Jossey-Bass Leadership Network
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Shaped by God's Heart
The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches
by Milfred Minatrea
Part 1 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
Discover the tools to create a new kind of church and move from merely surviving to thriving.
Drawing on an extensive two-year field study of 200 churches from a variety of denominations and geographic regions, Milfred Minatrea-a missiologist, urban strategist and practioner in minister-presents the best practices for re-energizing Christian spirituality in a congregational setting. He provides readers with the tools for assessing their congregation's position on the continuum between maintenance and mission and for determining the actions that will move them toward becoming a missional community. He also outlines key strategies that successful churches have used to become relevant in a postmodern society without losing what is distinctly Christian in their spiritual practices.
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The Elephant in the Boardroom
Speaking the Unspoken about Pastoral Transitions
by Carolyn Weese
Part 12 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
Carolyn Weese and J. Russell Crabtree-experts in the field of church leadership-have written a nuts-and-bolts guide to developing a succession plan for smoothing pastoral transitions. Filled with strategies and solid advice, this handy resource is based in solid research and the authors' many years of experience working with churches in a wide variety of denominations. Weese and Crabtree clearly show that leadership succession should be part of every church's planning process.
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Leading From the Second Chair
Serving Your Church, Fulfilling Your Role, and Realizing Your Dreams
by Mike Bonem
Part 15 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
LEADING FROM THE SECOND CHAIR will raise awareness of the need for strong leaders in secondary positions. It will describe the value they can bring to their organization and to primary leaders when they are serving at their full potential. It will reshape the way they view their role, with an emphasis on their own responsibility as leaders. It recognizes the unique challenges and frustrations of serving in a subordinate position and equips these leaders with the attitudes and skills that they will need to survive and thrive in this new paradigm.
Because of the scarcity of resources for second chair leaders, particularly those in the church, this book will offer a practical way to improve the performance of any organization. Leading Congregational Change discussed the importance of a "vision community" – a diverse group of key members who discern and implement the vision for a congregation – to guide the transformation of a church. This work will extend the theme of an empowered leadership team as we explore how individual clergy and laity can lead effectively.
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Organic Church
Growing Faith Where Life Happens
by Neil Cole
Part 16 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
Churches have tried all kinds of ways to attract new and younger members - revised vision statements, hipper worship, contemporary music, livelier sermons, bigger and better auditoriums. But there are still so many people who aren't being reached, who don't want to come to church. And the truth is that attendance at church on Sundays does not necessarily transform lives, God's presence in our hearts is what changes us. Leaders and laypeople everywhere are realizing that they need new and more powerful ways to help them spread God's Word. According to international church starter and pastor Neil Cole, if we want to connect with young people and those who are not coming to church, we must go where people congregate. Cole shows readers how to plant the seeds of the Kingdom of God in the places where life happens and where culture is formed - restaurants, bars, coffeehouses, parks, locker rooms, and neighborhoods. Organic Church offers a hands-on guide for demystifying this new model of church and shows the practical aspects of implementing it.
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The Missional Leader
Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World
by Alan Roxburgh
Part 17 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
In The Missional Leader, consultants Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk give church and denominational leaders, pastors, and clergy a clear model for leading the change necessary to create and foster a missional church focused outward to spread the message of the Gospel into the surrounding community. The Missional Leader emphasizes principles rather than institutional forms, shows readers how to move away from "church as usual," and demonstrates what capacities, environments, and mindsets are required to lead a missional church.
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Practicing Greatness
7 Disciplines of Extraordinary Spiritual Leaders
by Reggie McNeal
Part 18 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
Based on his extensive experience as coach and mentor to many thousands of Christian leaders across a broad spectrum of ministry settings, Reggie McNeal helps spiritual leaders understand that they will self-select into or out of greatness. In this important book, McNeal shows how great spiritual leaders are committed consciously and intentionally to seven spiritual disciplines, habits of heart and mind that shape both their character and competence:
The discipline of self-awareness-the single most important body of information a leader possesses
The discipline of self-management-handling difficult emotions, expectations, temptations, mental vibrancy, and physical well-being
The discipline of self-development-a life-long commitment to learning and growing and building on one's strengths
The discipline of mission-enjoying the permissions of maintaining the sense of God's purpose for your life and leadership
The discipline of decision-making-knowing the elements of good decisions and learning from failure
The discipline of belonging-the determination to nurture relationships and to live in community with others, including family, followers, mentors, and friends
The discipline of aloneness-the intentional practice of soul-making solitude and contemplation.
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Off-Road Disciplines
Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders
by Earl Creps
Part 20 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
In Off-Road Disciplines, Earl Creps reveals that the on-road practices of prayer and Bible reading should be bolstered by the other kinds of encounters with God that occur unexpectedly complete with the bumps and bruises that happen when you go "off-road." Becoming an off-road leader requires the cultivation of certain spiritual disciplines that allow the presence of the Holy Spirit to arrange your interior life. Earl Creps explores twelve central spiritual disciplines-six personal and six organizational-that Christian leaders of all ages and denominations need if they are to change themselves and their churches to reach out to the culture around them.
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Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church
Mandate, Commitments and Practices of a Diverse Congregation
by Mark DeYmaz
Part 22 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
Through personal stories, proven experience and a thorough analysis of the biblical text, Building a Healthy Multi-ethnic Church illustrates both the biblical mandate for the multi-ethnic church as well as the seven core commitments required to bring it about. Mark DeYmaz, pastor of one of the most proven multi-ethnic churches in the country, writes both from his experience and his extensive study of how to plant, grow, and encourage more ethnically diverse churches. He argues that the "homogenous unit principle" will soon become irrelevant and that the most effective way to spread the Gospel in an increasingly diverse world is through strong and vital multi-ethnic churches.
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Missional Renaissance
Changing the Scorecard for the Church
by Reggie McNeal
Part 28 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
Reggie McNeal's bestseller The Present Future is the definitive work on the "missional movement," i.e., the widespread movement among Protestant churches to be less inwardly focused and more oriented toward the culture and community around them. In that book he asked the tough questions that churches needed to entertain to begin to think about who they are and what they are doing; in Missional Renaissance, he shows them the three significant shifts in their thinking and behavior that they need to make that will allow leaders to chart a course toward being missional: (1) from an internal to an external focus, ending the church as exclusive social club model; (2) from running programs and ministries to developing people as its core activity; and (3) from professional leadership to leadership that is shared by everyone in the community. With in-depth discussions of the "what" and the "how" of transitioning to being a missional church, readers will be equipped to move into what McNeal sees as the most viable future for Christianity. For all those thousands of churches who are asking about what to do next after reading The Present Future, Missional Renaissance will provide the answer.
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Church Turned Inside Out
A Guide for Designers, Refiners, and Re-Aligners
by Linda Bergquist
Part 34 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
A design-thinking book for planting or redesigning churches and incubating a new generation of leaders.
Written by Linda Bergquist and Allan Karr, two experienced church planters and mentors, the book is full of wisdom, practical advice, and creative counsel. Instead of a business-model-as-usual approach, the authors challenge readers to begin with the raw materials of beliefs, values, individuals, teams, and culture, and to then move outwards to draw from a rich palette of real and potential church paradigms. This book is meant to provoke church leaders to think outside of the box and to imagine how their churches might better reflect the image and the mission of God in the world.
• Contains a wealth of illustrative examples, charts, and other visual aides
• Offers a creative practical perspective and a multi-disciplinary approach to establishing a new church or leading an existing one
• Shows how to honor a church's purpose while embracing its unique culture
• Includes important lessons for nurturing church leadership skills
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The Tangible Kingdom
Creating Incarnational Community
by Hugh Halter
Part 37 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
Written for those who are trying to nurture authentic faith communities and for those who have struggled to retain their faith, The Tangible Kingdom offers theological answers and real-life stories that demonstrate how the best ancient church practices can re-emerge in today's culture, through any church of any size. In this remarkable book, Hugh Halter and Matt Smay "two missional leaders and church planters" outline an innovative model for creating thriving grass-roots faith communities.
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Church Unique
How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement
by Will Mancini
Part 38 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
Written by church consultant Will Mancini expert on a new kind of visioning process to help churches develop a stunningly unique model of ministry that leads to redemptive movement. He guides churches away from an internal focus to emphasize participation in their community and surrounding culture. In this important book, Mancini offers an approach for rethinking what it means to lead with clarity as a visionary. Mancini explains that each church has a culture that reflects its particular values, thoughts, attitudes, and actions and shows how church leaders can unlock their church's individual DNA and unleash their congregation's one-of-a-kind potential.
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Relational Intelligence
How Leaders Can Expand Their Influence Through a New Way of Being Smart
by Steve Saccone
Part 40 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
An insightful and practical guide for developing relational leadership skills and engaging new paradigms of influence
Relational Intelligence reveals how leaders can become smarter in the way they conduct their relationships, and as a result, catalyze their impact. This book unwraps the hidden power of a relational genius and the practical pursuits that contribute to increasing one's relational quotient (RQ). Steve Saccone offers thought-provoking and compelling pathways into understanding the synergistic effect of relational intelligence, mission, and influence. He demonstrates how critical the art of relational intelligence is for leaders who desire to better serve those they lead, as well as the organizations and communities they love.
• Offers practical wisdom, engaging anecdotes, and compelling stories that show leaders how to develop relational intelligence
• Delineates the essential skills that make leaders relationally intelligent
• Unwraps six roles of a relational genius and how these transform our approaches to influence
• Includes Foreword by Erwin Raphael McManus
• A new book in the popular Leadership Network Series
The author reveals how to increase one's awareness of the nuances in relational dynamics and suggests ways to help navigate relationships more intelligently and productively.
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Reverse Mentoring
How Young Leaders Can Transform the Church and Why We Should Let Them
by Earl Creps
Part 41 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
Earl Creps is known for his work in connecting the younger generation of postmoderns with their Boomer predecessors. The author of Off-Road Disciplines, Creps, in this new book, takes up the topic of how older church leaders can learn from younger leaders who are more conversant with culture, technology, and social context. In addition to making the benefits of what he calls "reverse mentoring" apparent, he also makes it accessible by offering practical steps to implement this discipline at both personal and organizational levels, particularly in communication, evangelism, and leadership.
Creps' new book is a topic of interest both inside and outside the church as older leaders realize that they're not "getting it" when it comes to technologies (iPod, IM, blogging) or cultural issues such as the fact that younger people see the world in an entirely different way.
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Missional Map-Making
Skills for Leading in Times of Transition
by Alan Roxburgh
Part 43 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
Guidance for church leaders to develop their own maps and chart new paths toward stronger, more vibrant, and more missional congregations
In the burgeoning missional church movement, churches are seeking to become less focused on programs for members and more oriented toward outreach to people who are not already in church. This fundamental shift in what a congregation is and does and thinks is challenging for leaders and congregants. Using the metaphor of map-making, the book explains the perspective and skills needed to lead congregations and denominations in a time of radical change over unfamiliar terrain as churches change their focus from internal to external.
• Offers a clear guide for leaders wanting to transition to a missional church model
• Written by Alan Roxburgh, a prominent expert and practitioner in the missional movement
• Guides leaders seeking to create new maps for leadership and church organization and focus
• A Volume in the popular Leadership Network Series
This book is written to be accessible to all Christian congregational styles and denominations.
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The Externally Focused Quest
Becoming the Best Church for the Community
by Eric Swanson
Part 44 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
A practical approach for leaders to guide their congregations to become more externally focused
The Externally Focused Quest: Becoming the Best Church for the Community is designed for church leaders who want to transform their churches to become less internally focused and more oriented to the world around them. The book includes the clear guidelines on the ten changes congregations must adopt to become truly outwardly focused. This book is not about getting all churches to have an annual day of community service as a tactic but changing the core of who they are and how they see themselves as a part of their community.
• Outlines the ten changes needed for church leaders to transform their churches
• Presents a highly practical approach that shows leaders how to become more externally focused without having to give up programs that serve members
• A new volume in the popular Leadership Network Series
This book reveals what it takes to make the major shift from an internal to external focus and how that affects church leadership.
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Baby Boomers and Beyond
Tapping the Ministry Talents and Passions of Adults over 50
by Amy Hanson
Part 45 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
How ministry leaders can help older adults be a vital part of Christian community
With the explosion of the older adult population, this important book explores the opportunities and challenges that this presents for the Christian community. Amy Hanson challenges us to let go of many old stereotypes regarding aging and embrace a new paradigm that sees older adults as active, healthy and capable of making significant contributions.
• Debunks the myths of aging that keep us from fully embracing the potential of people in life's second half
• Offers suggestions on how to re-invent ministry with older adults
• Focuses on unleashing older adults to serve and make an impact on churches and congregations
• A volume in the Leadership Network series
The author shows church leaders how they can unleash the power of the baby boomer population to strengthen their congregations.
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The Present Future
Six Tough Questions for the Church
by Reggie McNeal
Part 47 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
In this provocative book, author, consultant, and church leadership developer Reggie McNeal debunks these and other old assumptions and provides an overall strategy to help church leaders move forward in an entirely different and much more effective way. In The Present Future, McNeal identifies the six most important realities that church leaders must address including: recapturing the spirit of Christianity and replacing "church growth" with a wider vision of kingdom growth, developing disciples instead of church members, fostering the rise of a new apostolic leadership, focusing on spiritual formation rather than church programs, and shifting from prediction and planning to preparation for the challenges of an uncertain world. McNeal contends that by changing the questions church leaders ask themselves about their congregations and their plans, they can frame the core issues and approach the future with new eyes, new purpose, and new ideas.
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Church 3.0
Upgrades for the Future of the Church
by Neil Cole
Part 49 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
An expert practitioner answers to questions about the burgeoning organic church movement
Neil Cole's best-selling book Organic Church described the fastest growing segment of contemporary Christianity-the so-called organic church. Now in this next-step book, he answers questions about how to deal with theological and organizational issues that come up. He talks about issues such has what to do with finances, children, heresy, leader training, and rituals and ordinances. Without the top-down structure of a denomination, even people who are proponents of this small, house-church model worry that they are not doing it right.
• Offers an important resource for anyone involved with or thinking of starting an organic or house church
• Addresses practical issues of theology, rituals, doctrinal heresy, how to handle children, finances, and other important questions
• Written by an acknowledged expert who is now and has been for over twenty years an organic church planter and practitioner
• A new Leadership Network title and follow-up to Organic Church
Church 3.0 offers solid information about organic churches based on Cole's extensive experience in starting, nurturing, and mentoring in the organic church movement.
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Viral Churches
Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers
by Ed Stetzer
Part 50 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
A groundbreaking guide for multiplying the impact of church plants
Based on a study that was commissioned by the Leadership Network, this book reveals the best practices in church planting and uncovers the common threads among them. A much-needed resource, this book will inform, guide, and even catalyze today's many church planting leaders. The authors clearly show leaders how to plant churches that create a multiplication movement and offer inspiration for them to do so. The book addresses their questions about what to do next in their church planting strategies, in light of research on what's actually working best.
• Author Ed Stetzer heads up LifeWay Research
• Provides reliable, credible information about what church planting strategies work best
• A volume in the Leadership Network Series
Offers a definitive guide for church planting and the burgeoning movement it is part of.
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Hybrid Church
The Fusion of Intimacy and Impact
by Dave Browning
Part 51 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
A hands-on resource for both large and small churches
It has been predicted that in the twenty-first century extremely large churches would emerge in America that resemble neither an elephant nor a field of mice. Which is better? At one time the answer would have been either/or. Now it's both/and. We want both the intimacy of smallness and the impact of bigness-we want a hybrid of the two. Hybrid Church is a practical guide for clergy and leaders who want to have the best of both church worlds: the intimacy of small "house church" groups and the impact of very large mega-churches.
• Offers a guide for churches who want to capitalize on their strengths to build intimacy with impact
• Written by the pastor of one of the "fastest growing" and "most innovative" churches in America with thousands of members organized in small house groups
• Outlines a vision for how the church of tomorrow could look like the early church. Given that the trend is toward very large and very small, with few churches in the middle, this book will be a welcome resource for both large and small churches.
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Your Church in Rhythm
The Forgotten Dimensions of Seasons and Cycles
by Bruce B. Miller
Part 52 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
A gentle new way for church leader's to survive stress and burnout
Bruce Miller debunks the idea of balance-basically trying to have it all, all the time. Most churches and their pastors try to do everything at once and feel guilty if any one aspect (worship, ministries, outreach, etc.) is neglected. He replaces the exhausting concept of balance with the idea of rhythm: churches, like people, need to give attention to different programs and ministries at different times, basically by attending to their seasons and cycles.
• Offers an innovative new model for church leaders
• Miller has been influential in the formation and promotion of "Church-Based Training" as in international movement
• Offers a proven method for avoiding burnout for church leaders and members by doing the right things at the right time
The author offers much-need help to overwhelmed leaders and shows them how to apply Miller's seasonal/cyclical approach to church life.
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Missional Communities
The Rise of the Post-Congregational Church
by Reggie McNeal
Part 55 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
The third book in the trilogy that explores the popular missional movement
From Reggie McNeal, the bestselling author of The Present Future and Missional Renaissance, comes the third book in the series that helps to define and illuminate the popular missional movement. This newest book in the trilogy examines a natural outgrowth of the move toward a missional orientation: the deconstruction of congregations into very small Christian communities. For all those thousands of churches and leaders who have followed Reggie McNeal's bold lead, this book details the rise of a new life form in churches.
• Discusses how to move a church from an internal to an external ministry focus
• Reggie McNeal is a recognized leader in the missional movement
• Outlines an alternative to the program church model that is focused on the projects and passions of the congregants
This book draws on McNeal's twenty years of leadership roles in local congregations and his work over the last decade with thousands of clergy and church leaders.
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The Other 80 Percent
Turning Your Church's Spectators into Active Participants
by Scott Thumma
Part 56 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
A research-based approach to developing more active and involved congregations
In this practical resource, well-known and respected researcher Scott Thumma and professional co-writer Warren Bird draw upon new and heretofore unpublished research across a broad range of Protestant churches of all sizes and show how to create more active members. Offers solid information of what church leaders need to know about the factors and practices that create church members who are more actively and passionately involved in their congregations.
• Offers a first of its kind resource for developing engaged congregations
• Lead author Scott Thumma is a noted researcher and writer on congregational studies
• Warren Bird is coauthor of Culture Shift and Viral Churches
This book offers advice for moving church members from being spectators to living a life of discipleship and faith.
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The Permanent Revolution
Apostolic Imagination and Practice for the 21st Century Church
by Alan Hirsch
Part 57 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
A new brand of apostolic ministry for today's world
The Permanent Revolution is a work of theological re-imagination and re-construction that draws from biblical studies, theology, organizational theory, leadership studies, and key social sciences. The book elaborates on the apostolic role rooted in the five-fold ministry from Ephesians 4 (apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teacher), and its significance for the missional movement. It explores how the apostolic ministry facilitates ongoing renewal in the life of the church and focuses on leadership in relation to missional innovation and entrepreneurship.
The authors examine the nature of organization as reframed through the lens of apostolic ministry.
• Shows how to view the world through a biblical perspective and continue the "permanent revolution" that Jesus started
• Outlines the essential characteristics of apostolic movement and how to restructure the church and ministry to be more consistent with them
• Alan Hirsch is a leading voice in the missional movement of the Christian West
This groundbreaking book integrates theology, sociology, and leadership to further define the apostolic movement.
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In Pursuit of Great and Godly Leadership
Tapping the Wisdom of the World for the Kingdom of God
by Mike Bonem
Part 58 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
Is it possible for church leaders to use biblical and secular leadership concepts in a way that keeps Christ-not the marketplace-at the center of their mission? Drawing on biblical material and business wisdom, In Pursuit of Great AND Godly Leadership explores the critical leadership decisions and practices that shape the success of Christian organizations. These decisions are illustrated in compelling interviews with over forty leaders of churches, universities, denominational bodies, and international ministries. Mike Bonem leverages his background as an MBA-trained manager and an experienced church leader to bridge the gap between the analytical and structured world of business and the faith-driven approach that is essential for healthy churches.
Written to offer practical solutions for senior pastors, executive pastors, key laypeople, and leaders of other Christian entities, In Pursuit of Great AND Godly Leadership clearly shows the ways that secular practices can be imported into their organizations. Bonem addresses a variety of topics such as planning, finances, personnel management, measurement, team dynamics, and organizational change. In doing so, he points to the AND that every spiritual organization should strive to achieve.
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The Post-Black and Post-White Church
Becoming the Beloved Community in a Multi-Ethnic World
by Efrem Smith
Part 59 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
A blueprint for missional, multi-ethnic Christian community
Efrem Smith, an internationally recognized and innovative African-American leader, offers a workable plan for connecting theology, practical ministry models, and real stories of people in multi-ethnic Christian communities. Using the example of Jesus, Smith develops a theology of multi-ethnic and missional leadership. Embracing urban and ethnic subcultures such as hip-hop, this book provides a rich mix of multi-ethnic church development, reconciliation theology, missional church thinking, and Christian community.
• Provides a common-sense approach to creating a multi-ethnic Christian community
• Includes practical ministry models and real stories of people who are members of thriving multi-ethnic congregations
• Author is acclaimed African-American thought leader who planted and led a multi-ethnic churches of close to 1,000 and now leads a regional division of a denominational committed to ethnic, multi-ethnic, and missional churches
This book is written for anyone wrestling with what it means to be a Christian in an increasingly multi-ethnic world polarized by class, politics, and race.
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Prodigal Christianity
10 Signposts into the Missional Frontier
by David E. Fitch
Part 61 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
An engaging and thoughtful book that guides readers into the frontiers of being a missional Christian
Prodigal Christianity offers a down-to-earth, accessible, and yet provocative understanding of God's mission of redemption in the world, and how followers of Christ can participate in this work. It speaks into the discontent of all those who have exhausted conservative, liberal, and even emergent ways of being Christian and are looking for a new way forward. It offers building blocks for missional theology and practice that moves Christians into a gospel-centered way of life for our culture and our times.
• Offers a compelling and creative vision for North American Christians
• Puts forth a theology and ten critical signposts that must be observed to follow a missional way of life: post-Christendom, missio Dei, incarnation, witness, scripture, gospel, church, sexuality, justice, pluralism
• Asks questions and points to issues that trouble many leaders in the post-modern, post-denominational, post-Christendom church
This book can fill the gap for the average Christian left discontented with the current options "after evangelicalism."
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Better Together
Making Church Mergers Work
by Jim Tomberlin
Part 62 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
Thousands of Protestant churches are perplexed by plateaued or declining attendance, while other congregations nearby thrive. Is there a way for them to combine forces, drawing on both their strengths, in ways that also increase their missional impact? Church merger consultant Jim Tomberlin, with co-writer Warren Bird, makes the case that mergers today work best not with two struggling churches but with a vital, momentum-filled lead church partnering with a joining church. In this new book, they provide a complete, practical, hands-on guide for church leaders of both struggling and vibrant churches so that they can understand the issues, develop strategies, and execute a variety of forms of merger for church expansion and renewal to reinvigorate declining churches and give them a "second life."
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Church Transfusion
Changing Your Church Organically - From the Inside Out
by Neil Cole
Part 63 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
Just as our life is in our blood, the life for Christ's body is in His blood. Changing a church is more than a new goal or direction. Our churches need more than an organizational transition; we need a full transfusion of Jesus' blood, His life, within every disciple. Anything less than that will only perpetuate more of the dysfunction and unhealthy church practices that have already plagued us for too long. We are in desperate need of the internally transforming power of the gospel of grace and the presence of Christ so that our salvation is then worked out in a way the rest of the world will notice. It isn't enough that we believe in the facts contained in the gospel, we must allow the gospel itself to infect our souls and transform us from within. The DNA of Jesus' lifeblood is needed in our churches and nothing shy of a full transfusion that touches every cell will be sufficient.
In this book Neil Cole (author of Organic Church, Church Transfusion and Journeys to Significance) and Phil Helfer, co-founders of Church Multiplication Associates, will first point out that change is possible with God, but only with God. In the second half of the book they will lay out some of the actual practical considerations to weigh if you want to release real organic health in your church.
Using multiple examples of very different kinds of churches that have been through the process, the authors present ways that leadership and practices need to change in order to release organic church movements from their midst. Chapters cover:
• Leadershifts necessary
• Detoxification from dependence issues.
• How to ignite change virally.
• How to grandparent movements.
• How to measure success in movements.
This book (another in the Leadership Network series) applies organic life principles to established churches with practical help that is holistic and natural. The content in this book will be helpful whether you are pastor of an established church or wanting to revitalize a small organic church.
Jesus didn't die and rise from the dead so that we can be like everyone else in the world. Our faith is more than just a better doctrine or a bigger goal with a capital giving campaign; it is a better life. Jesus is the difference, and what a difference he makes...don't be satisfied with less.
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A Work of Heart
Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders
by Reggie McNeal
Part 64 of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
Revised and updated edition of the classic work on spiritual leadership
In A Work of Heart, bestselling author and missional expert Reggie McNeal helps leaders reflect on the ways in which God is shaping them by letting us see God at work in the lives of four quintessential biblical leaders: Moses, David, Jesus, and Paul. McNeal identifies the formative influences upon these leaders, which he sees as God's ways of working in their lives: the same influences at work today forming leaders for ministry in our times. He explores the shaping influence of culture, call, community, conflict, and the commonplace.
• Offers guidance for church leaders to let God shape their hearts from the inside out
• Reggie McNeal is the author of the bestselling book Missional Renaissance
• Gives reassurance for maintaining perspective while doing the demanding work of ministry
The book includes illustrative stories of contemporary leaders opening their hearts to God's guidance.
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Practicing Greatness
7 Disciplines of Extraordinary Spiritual Leaders
by Reggie McNeal
Part of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
From an author and ministry consultant, seven practices for taking your religious leadership from good to great.
Often spiritual leaders do not aspire to greatness for fear of seeming to lack humility. Yet greatness in spiritual leadership is just what we need-in our churches, our businesses, in education, in the social sector, in every sector of society. The question is how do good spiritual leaders become great leaders?
Based on his extensive experience as coach and mentor to many thousands of Christian leaders across a broad spectrum of ministry settings, Reggie McNeal helps spiritual leaders understand that they will self-select into or out of greatness. McNeal shows how great spiritual leaders are committed intentionally to seven spiritual disciplines, habits of heart and mind that shape both their character and competence:
*The discipline of self-awareness-the single most important information a leader possesses
*The discipline of self-management-handling difficult emotions, expectations, temptations, as well as mental and physical well-being
*The discipline of self-development-a life-long commitment to learning and growing and building on one's strengths
*The discipline of mission-maintaining the sense of God's purpose in your life
*The discipline of decision-making-knowing the elements of good decisions and learning from failure
*The discipline of belonging-nurturing relationships and living in community with others
*The discipline of aloneness-the intentional practice of solitude and contemplation
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Church 3.0
Upgrades for the Future of the Church
by Neil Cole
Part of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
An expert practitioner answers to questions about the burgeoning organic church movement Neil Cole's bestselling book “Organic Church” described the fastest growing segment of contemporary Christianity-the so-called organic church. Now in this next-step book, he answers questions about how to deal with theological and organizational issues that come up. He talks about issues such as what to do with finances, children, heresy, leader training, and rituals and ordinances. Without the top-down structure of a denomination, even people who are proponents of this small, house-church model worry that they are not doing it right. Offers an important resource for anyone involved with or thinking of starting an organic or house church Addresses practical issues of theology, rituals, doctrinal heresy, how to handle children, finances, and other important questions Written by an acknowledged expert who is now and has been for over twenty years an organic church planter and practitioner. This eBook offers solid information about organic churches based on Cole's extensive experience in starting, nurturing, and mentoring in the organic church movement.
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Leading from the Second Chair
Serving Your Church, Fulfilling Your Role, and Realizing Your Dreams
by Mike Bonem
Part of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
This book addresses the unique challenges faced by secondary Church leaders, offering practical advice on fulfilling and successful service.
Church leaders who hold second chair positions are under tremendous pressure. They are expected to do their jobs and provide leadership while deferring to the top leader's decisions and preferences. It's a constant balancing act where the challenges often go unrecognized. Leading from the Second Chair offers an invaluable resource to leaders who serve in second (and third or fourth) chair roles, enabling them to become more productive, proactive, and fulfilled. Mike Bonem and Roger Patterson share their own and others' experiences of failure and success in these vital roles. They offer support and practical advice for reshaping the way second chair leaders can serve well and improve the overall performance of their church or organization. Leading from the Second Chair equips readers with the positive attitudes, skills, and strategies needed to become powerful leaders who will survive and thrive in God's service.
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Organic Church
Growing Faith Where Life Happens
by Neil Cole
Part of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
Churches have tried all kinds of ways to attract new and younger members-revised vision statements, hipper worship, contemporary music, livelier sermons, bigger and better auditoriums. But there are still so many people who aren't being reached, who don't want to come to church. And the truth is that attendance at church on Sundays does not necessarily transform lives; God's presence in our hearts is what changes us. Leaders and laypeople everywhere are realizing that they need new and more powerful ways to help them spread God's Word.
According to international church starter and pastor Neil Cole, if we want to connect with young people and those who are not coming to church, we must go where people congregate. Cole shows readers how to plant the seeds of the Kingdom of God in the places where life happens and where culture is formed-restaurants, bars, coffeehouses, parks, locker rooms, and neighborhoods. Organic Church offers a hands-on guide for demystifying this new model of church and shows the practical aspects of implementing it.
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Viral Churches
Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers
by Ed Stetzer
Part of the Jossey-Bass Leadership Network series
This groundbreaking guide reveals successful strategies for multiplying the impact of new church congregations.
Based on a national, cross-denominational study commissioned by Leadership Network, Viral Churches explores the best practices in church multiplication movements, as well as the common threads among them. A hands-on resource, Viral Churches offers the fresh vision and critical perspectives essential as a catalyst for today's church planting leaders. Authors Ed Stetzer and Warren Bird draw from their own experiences as well as the insights of numerous church planting leaders. Filled with illustrative success stories, this important book reveals how to plant churches that multiply into a movement. Each chapter highlights a different point on such issues as keeping the focus on evangelism; recruiting, assessing, and deploying planters; increasing the survivability of new churches; using a multisite strategy effectively; funding; overcoming obstacles; facing challenges ahead; and many more.
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