RESOURCES FOR CONGREGATIONS

A Field Guide to U.S. Congregations: Who’s Going Where and Why, Second EditionAn updated and expanded edition of A Field Guide to U.S. Congregations reflects new findings and includes updated statistics, tables, and cartoons, along with completely new chapters describing pastoral leaders and significant changes in congregational life between the 2001 and 2008 surveys. New Myth Traps and Fast Facts about congregational life are featured in each chapter. The Field Guide to U.S. Congregations is based on findings from Wave 2 (2008 and 2009) of the U.S. Congregational Life Survey, with comparisons to Wave 1 findings (2001).

Beyond the Ordinary: 10 Strengths of U.S. CongregationsThis book is an intricate look at vitality and health in congregations. The authors believe that there are ten strengths key to vital congregations. The U.S. Congregational Life Survey identified 10 key strengths that make congregations successful — characteristics that can be found in any type of congregation, whether it’s growing or declining, large or small, rural or urban.

Places of Promise

Places of Promise
Finding Strength in Your Congregation’s Location

Traditionally we think about context as location. In this view:

• Community context determines who we were, what we are, and what our future holds.
• Congregations are passive—location has the upper hand!
• Leaders use contractual language about location—our location is a piece of real estate with a specific land value, appraised as a retail outlet might appraise a location. It’s a commodity.

Leadership that Fits Your Church

Leadership that Fits Your Church

Matching the right pastor with the right congregation is one of the most important—and daunting—decisions either party can make. While there are many pastors and congregations that merely fit, there are others that fit perfectly, and some who are disasters. This new book shows how a good match might be made between pastor and congregation. The authors follow the pastoral transition experiences of three churches: a mainline, Protestant congregation; a conservative church; and a Catholic parish.

Evangelism and church growth

• Myths and Facts About Evangelism and Church Growth — What have we learned from fast-growing churches that participated in the survey?
• How Are Fast-growing Presbyterian Churches Different from Others?
• What growing churches do
• To Grow or Not to Grow?
• The Strengths of Small Churches
• Is Bigger Always Better?
• Myth: Local Population Growth Leads to Congregational Growth

Learn about congregational leaders

• A Snapshot of Associate Pastors
• Who Leads Church of the Nazarene Congregations?
• Preachers’ Kids by Jackson Carroll
• How Do Pastors Practice Leadership? by Jackson Carroll
• What Do Clergy Do All Week? by Becky R. McMillan
• First and Second-Career Clergy by Jackson Carroll

Congregational Resource Guide

The Congregational Resource Guide (CRG) is a great resource for congregational clergy, leaders, staff and members. Use our media kit to help get the word out to your constituents.