Transforming Congregational Culture

Transforming Congregational Culture
Author: Anthony B. Robinson
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2003-01-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780802805188

Argues in behalf of transforming main-line congregations into "missional communities," which will give hope to declining churches in the twenty-first century.

Changing the Conversation

Changing the Conversation
Author: Anthony B. Robinson
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2008-08-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0802807593

A sequel to his best-selling Transforming Congregational Culture (2003), Changing the Conversationoffers Anthony Robinson's latest work and thinking on congregational renewal and leadership. Robinson here invites church leaders and members into ten crucial conversations that will change their congregation's culture and help them respond with greater vitality, effectiveness, and faithfulness to our postmodern culture and its challenges.

Churches, Cultures, and Leadership

Churches, Cultures, and Leadership
Author: Mark Lau Branson
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2023-02-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1514002884

In a world that is more culturally diverse than ever, pastors and lay leaders need skills and competencies to serve in multicultural contexts. This rich blend of astute analysis and practical guidance offers a praxis of paying attention, study, and discernment that leads to genuine reconciliation and shared life empowered by the gospel.

Look Before You Lead

Look Before You Lead
Author: Aubrey Malphurs
Publisher: Baker Books
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2013-02-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1441240357

Pastoral ministry is challenging work, especially when a pastor ignores the church's "congregational culture" when seeking to minister to church members or implement changes. Just as a pastor studies to interpret the Scriptures in order to understand and preach the Bible, he or she must interpret the local church culture to better understand and move it toward accomplishing its mission and vision. In Look Before You Lead, trusted church leadership expert Aubrey Malphurs shows pastors how to read their church's unique local culture, how to change or revitalize it, and even how to combine two cultures when one church adopts another. This unique resource approaches leadership and discernment from a solid, biblical perspective and includes a number of helpful appendixes, such as a behavior, belief, and a values audit, that are key to reading and understanding the culture.

Transforming Congregations through Community

Transforming Congregations through Community
Author: Boyung Lee
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2013-11-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0664233309

In this helpful book, Boyung Lee offers an encouraging vision of the mainline church’s future. Lee grapples with some of the greatest challenges facing the mainline church, offering compelling responses to recurring questions: What does faithfulness to the gospel look like in this changing world? What is our distinctive voice in the larger society? How does theological education have to change if it is to serve the needs of a new century? Lee argues that the church’s future is a promising one if the church can offer a richer and deeper definition of community—one that moves beyond the excessive individualism of western culture and that helps mainline Christians understand their solidarity with one another and with all of God’s people. Lee further explores the crucial role of faith formation at the congregational and seminary levels. More than mere schooling, theological education must engage all aspects of educators’ and students’ lives to prepare seminarians for the challenges that lie ahead. While not dismissing the mainline church’s challenges, Lee offers congregational leaders and seminary educators a vision of a church transformed for the 21st century.

Cracking Your Church's Culture Code

Cracking Your Church's Culture Code
Author: Samuel R. Chand
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2010-09-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0470872977

Strategies for transforming a toxic church culture Why is it that the best strategic plans and good leadership often are not able to move churches in the desired direction? Sam Chand contends that toxic culture is to blame. Quite often, leaders don't sense the toxicity, but it poisons their relationships and derails their vision. This work describes five easily identifiable categories of church culture (inspiring-accepting-stagnant-discouraging-toxic), with diagnostic descriptions in the book and a separate online assessment tool. The reader will be able to identify strengths and needs of their church's culture, and then apply practical strategies (communication, control and authority, selection and placement of personnel, etc.) to make their church's culture more positive. Discusses how to diagnose the state of a church's culture Reveals what it takes to put in place effective strategies for creating a more positive church culture Author served on the board of EQUIP (Dr. John Maxwell's Ministry), equipping five million leaders world-wide. This important book offers a clear guide for understanding and recreating a healthy church culture.

Many Colors

Many Colors
Author: Soong-Chan Rah
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2010-09-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1575674971

The United States is currently undergoing the most rapid demographic shift in its history. By 2050, white Americans will no longer comprise a majority of the population. Instead, they'll be the largest minority group in a country made up entirely of minorities, followed by Hispanic Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans. Past shifts in America's demographics always reshaped the county's religious landscape. This shift will be no different. Soong-Chan Rah's book is intended to equip evangelicals for ministry and outreach in our changing nation. Borrowing from the business concept of "cultural intelligence," he explores how God's people can become more multiculturally adept. From discussions about cultural and racial histories, to reviews of case-study churches and Christian groups that are succeeding in bridging ethnic divides, Rah provides a practical and hopeful guidebook for Christians wanting to minister more effectively in diverse settings. Without guilt trips or browbeating, the book will spur individuals, churches, and parachurch ministries toward more effectively bearing witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Good News for people of every racial and cultural background. Its message is positive; its potential impact, transformative.

Transformational Church

Transformational Church
Author: Ed Stetzer
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2010
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1433669307

It is time to take heart and rework the scorecard. --

Transforming Congregations

Transforming Congregations
Author: James Lemler
Publisher: Church Publishing, Inc.
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2008-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0898695848

At once “travel guide” and vision for the future, the Transformation series is good news for the Episcopal Church at a time of fast and furious demographic and social change. Series contributors - recognized experts in their fields - analyze our present plight, point to the seeds of change already at work transforming the church, and outline a positive new way forward. What kinds of churches are most ready for transformation? What are the essential tools? What will give us strength, direction, and purpose to the journey? Each volume of the series will: Explain why a changed vision is essential Give robust theological and biblical foundations Offer a guide to best practices and positive trends in churches large and small. Describe the necessary tools for change Imagine how transformation will look How can our patterns of congregational life and mission renew themselves and adjust to changing culture without selling out what Episcopalians stand for? How can local faith communities stay resilient and hopeful? What styles and practices of spirituality do most to enrich our mission? These are some of the questions James Lemler poses in this book on mission for clergy and congregational discussion. As with evangelism, there is both good and bad news about Episcopalians and mission. Lemler also provides a variety of models for moving forward in mission and hope, to a more abundant future.

Creating a Missional Culture

Creating a Missional Culture
Author: JR Woodward
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2013-09-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0830866795

Missiologist and church planter JR Woodward offers a blueprint for the missional church--not small adjustments around the periphery of the infrastructure but a radical revisioning of how a church ought to look that entails changing how we think about leadership and what we expect out of discipleship.