Money, Motivation, and Mission in the Small Church


Book Description

These innovative suggestions show pastors and lay leaders how to develop big-impact mission projects with limited resources.




Effective Small Churches in the Twenty-First Century


Book Description

Dudley's work in Making the Small Church Effective (1978) broke new ground in understanding the dynamics of life in the small congregation. In this revised edition, Dudley revisits the small church, posing new questions reflective of the considerable changes that have swept over small churches in the last two decades. Among the most significant recent developments are shifts in institutional loyalty and individual's sense of identity in relation to larger groups and organizations. Dudley explores the key components that contribute to a small congregation's sense of unity and that motivate its members to more faithfully live out their faith.




Help for the Small-church Pastor


Book Description

Churches with fewer than 150 people will always be a bastion of Christianity despite today's megachurch emphasis. Pastors dealing with the strengths, problems and opportunities of smaller churches will value Bierly's timely guidance and encouragement. Knowing what makes small churches tick helps their leaders invest time and energy wisely into the kind of growth that matters.




Church Administration and Finance Manual


Book Description

A field-tested guide to the management and finance of church congregations, revised for a new generation. Clergy are generally equipped to preach and provide spiritual care. But when it comes to budgets, insurance, fire safety, and church management many find themselves at a loss. The Church Administration and Finance Manual is the classic guide to running a church, written to answer key questions for clergy and lay leaders. Not simply a theoretical resource, the Manual provides suggestions for almost every aspect of parish administration: position descriptions, financial forms, materials for stewardship and Christian education, building use and safety issues, employee record keeping, and much more. This revised edition offers guidance on many new topics that are of vital importance to churches, including protecting children, information security, approaches to preventing and responding to violence, planned giving, social media, and hybrid work and worship. Whether clergy are just out of seminary or well-seasoned in parish life, the Manual is full of excellent guidelines, tools, and forms for improving the management of the parish.




Indispensable Guide for Smaller Churches


Book Description

This book complements the author's earlier titles from The Pilgrim Press, "The Big Small Church Book, and "Wonderful Worship in Smaller Churches". Ray expands on the earlier works by treating such subjects as communal theology, theories, and tools for understanding smaller churches, worship, education, and finance. His vision is to lead even smaller churches toward the year 2030.




ChurchMoney


Book Description

There is a secret formula to help convince parishioners to give financially to your church. It’s pretty simple: Just ask them. And when you do, make sure it’s not about the money. In ChurchMoney, Rev. Michael White and Tom Corcoran—award-winning authors of the bestselling book Rebuilt—will help you learn the basic skills you need to discover that true success in raising funds comes from the incredibly freeing approach that connects giving to discipleship. The two share stories of success and failure during their twenty years leading the Church of the Nativity in Timonium, Maryland. They tell you what they learned to meet the real financial challenges of their mission. And they offer the practical wisdom and inspiration you need to tackle the thorny matter of raising money in your Catholic parish. So if giving isn’t about the money, what is it about? Giving is about: loving God and serving him; loving others and helping them fall in love with their Savior; transforming the world little by little through love; and the eternal impact we can and need to make with money. White and Corcoran contend that giving actually glorifies God and attracts others to the Church. Over and over again in scripture, they point out, you’ll find the same, simple point: Giving gladly serves as a key ingredient to the Church’s growth from its very beginning. White and Corcoran share the lessons, facts, habits, and great ideas they’ve implemented from some of the most successful and vibrant churches in the United States. ChurchMoney offers a proven plan for raising money in parishes. It’s readily adaptable, firmly rooted in the reality of leading a Catholic parish, based on the Bible, and finessed with the best advice of communication professionals. You will read stories of embarrassing failure and exhilarating success in tripling a budget and running three extraordinarily successful capital campaigns over a ten-year period including a recent campaign leading to the construction of $16 million sanctuary built debt-free. White and Corcoran have increased staff fourfold and significantly raised salaries and increased staff benefits while expanding mission outreach both locally and internationally.




Creating Congregations of Generous People


Book Description

Asking parishioners for money is very different from creating congregations of generous people. In this provocative book, stewardship consultant Michael Durall argues convincingly that annual pledge drives inadvertently perpetuate low-level and same-level giving in congregations. Written with the voice of experience, this book will help clergy and lay leaders initiate and sustain effective stewardship programs. Durall believes that asking for money eventually becomes routine, even tedious-but creating a congregation of generous people becomes ever more meaningful with passing time.




The Little Church that Could


Book Description

Filled with case studies and practical helps, this guide addresses everything from congregational life cycles to size-related dynamics.




Turnaround and Beyond


Book Description

Since its publication in 1995, Ron Crandall’s Turnaround Strategies for the Small Church has become required reading for anyone striving to revitalize the ministry of a small membership congregation. That book was built on extensive interviews and studies conducted in dozens of small membership churches, across several denominations, that had experienced significant turnaround. In a new study Crandall has now returned to those congregations to see what it takes to make the turnaround work over a period of years. Learning much from both the churches who maintained significant growth in numbers and ministry, and those that failed to do so, he offers even more helpful insight to any congregational leader seeking to take a small membership church into a new phase of witness and mission.




Mission


Book Description