The past five decades have altered the role of churches, and the third millennium will bring an even more radically different context for ministry. In this important book, Schaller discusses four dozen factors that will provide challenges and opportunities for pastoral ministries in the next millenniun.
This definitive handbook can help church leaders to understand the powerful tools available that lead to continuous improvement in ministry. Charts, diagrams, statistics, and ‘quality jargon’ are kept to a minimum. An appendix on Total Quality Management will aid leaders who wish to explore more carefully the literature on the quality movement.
God gave Moses the vision to build a tabernacle, but Moses did not do that by himself. Church leaders engage in a similar endeavor. They a) see what is inside other potential leaders, b) use leadership, discernment, and management skills to bring the potential out, and c) avoid standing in front of the future leaders […]
In Can Homophobia Be Cured? Bruce Hilton focuses on the difficult questions Christians raise about the deeply divisive issue of homosexuality: – What if the real sin is not homosexuality but homophobia – fear and hatred of lesbians and gay men? – What will the church do with the growing scientific evidence that same-sex orientation […]
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 […]
We often describe the church as a ‘family,’ even ‘the family of God,’ In fact, the church is like a family – and it fights like one, too! As in any family, conflict in the church family is natural and inevitable. But the way the church family handles its fights can make or break ministry. […]
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 […]
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 […]
Creative Stewardship offers to the leaders of the church, both lay and clergy, guidelines that will help them apply the principles and patterns of Christian stewardship as a model for creative lining. How can we be better stewards to further God’s purpose in creation’s redemption? Dr. Cunningham shows the far reaching implications of the steward’s […]
William Easum argues that a radical shift in culture makes it necessary for the church to change the way it proclaims the gospel, accounting for the anti-Christian climate in which we live while maintaining the and integrity of the Christian message.