Michael W. Foss

Pastoral leadership has always been challenging, but leaders today face unprecedented challenges. In such times, leaders can benefit from a wise mentor who understands the terrain and can chart a way forward. In Reviving the Congregation, Michael W. Foss, bestselling author of Power Surge, steps forward as that mentor.Bringing decades of experience in congregational life and leadership and a winsome style to the work, Foss offers a compelling introduction to the new context in which we lead, and the personal and congregational strategies that will offer a way forward.

Pastoral Leadership in a Changing Context

Reviving the Congregation

The book of Acts serves as our playbook for ministry as it prepares us for the active presence of God. Studying the book of Arts takes us back to the future. It shows the church how to trust in the active presence of God and inspire people to move from being mere members to bold disciples. As members become disciples of faith, they experience the unstoppable power of disciplined growth and divine purpose in Christian living.

Leadership Lessons from the Book of Acts

From Members to Disciples

Billy Graham

James Kennedy

Adrian Rogers

John A. Huffman, Jr.,

Thomas K. Tewell

Robert H. Schuller

Robert Anthony Schuller

William Bouknight

Reverend Chuck Smith

The authors are: Billy Graham, Adrian Rogers, John A. Huffman, Jr., Thomas K. Tewell, James Kennedy, William Bouknight, Reverend Chuck Smith, Michael W. Foss, Robert Anthony Schuller, Robert H. Schuller, Dr. Roger Swearington. Why bad things happen to good people is a topic that has increasingly captured my attention-and for two principal reasons: First, the number of dedicated Christians and Jews to whom this question seems to remain quietly disturbing-in times of personal crisis, occasionally even evoking a desperate plea: Why, God? Second, the effect upon agnostics. This appears even more devastating and often more decisive: "If this is how Christianity or Judaism works in times of need; if this is how God operates, I'm not interested!" Such is not an uncommon agnostic's response. There are, no doubt, a number of other personal, historical, sociological, and family factors in play, which would more precisely define any given agnostic's reluctance to accept God or to join a church or synagogue. World Audience Publishers, New York www.worldaudience.org

Answers, Antidotes, and Advice

Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

A powerful plan to transform church members into impassioned disciples.Drawing on his experience at Prince of Peace, Foss makes the case for transforming congregations from a membership model to a discipleship model of church affiliation. The book begins with a careful analysis of recent patterns in church membership/demographics which argue for this paradigm shift. Subsequent chapters detail the unique leadership and organizational needs of a discipleship model; explore the building and maintaining of fundamental trust-in God and in His people-as the cornerstone of the model; and provide practical helps for assessing the present and strategies for moving into the future. Addressed to rostered and non-rostered professional and non-professional church leaders interested in transforming their churches into centers for discipleship and mission, Power Surge makes the case for a dynamic, functional model of church affiliation that moves away from a membership model centered on prerogatives of membership to a discipleship model centered on the notion of Christian vocation/calling. It proposes a grace-centered, rather than legalistic, model of discipleship and builds a bridge through transferable principles between congregational mission mindedness and the individual Christian's life of faith. This book utilizes assessment tools and practical helps so that congregations can make the transition between membership and discipleship paradigms, as it draws on the experience of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church as a case study illustrating the principles of a discipleship model of church affiliation.

Six Marks of Discipleship for a Changing Church

Power Surge

Michael W. Foss

About

Books

Join the club