This book is written to help believers know they can be spiritually healthy and bring spiritual health to their local church bodies. It's not an attempt to present anything new or to discredit any spiritual thoughts or views. It will help Christians better manage what Jesus has already established - His church. Jesus says, "upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it"(Matthew 16:18). This is the assurance that the founder, foundation, formation, fellowship, future, and function of the church are right. However, members the body of Christ must have spiritual checkups by the power of the Holy Spirit, in order to keep themselves healthy for Christ. Its design is to assure Christians that they are following the divine mandates set by Jesus by bringing them into view of the spiritual and physical works of the church. It will resurrect Gospel Communication and Love, which many believers have allowed to remain dormant. It challenges people to open their hearts and mind to the Holy Spirit as He attempts to guide them into all truths through transformation, unity, and true spirituality. It will help women in the church discover their identities rather than search for their roles as they follow God's word more closely. It also helps believers depend on the resurrected Christ for their assurance. This book enhances (Jesus), but it helps us see the whole picture of the church and not just a few personal, isolated, individual views, trying to make sense. It will help settle doctrinal disputes and assist in church discipline. There are many ways spiritual health can be maintained in the church. I have pinpointed only a few to inspire believers to bring spiritual health to your life, the church and the lives of people everywhere.

More and more church leaders, pastors, and members are looking for guidance on how to practice church discipline in a biblical way. Here is a contemporary and concise how-to guide that provides a theological framework for understanding and implementing disciplinary measures in the local church, along with several examples of real-life situations. Drawing on both Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians 5, this brief hardback helps leaders face the endless variety of circumstances and sins for which no exact scriptural case study exists, sins which don't show up on any list and need a healthy framework to be corrected appropriately in love. This volume is part of the 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches series. Look for upcoming, quick-read formats of the following marks of a healthy church: expositional preaching, biblical theology, the gospel, conversion, evangelism, church membership, discipleship and growth, and church leadership.

"Sheep swapping", "shuffling of the saints"- Whatever you call it, many churches are growing only because Christians transfer from one church to another. What's more, many churches aren't growing at all. The problem, according to authors, Dann Spader and Gary Mayes, is that too many church calendars are filled with outdated, mediocre programs that have become more of a burden than a blessing. That, coupled with the fact that these programs minister almost exclusively to Christians, leaves little for the non-Christian "seeker" to get excited about. Growing a Healthy Church is not a list of trendy new programs for your church agenda. It is a journey of rediscovery. Spader and Mayes look closely at the four stages of spiritual growth in relation to outreach. Using the innovative "M-level" system, these gifted men show how a church can minister to all individuals regardless of their levels of maturity in potential service. This helps eliminate the mistakes of forcing new Christians into service that may overwhelm them or may leave the mature Christian unchallenged. Proven successful through SonLife and churches who have used this system, this resource will help you focus on the simplicity of Christ's ministry, enabling you to build an effective discipling strategy for your church.

Productive Leadership is a celebration of the small churches of America and the lasting legacy they have provided for the Christian landscape. Combining attributes of proven leadership with stories from the New Testament, it provides a practical guide for developing and maintaining fruitful ministry and is written for lay and clergy leaders in these small- to mid-size churches. Utilizing experiences from actual ministry situations, it uses both successes and failures to learn how to work together, taking the reader from assessing the cultural values of a church through discerning God’s vision for ministry and working together in leadership. Complete with step-by-step exercises for individuals, councils, and committees, the various chapters form a map for developing effective ministry in what often seems to be a futile mission field. Readers are invited to examine leadership qualities by identifying their own characteristics and competencies and how they are best used in working within the ministry of their local church. Well suited for individual readers, it is also a valuable resource for church councils to discover how they can best work together toward the fulfillment of their mission, making the most productive use of their time and resources. Anyone interested in the future ministry of small churches will find this book to be a valuable resource.

With nearly fifty years combined global church-planting experience, Craig Ott and Gene Wilson are well qualified to write a comprehensive, up-to-date guide for cross-cultural church planting. Combining substantive biblical principles and missiological understanding with practical insights, this book walks readers through the various models and development phases of church planting. Advocating methods that lead to church multiplication, the authors emphasize the role of the missionary church planter. They offer helpful reflection on current trends and provide best practices gathered from research and empirical findings around the globe. The book takes up a number of special issues not addressed in most church planting books, such as use of short-term teams, partnerships, and wise use of resources. Full of case studies and real examples from around the world, this practical text will benefit students, church planters, missionaries, and missional church readers.

As people face addictions, deal with loss and grief, and seek help in restoring broken relationships, where can they turn for counsel and assistance? The local church has been uniquely blessed with the gift of the gospel and is able to offer hope and counsel that no other institution on earth can. In Biblical Counseling and the Church, Bob Kellemen and Kevin Carson have assembled over twenty respected ministry leaders who examine the relationship between counseling and the church. This comprehensive resource, part of the Biblical Counseling Coalition series, helps leaders and counselors develop a vision that goes beyond being a church with a biblical counseling ministry to becoming a church of biblical counseling—a church culture that is saturated by “one-another” ministry. Divided into five parts, Biblical Counseling and the Church will help church leaders: Unite the pulpit ministry of preaching the Word with the personal ministry of the Word in counseling Offer practical and theological training to equip counselors Launch and lead a counseling ministry, regardless of the size of your church Bring together the relational focus of small group ministry with the ministry of care and counseling Better understand the relationship between biblical counseling, church discipline, and conflict resolution Learn how to use counseling in outreach through “missional” biblical counseling—moving biblical counseling beyond the doors of the church and into the world

In our world today there is no shortage of books and manuals that tell a person how a church should be planted. In most cases the books and manuals will highlight and specialize in one aspect or one methodology of church planting. The book, by its very title, Church Planting: This Is Not a Manual, sets itself apart from all the rest. Although certainly not a manual, it is filled with insights, real-life stories, and lessons learned through experience that will assist any church planter as he moves forward with his call from God to plant a church. This is the story of church planting as a lifestyle. Much of what a church planter needs when he gets to the field cannot be found in a manual. Much of what he needs is to be found in life experience lived at the feet of Jesus. Church planting is not a career choice. It is a calling to a lifestyle. The Agee family has lived the church planting lifestyle together for more than thirty-eight years. Their story of Gods call, Gods provision, Gods sustaining power, and Gods grace will be a blessing to all who will take the time to read this book.

Many pastors conceive of the church budget as primarily a financial tool, but in fact it is primarily a pastoral tool. A church's philosophy of ministry is locked into its budget, and so the budget will either stifle or accelerate any attempts to move a congregation toward a biblical model of church health. As such, the church budget is a far more potent pastoral tool than many church leaders realize. Budgeting for a Healthy Church examines each section of the budget in light of Biblical principles to show how a church budget can lock in healthy approaches to ministry. Whereas most books on church budgeting are "how" books, explaining how the budgeting process should work, this is a "what" book, helping church leaders determine the pastoral implications of what they choose to fund in their budgets.

In a world of competing voices about what church is all about, Gene Getz, with the wisdom God has granted him over decades of ministry, provides a solidly grounded and thoroughly biblical approach to how God assesses the strength, health, and maturity of a local church. Previously titled The Measure of a Church. He addresses... -The definition of the church -The standard of measure by which the church should be defined (Is it centered on Christ? Does it display the fruit of the Spirit? Is it growing in its ability to display faith, hope, and love?) -How does one measure leadership? -How does one measure worship? -What is the one, ultimate standard the church is measured by?