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 important book provides the tools that faith communities need to:-determine under what circumstances, if any, a convicted sex offender may be involved in the congregation.-determine how to respond if someone in the congregation is accused of a sexual offense.-be sensitive to and supportive of persons in the congregation who have been victims of abuse.-develop […]
Thompson and a team of contributors-Beverly Thompson, Harvey K. Newman, and Jim Watkins-explore the nature of power and the challenges it proposes to pastoral ministry. By using the metaphor “Alligators in the Swamp,” they illustrate the complexity of power and how it can be used effectively. The text presents and explores the nature of power […]
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.
This book is written to honor Robert Lynn, who contributed to both theological foundations and the practice of faith during his tenure as Senior Vice Presidents for Religion of the Lilly Endowment. These essays, by seventeen authors of various denominational, professional, and personal backgrounds, describe different aspects of the role of congregations in transmitting faith. […]
Nationally known for his work and teaching on clergy development, Oswald integrates research and experience into a liberating perspective on the pastoral calling. Discover how imbalances in your physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual lives can destroy the very ministry you seek to carry out. Learn what you can do to restore that balance. Packed with […]
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 […]
In a unique, full-scale study of congregational life, Hopewell shows that it is narrative-the oral tradition-that knits a congregation together. Reviews: ‘This book fills an important gap in the literature of practical theology. Practical theology needs to know how to describe situations, especially the empirical situation of the church. We will depend on Hopewell’s method […]
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.
Growing Spiritual Redwoods is an effort to help church leaders answer the kinds of questions that confront congregations and Christians in this era of rapid and uncertain change in the church, questions such as: Are you committed to Jesus Christ, or to a particular doctrine, denomination, or church? Do you speak of faith as an […]