Recovering Hope for Your Church

H Hammett Edward

Description

"Why?" seems to be on the lips of many church, judicatory, and denominational leaders today. "Why has our church plateaued?" "Why are so few young leaders going into church-based ministries?" "Why are so few interested in church these days?" Recovering Hope uncovers the "whys," creating space to embrace new realities, commit to the tough road of recovery, and develop new skills, structures, and ministry designs through a process of spiritual discernment, congregational coaching, and a deeper reliance on the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Eddie Hammett, a Professional Certified Coach and Church and Clergy Coach for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina, provides a step-by-step process of hope and health to encourage, guide, and inspire pastors, leaders, churches, regions, and denominations that recovery of hope is possible. A TCP Leadership Series title.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian Church
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Christian Board of Publication
• Date de parution: 30 août 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780827232297
• Langue: English

Extrait

I challenge anyone to read this book without having a holiday in their heart. Hammett not only showcases how hope is the distinguishing mark of a vital church, but turns this book into a rope of hope to transform no-hope and low-hope living into high-hope communities of faith.
Leonard Sweet, Author, Professor (Drew University, George Fox University) Chief Contributor to sermons.com
In Recovering Hope for Your Church , Eddie Hammett offers an excellent resource for congregational leaders seeking to help their church move into a healthy and vital future. Using the analogy of diagnosing and treating the human body, he presents treatment options based upon biblical examples, current change research, and his own extensive experience working with congregations. This book gives leaders tools for assessing a church s current condition, and its possibilities for innovation and spiritual transformation.
Peggy Hinds, Congregational and Leadership Coach Educator and Mid-Council Leader, Presbyterian Church (USA)
Recovering Hope for Your Church is practical, accessible, and saturated with wisdom. It will help you deal with congregational realities from church bullies to fear of change, from being overprogrammed to thinking you re friendly when you re actually not, from refocusing your purpose to developing a healthy culture, and so much more. A gift for pastors and lay leaders alike from a wise and seasoned coach.
Brian McLaren, Author, Speaker, Activist
Eddie Hammett knows congregational ministry. He begins this discussion with Why? and leads us to How! Eddie takes us on a fascinating journey from the institutional church that is focused purely on itself through the Missional church to its next expression. The Incarnational Church is a transformed, redeemed body of Christ. Along the way, Eddie poses coaching questions that give readers opportunities to think, reflect, and act. This is pure Hammett at his best, insightful, informational, inspirational!
Bo Prosser, Ministries Coordinator Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
In many ways the church of Jesus Christ is not healthy and it s losing hope. That s why Eddie Hammett s book is the right word at just the right time. Drawing upon his personal experience as well as expertise in congregational coaching, Eddie offers pastors and church leaders a way to rediscover hope and experience new energy for the future. Through his diagnosis of the times, as well as his coaching resources, pastors and church leaders will be able to embark on a journey of dreaming and discovery that will reenergize their passion for Christ as well as the Great Commission. If you feel your church is stuck, your next step needs to be to go and purchase this book. It will be your first huge step toward renewal.
Scott Wagoner, Pastoral Minister Deep River Friends Meeting (Quaker)
Facing a life-threatening health crisis creates an opportunity to discover the truths of recovering hope for congregations with uncertain futures. Eddie Hammett brings his years of congregational work and coaching experience to face his own uncertainty and in doing so discovers a way of transformation for churches struggling to stay alive in a context of change. Congregational coaching in Recovering Hope is the yes to the question of how. Intentionality, truth telling, honest conversation, teachable moments, laughter, struggle, and hospitality are coached practices that create shared passion and move churches forward. When top-down hierarchies of power and pre-planned agendas are set aside, the Spirit finds welcome in this sacred space of being together. Recovering Hope shares stories of congregational transformation and provides the tools for churches and coaches to find the courage to let go of what threatens health and embrace that which brings new life.
Carol Morgan, Chaplain North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
Eddie Hammett offers a pinpoint diagnosis of the challenges facing 21st-century churches in a changing culture. Framed through the lens of his health crisis, Hammett s thirty years of working, consulting, and coaching with ministry leaders provides a front row seat on the issues many churches face. His stories and insights, coupled with pertinent questions and assessment tools in each chapter, offer hopeful prescriptions for a coach approach process encouraging church leaders to embrace a Spirit-led future.
Greg Rogers, Pastor, Oakmont Baptist Church Greenville, North Carolina
Recovering Hope for Your Church gives congregations the needed tools to enter into a time of self-examination and discernment in order to transition from being a church going through the motions to becoming a church on the move. Hammett challenges congregations to rethink the roles of the pastor and laity, inviting us to embrace a new paradigm of leadership and shared ministry necessary for the Christian witness to be effective in today s ambiguous and not-religious-but-spiritual culture. Every church can benefit from this resource!
Ginger Howe Isom, Christ United Methodist Church Greeneville, Tennessee
In his new book Recovering Hope for Your Church , Eddie Hammett uses questions, imagery, and narrative to challenge individuals and churches to move the church of God forward in faith and function. If you want to consider how to re-tool for personal and congregational transformation, check out Eddie s book today.
Ka thy Gore Chappell, Leadership Development Coordinator Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina
Eddie Hammett, consummate student of congregational life, has written an excellent and informative book for church leaders. Eddie taps into his personal medical crisis and subsequent dramatic lifestyle changes required to regain health as a metaphor for challenges congregations face today. The fact that 92-95% of churches are plateaued or declining confirms church infection must be acknowledged and addressed. Most congregations have difficulty shifting their standard operating procedures. Many are content with the status quo. Hammett asserts a coach can ask good and powerful questions to awaken the consciousness of congregational leaders to the necessity of re-formation. Hammett s love for the church is evident on every page of his book. He is not content to simply diagnose problems facing congregations; Eddie offers practical advice, a toolbox of creative and innovative ideas, myriad lists and charts, seasoned wisdom, and stories from congregations that found spiritual vitality through engaging the coaching process. For leaders who sense their churches need spiritual infusion, Recovering Hope for Your Church is a must read! Be ready! You will likely find yourself in the market for a good congregational coach!
Terry Maples, Field Coordinator Tennessee Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
Recovering for Your Church
Key Leadership Resources from www.TCPBooks.info

George W. Bullard Jr. Every Congregation Needs a Little Conflict FaithSoaring Churches Pursuing the Full Kingdom Potential of Your Congregation
Richard L. Hamm Recreating the Church
Edward H. Hammett Recovering Hope for your Church: Moving beyond Maintenance and Missional to Incarnational Engagement
Making Shifts without Making Waves: A Coach Approach to Soulful Leadership
Reaching People under 40 while Keeping People over 60: Being Church to All Generations
Spiritual Leadership in a Secular Age: Building Bridges Instead of Barriers
Gregory L. Hunt Leading Congregations through Crisis
Cynthia Woolever and Deborah Bruce Leadership That Fits Your Church: What Kind of Pastor for What Kind of Congregation
The Sustaining Pastoral Excellence Peer Learning Team So Much Better: How Thousands of Pastors Help Each Other Thrive
Larry McSwain The Calling of Congregational Leadership: Being, Knowing, Doing Ministry

For more leadership resources, see www.TheColumbiaPartnership.org www.TCPBooks.info
Recovering for Your Church
Moving beyond Maintenance and Missional to Incarnational Engagement
Edward H. Hammett
Copyright 2014 by Edward H. Hammett.
All rights reserved. For permission to reuse content, please contact Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], www.copyright.com .
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Bible quotations marked NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked NASB is taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE , Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.
Biblical quotations marked REB are from The Revised English Bible copyright Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press 1989. The Revised English Bible with the Apocrypha first published 1989.
Quotations marked Message are from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
Cover art: depositphotos.com Cover design: Scribe, Inc.
Print: 978-08272-32280 EPUB: 978-08272-32297 EPDF: 978-08272-32303
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hammett, Edward H., author. Recovering hope for your church : from maintenance to missional and incarnational engagement / Edward H. Hammett. pages cm Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-8272-3228-0 (pbk.) 1. Church renewal. 2. Church. 3. Pastoral theology. 4. Hope-Religious aspects--Christianity. I. Title. BV600.3.H38 2014 262.001'7-dc23
2014022988
www.TheColumbiaPartnership.org www.TCPBooks.com
CONTENTS
Editor s Foreword
Acknowledgments
Preface: The Power of Why
PART