Retooling The Church

Too many church leaders expire before their time because of the demands within a top-down leadership structure. Learn how to multiply your church membership involvement with a team-up style that includes everyone. Ron Satrape shares his successful techniques how to: Lead others effectively without domination or manipulation. Encourage others to "buy in" to the faith, and fully participate in leadership and ministry. Build relationally healthy, functional teams. Imprint each team member's fingerprints onto the blueprints, of God's vision. Use an apostolic development process to advance team character, as well as the Kingdom of God. Build a great team model, a first-class fruitful ministry, and team reproduction. Develop accountability structures. Organize an apostolic network. Book jacket.

Its time to Retool the Church by a fresh analysis of the Spiritual Gifts, a subject frequently twisted by popular ideas and poor theology. This new look shows that the gifts are not a mere manipulative technique, but a prime source for our growth in holiness, unity, and numbers. Practical stories from a missionary career illustrate the place of gifts in the churchs life. Pastors and laymen, Presbyterians and Charismatics will appreciate this book, which includes tables of the original texts and a flexible test to put this toolkit to use.

It's time to Retool the Church by a fresh analysis of the Spiritual Gifts, a subject frequently twisted by popular ideas and poor theology. This new look shows that the gifts are not a mere manipulative technique, but a prime source for our growth in holiness, unity, and numbers. Practical stories from a missionary career illustrate the place of gifts in the church's life. Pastors and laymen, Presbyterians and Charismatics will appreciate this book, which includes tables of the original texts and a flexible test to put this toolkit to use.

Why closing the back door of your church is even more important than opening the front door wider. In Sticky Church, author and pastor Larry Osborne offers a time-tested strategy for doing so: sermon-based small groups that dig deeper into the weekend message and tightly velcro members to the ministry. It's a strategy that enabled Osborne's congregation to grow from a handful of people to one of the larger churches in the nation—without any marketing or special programming. Sticky Church tells the inspiring story of North Coast Church's phenomenal growth and offers practical tips for launching your own sermon-based small group ministry. Topics include: Why stickiness is so important Why most of our discipleship models don't work very well Why small groups always make a church more honest and transparent What makes groups grow deeper and sticker over time Sticky Church is an ideal book for church leaders who want to start or retool their small group ministry—and velcro their congregation to the Bible and each other.

Tony Pappas presents a view on stress as the result of conflict between expectation and experience. He explores the creative possibilities for transformation inherent in the clergy stressors in the intrapersonal, interpersonal, role image, congregational, and environmental areas. Discover the Forces, Sources, Recourses, and Resources within stress, and receive ample help with Framing, Naming, and Taming your stress in this new Perspective. Must reading for seminarians and clergy, will also be helpful for judicatory executives in counseling their pastors.

Parishes of all denominations are in decline, shrinking, closing, dying. We know that there are increasing numbers, young and older, who are religious “nones” and “dones.” This book explores why the decline is taking place, why the distancing is going on. But it goes on to examine parishes from all over the country and from various church bodies that are resurrecting. The central theme of death and resurrection shapes the analysis of parishes covered. Parishes are resurrecting by reinventing their ministries, by repurposing their building to better serve their neighborhoods, thus replanting and reconnecting with them. All of this is the Spirit’s doing but through the community of sisters and brothers who make up each congregation of faith. Community as the core of church is the other reality shaping the book’s reflection. And community, a parish being with those around, living for more than its own survival are visions for going forward. Other aspects of congregational life are also examined, most importantly the pastors—how they serve when budgets shrink, how they are trained, how pastors act with the community not above it. No recipes are suggested for parish resurrection, but the stories of the parishes that have revived bear within numerous lessons for us in the future.

The Pulse of a Nation... Is the American Church in trouble? Many Christian leaders in other countries are deeply concerned for the American Church. They cannot understand why we do not see what is happening in our church culture more clearly and do something about it. Has the American Church abandoned many of the fundamental principles that were imparted to them? This growing global concern for the American Church did not start recently. Over three decades ago, the late David Watson, a Christian leader from Great Britain, predicted that by the close of the twentieth century Christianity in the West would probably be too self-indulgent to be a global factor. Sound the Alarm... Is cultural relativity really our problem? It is time for the true body of Christ to rise up and no longer give in to being a product or participant of our current moral declining society. It is time for a CULTURAL WAR! It is time for the Church to be unwavering in its commitment to the true faith. Anything less will leave the American Church in a state of dying a slow, costly death. Confronting a Post-Christian Culture What will it take? Dr. Jerry Williamson has put his finger on the "pulse" of the Western Church. His diagnosis is accurate, well articulated, and documented. The cure is equally clear and achievable if the Church has the discipline and will to apply his prescription. DON'T READ THIS BOOK ... unless you want to be convicted, challenged, and changed! Dr. Williamson is a modern day prophet crying in a secular and religious wilderness. Our response to his message will determine the future of our nation. -Dr. Charles Travis, general secretary, Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches and president, Aidan University DR. JERRY WILLIAMSON is president of GO TO NATIONS, a worldwide missions sending agency, and is well-known for his passionate love for God's Church and for the global harvest. He ministers to pastors and church leaders around the world adding value and effectiveness to their ministries. DR. WILLIAMSON is greatly appreciated for his down-to-earth teaching style and his ability to articulate truth in a clear and concise way.

Most seminaries now require their students to get real world training by way of supervised theological field education. This volume presents the wide array of issues that must be understood in order to integrate theological education and practical ministry, including the importance of theological field education, its purpose and challenges, the need for flexibility in meeting different students' needs, and the resources available to create a meaningful and educational experience.