Wesleyan Ministry Leadership Collection (6 vols.)

Church leaders are frustrated. Larger churches are bogged down by the weight of their own organizations, and smaller churches struggle with an inability to get things moving.

Veteran leadership expert Gary L. McIntosh provides help to leaders of churches, regardless of size, who struggle to create workable plans to move their congregations forward. This book identifies the best practices on how to assess the unique identity of a church and design a plan for its future.

Loaded with case studies, resources, and chapter-by-chapter action plans, this practical resource contains everything a pastor needs to understand the planning process; identify the churches mission, values, and goals; and put it all together in a plan that works in the local setting.

Pastors facing ministry leadership challenges often wonder what class they missed in Bible college or seminary that was supposed to help them deal with such challenges. They long for an experienced mentor, but a good one is hard to find.

Author and musician Derric Johnson presents a series of challenging and inspiring meditations based on leadership principles learned from his ministry mentor, Dr. Orval C. Butcher, founding pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in LaMesa, California. These leadership meditations offer insight, encouragement, and affirmation for pastors who want help developing their leadership capabilities.

Categories of meditations include introspection, risk and creativity, vision, personal growth, pushing on, stepping out, reaching out, mentoring, looking up, and kneeling down.

Pastors and church leaders often find the velocity of ministry to be a challenge. Sometimes it comes much too fast; other times it’s way too slow. How can you lead a church that is stalled to begin moving again in the right direction? And then, when you experience success, how do you maintain and harness that momentum to effectively lead the church to its next level?

Wayne Schmidt addresses both angles of the ministry velocity challenge and offers scriptural strategies for sustainable momentum. Based on biblical principles rooted in the leadership of Joshua, Schmidt teaches pastors how to lead through every phase of momentum, so that the church can capitalize on its God-given opportunities.

This highly practical volume provides pastors and church leaders much needed insight on understanding how to anticipate, create, and maintain ministry velocity.

This practical guide is designed to be used by church leaders with their boards as a tool for negotiating needed changes effectively. Author Bob Whitesel compellingly makes the case that new methodology can and must be embraced without altering a church’s beliefs or mission. He then offers a series of exercises to be undertaken jointly by church leaders that will result in the production of a master plan for managing change in the local church. Your team will:

• Understand which changes threaten a church’s identity—and which do not
• Identify the church’s core values and nonnegotiable beliefs
• Anticipate the ten most common reactions to change
• Develop a workable plan for introducing change in your church

Oksana is on a spiritual journey she never saw coming. There are many paths she can take, but that doesn’t help her know where she is going. Even though it’s her personal path, she needs some direction. She needs to find a waypoint.

Author Bob Whitesel follows Oksana’s journey, engagingly mapping out her life’s quest as an allegorical GPS for each of us on a spiritual journey. From whatever uniquely personal direction you might be coming, there are waypoints that every spiritual traveler must realize in order to progress toward a meaningful life. And as Whitesel openly and sensitively reveals, whatever personal way each of us follows, everyone must find these same points.

Bob Whitesel, one of the church’s foremost experts on leadership, growth, and change, offers help for pastors and congregation leaders who struggle to develop effective strategies for reaching today’s generation with the good news of Jesus Christ. This book defines and describes the journey most people in today’s culture follow as they move from a lack of awareness of the gospel through conversion to spiritual maturity. Whitesel identifies distinct stages or “waypoints” in this journey and helps church leaders understand how to guide seekers in taking the next step from where they are.

Filled with interviews and personal stories from Shane Claiborne, Dan Kimball, Lauren Winner, Scot McKnight, and more, this engaging book will help congregations build on their strengths to develop a comprehensive and holistic strategy for guiding people through the stages of their journey toward spiritual maturity.