Church Vitalization Resources
Natural Church Development
by Christian Schwartz
Schwartz’s approach looks at community as a naturally-developing phenomenon that is guided by the ebb and flow of life. For him, a community is like a bucket of water: It will only hold as much water as it’s shortest slat. Therefore, you want to target the area that could improve the most and focus your energy there.
This book is for those who need a strategy. It gives you the framework to evaluate where you are and helps you create a plan to move forward.
Buzzing Communities
by Rich Millington
If you want to know how to manage a community, this is where you start. While Millington’s focus is online business communities, the concepts in this book are easily adapted to churches as well.
Above all, he strongly emphasizes having a measurable strategy. But he never forgets that community is ultimately the expression of relationships. It is by bringing the two together that healthy growth happens. He walks you through member acquisition, “conversion” optimization (meaning visitors into active members), member retention, and overall growth. I like to think of this as all the stuff they “should” have taught in seminary.
Leadership and the New Science
by Margaret Wheatley
What do scientific fields such as chaos theory and quantum physics tell us about how to lead best? Human communities are living systems that are held together in a strange way through their shared values. A leader’s task is not to make people do things, but to constantly remind the community of its identity in the midst of change.
This is a great book for anyone who wants to understand the basic dynamics of systems and how to navigate their complexity.
Influencer
by Joseph Grennny, Kerry Patterson, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler
Schwartz’s approach looks at community as a naturally-developing phenomenon that is guided by the ebb and flow of life. For him, a community is like a bucket of water: It will only hold as much water as it’s shortest slat. Therefore, you want to target the area that could improve the most and focus your energy there.
This book is for those who need a strategy. It gives you the framework to evaluate where you are and helps you create a plan to move forward.
Reinventing Organizations
by Frederic Laloux and Ken Wilbur
Schwartz’s approach looks at community as a naturally-developing phenomenon that is guided by the ebb and flow of life. For him, a community is like a bucket of water: It will only hold as much water as it’s shortest slat. Therefore, you want to target the area that could improve the most and focus your energy there.
This book is for those who need a strategy. It gives you the framework to evaluate where you are and helps you create a plan to move forward.
LeadershipNext
by Eddie Gibbs
What it means to lead has changed. Gibbs does a wonderful job of detailing how the emerging generations lead differently than those before them. They focus on building teams. Empowering individuals. And, overall, exercising “power with” rather than “power over”.
This book is for those who to understand why “the way we’ve always done it” no longer works and need an alternative approach.
