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Christian Education is part of the vital ministry of all churches, but especially of small membership churches. In a culture that places great value on numbers, small membership churches often mistakenly see themselves at a disadvantage. Small membership churches can create wonderful opportunities to form and disciple faithful followers of Jesus Christ. In offering viable Christian Education, the role of the pastor is critical. This book invites pastors to lead their small membership churches to develop an imaginative and holistic vision of Christian Education. Read the Introduction
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN THE SMALL MEMBERSHIP CHURCH is a comprehensive resource aimed at making religious education more effective all along the line in small churches. From a living ecology of solid theory and proven research, this book develops exciting possibilities and helpful procedures to maximize religious education opportunities in small church settings. Packaged with this volume is a huge wall chart summarizing highly important information on religious education in small membership churches.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN THE SMALL MEMBERSHIP CHURCH is a comprehensive resource aimed at making religious education more effective all along the line in small churches. From a living ecology of solid theory and proven research, this book develops exciting possibilities and helpful procedures to maximize religious education opportunities in small church settings. Packaged with this volume is a huge wall chart summarizing highly important information on religious education in small membership churches.
For many pastors, church administration may be their least favorite area of ministry. But whether they love it or loathe it, they probably spend more time on administration than on any other single area of ministry. This book will help pastors create and maintain effective structures that will enable them to spend most of their time on what they truly value. Describes church administration as a ministry in the small membership church. Outlines key steps to organize and manage time, volunteers, and resources of the small membership churches including multi-point charges. Gives practical methods for creating and maintaining viable structures for effective church management * Helps pastors organize their church(es), so that they can focus on what gives them the most satisfaction in ministry. * Helps pastors recruit and retain the right people for the right jobs, thereby maximizing ministry especially where resources are limited. * Gives pastors ways to sharpen their vision for local church and mission beyond the local church ministry.
An introduction to pastoral care for pastors of small membership churches. "If you spend your whole life serving small membership churches and doing it well, yours will have been a life well spent." Small membership churches have a real advantage when it comes to incorporating people into a fellowship where they are known and where their needs are met. These churches and their pastors have an opportunity for excellence in this area, and should make the most of it. Good pastoral care can be the key to effectiveness in all of the other ministries of the church.From getting acquainted with your congregation, weddings and funerals, picking up on subtle cues in a conversation to not-so-subtle conflicts, Killen shares insights from years of ministry in a small membership church setting. James L. Killen, Jr. is a retired elder of the Texas Conference, contributor to Circuit Rider, and author of Who Do You Say That I Am? A Personal Reader.
Imagining the Small Church: Celebrating a Simpler Path bears witness to what God is doing in small churches. Steve Willis tells stories from the small churches he has pastored in rural, town, and urban settings and dares to imagine that their way of being has something to teach all churches in this time of change in the American Christian Church. Willis tells us in the introduction, 'This book boasts no ten or fifteen steps to a successful small church. Instead, I hope to encourage you to give up on steps altogether and even to give up on success, at least how success is usually measured. I also hope to help the reader imagine the small church differently; to see with new eyes the joys and pleasures of living small and sustainably.' The joys and sorrows Willis helps us see through the compelling stories of faith in the small church puts flesh and bones on the possibilities that lie ahead for congregations in the future as well as the here and now. From the foreword by Tony Pappas: 'In Imagining the Small Church, pastor, writer, and lover of small things Steve Willis takes us on a narrative and imaginative journey. Some readers will have a sense that what Willis is describing simply names what they have already known in their hearts about their small churches. For them the journey will cover some familiar ground, explore some territory from a fresh angle, but deposit them nearly home again, hopefully with just a bit more awareness and appreciation. For others, though, Willis will take them on a long journey to a far and foreign place. They probably won't bother to finish reading it, and they will miss his invitation to find pastoring a small church extremely rewarding and meaningful. They will find this a strange book weird, off-center, and impractical; unlivable in the twenty-first century and undesirable in any event. This is because Willis is taking on the ethos, the values of our age, and claiming that it needn't be so. We can live on a different basis. We can live on the basis of gospel values.' There will be a variety of paths as the Church seeks new ways of being in this time. Willis knows this. In Imagining the Small Church he presents us with one that embraces a life of faith on the periphery and challenges church leaders to do the same.
Why the small- to mid-sized church remains God's best means to make disciples of Jesus Christ
Congregations are always struggling with what quality Christian education is and how to build and maintain it. In this concise and easy-to-use guide, Karen Tye offers practical help, addressing the vital areas that need attention when planning for and building a Christian education program. Questions and exercises at the end of each chapter help pastors, Christian educators, seminary students, and laity apply the information to their own unique setting, building on the basics to renew and transform Christian education.
What makes the small church so reliably steady, closely intimate, and beautifully simple -- a worthy model of the Christian church? Carl S. Dudley affirms the main cause as lying within the minds of the church members.
Small on Purpose: Life in a Significant Church is a joyful and honest look at the kingdom-enriching characteristics of small congregations. Lewis Parks demonstrates how to see and build upon those strengths. His premise is not better/worse. Instead, Parks shows us how life in a small congregation is profoundly significant and the important role these churches play. This book includes clear instructions on how leaders can streamline ministry to maximize the unique and powerful contributions small churches make in their communities. This book is inspiring and practical, a refreshing point of view for the church and church leaders. “Small on Purpose reimagines what it means to be a congregation of ninety, sixty, or thirty by not focusing on size. I especially appreciate Lewis Parks’s attention to why ‘soul care’ is critical for congregations under 150 as a means of discipleship and outreach. Parks sees soul care as a countercultural act that creates meaning for many who are seeking family-like relationships. This book challenges all congregations to take seriously the small things they are doing—like soul care—as a compelling way to move into the future.” —F. Douglas Powe Jr., Managing Director for The Institute for Community Engagement, Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington DC; author of New Wine, New Wineskins and Not Safe for Church from Abingdon Press “Lewis Parks writes with pitch-perfect tone about the life of small churches. He appeals to the experience of smaller congregations as gathering places of worship and service. There he sees signs of the Spirit moving, of tradition revivified through song and word, of pastoral care shared across a congregation. Above all, he offers transformative words and perspectives with which small churches can claim their distinctive witness.” —Thomas Edward Frank, University Professor and Chair of the Department of History, Wake Forest College, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC “In a time when the culture is becoming more and more individualistic, Lew Parks strikes a chord for the great value of the gathered community of faith that is strengthened week by week through their faithfulness to the gospel and to one another. Gather in your small church and read this together. Your life and your community will be enriched.” —Bill McAlilly, Bishop, Nashville Area Episcopal Office, The United Methodist Church