Empowering Your Church through Creativity and Change
Overview
Besides death and taxes there is one sure thing in life for church leaders: people don’t like you messin’ 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.
Top Highlights
“Or as C. S. Lewis put it, Jesus’ command to Peter was, ‘Feed my sheep,’ not, ‘Try new experiments on my rats.’” (Page 21)
“In The Prince he wrote, ‘It ought to be remembered there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders among those who may do well under the new.’” (Page ix)
“Bobby Kennedy campaigned for the presidency with his passionate claim, ‘Some men see things as they are and say ‘Why?’ I dream things that never were and say ‘Why not?’ ’” (Page 5)
“Effective church leaders recognize the inherent sacrifice in change.” (Page x)
“The measurement of success is simply the ratio of talents used to talents received. What you are doing with what you’ve got, plus who you are becoming. Are you a growing, maturing Christian?” (Page 212)
Product Details
- Title: Deepening Your Ministry Through Prayer and Personal Growth
- Editor: Marshall Shelley
- Publisher: Moorings
- Publication Date: 1995
Marshall Shelley is editor-in-chief of Leadership Journal and editorial vice president of Christianity Today International (CTI). Shelley studied journalism at Bethel University and earned a Master of Divinity in theology from Denver Seminary where he subsequently served as a board member for nearly a decade. He has also studied at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Wheaton College Graduate School, served as a board member for the American Tract Society, and held pastoral staff positions in his hometown of Denver, Colorado.
Marshall joined CTI after developing his journalistic skills at David C. Cook Publishing Company and The Denver Post. He is the author of several books including Well-Intentioned Dragons, several volumes in the Fresh Ideas series, the Library of Leadership Development, and the Library of Christian Leadership. He also served as general editor of The Quest Study Bible.
Shelley and his wife, Susan, live in Wheaton, Illinois, and have five children, two sons-in-law, and two grandchildren.