Pastors and Leaders Overview

What does it mean to be a leader in today’s Christian community? You will find great leadership conversation in some of these recent releases.
In The Leadership Ellipse Robert Fryling challenges leaders to "embrace the fullness of our calling - our internal relationship with God and our external relationship with others - to find an authentic, integrated way to lead." Robert Parrott maintains some lasting strategies for rising leaders in The Longview. He addresses some of the pressures that leaders feel to provide quick fixes to complex problems, produce immediate gains and provide nearsighted remedies instead of long-term solutions. In Spiritual Leadership by Henry and Richard Blackaby leaders will gain insight on how leaders can move people on to God's agenda. Don Cousins challenges leaders to let go of some leadership heresies in Experiencing Leadershift. Many will be familiar with Don as co-author of the gift-based curriculum, Network.

Churches everywhere are wrestling with what it means to "be and do church". Pressures of postmodernism and changing culture are challenging the relevancy of many beliefs and practices. The church has been described as being irrelevant and in many cases floundering to re discover its mission. All of this has resulted in healthy discussion and in many cases changes in practice.

Alarming survey results of the life and practice of Christians are revealed in Unchristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. It’s a must read! Leonard Sweet advocates a model of the Christ follower and thus the church to be one of a display of the missional life, the relational life and the incarnational life in So Beautiful. Watch for Len’s upcoming take on evangelism in Nudge. In Giving Church Another Chance by Todd Hunter, you will be drawn into Todd’s personal journey and struggle as a pastor who no longer was excited about going to church and troubled by much of the activity. Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck address many prevailing issues that the church is facing in Why We Love the Church - In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion. "These days, spirituality is hot; religion is not. Community is hip, but the church is lame. Both inside the church and out, organized religion is seen as oppressive, irrelevant, and a waste of time." Find out why Kevin and Ted love the church and Why We're Not Emergent. At the same time many 20-somethings are leaving the church in droves when they finish high school. The Slow Fade by Reggie Joiner, Chuck Bomar and Abbie Smith offer insight and suggestions and make a compelling case for personal, intergenerational relationships as a way to stop the slow fade.

Lots of great discussion is raging as how the church can best be culturally relevant and responsive. In The Next Evangelicalism, Soong-Chan Rah challenges the church of North America to diversify in terms of race, ethnicity and culture. The Justice Project is a compilation of many voices speaking into issues of justice. Andy Crouch advocates that the only way to change culture is to create culture in Culture Making. You can discover many examples of a church living out the missional life in Miles McPherson’s, Do Something.

Along with these categories of interest www.yourchurchzone.com is committed to provide you access to resources for theological study, ministry tools, counselling, spiritual formation and so much more.