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General Resources (top)
- Congregational Resource Guide
http://congregationalresources.org/ShowCat.asp?CN=84
- A Guide to Resources for Building Congregational Vitality (Book)
http://congregationalresources.org/ShowOne.asp?RID=9642&TC=84
Richard Bass, Editor. Herndon, VA : The Alban Institute, 2004. A
practical guide to the philosophy and theology that underlies the
Congregational Resource Guide web site listed above, as well as a set
of essays about key elements of congregational well-being at the
beginning of the twenty-first century.
- LeaderResources
http://leaderresources.org/leadershipdevelopment
A publishing and consulting organization that began in the Episcopal
Church but now serves many denominations. Resources are developed by
congregations or dioceses and then shared throughout the network.
- The Episcopal Network for Evangelism
http://members.aol.com/ene2020/
Formed at the Presiding Bishop's "Congregations in Ministry" conference
on October 22, 1998. "Called to restore all people to unity with God
and each other in Christ, we will, with God's help, double the
Episcopal Church's average Sunday attendance by the year 2020."
- ChurchSmart Resources
http://www.churchsmart.com/content/who-we-are.html
An independent Christian publishing company and training organization
with a focus on church planting, church health and leadership
development, and the national partner for Natural Church Development
(NCD) in the USA.
- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
http://www.elca.org/evangelism/assessments/
A variety of materials are available at this site, assessment tools are of special interest
- UMR School of Congregational Development http://www.umr.org/main/CustomerCare/Forums/tabid/137/afgroup/2/Default.aspx
The
UMR School values the faithful pursuit of the mission of the Church,
evangelistic creativity for the needs of contemporary culture,
editorial freedom, respect for diverse opinions and a heritage of
tolerance and service. Our mission is to enable the Christian community
to make disciples for Christ by providing communication services and
resources.
Tools, Techniques and Training (top)
- Natural Church Development
http://www.churchsmart.com/
A way of understanding church health and growth that views the church
as a living organism. The focus is not on numerical growth, but on
improving the health of the church, with the understanding-impressively
documented by research-that when a church is sufficiently healthy,
numerical growth will follow. A survey measures the health of a local
church in eight areas that have been found to be essential to healthy
church growth. The survey grows out of what was probably the most
extensive study of church growth ever conducted, involving over 1000
churches in 32 countries on every continent except Antarctica . This
study revealed a clear positive correlation between these eight Quality
Characteristics and church growth. A process utilizing self-assessment
and self-prescription for growth.
- Coachnet International Ministries
http://www.coachnet.org/en/
Empowers Christian leaders to start, grow and multiply healthy congregations
- The Church Ad Project
http://www.churchad.com/
Provides creative, cost-effective advertising and marketing tools for
churches including award-winning ads, posters, direct mail, and
door-to-door marketing materials that have helped thousands of churches
in their ministry of communicating with their members and local
community.
- Magnetic Church
http://www.magnetic-church.com/topics.htm
Provides non-confrontational, practical evangelism events to help
mainline and similar churches attract and retain new members by Andrew
D. Weeks
- Clergy Leadership Institute
http://www.clergyleadership.com/clergy/consulting/
Clergy training in appreciative inquiry, appreciative interim ministry,
clergy search consulting, transformational coach training and
leadership for managing change.
- Evans Congregational Development
http://cdevans.org/Congregational_Development.htm
Web site of David Evans, congregational development officer of the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania
- Church Welcome Signs
http://signs.episcopalchurch.org/
- Via Media
http://www.everyvoice.net/viamedia/
An evangelism tool that presents the basic tenets of Christianity from
an inclusive, Anglican approach to scripture, tradition, and reason,
and leads the participants to a broader view of the journey of faith
and the role that the Church can play in society.
- Alpha
http://www.alphausa.org/basics/
A ten-week practical introduction to the basics of Christianity with opportunity for debate and discussion.
- Lombard Mennonite Peace Center
http://www.lmpeacecenter.org/Workshops.html
Offers workshops and training in the following:
- Conflict Transformation Skills for Churches
- Healthy Congregations
- Facilitating Healthy Pastor-Congregation Relations
- Leadership and Anxiety in the Church: A Family Systems Perspective
- God's Own Peace: Systems Theory and Spirituality
Equipping the Faithful for Evangelism and Congregational Development (top)
- Wesley Seminary
http://www.wesleysem.edu/layministry/courses/development.asp
Course offerings in congregational development
- Symmetry Christian Leadership Development Programs http://www.symmetryorg.com/index.html
Seeks to develop spiritually-deep, Christ-Focused Servant Leaders to
serve churches, communities, families, and businesses.
- Seabury Western Seminary
http://www.seabury.edu/seainst/sicurr.htm
Seabury Institute Doctor of Ministry in Congregational Development Curriculum
- Church Development Institute
Bob Gallagher has been an organization development consultant and
trainer since 1970 and provides services to non-profit organizations
and small businesses. For more information see the following sites and
a fuller description of CDI under Local Resources.
- Episcopal Church Foundation
http://www.episcopalfoundation.org/research/mmr.html
An independent, lay-led organization that serves the church by
providing innovative resources for philanthropy, education and
leadership development.
Resource Centers (top)
Some Diocesan Sites (top)
Arkansas http://www.arkansas.anglican.org/churchdev.htm
California http://www.diocal.org/blogs/condev/
Central Florida http://www.toolstodevelopvitalchurches.com/
Chicago http://epischicago.org/ResourceDetail.cfm?CatID=06
Dallas http://www.missionalchurchnet.org/index.htm
New York http://dioceseny.org/index.cfm?Action=Programs.CongregationalDevelopment
Newark http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/churchgrowth/
Northwestern Pennsylvania http://www.dionwpa.org/CD/Congregational%20Development.htm
Texas http://www.epicenter.org/edot/Congregational_Development1.asp?SnID=1105721672
Upper South Carolina http://www.edusc.org/CongDev/
Virginia http://www.churchtoolbox.org/
Research, Surveys, Maps or Reports (top)
American Religion Data Archive
http://thearda.com/arda.asp?Show=Home
U.S. Census Bureau
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en
Percept
To register and access information for your congregation go to www.link2lead.com
Hartford Institute for Religion Research
http://hirr.hartsem.edu/org/faith_congregations_research1.html
The Barna Group, Ltd.
http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=Home
Barna
provides primary research, communications tools, printed resources,
leadership development for young people, and church facilitation and
enhancement.
The Episcopal Church
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/research.htm
Provides
the church with information about its context, congregations, members,
leadership, directions, and ongoing mission for use by national
leaders, dioceses and local congregations.
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