Take Your Church's Pulse
Take Your Church's Pulse

Author: Tim Koster

Publisher: Multiplication Network Ministries

Published: 2014-10-07

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13:

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Take Your Church's Pulse presents ten vital signs of a healthy church--five key commitments and five key functions. It then introduce you to a church-health diagnostic tool you can apply to your setting. Thousands of pastors and leaders around the world have found this paradigm helpful in organizing the ministry and mission of the local church. This book and the free diagnostic tool it presents are most useful if accompanied by a healthy process of conversations. With such a process, led by the Spirit, this book can help you discern a preferred future for your community of faith. Koster and Wagenveld write: "A healthy community of faith is rooted first of all in the character and nature of God. It understands its mission and purpose in the world and organizes its life and work to be faithful and effective in its context. None of these vital signs stands alone. It is a combination of factors that together make up a faithful and fruitful organism, the living Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no magic in the number ten, but for the teaching purposes it has worked quite well in different cultural contexts in providing ideas and a language for discussing important issues in congregational life and mission." The intended audience for this book is any pastor, leader, or church member who is interest in having healthy conversations with others to strengthen the local church.

Taking Your Spiritual Pulse
Taking Your Spiritual Pulse

Author: Claire Musters

Publisher: AMG Publishers

Published: 2003-08

Total Pages: 100

ISBN-13: 9780899573779

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Or are you like so many people, who never go near a doctor or health clinic until they are taken into the hospital on a stretcher? No one this side of heaven enjoys perfect spiritual health, but Taking Your Spiritual Pulse gives you an accurate reading on your current fitness and offers you a range of ideas to get yourself into good spiritual shape and keep yourself that way. This pocket guide to Christian fitness contains a simple, imaginative, and enjoyable regimen that will give mind, spirit, and soul a thorough, thought-provoking workout Book jacket.

Taking Your Church to the Next Level
Taking Your Church to the Next Level

Author: Gary L. McIntosh

Publisher: Baker Books

Published: 2009-09-01

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1441210857

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All local churches experience a predictable life cycle of growth and decline. But if a church is on a downward trend, how can it turn around? Taking Your Church to the Next Level explains the impact of age and size on churches and outlines the improvements that must be made at each point for a church to remain fruitful and faithful to its mission. McIntosh deftly describes the cycles of fruitfulness and the importance of continual improvement to diminish destructive forces that keep a congregation from its mission. Church leaders, pastors, and all who care about the church and desire to see it experience biblical growth will benefit from the sage wisdom offered in these pages.

The Sacred Pulse
The Sacred Pulse

Author: April Fiet

Publisher: Broadleaf Books

Published: 2021-12-14

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 1506469094

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Contemporary life is leaving us frazzled, overwhelmed, and out of sorts. Our life's rhythm is often borrowed from the pace of life around us. Humans have created such a loud, fast tempo of perfection and production that we often forget--if we ever knew it at all--the rhythms designed for our well-being. In The Sacred Pulse, pastor and author April Fiet invites us to examine the frantic patterns of our lives to reclaim the deeper, sacred pulses that pattern our days. Through stories, scripture, and practical guidance for daily living, she lays out twelve rhythms--including gardening, handcrafts, friendship, and holidays--that are both sustainable and sustaining. Everyday acts like mealtime and shopping, and sporadic rhythms like the occasional snow day: reclaiming these patterns can remind us of the holy movement of God in the world. In a world of hustle and bravado, silencing the noise takes practice. The Sacred Pulse shows us how to strip away all of the competing beats we have settled for so we can tap into the joyful, holy rhythms of life.

The U-Turn Church
The U-Turn Church

Author: Kevin G. Harney

Publisher: Baker Books

Published: 2011-06-01

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 1441232141

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You don't need to tell pastors that the majority of churches in America are in a state of stagnation or decline. Most of them are ministering in such a church. Now two pastors who turned their churches around show leaders how they can help usher in a new season of health, faithfulness, growth, and vision in their churches. The U-Turn Church walks readers through the roadblocks of tradition, lack of vision or leadership, structural problems, and concerns about denominational distinctives to forge a new way forward into a hope-filled future. Through the stories of two churches that have experienced healthy transformation, readers will see that there is not just one right way to reverse decline. They will receive practical help and wisdom born of experience as they begin their own U-Turn journey.

Apostolic Imagination
Apostolic Imagination

Author: Jervis David Payne

Publisher:

Published: 2022

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781540965325

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"A leading expert in the field of Christian missions encourages the church to recover the apostolic imagination that fueled the multiplication of disciples in the first century"--

Dear Church
Dear Church

Author: Lenny Duncan

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published: 2019-07-02

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 1506452574

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Lenny Duncan is the unlikeliest of pastors. Formerly incarcerated, he is now a black preacher in the whitest denomination in the United States: the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Shifting demographics and shrinking congregations make all the headlines, but Duncan sees something else at work--drawing a direct line between the church's lack of diversity and the church's lack of vitality. The problems the ELCA faces are theological, not sociological. But so are the answers. Part manifesto, part confession, and all love letter, Dear Church offers a bold new vision for the future of Duncan's denomination and the broader mainline Christian community of faith. Dear Church rejects the narrative of church decline and calls everyone--leaders and laity alike--to the front lines of the church's renewal through racial equality and justice. It is time for the church to rise up, dust itself off, and take on forces of this world that act against God: whiteness, misogyny, nationalism, homophobia, and economic injustice. Duncan gives a blueprint for the way forward and urges us to follow in the revolutionary path of Jesus. Dear Church also features a discussion guide at the back--perfect for church groups, book clubs, and other group discussion.

3 Big Questions That Change Every Teenager
3 Big Questions That Change Every Teenager

Author: Kara Powell

Publisher: Baker Books

Published: 2021-08-03

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1493430319

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Today's teenagers are the most anxious, creative, and diverse generation in history--which can make it hard for us to relate. And while every teenager is a walking bundle of questions, three rise above the rest: - Who am I? - Where do I fit? - What difference can I make? Young people struggle to find satisfying and life-giving answers to these questions on their own. They need caring adults willing to lean in with empathy, practice listening, and gently point them in the direction of better answers: they are enough because of Jesus, they belong with God's people, and they are invited into God's greater story. In this book, which is based on new landmark research from the Fuller Youth Institute and combines in-depth interviews with data from 1,200 diverse teenagers, Kara Powell and Brad M. Griffin offer pastors, youth leaders, mentors, and parents practical and proven conversations and connections that help teenagers answer their three biggest questions and reach their full potential.

Organic Outreach for Churches
Organic Outreach for Churches

Author: Kevin G. Harney

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 2018-05-22

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 0310566088

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Nearly all churches and ministries consider themselves dedicated to evangelism, and many explicitly include outreach in their mission statements. But few are actually bearing fruit. Kevin Harney diagnoses this problem and offers guidance for multiplying the outreach impact of churches. Organic Outreach for Churches provides direction for local congregations to weave evangelism into the fabric of the church. Commitment to the Great Commission is not simply about sending money and prayers to missions or holding occasional events to reach out (although these things are good). Organic outreach happens when evangelistic vision and action become the domain of every ministry and the commitment of every person in the congregation. This will not happen accidentally. There is huge spiritual and practical resistance to such changes. But the only way evangelism will become an organic part of a church is when every leader and each member is gripped by a commitment to proclaiming the gospel. This book is a roadmap for pastors and leaders who wish to infuse evangelistic passion into every aspect of their church's life.