Leading Turnaround Churches

By Gene Wood
If you are a leader in a church that is stagnant or declining like more than 85% of the churches in the United States and want to turn it around to growth this book is a must.

Turnaround ministry is for those that like a challenge and are not afraid of conflict. In this book Wood deals with many of the costs of leading a church to the changes necessary for new life and growth. Before you enter this type of ministry you should consider the costs. They can be very high and the pressure considerable.

He talks about what a turnaround looks like and the characteristics of those leaders. He also addresses what you can expect from your pastor if you want them to do turnaround ministry.

Wood says that 95% of all problems in the church come from a power struggle.

This book will help leaders understand and evaluate their ability to lead their church from a plateau and decline to a time of growth. This ministry is not for the weak. I highly recommend this book to all church leaders.

They Like Jesus But Not the Church

By Dan Kimball

If you are looking to minister to people in their 20s and 30s then you need to read this book. The image of the church is so poor for this generation that we must make substantial changes if we are going to reach them for Christ.

One of the keys will be to get out of the comfort of our church buildings and into the community in which they live. They sure are not coming to us or into the church.

This age group is known as the emerging generation. The church says it wants to do ministry with this generation but what will it take to make that possible is addressed in this book.

What the Emerging Generations Thinks about the Church
The church is an organized religion with a political agenda
The church is judgmental and negative
The church is dominated by males and oppresses females
The church is homophobic
The church arrogantly claims all other religions are wrong
The church is full of fundamentalists who take the whole Bible literally

If you are a traditionalist this book will make you very uncomfortable. If you think the church needs to be or do something different then this will give you thoughts on what that might be.