Study Materials for Presbytery Transformation:

Hit the Bullseye: How Denominations Can Aim the Congregation At the Mission Field by Paul D. Borden. "Denominations in the U.S. were started to assist congregations. Local churches realized that often they could do more together than they could separately. For many years denominations provided invaluable services to congregations in missions, education, and church life. This is no longer the case. As many congregations diminish in size, they find themselves with aging constituencies and experience a decline in mission dollars. they also find denominations impotent in producing change, health, and growth. Denominations respond in various ways to this situation. This book offers three key strategies for change: training, recruitment of outside leaders, and pastoral mentoring." 

Robust Church Development: a vision for mobilizing regional bodies in support of missional congregations by Mike Regele. "This brief book sets forth the vision, the principles and the practices that, if embraced, will see your regional body on its way to a robust church development effort - one that is effective today and will withstand continuous shifts in the mission environment over time.

The Fly in the Ointment: Why Denominations Aren't Helping Their Congregations...And How They Can by J. Russell Crabtree.

Church Transformation:

A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith by Brian D. McLaren. "McLaren, one of the most visible faces of the emergent movement, examines 10 questions the church must answer as it heads toward a new way of believing."

Cracking Your congregation's Code: Mapping Your Spiritual DNA to Create Your Future by Richard Southern and Robert Norton. "Seminaries, denominational leaders, and ministers have a sacred charge to grow the membership of the church. Norton and Southern provide an outstanding - and proven - strategy for teaching both clergy and laypeople to accomplish the mission." The Rev. Robert Warren Cromey, trustee of the General Theological Seminary, New York, New York.

Emerging Worship: Creating Worship Gatherings for New Generations by Dan Kimball. "If this church is to regain relevance with and connect to our rapidly, radically changing culture, it must pioneer new forms of worship and trailblaze alternative worship services for those up in this post-Christian age."

Five Challenges for the Once and Future Church by Loren B. Mead.

Leading Congregational Change: A Practical Guide for the Transformational Journey by Jim Herrington, Mike Bonem, and James H. Furr. "The authors...present a powerful, sequential process for moving a church toward renewal. They reveal how to deal with resistance from key members who do not understand why change is needed, show how to develop a "vision community" - a diverse group within the church who can collaboratively discern and help to implement God's vision for their congregation - and identify specific leadership disciplines required to successfully shepherd change."

Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions by John Kotter. This delightful, but extremely effective book, illustrates the concept of helping people acknowledge a problem and move toward deal with problem in the context of a melting iceberg and a determined penguin within a community of other penguins.

Once and Future Church by Loren B. Mead.

Pathway to Renewal: Practical Steps for Congregations by Daniel P. Smith and Mary K. Sellon. This has a faithful, practical set of concrete steps for moving toward the renewal of a congregation. 

Spiritual Vitality through Cooperative Ministry by Diana A. Stephen - produced by the Small Church and Community Ministry Office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Stepping Out in Faith: Small Churches Responding to God's Call by Diana A. Stephen.

The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch. Supports complete reorientation of the church around mission and apostolic church planting in the West.

The Ministry of the Missional Church by Craig Van Gelder. This is a richly biblical theological meditation on how the church should minister to the world, and how ministers should minister to the church.

The Sky is Falling by Alan Roxburgh.

The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry by Sue Annis Hammond.

Transforming Congregations for the Future by Loren B. Mead.

Twelve Dynamic Shifts for Transforming Your Church by E. Stanley Ott. "Arguing that the crisis in the church today is due to a loss of personal spirituality and congregational vitality, Ott challenges pastors and church leaders to adjust the style of their ministries to attract new people while continuing to encourage current members...lays out inspiring yet practical proposals to help congregations to make the transition from traditional to transformational."

Twelve Keys to an Effective Church: The Leader's Guide by Kennon L. Callahan. "The purpose of this book is to help you help your church move toward action, accomplishment, and achievement, not more planning, more meetings, and longer reports."

Twelve Keys to an Effective Church: The Study Guide by Kennon L. Callahan. "This study guide discusses in depth new and useful ways to interpret and work through the main book....the guide presents material for twelve sessions - one for each of the characteristics of effective churches."

When Better Isn't Enough: Evaluation Tools for the 21st-Century Church by Jill Hudson. The author identifies 12 characteristics to measure effective ministry and gives the tools for evaluation.

When God Speaks Through Change: Preaching in Times of Congregational Transitions by Craig A. Satterlee.

Leadership Development:

Effective Church Leadership: Building on the Twelve Keys by Kennon L. Callahan. "This encouraging book helps missionary pastors 'grow forward' their leadership competencies by cultivating new understandings and practices in seven key areas."

Extraordinary Relationships: A New Way of Thinking About Human Interactions by Roberta M. Gilbert, M.D. This book is based on the innovative family systems theory that has been shown to have direct application to congregational life. It focuses on relationships and posits that "only by further developing yourself can you further develop your relationships."

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher, William Ury, & Bruce Patton, Second Edition.

Healthy Congregations: A Systems Approach by Peter L. Steinke. The author writes "simple sentences about complex sytems. He assures us that there is a way to understand the life of a congregation, and to do reasonable things to address its health." The book does not pretend to tell you what to do about an unhealthy congregation. "It does tell you how to exercise responsibility in effecting a cure." This book begins where How Your Church Family Works left off.

How Your Church Family Works by Peter L. Steinke. This first book by the author lays out the groundwork for understanding Family Systems Theory and how understanding this theory helps to understand congregational life. Understanding the theory allows you to use it.

Leadership on the Otherside: No Rules, Just Clues by Bill Easum. Bill Easum opens a portal to the Otherside, that place beyond the Christendom Era and its mechanistic, by-the-numbers approach to church life. It's a bumpy ride, with treasured assumptions, privileges, and traditions shattered along the way. Yet on the OtherSide lies a church radically transformed, resonant to the leadership of the Spirit, and ready to lay aside everything that does not help it accomplish the one thing that matters: introducing people to the love of God in Jesus Christ.

Leadership That Works: Hope and Direction for Church and Parachurch Leaders in Today's Complex World by Leith Anderson. "Leith shows clearly how to meet today's changing culture without compromising biblically." Jerry E. White

Managing Polarities in Congregations: Eight Keys for Thriving Faith Communities by Roy M. Oswald and Barry Johnson. A tool that can help map can liberate anxious people from either/or thinking, enabling them to see options, value other perspectives, and think creatively.

Never Call Them Jerks: Healthy Responses to Difficult Behavior by Arthur Paul Boers.

Personality Type and Religious Leadership by Roy M. Oswald and Otto Kroeger. Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to help understand ourselves better as a working community.

Promise and Peril: Understanding and Managing Change and Conflict in Congregations by David R. Brubaker. The author give insight into understanding the nature of conflict, explains how to manage it, and provides stategies for preventing it from becoming destructive.

Stilling the Storm: Worship and Congregational Leadership in Difficult TImes by Kathleen S. Smith. Foreward by Arthur Paul Boers.

Strategic Leadership For a Change: Facing Our Losses, Finding Our Future by Kenneth J. McFayden. The author "explores what it means to lead congregations through change and conflict in a manner consistent with Christian discipleship." This is a book he has waited for years to share....that while we live in anxious times, and while anxious people seldom make good decisions, the most powerful antidote to anxiety is good leadership.

The Secret: What Great Leaders Know - and Do by Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller. "The Secret tells an engaging story that contains a valuable message for leaders and emerging leaders around the world. Leaders who grasp and apply The Secret can expect their effectiveness to soar!" Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor, Willow Creek Community Church

The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout, Ph.D. In this book, the author teaches us how to identify a sociopath and how to protect ourselves from the ones who cross our paths - and who may already be wreaking havoc in our lives. 

The Spirit-Driven Leader: Seven Keys to Succeeding Under Pressure by Carnegie Samuel Calian. Former Pittsburgh Seminary president Sam Calian outlines seven keys to effective leadership under pressure: creativity, competence, commitment, character, collegiality, compassion, and courage. Filled with telling anecdotes, Calian's book asks readers to look not only within themselves but to reach out to others to inspire hope and build stronger communities in trying times.

Unfreezing Moves: Following Jesus Into the Mission Field by Bill Easum. "Learn how to employ the nine unfreezing moves that will either help your congregation become unstuck, or help you become constantly innovative in the ways that connect with those who are unconnected and disconnected from God."