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In this volume of fresh thinking about life in a Christian community, 21 theologians attest to Christ-centered communities and offer new views of church as an essential healer.
In this volume of fresh thinking about life in the Christian community, 21 theologians attest to a Christ-centered community and offer new views of church as an essential healer.
"A Christian without a church is a Christian in trouble." Since a global pandemic abruptly closed places of worship, many Christians have skipped church life, even neglecting virtual services. But this was a trend even before COVID-19. Polarizing issues, including political and racial strife, convinced some people to pull away from the church and one another. Now it's time to recommit to gathering as brothers and sisters in Christ. In Rediscover Church, Collin Hansen and Jonathan Leeman discuss why church is essential for believers and God's mission. Through biblical references and personal stories, they show readers God's true intention for corporate gathering: to spiritually strengthen members as individuals and the body of Christ. In an age of church-shopping and livestreamed services, rediscover why the future of the church relies on believers gathering regularly as the family of God. Published in partnership with the Gospel Coalition and 9Marks.
Why do so many young adults (18 to 22) leave the church, and what will it take to bring them back? This important question is examined and duly answered in Essential Church?, a follow-up to Thom S. Rainer’s best-selling Simple Church cowritten this time with his son, research expert Sam Rainer. The book is based on a study of one-thousand so-called "church dropouts" who were interviewed about why they left. Their answers are quite surprising, having less to do with "losing their religion" and more about the desire for a community that isn’t made stale by simply maintaining the status quo. In turn, the Rainers offer churches four concrete solutions toward making their worship community an essential part these young people’s lives again: Simplify - develop a clear structure and process for making disciples. Deepen - provide strong biblical teaching and preaching. Expect - let members know the need for commitment to the congregation. Multiply - emphasize evangelism, outward focus, and starting new churches.
You love your work. You love the people--most of the time. They respect you, most of the time. You work together with colleagues, staff, and laity, with energy and enthusiasm, most of the time. But then something goes wrong: a word spoken in anger, a misunderstanding, and things turn sour. What do you do? How do you deal with conflict, whether it be long or short-term, low or high intensity? Conflict is a part of the human predicament, yet it need not define or control your ministry. This book is designed to help the reader ask certain key questions about the nature and scope of the conflict they are experiencing and, based on the answers to those questions, move beyond conflict. The author lays out the variety of responses to conflict, running the gamut from avoidance to accommodation to compromise to collaboration. Written with the real needs of congregations in mind, this book will serve as a reliable guide to all who wish to move through conflict into a more effective and authentic fulfillment of their calling.
Being Church offers ideas and strategies, based on real experience and detailed reflection, on processes that offer support and challenge to church leaders and especially clergy, whether parish clergy, or diocesan advisers, or bishops.
"John Tietjen's close account of the conflict within a Christian body moves withthe skill, the drama, and the characterization of a novel. But there is no shredof fiction here. The author stood at the center of the conflict. His observationsof the events (both broadly public and closeted in private) that altered the face-politicof Lutheranism in this country are absolutely accurate. Here is the selfishexpression of faith, as well as the dangers of the right hand of power withinchurches. Here, too, is the sweetness of human community-even while individualpeople of faith must stand in their decisions ultimately alone. Tietjen haswritten a memoriam and a history and a jubilate and a confession. Excellent!"Walter Wangerin Jr."John Tietjen tells the unpleasant story of crisis and conflict in the church. It is a storythat needs to be told, and he tells it in a way that people will find both gripping anduplifting. This is his personal account, done with the precision and documentationof a professional historian, but his writing also produces a narration of many keyevents and a strikingly human portrayal of the people on both sides of the conflict.In John Tietjen's hands, this story of conflict and crisis brings us back to the Godwho produces order out of chaos and blessing out of the suffering of God's people."Jeanette H. BauermeisterJohn H. Tietjen, formerly president of ConcordiaSeminary, St. Louis, and Christ Seminary-Seminex, Saint Louis and Chicago, was pastor of Trinity LutheranChurch, Fort Worth, Texas.
Examines the state of the American Christian community from a cross-cultural perspective.
If church is like a family, it fights like one too! As in any family, conflict in the church family is natural and inevitable. But the way the church family handles its fights can make or break ministry. By using stories and examples of real problems at actual churches, Cosgrove and Hatfield have applied family-systems theory to help us identify the hidden structural boundaries in any group relationship. They show how the dynamics and 'family rules' operating in the informal family-like church system powerfully influence how church members relate to each other.