Pastor Karl at the Whitney Avenue Congregational Church

Turnaround And Beyond consist of eight chapters that are intended to provide the reader with practical insights and principles from men and women who have led their congregations through renewal. Crandall stresses the importance of leadership right from the start. It is implied that a successful renewal is dependent on how well a congregation is led throughout the process. He analyzes principles from the business world, the Bible, and Church

James Myers is the pastor at the East Campus of Biltmore Baptist Church. Myers has been employed with BBC for the past 4 years and has a Master’s Degree in Christian Education. He and his wife, Michelle, live in Asheville with their 2 children, Noah and Cole, and are expecting their third child, a girl, due in August. Myers says he is very lucky to be a part of this church because they have an extensive network of employees, including a group of licensed therapists located in the Hope Network.

A church whose pastor and others in leadership have failed to put in place a proactive plan for discipleship for Believers is usually a “growing” church — growing stagnant, growing cold, growing spiritually immature Christians, and eventually, many growing closed. Patte said, “There is much at stake in accepting or rejecting the challenge of discipleship…” When a pastor or a church makes a conscious decision to make discipleship of Believers a primary focus in their

Let’s see what a spiritual leader can do and how Kotter’s theory of change can be applied at the Church Organization level. One important starting point in dealing with a

These surveys show that church leaders have a great challenge ahead of them in order to prevent people from leaving church. They have to be more effective and have to think of creative ways to retain people in the churches.

These systems historically have been fragmented and inadequate—causing program ineffectiveness and personal stress among pastors. The degree to which the African American pastors are effective is crucial to the health of the church. Pastors with strong support systems based upon sound theology, spiritual disciplines, management training, insurance systems, and outplacement services, have a better chance of producing strong effective ministries, as compared to unhealthy leaders producing unhealthy, ineffective leadership. Not only can ineffective leadership cause by certain types of stress and stressors produce poor ministries, but it can also produce unhealthy people living unhealthy doctrines. These issues have a spiritual effect on the pastors. These choices may lead to stress and, ultimately,

Victory Baptist Church is a case study of revitalization. It serves to show that it is possible that younger churches can become complacent very quickly when they experience growth at such an awesome rate. Victory Baptist Church seems to have a promising future in sight. One of the main goals of the associate pastor is to keep a sense of urgency and change occurring. Most of all, he know that this work cannot be done without the help of the Holy

I can’t recall not being a part of New Hope Baptist Church because when I was growing up my parents attended everything and they “had us in tow”. I remember being brought to church in the winter and my parents lining us up on the seats next to the potbellied stove. We were required to take care of our “personal business” before entering because we were not allowed to walk while the services were in progress. I really have a hard time understanding why some young people today cannot sit through an entire service right now today. As children the church conferences often baffled us. While watching and listening, sometimes things got into a disagreeable mode. As children, we thought those deacons were at odds with each other, but when they

May 1, 2016, the Mt. Olive Baptist Church, located in Greenwood (S.C.) County will celebrate its 142nd church anniversary. Many years Mt. Olive have been a church that loved people, gave without limits and took great care of its members. The last five of those one hundred and forty-two years, I have been honored to serve as pastor of this great church. Although this is a great church, Mt. Olive and many churches like it are plagued with a disease that has slowly, but surely, causing the church to drift further away from God and fall deeper into the ways of the world. This epidemic is known as “tradition”. Churches that are bound by tradition and not led by the Holy Spirit will find themselves missing the mark of what God has called us to do. The bible is filled with instructions for the church, but as Christians and Disciples of Christ, Matthew 28 is the foundation upon which we should be operating on in the church as well as in our lives. The Great Commission challenges us to “go, teach and preach to all nations.” Traditional churches will allow church tradition to dictate biblical doctrine. It will allow the church to argue about who’s right instead of what’s right. Sadly, church success has been based on structure and finances rather than saving lost souls.

Pastor Renfro, as he is known by those who have had the pleasure to meet him, defines servant leadership as “one of the many models of ministry, each of which describes how a particular minister understands his/her role and approach to ministry as a vocation, and a way of life.” Dr. John Renfro is currently senior chaplain at Conway Medical Center in Conway, South Carolina. He grew up in simple, rural South Carolina in Spartanburg County, and he benefitted from a family who had a personal deep connection with God. His simplistic beginning provides the anchor of stability in a turbulent world for his family and those whom he offers ministry. Pastor Renfro has felt that “ministry grows out of life, the life of an

In reflecting upon the topic of the role of the African American Church leadership the question must be ask. What is leadership? “Leadership is serving others that they might become what God wants them to be.” Leadership is the processes of helping a congregation embody the gospel of Jesus Christ. The church is in desperate need of a different leadership role model. Robert M. Franklin in “Crisis in the Village” points to the seductive danger of the prosperity movement. He demonstrates how the “god of greed” and the “god of entrepreneurial ship” have replaced the good news about Jesus Christ. Therefore, leaders experiences crises of integrity, compromising their churches and breeding skepticism and disillusionment. In one sense, the leadership

They want everyone that is attending their revival to receive salvation from Jesus. They focus on the children and wants all of them to be saved, having a special meeting just for children (79). The church wants the children to be saved so much. The preacher preaches a wonderful sermon, shouts, cries, scares children with dire pictures of hell, and then sang a song (79). In doing all of this, the preacher succeeded in getting responses from some of the children for salvation. Although some is not enough, for these members they want all of the children to be saved and start to put on the group pressure. They do this by crowding the children gathering around, praying, singing and crying by them (79). This method seems to be working the kids are getting up one by one till Langston is left alone (79). Now the group is really stepping up the pressure, everyone is praying, singing and crying for Langston’s salvation. The preacher himself asked Auntie Reed for Langston’s name so he can call him out personally. “Langston, why don’t you come? Why don’t you come and be saved? Oh, Lamb of God! Why don’t you come

For many members of Restoration Church, Pastor Art, as his name was often shortened, was the only pastor they personally knew. At age 27, when he assumed the pastorate of the church, the congregation consisted of approximately one dozen people who were extremely loyal to the traditions of church fathers and mothers. To that group of believers, with an average age of 70 years old, the presence of Arthur and Marian was both a fresh fragrance and a significant stench in the church. Their youthful ideas, vigor, and potential suggested that the church would experience great growth and increased vitality. That was refreshing. At the same time, their youthful ideas, vigor, and potential suggested that the church would experience great change, increased volatility, and major shifts in structure and power. That

A sentiment common to almost any organization is that the one fact that remains constant is change. As society changes, and human understanding grows, any organization that maintains a static posture, assures its demise. Churches and Christian organizations are no exception. The gospel may remain the same, but the method for communicating it must speak to the audience to assure understanding. The Christian leader must be prepared to meet this challenge by incorporating an effective model for change into his theology of leadership in order to keep the ministry relevant and effective. Searching for such a change agent can prove to be challenging as well. To aid in this search, four

Looking back at Dr. Jamal H. Bryant 's presentation entitled "Obstacles of Radical Transformation," Dr. Bryant stated that although he had served as a pastor for 15 years, he had only been pastoring his church for one year. He went on to state that his own failures were rooted in