Strategies for transforming a toxic church culture Why is it that the best strategic plans and good leadership often are not able to move churches in the desired direction? Sam Chand contends that toxic culture is to blame. Quite often, leaders don't sense the toxicity, but it poisons their relationships and derails their vision. This work describes five easily identifiable categories of church culture (inspiring-accepting-stagnant-discouraging-toxic), with diagnostic descriptions in the book and a separate online assessment tool. The reader will be able to identify strengths and needs of their church's culture, and then apply practical strategies (communication, control and authority, selection and placement of personnel, etc.) to make their church's culture more positive. Discusses how to diagnose the state of a church's culture Reveals what it takes to put in place effective strategies for creating a more positive church culture Author served on the board of EQUIP (Dr. John Maxwell's Ministry), equipping five million leaders world-wide. This important book offers a clear guide for understanding and recreating a healthy church culture.

Learn to understand culture and implement positive change. A church’s culture is the launchpad for everything a church does, the starting point for every ministry. If the culture is “off,” everything else will be out of kilter. Church Culture equips every pastor and leader with the tools necessary for culture change. Authors Ozier and Thibodeaux, both experts in this area of church leadership, teach the basic concepts so readers can understand what culture is and why it’s so crucial. Even more importantly, they provide a step-by-step process leaders can use to diagnose and gently shift the culture in their church. For some churches, wholesale change is in order, but most need only to make some crucial adjustments. The book provides a full set of tools for implementing the process in any setting. The pastor's top priority is creating and maintaining the church’s culture; Ozier and Thibodeaux make the tasks easy to understand and show leaders how to proceed capably and carefully.

Veteran church consultant calls church leaders back to the hope that God can and does restore churches, equipping them with practical tools to bring about healthy growth.

Culture Catalyst: Seven Strategies to Bring Positive Change to Your Organization “Culture—not vision or strategy—is the most powerful factor in any organization. It determines the receptivity of staff and volunteers to new ideas, unleashes or dampens creativity, builds or erodes enthusiasm, and creates a sense of pride or deep discouragement about working or being involved there. Ultimately, the culture of an organization—particularly in churches and nonprofit organizations, but also in any organization—shapes individual morale, teamwork, effectiveness, and outcomes.” –from Chapter One Often, organizational leaders confuse culture with vision and strategy, but they are very different. Vision and strategy usually focus on products, services, and outcomes, but culture is about the people—an organization’s most valuable asset. Culture Catalyst: Seven Strategies to Bring Positive Change to Your Organization offers a practical resource for discovering the deficits in an existing organization’s culture, and includes the steps needed to assess, correct, and change culture from lackluster to vibrant and inspirational, so that it truly meets the needs of the organization. Prominent leadership consultant Sam Chand describes the five easily identifiable categories of organizational culture (Inspiring, Accepting, Stagnant, Discouraging, and Toxic), and includes diagnostic methods that leaders can use to identify the particular strengths and needs of their organization’s culture. To help in this process, there is also a separate, free, online assessment tool (www.samchandculturesurvey.com). Once an organization’s culture is clearly identified, leaders can put in place a strategy for applying the seven keys of CULTURE (Control, Understanding, Leadership, Trust, Unafraid, Responsive, and Execution) that will make their culture one that stimulates people to be and do their very best and ultimately reach their highest goals.

A gentle new way for church leader’s to survive stress and burnout Bruce Miller debunks the idea of balance—basically trying to have it all, all the time. Most churches and their pastors try to do everything at once and feel guilty if any one aspect (worship, ministries, outreach, etc.) is neglected. He replaces the exhausting concept of balance with the idea of rhythm: churches, like people, need to give attention to different programs and ministries at different times, basically by attending to their seasons and cycles. Offers an innovative new model for church leaders Miller has been influential in the formation and promotion of “Church-Based Training” as in international movement Offers a proven method for avoiding burnout for church leaders and members by doing the right things at the right time The author offers much-need help to overwhelmed leaders and shows them how to apply Miller’s seasonal/cyclical approach to church life.

Thousands of Protestant churches are perplexed by plateaued or declining attendance, while other congregations nearby thrive. Is there a way for them to combine forces, drawing on both their strengths, in ways that also increase their missional impact? In Better Together, Expanded and Updated: Making Church Mergers Work, church merger consultant Jim Tomberlin and award-winning writer Warren Bird make the case that mergers today work best not with two struggling churches but with a vital, momentum-filled lead church partnering with a joining church. This much-needed resource describes the range of mergers for strong, stable, stuck, and struggling churches. No matter what type of merger a church may be considering, the authors address key questions about the process: How can a merger help a church go forward? How will a merger process unfold? Where can a declining church find another congregation to join? What are the pitfalls that both pastor and congregation should avoid? How can "better together" lead to more, rather than fewer, life-giving, high-impact, reproducing churches? They provide a complete, practical, hands-on guide for church leaders of both struggling and vibrant churches, so they can understand the issues, develop strategies, and execute mergers for church expansion and renewal--ultimately, so they can reinvigorate declining churches and give them a "second life." No matter what your motivation for merging your church with another--to begin a new church life cycle, cross racial lines, reach more people for Christ, multiply your church's impact, or better serve your local community--Better Together will give you the tools you need to create a thriving new entity.

This innovative Handbook explores the complexity of cultural, conceptual and definitional issues surrounding research into organisational culture, outlining the varied frameworks and theories that underpin the field.

Understanding Christian Leadership offers an examination of a distinctly Christian understanding of leadership offering a critical appraisal of insights from secular theories of leadership, exploring biblical and other theological insights into the nature and practice of leadership. Whilst arguing for a form of leadership which is widely dispersed and collaborative, the book seeks to explain the distinctive role of leaders within such a leadership economy. It also seeks to establish a proper relationship between sacred and secular leadership thinking, tackling some of the common philosophical and theological reservations to do with leadership discourse, whilst offering a critical framework for discerning the suitability for the Church of different sources of leadership thinking. Designed as core reading for leadership modules currently taught by the author across a large number of training contexts in the UK, this book is an indispensable text for those taking undergraduate or postgraduate-level qualifications in Christian leadership as well as those in other less formal leadership training contexts. Foreword by Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury

A startling 85% of churches in the US are plateaued or declining, a trend that has been building for the past fifty years. In the face of shrinking attendance and lagging spiritual growth, pastors and church leaders are understandably discouraged and demoralized. But the first step to turning things around is hope. Church health expert Gary McIntosh offers this hope by showing church leaders the first things they need to do to make a new start for their church. God can and does restore churches to new life, even as he restores individuals. The street-smart ideas and step-by-step instructions found in this book are ones that pastors and church leaders can put to use immediately in their churches to bring about solid growth and renewed hope for the future.

No matter how big an organization, we all do ministry with a team, whether paid or volunteer. Anyone who has been part of a great team knows it's something special. When there is good chemistry, everyone is operating from their sweet spot, the objectives are clear, and kingdom progress is being made, it is incredibly fulfilling and fun. On the flip side, we're painfully aware what happens when there is dysfunction in the team--stress, tension, politics, and posturing. It's not much fun for anyone, and we end up squandering our divine assignment. Lance Witt, founder of Replenish ministries and a former executive and teaching pastor at Saddleback Church, knows what it takes to keep teams functioning at the highest level of impact. He shows leaders how to build next-level teams that are spiritually, emotionally, and relationally healthy and productive and high-performing. Short, to-the-point chapters make the book easy to digest and the perfect resource for your team to read through together.