Book: The Intergenerational Church: Understanding Congregations from WWII to www.com

In The Intergenerational Church, Peter Menconi shows you why understanding today's generations is crucial for the survival and thrival of the local church. But understanding the generations is not enough. 

In this book you will learn how to: - Minimize generational tension. - Get all the generations moving in the same direction. - Develop leaders from all generations. - Deliver intergenerational preaching. - Cultivate intergenerational worship and community. - Stimulate intergenerational mission and outreach.

Main sections
Intergenerational Realities
Understanding today's generations
Toward an intergenerational church

Book: Faith for Exiles - 5 Ways for a New Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon

Faith for Exiles focuses on helping people who live in a 2020 society where following Jesus can be challenging and even disheartening.

Some are experiencing Negative perceptions, Church dropouts, Prodigals and nomads. 
It's easy to get discouraged by all that's going wrong when it comes to Christianity and the emerging generation. 
Yet what's going right? 
In fact, signs of hope are springing up all around. In Faith for Exiles, the author of unChristian and You Lost Me unveils major new Barna research that uncovers what's working--five practices that contribute to resilience. Enter the world of resilient young adult Christians and learn how they are sustaining faith. Finally, you can find hope in all that God is doing among young disciples today.

In a world where always-connected smart devices and search algorithms educate and entertain, digital Babylon is the new context for discipleship. 
Faith for Exiles reveals findings from a groundbreaking three-year research study of young Christians whose faith remains resilient even in exile. Barna president David Kinnaman teams up with former executive director of Youth Specialties Mark Matlock to help you:
• Make sense of chaotic cultural changes and respond with compassion to the next generation of believers
• Recognize the biblical concept of exile as an essential framework for following Christ today
• Discover five research-based practices that cultivate faithfulness in digital Babylon
• Prepare young Christians to be on mission with Jesus in the world
• Empower Jesus followers of all ages to thrive in our current exile

Book: The Gospel Driven Church

Many evangelical churches face the problem of the open "back door"--even as new people arrive, older members are leaving, looking for something else. Combined with this problem is the discipleship deficit, the difficult truth that most evangelicals are not reaching the unchurched at the rates they think they are. In fact, many of the metrics that we often "count" in the church to highlight success really don't tell us the full story of a church's spiritual state. Things like attendance, decisions, dollars, and experiences can tell us something about a church, but not everything.

To cultivate a spiritually healthy church we need a shift in our metrics--a "grace-shift" that prioritizes the work of God in the lives of people over numbers and dollars. 
Are people growing in their esteem for Jesus? 
Is there a dogged devotion to the Bible as the ultimate authority for life? 
Is there a growing interest in theology and doctrine? 
A discernible spirit of repentance? 
And perhaps most importantly, is there evident love for God and for our neighbours in the congregation?

Leading a church culture to shift from numerical success to the metrics of grace can be costly, but leaders who have conviction, courage, and commitment can lead while avoiding some of the landmines that often destroy churches. Wilson includes diagnostic questions that will help leaders measure--and lead team transparency in measuring as a group--the relative spiritual health of their church, as well as a practical prescriptive plan for implementing this metric-measuring strategy without becoming legalistic.

Most attractional church models can lean heavily on making changes to the weekend worship gatherings. And while some of these changes can be good, thriving grace-focused churches are driven by a commitment to the gospel, allowing the gospel to inform and shape the worship service and the various ministries of the church.

Contents
Chapter 1: The Dilemma
Chapter 2: The Metrics That Don’t Tell Us Everything
Chapter 3: The 5 Metrics That Keep Us On Mission
i. A growing esteem for Jesus.
ii. A dogged devotion to the Bible.
iii. An interest in theology and doctrine.
iv. A discernible spirit of repentance 
v. An evident love for God and neighbour
Chapter 4: Putting the Gospel in the Driver’s Seat
Chapter 5: Steering from the Stage
Chapter 6: Building Your Service Around Beholding
Chapter 7:  Press the Gospel reset of the church community
Chapter 8:  Moving toward mission
Chapter 9:  The three things you will need
Chapter 10:  Leading change in a graceful way

Worship Planning Spreadsheet for 2019-2020 Year A

This Excel spreadsheet  assists with Worship Planning, using readings from the Revised Common Lectionary (Thematic).

Current fields include:  

• Date 
• Liturgical Day
• Liturgical Colour
• Old Testament Reading
• Psalm
• New Testament Reading 
• Gospel Reading 
• Alternative or off lectionary readings Reading
• Worship Order

• WORSHIP ELEMENTS
• Musicians:  
• Musicians:  
• Invocation/Call to Worship
• Confession
• CREED
• LORD'S Prayer
• Holy Communion
• Worship Activity
• Guests

• Music
• Opening Song
• Praise Song after forgiveness
• Kids Song
• Post Sermon Song/Offering Song
• Sending Song

You can add fields for your specific ministry

Developed originally for Sydney Lutheran Parish

You can download the spreadsheet at  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UzTWIvZKz3aTf61zFzSOjNvfk5PbseA_/view?usp=sharing

Devotion Book 2020: Time Out for Reflection

This book provides Christian devotions, by Australian writers, for each day of the calendar year.
In our time-poor society, each meditation is a ‘time-out’ of three to five minutes, and consists of a Bible reading, some thoughts on the passage, a ‘faith talk’ question to challenge you, and a short prayer. The writers’ thoughts are life-related and centred on the message of God’s love for people shown in Jesus Christ, and how we might reflect that love. They are suitable for individuals, families or groups.

Available from Australian Christian Resources 

Podcast for Young Adults: Revive

Revive is a Young Adult  ministry of Community Church of Hope West Des Moines (a Lutheran Church)
You can access their podcasts at: 
For Apple -  https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/revive-hope-west-des-moines/id1343889071
For Android - https://player.fm/series/revive-hope-west-des-moines

Revised Common Lectionary Year A 2019-2020 Calendar Poster free

Sola Publisher offers a free colour calendar for based on the Revised Common Lectionary Readings

This is available for download at https://www.solapublishing.com/free-worship-resources/273.html

Book: Word of Life - Introducing Lutheran Hermeneutics

Renowned Reformation scholar Timothy J. Wengert explores the genesis of Lutheran biblical interpretation by tracing the early work of Martin Luther, Melanchthon, and other Wittenberg exegetes. Their new approach led them to view Scripture in terms of "law and gospel," to read and translate the Greek and Hebrew text, and to focus on a theology of the cross and justification by faith. Luther and his colleagues found God working in the last place anyone would reasonably look: on the cross, in weakness and foolishness. Wengert demonstrates how these key historical and theological perspectives can be demonstrated in preaching, reflection, and teaching today. Using brief examples of preaching The Seven Last Word of Christ and reflecting on Luther's work on a variety of Psalms, the author provides a path for students and pastors alike to plumb the depth of Lutheran hermeneutics in their preaching and teaching.

Revitalising the church: January 2020

Each month we will have a serious of resources related to revitalising the church and congregations

Article:   Renewing Your Church: The Power of Revitalization

Book:      The seven pillars of church revitalisation and renewal

Podcast:  The Church revitalisation podcast

Course:   Renewing your church

Youtube: An introduction to church revitalisation

A story of church revitalisation