The Apathetic and Bored Church Member: Theological and Psychological Implications
John Savage, LEAD Consultants, Pittsford, New York, 1976, 142 pages, $5.95.
Why do people become inactive? The answers are based on the author's research project; his findings are important for an effective program of evangelism.
Assimilating New Members
Lyle E. Schaller, Abingdon, 1978, $4.95, paper.
Explains how to bring people into the church family and actively involve them in church programs. (Creative Leadership Series.)
Building an Effective Youth Ministry
Glenn E. Ludwig, Abingdon, 1979, $4-95, paper.
This handbook discusses the basic principles of organizing and leading youth groups. (Creative Leadership Series.) Church Growth: America Bimonthly publication of the Institute for American Church Growth, 150 South Los Robles, Suite 600, Pasadena, Calif., 91101. (Published by Win Am.)
Church Growth and Christian Mission
Donald McGavran, ed., William Carey Library, 1976, 256 pages, $4.95, paper.
Church Growth: Strategies That Work
Donald McGavran and George Hunter, Abingdon, 1980, $4.95, paper.
Current trends in the church growth movement are explored, along with effective strategies for church growth. (Creative Leadership Series.)
A Comprehensive Plan for Evangelism: Local Church Planning Guide
Harold K. Bales, Discipleship Resources, Nashville, Tennessee, 1978, $3.00.
Contemporary Christian Communications: Its Theory and Practice
James F. Engel, Thomas A. Nelson, 1979, $12.95.
This book looks at Christian communication and how to motivate conversion and spiritual growth.
Design for Church Growth
Charles L. Chancy and Ron S. Lewis, Broadman, 1978, $5.50, paper.
Down to Earth
John Stott and Robert Coote, Eerdmans, 1980, 276 pages, $7.95.
This book contains seventeen papers delivered at the Willowbank Consultation on the Gospel and Culture held in January, 1978. The three major sections are Focusing on Culture and the Bible; Culture, Evangelism, and Conversion; and Culture and Ethnic Ethics.
Effective Church Planning
Lyle Schaller, Abingdon, 1979, $5.95.
Forty Proven Ways to a Successful Church
Al Stauderman and Jim Morentz, Abingdon, 1980, $4.95, paper.
Global Church Growth Bulletin
Bimonthly publication of O. C. Minis tries, Box 66, Santa Clara, Calif., 95052 (Edited by Donald McGavran.)
Growth: A New Vision for the Sunday School
Charles Arn, Donald McGavran, and Win Arn, Church Growth Press, Pasadena, California, 1980, 152 pages, $5.95.
Three well-known specialists apply church growth principles to the Sunday school. Step-by-step directions are given for bringing effective growth and outreach to the Sunday school.
How Can I Get Them to Listen?
James Engel, Zondervan, 1977, $4.95, paper.
How Christians Grow
Russell T. Hitt, Oxford University Press, 1979. $7.95.
How Churches Grow in an Urban World
Francis Dubose, Broadman, 1978, $5.95.
How to Grow a Church
Donald McGavran and Win Arn, Regal Books, 1973, 180 pages, $4.25, paper.
How to Grow an Effective Sunday School
Elmer L. Towns, Accent Books, 1979, $3.95, paper.
How to Grow a Sunday School
Win Arn, Donald McGavran, Charles Arn, Christian Communication, 1980.
Leading Churches Through Change
Douglas Alan Walrath, Abingdon, 1979, $4-95, paper. (Creative Leadership Series.)
The author uses case studies of six churches, both rural and urban, and deals with the leadership principles that can emerge when change occurs.
The Living Church: A Guide for Revitalization
Donald J. MacNair, Great Commission Publications, Philadelphia, 1980, $4-50, paper.
Make Your Sunday School Grow Through Evaluation
Harold J. Westing, Victor Books, 1977, 120 pages, $1.95.
Making the Small Church Effective
Carl S. Dudley, Abingdon, 1978, $4.95, paper.
The Measure of a Church
Gene Getz, Regal Books, 1975, $2.25.
The Minister of Education as a Growth Agent
Reginald M. McDonough, Convention Press, 1978.
Ministering to Youth— a Strategy for the '80s
David Roadcup, ed., Standard Pub., 1980, 256 pages, $5.95, paper.
Roadcup has pulled together a broadly based handbook for youth ministers facing the uncertainty of the 1980s. Each chapter is written by a specialist in that phase of youth work and almost every phase is considered. A thirty-two page appendix is included that lists books and other resources.
Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth
C. Norman Kraus, ed., Herald Press, 1980, 176 pages, $5.95, paper.
Written from a Mennonite perspective, this book will challenge you with its high view of the church. It contains seven addresses on the history and theology of mission given in the Discipleship Lecture Forum series at Goshen College. Authors include Howard Snyder and Peter Wagner.
A New Face for the Church
Lawrence O. Richards, Zondervan, 1981, 288 pages, $6.95, paper.
A well-known Christian educator focuses on the basic issues facing the church today and suggests steps that can be taken at the local level to bring renewal and revitalization.
Organize to Evangelize: A Manual for Church Growth
Larry L. Lewis, Victor Books, 1980, $2.95, paper.
Our Kind of People: The Ethical Dimensions of Church Growth in America
C. Peter Wagner, John Knox, 1979, 163 pages, $8.95.
Paul's Idea of Community: The Early House Churches in the Historical Setting
Robert Banks, Eerdmans, 1980, $4.95, paper.
The Pastor's Church Growth Handbook
Win Arn, The Institute of American Church Growth, Pasadena, California, $4.95.
Planning Strategies for World Evangelization
Edward R. Dayton and David A. Fraser, Eerdmans, 1980, 537 pages, $14.95.
This is a management book, a how-to manual—but one that emphasizes thinking rather than doing. Since each situation is unique, the book suggests the use of a ten-step model to analyze and plan for each special missionary project. Goals are useful, not as end-alls, but statements of faith. The book is full of helpful charts, diagrams, graphs, and models.
Planting Churches Cross-culturally
David J. Hesselgrave, Baker, 1980, 462 pages, $12.95, paper.
Donald A. McGavran has written the foreword to this church-planting guide. It is a practical one-step-at-a-time approach for beginning work in a new community.
Racial Transition in the Church
James H. Davis and Woodie W. White, Abingdon, 1980, $5.95, paper.
This book is based on six years of research in twenty cities and hundreds of congregations. It studies ways the church leadership can cope with the challenge of our changing cities.
The Search for America's Faith
George Gallup, Jr., and David Poling, Abingdon, 1980, 153 pages, $8.95.
The authors report current trends and attitudes and predict a favorable future for religion in America in the eighties, especially for conservative churches. The first chapter deals with teen-agers, the second with the home and family values. Chapter three explores new feelings in the Catholic community. The results of a 1978 poll and a study of the unchurched American make up chapter four. The last two chapters look into the future of religion in America. A twenty-two-page appendix includes some of the poll data on which the six chapters were based.
Secrets for Growing Churches
Charles Myland, Harper & Row, 1979, 149 pages, $4.95.
This book is directed to church leaders and is similar to other church growth books. There are helpful sections, but readers may disagree with some of the author's basic concepts.
Strategy for Leadership
Red W. Engstrom and Edward R. Dayton, Revell, 1979, $8.95.
Survival Tactics in the Parish
Lyle Schaller, Abingdon, 1977, $4.95, paper.
Ten Steps for Church Growth
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Harper & Row, 1977, $3.95.
A Theology of Church Growth
George W. Peters, Zondervan, 1980, 368 pages, $8.95, softcover.
This full-length theological discussion of church growth principles is a first! It is not a polemic against the various other schools of thought. Neither does it apologetically defend church growth and multiplication, although the author believes this to be valuable. Rather, he draws church growth principles from the whole Bible, focusing primarily on those found in the book of Acts.
A Theology of Church Leadership
Lawrence O. Richards and Clyde Hoeldke, Zondervan, 1980, 425 pages, $12.95, cloth.
Christ's body, the church, is not an organization but an organism. The living head of the church, Christ Himself, is also a servant of the church. Based on these propositions and their implications, the authors argue that authoritarian and managerial attitudes are not appropriate to church leadership. The authority of leaders is for building; their position is to be that of servants. Church members are ends, not means; thus church activities should be people oriented, not project oriented. The book contains more than forty charts and several exercises for group interaction.
The Total Image: Or Selling Jesus in the Modern Age
Virginia Stem Owens, Eerdmans, 1980, 97 pages, $4.95.
This short book looks at the church's cultural accommodation and concludes that there are better ways of witnessing than copying Hollywood. Various contemporary approaches must be used, but the local church cannot be replaced as the primary evangelization unit.
Understanding Church Growth (revised)
Donald A. McGavran, Eerdmans, 1980, 488 pages, $12.95, paper.
McGavran updates his widely accepted treatise on church growth and applies its missionary principles to the North American situation.
Understanding Church Growth and Decline, 1950-1978
Dean R. Hoge and David A. Roozen, eds. Pilgrim Press, 1978, 398 pages, $9.95.
Where Have All Our People Gone? New Choices for Old Churches
Carl S. Dudley, Pilgrim Press, 1979, $5.95, paper.
Why Conservative Churches Are Growing (revised)
Dean M. Kelley, Harper & Row, 1977, $3.95, paper.
Your Church Can Be Healthy
C. Peter Wagner, Abingdon, 1979, $4-95, paper.
Eight common church growth problems are described; then the author uses illustrations from actual churches to show how churches can be made to operate effectively. (Creative Leadership Series.)
Your Church Can Grow: Seven Vital Signs of a Healthy Church
C. Peter Wagner, Regal, 1976, $3.95, paper.
Your Church Has Real Possibilities
Robert H. Schuller, Regal, 1975, $4.95, paper.
Youth Ministry: Its Renewal in the Local Church
Lawrence O. Richards, Zondervan, 1979, 364 pages, $11.95.