What if the way the Church is "doing church" is the very reason the world is seeing less of Jesus in it every day? Beginning with the biblical basics, Jeff Lockyer walks readers through the underlying theology and practical application of how Southridge Community Church has approached ministry for nearly a quarter century. While providing a fresh approach to ministry, the book stimulates how to think--not what to think. It's written by a local church practitioner for local church practitio...

What if the way the Church is "doing church" is the very reason the world is seeing less of Jesus in it every day?Beginning with the biblical basics, Jeff Lockyer walks readers through the underlying theology and practical application of how Southridge Community Church has approached ministry for nearly a quarter century. While providing a fresh approach to ministry, the book stimulates how to think-not what to think. It's written by a local church practitioner for local church pra...

"The more I read the Bible, the more evident it becomes that everything I have ever taught or written about effective leadership over the past 25 years, Jesus did to perfection. He is simply the greatest leadership role model of all time." Ken BlanchardEffective leadership-whether on the job, in the community, at church or in the home-starts on the inside. Before you can hope to lead anyone else, you have to know who you are. Every leader must answer two critical q...

Best-selling author of The One-Minute Manager, Ken Blanchard, along with Phil Hodges, offers guidance for how to become a successful modern-day servant leader modeled after Jesus Christ. Based on years of leadership study and proven leadership styles, Blanchard gives established and up-and-coming business leaders solid examples, tools, and methods for life-changing results in their leadership of others.Servant Leader summarizes the Four Dimensions...

All churches grow old. Strategic churches grow young.Churches are losing both members and vitality as increasing numbers of young people disengage. Based on groundbreaking research with over 250 of the nation's leading congregations, Growing Young provides a strategy any church can use to involve and retain teenagers and young adults.This strategy includes six core commitments for growing young:● Unlock keychain leadership● Empathize...

Most church leaders are passionate about their calling to “go and make disciples.” However, despite their most creative thinking, diligent efforts and rigorous assessments, year after year they arrive at the end of a ministry season with no way of knowing for sure whether they have succeeded or failed in their calling. “I want to serve God,” the refrain goes, “and on most days, I believe I’m doing what I’m called to do. But what if my approach is off-track? What if the work we’re doing as ...

Presents a portrait of Christian leadership within a biblical framework while comparing and contrasting it to today's hottest leadership models.

Reggie McNeal's bestseller The Present Future is the definitive work on the "missional movement," i.e., the widespread movement among Protestant churches to be less inwardly focused and more oriented toward the culture and community around them. In that book he asked the tough questions that churches needed to entertain to begin to think about who they are and what they are doing; in Missional Renaissance, he shows them the three significant shifts in their thinking and behavior that they ...

How are we doing? The church, that is. And how are we doing it? Congregations have long measured success by "bodies, budget, and buildings"--a certain record of attendance, the offering plate, and square footage. But the scorecard can't stop there. When it does, the deeper emphasis on accountability, discipleship, and spiritual maturity is lost. Ignoring those details, we see fewer lives transformed, Christian influence wane, and churches thin out--a situation that is all too familiar acro...

In The Missional Leader, consultants Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk give church and denominational leaders, pastors, and clergy a clear model for leading the change necessary to create and foster a missional church focused outward to spread the message of the Gospel into the surrounding community. The Missional Leader emphasizes principles rather than institutional forms, shows readers how to move away from church as usual, and demonstrates what capacities, environments, and mindsets are r...

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 Unstu...

What does it take to have fruitful ministry over the long haul?The stresses of pastoring are well known and can be a match for even the best-prepared, most experienced in ministry--multiple tasks, long hours, taxing responsibilities and, yes, some challenging personalities. Too often the results can be burnout, being run out or just feeling worn out.To find out how pastors can thrive as well as survive, the authors undertook a five-year in-depth research project among worki...