Pastoral Leadership Bundle, XL (58 vols.)

What’s the connection between faith and the job? How does a church help those who have no job? How do we motivate Christians to pray, not just discuss prayer? Anyone for fasting? Will adults get serious about learning? (Yes.) How much counseling is enough? Does serving stop at age 65? (No.) What do single parents need most?

Here are hundreds of innovative solutions from churches all across the United States and Canada, gathered and arranged by the editors of Leadership and Leadership 100 into seven major sections:

• Discipleship
• Prayer
• Education
• Serving
• Counseling
• Fellowship
• Older Adults

What’s the fairest way to set a pastoral salary? Volunteer secretaries: how do you maximize their willingness? What’s the key to shorter board meetings? Does growth always mean another building program? (No!) How does a church keep benevolences from becoming another welfare system? What are the best ways to use video? computers? How many committees does a church really need?

Here are hundreds of innovative solutions from churches all across the United States and Canada, gathered and arranged by the editors of Leadership and Leadership 100 into eight major sections:

• The Office and Staff
• Boards and Committees
• Facilities
• Materials and Equipment
• Finances
• Scheduling
• Communication
• The Minister’s Personal Life

How can churches strengthen families as units, not just assist individual members? What’s been effective in building strong marriages? Can you minister successfully to college students while they’re away? (Yes!) How old is too old for youth leaders? (You might be surprised.) Can video games teach spiritual disciplines? How can young children be taught to minister to others?

Here are hundreds of innovative solutions from churches all across the United States and Canada, gathered and arranged by the editors of Leadership and Leadership 100 into seven major sections:

• Family and Parents
• Couples
• Collegians
• Teens
• Children in School
• Young Children
• Across The Age Levels

What’s the best way to plan—and space—a sermon series? Is there and honest way to plagiarize? (Yes!) How can a mood of expectancy be set for a worship service? What do you do about weak congregational singing? What are five keys to genuine excitement about missions? Can visitation be less scary? (Yes!)

Here are hundreds of innovative solutions from churches all across the United States and Canada, gathered and arranged by the editors of Leadership and Leadership 100 into six major sections:

• Preaching
• Worship Music
• Reaching Out (local evangelism)
• World Missions
• The Church Year (including Lent, Easter, ways to thrive during summer, Thanksgiving, and Christmas)

Sooner or later, Church conflict will threaten to steal your desire to serve God and people.

Pastors are maturing. Deepening. They want substance for their congregations—and nourishment for their own soul. The Pastor’s Soul series unleashes pastors to do what really matters. To step beyond skills. To give of their unique gifts. To minister authentically and grow in the intangibles of ministry like integrity and character.

In this changing culture, pastors need dedication to do what God wants them to do. They need hope that the suffering they experience while serving Christ has purpose and meaning.

Some of the first words uttered by a new pastor are “Seminary never prepared me for this.” Often “this” refers to church conflict. Most pastors, rookies and veterans alike, experience the betrayal, the hurt, and the anger that comes with working in a church. The pain of conflict cuts to the soul, and only words that address the soul can begin the healing process. Longtime pastor Gary Preston has been wounded, but instead of techniques to handle conflict better, he explores how the conflict he has faced as a pastor has driven him to God. Preston speaks not with cynicism but with candor about the realities of local church work. He points pastors back to God and offers hope for finding grace and comfort in the midst of suffering.

Pastors are maturing. Deepening. They want substance for their congregations—and nourishment for their own soul. The Pastor’s Soul series unleashes pastors to do what really matters. To step beyond skills. To give of their unique gifts. To minister authentically and grow in the intangibles of ministry like integrity and character.

In this changing culture, pastors know the importance of dedicating themselves to God’s mission in the world. They desire to rediscover the wonder of prayer and to experience its result: knowing God.

One of the dangers of pastoral ministry is to fail to recognize that the work of God’s kingdom is a spiritual battle, and that prayer is at the heart of the struggle. Evil and darkness are as intractable and entrenched as they were in the first century. To pray is to engage in radical warfare, to storm the gates of hell and uproot evil. Prayer is the work of the church, and it actually gets God’s work done on earth.

Pastors are maturing. Deepening. They want substance for their congregations—and nourishment for their own soul. The Pastor’s Soul series unleashes pastors to do what really matters. To step beyond skills. To give of their unique gifts. To minister authentically and grow in the intangibles of ministry like integrity and character.

In this changing culture, pastors need dedication to do what God wants them to do. They need hope that the suffering they experience while serving Christ has purpose and meaning.

The stresses of church leadership quickly reveal a person’s character for what it is: precious jewels or wood, hay, and stubble. Leading With Integrity aims to build consistent godliness that will help a pastor stand strong and lead with character and compassion.

Is it possible to grow in your relationship with God amid the demands of ministry?

Pastors are maturing. Deepening. They want substance for their congregations—and nourishment for their own soul. The Pastor’s Soul series unleashes pastors to do what really matters. To step beyond skills. To give of their unique gifts. To minister authentically and grow in the intangibles of ministry like integrity and character.

In this changing culture, pastors need dedication to do what God wants them to do. They need help to hear and heed God’s voice.

Most pastors enter ministry to accomplish great things for God’s kingdom. But that drive to make a difference—and the long hours that result—can crowd out the voice of God. In fact, the passion to build a church and the passion to know God often turn out to be mutually exclusive. In Listening to the Voice of God, author Roger Barrier writes candidly about his inability to hear God’s voice amid the demands of pastoring—and describes how he learned to hear God afresh when he dealt with the thorny issues of pride, spiritual warfare, and personal pain.

Sooner or later, every pastor needs what makes a good pastor great: the strength to stand and to stay.

Pastors are maturing. Deepening. They want substance for their congregations—and nourishment for their own soul. The Pastor’s Soul series unleashes pastors to do what really matters. To step beyond skills. To give of their unique gifts. To minister authentically and grow in the intangibles of ministry like integrity and character.

In this changing culture, pastors need dedication to do what God wants them to do. They need determination to accomplish their highest priorities.

Every pastor has felt the desire to throw in the towel—to resign from a church or even drop out of the ministry. The press of day-in, day-out care for people can overwhelm the most noble reasons for entering ministry. A pastor’s own brokenness, sinfulness, restlessness, and self-doubts only compound the weight. Pastoral Grit examines honestly the spiritual and practical calamities that compel pastors to give up—and offers realistic insight to help pastors persevere.

When you have done what your church wants you to do, have you really accomplished what God intends?

Pastors are maturing. Deepening. They want substance for their congregations—and nourishment for their own soul. The Pastor’s Soul series unleashes pastors to do what really matters. To step beyond skills. To give of their unique gifts. To minister authentically and grow in the intangibles of ministry like integrity and character.

In this changing culture, pastors need dedication to do what God wants them to do. They need freedom to fulfill their high calling.

The Power of Loving Your Church honestly assesses the way church really is: Not all churches are easy to love. Not all pastors find love easy. And the two have uncanny ways of finding each other. The Power of Loving Your Church offers help for pastors to grow in the biblical devotion that is indispensable to ministry.

Pastoring, after all, isn’t a series of tasks to do with love—rather, it is love.

How do you stay fresh when Sunday seems to come every other day?

Pastors are maturing. Deepening. They want substance for their congregations—and nourishment for their own soul. The Pastor’s Soul series unleashes pastors to do what really matters. To step beyond skills. To give of their unique gifts. To minister authentically and grow in the intangibles of ministry like integrity and character.

In this changing culture, pastors need dedication to do what God wants them to do. They need fresh insight into sharing their spiritual passion.

For many pastors, the weekly challenge of sermon preparation and delivery is painful—and often the primary arena where God breaks, melts, and remolds the pastor’s soul. Preaching With Spiritual Passion is a spiritual guide for God’s messengers who long to understand the deep things that happen in and through them as preachers.

Pastors are maturing. Deepening. They want substance for their congregations—and nourishment for their own soul. The Pastor’s Soul series unleashes pastors to do what really matters. To step beyond skills. To give of their unique gifts. To minister authentically and grow in the intangibles of ministry like integrity and character.

In this changing culture, pastors need to know about the changes of ministry at mid-life and how they can maintain or rediscover their call to serve God with passion and focus.

Pastors are not immune to the struggles of mid-life careers. Over the years many pastors slowly lose the full-hearted passion and vision of their original call to serve God. The tendency is to slow down, retire on the job, or stop growing. Like a low-grade temperature, its symptoms are difficult to detect and seldom get reported, but its effects are destructive and tragic. Longtime pastor Gary Fenton writes candidly about the changes of ministry at mid-life and how pastors can finish strong in the second half. He shows pastors how to keep their ministries vibrant at any age and how to use their gifts to their full potential.

If you’re like most pastors, you’ve not been trained to manage the church’s money. You’ve been taught, in fact, to be suspicious of Mammon. So how do you respond when a spreadsheet (usually in the red) is thrust before you and eager trustees look to you for financial leadership?

Having to be concerned about financial matters may well be a disturbing reality for you. You want, rightly so, to be heavenly minded. You need to be concerned first with the things of the Spirit. But you also soon learn that much of the spiritual good you want to see your congregation accomplish hinges on the effective raising and wise spending of money.

In Mastering Church Finances, Richard L. Bergstrom, Gary Fenton, and Wayne A. Pohl explore how you can keep money from getting in the way and use finances instead to further the kingdom. They discuss such matters as how to keep the finance committee ministry-minded, how and when to delegate financial affairs, how to handle designated gifts, how to deal with financial mismanagement, and how to determine staff salaries.

It is true, as Paul said, that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil,” but this book shows another truth: well-managed money can become the root of much good.

You probably entered the ministry expecting to focus on preaching, prayer, and spiritual guidance. You soon discovered, however, that the realities of church life require working with structures, ministering both to and through people.

How you handle this important job of administration equipping and organizing the efforts of the people in your church, is often the difference between an effective and a frustrated ministry.

Mastering Church Management faces up to the challenge of an efficient, people-centered ministry. It will give you practical insight on how to balance structure and people, policies and exceptions. It covers strategies as well as the practical concerns of doing versus delegating, recruiting and training workers, developing good working relationships, and getting the structures in place for effective ministry. Most of all it will show you how to get things done—the right things.

If you’re just starting to get organized and wonder where to begin, or if you’re simply needing help to fine-tune already established programs, Mastering Church Management will be a welcome guide for increasing your effectiveness.

How to master the conflict that cripples God’s church.

As every pastor knows, conflict and controversy are difficult and painful. Sometimes the controversy reflects the battle between the forces of light and darkness. More often, however, the conflict rests upon misunderstandings and opinions rather than issues of morality.

Dealing with church conflict is uncomfortable and confusing. But as you face the challenge, there are steps you can take to promote harmony within your fellowship.

Mastering Conflict and Controversy will show you how to discern the root cause of a controversy, how to deal with and minimize inevitable conflict, and how to turn conflicts to good. You will find this newest volume in the Mastering Ministry series to be an indispensable resource as you work to build strength and unity within your church.

Mastering Contemporary Preaching is the first volume of a 12-volume series called “Mastering Ministry,” co-published by Leadership, Christianity Today, Inc. and Multnomah Press. This book, authored by three preachers known for their ability to communicate in today’s language, focuses on the particular challenge of effective week-in-week-out preaching. These experts address:

• The authority of the preacher
• Speaking to the secular mind
• Deciding what people need to hear today
• Finding quality insights and illustrations
• Balancing information and application
• Dealing with today’s toughest topics
• and much more, including a section entitled, “Why I Keep Preaching.”

Developing a church that impacts its community.

You want your church to make a difference in the lives of people. Yet you’re often frustrated. Why aren’t your church members better able to meet the needs of their neighbors, be salt and light in their neighborhoods, and spread the gospel?

Mastering Outreach and Evangelism, the third volume in the Mastering Ministry series, identifies the challenges you face in leading a church to significant, people-centered outreach. But more important, it offers ways you can get your congregation focusing outward and committed to making a difference.

The authors represent churches that use a variety of means to accomplish the task. Combined, their insights provide a well-rounded picture. This book will help you to motivate and deploy your people to share the richness of the gospel through ministries of compassion and evangelism.

In our fax-paced age, when personal contact is often replaced by the technological touch, it is not easy to care personally for parishioners. You see many members only on Sunday morning. Those who are inactive you see approximately two times a year. Because families are so busy, you may be discouraged about finding your members at home. And if you’re buried under administrative details, pastoral care seems like a luxury of a small rural nineteenth-century ministry.

In spite of obstacles, however, you entered the ministry—and remain in it—because you long to care for others. You willingly assume the varied duties of the modern pastorate, but pastoral care is what you want to provide. How to do it with today’s busy members, under the constraints of modern church life, is the subject of this fifth volume in the Mastering Ministry series.

Bruce Larson, Paul Anderson, and Doug Self remain committed to pastoral ministry and are known for offering fresh models of pastoral care. Their insights arise out of the daily challenges of pastoral life.

You are called to be many things these days: a preacher, a manager, a counselor, and a teacher, to name a few. But your congregation still calls you “pastor,” and you happily accept the title. Mastering Pastoral Care will help you live up to it.

If you’re like most pastors, you find counseling a sweet and sour experience.

You’ve known the joy of unraveling a problem, of saving a marriage, of guiding a young life, of becoming bonded with your people. Yet you’ve also known the weariness and frustration of insoluble and complex and unremitting difficulties, of midnight emergencies, of failures, divorces, fights, and problems, problems, problems.

All this makes for extremes.

“I try to limit my counseling load to the bare minimum,” says one pastor.

“Counseling,” says another, “is the most satisfying part of my ministry.”

Wherever you fall on the spectrum, counseling veterans Archibald D. Hart, Gary L. Gulbranson, and Jim Smith can help. Mastering Pastoral Counseling is not a theory book. It is a problem solver that takes practical issues straight on: sexual temptation in the counseling setting, crisis management, making use of spiritual resources, confidentiality. This book looks at counseling from your perspective as a pastor, not from the professional counselor’ view.

You face unique challenges as a pastoral counselor. In Mastering Pastoral Counseling you’ll discover invaluable resources for reducing your frustration and increasing your effectiveness.

The Mastering Ministry series brings together some of the best minds on specific areas of pastoral ministry and presents their insights in a readable, personal way. Each book is coauthored by three church leaders recognized for their experience and expertise. The Mastering Ministry series is copublished by Leadership, Christianity Today, Inc., and Multnomah Press.

Has the heat of ministry left you spiritually dry?

Are you feeling parched and weak, as if you’re withering away? That’s a common experience in the pastorate. The fast-paced, never-ending routine of meetings, management, classes, and counseling can hinder those in ministry from taking spiritual root in Christ.

Many pastors find themselves barely able to maintain the status quo. Still, they feel a longing for more: deep-rootedness in Christ, hearts and minds filled with new life, and a ministry that bears abundant fruit—even in the midst of apparent spiritual drought.

Gordon MacDonald, Maxie Dunnam, and Donald McCullough know the intense pressures of the pastorate, and they know how to grow in spite of them. In this book, which completes the twelve-volume Mastering Ministry series, the authors discuss how nurturing relationships can energize pastors for ministry, emphasize the importance of finding time for the things that matter, and explain how to monitor body, mind and soul for long-term effectiveness and joy. This valuable book explains how, in spite of appearances, the soil of the pastorate can be fertile ground for rewarding spiritual growth.

Jesus went about preaching and teaching. If you’re like most pastors, one out of two isn’t bad. But you’d like to do better.

You know that in teaching you can apply more specifically and discuss more thoroughly the topics you raise in sermons. You also enjoy the opportunity of getting closer to your people in the more informal setting of a classroom.

But if you’re like many pastors, you’re frustrated. Often you can’t find time to teach, and when you do, you can’t find time to prepare as you wish. Then there’s the challenge of teaching effectively both new Christians and mature believers, white and blue collar, young and old—at the same time. In addition, you wonder when you’ve hit the mark, when your teaching has actually brought people closer to Christ.

These challenges needn’t overwhelm you; they can be overcome. In Mastering Teaching , volume eight of the Mastering Ministry series, three respected teachers show what steps you can take to enhance your teaching, to turn it from an infrequent add-on to an essential part of your ministry.

Nearly every pastor is going to move. It may happen tomorrow or at the end of a long tenure, but someday you will likely face the prospect of leaving your present ministry and beginning another.

First comes the wrenching decision itself. Is God really calling you away, or are you just copping-out to grab the gold ring of a more desirable ministry? What will happen to your present congregation? Most of us find this in-between state unpleasant. When the transition does come, it is fraught with complex tasks and jumbled emotions. Joy over an opening opportunity, sadness over severed ties, family security as precarious as crystal packed by a toddler, new names and faces to match overnight-it’s enough to send stress off the scale. And then comes the new ministry to be launched competently and mastered quickly.

Yes, transitions are difficult, even scary. They give new meaning to the phrase “mover and shaker.” In Mastering Transitions, three pastors well acquainted with pastoral transitions combine their insights and experiences to provide answers to the puzzles of transition.

Leading the People of God into the presence of God.

One of the most important functions you have as pastor is leading your congregation in worship. Yet if you’re like most, you’ve had little training in the art of leading worship. Mastering Worship, the fourth volume in the Mastering Ministry series, will give you a multitude of helpful ideas for enriching your congregation’s worship experience.

Mastering Worship begins with preparation—how to design a meaningful worship experience, and, equally important, how to prepare yourself for worship. You’ll learn how to lead people into the presence of God . . . even when you feel spiritually dry and unworthy.

Next you’ll look at the service itself, with special emphasis on congregational singing, public prayer, and preaching. Guidelines are also given for incorporating classic and contemporary expressions of worship and for getting lethargic worshipers actively involved.

Finally, Mastering Worship shows you how to make those special occasions, such as Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day, meaningful times of worship.

Throughout, Mastering Worship achieves a careful balance, reflecting the diversity of worship styles used today while focusing on the common concerns of most churches.

No pastor wants to go through the motions. But how can we make sure preaching and worship change lives? How do we unpack ancient truths for the MTV generation? How do we speak to construction workers as well as university professors? How can our words stir hope in those who are about to give in or give up?

Changing Lives Through Preaching and Worship, the first volume in the Library of Christian Leadership, provides skilled guidance. Its authors offer no untried theories. They write out of their practice. Their advice has been refined in the crucible of day-to-day ministry. Now, in a never-before-collected lineup, are 30 chapters of expert advice.

Prayer. Quiet time. Spiritual disciplines. Every pastor knows their value. But what do you do when schedules squeeze you tight, when you feel more harried than holy, when you lose your sense of God’s gentle leading? How do you maintain good spiritual health?

Deepening Your Ministry Through Prayer and Personal Growth offers tested, life-changing counsel. It is a focused, no-stone-unturned look at what some of America’s dynamic pastors do to keep grounded—as well as what they had to go through—to stay that way. Never before has there been such an inspiring, challenging treatment of these issues by so many respected church leaders. This fourth book in the Library of Christian Leadership offers the steps to help you stay intimate with the Lord and help others do the same. Out of the trenches and onto the page, here are thirty fresh and helpful chapters of excellent advice.

Besides death and taxes there is one sure thing in life for church leaders: people don’t like you messing with the status quo.

Making changes at church is a little like kicking a sleeping grizzly. Or playing with her cubs. You risk getting mauled. While people say they want change and improvement, they often would rather things stay comfortably familiar. How can a pastor stay creative and innovative, yet be sensitive to church members’ needs for stability?

This second volume in the Library of Christian Leadership offers skilled insight and indispensable counsel. Now, in a never-before-collected lineup, are thirty chapters of expert advice.

The words evangelism and outreach often evoke guilt and anxiety. Church members feel guilty because they think they should do more of both. But the thought of doing more makes them anxious. Few people feel confident going into “all the world.”

How can church leaders instill passion for evangelism? How can they help their churches look outward?

Growing Your Church Through Evangelism and Outreach is not filled with “shoulds” and “oughts” but with grace and hope. Its authors, graduates of the evangelism-and-outreach school of hard knocks, write out of experience. They’ve found what works. They’ve helped grow churches through evangelism and outreach. Now, in a hard-hitting line up, are 30 chapters of expert advice.

One of the best definitions of leadership is “being willing to take responsibility for someone else.” While pop culture encourages people to break free from obligation to anyone but themselves, Christians who have heard the call of God know that ministry is about caring for others. Care is more than an emotion, a general warm feeling toward people, or an affection for a few individuals. Pastoral care implies ensuring basic needs of the flock are met—all with a purpose of cultivating mature Christian character.

This third volume in the Library of Leadership Development explores how to give effective counsel and care in a wide range of critical areas using person-to-person ministry, care groups, preaching, and teaching. Now, in a never-before-collected lineup, are 30 chapters of expert advice.

Ministry done by one is an overwhelming burden. No go-it-alone pastor or small set of laypeople can lead a church. And without unleashing the ministry skill of a whole congregation, your people miss the chance to find their place in the priesthood of all believers and attain the maturity God intends.

Growing Your Church Through Training and Motivation brings insight from highly effective pastors in a variety of settings, showing how church leadership can encourage and equip the whole church for the work of ministry. From recruiting volunteers to working with a board, this fourth volume in the Library of Leadership Development explores how you can most effectively equip and encourage your congregation. Now, in a never-before-collected lineup, are thirty chapters of expert advice.

“The only pastors who don’t experience regular, character-building periods of conflict,” a pastor once said, “are either bullies who walk all over everyone or cowards afraid to stand up for what God wants to accomplish.” Church leaders are lightning rods, attracting the highly charged complaints and grievances of church members.

This first volume in the Library of Leadership Development helps pastors and lay leaders understand, prevent, and redeem conflict. Its authors—who have survived and thrived in church conflict—tell their stories and explain the principles that help them lead through the storms of congregational life. Now, in a never-before-collected lineup, are 30 chapters of expert advice.

Vision never comes with all the answers. Vision is, by definition, seeing beyond present possibilities. It means conceptualizing what a church could be like.

Some pastors and church leaders burn white hot with vision. Most of us, however, feel more skilled in other areas of leadership. Our training, we feel, prepares us for one hour on Sunday morning—not for the task of guiding a group of people toward a well-defined goal. Yet most of us can think in visionary terms with the right encouragement and help.

This second volume in the Library of Leadership Development shows how you can help your congregation glimpse and grow toward vitality and spiritual depth to powerfully impact their world. Now, in a never-before-collected lineup, are thirty chapters of expert advice.

What Are the Traps the Enemy Plans to Set For You?

News stories about pastoral indiscretions abound today—an embezzlement this week, adultery the next. Every Christian’s life is filled with temptation, but spiritual leaders seem to be prime targets for Satan’s attacks. Most pastors find themselves faced with moral temptation of some kind. They are party to intimate details of other people’s sexual lives. They find themselves in positions of power and authority. Even as they work to help others, the voices of lust, pride and ambition whisper:

“It doesn’t hurt to just think about it.”

“This church is a success because of all the things I’ve done.”

“How can I move my career even further ahead?”

More than ever, pastors need moral wisdom and strength. Jesus calls for it. The integrity of their lives and ministries demands it. Now, three experienced pastors explain how temptation can be met and defeated in Dangers, Toils and Snares, the fifth volume of Mastering Ministry’s Pressure Points.

Is Your Ministry a Success?

If you are like most pastors, you want to be a successful church leader. You start out with the desire to teach God’s principles, help other believers and reach out to your community, but you may become sidetracked by a desire to please others. The passion to make a difference begins to fade as you struggle to make everyone happy. As a pastor, what should you strive for? Congregational approval? High attendance figures? Significant weekly offerings? How can you deal with the need to succeed and the fear of failure?

These questions and many others are answered in Measuring Up, the third volume of Mastering Ministries Pressure Points series. Written by three experienced pastors, Measuring Up outlines practical principles to help you measure your ministry’s effectiveness, and shows you how to thrive throughout its ups and downs.

Everywhere you turn, there’s opposition to the kingdom of God. You face the tension every day. The pressure is like a hurricane that threatens to wildly toss your ministry, your family-even you, yourself. And it will, unless your character is firmly rooted.

Cultural relativism gusts against the Christian morals you support. Mindless entertainment blows against the values you know are critical to raising a Christian family. Yet, even as you battle to advance God’s principles, storms of sin and doubt continue to rage:

• “Am I really making a difference?”
• “Doesn’t anyone respect what I’m doing?”
• “Am I truly called to the pastorate?”

It can be extremely difficult to work for the kingdom of Christ in a world that is unfriendly to Christian values. But there are practical measures that you can take to help you minister faithfully and effectively today.

That’s what you’ll find in Standing Fast—sound advice from three wise and experienced men who know how to stand fast in the torrential winds of our times.

A Pastor’s Work is Never Done.

Sometimes you feel like you just can’t win. While you are praying, you feel you should be studying. While studying you feel you should be out visiting. While visiting you feel you should be with your family. And while you are with your family, you feel you should be spending more time with the Lord.

It’s a vicious circle. Driven by both a relentless sense of guilt and a sincere desire to serve, you hurry through each day-every day off-trying to get everything done. But no matter how hard you try, you never have enough time to meet all the needs around you.

Fortunately, there are ways to cope with competing time demands. In the second volume of Mastering Ministry’s Pressure Points, you’ll find practical, helpful advice from three men who have learned to balance the time pressures faced by pastors. You’ll discover how to stay spiritually refreshed in the midst of ministry’s daily routine and deal successfully with the pressure as you tackle The Time Crunch.

The pressure is on.

Sometimes you may feel like you are facing a football defensive line: a half-ton mass and muscle whose sole objective is to pound you into the turf. The demands of the ministry can feel like that, especially when you’re faced by pressures like: How can I compete with the communication “masters” my parishioners listen to on the radio and television every week?

How can I preach about love when my own marriage is strained?

How do I really know if I’m making a difference?

Questions like these can unnerve us. They can destroy us. Or, like the pressure of weights against muscle, they can make our preaching strong. These issues—and more—are addressed in A Voice in the Wilderness, practical guidance for transforming ministry’s pressures into opportunities to excel, written by three of the most respected preachers in America today.

Every great leader can be tempted to jump ship.

It’s not easy leading a church. As the pastor, you’re called to move ahead and direct your congregation to new heights in an age and a culture that is largely anti-authoritarian, independent, and suspicious of leaders. And as things get tough, you get lonely. Everyone doubts decisions from time to time, but where does a pastor turn for guidance?

Leading a congregation while maintaining your emotional and spiritual equilibrium is one of the greatest challenges you will face as a pastor. But you can equip yourself to meet the challenge with wisdom and confidence. Who’s in Charge brings you the insights of three highly effective pastors whose years of experience have taught them how to stand strong under pressure. With their help, you’ll soon discover how to transform one of the most demanding aspects of your ministry into one of the most rewarding.

Every church has them—sincere, well meaning Christians who leave ulcers, strained relationships, and hard feelings in their wake. They don’t intend to be difficult; they don’t consciously plot destruction or breed discontent among the members. But they often do undermine the ministry of the church and make pastors question their calling.

Help for those who minister under all-too-common conditions of hostility, resistance, and interference.

Well-Intentioned Dragons guides those on church staffs in facing the strenuous task of dealing with difficult people—even ministering while under attack. Based on real-life stories of battle-scarred veterans, Marshall Shelly presents a clear picture of God’s love for those on both sides of the problem. He describes tested strategies to communicate that love and turn dissidents into disciples.

Here is a book that will not only help pastors and church leaders preserve their sanity (and maybe their jobs); it will help them minister more effectively even to those who make life difficult.

All Christians need to pray. But the pressures of ministry can work against prayer. Busyness. Distractions. Inconsistency. All block the quiet time needed for prayer. Yet all are part of local church ministry.

When administration, counseling, and even preaching responsibilities intrude on time with God, the power source of ministry is cut off—guilt about prayer results.

This is a book about developing guilt-free prayer. Putting the joy back in talking to God. It doesn’t prescribe one sure cure—all but tells the stories of scores of men and women who have learned to combine the stress of leadership with the release of prayer. No magic formula; but a potpourri of ideas. You decide which ideas will work for your devotional life.

It is a book about experimenting with prayer—the key to your relationship with God.

This is the second volume of The Leadership Library, a continuing series from the editors of Leadership Journal, the foremost periodical for church leader, published but Christianity Today, Inc. Volume One in the series was Well-Intentioned Dragons: Ministering to Problem People in the Church by Marshall Shelly.

The Leadership Library doesn’t stop at theory, but goes on to suggest ways of coping with the most difficult areas of everyday ministry. It offers practical—and proven—ways to minister effectively.

What God hath joined together, let not the pastorate put asunder.

Holding a pastoral marriage together is like canoeing the Colorado River. In the midst of exquisite scenery come stretches of white water that challenge a couple’s tenacity, pitch them one way and then another, soak them to the skin. The water, so placid a mile upstream, now roars its threat to swallow the frightened partners in each end of the fragile craft.

Sadly, white water rapids conquer some husbands and wives, capsizing their marriage and dashing them into the rocks. Others, however get through alive, together—and more experienced at river travel as a result. The next rapids will be easier for them.

This book’s hard-hitting documentaries are like movies of pastoral couples navigating the rapids. They provide clues on where the biggest boulders lurk and which channels are most passable. Each documentary is followed by comments from one of the following noted pastoral counselors: Dr. Gary Collins from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Dr. Louis McBurney from Marble Retreat, Dr. David Seamands from Asbury Theological Seminary. This is the third volume of The Leadership Library, a continuing series from Leadership, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Others in the series have included Well-Intentioned Dragons: Ministering to Problem People in the Church and Liberating the Leader’s Prayer Life.

The Leadership Library is more that a collection of theory; it provides ways of coping with the most difficult areas of everyday church life. It offers practical, proven routes to effective ministry.

“Seven moves equal one fire.” —American folk saying

Anyone who’s packed and unpacked a truckload of household belongings—discarding this, squeezing that, scratching or even breaking the other—knows the truth of the adage. Moving has a way of diminishing us, until by the seventh time we wonder whether any original material is left.

Moving also takes its toll on the intangibles. For the pastor, leaving one congregation for another is a peril-fraught venture. What if the new board turns out to be obstinate? What if the family is unhappy? How long will it take to win confidence and—beyond that—genuine friendship through the new sea of faces? What if finances stumble? What if the new pace of work proves overwhelming?

This book provides timely help for the pastor in transition. Eleven specially chosen writers whose ministerial experience ranges from Episcopalian to Nazarene, from Quebec to California, tell of struggles they’ve faced, misgivings they’ve weighed, and solutions they’ve found. Together, their chapters provide a game plan to make relocation a positive instead of a destructive event.

This is the fourth volume of The Leadership Library, a continuing series from Leadership, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Others in the series have included Liberating the Leader’s Prayer Life and Clergy Couples in Crisis.

The Leadership Library is more than a collection of theory; it provides ways of coping with the most difficult areas of everyday church life. It offers practical, proven routes to effective ministry.

Where have all the leaders gone?

Despite jokes about “too many chiefs and not enough Indians,” genuine leadership is in short supply in most churches.

“Leadership,” according to Fred Smith, “is what enables any group to bridge the chasm between where they are and where they should be. Crossing the Red Sea, passing through the desert, or facing any immediate difficulty, a group needs leadership to make progress.”

True leaders attract followers and bring out the best in them.

This book offers fresh insight into what leadership demands and suggests practical ways to become a better leader—of yourself, of your co-workers, of your congregation. It is important for those who recognize that leadership is important for any church to grow and penetrate the community.

Fred smith, a business executive and contributing editor of Leadership Journal, has spent his life in decision-making roles.

This is the fifth volume of The Leadership Library, a continuing series from Leadership, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Others in the series have included Well-intentioned Dragons by Marshall Shelly, Liberating the Leader’s Prayer Life by Terry Muck, Clergy Couples in Crisis by Dean Merrill and When It’s Time to Move by Paul D. Robbins.

The Leadership Library is more than a collection of theory; it provides ways of coping with the most difficult areas of everyday church life. It offers practical, proven routes to effective ministry.

No one can be an expert in every field, despite what church members—consciously or unconsciously—may expect. Yet pastors do need at least a working knowledge of several specialized ministry skills.

Areas where the pastor is directly involved (preaching, counseling, performing weddings and baptisms) often aren’t as troublesome as those areas that demand the pastor’s indirect involvement (supervising others who are “doing” a particular ministry).

Most pastors are comfortable ministering to people. Often it’s more difficult to minister through people, whether paid staff or volunteers. This is a book about the three areas where pastors are most likely overseers rather than doers. It’s a handbook for non-specialists about the three most common specialty ministries: music, youth, and Christian education.

Each section has been written by a pastor who knows that specialty—but also knows that pastoring is more that a one-specialty affair. Pastors Garth Bolinder, Tom McKee, and John Cionca describe the essential knowledge for effective music, youth and educational ministries.

This is the sixth volume of The Leadership Library, a continuing series from Leadership, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Others in the series have included When It’s Time to Move and Learning to Lead. More than a collection of theory, The Leadership Library provides practical, proven ways to handle the most difficult areas of everyday church life.

Warm hearted but hard nosed.

One of the modern myths is that ministers lead sheltered lives. A person who swears in the presence of a pastor will often stop and say, “Oh, excuse me, Reverend,” as if pastoral ears are unaccustomed to such indelicate terms.

If anything, pastors are more acquainted with the effects of human depravity. Each week brings situations of power, conflict, adultery, and abuse. The Seven Deadly Sins are not just sermon topics—they’re daily adversaries.

Some of the toughest situations deal with people who need help but won’t admit it—or won’t accept it. The man, for instance, who takes his wife for granted, puts his marriage on autopilot, and doesn’t notice or care that his wife is starving emotionally. Or the single woman who bounces from one job (or relationship) to the next, never satisfied, always looking for something else.

This book offers real-life stories of ministers who have taken the initiative with people who were not asking for help. It shows the state of the art in “the ministry of taking the first step.”

This is the seventh volume of The Leadership Library, a continuing series from Leadership, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Others in the series have included Well-Intentioned Dragons and Learning to Lead. More than a collection of theory, The Leadership Library provides practical, proven ways to handle the most difficult areas of everyday church life.

How to be heard—and heeded.

The apostle Paul spent his prison days in Rome preaching—trying “to convince them about Jesus.” The results: “Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe” (Acts 28:24). About par for the course.

Any preacher often wonders, Am I getting across? I believe what I’m saying, but is anyone else convinced? Somnolent nods, glazed over eyes, and, worse, unaffected lives telegraph what no preacher wants to face.

Preaching in a way that convinces—that changes lives—is the goal of every preacher. And the frustration.

Thirteen contributors well acquainted with the challenges of preaching fill this book with premium grist for the convincer’s mill. Their material has been gleaned from the best articles on preaching in Leadership Journal. The writers and subjects vary—a professional speaker addressing creativity, an evangelist on honest invitations, an ancient churchman’s earnest homiletical advice—yet all drive toward the same center: preaching that is more than a flood of words washing across impervious lives.

This is the eighth volume of The Leadership Library, a continuing series from Leadership, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Others in the series have included Helping Those Who Don’t Want Help, Learning to Lead, and Liberating the Leader’s Prayer Life. The Leadership Library is more than a collection of theory; it supplies practical strategies for the difficult aspects of everyday church life. Written by church leaders who know the territory, it offers proven routes to effective ministry.

Making decisions without destruction

Does leading a church set up an impossible choice between running an efficient, well-maintained program and being sensitive to the needs of suffering people? Can one leader do both?

For many leaders, the answer is not clear. Especially in days when the conflicting demands of institution and individual whipsaw pastors back and forth between office and hospital, altar and pew, management and pastoral care. On top of it all, they are called to pronounce theological blessing or anathema on any knotty question that confronts the body of Christ.

This book offers a four-step approach to decision making that helps local church leaders become versatile servants of God, translating timeless theological truth into everyday life situations. Using the concepts of risk-taking theory, the author shows how to unravel the confusing diversity of modern church life and approach each situation with wisdom and confidence.

Ministers tell stories of the most difficult decisions that they have faced and how they dealt with each. The successes and failures illustrate the high stakes of ministry—and its crucial importance. God gives strength to face the demands of ministry; but he calls leaders to take some risks of obedience along the way.

This is the ninth volume of The Leadership Library, a continuing series from Leadership, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Others in the series have included Well-Intentioned Dragons, Liberating the Leaders Prayer Life, and Learning to Lead.

More than a collection of theory, The Leadership Library provides practical, proven ways to handle the most difficult areas of everyday church life.

Mastering ceremonies.

In today’s secular society, the only personal contact many people have with a pastor is some public occasion: a wedding, funeral, baby dedication or baptism, an awards ceremony.

These settings, where clergy are front and center, offer unique opportunities to minister.

The bubbling joy or the piercing grief of these events waken people, if only for a moment, to pastors and to the divine realities they represent. Birth, death, and human achievement become, in C. S. Lewis’s words, “a megaphone to rouse a deafened world.” And pastors who are called upon to lead, officiate, or pray during these events do well to consider how to speak clearly through them.

This book offers clear, tested counsel on how to prepare for special occasions and how to conduct the events themselves. Each chapter is written by a pastor who has had extensive experience in that area. These church leaders relate honestly their failures and successes—and the lessons learned—as they’ve ministered during weddings, funerals, and special events.

This is the tenth volume of The Leadership Library, a continuing series from Leadership, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Others in the series have included Well-Intentioned Dragons, Learning to Lead and Preaching to convince.

More than a collection of theory, The Leadership Library provides practical, proven ways to handle the most difficult areas of everyday church life.

Everybody makes mistakes.

Not everybody, unfortunately, recovers. Mistakes are inevitable, even for pastors. Wisdom and will can go awry, and ministry can crumple.

But disruption doesn’t have to be the final word. For the Christian, gaffes, grief, and grace walk hand in hand. God is in restoration business, and he employs even failure to produce his results.

Dig into any effective pastor’s past and you uncover mistakes transformed into character. This book shows how grace combines with grit to make that happen.

Pastors who made mistakes ranging from bungling building plans to sinful deceit share not only the facts and feelings of their mistakes but the factors that brought them to recovery. Their hard-gained wisdom is transferable to other church leaders.

This is the eleventh volume of The Leadership Library, a continuing series from Leadership, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Others in the series have included When to Take a Risk and Helping Those who Don’t Want Help.

More than a collection of theory, The Leadership Library provides practical, proven ways to handle the most difficult aspects of Christian leadership.

In search of leadership excellence.

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to sit down with proven Christian leaders and ask them the tough, gritty questions you face in leadership?

You can—in this book. Each chapter is a candid conversation with a veteran leader who has grappled with resolving board conflict, motivating apathetic volunteers, and inspiring organizational unity.

This is the twelfth volume of The Leadership Library, a continuing series from Leadership, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Other volumes in the series include Well-Intentioned Dragons, Learning to Lead and Making the Most of Mistakes.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde had it easy . . .

. . . compared to the challenge facing pastors every day. There’s often a terrible tension between God’s call to holiness and our frail humanity. The Scriptures clearly state God’s call, and the Christian leader wants to obey. Parishioners expect their ministers to be models of godliness, too.

Yet pastors who are honest are also painfully aware of their shortcomings. But how can they admit their doubts and temptations without harming their ministries? In whom can they confide?

In Being Holy, Being Human, Jay Kesler draws on his years of experience as pastor, ministry leader, and Christian college president to provide answers. With the insight and helpful candor for which he is known, Kesler helps pastors to live with the tension creatively, to embrace God’s call while expressing and fully enjoying their humanity.

This is the thirteenth volume of The Leadership Library, a continuing series from Leadership, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Other volumes in the series include Leaders, Making the Most of Mistakes and When to take a Risk.

When the going gets tough.

Every minister faces moments when the pressures of the pastorate seem overwhelming. Discouragement sets in. Is it time to leave this church? Or ministry altogether? How do I keep going?

A pastor wrote Leadership Journal recently: “How do you deal with yourself, when you suddenly say within, I quit, and yet must keep going as a public leader? The inner resources of enthusiasm, interest, and caring are just not there sometimes.”

The precipitating incidents vary—declining attendance, criticism from key members, family struggles, lack of commitment from volunteers. But the result is the same: cold, hard winds blow across the minister’s soul.

What then? Where can the pastor turn? How can a vigorous ministry be restored?

This book focuses on how to turn weakness in to strength, how to find the power to persevere.

Through real-life stories of ministers who have been through the “slough of despond” and found productive ministry on the other side, each chapter offers both practical guidance and warm encouragement.

Secrets of Staying Power provides tested wisdom for weathering pastoral storms—and building a ministry that lasts.

This is the fourteenth volume of The Leadership Library, a continuing series from Leadership, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Other volumes in the series include Well-Intentioned Dragons, Learning to Lead, and Making the Most of Mistakes.

“If only I could see lives changed!”

So goes a common lament of pastors who are working hard, working prayerfully, but seeing no visible results. Their efforts go unrewarded; their churches attract few new comers. How can the situation be turned around? How can new people be reached?

Other churches struggle with the related problem of keeping people. For every new member coming into the fellowship, someone else seems to slip out the back door, dropping out of service and then disappearing all together. How can these people be kept active and growing?

The Magnetic Fellowship provides practical, tested answers to these vital questions. Fourteen experienced contributors, show such things as how to make a church appealing to visitors, how to evangelize more effectively, how to help new Christians grow and become part of the church, how to become part of the church, how to regain missing members, and how to keep volunteers active in ministry.

This is the fifteenth volume of The Leadership Library, a continuing series from Leadership, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Other volumes in the series include Well-Intentioned Dragons, Learning to Lead, and Secrets of Staying Power.

A low-guilt guide to a healthy home.

This is the sixteenth volume of The Leadership Library, a continuing series from Leadership, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Other volumes in the series include Well-Intentioned Dragons, Learning to Lead, and Being Holy, Being Human.

In the busyness of preaching, teaching, and overseeing church ministries, it’s easy to let the urgent displace the important. The immediate overwhelms the eternal. And pastors find themselves “running the church” but not “curing souls.”

This book is a reminder of the essence of ministry. It offers fresh thoughts on the important but neglected art of spiritual direction.

This book provides welcome refreshment for parched pastors. Peterson does not heap up guilt for not being more disciplined. Instead, the book itself is an oasis, a source of rejuvenation and recommitment to true ministry.

This is the seventeenth volume of The Leadership Library, a continuing series from Leadership, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Other volumes in the series include Well-Intentioned Dragons, Preaching to Convince, and The Healthy Hectic Home.

You know it’s coming.

The call. The alarming call. Something is dreadfully wrong, and you’re called to do something to help.

No time to hesitate. No time to hand off the responsibility to someone else. Time only to pray and go. And be God’s stand-in in time of crisis. Exactly when the ugliest, harshest blows fall, the call goes out for a pastor. Probably you.

You’ve been there before. You know you’ll be there again when the newborn dies. You’ll be summoned when the blood had barely dried following a suicide. Your phone will ring when the marriage bond is stretched taut.

You’ll be there, but will you be able to redeem the crisis?

This book contains the insights and wisdom of pastors and counselors who have answered the call into crisis. They’ve been there many times. And they know what to do. And when. And how. Here’s their best counsel on the nine problems pastors identified as the most difficult and prevalent calls into crisis.

This is the eighteenth volume of The Leadership Library, a continuing series from Leadership, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Others in the series include: Well-Intentioned Dragons, Learning to Lead and The Contemplative Pastor.

More than a collection of theory, The Leadership Library provides practical, proven ways to handle the most difficult aspects of Christian leadership.

The temptation we can’t entirely flee.

Sex—it attracts us and frightens us. Its highly-charged force has potential for great good or great harm. Mishandling sexual situations has caused Christian leaders to lose their ministries. Sex-related problems also confront pastors with confounding counseling situations. How to minister to casualties of the sexual revolution?

This book addresses these twin challenges of ministry: maintaining personal purity while maintaining close human contact, and offering a compassionate, healing touch to those who struggle because sex has been misused.

Editor Terry Muck has pulled together the candid, yet redemptive, stories of people who have faced the subtlest and most powerful sexual situations. Each chapter offers tested insight from those who have learned to walk wisely and minister effectively.

This is the nineteenth volume of The Leadership Library, a continuing series from Leadership, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Other volumes in the series include Well-Intentioned Dragons, Preaching to Convince, and The Healthy Hectic Home.

Lying awake one night after a church board meeting.

That’s when Larry Osborne thought, We have to find a way to replace our posturing and battling with the new spirit of teamwork and cooperation. Every experienced pastor knows the joys and struggles of working with a board. As Chuck Swindoll wrote: “The need for a better relationship between pastors and board members is apparent, and in some cases, acute.”

What are the secrets to creating an effective church leadership team? How can a pastor lead a board to true unity?

Osborne set out to find answers. Now many years and board meetings and hours of research later, he offers tested, no-nonsense wisdom to questions like these: What are the roadblocks to a board really working together? How can you remove them?What do I do when a leadership team member isn’t working out?What roles can the pastor take with the leadership team, and which is most effective?What work should a board handle? What should it definitely not touch?How can a leadership team guide the congregation through controversial changes?What does it take to negotiate a fair salary?How can you continue to minister during a time of board disunity? In The Unity Factor, you’ll find sensible strategies and warm encouragement for building a healthy leadership team.

This is the twentieth volume of The Leadership Library, a continuing series from Leadership, the practical journal for church leaders published by Christianity Today, Inc. Others in the series include Well-Intentioned Dragons, Learning to Lead and The Contemplative Pastor.