Book: Scrappy Church

How many times have we heard these statements…
 “We can’t compete with the megachurch in our town!”
“A new church was started two blocks from us. We’ve got plenty of churches without them!”
“The church brought another one of their campuses near us. It’s totally unethical what they are doing.”
“We can’t reach young families. They all go to the big church that has all the children’s and student stuff.”
“We don’t have the money or the people the other churches have.”

Bestselling author Thom S. Rainer (I Am a Church Member, Autopsy of a Deceased Church) has heard comments like these hundreds, if not thousands, of times. They are statements of hopelessness. They are statements of despair. They are statements of defeat.

Church leaders don’t want to feel this way. They desire to break out of the mediocrity of the same, lame, and tame existence of their churches. They want their churches to make a difference.

There is hope. God’s hope. God’s possibilities.

What does a scrappy church look like? Let’s take a look together.

For more information including some free downloads visit https://thomrainer.com/scrappychurch/

Table of Contents

• Why you should have hope for your church
• Preparing to be a scrappy church
• The outward deluge of scrappy churches
• Scrappy churches are welcoming churches
• Scrappy churches close the back door
• The next scrappy church

Worship ideas: Christ the King Sunday

Christ the King Sunday is the most common name for the last Sunday of the Church Year, in the Revised Common Lectionary.  Other names for this Sunday include Day of Fulfillment, Doom Sunday, Reign of Christ Sunday, Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, and Return of Christ Sunday.   The Church of Wales in addition to Christ the King Sunday, has a season of the four Sundays before Advent, called Kingdom Sundays.   
Christ the King Sunday calls believers to focus on the theme that Christ has dominion over all of creation, with Jesus using His power to make possible freedom and a future for all people.   Christ the King Sunday ideally prepares us for Advent as we wait the coming Messiah.

For more information about the history and meaning of Christ the King Sunday visit
http://www.churchyear.net/ctksunday.html
Lutheran Forum

Worship ideas
Calvin Institute of Worship
Christian Resource Institute
David Beswick worship resources
Desperate Preacher
ELCA Pastor's worship order
Lutheran Church of Australia Worship Resources
Reformed Worship ideas
St Paul's Lutheran Church Sydney Worship Order
Textweek
United Methodist Worship
Worship Ideas
Worship Together -  Contemporary Song Suggestions

Children's Ideas
Kids Sermon
Sunday Children's Focus
Children's Sermon today
Morehouse Education 

Book: Little steps Big Faith

From brain science to language development and social skills, we've never known more about how children's minds develop in the first five years of life. Yet with all the information available, Christian parents may find themselves confused about how to apply these learnings to daily life with their children. In Little Steps, Big Faith, early childhood expert Dr. Dawn Rundman navigates the research to arrive at surprising insights about how very young children experience God, and how parents can use science to teach faith.

What others are saying
"Grounded in scientific research regarding child development, Dawn Rundman's book provides parents (and grandparents) of infants and toddlers with encouragement and practical tips for encouraging Christian faith formation. For parents who want their child to be well-rounded not only intellectually, physically, and emotionally, but also spiritually, this will be an invaluable resource!" --Beth Lewis, President & CEO Emeritus, 1517 Media

"What a gem of a book! With stories, clarity, humor, and remarkable insight into brain science and developmental psychology, Dawn Rundman provides wisdom for parents, pastors, and all who care about the faith formation of children. From beginning to end, you will find an enthusiastic companion here not judgment or guilt trips and you will learn, laugh, and feel empowered for the amazing journey of raising children in the faith." --Rev. Ann C. Svennungsen, Bishop of the Minneapolis Area Synod of the ELCA

"An important introduction to the brain science that Christian parents and caretakers need to know to help their children thrive. Dr. Rundman is an eloquent writer and an amusing guide." --Dr. Daniel J. Levitin, Bestselling author of This is Your Brain on Music and The Organized Mind


"Little Steps, Big Faith beautifully weaves together science, faith, and parenting. A welcome handbook for parents and pastors alike, Rundman's book utilizes her expertise in developmental psychology to give scientific rationale to the importance of steeping infants and toddlers in the language and practice of the Christian faith. Accessible, biblical, and practical, Little Steps, Big Faith is the perfect gift for new parents, baptismal sponsors, and anyone wishing to pass on the faith to the next generation." --Rev. Justin Lind-Ayres, Pastor and author of Is That Poop on My Arm?: Parenting While Christian

Table of Contents
Child Development +Faith: An introduction
Brain Development:  Experiences shape pathways
Attachment schemas:  Your love shows God's love
Language:  what we say matters
Literacy:  Introducing stories of faith
Music:  Your playlist makes a difference
Whole-body parenting:  Caring with touch and movement
Routines and rituals:  Do it then do it again
Community:  why churches are rich contexts
Now what?   How live it

5 intro to Advent videos

Book: Kingdom Communities

Kingdom Communities
An inspirational and compelling exploration of a spreading phenomenon that is breaking out in the most unlikely of places.

As attendance in churches is in plateau or freefall, small and growing numbers of people are turning to creative and relationally connected communities that shine the light of Christ with great effect and generosity. Kingdom Communities: Shining the light of Christ through faith, hope and love examines the rise of this diverse and organic movement that is popping up in neighbourhoods, regional towns, urban slums, brothels, aged care villages, schools, churches … indeed anywhere!


Using multiple case studies from across the region, Kingdom Communities explores this growing movement historically, biblically and theologically and uncovers the power of distributed networks for holistic Christian mission. In our age of disruption and rapid discontinuous change that has shaken religious institutions to their core, this book is both a challenge and major injection of hope for those who are passionate about the kingdom of God, Christian leadership, the future of ministry and the relational communities that the world desperately needs.

Using colour to enhance your message

Have you ever noticed how colours affect you?

There is a significant amount of research that suggests colours affect how people perceive and react to an organisation, product or idea.   
For instance Many fast food restaurants use a particular tone of red, because there is a belief and some evidence that suggests that particular tone of red encourages people to eat more.      

To explore how colour impacts how people perceive things visit:  
Church relevance 
Colour affects
Help Scout
Colour Psychology
NickKolenda
Very Well Mind
Psychology of Colour in Business
Wikipedia 

Now remembering that people not only understand messages from what they read or see, but how things look, then it is worth considering how can use colours to enhance the messages we give about the stories of God and His Good News. 

Book: Telling the truth - the Gospel as tragedy, comedy and fairytale

Telling the Truth is for the preacher who must pull the little cord that turns on the lectern light, must look out over the people and the silence, must begin to speak of a truth beyond telling. It is for the woman who wants to understand how people believe what they cheerfully acknowledge is a tragic, comic fairy tale. It is for anyone who believes that faith, like art, can hold a special mirror to human experience.
To understand what the gospels are all about, writes Frederick Buechner, you have to understand their unblinking reflection of everyday reality. There is no place here for either saccharine, happy endings, or soft-boiled hope. Rather, the gospels record the tragedy of human failure, the comedy of being loved overwhelmingly by God despite that failure, and the fairy tale of transformation through that love. If we understand this, we begin to understand much more. We realise that Pilate is an old man who drives to work in a limousine but smokes three packs a day. We see that the parables are divine jokes about the outlandishness of God who does impossible things with impossible people. We perceive the "once upon a time" of the gospel as a continual now, renewing itself over and over and over again. With grace and beauty, Buechner introduces us to this vision that, once found, cannot be forgotten.
Buechner says it best: "Let the preacher tell the truth. Let him preach this overcoming of tragedy by comedy, of darkness by light, of the ordinary by the extraordinary, as the tale that is too good not to be true because to dismiss it as untrue is to dismiss along with it that 'catch of the breath, that beat and lifting of the heart near to or even accompanied by tears,' which I believe is the deepest intuition of truth that we have."

Resource: Story Matters

The goal of Story Matters is to help congregations discover and articulate, in a deep and biblically based conversation, their unique identity and mission so that that each congregation might:
• Discern their congregational story within the biblical story
• Use their biblical story to discover and engage together their congregational
identity and mission

There are two main steps:
Discover and name our biblical story
Learn, live and share our biblical story

Download a copy of Story Matters at https://www.elca.org/Our-Work/Congregations-and-Synods/Faith-Practices/Story-Matters

Article: Models of Congregational Leadership

Nathan Frambach in his article Models of Congregational leadership, Nathan discusses congregational leadership including:

• Leadership in the contemporary context
• The Congregation as a warrant for leadership
• Theories of leadership
• The Jonah narrative as a biblical warrant for leadership
• Evangelical public leadership as a model for the congregation

To read the article visit

https://wordandworld.luthersem.edu/content/pdfs/20-4_Congregation/20-4_Frambach.pdf

Christmas Resource: The Really Good News of Christmas – For Me! (free)

In 2017 Australians loved this fresh telling of the Christmas story, and this year we they have improved the story to help churches reach children and families, with the book and resources.   The Really Good News of Christmas – For Me!

The Australian Bible Society are giving away the little books of The Really Good News of Christmas - For Me, along with digital resources. 

They would love everyone  to engage in the Bible story of Christmas.

To order your booklets visit https://www.biblesociety.org.au/goodnews/ 

To view the booklet visit https://issuu.com/biblesocietyau/docs/rgn2_samplepages_single/2

Book: Who moved my pulpit?

Who Moved My Pulpit? may not be the exact question you’re asking. But you’re certainly asking questions about change in the church—where it’s coming from, why it’s happening, and how you’re supposed to hang on and follow God through it—even get out ahead of it so your church is faithfully meeting its timeless calling and serving the new opportunities of this age.
Based on conversations with thousands of pastors, combined with on-the-ground research from more than 50,000 churches, best-selling author Thom S. Rainer shares an eight-stage roadmap to leading change in your church. Not by changing doctrine. Not by changing biblical foundations. But by changing methodologies and approaches for reaching a rapidly changing culture.
You are the pastor. You are the church staff person. You are an elder. You are a deacon. You are a key lay leader in the church. This is the book that will equip you to celebrate and lead change no matter the cost. 

The time is now.

Table of contents Chapter 1 When the Pulpit Gets Moved
Chapter 2 Five Kinds of Unmovable Church Members 
Chapter 3 Stop . . . and Pray 
Chapter 4 Confront and Communicate a Sense of Urgency 
Chapter 5 Build an Eager Coalition 
Chapter 6 Become a Voice and Vision for Hope 
Chapter 7 Deal with People Issues 
Chapter 8 Move from an Inward Focus to an Outward Focus
Chapter 9 Pick Low-Hanging Fruit 
Chapter 10 Implement and Consolidate Change 
Chapter 11 Life Is Short. Make a Difference.