Church Leadership

There is a growing movement among young Christians returning to historic, creedal, and liturgical reflections of Christianity. Filled with stories illustrating the joy young adults have found in these ancient expressions of Christianity, Winfield Bevins introduces practices and principles that help the church engage our postmodern world.

If most pastors were pressed to describe an average day of ministry, they'd have trouble doing it. In a single day, a pastor may fill many different roles in quick succession, from counselor to theologian to student to CEO to custodian (well, let's hope there's usually someone else available to perform that last role). Some roles come more naturally than others, but every pastor wants to perform each role to the best of their ability.

The potential of a team of God-inspired, talented, committed people is boundless. But without resilience—including the savvy and skill to get up again (and again) when the going gets tough—teams simply cannot thrive or lead well. Resilience is what sets great leaders and teams apart from those that literally fall apart. It's what's missing when great organizations lose steam.

You're not alone in your ministry. And you don't have to suffer in silence. Ministry is a stressful vocation, with unspoken expectations, projected anxieties, and conflicting demands. After the pandemic caused a sudden shift to online worship and factions fighting over when and how to return to in-person worship, pastors have been leaving congregational ministry at even higher rates than usual. The emotional fallout of burnout and abuse at the hands of parishioners is something pastors carry for years, whether they stay or leave the congregation.

We are living in angry times. No matter where we go, what we watch, or how we communicate, our culture is rife with conflict. Unfortunately, Christians appear to be caught up in the same animosity as the culture at large. We are perceived as angry, judgmental, and defensive, fighting among ourselves in various media while the world looks on. How have we failed to be a people of reconciliation and renewal in the face of such tumult?

There was something different about the way Jesus communicated with the lost: He didn't force answers upon people, he asked questions. So why don't we? Following Christ's lead, Randy Newman has been using a questioning style of evangelism for decades. In this provocative book, he provides practical insights to help Christians engage others in meaningful spiritual conversations. He challenges us to examine how we think about people, their questions, and our crucial message.

Everyone seems to understand that healthy organizations nurture flourishing individuals and societies—what Jesus desires for all. How can Christian business and ministry leaders create a positive organizational culture and identity? Justin Irving has spent twenty years studying, teaching, and reflecting on organizational leadership. Drawing wisdom from the Bible, contemporary leadership theory, and the insights of over two hundred executive leaders, Irving provides a theological framework that makes human flourishing the driving motivation for leading organizations well.

Why is it that so many gifted and passionate leaders end up on the sidelines of ministry rather than finishing well? How can you avoid the pitfalls that face those who serve Christ and his church? What steps can you take that will propel you forward into a more faithful and fruitful ministry than you ever dreamed? These questions and more are addressed in Leadership from the Inside Out.

In A Work of Heart, best-selling 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.

We are living in historic times. Not since the Civil Rights Movement of the '60s has our country been as vigorously engaged in the reconciliation conversation. There is a great opportunity right now for culture to change, to be a more perfect union. However, it cannot be done without the church, because the faith of the people is more powerful than any law government can enact.

In The Church Awakening, Dr. Charles Swindoll discusses the challenges, struggles, and priorities of the church in the 21st century. He reveals the problems inherent in the entertainment-based postmodern church and shows how a return to biblical teaching will restore its strength and impact. Swindoll exposes the problems of - and solutions for - the postmodern evangelical church.

The Bible is clear that women as well as men are created in God's image and intended to serve him with their lives. But what does this look like for women in the church? Helping church leaders think through what a Bible-centered women's ministry looks like, this collection of essays by respected Bible teachers and authors such as Gloria Furman, Nancy Guthrie, and Susan Hunt addresses a variety of topics relevant to women.

What do we do when life lurches out of balance? How can we reconnect to one another and to what's sustaining, when evil and catastrophe seem inescapable? These questions lie at the heart of Stitches, Anne Lamott's follow-up to her New York Times best-selling work, Help, Thanks, Wow. In this audiobook, she explores how we find meaning and peace in these loud and frantic times, where we start again after personal and public devastation, how we recapture wholeness after loss and how we locate our true identities in this frazzled age.

World-renowned pollster George Barna has the numbers, and they indicate a revolution is already taking place within the Church - one that will impact every believer in America. Committed, born-again Christians are exiting the established Church in massive numbers. Why are they leaving? Where are they going? And what does this mean for the future of the Church?

Evangelism is not only misunderstood, it is often unpracticed. Many Christians want to share the gospel with others, but because those Christians don't grasp the fundamentals of witnessing, they feel intimidated and incapable of sharing the truth of the gospel. Yet those believers fail to recognize that God has already established who and how we are to evangelize. In The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Dr. Mark Dever seeks to answer the four basic questions about evangelism that many Christians ask: Who should we evangelize? How should we evangelize? What is evangelism? Why should we evangelize?

Is your church a rowboat church or a sailboat church? Rowboat churches depend largely on human effort. When church budgets shrink and membership declines, rowboat churches frantically row harder against a current. Sailboat churches, on the other hand, take up the oars, hoist sails, and rely on the Holy Spirit to guide them. Arguing that churches should be "sailboats," Joan S. Gray encourages listeners to shift concern from the many daily, practical concerns of their local church to fresh ideas that can be found using the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The Christian world has been rocked by the number of prominent leaders, in both church and parachurch organizations, who have been compromised by moral, ethical, and theological failures. This pace-setting volume addresses this alarming problem and offers Christian leaders valuable guidance in dealing with the inherent risks of their work.

Institutions remain essential to human flourishing. They are the means by which communities thrive, individual vocations are fulfilled, and society is changed for the good. As a result, we all need to learn how to work effectively within institutions. That is just what Gordon Smith provides. He unpacks the core of institutional intelligence - the wisdom of working effectively within an organization. At the same time, he explains how team leaders, directors, executives, board members, key stakeholders, and employees can avoid what is often their greatest source of stress on the job,

Why do youth ministries crumble? And what is the cost to students, parents, volunteers and church staff? Is a sustainable youth ministry possible, even after a youth pastor leaves? Youth ministry expert Mark DeVries knows the answer is yes, because he helps build sustainable youth ministries through his coaching service called Youth Ministry Architects. So take heart: No matter what state the youth ministry at your church is in—in need of a leader and volunteers, full of battles and stress, large or small in number—it can be built to survive and to last for the long haul.

How can pastors become resilient in a rapidly changing world? Is it possible to love well and lead faithfully? In the wake of crises that have exposed and accelerated massive cultural shifts, we see more clearly the seismic shifts of post-Christendom, the surging storms of a new paganism and pluralism, and the scattered debris of the cultural aftermath. Drawing on new research from the Barna Group, scripture, and church history, Glenn Packiam addresses some of the most pressing questions for today's leaders.