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Parish Growth Perspectives
A collection of resources relating to parish growth from the perspective of others.
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1   Link   Congregational Readiness for Visioning and Planning
Before I agree to work with a planning team, I determine if the leadership is ready for the test. Congregations are different. Some are doing great and don’t need to do developmental planning now. Others lack a readiness to plan. I have developed some characteristics of successful planning teams for leaders to consider. 		46
2   Link   Your Building Speaks
There is an ancient tradition that says structures—stones and bricks and locations—speak. They may not use words like humans do, but they do communicate meaning related to the events and experiences associated with them. 		46
3   Link   Planning to Grow
When churches plan, one of the things they often plan to do is grow. They have their reasons: the Great Commission, for one, and the fact that spreading the gospel is a main point of the congregation’s purpose. But when you get past polite chit-chat, other motives will assert themselves. 		53
4   Link   Church Design & Construction
Church Construction Blog dealing with church design, capital campaigns, church building, and church financing. 		18
5   Link   Raising the Roof: The Pastoral-to-Program Size Transition
Pastoral-to-program size change is frequently described as the most challenging of growth transitions for congregations. Now Alban senior consultant Alice Mann, author of The In-Between Church: Navigating Size Transitions in Congregations, addresses the difficulties of that transition in this resource designed specifically for a congregational learning team.
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6   Link   Memories, Hopes, and Conversations: Appreciative Inquiry and Congregational Change
When First Presbyterian Church in Altadena, California, was asked to provide a mission study report for its pastor nominating committee, the congregation was afraid that they would find themselves engaging in busy work and producing a report that would wind up in a file gathering dust. They then asked professor Mark Lau Branson to consult with them on writing this report, who invited them to join in a process of Appreciative Inquiry—a transformational organization change process—which resulted in a major shift in congregational conversations and a new sense of hope. 		4
7   Link   Holy Conversations: Strategic Planning as a Spiritual Practice for Congregations
Planning can be challenging in the contemporary congregation, where people share a common faith and values but may have very different preferences and needs. Much of the literature on congregational planning presents it as a technical process: the leader serves as the chief problem solver, and the goal is finding “the solution to the problem.”
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8   Link   Inside the Small Church
Even as so-called megachurches capture the attention of many church watchers, small congregations continue to dominate America’s religious landscape in both rural and urban settings. Although sometimes obscured by their larger siblings, these small churches play a prominent role and hold a unique place in both local and national cultures. How can leaders help to keep these often at-risk churches alive and to meet their potential for ministry? 		1
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