Has your church fallen into a predictable routine? Is it drifting without purpose or resolve? Put an end to that by using Lyle E. Schaller's potent prescription for passive churches. Written for both lay and ordained congregational leaders, this timely book diagnoses the causes of church passivity, and formulates a method for combatting the problem. Dr. Schaller classifies churches according to their internal dynamics (rather than denomination or geographical location), and demonstrates how many have overcome the "twenty-year syndrome" - that awkward time when relatively new churches tend to lose their sense of direction. He also shows how churches can make a smooth transition from one pastor to another, and how new members can be used in establishing an effective church program. The cumulative result of twenty years of experience in parish trouble-shooting, Dr. Schaller's new book will be welcomed by church leaders everywhere who face the dreaded spectre of church passivity.

Activating The Passive Church Paper

Schaller, Lyle E.

Religion & Spirituality

ABINGDON PRESS *

Of Lyle Schaller's 21 signs of the New Reformation, here are five: (1) a new era in Christian music; (2) hundreds of new information resources for congregations, including parachurches, teaching churches, independent entrepreneurs, theological seminaries, profit-driven businesses, retreat centers, and independent mission-sending agencies; (3) market-driven planning; (4) a new level of trust in the laity; and (5) the flattening of hierarchical structures.

The New Reformation: Tomorrow Arrived Yesterday (Ministry for the Third Millennium Series)

Christian Books & Bibles

How do you reach new members and help them adapt to the local church more effectively? In Assimilating New Members by Lyle E. Schaller, a recognized church planner, shows how to reach more people, bring them into the local church family, make them feel at home, and keep them active. Mr. Schaller discusses those things that attract and hold new members. he shows how to evaluate the local church recruitment and assimilation processes, recognize and avoid counter-productive behavior, and make the congregation more effective by involving more members in the ongoing life of the church.

Assimilating New Members Paper

Changes in denominational life in North America have left congregations with two difficult choices. On one hand, they can choose to act as though their ministries and programs can still best be established by national denominational offices. On the other hand, they can choose to act as though their denominational identity is completely irrelevant to their mission. Underlying these difficult choices, writes Lyle E. Schaller, is the tremendous flux in the relationship between national denominations and their member congregations over the last forty years. The fact that relatively few visitors choose to affiliate with a congregation on the basis of denominational identity leads some to conclude (incorrectly) that the interdependence and cooperation between congregations of similar heritage and background is unimportant. At the same time, others conclude (also incorrectly) that there is nothing wrong with current denominational structures and that congregations need simply to align themselves with their denomination's directions more thoroughly. To these bad choices, Schaller proposes an alternative. He observes that many congregations already seek to extend their mission and make their ministries more effective by participating in affinity networks--groups of congregations that share particular goals and visions. Schaller suggests the establishment of such networks within, rather than outside of, denominations. He argues that they should be established on the judicatory level. Rather than making state or regional boundaries the organizing principle by which congregations within a denomination align themselves, why not form judicatories around a particular sense of mission, or distinctive theological stands? Schaller concludes that allowing and encouraging the formation of such affinity networks will recognize the differences between congregations within a denominations as the strength it truly is, and will, foster a greater unity of purpose between the denomination's churches.

From Geography to Affinity: How Congregations Can Learn From One Another

This book should be read by all concerned with the growing controversy over the church's participation in public affairs.

Community Organization: Conflict and Reconciliation

Abindgon Press

There are many questions that leaders of small-membership congregations ask themselves about their church's future. Lyle Schaller suggests that two in particular should rise to the top of the list. First, what's the right size of for a church? Is the small congregation averaging two or three dozen people at worship a legitimate order of God's creation? You bet it is, says Schaller. Second, should these congregations make their plans on the basis of few resources and fewer options, or should they see themselves as possessed of pools of talent and expanding possibilities? If you are convinced that the former is true, then this book is not for you. If, however, you are among those who believe that small-membership churches are distinctive places of Christian witness and service, spreading the gospel and living in service to the world in ways that other, larger churches are not, then this book is for you. In it you will find the right questions to ask as you seek to lead a small-membership congregation, and solid, practical guidance for doing so.

Small Congregation, Big Potential: Ministry in the Small Membership Church

Declaring himself an unabashed optimist, Lyle E. Schaller looks back at four decades of observing religious life in North America and concludes that the church has far more reason for hope than for worry as it charts its course into the next forty years. Acknowledging that the roles of parish pastors and leaders have become increasingly complex, he also points out that these leaders can be far better equipped to contribute to congregational vitality and growth than were their predecessors a generation ago. Schaller draws on his own work, as well as that of others, to point to crucial lessons learned in evangelism, multiculturalism, stewardship, worship, communication, and other areas. He concludes that, armed with these tools, the lay and clergy leaders of congregations can be more faithful and more effective in leading their churches in the path God has chosen.

What Have We Learned?: The Best Thinking on Congregational Life

Politics & Social Sciences

Sociology

A proposal for ways congregations and their denominations can reinvent themselves in order to reach the generations born after 1960. The twin towers of the World Trade Center fell on September 11, 2001 because they were subjected to conditions they were never designed to bear. However unwittingly, they were designed to fail when the unexpected happened. So it is, says Lyle Schaller, with mainline Protestant congregations and denominations. Designed to meet the needs of previous generations, they were destined to fail when the needs of current generations diverged radically from those of their predecessors--as indeed they have. But it is not too late for these churches to reinvent themselves, to redesign their ministries, programs, and mission to focus on those born after 1960. With his customary insight and wide-ranging perspective, Schaller offers prescriptions for how mainline churches can respond to the needs of a new era. Lyle E. Schaller is the country’s leading interpreter of congregational systems and their vitality. He is the author of dozens of books, including The Ice Cube Is Melting, also published by Abingdon Press.

A Mainline Turnaround: Strategies for Congregations and Denominations

The most effective way to influence both individual and institutional behavior is to ask questions. This text provides a conceptual framework for asking questions about congregations and it classifies various syndromes that prevent a church from making the changes that are needed for new life. It will become the first choice of church champions who choose to intervene in the life of the church.

The Interventionist

The Interventionist provides a conceptual framework for asking questions about congregations, and it classifies various syndromes that prevent a church from making the changes that are needed for new life.

The Interventionist: Hardback Edition

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Books by Schaller, Lyle E.