Many established churches are facing a number of challenges in today's increasingly secular culture. Such a shift in many communities creates a challenge of church growth and church health when it seems that satisfying the needs of one group creates barriers to reaching another group. So many are asking, "How do you keep people over sixty years of age, who often hold church culture values-while at the same time reach people under forty, who often hold postmodern values?" If a church is interested in growing, this situation becomes a major challenge. Reaching People under 40 while Keeping People over 60 looks at the church as it seeks to function in a new world. It looks at the differences in the generations and at postmodernism - not just a generational difference but a global change. Most importantly, Reaching People under 40 while Keeping People over 60 looks at what a church can do in this new age to help the church survive - and thrive! Foreword by Bill Easum. A TCP Leadership Series title.

Seasoned church consultant Edward H. Hammett shares his latest insights and suggestions for churches seeking to serve all generations. This is an updated version of Hammett's 2007 book Reaching People Under 40 while Keeping People Over 60 that expands the reach another decade and emphasizes diversity with insight from new contributors Paul L. Anderson and Cornell Thomas. A TCP Books title.

Creswell draws from her extensive corporate and ministry coaching experience to provide ministers and other church leaders a clear definition of what coaching is and the seven basic benefits an individual, church, or group can receive through a qualified coach. Solidly based in experience, each chapter is built upon an actual scenario growing out of Creswell's own coaching experience. Along with the illustration, she provides scriptural teaching, gives explicit information on the purpose and merits of coaching, additional resources, and tips for coaching.

"Why?" seems to be on the lips of many church, judicatory, and denominational leaders today. "Why has our church plateaued?" "Why are so few young leaders going into church-based ministries?" "Why are so few interested in church these days?" Recovering Hope uncovers the "whys," creating space to embrace new realities, commit to the tough road of recovery, and develop new skills, structures, and ministry designs through a process of spiritual discernment, congregational coaching, and a deeper reliance on the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Eddie Hammett, a Professional Certified Coach and Church and Clergy Coach for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina, provides a step-by-step process of hope and health to encourage, guide, and inspire pastors, leaders, churches, regions, and denominations that recovery of hope is possible. A TCP Leadership Series title.

About the Book This book acknowledges the need to identify and embrace todays generations. Under One Roof provides pastors, church leaders, and laypersons with insight for the cultivation of an intergenerational church. This resource offers the necessary tools, allowing each generation to be valued while keeping the church focused on its mission of kingdom building. Book Reflections Congregations interested in closing the generational divide will find Smiths book a must read. He gives keen insights for how to attract younger individuals and incorporate them into the life of the congregation with older generations. A great resource for leaders and congregations! (Dr. F. Douglas Powe, James C. Logan professor of evangelism and urban ministry and associate director of the Center for the Missional Church at Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC, and author of New Wine, New Wineskins). Dr. William Smith has emerged as a new and fresh voice in the intergenerational church movement. Using biblical models, historical research, theological reflection, and coupled with his own research, Dr. Smith creates an intergenerational ministry model that will help to close the generational divide within the African-American community. This book is beneficial not only to the African-American church but to Christendom in general. Every pastor and mainline church needs to have this book on their shelf. This is a masterpiece that will last for the ages (Dr. Lucius Dalton, senior pastor of Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Washington, DC, and mentor at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio).

Explore together how congregations can change to become more fruitful for the purposes of Christ. Remember the Future: Praying for the Church and Change prepares leaders of congregations and conferences for courageous new conversations with readings that draw us toward renewed vision, cultivate hope and keep us attentive to the mission of Christ. Read together as leadership teams, boards and covenant groups to understand more clearly the “why” of congregational ministry and the internal resistances and external challenges to the mission of the church.

This book is the official Journal of the Indiana Conference Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Session held in Indianapolis, Ind., June 7-9, 2012.

This book was created in response to requests from many pastors and lay leaders in churches across America where a Lay Ministry Week-end was carried out. Frequently, pastors would ask us if there was a small group study to help the chuch assimilate the information presented during the week-end - a study that could be conducted over a period of several weeks using a lay facilitator. It is principally designed for Christians "on the journey" to discovering more about how God might want to use them in their daily walk. The material in the book is identical to the material presented during the week-end and is designed with small group questions for each chapter.

What’s more miserable than trying to walk with a stone in your shoe? Many American evangelicals are experiencing pain and discomfort in their relationship to the church. “Stones” in their shoes make the faith journey uncomfortable and increasingly untenable. They either leave the church altogether, become “church shoppers,” or live on the margins of the church as outliers. This book presents the vantage point of a lifelong evangelical pastor and religious educator who sees himself as an outlier. Walters draws on decades of pastoral life and classroom experience to engage the church in a conversation aimed at clarifying the concerns and discomforts of evangelical outliers. While this is one person’s story it intersects with the stories of many others in American evangelicalism, especially clergy. In identifying the stones which trouble and discomfort so many like him, Walters continually calls the church, his church, back to its biblical and theological foundations.

From Christian Piatt: "When I was a teenager, my youth minister threw a bible at my head for asking questions." Too often, for various reasons, people don't have the opportunity to ask the hard questions they have about faith, religion, salvation and the bible. And when questions are left unanswered in communities of faith, people either seek answers elsewhere or lose interest all together. The purpose of the series is to collect the most compelling and challenging questions from various theological areas and pose them to a panel of "experts" who are challenged with responding in two hundred words or less in plain English. This volume addresses challenging or controversial questions about scripture collected from people on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social networking media. Respondents include theology professors, clergy, lay leaders, liberals, conservatives and voices representing a spectrum of views. The idea behind the books is not so much to provide definitive answers as it is to stimulate thought, reflection and discussion. By offering multiple perspectives, readers have the opportunity to arrive at their own questions. Better, they come to understand that questioning faith is not taboo, but rather that it can be at the foundation of a strong and growing faith. The directive given to each respondent guided them to be concise and to speak in plan language, but also not to rely exclusively on "the Bible says it" justifications, or to wax abstract or overly intellectual. Instead, they write from personal experience as much as possible, and provide real-life contexts that will allow the average seeker or churchgoer to apply such ideas to their daily lives.