Download or read book Borderland Churches written by Gary V Nelson and published by Chalice Press. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Borderland Churches is a call to embrace the pluralistic, post Christian and postmodern culture with a sense of opportunity and hope. The author uses the image of the church crossing over into an "in -between time", a place where faith is lived outside the walls of the church engaging the community in incarnational ways. To live in that "precarious but exhilarating place where faith and other faiths and no faith meet." Only individuals and congregations that accept this new reality will be able to carry on Christian ministry in this new cultural situation. A TCP Leadership Series title.
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 Volatile Congregations written by Brandon Douglas Bannon and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Leading the Congregation written by Norman Shawchuck and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2010-10-01 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading the Congregation is a complete and definitive guide to the practice of church leadership. The book describes essential paradigms for the leader that integrate spiritual integrity and service within a "systems" view of the congregation and its ministry. This revised and updated version focuses on the challenges of congregational leadership in a culture that has fewer ties to Christian faith. The authors lay out the dual contexts in which church leaders must function–within the congregation, and as the congregation’s representative to the community–and they explain the very different skill sets required to flourish in each. Underlying the revised edition is an insistence on the congregational leader’s call from God, and cultivation of her or his relationship with God. Leadership is not the same thing as charisma, they explain; it is rather a set of attitudes and practices that each of us can and must master if we are to be worthy servants of Christ.
Download or read book The Diversity of Discipleship written by Milton J. Coalter and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 1991-01-01 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume considers three issues in the Presbyterian Church that have proved to be perplexing to the witness of faith: outreach, ecumenism, and pluralism. The first four essays illustrate that troubling questions about the church's witness arose in this century and divided Presbyterian opinion in the midst of American social problems. Thus, verbal and physical outreach became competing priorities. The final five essays examine racial/ethnic Presbyterian experiences. Examples of the interlocking and sometimes interfering interplay of outreach, ecumenism, and pluralism in the quest for distinctive Presbyterian discipleship are discussed. Through its examination of American Presbyterianism, thePresbyterian Presenceseries illuminates patterns of change in mainstream Protestantism and American religious and cultural life in the twentieth century.
Download or read book The Surprise Factor written by Paul Nixon and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2013-02-01 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Principles for church leadership are important, but just as important is knowing when and how to implement them. This is strategy and it can make or break a leader’s work. Those who have been in ministry for a while may have a bag of leadership tricks. But what are the results? Nixon and Shockley explore eight key leadership behaviors that will help a church move successfully through its first season of transformation, putting it well on its way to becoming a dynamic, growing body of Christ. They report that ninety percent of existing churches never make it out of the first season of transformation and give guidance on how to turn around a stagnant or dying church.
Download or read book Rebuilding the Christian Commonwealth written by John A. AndrewIII and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2021-12-14 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The foreign missionary movement of the early 19th century grew out of the efforts of churches in New England to deal with the changes then taking place in society. The erosion of traditional institutional structures and social values plus the rise of Unitarianism threatened the destruction of the traditional faith. Mr. Andrew holds that the Congregational clergy used foreign missions not only to implant New England culture in heathen lands but also to awaken a sense of community at home.
Download or read book Congregation Community written by Nancy Tatom Ammerman and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do some religious institutions decline in the face of racial integration whilst others grow? How do congregations deal with economic distress? This study of congregations in the face of community transformation includes stories of over 20 congregations in nine communities across America.
Download or read book A History of Christianity in Africa written by Elizabeth Isichei and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 1995 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Isichei's thorough study surveys the full breadth of Christianity in Africa, from the early story of Egyptian Christianity to the churches of the Middle Years (1500-1800) to the prolific success of missions throughout the 1900s. This important book fills a conspicuous void of scholarly works on Africa's Christian history. Includes 26 maps.
Download or read book It S Not Too Late written by Al Peverall Jr. and published by WestBow Press. This book was released on 2018-02-26 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You might think theres something wrong with you if church doesnt seem exciting and meaningful. But the truth is, your thoughts and emotions are common in the world of churches today. Al Peverall Jr., a pastor with over fifty years of experience, provides counsel for church leaders to revive their worship and service. By learning and appropriating key biblical truths, you will serve God, lead your flock to walk with Jesus, and challenge your members to renew their faith in the Lord. Its Not Too Late presents some basic biblical and spiritual principles that will help you to reestablish practices that include the following: Making critical decisions to solidify the foundation of your church Experiencing Gods presence, power, and purpose Embracing Gods mission to the fullest You will discover five pillars of truth that will result in a turnaround: resetting your priorities and making you realize that you are not perfect but forgiven, reclaiming the fact that you are an ordinary person or church, relating to persons in a spirit of love, and receiving Gods story as you discover how your story fits into his. As churches fight declining membership and a loss of vision, theres never been a better time to make an about-face. Its Not Too Late inspires a fresh perspective on building a healthy church.
Download or read book The Courage to Lead written by James H. Harris and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2002 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on pastoral and lay leadership in the African-American church, this books deals with internal and external issues - such as the tendency towards bifurcated mentality and practices, and the social issue of race and affirmative action.
Download or read book Stand Up Preaching written by Jacob D. Myers and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2022-10-06 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few vocations share more in common with preaching than stand-up comedy. Each profession demands attention to the speaker’s bodily and facial gestures, tone and inflection, timing, and thoughtful engagement with contemporary contexts. Furthermore, both preaching and stand-up arise out of creative tension with homiletic or comedic traditions, respectively. Every time the preacher steps into the pulpit or the comedian steps onto the stage, they must measure their words and gestures against their audience’s expectations and assumptions. They participate in a kind of dance that is at once choreographed and open to improvisation. It is these and similar commonalities between preaching and stand-up comedy that this book engages. Stand-Up Preaching does not aim to help preachers tell better jokes. The focus of this book is far more expansive. Given the recent popularity of comedy specials, preachers have greater access to a broad array of emerging comics who showcase fresh comedic styles and variations on comedic traditions. Coupled with the perennial Def Comedy Jams on HBO, preachers also have ready access to the work of classic comics who have exhibited great storytelling and stage presence. This book will offer readers tools to discern what is homiletically significant in historical and contemporary stand-up routines, equipping them with fresh ways to riff off of their respective preaching traditions, and nuanced ways to engage issues of contemporary sociopolitical importance.
Download or read book Rekindling the Mainline written by Stephen C. Compton and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2003-06-01 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not only do new church starts in significant numbers bring systemic change and renewal to mainline denominations, but new church development brings similar change to individual aging congregations in their vicinity. Author Stephen Compton argues that a decline in new church starts in the last half of the 20th century was the major contributor to the decline of mainline church groups—not liberalism or lack of faith, as is often cited. He shows in this book how introducing considerable numbers of new congregations into these old denominations can cause these venerable institutions to revisit the meaning of "church" and "congregation," develop a clearer vision of their collective mission, and grow in their ability to bring about positive change in the world. In effect, he contends, new churches in an aging organization do not merely make it grow. They make it change in ways that make it more effective in its mission and ministries. This book will appeal to leaders across denominational lines, including those not ordinarily called "mainline," and especially to pastors and leaders of older congregations.
Download or read book A Measure of Success written by Michael J. McTighe and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1994-03-08 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a framework for this analysis, he develops a methodology for measuring the success, or influence, of religion in a particular society.
Download or read book Questioning Slavery written by James Walvin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-11 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surveying the key questions of slavery, this book traces the arguments which have surrounded its history in recent years. A wide-ranging thematic organisation covers racial, economic, political, social, cultural, gender and colonial dimensions.
Download or read book Introducing the New Testament written by John William Drane and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drane's newest edition retains the clarity, accessibility, and graphic interest that have made it a favorite introduction for a decade. This revised edition also adds a full account of recent scholarly developments in areas such as the historical Jesus, the theologies of the four Gospels, and the role of Paul in the transformation of the church into a separate movement from Judaism. This edition also includes a new chapter on the interpretation of the New Testament.
Download or read book How to Attract and Keep Active Church Members written by Donald P. Smith and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 1992-01-01 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this study of church growth and membership retention, Smith argues that if a church is to survive, it must concentrate on keeping its present members as well as attracting new ones. Interviewing people from 600 churches of various sizes and reviewing the causes of membership decline and retention in those churches, Smith asserts that churches must meet members' needs in order to attract and keep them.
