Rekindling the Mainline
Rekindling the Mainline

Author: Stephen C. Compton

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2003-06-01

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 1566996201

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Not only do new church starts in significant numbers bring systemic change and renewal to mainline denominations, but new church development brings similar change to individual aging congregations in their vicinity. Author Stephen Compton argues that a decline in new church starts in the last half of the 20th century was the major contributor to the decline of mainline church groups—not liberalism or lack of faith, as is often cited. He shows in this book how introducing considerable numbers of new congregations into these old denominations can cause these venerable institutions to revisit the meaning of "church" and "congregation," develop a clearer vision of their collective mission, and grow in their ability to bring about positive change in the world. In effect, he contends, new churches in an aging organization do not merely make it grow. They make it change in ways that make it more effective in its mission and ministries. This book will appeal to leaders across denominational lines, including those not ordinarily called "mainline," and especially to pastors and leaders of older congregations.

A Church Wide Enough for Everyone
A Church Wide Enough for Everyone

Author: Steven H. Propp

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2018-02-03

Total Pages: 608

ISBN-13: 1532040377

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Robert Schaeffer and Douglas West are best friends living in Oklahoma in 1963when they discover that they both sense a calling to become ministers in a mainline Christian denomination. But from seminary and their early years in ministry to their golden years looking back on what it takes to lead a congregation, a stimulating, sometimes puzzling, yet often inspirational world of theological controversies and congregational concerns would unfold for these two men of God. A Church Wide Enough for Everyone follows these two men on their journey to demonstrate the continuing relevance of the Christian faith in a postmodern world. After moving to Berkeley, California, to attend college and seminary, they have little time to ponder the vast social changes taking place before they immediately enter into intensive critical study of the Bible and Christian theology. And as Robert is then thrust into the ordained ministry with his wife, Faye, both men must in their own ways face the political, cultural, and ideological pressures of each passing decade, responding to challenges from both within the church and from outsiders. Are mainline churchesand Christian theologydead? Or might they be revitalized in the current century? A Church Wide Enough for Everyone and the inspired journeys of two ministers offers a window into how this revitalization and new understanding is possible.

Nudge
Nudge

Author: Leonard Sweet

Publisher: David C Cook

Published: 2010-08-01

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 0781404932

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Evangelism is about reaching out to others. Really? You think? Brace yourself. In Nudge, author Leonard Sweet sets out to revolutionize our understanding of evangelism. He defines evangelism as “nudge” – awakening each other to the God who is already there. Sweet’s revolution promises to affect your encounters with others, as well as shaking the very roots of your own faith. So brace yourself.

God Gave the Growth
God Gave the Growth

Author: Susan Brown Snook

Publisher: Church Publishing, Inc.

Published: 2015-06-15

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 0819229970

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Practical and theoretical instruction for mainline church planting. The Episcopal Church has recognized that planting new churches is a high priority through the Mission Enterprise Zones initiative, which provides grant funding for new worshiping communities, in partnership with dioceses. While there is significant literature and training available for church planters in evangelical contexts, very little is available for planters in the Episcopal/mainline context. This book addresses how to rise up and train leaders for the difficult task of planting new churches in the twenty-first century. It answers the essential questions, such as why should we plant churches, what models of church planting are most successful, what kinds of leaders are necessary, and what problems can be expected. Through the author’s personal experience and interviews with diocesan experts and leaders in mainline denominations, it provides strategies, approaches, and problem-solving techniques.

The Storied Church
The Storied Church

Author: Matthew Gorkos

Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers

Published: 2021-09-07

Total Pages: 167

ISBN-13: 1506470092

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"The storied church focuses on church renewal that is born of the restorative, transformative, life-giving function that stories have for us as individuals and that can serve communities of faithful people. If stories help us survive as human creatures, why can't they help churches survive? This book is a tool to empower pastors and lay leaders to effect revitalizing change in their faith communites."--back cover.

Losing Church
Losing Church

Author: Michael J. Gehring

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2022-01-14

Total Pages: 155

ISBN-13: 166679063X

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From Ft. Smith, Arkansas, to Princeton, New Jersey, to Kernersville, North Carolina, with a stop along the way in Asbury Park, New Jersey, to pay homage to "The Boss," Michael Gehring takes us on his journeys as a pastor at a pivot point in history for the church and the world. Along the way, we meet up with a fascinating array of characters: Barbara Brown Taylor, Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Jesus's forerunner, John the Baptist, to name just a few. But it's the questions Gehring raises that make this book not only entertaining, but compelling reading for individuals and small groups: How might the decline of the church lead us into rediscovering the gospel? Did clergy, and all of us for that matter, make a good choice investing in institutional Christianity? How would you describe the emotional price of love? What does living a soulful life look like? With the humility and genuineness of someone who doesn't pretend to have it all figured out, Gehring is the perfect travel companion. Come along.

Extraordinary Leaders in Extraordinary Times: Unadorned clay pot messengers
Extraordinary Leaders in Extraordinary Times: Unadorned clay pot messengers

Author: H. Stanley Wood

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 9780802829771

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This book observes distinguishing traits of twenty-first-century clergy who have of established churches that successfully reach unchurched people. It distills the results of a large-scale research project focused on successful pastors of newly-developed churches in seven mainline denominations across the U. S. Drawn from clergy focus groups and a survey of more than 700 effective pastors, this study elucidates key leadership qualities that transcend denominational differences. Four experts -- H. Stanley Wood, Carl S. Dudley, Darrell L. Guder, and Robert S. Hoyt -- interpret the data, placing the findings in the context of church history, current religious demographics, theories of leadership, and comparison with the FACT study (the largest study of worshipping communities ever undertaken). An extensive addendum provides profiles of successful new churches and denominational differences.

In Dying We Are Born
In Dying We Are Born

Author: Peter Bush

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2007-12-03

Total Pages: 147

ISBN-13: 1566995566

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Deeply ingrained in Western culture, and in the minds of most church leaders, is the belief that there is a solution to every problem. Peter bush offers a powerful challenge to this approach, arguing that for new life, energy, and passion to arise in congregations, they must die--die to one way of being the church in order that a new way may rise. Bush identifies two types of dying congregations. Some congregations need to close their doors, bringing to an end years of ministry. Other congregations need to dramatically change their culture and ways of doing ministry. Such change may not entail literally closing the congregation's doors, but it will require people giving up deeply held understandings of the life and purpose of the congregation. All congregations, Bush contends, even ones that see themselves as healthy, need to be prepared to die, to take up their cross, so God can make them alive. A skillful storyteller, Bush shows readers why churches must confront their mortality. He examines the role of the prophetic leader, who proclaims both the congregation's death and its resurrection. He explores spiritual practices and the habits of wonder, remember, and risk taking for congregations that know they are dying--or need to die. Only by dying, Bush says, will a congregation find resurrection life, given by God who raises the dead to life

The Supernatural and the Circuit Riders
The Supernatural and the Circuit Riders

Author: Rimi Xhemajli

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2021-06-22

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 172526921X

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In The Supernatural and the Circuit Riders, Rimi Xhemajli shows how a small but passionate movement grew and shook the religious world through astonishing signs and wonders. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, early American Methodist preachers, known as circuit riders, were appointed to evangelize the American frontier by presenting an experiential gospel: one that featured extraordinary phenomena that originated from God’s Spirit. In employing this evangelistic strategy of the gospel message fueled by supernatural displays, Methodism rapidly expanded. Despite beginning with only ten official circuit riders in the early 1770s, by the early 1830s, circuit riders had multiplied and caused Methodism to become the largest American denomination of its day. In investigating the significance of the supernatural in the circuit rider ministry, Xhemajli provides a new historical perspective through his eye-opening demonstration of the correlation between the supernatural and the explosive membership growth of early American Methodism, which fueled the Second Great Awakening. In doing so, he also prompts the consideration of the relevance and reproduction of such acts in the American church today.

OUT OF ORDER: The Self-Destruction Of A Mainline Denomination
OUT OF ORDER: The Self-Destruction Of A Mainline Denomination

Author: Powell Sykes

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2012-11-01

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1300377283

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In 1927 American Presbyterians chose to stop listing and insisting upon "the essential tenets of the Reformed faith"; instead, they emphasized tolerance and essential action. Since then, historic, biblically based Christianity has been supplanted more and more by a different religion, dubbed Religious Liberalism by the author, within the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States. This, coupled with decades of removing practical means of holding pastors accountable for any of their beliefs and much of their behavior, is leading to that denomination's demise in the early years of the 21st Century. The author combines historical overview and perspective with his own experiences as a pastor of Presbyterian churches in North Carolina to make his case.