The Unstuck Church


Book Description

Acclaimed church leader, blogger, founder and chief strategic officer of The Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan unpacks the lifecycle of a typical church, identifies characteristics of each phase, and provides practical next steps a church can take to move towards sustained health. Think about your church for a moment. Is it growing? Is it diminishing? Is it somewhere in between? Acclaimed church leader, blogger, and founder and chief strategic officer of The Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan has identified the seven stages of a church's lifecycle that range from the hopeful and optimistic days of launch, to the stagnating last stages of life support. Regardless of the stage in which you find your church, it carries with it the world's greatest mission—to "go and make disciples of all the nations . . ." With eternity at stake the Church should be doing most everything within its power to see lives changed forever. The Church should strive for the pinnacle of the lifecycle, where they are continually making new disciples and experiencing what Morgan refers to as "sustained health." In The Unstuck Church, Morgan unpacks each phase of the church lifecycle, and offers specific and strategic next steps the church leader can take to find it's way to sustained health . . . and finally become unstuck. The Unstuck Church is a call for honest an assessment of where your church sits on the lifecycle, and a challenge to move beyond it.




Dying Church Living God


Book Description

Make a new church. That's the challenge Chuck Meyer lays down for readers. He writes that the institutional church we know so well is dying. In fact, it may already be dead. Its structure and theology make no sense today, and haven't for decades. It has ceased to be an adequate instrument for the Living God who refuses to be bound by it, to it, or in it. Dying Church, Living God is a provocative, radical look at the church as it enters the 21st century. "In the midst of all this enormous change, the Church still conducts worship services at hours based around 19th-century milking schedules...There is an incredibly deep spiritual hunger gnawing at people" that Chuck Meyer believes the church must address. Acknowledgement of the death of the church and the inevitable resurrection is both the premise and the promise of this provocative, enlightening book.




Crazy Love


Book Description

Revised & Updated Edition! God is love. Crazy, relentless, all-powerful love. Have you ever wondered if we're missing it? It's crazy, if you think about it. The God of the universe—the Creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E-minor—loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? We go to church, sing songs, and try not to cuss. Whether you've verbalized it yet or not, we all know something's wrong. Does something deep inside your heart long to break free from the status quo? Are you hungry for an authentic faith that addresses the problems of our world with tangible, even radical, solutions? God is calling you to a passionate love relationship with Himself. Because the answer to religious complacency isn't working harder at a list of do's and don'ts—it's falling in love with God. And once you encounter His love, as Francis describes it, you will never be the same. Because when you're wildly in love with someone, it changes everything. Learn more about Crazy Love at www.crazylovebook.com.




Replant


Book Description

Grow Where You’re Replanted Today’s spiritual landscape is littered with churches on their last legs, forcing us to reconsider how we keep the Body of Christ alive and strong. The solution, according to visionary pastors Darrin Patrick and Mark DeVine, is to infuse new blood into the body and by seeking God’s presence and guidance. Avoiding cookie-cutter steps or how-to formulas, Replant describes the story of a church resurrection, a story that offers a multitude of divinely inspired, and practical possibilities for church planters. The result is a harvest of inspiring ideas on how to inspire new church growth. Discover a new openness to churches merging with other congregations, changing leadership, and harvesting fresh spiritual fruit—inviting us all to re-think how churches not only survive, but thrive.




Anatomy of a Revived Church


Book Description

There is hope. God can save your church. In this book, Thom Rainer reveals seven findings of revived churches. Through new research, he figuratively dissects hundreds of churches that were on the path toward death. But they turned around. They revitalized. They did so in the face of facts and naysayers who told them it could not be done. Today, three out of four churches are declining in our nation, and twenty percent of churches are close to death. What are the secrets of the churches who avoided this fate and experienced revival? In Anatomy of a Revived Church, Thom will show you how these churches experienced renewal. He will cover everything from “expanding the scorecard” to “dealing with toxins” to “choosing meaningful membership.” When you finish reading this book, you will have the tools to strengthen, restore, and energize your church. You can choose life for your church.




How to Be Free from the Fear of Death


Book Description

Some people admit to their fear of death while others lie awake at night silently suffering over thoughts of their mortality. In How to Be Free from the Fear of Death, Ray Comfort addresses the subject head-on. Overcome your fear as you · understand why we suffer, age, and die, · recognize God’s power over death, · develop habits to maintain your peace, and · share your newfound joy with others. Rest peacefully knowing that death is not the end but a wonderful beginning.




The Myth of the Dying Church


Book Description

Stop believing the false narrative that Christianity is declining, and discover the truth about the health of the church in America and around the world. Much has been made of the so-called "nones" - those who claim no spiritual affiliation. Media has spun the nones into a chicken-little the sky is falling narrative. The nones are an infamously difficult subsection to understand and there is a lot of false information on them. Glenn Stanton believes the nones story has become overblown and has become "a thing" due to curiosity and repetition of their supposed irreligiosity. THE MYTH OF THE DYING CHURCH digs deeply into the research concerning spirituality in America and reveals the hope and truth about the vitality and future of the church.




Close Your Church for Good


Book Description

Lots of churches around the world are struggling to survive. Maybe instead they should follow Jesus into death so that they can rise again. I suggest several things that churches can do to follow Jesus into the world. These ways allow us to BE the church rather than just attend church.




Scrappy Church


Book Description

How many times have we heard these statements… “We can’t compete with the megachurch in our town!” “A new church was started two blocks from us. We’ve got plenty of churches without them!” “The church brought another one of their campuses near us. It’s totally unethical what they are doing.” “We can’t reach young families. They all go to the big church that has all the children’s and student stuff.” “We don’t have the money or the people the other churches have.” Bestselling author Thom S. Rainer (I Am a Church Member, Autopsy of a Deceased Church) has heard comments like these hundreds, if not thousands, of times. They are statements of hopelessness. They are statements of despair. They are statements of defeat. Church leaders don’t want to feel this way. They desire to break out of the mediocrity of the same, lame, and tame existence of their churches. They want their churches to make a difference. There is hope. God’s hope. God’s possibilities. What does a scrappy church look like? Let’s take a look together.




Autopsy of a Deceased Church


Book Description

Best-selling author of Simple Church and the runaway hit I am a Church Member, Thom Rainer uses his twenty-five years of experience helping churches grow and reverse the trends of decline to expose twelve lessons on how to keep your church alive!