book was released on 1989-03 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Practical guidelines to help visitors feel at home in your congregation.
Download or read book Taking Your Church to the Next Level written by Gary L. McIntosh and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2009-09-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All local churches experience a predictable life cycle of growth and decline. But if a church is on a downward trend, how can it turn around? Taking Your Church to the Next Level explains the impact of age and size on churches and outlines the improvements that must be made at each point for a church to remain fruitful and faithful to its mission. McIntosh deftly describes the cycles of fruitfulness and the importance of continual improvement to diminish destructive forces that keep a congregation from its mission. Church leaders, pastors, and all who care about the church and desire to see it experience biblical growth will benefit from the sage wisdom offered in these pages.
Download or read book Imagining the Small Church written by Steve Willis and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagining the Small Church: Celebrating a Simpler Path bears witness to what God is doing in small churches. Steve Willis tells stories from the small churches he has pastored in rural, town, and urban settings and dares to imagine that their way of being has something to teach all churches in this time of change in the American Christian Church. Willis tells us in the introduction, 'This book boasts no ten or fifteen steps to a successful small church. Instead, I hope to encourage you to give up on steps altogether and even to give up on success, at least how success is usually measured. I also hope to help the reader imagine the small church differently; to see with new eyes the joys and pleasures of living small and sustainably.' The joys and sorrows Willis helps us see through the compelling stories of faith in the small church puts flesh and bones on the possibilities that lie ahead for congregations in the future as well as the here and now. From the foreword by Tony Pappas: 'In Imagining the Small Church, pastor, writer, and lover of small things Steve Willis takes us on a narrative and imaginative journey. Some readers will have a sense that what Willis is describing simply names what they have already known in their hearts about their small churches. For them the journey will cover some familiar ground, explore some territory from a fresh angle, but deposit them nearly home again, hopefully with just a bit more awareness and appreciation. For others, though, Willis will take them on a long journey to a far and foreign place. They probably won't bother to finish reading it, and they will miss his invitation to find pastoring a small church extremely rewarding and meaningful. They will find this a strange book weird, off-center, and impractical; unlivable in the twenty-first century and undesirable in any event. This is because Willis is taking on the ethos, the values of our age, and claiming that it needn't be so. We can live on a different basis. We can live on the basis of gospel values.' There will be a variety of paths as the Church seeks new ways of being in this time. Willis knows this. In Imagining the Small Church he presents us with one that embraces a life of faith on the periphery and challenges church leaders to do the same.
Download or read book Revitalizing the Declining Church written by Desmond Barrett and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2021-04-08 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Standing in the small foyer of his first ministry assignment, Desmond Barrett prayed, “Lord send us someone new.” Each week the same eight to thirteen people walked into that tiny church, sat in the same pew, and spoke to the same handful of people content in where they found themselves. As the pastor Barrett questioned, doubted, and cried to himself, praying that God would turn around this church that was at death’s door. Death had not come to this once vibrant church overnight, but gradually as it seemed to have snuck up on them through deaths, families moving away, and a series of pastors over twenty years. A new young pastoral family with children was not going to change the trajectory of the church without the church willing to transform. The church was dying, but was it willing to do what it would take to grow again? This story has been played out countless times over the years. If you are a pastor of a dying and struggling church searching for hope, then this resource is for you. It consists of ten stories of churches who faced death and lived to tell the story.
Download or read book Pastoral Care in the Small Membership Church written by James L. Killen JR. and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2005-05-01 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.
