Jim Griffith and Bill Easum draw from decades of personal experience in planting new churches and consulting with supervisors and planters in new church starts. They have condensed their vast experiences down to ten points that account for the great majority of failures among church planters. For each point, the authors provide examples of the particular mistake and ways to avoid it. They speak in special sections to coaches and supervisors, showing them how to work with church planters to...

Prepares Christian congregations to fulfill their basic function - to make disciples who make disciples for Jesus Christ. This book is about helping "stuck" and "unstuck" churches either become unstuck or constantly improve their ministry of making disciples. This book is designed to help church leaders make profound changes in the way they do ministry or constantly practice methodological innovation/improvement to be effective in creating disciples churches.

Is your church making disciples . . . who make disciples . . . who make disciples?Real-Life Discipleship explains what should happen in the life of every Christian and in every small group so that the church becomes an army of believers dedicated to seeing the world saved. With the overriding goal to train disciples who know how to make more disciples, this book offers proven tools and strategies from Real Life Ministries, one of America's fastest-growing ...

A church in deep debt with attendance down by the thousands. A college that had lapsed into a coma, its buildings in shambles, its faculty demoralized, its enrollment at rock bottom. A university facing lawsuits, scandal, and near-bankruptcy. Each situation involved different financial needs, different lost dreams, different personal wounds. But they each had one thing in common: each needed a leader who could restore hope, vision, and viability.Dr. Mark Rutland has led three insti...

Is it possible that the division between the clergy and the laity is unnecessary and, in fact, harmful to the church? In Organic Leadership, Neil Cole fervently says yes and shows how this causes great harm to all. But rather than doing away with the clergy, Cole argues that the answer is to raise up organically grown leaders from ordinary Christians and make everyone "a priest."Using examples from modern cinema, personal experience, and the Bible, Cole sets out to change o...

Research shows that over time, most churches plateau and then eventually decline. Typically, they start strong and experience periods of growth, then stagnate and lose members. Since 1991, the North American population has increased by 15 percent while the number of "unchurched" people has increased by 92 percent. Large church houses that were filled in the 1950s and `60s now hold a fraction of their capacity.To counter this trend, authors Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson surveyed 300 ch...

No mistake was made in heaven when God gave you the gift of leadership or teaching. . . Every gift you have—your instincts to lead and your passion to make a difference— came from the hand of a loving Father who crafted you. In this practical and inspiring book, Willow Creek executive vice president and teaching pastor Nancy Beach speaks to women with God-given gifts of leading and teaching. Sharing from her thirty-year journey in a local church, Nancy offers guidance on such issues as: • ...

The Meeting of the Waters identifies seven trends having a major impact on the Church around the world—and on every Christian at home in every country.The global community of Christians is stunning in its scope and spiritual impact. But what is happening to the Church as new technology, marketing, and generational shifts make their unavoidable mark? And what difference does it make for Christians in day-to-day life? Equal parts travelogue, character study, and global docum...

When church and culture look the same...For the many Christians eager to prove we can be both holy and cool, cultural pressures are too much. We either compartmentalize our faith or drift from it altogether—into a world that’s so alluring.Have you wondered lately:Why does the Western church look so much like the world?Why are so many of my friends leaving the faith?How can we get back to our roots?

In this revised and expanded edition of Brothers, We Are Not Professionals that includes a new introduction and select all-new chapters, best-selling author John Piper pleads through a series of thoughtful essays with fellow pastors to abandon the professionalization of the pastorate and pursue the prophetic call of the Bible for radical ministry.“We pastors are being killed by the professionalizing of the pastoral ministry,” he writes. “The mentality of the professional i...

It's the end of Christianity as we know it. But it's not a catastrophe-it's an opportunity.Thousands are walking away from the church. Christians are grappling with their faith. And both believers and nonbelievers wondering-what's coming next?Fearless and provocative, spiritual trailblazer Christian Piatt offers a roadmap to the future of faith with an unflinching examination of the church today.What's left? Pairing the best "virtue...

International motivational speaker and sought-after business consultant Reverend Myles Munroe proves that true leaders empower others to discover their own leadership gifts.