Download or read book The Surprising Return of the Neighborhood Church written by Sam Rainer and published by Tyndale House Publishers. This book was released on 2023-09-05 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Opportunity Lies Right Down the Road. There’s hope for your church. Respected church expert Sam Rainer envisions an exciting new wave of revitalized neighborhood churches that are growing and thriving. In the not-so-distant past, churches tended to relocate away from their neighborhoods and build large campuses at major intersections. At the turn of the 21st century, a dramatic shift occurred: A new generation began looking to neighborhood churches to foster life-giving friendships, provide opportunities for service, and create a community dedicated to worshiping God. Sam Rainer describes this movement and answers the most common questions about this surprising new phenomenon: What are the marks of a healthy neighborhood church? What are the most common myths about the neighborhood church? What are the obstacles to church growth? What are the best strategies to reach your neighbors? The neighborhood church is primed for a comeback. The potential is huge. God wants to do incredible things. Are you ready?
Download or read book Scrappy Church written by Thom S. Rainer and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2018-09-25 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How many times have we heard these statements… “We can’t compete with the megachurch in our town!” “A new church was started two blocks from us. We’ve got plenty of churches without them!” “The church brought another one of their campuses near us. It’s totally unethical what they are doing.” “We can’t reach young families. They all go to the big church that has all the children’s and student stuff.” “We don’t have the money or the people the other churches have.” Bestselling author Thom S. Rainer (I Am a Church Member, Autopsy of a Deceased Church) has heard comments like these hundreds, if not thousands, of times. They are statements of hopelessness. They are statements of despair. They are statements of defeat. Church leaders don’t want to feel this way. They desire to break out of the mediocrity of the same, lame, and tame existence of their churches. They want their churches to make a difference. There is hope. God’s hope. God’s possibilities. What does a scrappy church look like? Let’s take a look together.
Download or read book The Church Revitalization ChecklistThe Church Revitalization Checklist written by Sam Rainer and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2022 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Your church has the opportunity of a lifetime. The world has shifted, and a new, brighter tomorrow awaits. The Church Revitalization Checklist is a tool to help you start fresh, leverage your strengths, and discover hidden opportunities for church growth. God has placed you exactly where He wants you. But let's be honest, if you're leading a church, it isn't easy. Maybe your church has been in the doldrums for years. Maybe you're hearing a lot of complaints, and you're simply tired or disheartened. Maybe you've been hurt. But you are not alone. Many church leaders have sore backs from carrying a heavy load. This book will lighten that load. The Church Revitalization Checklist provides a step-by-step path to a hope-filled future for both you and your church. Popular church expert Sam Rainer will walk you and your leadership team through a seven-point checklist--everything from reconsidering your priorities to evaluating your location and facilities. It is an extremely practical tool to unleash your congregation and help them step into God's unique purpose for them. Your brighter future starts now.
Download or read book Neighborhood Church written by Krin Van Tatenhove and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2019-02-01 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can we embody the values of love, grace, and justice? As faith communities, how can our collective embodiment of these values shine even brighter? The answers to these questions must always unfold right here, right now, exactly where God has planted us. Neighborhood Churchacts as a resource to inspire churches to become a vibrant and engaging community partner with the families and neighborhoods living around them. The need for transformation is acute. Congregational decline continues across all mainline denominations. The abandonment of the church by the millennial generation is ubiquitous; no denomination is escaping it. This is, in part, a consequence of disconnection from our communities. Van Tatenhove and Mueller believe that, parish by parish, we can reverse this trend. They dare to have an audacious hope for local congregations not only as signs of Gods kingdom but as life-giving institutions that anchor their neighborhoods. Drawing on their combined sixty years of parish experience, wisdom from Asset-Based Community Development, and compelling case stories, Van Tatenhove and Mueller do more than just call us to incarnational ministry. They give practical, essential tools that lead to communal conversion, develop the DNA of listening, spur fruitful partnerships, promote integrated space, and sustain long-term visions. They believe these tools will spark true revival and unleash the power of incarnational ministry.
Download or read book The Neighborhood Church written by Robert G. Moss and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014-09-16 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this book is to provide a theologically sound yet easy-to-use resource, based on the image of God, that can help congregations engage relationally in their neighborhoods. Rather than using the neighborhood as a resource to help make congregations successful, The Neighborhood Church contends that God places congregations in neighborhoods to help make neighborhoods successful in accordance with God's vision. This book is intended as a resource for pastors and other church leaders who pour significant amounts of energy into their congregations but feel frustrated with the results. The problem isn't with church leaders' energy or commitment. On the contrary, it's a lack of awareness as to how that energy and commitment can be channeled within God's call, mission, and movement. This book is a crucial resource for congregations having difficulty navigating the treacherous waters of what it means to be successful according to God's vision.
Download or read book The New Parish written by Paul Sparks and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2014-04-04 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Headlines rage with big stories about big churches. But tucked away in neighborhoods throughout North America is a profound work of hope quietly unfolding as the gospel takes root in the context of a place. The future of the church is local, connected to the struggles of the people and even to the land itself.
Download or read book Moving the Rock written by Mary Elyeen Abrums and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2010 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moving the Rock portrays several generations of African American women whose families migrated from the South to the Pacific Northwest in the 1940s and 1950s. As members of a small storefront church in central Seattle, these women--grandmothers, mothers, daughters--lean on their faith and church to face the challenges of poverty, racism, ignorance, and health. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, it is painfully obvious that many of us know little about what it is like to be poor and Black in the United States. These powerful, profound stories bring this group of women and their problems, and joys, vividly and movingly to life.
Download or read book A History of Evangelism in North America written by Thomas P. Johnston and published by Kregel Publications. This book was released on 2021-07-27 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Encounter North American evangelism from the Great Awakening to the present day A History of Evangelism in North America guides readers on a tour through circuit riders and tent meetings to campus evangelism and online ministries. Academic research combines with gospel faithfulness and love for the lost in this historical survey. Encountering these prominent evangelism movements will inspire innovation and courage in the call to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. Few Christians recognize the historical backgrounds of various evangelistic ministries, their theological traditions, or their guiding principles. A History of Evangelism in North America explores evangelism methodologies and legacies from the early 1700s to today. Experts deliver current scholarship on twenty-two evangelists and ministries, including the following: John Wesley and itinerant preachers The camp meeting movement The American Bible Society and Bible distribution evangelism The Navigators and personal discipleship Billy Graham and crusade evangelism Campus ministries The Jesus Movement 21st-century evangelistic approaches A History of Evangelism in North America promises to have lasting value for those who study evangelism, missions, Christian history, and the church in North America.
Download or read book The Post Quarantine Church written by Thom S. Rainer and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A trustworthy and respected guide for pastors and church leadership in the post-quarantine world, providing hope and vision for the future of your congregation. From thousands of surveys of church leaders and in-person consultations, Thom Rainer and his Church Answers team have gathered the essential wisdom you will need to face the challenges and opportunities that the quarantine crisis creates for the local church, including: New and better ways to lead the gathered church A wide-open door for growing the digital church A moment to rethink the facilities New strategies for church growth . . . and much more! This book is, in effect, your personal church consultant, helping you plan and prepare for the future. In the midst of heartbreak, tragedy, and struggle due to Covid-19, here’s hope, wisdom, encouragement and vision. This book is valuable for those looking for local church and pastor resources to enhance church leadership, grow your church, and serve digital and online church communities in the post-quarantine world. As a former pastor and founder of Church Answers, Thom S. Rainer is intimately familiar with the ever-present demands that pastors face. He has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of the local church.
Download or read book Neighborhood Church written by Krin Van Tatenhove and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2019-02-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can we embody the values of love, grace, and justice? As faith communities, how can our collective embodiment of these values shine even brighter? The answers to these questions must always unfold right here, right now, exactly where God has planted us. Neighborhood Churchacts as a resource to inspire churches to become a vibrant and engaging community partner with the families and neighborhoods living around them. The need for transformation is acute. Congregational decline continues across all mainline denominations. The abandonment of the church by the millennial generation is ubiquitous; no denomination is escaping it. This is, in part, a consequence of disconnection from our communities. Van Tatenhove and Mueller believe that, parish by parish, we can reverse this trend. They dare to have an audacious hope for local congregations not only as signs of Gods kingdom but as life-giving institutions that anchor their neighborhoods. Drawing on their combined sixty years of parish experience, wisdom from Asset-Based Community Development, and compelling case stories, Van Tatenhove and Mueller do more than just call us to incarnational ministry. They give practical, essential tools that lead to communal conversion, develop the DNA of listening, spur fruitful partnerships, promote integrated space, and sustain long-term visions. They believe these tools will spark true revival and unleash the power of incarnational ministry.
Download or read book Theology Remixed written by Adam C. English and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2010-10-07 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jesus didn't give his followers a fixed set of statements defining everything they needed to know about the kingdom of God in a neat package. Rather he told stories, made comparisons, drew contrasts. He talked of a mustard seed, of yeast and of a hidden treasure to communicate some of the most important truths of the faith. Jesus didn't fall back on parables because he lacked the right words. Parables were the exact way Jesus intended to communicate. What pictures or analogies today can give us greater understanding of the Christian faith? Adam English finds fresh insight in four: Christianity as story, game, language, culture. Christianity is like a story with scenery, characters and plots. It's like a language with vocabulary, grammar and conversation. It's like a game with rules and players, goals and equipment. It's like a culture with a distinct way of living, working, playing and loving. No one analogy is complete, but all offer new windows of appreciation for the faith. English gives us a fresh representation of Christian theology that is neither modern nor postmodern, but in dialogue with both in order to articulate what we believe. Here is a book for those who want to grasp Christianity more fully and authentically in a way that illuminates our contemporary cultural context and enables us to make a compelling response.
Download or read book Churches Cultures and Leadership written by Mark Lau Branson and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2023-02-28 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We live in a culturally diverse society. As the church continues to heed Christ's call to reflect the multiethnic character of his people, pastors and lay leaders need to gain skills and competencies to serve in multicultural contexts, both inside and beyond their congregations. With this book, Mark Lau Branson and Juan F. Martínez equip leaders to create environments that make God's reconciling initiatives apparent in church life and in missional engagement with their neighborhoods and cities. Drawing on courses they've taught at Fuller Theological Seminary, Branson and Martínez take an interdisciplinary approach that integrates biblical and theological study with sociology, cultural anthropology, leadership studies, and communications. The result is a rich blend of astute analysis and guidance for the practical implementation of a deeper intercultural life for the church. Case studies, Bible studies, and exercises for personal and group reflection address real-life challenges and opportunities that arise in multiethnic contexts. Churches, Cultures, and Leadership offers not a static model but a praxis of paying attention, study, and discernment that can lead to genuine reconciliation and shared life empowered by the gospel. This new edition is updated throughout to address current trends and sources, particularly emphasizing the continuing power of racism and how churches should respond.
Download or read book To See a World in a Grain of Sand written by Loyd L. Fueston and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2006-05-15 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With some modifications, certain insights of St. Thomas Aquinas can be used to make good sense of this dynamic universe of evolving things. These foundational insights cover the nature of human knowledge and the importance of acts-of-being. The human mind is formed by interaction with God's effects in His creation and this interaction takes place during three billion years of evolution and also during the lifetime of an individual human being. Creation is a manifestation of thoughts which God wishes to share with us. God Himself is His own Act-of-being or the Supreme Act-of-being while all the underlying stuff of created things is ever and continuously brought into existence by God's acts-of-being. Complex things and living beings are brought into existence by acts-of-being best described as parts of a story being told by God. Even metaphysical and mathematical truths are better described as being facts created by the same God who created things. God is the source of all being and all truths.
Download or read book Why Would Anyone Go to Church written by Kevin Makins and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2020-06-16 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are plenty of reasons to criticize, judge, and even walk away from the church. Many of us have been hurt and rejected. We may see church as insular and irrelevant. Despite this, Kevin Makins believes that the church still matters--perhaps more than ever. When Kevin was 23 and didn't know any better, he started a congregation with some friends who were on the edge of faith. Together they hoped to discover if the church was worth fighting for. In this brutally honest account, he shares their story of becoming a community of misfits, outcasts, and oddballs who would learn that, even with all its faults, the church is worth being a part of . . . and must be reclaimed for good. If you've been burned or burned out by the church, if you've been silenced or misunderstood, if you've left or never even joined in the first place, this candid, hopeful book is your invitation to consider what you miss out on when you give up on church--and what the church misses out on when it gives up on you.
Download or read book Surprise the World written by Michael Frost and published by NavPress. This book was released on 2016-01-14 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sharing your faith doesn’t have to be complicated. Christians are called to be a witness for Christ in daily life, to surprise people around us with the good news of the gospel. Yet putting that mission into regular practice can seem overwhelming. Author Michael Frost, a renowned expert on evangelism, offers refreshingly simple tactics to make evangelism fulfilling, exciting, and effective. Surprise the World teaches clear and practical tools for making evangelism part of your daily life. This short and easy read covers the BELLS method, along with thought-provoking questions and prompts for applying each habit. You’ll learn about each of the five habits: Bless others Eat together Listen to the Spirit Learn Christ Understand yourself as Sent by God into others’ lives Ideal for personal use or training groups on evangelism, the inspiring lessons in this book will transform your view of evangelism in daily life. “A timely wake-up call for believers. A concise and helpful encouragement to those seeking to live on-mission in their communities.” —Ed Stetzer, author and pastor “Eminently doable, entirely practical, and exceptionally effective!” —Felicity Dale, author of An Army of Ordinary People “If every believer developed a lifestyle that included these 5 habits, I’m convinced a great spiritual awakening would take place.” —Al Engler, mission director of Nav Neighbor
Download or read book The Complete American Pilgrim written by Howard a. Kramer and published by Complete Pilgrim, LLC. This book was released on 2018-08-28 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Complete American Pilgrim is a traveler's guide to 250 of the most sacred and historic religious sites in the United States. It is based on the travels and research of the author, who over the last few decades has visited countless religious sites around the world. The Complete American Pilgrim invites casual travelers and die-hard pilgrims alike to explore some of the most sacred destinations to be found in the United States. These places, chosen for their religious, historic and architectural importance encompass centuries of the American religious experience. From the historic colonial churches of New England to the magnificent missions of California, discover what hidden treasures of faith may be found in your own neighborhood.
Download or read book Radically Unchurched written by Alvin L. Reid and published by Kregel Academic. This book was released on with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an alarming look at today's church and how it must reverse its failure to reach an unchurched culture. Alvin L. Reid examines the causes behind the change from America's Christian identity and the resulting failure of the American church to understand and utilize the New Testament pattern of penetrating an indifferent culture with the gospel.
