The Externally Focused Quest: Becoming the Best Church for the Community is designed for church leaders who want to transform their churches to become less internally focused and more oriented to the world around them. The book includes clear guidelines on the changes congregations must adopt to become truly outwardly focused. This book is not about getting all churches to have an annual day of community service as a tactic, but changing the core of who they are and how they see themselves as a part of their community. The Externally Focused Quest outlines ten changes needed for church leaders to transform their churches and presents a highly practical approach that shows leaders how to become more externally focused without having to give up programs that serve members. This book reveals what it takes to make the major shift from internal to external focus and how that affects church leadership.

How can your church get the attention of your community? It's all about focus. Externally focused churches do more than confront their communities--they cooperate as well. They're quick to partner with community agencies. Open to building new relationships. They flood their neighborhoods with practical compassion. And through it all they carry the love of Christ. If non-Christians aren't asking what's behind the excitement of your church members, it's time to get externally focused!

From Death to Life is a story about a church that was once thriving, and because of making drastic changes too soon and a lack of vision, it figuratively died. God raised it back from the dead through the proper vision connection and equipped it to be community-driven, through a 501(C)3 organization called Mission in the City. MITC was given to do a specific work in the community by assisting and restoring the community back to good health one person, one block at a time, through programs and services that give life to people suffering from a plague of blight, violence, drug trafficking, unemployment, and gang activities in their communities. From Death to Life encourages individuals who are seeking balance for their lives. It also encourages pastors with small churches, pastors looking for new ideas for ministry, leaders and organizations that are struggling to find ways to make a difference. It shows them how to move beyond their corporate and private walls, out into the community, making major investments through the implementation of programs and projects that will remove the negative reputation that afflicts their community. These investments will silence the cry of the world, which blatantly declares the church has nothing to offer the people who live in the communities it surrounds.

Pastoral care has been traditionally understood as pastoral acts administered to individuals or small groups by an ordained or lay religious practitioner. As congregations in the twenty-first century begin to reclaim the missional nature of church, this view must be broadened to include care and concern for the needs of the larger community. A missional perspective of pastoral care embraces the notion that all of Gods peoplenot just trained professionalsare called to partner in the healing and redemption of the world. In Beyond Church Walls, Rick Rouse sets out to articulate precisely what such an approach to pastoral care looks likeand the substantial impact it can have on congregations and communities. A skilled teacher and pastor with deep experience in real communities, Rouse leads readers through the changing realities of the twenty-first century and to new ways for missional churches to succeed in offering pastoral care for the whole community.

A new approach to introducing theology As God's self-communication to humans, Jesus is the key to the human search for meaning, argues Thomas West. He therefore introduces the practice of theology through Christology. From the question of personal meaning and self-constitution and their relationship to transcendent meaning and value, he proceeds to discuss the figure and import of Jesus and then the ethical imperative engendered through encounter with him. Fresh and clear, West's book is an invitation to grapple with one's religious commitments, especially in light of recent insights in biblical studies and Continental, feminist, and liberation theologies. This new text will prove an engaging and effective introduction to theological thinking for both undergraduates and Christian adults.

Church Together is a Christian leadership book designed to give pastors, church leaders, and church members a working plan to overcome the greatest underlying threat to the church today, individualism, through five relationships of surrender which correlate to the five core values of the Church of We. Part One examines the three rotten fruits of individualism within the Church of Me--consumerism, pragmatism, and the extremes of legalism and liberalism--and how to spot each of these problems. Part Two offers a solution on what it will take for churches to make a healthy transition from the Church of Me to the Church of We. Church Together, for this reason, gives churches a manageable plan to defy the individualistic spirit of the age as they become the Church of We in the Age of Me.

A research-based approach to developing more active and involved congregations In this practical resource, well-known and respected researcher Scott Thumma and professional co-writer Warren Bird draw upon new and heretofore unpublished research across a broad range of Protestant churches of all sizes and show how to create more active members. Offers solid information of what church leaders need to know about the factors and practices that create church members who are more actively and passionately involved in their congregations. Offers a first of its kind resource for developing engaged congregations Lead author Scott Thumma is a noted researcher and writer on congregational studies Warren Bird is coauthor of Culture Shift and Viral Churches This book offers advice for moving church members from being spectators to living a life of discipleship and faith.

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.

Now revised and updated throughout, Diana Garland's core text for ministers and others in the helping professions provides a comprehensive look at the Christian purpose of family and the complex world our families inhabit.

A powerful, biblically based model of leadership development based on the life of the Apostle Paul All churches, denominations, and parachurch organizations are eager for new models of leadership development. Cole uses the life and leadership lessons of the Apostle Paul to show how to develop leaders who are skilled, dedicated, and always open to learning from experience. Cole, a trusted, innovative authority, uses the four journeys of Paul to shows how leaders can grow to be more influential. A publication from the acclaimed Leadership Network Paul, the original “church planter,” was very instrumental in the growth of Christianity—and a perfect model for today’s leaders. Shows how Paul’s leadership developed over the course of his life to get better and better with time and maturity—and how they can do the same.