What Church Leaders are Saying About Church Growth Flywheel: “Rich is right again. Momentum is hard to catch, easy to lose, and most important. If Flywheel has any importance, it has loads of importance. Don't miss this book!” - Clay Scroggins, Lead Pastor, North Point Community Church “Rich Birch has knocked it out of the park with Church Growth Flywheel. His new book is full of practical helps for church leaders looking to reach more people in their communities. Rich cuts through the theory and offers solid advice and guidance that you can put into action right away." - Dan Reiland, Executive Pastor, 12Stone Church, Lawrenceville, Georgia “Rich Birch has been reading my mind! After reading the first 15 pages, I made this book mandatory reading for my entire staff.” - Hal Seed, Chief Mentor at PastorMentor.com and Founding Pastor of New Song Community Church “What an incredible book! Rich has a unique way of sharing real and relevant practices from his experience and conversations that will no doubt be a game changer for you and your church community. Church Growth Flywheel is a gift to church leaders filled with practical yet challenging steps to help initiate growth and change within your community. And what church leader doesn’t want to see more lives changed by Christ!” - Sonja Waltman, Executive Director of Ministries at LCBC Church “Rich brings a wealth of passion, knowledge and experience to the subject of church growth. He presents a treasure trove of best practices and learnings around engaging people in your city with the message of Christ. Church Growth Flywheel is full practical steps that you can actually start doing and growing in your church, today.” - Carey Nieuwhof, Founding & Teaching Pastor, Connexus Church “I’ve followed Rich Birch for many years as he has had a front row seat to some of the fastest-growing churches in North America. That’s why I got excited when I heard he was releasing a book with some of what he has learned. You will be energized, informed, inspired, and equipped after reading Church Growth Flywheel." - Tim Stevens, Vice President of Consulting, Vanderbloemen Search Group “Insanely practical... super simple... and absolutely essential! Rich Birch has captured the disciplines and behaviors that will allow your church to experience growth that enables you to thrive.

    Fast cars. Fast and furious. Fast forward. Fast . . . church? The church is often idealized (or demonized) as the last bastion of a bygone era, dragging our feet as we're pulled into new moralities and new spiritualities. We guard our doctrine and our piety with great vigilance. But we often fail to notice how quickly we're capitulating, in the structures and practices of our churches, to a culture of unreflective speed, dehumanizing efficiency and dis-integrating isolationism. In the beginning, the church ate together, traveled together and shared in all facets of life. Centered as they were on Jesus, these seemingly mundane activities took on their own significance in the mission of God. In Slow Church, Chris Smith and John Pattison invite us out of franchise faith and back into the ecology, economy and ethics of the kingdom of God, where people know each other well and love one another as Christ loved the church.

    Is this really what Jesus died for? If He chose the way of the cross, where would He hesitate leading us? Is it possible that to follow Jesus is to choose the barbarian way?Jesus never made a pristine call to a proper or safe religion. Jesus beckons His followers to a path that is far from the easy road. It is a path filled with adventure, uncertainty, and unlimited possibilities―the only path that can fulfill the deepest longings and desires of your heart.This is the barbarian way: to give your heart to the only One who can make you fully alive. To love Him with simplicity and intensity. To unleash the untamed faith within. To be consumed by the presence of a passionate and compassionate God. To go where He sends you, no matter the cost.

    It's a strategy that enabled Osborne's congregation to grow from a handful of people to one of the larger churches in the nation—without any marketing or special programming. Sticky Church tells the inspiring story of North Coast Church's phenomenal growth and offers practical tips for launching your own sermon-based small group ministry.Topics include:Why stickiness is so importantWhy most of our discipleship models don’t work very wellWhy small groups always make a church more honest and transparentWhat makes groups grow deeper and sticker over timeSticky Church is an ideal book for church leaders who want to start or retool their small group ministry—and velcro their congregation to the Bible and each other.

    Like Jonah, however, we eventually discover we've made a mess of things; we're rowing against the storms God is using to pull us back on course.In Glorious Mess, Mike Howerton shows how God's relentless grace extends into all the messes we make in our lives, that God clearly reveals his love for imperfect people no matter how far we've strayed. He shows readers how to hear God's voice, how to embrace God's calling on their lives, how to get out of their messes, and how to see God working. The result is not just forgiveness and direction for life, but also encouragement and inspiration to be our best selves before God and others.Includes discussion questions for group or personal use.

    Using a comprehensive systems approach to congregations, this volume enables readers to analyze the ministries, stories, and processes that are at work in congregations. It provides techniques for studying the congregation as well as a framework for understanding the nature of the congregation.

    All four of these good things are guaranteed to happen if you but promise to go onto your porch tomorrow with your pad or other device, light your pipe, and Tolle Lege.

    It speaks into the discontent of all those who have exhausted conservative, liberal, and even emergent ways of being Christian and are looking for a new way forward. It offers building blocks for missional theology and practice that moves Christians into a gospel-centered way of life for our culture and our times.Offers a compelling and creative vision for North American Christians Puts forth a theology and ten critical signposts that must be observed to follow a missional way of life: post-Christendom, missio Dei, incarnation, witness, scripture, gospel, church, sexuality, justice, pluralism Asks questions and points to issues that trouble many leaders in the post-modern, post-denominational, post-Christendom church This book can fill the gap for the average Christian left discontented with the current options after evangelicalism.

    Constance M. Cherry, a worship professor and practitioner, provides worship leaders with credible blueprint plans for successfully designing worship services that foster meaningful conversation with God and the gathered community. Readers will learn how to create services that are faithful to Scripture, historically conscious, relevant to God, Christ-centered, and engaging for worshipers of all ages in the twenty-first century. The book sets forth basic principles concerning worship design and demonstrates how these principles are conducive to virtually any style of worship practiced today in a myriad of Christian communities. It will also work well as a guide for worship-planning teams in local churches and provide insight for worship students, pastors, and church leaders involved in congregational worship.

    Through this provocative project, the founder of PreachersNSneakers is helping thousands of Jesus followers wrestle with the inevitable dilemmas created by a culture obsessed with image and entertainment.In PreachersNSneakers: 9 Questions to Help You Live Your Faith in an Age of Capitalism, Consumerism, and (Wannabe) Celebrity, the author boldly confronts many of the difficult questions plaguing countless Christians’ minds, such as:Should pastors grow wealthy off of religion, and why do we get so angry when they do?Is it okay to stoke envy among others with curated “lifestyle” images on social media?Do we really believe that divine blessings are monetary, or is that just religious wallpaper to hide our own greed?Is there space in Christendom for celebrities like Kanye and Bieber to exist without distorting the good news?What about this: Is it wrong for someone like this author to call out faith leaders online and leverage “cancel culture” to affect change?PreachersNSneakers will navigate these challenging questions and many more with humor, wit, candor, and a few never-before-published hijinks. Each chapter will explore the various sides of the debate, holding space for readers to make up their own minds. The book will doubtlessly become a staple for church small groups, college ministries, and book clubs, emboldening struggling believers who want to live a more genuine faith.After all, the Lord works in mysterious colorways.

    At the heart of this new way of thinking about worship is the role of the worship curator. Many practical examples are used to illustrate ways in which worship, both inside and outside the church building, can be curated and delivered for spiritual formation and mission. The Art of Curating Worship provides a new language and practice for designing worship with the potential for transforming our experience of God. The Art of Curating Worship promotes a new vocabulary to help worship curators work out how and why and where worship can best engage their community, inside and outside the church, in transformative encounters with God.

    The Birth of a Baby Faith Commitment Preparing for Adolescence Commitment to Purity Passage to Adulthood High School Graduation Life in ChristAs you tap into the natural patterns of child development and family, you’ll motivate parents when they’re most open to shaping their children’s faith. Shift puts family discipleship—at church and at home—on one simple, common path. One home at a time, you can move a fledgling family ministry effort to one that’s firing on all 6 cylinders! This is a family ministry approach that’s attainable and sustainable.

    His application of family systems theory to congregational life has enormously clarified its operative systems and especially its emotional system. In this sequel, Richardson employs the same methodology to address the roots of personal issues that may hinder pastors' ability to function effectively as leaders within their congregations, and may in fact cause them deep difficulties. He especially addresses pastors' own families of origin, a major but often hidden component in how they function emotionally in their congregations. When anxiety arises, unresolved familial issues and old family patterns return, often unhelpfully. Richardson explores these patterns, how they operate in church situations, and how pastors can do their own family-of-origin assessment. His volume will become a standard tool for analysis of patterns in ministerial behavior and developing strong personal effectiveness.

    Sermons are what we make with what God has made." This is the foundation for developing expository messages, according to Ramesh Richard. His method, explained in Preparing Expository Sermons, has been field-tested in training seminars for thousands of preachers around the world.Richard's book is a simple do-it-yourself resource for developing and preaching expository sermons. It guides the reader through a seven-step process, with many practical suggestions and illustrative charts along the way. In addition, there are eleven appendixes that include information on: o how to choose a texto preaching narrativeso understanding your audienceo forms of sermon introductionA comprehensive sermon evaluation questionnaire is included as well.Preparing Expository Sermons, an updated and expanded version of Scripture Sculpture, is ideal for beginning preachers, lay preachers without formal training, or any pastor who is looking for a refresher course in expository sermon preparation.

    That guided people in a deeper, more meaningful way than an event, program or class could possibly do—guided on an individual basis by someone who cared for them personally.What is this way? What is this activity that is so simple and so universal that it meets the discipleship needs of very different people at very different stages of discipleship, even non-Christians?We call it reading the Bible one-to-one.But what exactly is reading the Bible one-to-one? Why should we do it? Who is it for?In One-to-One Bible Reading: a simple guide for every Christian, David Helm answers these important questions.About the AuthorDavid Helm is a pastor at Holy Trinity Church in Chicago, and Chairman of The Charles Simeon Trust, a ministry devoted to equipping expository preachers. He longs for all Christians to read God’s word for themselves and with others.