How Your 21st-Century Church Family Works

How Your 21st-Century Church Family Works
Author: Peter L. Steinke
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 157
Release: 2021-11-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1538149141

The first edition of How Your Church Family Works was written nearly thirty years ago, and the reach and velocity of change in the last three decades poses a new challenge for churches. Thirty years ago, churches functioned in a fairly stable environment and focused on growth an expansion. The tide has turned now, though, and supplanted increase with decline. Bowen family systems theory—on which How Your Church Family Works is based—has not changed, but its application has to be revised for the twenty-first century. How Your 21st-Century Church Family Works, the second edition of Peter Steinke’s landmark book, addresses the radically altered landscape of church sustainability with new introductory and concluding chapters bookending updates throughout the now-classic text. Core chapters of the book feature fresh examples of emotional process that are more exemplary of the current scene. One key addition is a new trigger of anxiety for churches—the change process. Change threatens the familiar and stable and suffers from negative connotations of endangering tradition. Where gradual change has been the norm for so long, churches now see a blistering pace of disruptions, some of which have forced change too early or too late, or sometimes in unproductive directions. How Your 21st-Century Church family works embraces the anxiety caused by change, transforming it from a source of anguish to a font of opportunity.

Total Church Life

Total Church Life
Author: Darrell W. Robinson
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Total Pages: 228
Release: 1985
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780805462500

Being Christian in the Twenty-First Century

Being Christian in the Twenty-First Century
Author: Sam Gould
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 163
Release: 2017-07-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498246184

Being Christian in the Twenty-first Century was written to help struggling and doubting Christians develop an understanding of Christianity that avoids literalism, creeds, and doctrines--all factors which seem to be driving people away from the church. The book is well suited for individual or group study, complete with a study guide and sample lesson plans. It responds to the call for theological reform advocated by many contemporary clergy and religious leaders. Being Christian does not restate orthodox positions or drift into fundamentalism or sentimentalism. Instead it draws from a broad base of historical, theological, archaeological, and sociological scholarship to place Scripture within its original context, yet present it within a perspective suitable for the twenty-first-century mind. Being Christian is scholarly, yet readable, interesting, and often provocative. One reviewer put it this way, "the book reminds me of a baseball pitcher with a long wind up and a hard fastball getting better in every inning." By building upon progressive thought available today and throughout history, it offers an important resource for Christians and would-be Christians seeking a more fulfilling and thoughtful faith journey.

Planting Growing Churches for the 21st Century

Planting Growing Churches for the 21st Century
Author: Aubrey Malphurs
Publisher: Baker Books
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2004-10-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1585580767

If the church is to thrive in the twenty-first century, it will have to take on a new form as it ministers to the 120 million unchurched people in the United States. Planting Growing Churches for the 21st Century is still virtually the only available text on church planting in North America and beyond. In this third edition, readers will find material on the importance of healthy, biblical change in our churches, updated appendixes, insight on our postmodern ministry context, and strategies for reaching new population demographics such as Generations X and Y. Pastors, ministry leaders, and church planters will find the information and advice found in this book invaluable as they carry out their ministries.

Vibrant Church

Vibrant Church
Author: Thom S. Rainer
Publisher: Lifeway Press
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2008-01-01
Genre: Baptists
ISBN: 9781415865415

The winds of change are blowing. In this time of massive political and social upheaval, many people are questioning the relevance or established institutions like the church. At the same time, others are looking to the church in hopes that it holds the life-changing answers they desperately need.

A Church for the 21st Century

A Church for the 21st Century
Author: Leith Anderson
Publisher: Baker Books
Total Pages: 253
Release: 1992-07-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1441263071

From the author of Dying for Change, a book on how to bring change to a local church to meet the challenges of a changing society.

The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind

The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind
Author: Mark A. Noll
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2022-03-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1467464627

Winner of the Christianity Today Book of the Year Award (1995) “The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.” So begins this award-winning intellectual history and critique of the evangelical movement by one of evangelicalism’s most respected historians. Unsparing in his indictment, Mark Noll asks why the largest single group of religious Americans—who enjoy increasing wealth, status, and political influence—have contributed so little to rigorous intellectual scholarship. While nourishing believers in the simple truths of the gospel, why have so many evangelicals failed to sustain a serious intellectual life and abandoned the universities, the arts, and other realms of “high” culture? Over twenty-five years since its original publication, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind has turned out to be prescient and perennially relevant. In a new preface, Noll lays out his ongoing personal frustrations with this situation, and in a new afterword he assesses the state of the scandal—showing how white evangelicals’ embrace of Trumpism, their deepening distrust of science, and their frequent forays into conspiratorial thinking have coexisted with surprisingly robust scholarship from many with strong evangelical connections.

Becoming a 21st-Century Church

Becoming a 21st-Century Church
Author: J. Fred Lehr
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 69
Release: 2017-10-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532635427

Why are 80 percent of our congregations stagnant or dying? There are a variety of reasons. This book dives deeply into one of the main reasons--the failure to adapt to the cultural changes of our day. When the Reformation began 500 years ago it sparked a number of radical changes (like worshipping in the vernacular rather than in Latin, etc.) that shocked the church. Over time many saw the merit of those changes and adapted. In the very same way today, major cultural changes are taking place. Is the church open to understanding those changes? And are congregations making the necessary effort to appropriately adapt to them without compromising our central message, the Gospel of Jesus Christ? This "transformational manual" addresses the cultural shifts and provides practical and experience-based ideas to appropriately respond while keeping a strong emphasis on the Gospel of Jesus. Are you ready to become a 21st century church?

Church Zero

Church Zero
Author: Peyton Jones
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre: Christianity
ISBN: 9781434704931

1st Century Expansion for 21st Century PunksChrist didn t give us a plan B. You ve probably seen what the apostles did with plan A. Impressive stuff. Why then is the 21st century church with all its size and gadgets so inept at reaching people? In a bold no-holds-barred approach, "Church Zero" challenges next-gen leaders to return to a New Testament model of church. "