The Natural Church Development process involves assessing and strengthening eight Quality Characteristics in the local church. NCD International is developing eight Discipleship Resource books, one to address each of these areas. Two of these books are currently available–this one which corresponds to the Quality Characteristic of Loving Relationships and another which which corresponds to the […]
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 […]
Carolyn Weese and J. Russell Crabtree – experts in the field of church leadership – have written a nuts-and-bolts guide to developing a succession plan for smoothing pastoral transitions. Filled with strategies and solid advice, this handy resource is based in solid research and the authors’ many years of experience working with churches in a […]
Faced with crisis, lack of direction, or just plain “stuckness,” 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. In The Hidden Lives of Congregations, Christian educator and consultant Israel Galindo takes leaders […]
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. In her provocative new book, historian and researcher Diana Butler Bass argues that there are signs that mainline Protestant churches are indeed changing, finding a new […]
The Presbyterian Trustee is a brief, highly useful handbook for trustees in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the first to examine the office. Modeled after The Presbyterian Elder and the author’s own The Presbyterian Deacon, this book explores the biblical models of trustees, the historic background of the office, and the responsibilities of trustees today. […]
Designed to enourage discussion about the difficult and divisive issue of homosexuality in the church, Turning Points portrays four stories set in ordinary Presbyterian congregations.
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. Whenever a shift of this magnitude occurs, it leaves all of life, including the church, in flux. We instinctively strive to stabilize the situation by re-establishing what has […]
The second video in the ‘Seeking Peace, Unity, and Purity’ series, Who is Jesus Christ, addresses the topic of Christology–our confession of Jesus Christ, who he was and is for us. This is one of the areas the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church was mandated to address.
As a companion to the groundbreaking Congregational Resource Guide, an online resource produced by the Alban Institute and the Indianapolis Center for Congregations, this book is an invaluable resource for congregational leaders. It puts the rich array of important congregational resources into context by examining the key books, organizations, Web sites, and people that will help […]