7 Suggestions for Outsourcing Your Church’s Staffing Needs

Fresh Expressions:The Modern Approach to Christian Community

Season 4 begins with an introduction of "Fresh Expressions," innovative micro-Christian communities that have arisen as a response to dwindling attendance in traditional churches.

These groups connect with individuals who may be seeking alternative spiritual communities to the Tradition Church structure.

Tune in to episode 1 to delve into the Mixed Ecology of these Christian communities and learn why it's significant.

7 Key Questions to Focus Your Change Agenda

Successful change requires setting priorities. But how can a leader discern which goals are most important? Doug Powe and Lovett Weems suggest a series of questions that can help reveal which initiatives can make the most difference.

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Churches To Follow

The Good Neighbor Movement isn’t your typical church community but they are joining God in their neighborhoods in some incredible ways! Here’s how they introduce themselves on their website: “Based in Greensboro, North Carolina, we are an alternative spiritual community. Inspired by the revolutionary teachings and activism of Jesus, and drawing from diverse religious and wisdom traditions, we seek to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly in everyday life, with our contemplative activist groups, in homes, coffee shops, bars, the outdoors, the streets, online - in our neighborhoods.”

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Reimagining Church Buildings

By Dave Harder 

How can your church building be an asset rather than a liability? Dave Harder says we must interrogate the dominant narrative that says church is what happens in the building for a few hours on a Sunday and let a new narrative emerge — one that focuses on God’s hopes and dreams for the neighborhood.

The Church and the Great Resignation

Rev. Natalia Terfa

Flipping the Script on Church Owned Property

How can local churches reimagine property stewardship so that a building can fund a church, rather than a church needing to fund a building? Tom Sine and Dwight Friesen offer examples of churches that have discovered innovative ways to leverage their property to fund their church and ministry.

Not Dead Yet

by Diana Butler Bass

[Read this one for a little hope and affirmation!]

The Kaleo Center offers this excellent resource on Sevenfold Social Transformation: excellent reading for vision, mission, and identity discernment; outreach and organizing discussions; and community engagement decisions.

3 Unique Gifts of the Rural Congregation

Do You View Your Church as an Organization or a Movement?

Joerg Rieger and Tripp Fuller, founder of the Home-brewed Christianity podcast, host an online course: Capital Change: The End of Religion and Business as Usual.

Episode 71: “Recalibrating the Church” featuring Scott Cormode

Why is change so difficult for churches? In this episode we speak with Scott Cormode about how church leaders can break free of common myths that cloud our thinking about change and how to embrace processes that sow the seeds of meaningful innovation.

When Church Stops Working: A Webinar with Andy Root

What if the solution for the decline of today’s church isn’t more money, people, programs, innovation, or busyness? What if we honored how tired our people are and how hard it is to get volunteers? Perhaps it’s time to reimagine what a congregation is, how it functions, and why it matters.

Engage this conversation with Dr. Andrew Root, professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary, who has invested years in studying “ministry in the secular age.” Andy will offer a refreshing, new paradigm for understanding the congregation in contemporary ministry. He will also articulate why congregations feel pressured by the speed of change in modern life and encourage an approach that doesn’t fall into the negative traps of our secular age.     

Fresh Expressions is a movement; a band of misfits, visionaries, prophets, evangelists and creative entrepreneurs from across all church traditions who can see what isn’t there and have the grit and faith to go out, listen, love, serve, tell people about Jesus and work with new communities to create a new and authentic expression of church that makes sense to its participants.

Visit the website to learn what a Fresh Expression Church is, and to get equipped, connected, and inspired.

A Conversation with Gretta Vosper: “Falling in Love with Being Together: 
The Church’s Role Beyond Being Church”

Gretta Vosper is passionate about the work of capturing the “off-label benefits” of religion for individuals and communities for which religious belief or practice is no longer meaningful. She has served West Hill United Church for over twenty-five years, supporting its transition to a theologically non-exclusive community, the first of its kind within traditional Christianity.

A best-selling author, Gretta has written three books: With or Without God: Why the Way We Live is More Important than What We Believe, Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief, and Time or Too Late: Chasing the Dream of a Progressive Christian Faith. Gretta’s blog, A Whole Lot of Broken, is on Substack.

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From Organized Religion to Organizing Religion

Brian McLaren and Convergence provide an online, on-demand continuing education program for clergy and laity who want to strengthen their church while preparing for the cultural changes that impact ministry. Built to train lay and ordained leaders as spiritual activists in a growing, multi-denominational movement of just and generous Christianity, the courses include:

• Clarifying Your Church's Identity
• Your Message Matters
• Curating Change
• Worship Matters
• Your Congregation As a School of Love
• Church Impact

Courses can be purchased individually for $69. Small group and congregation pricing also available. Interested in purchasing all 6? Contact Convergence for pricing.

CONVERGENCE offers numerous training webinars and courses for emerging church leadership, for individuals and teams. Their, How to Use Your Church Campus As a Tool for Neighborhood Revitalization or Online Small Group Curriculum for Your Church are options to invite your entire congregation to "imagine a new future for your church".

Offers free monthly webinars around the theme, Adapting to a New Reality: Living into a Fresh Vision for God's Church.