Reimagine the Possibilities for Your Own Congregation We all share a deep human need for meaning in our lives, a need to feel that we are part of something larger than ourselves.
"e;Holy and active listening"e; means listening openly and attentively to one another with the expectation that God will speak in and through the conversation.
At times, a congregational transition looms so large in a sermon that it becomes the lens through which scripture is interpreted, the congregation is addressed, the preacher is heard, and God is experienced.
Resistance can be a sign of vital, high-quality, and faithful life in a congregation, and a learning opportunity for congregational leaders who recognize the value of hearing from those who resist ministry initiatives, inviting their input and listening to their response.
In this third volume of the Once and Future Church Series Loren Mead focuses on what he sees as the age-old call of the church - living and breathing the good news promise of spiritual transformation for all to see.
The Spirit's Tether: Eight Lives in Ministry tells the stories of eight men and women from their days as students at Union Theological Seminary in New York through their work today as pastors in local congregations over thirty years later.
The conventional wisdom about mainline Protestantism maintains that it is a dying tradition, irrelevant to a postmodern society, unresponsive to change, and increasingly disconnected from its core faith tenets.
Describes the NET Groups program (an acronym for Nurturing Experience Theologically), which begins with experiences and leads people into biblical and theological reflection.
Alban Senior Consultant Mann draws on her lengthy experience in helping congregations deal with the hurdles and anxieties of expansion or contraction in size.
Faced with crisis, lack of direction, or just plain "e;stuckness,"e; many congregations and their leaders are content to deal only with surface issues and symptoms-only to discover that the same problems keep recurring, often in different, and more serious, ways.
So You're on the Search Committee focuses on the experience of pastoral search committees and the unique role that laity in most denominations play in this crucial process.
Sacred Strategies is about eight synagogues that reached out and helped people connect to Jewish life in a new waycongregations that had gone from commonplace to extraordinary.
In Pursuing Pastoral Excellence, pastoral counselor and educator Paul Hopkins aims to help pastoral leaders make a lasting and positive difference in the lives of the people and communities they serve.
Amid the widespread discussion about 'the future of the church,' an important point is sometimes overlooked: tomorrow's church will depend to a great extent on the new pastors of today who will serve and guide our churches in the years ahead.
Every Jewish institution, writes Kerry Olitzky, is undergoing significant change and is in danger of becoming irrelevant to the majority of North American Jews.
Based on extensive research, this volume offers insight and help on the key fiscal topics confronting church leaders today, including: Why is the church so uneasy with the topic of money?
In a culture marked by what many call "e;attention-deficit disorder,"e; congregations and their leaders are subject to distractions that detract from their mission and lead them in directions that have little to do with their reason for existence.
Drawing on the work of Bowen, Friedman, and his own many years' counseling experience, Peter Steinke shows how to recognize and deal with the emotional roots of such issues as church conflict, leadership roles, congregational change, irresponsible behavior, and the effect of family of origin on current relationships.
In Holy Clarity, Sarah Drummond explores the most basic reason leaders of religious organizations conduct evaluations: To find and create God-pleasing clarity regarding the organization's purpose and the impact of its activities.