Wonderful Worship In Smaller Churches

"Wonderful Worship in Smaller Churches provides insightful, practical, and functional principals. This resource includes essential theories about worship in smaller churches; practical and provocative theology; twelve principles in understanding small church worship; fifteen practices for planning worship with fewer than 100 people; and questions and suggestions for congregational study and planning. This book provides further assistance and information for small churches by including a vast list of resources." "Ray, who calls on his thirty years of experience in pastoring small churches, has written yet another best-seller for use by clergy, denominational staff, seminarians, pastors, and lay leaders. This is a must-have book that should be on the shelf of anyone working in and with smaller churches."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This book complements the author's earlier titles from The Pilgrim Press, "The Big Small Church Book, and "Wonderful Worship in Smaller Churches". Ray expands on the earlier works by treating such subjects as communal theology, theories, and tools for understanding smaller churches, worship, education, and finance. His vision is to lead even smaller churches toward the year 2030.

While worship is the primary purpose of all churches, worship in the small church is distinctive. Whether a house church, a new church plant, a rural church along a country road, or a city church whose neighborhood demographics have shifted, these small faith communities present unique opportunities and challenges for worship leaders. Peter Bush and Christine O'Reilly draw on their passion and experience equipping lay people to plan and lead worship to answer the question, what makes for effective worship

Dudley's work in Making the Small Church Effective (1978) broke new ground in understanding the dynamics of life in the small congregation. In this revised edition, Dudley revisits the small church, posing new questions reflective of the considerable changes that have swept over small churches in the last two decades. Among the most significant recent developments are shifts in institutional loyalty and individual's sense of identity in relation to larger groups and organizations. Dudley explores the key components that contribute to a small congregation's sense of unity and that motivate its members to more faithfully live out their faith.

Small congregations can have beautiful worship! In From a Mustard Seed: Enlivening Worship and Music in the Small Church, an experienced pastor-professor and an experienced church musician provide a model for faithful and excellent worship in congregations that average 75 or fewer people in weekly worship. While the limitations of small congregations are obvious to their members and leaders, the possibilities for creative music and worship are often greater than we can imagine. Epperly and Hollinger integrate theology, spiritual formation, and practical guidance for nurturing diverse, inspirational, and transforming worship in small congregations. Grounded in a solid theology of worship, they provide tried-and-true approaches to congregational music and singing, worship planning, liturgies that transform, and healthy partnerships between pastors and church musicians. God is present in small congregations, and the authors help pastors, church musicians, and active laypersons awaken to God's activity in every aspect of worship and music. They illuminate possibilities for opening to God in worship and music through their own stories, the stories of congregations and their pastors, practical counsel, spiritual practices, and theological reflection.

Since its publication in 1995, Ron Crandall’s Turnaround Strategies for the Small Church has become required reading for anyone striving to revitalize the ministry of a small membership congregation. That book was built on extensive interviews and studies conducted in dozens of small membership churches, across several denominations, that had experienced significant turnaround. In a new study Crandall has now returned to those congregations to see what it takes to make the turnaround work over a period of years. Learning much from both the churches who maintained significant growth in numbers and ministry, and those that failed to do so, he offers even more helpful insight to any congregational leader seeking to take a small membership church into a new phase of witness and mission.

Do you lead a small church? Big churches get all the love. Articles, books, conferences—they mostly feature leaders of large congregations. Yet big churches are a small part of the ecclesial landscape. In fact, more than 90 percent of churches have fewer than 200 people. That means small churches play a big part in what God is doing. Small Church Essentials is for leaders of these smaller congregations. It encourages them to steward their role well, debunking myths about small churches while offering principles for leading a dynamic, healthy small church. Based on the popular six-hour lecture that Karl Vaters delivers to church leaders across the country, Small Church Essentials will affirm small church leaders and show them how to identify what they do well, and how to do it even better. Readers will: Be assured that leading a small congregation does not make them ministry failures Come away inspired to lead with passion, regardless the size of their church Have field-tested principles for leading a church in their context Possess new metrics for biblically measuring vitality in small churches Have a toolkit of resources to use in their everyday ministry Karl Vaters has been a small church pastor for 30 years, is the author of The Grasshopper Myth: Big Churches, Small Churches, and the Small Thinking that Divides Us (2013), and travels extensively to churches and conferences to speak about leading a small church well. If you are pastoring a small church, this book will be a breath of fresh air. It will affirm your calling while giving you fresh tools to help you lead. It will help you: Stop believing lies about small churches Lead your church to fulfill the role only small churches can Understand your congregation’s strengths and weaknesses Turn around a dying or unhealthy church Identify good trends and bad in church and culture

What do you do when you’re at the end of your rope? When you’re overwhelmed with anxiety and fear? When your whole world seems to be collapsing? For Christians, there is only one simple yet profound answer: turn to the triune God. Born out of lessons learned during one of the most spiritually challenging periods of his life, Experiencing the Trinity by pastor Joe Thorn contains 50 down-to-earth meditations on God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Overflowing with scriptural truth, pastoral wisdom, and personal honesty, this book reflects on common experiences of doubt, fear, and temptation, pointing readers to the grace that God provides and the strength that he promises.