Download or read book Recreating the Church written by Richard L Hamm and published by Chalice Press. This book was released on 2009-08-01 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mainline denominations in the United States are in crisis. These institutions - created in and for modernity - are now facing a changed, postmodern culture. Hamm faces the crisis, examining its origins, and offers sound advice on how to lead to church to make the adaptive changes needed to thrive in postmodern times. A TCP Leadership Series title.

Download or read book The Innovative Church written by Scott Cormode and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The church as we know it is calibrated for a world that no longer exists. It needs to recalibrate in order to address the questions that animate today's congregants. Leading congregational researcher Scott Cormode explores the role of Christian practices in recalibrating the church for the twenty-first century, offering church leaders innovative ways to express the never-changing gospel to their ever-changing congregations. The book has been road-tested with over one hundred churches through the Fuller Youth Institute and includes five questions that guide Christian leaders who wish to innovate.

Download or read book Cracking Your Church s Culture Code written by Samuel R. Chand and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-09-14 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Strategies for transforming a toxic church culture Why is it that the best strategic plans and good leadership often are not able to move churches in the desired direction? Sam Chand contends that toxic culture is to blame. Quite often, leaders don't sense the toxicity, but it poisons their relationships and derails their vision. This work describes five easily identifiable categories of church culture (inspiring-accepting-stagnant-discouraging-toxic), with diagnostic descriptions in the book and a separate online assessment tool. The reader will be able to identify strengths and needs of their church's culture, and then apply practical strategies (communication, control and authority, selection and placement of personnel, etc.) to make their church's culture more positive. Discusses how to diagnose the state of a church's culture Reveals what it takes to put in place effective strategies for creating a more positive church culture Author served on the board of EQUIP (Dr. John Maxwell's Ministry), equipping five million leaders world-wide. This important book offers a clear guide for understanding and recreating a healthy church culture.

Download or read book Desecration written by Tim LaHaye and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2011 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Tribulation Force gathers its courage as the newly-resurrected Carpathia demonstrates a fondness for gruesome killings against those who remain unloyal to him and commits the ultimate act of desecration against the Judeo-Christian community.

Download or read book Re creating the Church written by Pamela Dickey Young and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2000-08-01 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Re-creating the Church Pamela Dickey Young offers churches the key to addressing these two basic human needs: the need to flourish and the need for right relationship. Starting with the early church and relating the past to the present, Young explains that we can only flourish inasmuch as we engage in right relationship with others, which enables our companions to flourish. Communities of eros are those that find ways to embody what Jesus means today, instead of simply talking about what he meant two thousand years ago."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Download or read book Keep Christianity Weird written by Michael Frost and published by NavPress. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jesus is different. Go and do likewise. Many Christians have become comfortable letting the world mold them instead of being set apart by God. And many churches have traded in their biblical roots for complacent conventionality. But Jesus and the church are anything but conventional. The hallmark of our faith is that it sees the world differently than the world sees itself. We are called to be eccentric—off center, unique, different; not conformed to the patterns of the world but transformed by the renewing of our minds. By the grace of God we are not only dissatisfied by sin but increasingly uncompelled by conventionality. So resist the allure of acceptability. Get back to the unsafe roots of our faith. Be equipped to surprise the world with the Good News it didn’t even know it was waiting for. Challenge the way things are by living a life that has been truly set free by Christ.

Download or read book The Connecting Church 2 0 written by Randy Frazee and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2013-03-12 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The development of meaningful relationships, where every member carries a significant sense of belonging, is central to what it means to be the church. So why do many Christians feel disappointed and disillusioned with their efforts to experience authentic community? Despite the best efforts of pastors, small group leaders, and faithful lay persons, church too often is a place of loneliness rather than connection. In this revised and updated version of his best-selling book, Randy Frazee shows us how church can be so much...better. More intimate and alive. The answer may seem radical today, but it was a central component of life in the early church. First-century Christians knew what it meant to live in vital community with one another, relating with a depth and commitment that made "the body of Christ" a perfect metaphor for the church. What would it take to reclaim that kind of love, joy, support, and dynamic spiritual growth? Read this book and find out.

Download or read book Quitting Church written by Julia Duin and published by Rosetta Books. This book was released on 2017-03-08 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Every pastor should read this. . . . Every believer who has ever despaired of church, been tempted to quit, or struggled with guilt over leaving should, too” (Rod Dreher). Americans still believe in God, but they are leaving the church in record numbers. Why are the faithful fleeing? Julia Duin, a veteran journalist and a Christian, has collected the research and added insights from interviews with disillusioned followers, as well as from her own story. In this engrossing account of churches in decline, Duin visits numerous churches and explores a number of factors underlying the social shift away from church: irrelevant teaching, the neglect of singles, the marginalization of women, and a lack of authentic spiritual power. She also journeys into house churches and emergent congregations. Duin’s careful analysis is sure to help church leaders and churchgoers examine how they might better serve their communities and create inviting spiritual homes for people of all kinds. “Engaging . . . as religion editor for the Washington Times, [Duin] is in her element marshaling statistics, interviewing authors and clergy, and commenting on the trend of faithful evangelicals who increasingly vote with their feet by leaving their churches.” —Publishers Weekly

Download or read book Creating Your Church s Culture written by Stephen Blandino and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2013-09-14 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do you create a thriving organizational culture in your church? Churches are committed to a spiritual mission, but it is often the organizational aspects of the church that hinder the mission from moving forward. Cultivating health in the organizational side of church culture requires a thorough understanding of the church's vision, systems, staffing, relationships, and leadership. When the culture is healthy, it delivers consistently healthy outcomes that advance the mission of the church. But when cultures are unhealthy, or worse, toxic, they perpetuate constant dysfunction and derail the church's purpose. In Creating Your Church's Culture, Stephen Blandino gives you the tools and strategies to address the organizational side of your church's culture. You'll learn how to define your culture, activate the Culture Equation, hire staff who fit your culture, and infuse your values into your culture. You'll learn how to create a learning culture, develop effective systems, increase employee and volunteer engagement, measure healthy, and uproot bureaucracy. This practical book is loaded with wisdom and inspiration to improve the organizational aspects of your church's culture.

Download or read book Church Interrupted written by John Cornwell and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Church, Interrupted: Havoc & Hope: The Tender Revolt of Pope Francis is a revealing portrait of Pope Francis's hopeful yet controversial efforts to recreate the Catholic Church to become, once again, a welcoming place of empathy, love, and inclusiveness. Bestselling author, Vanity Fair contributor, and papal biographer John Cornwell tells the gripping insider story of Pope Francis's bid to bring renewal and hope to a crisis-plagued Church and the world at large. With unique insights and original reporting, Cornwell reveals how Francis has persistently provoked and disrupted his stubbornly unchanging Church, purging clerical corruption and reforming entrenched institutions, while calling for action against global poverty, climate change, and racism. Cornwell argues that despite fierce opposition from traditionalist clergy and right-wing media, the pope has radically widened Catholic moral priorities, calling for mercy and compassion over rigid dogmatism. Francis, according to Cornwell, has transformed the Vatican from being a top-down centralized authority to being a spiritual service for a global Church. He has welcomed the rejected, abused, and disheartened; reached out to people of other faiths and those of none; and proved a providential spiritual leader for future generations. Highly acclaimed author John Cornwell's riveting account of the hopeful—and contentious—efforts undertaken by Pope Francis to rebuild the Catholic Church. • Well researched and brilliantly written, readers, scholars, and fans of John Cornwell will want to read his most controversial and compelling work yet. • More than a third of America's 74 million Catholics said they were contemplating departure in 2018. It is estimated that over the past twenty years, the Catholic Church has been losing $2.5 billion dollars annually in revenues, legal fees, and damages due to clerical abuse cases. The decline in church attendance, marriages, and vocations to the priesthood and sisterhood tell a story of major decline and disillusion. Cornwell showcases Pope Francis's way forward, a hopeful message that gives reinvigorated reasons to stay with the church and help be the change the new generation would like to see. • For readers within and outside Catholicism fascinated by the future and restructuring of the church, this will be a book they want to read again and again as the church continues to change and grow.

Download or read book The Oxford History of Anglicanism Volume I written by Anthony Milton and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-26 with total page 527 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford History of Anglicanism is a major new and unprecedented international study of the identity and historical influence of one of the world's largest versions of Christianity. This global study of Anglicanism from the sixteenth century looks at how was Anglican identity constructed and contested at various periods since the sixteenth century; and what was its historical influence during the past six centuries. It explores not just the ecclesiastical and theological aspects of global Anglicanism, but also the political, social, economic, and cultural influences of this form of Christianity that has been historically significant in western culture, and a burgeoning force in non-western societies today. The chapters are written by international exports in their various historical fields which includes the most recent research in their areas, as well as original research. The series forms an invaluable reference for both scholars and interested non-specialists. Volume one of The Oxford History of Anglicanism examines a period when the nature of 'Anglicanism' was still heavily contested. Rather than merely tracing the emergence of trends that we associate with later Anglicanism, the contributors instead discuss the fluid and contested nature of the Church of England's religious identity in these years, and the different claims to what should count as 'Anglican' orthodoxy. After the introduction and narrative chapters explain the historical background, individual chapters then analyse different understandings of the early church and church history; variant readings of the meaning of the royal supremacy, the role of bishops and canon law, and cathedrals; the very diverse experiences of religion in parishes, styles of worship and piety, church decoration, and Bible usage; and the competing claims to 'Anglican' orthodoxy of puritanism, 'avant-garde conformity' and Laudianism. Also analysed are arguments over the Church of England's confessional identity and its links with the foreign Reformed Churches, and the alternative models provided by English Protestant activities in Ireland, Scotland and North America. The reforms of the 1640s and 1650s are included in their own right, and the volume concludes that the shape of the Restoration that emerged was far from inevitable, or expressive of a settled 'Anglican' identity.

Download or read book Re Create written by Ron Luce and published by Revell. This book was released on 2010-12-27 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An intense battle is raging for the hearts and minds of America's 33 million teenagers, the largest generation of teens in U.S. history. These teens have an enemy. He has crafted an offensive strategy, stealth tactics, sophisticated reconnaissance, and subtle propaganda. You only have to turn on your TV, talk to your teen's friends, go to the movies, or listen to the radio to catch a glimpse of his destructive campaign. Ron Luce is sounding the battle cry, calling parents and Christian leaders to wake up to the war against America's teens. Are you willing to reject "quiet Christianity" and make a world-shaking difference by dreaming new dreams to recreate our culture? Now is the time to use your God-given creativity and claim this generation for Christ, because a generation that the world cannot change is a generation that can change the world!

Download or read book Young Children and Worship written by Sonja M. Stewart and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 1989-01-01 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors have devised an exciting way to introduce three- to - seven year olds to the wonder of worship. Activities are developed around the order of worship commonly used in Reformed churches: assemble in God's name; proclaim, give thanks to and go in God's name.

Download or read book Saving Jesus from the Church written by Robin R. Meyers and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-02-24 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Countless thoughtful people are now so disgusted with the marriage of bad theology and hypocritical behavior by the church that a new Reformation is required in which the purpose of religion itself is reimagined. Meyers takes the best of biblical scholarship and recasts these core Christian concepts to exhort the church to pursue an alternative vision of the Christian life: Jesus as Teacher, not Savior Christianity as Compassion, not Condemnation Prosperity as Dangerous, not Divine Discipleship as Obedience, not Control Religion as Relationship, not Righteousness This is not a call to the church to move to the far left or to try something brand new. Rather, it is the recovery of something very old. Saving Jesus from the Church shows us what it means to be a Christian and how to follow Jesus' teachings today.

Download or read book Saturate written by Jeff Vanderstelt and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2015-04-16 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does living for Jesus look like in the everyday stuff of life? Many Christians have unwittingly embraced the idea that “church” is a once-a-week event rather than a community of Spirit-empowered people; that “ministry” is what pastors do on Sundays rather than the 24/7 calling of all believers; and that “discipleship” is a program rather than the normal state of every follower of Jesus. Drawing on his experience as a pastor and church planter, Jeff Vanderstelt wants us to see that there’s more—much more—to the Christian life than sitting in a pew once a week. God has called his people to something bigger: a view of the Christian life that encompasses the ordinary, the extraordinary, and everything in between. Packed full of biblical teaching, compelling stories, and real-world advice, this book will remind you that Jesus is filling the world with his presence through the everyday lives of everyday people... People just like you.

Download or read book The Challenge the Book of Mormon Makes to the World written by Grace Jones and published by . This book was released on 2018-11-23 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Challenge the Book of Mormon Makes to the World takes its name from a remarkable document authored by Hugh B. Brown which outlines thirty conditions any writer would need to meet to write a book comparable to the Book of Mormon. With these conditions as framework, the book provides extensive evidence in support of the assertion that neither Joseph Smith, an unlearned farm boy, nor the most celebrated of scholars, or anyone else, could have produced the Book of Mormon without divine aid. Among the many evidences found in this meticulously researched book, are what have been called "infallible proofs" of the Book of Mormon--literary, linguistic, archaeological, doctrinal, historical, prophetic--along with many beautiful stories of conversion. The Challenge is written to help brighten the flame of testimony in everyday Latter-day Saints, in those in which it may have dimmed, and in sincere investigators of the restored gospel.

Download or read book Planting Missional Churches written by Ed Stetzer and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2006-05-01 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Planting Missional Churches is an instruction book for planting biblically faithful and culturally relevant churches. It addresses the “how-to” and “why” issues of church planting by providing practical guidance through all the phases of a church plant while taking a missional look at existing and emerging cultures.