In this study of church growth and membership retention, Smith argues that if a church is to survive, it must concentrate on keeping its present members as well as attracting new ones. Interviewing people from 600 churches of various sizes and reviewing the causes of membership decline and retention in those churches, Smith provides evidence […]
In this informative book, Jeff Patton describes six ‘levers’ for transforming a small-membership church: prayer, discerning a clear vision, indigenous worship, growth groups, membership that means something, and by pastoring. Filled with solid insights on how the principles Patton has developed can be applied in different contacts, this book will offer hope to all leaders […]
Every church is unmistakeably unique. Instead of projecting the experiences of a few successful model churches on every church, natural church development helps you discover and develop the God-given, unique nature of your church. This workbook is based on the most comprehensive research project ever conducted on the causes of church growth. More than 1000 […]
What’s working and not working in your congregation? You’ll explore the factors that inspired and motivated changes to reverse decline as other congregations wrestled with the same issues you’re facing: ministry to current members, ministry to the unchurched, worship, changing neighborhoods, and more.
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. […]
This video is based on the popular church transformation trilogy ‘Kicking Habits,’ ‘Coming Clean’ and ‘Facing Reality.’ Presenter Tom Bandy helps you understand the changing spiritual yearning of the public, and explains the basic elements of the experience and mission of a thriving church. His systems approach to church transformation contrasts the declining church system […]
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. He argues provocatively that spiritual, organizational, and missional growth are just as important as numerical growth, and that all four are needed for a truly healthy and growing church. Case […]
Critics of the church growth movement have often emphasized the need for quality congregations. We should not focus on numerical growth, but rather, we should concentrate on qualitative growth. Christian Schwarz has done extensive research world-wide and found that healthy, growing churches seem to share eight quality characteristics. These characteristics are: – Empowering leadership – […]
Paradigm Shift in the Church speaks about nothing less than a reformation. Some critics suggested that this term sounds rather lofty. That may be true. But Christian Schwarz is convinced that we will make no significant progress in our churches without changes as radical as those of the Reformation. In the Introduction to this book […]
Pastoral-to-program size change is frequently described as the most challenging of growth transitions for congregations. Now Alban senior consultant Alice Mann, author of The In-Between Church: Navigating Size Transitions in Congregations, addresses the difficulties of that transition in this resource designed specifically for a congregational learning team. Conceptualized and developed by Mann for an Alban online […]