Healthy Church Leadership

If churches are the dwelling place of God’s spirit, why are so many built around the strategies of man? Eager for growth, leaders can be lured by entertaining new schemes, forgetting doctrinal truth as their driving force. Churches must humbly lean on the sufficiency of God’s word. How to Build a Healthy Church challenges leaders to evaluate their motivations for ministry and provides examples of healthy, deliberate leadership. This is more than a step-by-step plan to mimic; it’s a biblical blueprint for pastors, elders, and anyone committed to the church’s vitality.

Becoming a Better Leader Starts with a Transformed Inner Life Do you feel too overwhelmed to enjoy life, unable to sort out the demands on your time? Are you doing your best work as a leader, yet not making an impact? Have you ever felt stuck, powerless to change your environment? In The...

In a time when many are shunning the practice of organized religion, Jonathan Leeman offers a short book on why church membership is a critical element in every healthy Christian's maturation. By offering a brief, straightforward explanation of what church membership is and why it's important, Leeman gives the local church its proper due and builds a case for committing to the local body. Church Membership is a useful tool for churches to distribute en masse to new and potential members of their congregation.

Small Church Essentials is for leaders of smaller congregations. It encourages them to steward their role well, debunking myths about small churches while offering principles for leading a dynamic, healthy small church. Based on the popular six-hour lecture that Karl Vaters delivers to church leaders across the country, Small Church Essentials will affirm small church leaders and show them how to identify what they do well and how to do it even better.

What Is a Healthy Church Member? takes its cue from Mark Dever's book What Is a Healthy Church?, which offered one definition of what a healthy church looks like biblically and historically. In this new work, pastor Thabiti Anyabwile attempts to answer the natural next question: "What does a healthy church member look like in the light of Scripture?" God intends for us to play an active and vital part in the body of Christ, the local church. He wants us to experience the local church as a home more profoundly wonderful and meaningful than any other place on earth.

Everyone seems to understand that healthy organizations nurture flourishing individuals and societies—what Jesus desires for all. How can Christian business and ministry leaders create a positive organizational culture and identity? Justin Irving has spent twenty years studying, teaching, and reflecting on organizational leadership. Drawing wisdom from the Bible, contemporary leadership theory, and the insights of over two hundred executive leaders, Irving provides a theological framework that makes human flourishing the driving motivation for leading organizations well.

Many pastors conceive of the church budget as primarily a financial tool, but in fact it is primarily a pastoral tool. A church's philosophy of ministry is locked into its budget, and so the budget will either stifle or accelerate any attempts to move a congregation toward a biblical model of...

The Spiritually Healthy Leader exposes these root causes and offers the path to deep life transformation, freedom in Christ, and deliverance from self-sabotage. With Christ as the true center of their lives and ministry, leaders can walk vibrantly with God, live free from self-sabotage of the heart, experience the ripple effect of spiritual flourishing, and see that effect positively impact close relationships, families, churches, and the next generation.

You see the problems in your church, and you truly believe it could be better. Not perfect, but healthier. If you want more for your church, but aren’t quite sure how to get there, 100 Days to a Healthier Church was written for you. After years of trial and error, pastor and author Karl Vaters developed a tested and proven 15-week process that’s manageable, adaptable, and effective.

Church leadership is a shared responsibility, not a solo venture. This book equips pastors and elders to lead the church together as a team, focusing not so much on what they are to be but on what they as a body are to do.

Every church is rooted in its tireless striving to stand up to the world's ungodly desires and temptations by investing heavily in relationships, demonstrating Christ's love, and providing for physical and spiritual needs. The Lord desires His church to be productive, making converts and partnering with Him to develop mature Christians. A healthy church grows as a result of conversions and disciple-making. Why do some churches grow only with transfers, remain stagnant, or shrink? There are eighteen primary reasons churches do not experience healthy growth. With work, discipline, ...

When I was called to pastor my first church, I was certain of only one thing—I was in over my head! This small church had nearly closed its doors. They were running about 35 on a Sunday, were steeped in tradition, and I was bi-vocational. I had a dream of revitalizing our church to become a healthy, evangelistically effective church that was fulfilling the Great Commandment and the Great Commission but wasn’t sure how to do it. The D.R.E.A.M. Church shares the strategies that our church and thousands of others have used to experience healthy, long-term growth.

You can serve God and his people for a lifetime and do it with passion and joy. You do not have to become another casualty in the growing number of leaders who have compromised their integrity, character, and ministry because they failed to lead an examined and accountable life. The road forward...

This book is designed to give hope and guidance to churches: leaders, ministers, and members. Anyone who wants to believe again.

Sound doctrine is the life-blood of God's people, providing the foundation for the church's unity and witness. From shaping the corporate life of the church to directing individuals in the practical issues of life, right thinking about God, humanity, sin, and salvation, good theology is indispensable for real growth. This short, accessible book speaks to the importance of solid doctrine for godly living and powerfully argues that truth is always meant to lead to transformation.

In Planting by Pastoring, author Nathan Knight challenges our view of church planting and centers the goal of pastoral ministry on a basic biblical foundation: a church plant is in fact a church, and a planter is in fact a pastor. A healthy church plant is not measured by size, speed, or level of self-sufficiency but by good pastoring that produces faith, fruit, and a flourishing community. Once pastors and church leaders redefine their plant as a church, their ministry will begin to align with Jesus's mission to shepherd the flock and bring glory to God alone.

The changing needs of employees have created a new mandate for today's leader. This actionable guide will help you, your team, and your business thrive. Healthy leadership is like a cultural magnet that attracts people to your team and the cultural glue that makes them want to stay. If your employees do not see healthy leadership, they will look for it elsewhere. Healthy Leadership is grounded in healthy principles and practices. The three healthy leadership principles are love, positivity, and growth. The three healthy leadership practices are to clarify, connect, and coach.

Leaders often bear the weight of the church on their shoulders. But have we made leadership into something it was never meant to be? Most of us are familiar with Atlas, the mythological Greek figure condemned to hold up the heavens. If you have ever been a pastor, no doubt you have felt something similar—being “the leader” often feels like an overwhelming burden. In an era plagued by the fall of influential pastors, it’s time to reconsider our fundamental understanding and application of leadership. The Atlas Factor sheds light on the tragic mistake of replacing the God-ordained ...

Culture is the first sermon people experience. Before anyone hears your message, they feel the room. They notice the atmosphere. They decide if they belong. And that feeling often determines whether they’ll come back. In The Great Church Culture Blueprint, pastor and church planter Bryan Cox shares a simple, practical framework to help church leaders build a healthy, welcoming, life-giving culture—on purpose.

Why closing the back door of your church is even more important than opening the front door wider. In Sticky Church, author and pastor Larry Osborne offers a time-tested strategy for doing so: sermon-based small groups that dig deeper into the weekend message and tightly velcro members to the...