Healthy Congregations

Healthy Congregations
Author: Peter L. Steinke
Publisher: Alban Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1996
Genre: Church controversies
ISBN: 9781566991735

In this sequel to How Your Church Family Works, Steinke takes readers into a deeper exploration of the congregation as an emotional system. Learn ten principles of health, how congregations can adopt new ways of dealing with stress and anxiety, how spiritually and emotionally healthy leaders influence the emotional system, factors that could put your congregation at risk, and more.

Built on the Rock

Built on the Rock
Author: Ted Kober
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017
Genre: Church
ISBN: 9780758658067

This book, written by a Certified Christian Conciliator with more than 20 years of experience in church reconciliation, offers practical advice for improving the spiritual health of congregations and the ministers that lead them.

Healthy Churches, Faithful Pastors

Healthy Churches, Faithful Pastors
Author: David A. Keck
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2014-06-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1566994500

Congregations want to support their pastors, but don’t know how. Pastors love their congregations, but they don’t know what to ask of their congregations to garner needed support. Everyone wants to thrive together, but so often we get stuck. This clear and engaging guide helps pastors and congregations bridge communication gaps and set mutual goals and expectations. Reverend Keck grounds his framework of expectations on both scholarly research and on interviews he’s conducted with pastors and lay people. He finds many common difficulties in churches arise from failing to discuss priorities and expectations, and from not effectively working through the problems that arise when expectations aren’t met. For pastors and congregants to arrive at common expectations, they need to understand each other—their respective needs, hopes, and distinctive callings. This book provides concrete steps to aid congregants and pastors communicate their mutual expectations. Keck presents fifty “expectation statements”—examples of what pastors and congregations can expect of one another; a vital resource to anyone who seeks to initiate a discussion of expectations in their own church. Elucidating goals and expectations allows congregations and pastors to support one another and flourish, and fosters church health and harmony.

Family Systems and Congregational Life

Family Systems and Congregational Life
Author: R. Robert Creech
Publisher: Baker Academic
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2019-02-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1493416952

Experienced pastor and seminary teacher R. Robert Creech helps pastoral leaders increase their effectiveness by applying family systems theory to congregational life and ministry. Creech introduces readers to the basic concepts of Bowen Family Systems Theory, applies family theory to the work of ministry in church settings, and connects systems thinking to the everyday aspects of congregational ministry, such as preaching, pastoral care, leadership, spiritual formation, and interpreting biblical texts. Each chapter contains discussion questions, and there are five helpful appendixes with supplemental information about Bowen theory.

Leading a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church

Leading a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church
Author: Mark DeYmaz
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2013-05-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310514754

Increasingly, church leaders are recognizing the power and beauty of the multi-ethnic church. Yet, more than a good idea, it’s a biblical, first-century standard with far-reaching evangelistic potential. How can your church overcome the obstacles to become a healthy multi-ethnic community of faith? And why should you even try? In Leading a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church (formerly titled Ethnic Blends), Dr. Mark DeYmaz provides an up-close-and-personal look at seven common challenges to creating diversity in your church. Through real-life stories and practical illustrations, DeYmaz shows how to overcome the obstacles in order to lead a healthy multi-ethnic church. He also includes the insights of other effective multi-ethnic church leaders from the United States and Australia, as well as study questions at the end of each chapter. Leading a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church describes what effective local churches in the 21st century will look like and shows us how to create them, together as one, beyond race and class distinctions. –Miles McPherson, Senior Pastor, The Rock Church, San Diego, CA Mark DeYmaz, perhaps more than any pastor in America, has his pulse on what it will take for the Church to find real reconciliation in our generation. –Matt Carter, Lead Pastor, Austin Stone Community Church, Austin, TX

Church Membership

Church Membership
Author: Jonathan Leeman
Publisher: Crossway
Total Pages: 146
Release: 2012-04-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1433532409

Jonathan Leeman addresses the commonly asked (and often unanswered) question of, "Why should I join a church?" in a time when many are shunning the practice of organized religion. By offering a brief, straightforward explanation of what church membership is and why it's important, Leeman gives the local church its proper due and builds a case for committing to the local body. Church Membership is a useful tool for churches to distribute en masse to new and potential members of their congregation. This volume is part of the 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches series. Look for upcoming, quick-read formats of the following marks of a healthy church: expositional preaching, biblical theology, the gospel, conversion, evangelism, church discipline, discipleship and growth, and church leadership.

Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church

Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church
Author: Mark DeYmaz
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2020-10-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1506463401

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 and 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 from both 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. Apart from ethnically and economically diverse relationships, we cannot understand others different from ourselves, develop trust for others who are different than us, and/or love others different than ourselves. Apart from understanding, trust, and love, we are less likely to get involved in the plight of others different than ourselves. Without involvement, nothing changes, and the disparaging consequences of systemic racism remain entrenched in our culture. Surely, it breaks the heart of God to see so many churches segregated ethnically or economically from one another, and that little has changed in the many years since it was first observed that eleven o'clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in the land.

The Emotionally Healthy Church

The Emotionally Healthy Church
Author: Peter Scazzero
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2010
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310293359

This revised and expanded edition of Peter Scazzero s award-winning book not only takes the original six principles for cultivating spiritual and emotional health in your church further and deeper, but he also adds a seventh principle to show you as a church leader how to slow down to lead with integrity."

What Is a Healthy Church?

What Is a Healthy Church?
Author: Mark Dever
Publisher: Crossway
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2007
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1581349378

Guides both pastors and members to recognize key characteristics of a healthy church and then challenge each person to do his or her part in developing those characteristics in the local church body.

Creating a Healthier Church

Creating a Healthier Church
Author: Ronald W. Richardson
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 188
Release: 1995-12-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781451417777

An introduction to the Bowen Family Systems Theory and its applications both to church life and to the role of leadership in creating a healthier church, this book explains the complexities of congregational emotional life in understandable language.