Understanding Church Leadership


Book Description

Who leads a church? Why is this important to God? God cares about his glory, and he means to display his glory through the church. For this very end, God has established elders and deacons, members, and congregational authority. This primer on church structure connects the different offices of the church to one another and to the glory of God.




Understanding Leadership


Book Description

What does it mean to be a leader? How does a person lead? And what are the features that distinguish leaders from other people in the organization, and their role from other roles or functions? Based on years of proven experience and scholarly biblical insight, Tom Marshall opens up fresh perspectives on the essence of leadership. He describes how and why it is distinct from management, administration, or ministry and provides readers with the tools necessary to implement successful, long-term leadership. Christian leaders will find clear guidance on topics such as foresight, trust, criticism, caring, status, timing, failure, honor, and the dangers of power. Packed with contemporary examples and New Testament truths, Understanding Leadership also identifies the critical capacities and characteristics of a leader. It emphasizes lifestyle, attitudes, and relationships, helping today's leaders foster interdependence while maintaining identity and integrity within their church, business, or community.




Understanding Christian Leadership


Book Description

Understanding Christian Leadership offers an examination of a distinctly Christian understanding of leadership offering a critical appraisal of insights from secular theories of leadership, exploring biblical and other theological insights into the nature and practice of leadership. Whilst arguing for a form of leadership which is widely dispersed and collaborative, the book seeks to explain the distinctive role of leaders within such a leadership economy. It also seeks to establish a proper relationship between sacred and secular leadership thinking, tackling some of the common philosophical and theological reservations to do with leadership discourse, whilst offering a critical framework for discerning the suitability for the Church of different sources of leadership thinking. Designed as core reading for leadership modules currently taught by the author across a large number of training contexts in the UK, this book is an indispensable text for those taking undergraduate or postgraduate-level qualifications in Christian leadership as well as those in other less formal leadership training contexts. Foreword by Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury




As Christ Submits to the Church


Book Description

What does the Bible really say about gender, the ethics of submission, and male-female roles? In this book, well-regarded theologian Alan Padgett offers a fresh approach to the debate. Through his careful interpretation of Paul's letters and broader New Testament teaching, the author shows how Christ's submission to the church models an appropriate understanding of gender roles and servant leadership. As Christ submits to the church, so all Christians must submit to, serve, and care for one another. Padgett articulates a creative approach to mutual submission and explores its practical outworking in the church today, providing biblical and ethical affirmation for equality in leadership.










Understanding Church Discipline


Book Description

Should we actually practice church discipline today? Is it unloving? Once an ordinary part of church life, churches gradually stopped practicing church discipline in the 20th century. But Jesus commands it. Paul practiced it. And churches benefit from it. Why practice church discipline? It shows love for the individual caught in sin, love for the whole church, love for non-Christian neighbors, and love for the glory of Christ.




Understanding the Congregation's Authority


Book Description

Congregational authority is less about the meetings and more about the mission. Congregationalism has a bad rap for well-known reasons: inefficient meetings, upstart members, browbeaten ministers. But biblical congregationalism isn’t so much about the meetings. It’s about empowering the whole church to promote and protect the gospel. Pastors lead and equip. Members get to work strengthening one another and pursuing Christ’s mission in the world.




A Work of Heart


Book Description

Revised and updated edition of the classic work on spiritual leadership In A Work of Heart, bestselling author and missional expert Reggie McNeal helps leaders reflect on the ways in which God is shaping them by letting us see God at work in the lives of four quintessential biblical leaders: Moses, David, Jesus, and Paul. McNeal identifies the formative influences upon these leaders, which he sees as God's ways of working in their lives: the same influences at work today forming leaders for ministry in our times. He explores the shaping influence of culture, call, community, conflict, and the commonplace. Offers guidance for church leaders to let God shape their hearts from the inside out Reggie McNeal is the author of the bestselling book Missional Renaissance Gives reassurance for maintaining perspective while doing the demanding work of ministry The book includes illustrative stories of contemporary leaders opening their hearts to God's guidance.




Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (3rd Edition)


Book Description

Now in its third edition and featuring a new foreword by New York Times best-selling author David Platt, pastor Mark Dever’s classic book is not an instruction manual for church growth. Rather, it is a wise pastor’s recommendation for how to assess the health of a church using nine crucial qualities often neglected by many of today’s congregations. Church leaders and church members alike will resonate with the principles outlined here, breathing new life and health into the church at large. In this newly revised edition, fresh arguments have been added (for example on expositional preaching, about the nature of the gospel, on complementarianism), illustrations have been updated, appendices have been changed, and cover has been improved.