Church Growth Flywheel: 5 Practical Systems to Drive Growth at Your Church

Rich Birch

Are you ready to see your church impact more people than you have ever before? Are you tired of church leadership books that are long on theory but short on practical help? Have you wanted to reach more people in your community but you weren’t sure where to start? Are you worried that your church isn’t reaching its full potential?

Church Growth Flywheel: 5 Practical Systems to Drive Growth at Your Church is full of helpful insights to help your church reach more people starting today! Bestselling author, Rich Birch, has pulled together his own hard-fought experience leading within one of the fastest growing churches in the country as well as over 200 interviews with church leaders from prevailing churches.   ~Amazon

Anatomy of an Affair: How Affairs, Attractions, and Addictions Develop, and How to Guard Your Marriage Against Them

Dave Carder

When it comes to adultery, never say, “It won’t happen to me.”  Just when you think your marriage is safe from adultery is when you may be the most vulnerable. With eye-opening stories, clinical insights, and up-to-date data, Dave Carder reveals what adulterers learned the hard way—and what they want the rest of us to know to save us the pain.

Dave Carder, counselor and author of the bestselling Torn Asunder (100,000 in print), is a sought-after expert on issues of adultery. Here he helps you make your marriage adultery-proof by showing you: How attractions can lead to affairs; Ways you may be vulnerable to affairs; The common ingredients of adultery; How to restore intimacy to your marriage; How to make wise, protective decisions. Marriage is too sacred to be taken casually. Affairs are a very real threat, and they can destroy lives and families. For this reason, Anatomy of an Affair should be on every church leader’s and marriage counselor’s required reading list, and in the home of every married couple. ~Amazon

The Four Dimensions of Extraordinary Leadership: The Power of Leading from Your Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength

Jenni Catron

You have the capacity to become an extraordinary leader—if you are willing to embrace a deeper definition of leadership and take action to apply it. In The 4 Dimensions of Extraordinary Leadership, Jenni Catron, executive church leader and author of Clout, reveals the secrets to standout leadership found in the Great Commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

Weaving a winsome narrative filled with inspiring real-life stories, hard-won wisdom, and practical applications, Catron unpacks four essential aspects of growing more influential: your heart for relational leadership, your soul for spiritual leadership, your mind for managerial leadership, and your strength for visionary leadership. Leadership isn’t easy, but it is possible to move from ordinary to extraordinary. Jenni Catron shows the way. ~Amazon

Developing Female Leaders: Navigate the Minefields and Release the Potential of Women in Your Church

Kadi Cole

Learn how to more effectively leverage the leadership gifts and abilities of women in your church. What would your church look like in the future if it were to maximize the dormant gifts of the women God has brought there? In Developing Female Leaders, Kadi Cole, twenty-year veteran in leadership and people development, offers a practical strategy to help church and organizational leaders craft cultures that facilitate the development of women as volunteer and staff leaders.

Using interviews and surveys of more than one thousand women in key church and organizational roles, combined with current research, the author has created eight easy-to-implement “best practices” that help accelerate a woman’s organizational contribution. Thorough appendices and references add even more guidance for setting vision, milestones, and goals. Developing Female Leaders is a one-of-a-kind resource for identifying what is missing today in your church to help it flourish in the future.   ~Amazon

Managing Leadership Anxiety: Yours and Theirs

Steve Cuss

You can learn to handle the onslaught of internal and external pressures. Does anxiety get in the way of your ability to be an effective leader? Is your inability to notice when you and those around you are anxious keeping you “stuck” in chronic unhealthy patterns? In Managing Leadership Anxiety, pastor and spiritual growth expert Steve Cuss offers powerful tools to help you move from being managed by anxiety to managing anxiety.

You’ll develop the capacity to notice your anxiety and your group’s anxiety. You will increase your sensitivity to the way groups develop systemic anxiety that keeps them trapped. Your personal self-awareness will increase as you learn how self gets in the way of identifying and addressing issues.

Managing Leadership Anxiety offers valuable principles to those who are hungry to understand the source of the anxiety in themselves and in the people with whom they relate. Readers will be empowered to take back control of their lives and lead in mature and vibrant ways. ~Amazon

Crisis Leadership: Personal Accounts From Leaders Who Found Their Way and Thrived

Scott Barfoot and David Fletcher–Editors

Crisis Leadership takes a fresh and compelling look inside the hearts, minds and personal stories of nine remarkable leaders who battle challenging crises in the frontlines of life and ministry. This short read is packed full of vital wisdom, hope and encouragement to help you be even more effective in your place of leadership.

People Patterns: Discovering Giftedness in the Sunlight and Shadow of Relationship

David Fletcher

There are Five People Patterns of how we talk to ourselves and relate to others. We all have Sunlight and Shadow in our lives. Artists and great authors have painted pictures with oils and words to show the light and dark in human relationships. Rembrandt van Rijn, the great Dutch artist, often painted using a strong light source, creating deep shadows on his subject. Some of the uniqueness that is you is easy to see. Another part of you is much harder to understand.

To see our Sunlight and Shadows, we can use the Five People Patterns: Mentor—coach and develop others; Administrator—set rules for successful living; Catalyst—spur others on to new levels of success; Relational—bring harmony and compassion to others; Overseer—keep people on track and organized. As sunlight falls on you, others can easily see who you are. In deep shadows, it is far harder for others to see you. In the same way, we reflect our personality to others in the Sunlight Pattern. In the sunlight we show our strengths for all to see. Our Shadow contains our weaknesses and limitations, things that are awkward or harder for us to do. In the bright sunlight we see our strengths and in the shadows we see our limitations. Sunlight and Shadow form the People Pattern.

Smart Money for Church Salaries 

David Fletcher

In this book, David Fletcher provides numerous illustrations and examples that reflect many years of experience as an executive pastor in a large church environment. He offers both principles of good stewardship and practical solutions to the myriad of challenges inherent in addressing the staffing and related compensation realities of churches of any size. —Dr. Gene A. Getz   Professor, Pastor, Author

… an excellent and practical book that combines both a massive amount of research inside an engaging format. David Fletcher has delivered a brilliant work in writing the story of WheatFields Good News Church, using a story format and compiled case study method. This book will help you pay church staff with confidence, wisdom and good biblical stewardship. From charts and graphs to lots of examples, this book is a must for senior staff and church financial leaders. Now you can’t say,”I didn’t know.” —Dan Reiland  Executive Pastor, 12Stone Church, Lawrenceville, Georgia

Unfortunately, most churches and church leaders have very little training or context to lean on when it comes to setting salaries. David Fletcher has done the body of Christ a big favor by producing a book that covers both the mythological and philosophical issues that every church with a paid staff must deal with. You may or may not agree with everything he suggests. That’s not the issue. Grappling with these real-life issues is the issue. I recommend it to you and your team. —Larry Osborne   Pastor and Author, Vista, California

Empowering Leadership: How a Leadership Development Center Builds Better Leaders Faster

Michael Fletcher

A major problem in the local church today is lack of leadership. Simply put, we have more needs than we have leaders to meet those needs. So, how do we train better leaders faster? The truth is, very few churches really have a well-thought-out leadership development plan. Growth requires continually adding healthy new leaders, who carry the church culture forward and embody its core values. Everyone knows it, but how do we achieve it?

In Empowering Leadership, author and leadership consultant Michael Fletcher says leaders like this can’t simply be bought, nor can they be hired from someone else’s leadership assembly line. Developing leaders at every level, to create an environment that attracts potential leaders, and to build better leaders faster, an organization needs more than a pipeline. It needs a culture that develops leaders organically. Finding the right kind of leaders to guide your church on a path of continual growth comes out of keeping the right focus, and that focus is not just on the leaders. If your church or organization needs a good leadership development structure, then you’re holding the right book. Empowering Leadership details Michael’s greatest insights on how to build better leaders faster by creating a leadership development culture in your church or organization—naturally, organically, continually. Empower your church or organization through great leadership.  ~Amazon

No Silver Bullets: Five Small Shifts that will Transform Your Ministry

Daniel Im

What if I told you that you were only one step away from unlocking new levels of maturity and growth in your church? The myth of the silver bullet still exists because we desperately want it to. We all prefer quick fixes and bandage solutions to the long, hard, slow work that produces real change. So the moment we learn about a new ministry or strategy and see its effect in another church, we run to implement it in our own. Unfortunately, this impulse is usually met by opposition, skepticism, and ultimately, rejection.

What if the solution isn’t a new model or a complicated strategy, but a shift in perspective? What if you could keep your church’s current vision, values, and model, and simply make a few micro-shifts … leading to macro-changes?

This book explores five micro-shifts that have the potential to produce macro-changes in your church. As you read, you will discover how to integrate these micro-shifts into the life of your church, starting with the way you disciple. You will finish by developing a plan to structure, communicate, and evaluate these changes to ensure that they take root and pave the way for lasting change and kingdom impact.   ~Amazon

The Multiplication Effect: Building a Leadership Pipeline that Solves Your Leadership Shortage

Mac Lake

Do you wish you had more qualified, committed, and mission-oriented leaders in your church to share the ministry workload? Do you have a passion for cultivating the God-given leadership gifts in others? Most pastors say that the need to identify and develop leaders is critical to the health and growth of their church, yet most churches do not have an intentional plan for doing this. In The Multiplication Effect, Mac Lake reveals his practical, biblical, and proven strategy for addressing this leadership shortage and equipping future leaders to fulfill their kingdom mission.

In this book, Mac Lake will help you: Identify potential leaders using unique training modules; Equip and disciple leaders at every level of their leadership journey. Empower leaders to multiply themselves by developing other leaders. Inspired by the greatest leadership example of all, Lake writes, “Jesus was a master of leadership development who saw something in people and then patiently walked with them to transform their spirit and their skills.”

Learn how to lead like Jesus and create a culture of multiplying leaders to expand God’s work in your community and beyond. ~Amazon

Liquid Church: 6 Powerful Currents to Saturate Your City for Christ

Tim Lucas and Warren Bird

In today’s fluid culture, many churches are adrift—longing to reach spiritually thirsty people, but failing to make an impact. Have you noticed? Congregations are stuck or declining. Millennials and Gen Z are walking away. Volunteers and their generosity are drying up. Is your city, town, or neighborhood spiritually dry? Do you long to see more of the living water of Jesus flowing freely through your community, generating a fresh wave of ministry momentum? Buckle up: you’re in for a whitewater ride!

Liquid Church tells the fascinating story of a New Jersey church that began “on accident” and grew into one of America’s 100 Fastest-Growing Churches, with over 5,000 in weekly attendance and more than 2,400 baptisms to date. Their secret? They harnessed the power of six powerful ministry currents sweeping across North America including: special needs, creative communication, ministry mergers, compassionate cause, radical generosity, and leadership development.

With powerful stories and scriptural insights, backed by national research, Tim Lucas and Warren Bird describe dozens of fresh ideas, new ministry wineskins, and hard-won leadership learnings that resonate with rising generations in today’s “show-then-tell” culture. Each chapter includes practical tools, real-life examples, and links to “Other Churches Making Waves” with cutting-edge ministry ideas designed to help saturate your city for Christ.

Ready to dive deeper? Whether you serve a brand-new church plant, fast-growing congregation, or an aging ministry ready for reinvention, Liquid Church is an inspiring and practical guide for leaders ready to reach their spiritually thirsty neighbors—those who have given up on church, but haven’t given up on God. ~Amazon

Leading a Church in a Time of Sexual Questioning: Grace-Filled Wisdom for Day-to-Day Ministry

Bruce B. Miller

This book gives biblical guidance for ministering God’s love in a sexually diverse culture. In a time when sexual norms are changing rapidly, how can a local church be a place of grace—a loving community for all kinds of people—where everyone can flourish and disagreements are overcome in a Christlike spirit while at the same time staying true to biblical standards?

In a way that appeals to pastors and lay leaders alike, Bruce offers a biblical theology of sexuality and provides practical wisdom for how a church can approach ministering to, and alongside, people who identify their sexuality in diverse ways: LGBTQ+. Here is a church-tested program full of wise pastoral insights to help church leaders think through day-to-day decisions, such as how to handle baby dedications, small groups, who can serve, membership, baptism, retreats, the Lord’s Supper, weddings, funerals, teaching, hiring, and caring for those caught in sin. If you are a leader who is facing any of these challenging issues and decisions, then this practical, grace-filled book is for you.  ~Amazon

The Unstuck Church: Equipping Churches to Experience Sustained Health

Tony Morgan

Think about your church for a moment. Is it growing? Is it diminishing? Is it somewhere in between? Acclaimed church leader, blogger, and founder and chief strategic officer of The Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan has identified the seven stages of a church’s lifecycle that range from the hopeful and optimistic days of launch, to the stagnating last stages of life support.

Regardless of the stage in which you find your church, it carries with it the world’s greatest mission—to “go and make disciples of all the nations …” With eternity at stake, the Church should be doing most everything within its power to see lives changed forever. The Church should strive for the pinnacle of the lifecycle, where they are continually making new disciples and experiencing what Morgan refers to as “sustained health.”

In The Unstuck Church, Morgan unpacks each phase of the church lifecycle, and offers specific and strategic next steps the church leader can take to find its way to sustained health … and finally become unstuck. The Unstuck Church is a call for an honest assessment of where your church sits on the lifecycle, and a challenge to move beyond it.   ~Amazon

God Over Good

Luke Norsworthy

It’s hard to say that God is good when God isn’t always what we expect good to be. A good father wouldn’t make it so difficult to get to know him, would he? And if God is all-powerful, wouldn’t he ensure that we never suffered? Either our understanding of God is incorrect, or our definition of good is inadequate.

In a world that is messy and a church that is imperfect, it’s easy to let our faith be lost. But that doesn’t mean we have to lose God. It means we must consider the fact that perhaps our idealized expectations are just plain wrong. With transparency about his own struggles with cynicism and doubt, pastor Luke Norsworthy helps frustrated Christians and skeptics trade their confinement of God in an anemic definition of good for confidence in the God who is present in everything, including our suffering.   ~Amazon

Scrappy Church: God’s Not Done Yet

Thom S. Rainer

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. ~Amazon

How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge: Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority

Clay Scroggins

Are you letting your lack of authority paralyze you? One of the greatest myths of leadership is that you must be in charge in order to lead. Great leaders don’t buy it. Great leaders lead with or without the authority and learn to unleash their influence wherever they are.

With practical wisdom and humor, Clay Scroggins will help you nurture your vision and cultivate influence, even when you lack authority in your organization. And he will free you to become the great leader you want to be so you can make a difference right where you are. Even when you’re not in charge.  ~Amazon

Culture Wins: The Roadmap to an Irresistible Workplace

William Vanderbloemen

The roadmap to making your company a great place to work in today’s job-hopping culture starts right here. What could your company accomplish if it could attract and retain employees who buy into your organization’s mission 100%? Culture Wins is a practical yet challenging modern guidebook for organizations that want to own the future. Its firsthand insights into building a contagious culture will drive sustainable growth and innovation for any organization. You will build a healthy workplace, increase revenue, and change the world with the lessons you’ll learn. Stop losing employees, grow your team, and build a contagious company culture that outlasts the competition.

There are books on general team building, there are books on workplace best practices, and there are books on leadership—but there is not a book that shows forward-thinking leaders how to integrate it into today’s new job-hopping culture. William Vanderbloemen uses his company’s proven experience in staffing and organizational consulting to provide a global perspective of effective, thriving cultures—and how to create them.   ~Amazon

Don’t Just Send a Resume: How to Find the Right Job in a Local Church

Benjamin Vrbicek and William Vanderbloemen

When God says, “Follow me,” do you know how? If you work in Christian ministry, it’s likely that at some point in your career God will call you from one church to another. Do you know how to make this transition effectively? Moving can be scary and full of questions: Where do I start the job search process? Which people do I talk with, and what do I send to them? How do I know if my family and I will fit in at a new church? And how do I tell people I’m leaving?

This book is intended to help you answer those questions so that the hiring process goes well. And when the hiring process does go well, a lot of pain can be avoided—for the pastor and the church. What we pastors need is solid coaching that is theologically informed and practically oriented. We need to know how the gospel empowers us to interview with both humility and confidence. We need anecdotes from real hiring processes, and we need detailed strategies for every step of the way, so we can transition with excellence, protect our families, respect the church, and honor God.

Don’t Just Send a Resume also features short contributions by twelve published authors and ministry leaders, including: Chris Brauns, Cara Croft, Dave Harvey, David Mathis, J. A. Medders, Sam Rainer, Chase Replogle, William Vanderbloemen, Kristen Wetherell, Jared C. Wilson, and Jeremy Writebol. ~Amazon

High Impact Teams: Where Healthy Meets High Performance

Lance Witt

No matter how big an organization, we all do ministry with a team, whether paid or volunteer. Anyone who has been part of a great team knows it’s something special. When there is good chemistry, everyone is operating from their sweet spot, the objectives are clear, and kingdom progress is being made, it is incredibly fulfilling and fun. On the flip side, we’re painfully aware what happens when there is dysfunction in the team—stress, tension, politics, and posturing. It’s not much fun for anyone, and we end up squandering our divine assignment.

Lance Witt, founder of Replenish ministries and a former executive and teaching pastor at Saddleback Church, knows what it takes to keep teams functioning at the highest level of impact. He shows leaders how to build next-level teams that are spiritually, emotionally, and relationally healthy and productive and high-performing. Short, to-the-point chapters make the book easy to digest and the perfect resource for your team to read through together.  ~Amazon