When the Church Leaves the Building


Book Description

This is the story of a man and congregation that valued God's life above their own experience and the amazing journey that led them to undertake. They discovered what most people only dare to dream. You'll be shocked at the choices they made and inspired by the lessons they learned. This is not the story of a well constructed success strategy and how to implement it, but of a people willing to go on a journey even though they could only see one step at a time and whose destination was far from clear. The costs were considerable, the rewards far greater.




The Church Has Left the Building


Book Description

The origin of the phrase "the church has left the building" lies with Elvis. In order to clear halls of his riotous fans after concerts, it was announced that "Elvis has left the building." Here, the expression highlights intense change within the church. Not only does the church change for its own existence, it also does so for the life of the world. The church cannot avoid the many past and future changes of our constantly transforming society, demographic changes long in process. What you have before you is a gathering of first-hand reflections--stories really--from a diverse group of Christians, lay as well as ordained. While each has a distinctive experience of the church in our time, all of them have something to say about the many changes in our society and how these are affecting our faith, the parish, and pastoral work. Contributors: Mary Breton Nicholas Denysenko Adam A. J. DeVille John C. Frazier David Frost Carol Fryer Kenneth J. Guest Brett Hoover Abbie Huff Wongee Joh Justin Mathews Maria Gwyn McDowell William C. Mills Robert Corin Morris Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Michael Plekon




The Sending Church


Book Description

A pastor uses examples from his own congregation to show how a church isn't really a church until it leaves the building and expands God's Kingdom in the local neighborhood and around the world.




Jesus Has Left the Building


Book Description

Author and church benevolent minister Toni Campbell shares the fruit of a decade of planning community outreach events with her team, reaching a large extended population in central New Jersey. Jesus Has Left the Building features the nitty gritty details culled from the experience of hundreds of volunteers and takes the time-consuming guesswork out of church'outreach plans. Step-by-step details and fine-tuning tips ensure that you won't have to reinvent the wheel in outreach efforts, but concentrate on the primary mission to generously share Jesus with people and meet their physical needs through the practical goals of saving time, money, and volunteer effort. Twelve outreach events are outlines in specific detail, plus leadership tips for volunteer team building and follow-up discipleship necessities.




The Ultimate Intention


Book Description

Scores of pastors and leaders testify: “THIS CHANGED MY LIFE AND MINISTRY.” The author considers these critical questions: In the beginning, before God created Adam (mankind), what was His original purpose and plan for him? What could have happened in the Garden of Eden if Adam had not sinned and God’s redemptive plan had not become necessary? We know that when God created Adam he received natural life, but how did God plan for Adam to receive Divine (uncreated life)? What is the difference between God’s creating and begetting work? It is evident that God has given the Cross a central place in His redemptive working; what is the difference between the work of the Cross and the way of the Cross? Since God, in the fullness of time, will put on display His Divine masterpiece before all the universe, how can we fully cooperate with him if we do not understand His Ultimate Intention?




At Your Best


Book Description

“A perceptive and practical book about why our calendars so rarely reflect our priorities and what we can do to regain control.”—ADAM GRANT “Carey’s book will help you reorganize your life. And then you can share a copy with someone you care about.”—SETH GODIN You deserve to stop living at an unsustainable pace. An influential podcaster and thought leader shows you how. Overwhelmed. Overcommitted. Overworked. That’s the false script an inordinate number of people adopt to be successful. Does this sound familiar: ● Slammed is normal. ● Distractions are everywhere. ● Life gets reduced to going through the motions. Tired of living that way? At Your Best gives you the strategies you need to win at work and at home by living in a way today that will help you thrive tomorrow. Influential podcast host and thought leader Carey Nieuwhof understands the challenges of constant pressure. After a season of burnout almost took him out, he discovered how to get time, energy, and priorities working in his favor. This approach freed up more than one thousand productive hours a year for him and can do the same for you. At Your Best will help you ● replace chronic exhaustion with deep productivity ● break the pattern of overpromising and never accomplishing enough ● clarify what matters most by restructuring your day ● master the art of saying no, without losing friends or influence ● discover why vacations and sabbaticals don’t really solve your problems ● develop a personalized plan to recapture each day so you can break free from the trap of endless to-dos Start thriving at work and at home as you discover how to be at your best.




Better Together


Book Description

Thousands of Protestant churches are perplexed by plateaued or declining attendance, while other congregations nearby thrive. Is there a way for them to combine forces, drawing on both their strengths, in ways that also increase their missional impact? Church merger consultant Jim Tomberlin, with co-writer Warren Bird, makes the case that mergers today work best not with two struggling churches but with a vital, momentum-filled lead church partnering with a joining church. In this new book, they provide a complete, practical, hands-on guide for church leaders of both struggling and vibrant churches so that they can understand the issues, develop strategies, and execute a variety of forms of merger for church expansion and renewal to reinvigorate declining churches and give them a "second life."




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.




The Church Has Left the Building


Book Description

The origin of the phrase "the church has left the building" lies with Elvis. In order to clear halls of his riotous fans after concerts, it was announced that "Elvis has left the building." Here, the expression highlights intense change within the church. Not only does the church change for its own existence, it also does so for the life of the world. The church cannot avoid the many past and future changes of our constantly transforming society, demographic changes long in process. What you have before you is a gathering of first-hand reflections--stories really--from a diverse group of Christians, lay as well as ordained. While each has a distinctive experience of the church in our time, all of them have something to say about the many changes in our society and how these are affecting our faith, the parish, and pastoral work. Contributors: Mary Breton Nicholas Denysenko Adam A. J. DeVille John C. Frazier David Frost Carol Fryer Kenneth J. Guest Brett Hoover Abbie Huff Wongee Joh Justin Mathews Maria Gwyn McDowell William C. Mills Robert Corin Morris Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Michael Plekon




A Bigger Table


Book Description

No one likes to eat alone; to approach a table filled with people, only to be told that despite the open chairs there isn't room for you. The rejection stings. It leaves a mark. Yet this is exactly what the church has been saying to far too many people for far too long: “You're not welcome here. Find someplace else to sit.†How can we extend unconditional welcome and acceptance in a world increasingly marked by bigotry, fear, and exclusion? Pastor John Pavlovitz invites readers to join him on the journey to findâ€"or buildâ€"a church that is big enough for everyone. He speaks clearly into the heart of the issues the Christian community has been earnestly wrestling with: LGBT inclusion, gender equality, racial tensions, and global concerns. A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic, Hopeful Spiritual Community asks if organized Christianity can find a new way of faithfully continuing the work Jesus began two thousand years ago, where everyone gets a seat. Pavlovitz shares moving personal stories and his careful observations as a pastor to set the table for a new, more loving conversation on these and other important matters of faith. He invites us to build the bigger table Jesus imagined, practicing radical hospitality, total authenticity, messy diversity, and agenda-free community.




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