Aspects of religion

Explore the concerns, needs, and fears of single adults and how your church may be ignoring them.

The synagogue remains a central institution in Jewish life as a place of study, worship, and assembly, but each day brings word of a new challenging development within each of the larger movements to which synagogues belong-Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist.

Pastoral-to-program size change is frequently described as the most challenging of growth transitions for congregations.

Used successfully in Episcopal dioceses and congregations, Total Ministry describes a new way for local congregations (especially small ones) and judicatories to organize their response to God's call and to provide resources, support, and encouragement for ministry-a way that is not dependent only on full-time, seminary-trained, ordained leaders.

Ministry leaders possess the compassion, creativity, and knowledge about community needs that grant funders appreciate.

While worship is the primary purpose of all churches, worship in the small church is distinctive.

Many sociologists and a growing number of church scholars have noted that we live in a time of transition-from the modern era to the postmodern.

Congregations cannot exist without finances, priorities, leadership, worship, and decision making, yet these five aspects breed the most conflict between church members and clergy.

This ebook is now available from Bloomsbury Academic.

Worship is the work of the people of God.

Field education is an opportunity for students to develop ministry skills, practice ministerial reflection, discern their call, experience professional collegiality, and undergo personal transformation.

"e;Many of us who are pastors of local mainline churches have long felt that something is amiss in the life of our congregations.

Carol Howard Merritt, a pastor in her mid-thirties, suggests a different way for churches to be able to approach young adults on their own terms.

Parsons and Leas have created an important tool for congregational leaders in this application of systems theory to evaluating a congregation's life and readiness for change.

Most churches have sought out a new pastor many times, yet search committees often feel as though they are inventing the process from scratch.

Asset mapping isn't a new system or theory.

Discover inspiring, practical ways your board can make its meetings become opportunities for deepening faith, developing leadership, and church renewal.

In 1991 The Once and Future Church by Alban Institute founder and former director Loren B.

This ebook is now available from Bloomsbury Academic.

Many congregations today experience collisions between parents who ant to spend time with their children and age-segregated church programming, as well as between the children worshiping in their pews and the increasing number of seniors in the same pew.

Tending to the Holy: The Practice of the Presence of God in Ministry invites pastors to embody their deepest beliefs in the routine and surprising tasks of ministry.

What does it mean to say that a pastor is competent?

Lillian Daniel shares how her congregation re-appropriated the practice of testimony one Lenten season, a practice that would eventually revitalize their worship and transform their congregational culture.

A large and growing number of congregations are setting up church-based nonprofit organizations in order to operate community development or educational programs.

This ebook is now available from Bloomsbury Academic.

Now available from Bloomsbury Academic.

This planning and leader training handbook offers a distinctive broad-based, small-group approach to building community.

Listeners do love their pastors and they agree with the sermon content they hear,' Lori Carrell once explained to a group of pastors, 'but most sermons don't ask for change, and most listeners don't experience spiritual growth as a result of the sermon.

Our culture has undergone a major shift: younger generations have less and less interest in the printed word as they become predominantly image oriented.

Leaving a pastorate is hard on both congregation and pastor.

This ebook is now available from Bloomsbury Academic.

Mead explores what church growth and evangelism really mean in a time when it is mathematically impossible for every congregation to achieve significant numerical growth.

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.

What makes it possible for a church to reverse course from decline or stagnation into longlasting vitality?

Untangling the day-to-day issues in our multifaceted lives can seem daunting.

A congregation communicates its heart and soul through words, photos, actions, programs, architecture, decor, the arts, and countless other aspects of congregational life.

Congregations cannot exist without finances, priorities, leadership, worship, and decision making, yet these five aspects breed the most conflict between church members and clergy.

Projects That Matter introduces project leaders and teams to the five basic elements of project design and describes in detail a six-step process for designing and implementing a project evaluation and disseminating evaluation findings.

No pastor can lead a congregation to renewal alone.

"e;Today we are awash in computerized Bible games, pastoral care software, and church management systems with members' personal information and giving records,"e; observe authors Spiegel, Armstrong, and Bill, but "e;too often we blindly accept and use technology without asking the big questions.

In this profound yet practical book, Mary Sellon and Daniel Smith make the case that the health of churches and synagogues depends on congregations learning how to live out love in "e;right relationships.

Pastor & author, Lynne Baab "e;offers readers a useful tool to understand both their own spiritual journeys and their role in the life of their chosen spiritual community"e;.

Dudley and a research team go back to 24 ministries still in existence five years after the Church and Community Project's completion.

Twenty years after Critical Moment of Ministry was first published, Loren Mead returns to his groundbreaking work on one of the most important times in a congregation's life-the time between one pastor's leaving and another's arrival.

Roy Oswald, who ministers to pastors with great compassion, perceptiveness, and skill, now brings eight more years of field experience to an updated edition of "e;New Beginnings.

As a troubadour for global music and an instigator of cross-cultural worship for more than 15 years in a variety of denominational settings, including congregational, national, and international venues, Michael Hawn has observed many faithful people who find that a taste of Pentecost in worship is refreshing and invigorating.

Clergy, worship or music committees, organists, and choir or music directors will find this a practical and invaluable guide to the role and power of music to express and form faith.

Vibrant worship services, argues creative and provocative author Graham Standish, are those in which the congregation obviously asks questions such as: Does our worship help people experience God?

Deeply ingrained in Western culture, and in the minds of most church leaders, is the belief that there is a solution to every problem.

High quality publications and public relations will enhance a congregation's overall ministry by promoting strong stewardship, effective evangelism, and exciting parish education.