African American Church Leadership


Book Description

How can African American church leaders maximize their leadership potential? What are current models for effective leadership in the African American Christian community? This book answers those questions and more with up-to-date research and current best practices regarding leadership principles and strategies. African American church communities and those who interact with and work with these communities will find this book particularly useful. ParkerBooks are written to equip and encourage African American ministry leaders.




A Heart for the Community


Book Description

Islam, gentrification, AIDS, and multiculturalism: Where do we face these realities? A few years ago, it was in the city. But today, many city dwellers are moving to the suburbs, either by choice or because of circumstances beyond their control. And this shift is changing both the urban and suburban landscape. With this shift in mind, editors John Fuder and Noel Castellanos have gathered together a team of experts to help you minister effectively in both the urban and suburban context. Divided into four sections--Critical Issues, Church-Planting Models, Ministering to Suburban Needs, and Para-Church Ministries--A Heart for the Community is a rich resource designed to help you do ministry today.




Community Ministry


Book Description

In this era of "faith-based initiatives," congregations increasingly find themselves in the business of establishing and supporting community ministries-daycare for infants and toddlers, respite care for elders, and programs for housing rehab and home repair, tutoring, and social justice advocacy. In this volume, Carl S. Dudley revises and updates his earlier book, Basic Steps toward Community Ministry, which Loren Mead called "the most valuable book on parish ministry I've seen in a decade."




A Practical Guide to Community Ministry


Book Description

How does a congregation best serve its own neighborhood? This practical guide for congregations and parishes addresses this question by reviewing the growth of the ecumenically oriented community ministry movement in recent years. David Bos believes the typical "community ministry" rising from that movement possesses three vital and energizing characteristics: it is congregation-based and very local; it is a social ministry that sees issues through the prism of its own community; and it is ecumenical. He focuses on community ministry as a particular way of ministering to society, in which congregations of more than one denomination and of a particular locality (neighborhood, small town, rural county) share goals and resources. Bos sees community ministry as a local social ministry in which congregations respond in faith, hope, and love to the neighborhood, town, or rural county that they have as an immediate context for ministry.




Community


Book Description

"Essays and talks on the theme of community by Henri Nouwen, the popular writer and spiritual teacher"--




Community Is Messy


Book Description

Drawing on her background in environmental engineering and her current pastoral role, Heather Zempel assesses the perils and possibilities inherent in small groups and other environments for Christian community. The book helps leaders begin to see the inherent "mess" of such gatherings as raw material for arriving at something beautiful.




Interpersonal Relationship Skills for Ministers


Book Description

"This book addresses a major need."-Christian Standard Reports from churches indicate that poor interpersonal relationships are the primary reasons for minister failure. Though they are taught the important skills of how to interpret the Bible, how to discern and articulate doctrine, how to direct worship services, and more, ministers are eventually faced with a congregation. While they may frequently call on some skills and others not at all, interpersonal relationship skills are vital to any ministry. This book is designed to aid ministers, seminary students, denominational leaders, and church members nurture their relationships with one another and with God, and to help the understanding of oneself and of others that is part of the minister's task. These essays, from the faculty of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, focus on four areas of concern: relationship with oneself, with family, in the church, and in the community. Above all, these lessons are devised to aid in nurturing a secure setting for effectiveness in the ministry and in service to God.




Loving Your Community


Book Description

Are you and your church making a difference in your community? Are you meeting needs in a positive, proactive, and loving way? Too often when churches are presented with a need outside their walls, they operate on the principle of "Say no unless you have to say yes." Don't want that to be your church's legacy in your community? Drawing on more than 30 years of service to the community surrounding Faith Church in Indiana, pastor Stephen Viars shows you how to develop a dynamic, giving relationship with your community, one in which your natural response to needs is "Yes! How can we help?" No matter the size, location, demographics, or issues in your community, the approach found in this practical book will help you improve people's lives, draw them into productive conversation about the hope you have in Christ, and glorify God.




Ministry by the Book


Book Description

Focusing on pastoral leadership within local churches or groups of churches, Derek Tidball provides a comprehensive survey of the variety of ministry models and patterns found in the New Testament with applications for today's ministry.




Intergenerational Christian Formation


Book Description

In a revised an updated edition, this comprehensive, up-to-date text offers a framework for intentional intergenerational Christian formation. It provides the theoretical foundation of intergenerationality, then gives concrete, practical guidance on how worship, learning, community, and service can all be achieved intergenerationally.