Lovett Weems Briefly Reviews Three Books of Interest to Church Leaders
Rebuilt: Awakening the Faithful, Reaching the Lost, Making Church Matter by Michael White and Tom Corcoran, Ave Maria Press, 2013. This book will surprise…
Browsing: Congregational Revitalization
Articles
Levers of Change for Congregations
Bishop Robert Schnase, author of the popular Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations (Abingdon, 2007), has inspired thousands of congregations to focus on what is most…
REdesigning Churches: Creating Spaces for Connection and Community
Kim Miller’s REdesigning Churches: Creating Spaces for Connection and Community (Abingdon, 2013) provides valuable how-to advice on reviving tired church interiors and offers inspiring examples…
What Church Leaders Can Learn from Other Enterprises
I believe church leaders have much to learn from prayerful and careful consideration of a broad range of management and organizational practices. And based on…
Wide Welcome: How the Unsettling Presence of Newcomers Can Save the Church
Jessicah Duckworth’s book Wide Welcome speaks to the question of how congregations can best welcome newcomers, engage them in Christian practices, and nurture their faith.…
Mission-driven Church Mergers
In their book Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work (Jossey-Bass, 2012), Jim Tomberlin and Warren Bird examine the recent wave of church mergers. The book makes…
Gaining Commitment
How do you reignite a church when it seems that no one wants to lead? In every space and place, God wants transformation to occur.…
Leading in Challenging Times
What if you knew that your congregation were on a collision course with its demise? What would you do? Whom would you tell? How would…
Worshiping at Two Vital Congregations
Readers of Leading Ideas are familiar with the Lewis Center’s focus on the church’s challenge to “reach more people, younger people, and more diverse people.”…
Getting to Know the “Mayors” of Your Community
Congregational revitalization happens when the community and the church come together to make it happen. But it can’t be the church saying, “This is what…
Turning Church Spectators into Active Participants
The story told in John 21:15-19 is almost too familiar. Three times Jesus asks if Peter loves him, three times Peter says yes, and each…
Ask Bigger Questions
In June 2011, Steve Jobs made a twenty-minute presentation to the Cupertino City Council to introduce Apple’s plans for a new corporate headquarters, affectionately known…
Congregational Focus
Dan Aleshire, executive director of the Association of Theological Schools in the U. S. and Canada, went back to his home town in Ohio to…
Fast Forwarding Your Church’s Community Engagement
Many churches today are pioneering a shift in which they are truly engaging their communities in mission. These churches are not only deploying their own…
Renovate or Die
Bob Farr offers a generous collection of tools for congregational development in his book Renovate or Die: Ten Ways to Focus Your Church on Mission…
Helping the World See the Church in a Different Way
The community where I live in South Korea is one of the five top places where Koreans want to live. So to reach new disciples…
The Multisite Church Movement
A new report by the Leadership Network reports on the current state of churches having more than one site. Below are some of the findings…
Promise and Peril: Understanding and Managing Change and Conflict in Congregations
In Promise and Peril (Alban, 2009), David Brubaker tackles the conundrum churches face: Change usually leads to conflict, but change is required to make progress.…
Becoming a Tribe of Remembering Encouragers
Just as the congregation of Israel was composed of twelve tribes, today’s churches have different voices that are heard in their communities of faith. Transformational…
Spiritual Hardening of the Arteries
“Where your treasure is so will your heart be also,” Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:21. We live in a country and culture where heart…
God’s Leaders Multiply, Not Maintain
As we begin thinking about fall stewardship campaigns, our minds may turn to the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30), the story of a master…
Deliberate Outreach Strategy Leads to Growth
Worship attendance at Gardendale-Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church in Gardendale, Alabama, has increased more than 5 percent each year since 1999. One reason for the…
What Might Other Churches Learn from the Southern Baptist Membership Loss?
Recently, the Associated Press reported that Southern Baptist churches suffered a loss of members in 2007. This may seem hard to believe for many that…
Church on the Edge of Somewhere
Some books remind us of the church’s mission to those on the margin of life. We read them; we feel bad. Nothing changes. Other books…
Being One Church in Many Locations
The multi-site church approach is not a new one, but one that is rapidly growing in appeal, according to the authors of The Multi-Site Church…
Review of Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations by Robert Schnase
How can churches today be as vital as the early Christian communities described in the Book of Acts? How can we reclaim the fruitful piety…
An Interview with Bishop Robert Schnase
Leading Ideas had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Bishop Robert Schnase, author of Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations (Abingdon Press, 2007). Here are some highlights…
Learning from 12 Emerging Congregations
Matt Miofsky reviews Inside the Organic Church by Robert Whitesel, which tells the story of 12 emerging congregations. Bob Whitesel’s book, Inside the Organic Church:…
A Two-Point Charge Launches Satellite Contemporary Worship
Amy Yarnall writes about the launch of a new satellite worship service by two churches on a two-point charge. Last spring, a new worshipping community…
Developing a Strategy for Your Congregation
In his book, Leading a Local Church in the Age of the Spirit, Bishop Jonathan Gledhill writes about the primacy of vision and strategy which, once…
