Subject: Church renewal
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The Disciple Making Church
In a recent study, pollster George Barna stated that the number one topic of interest for church leaders today is discipleship. Not growth, not pastoral care, not evangelism. Discipleship. According to E. Stanley Ott, President of The Vital Churches Institute, There is no person more qualified to address the greatest need in the church today…
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Transforming Congregational Culture
Many recent books have attempted to address the “crisis” in the mainline church. Anthony Robinson here makes a significant – and in many ways unique – contribution to this discussion by bringing his personal insights as a pastor to bear on the issue of renewing congregational life. Writing from twenty-five years of experience in four…
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Twelve Dynamic Shifts For Transforming Your Church
What is your church like today? Maybe your congregation is experiencing wonderful energy and growth. Or perhaps, like many, it was established some time ago and is now experiencing a loss of activity and vitality. In this book, E. Stanley Ott outlines twelve dynamic shifts in thinking and practice that can bring new vision and…
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Direct Hit
Lead the kind of ministry you’ve always dreamed of… Many congregations are declining due to an inward focus, and see their pastor as someone who should only minister to their needs. But pastors must anticipate a better future. Direct Hit offers hope to leasers of congreagations that have lost their outward focus. By preparing for…
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Moving Off The Map
In his book Kicking Habits: Welcome Relief for Addicted Churches, Thomas Bandy provided the ‘big picture’ of the five stages of congregational renewal and transformation. Similarly, in Growing Spiritual Redwoods, Bandy and Bill Easum provided new metaphors for change to help congregations break out of outmoded attitudes and assumptions, and described the nature of spiritual…
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Confronting The Idolatry Of Family
Pastors and church leaders often assert that we can save our society and our churches if we restore family values in our culture. Think again! In this provacative book, Janet Fishburn challenges the church’s conventional practice of idolizing and revolving around the needs of the family unit. Fishburn asserts that the ‘family’ is not the…
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Kicking Habits
Kicking Habits: Upgrade Edition is the groundbreaking book on systemic change that has literally birthed new congregations, rejuvenated tired leaders, and transformed declining churches. It tells the story of thriving church life through the experiences of the institutionally alienated, spiritually yearning public. It provides the big picture of thriving church life in the postmodern world.…
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Coming Clean
Coming Clean is a study guide that explores the issues of church transformation described in the groundbreaking book, Kicking Habits. Using a series of Bible studies, group discussions, and group exercises, participants can customize and apply the insights on thriving church life to their own congregational context. – Coming Clean means honest discernment of the…
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Christian Chaos
Thomas Bandy continues his exploration of congregational life by arguing that the organization of a congregation – its boards and committees – constitutes a crucial ingredient in its vitality and mission. The way in which a church is organized will make all the difference in whether it becomes what Bandy has named elsewhere a thriving…
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Fragile Hope
Is your congregation concerned primarily with health and stability, or mission and outreach? Does it always or usually seek a pleasant sense of harmony and fellowship, or does it vibrate with an edgy energy? Are the members risk averse, or risk takers? In this innovative book Tom Bandy explains how harmony-the desire to minimize conflict…
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Road Runner
‘Why should we change?’ This book is written for the vast majority of congregations who are cautious, tentative, and ambivalent to change and creative initiatives for mission. The vast majority will find a calm, reasonable explanation of why their stability is more shaky than ever, and their seeming congregational health hides a growing self-destructive addiction.…
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Spiritual Entrepreneurs
Spiritual Entrepreneurs tells the story of an innovative pastor and leadership team who intentionally led their church to take spiritual risks. By using six principles, renewal can come to any church, asserts Michael Slaughter… …Slaughter believes that church leaders are inspired to work tirelessly when they hear or learn of good-news stories. He also believes…