Janet Hoover
book
Christian Education in the African American Church: A Guide for Teaching Truth
This book focuses on providing a Christian education for African Americans, equipping congregations with an educational strategy in addition to insight on learning styles, developmental stages in learners, and curriculum.
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Discovering God's Vision for Your Life: You and Your Spiritual Gifts
This eight-hour course is part of a comprehensive spiritual gifts program that helps users identify and implement their spiritual gifts while helping churches embed a spiritual gifts ministry into the fiber of their congregations.
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The Color of Church: A Biblical and Practical Paradigm for Multiracial Churches
Drawing from the author's experience leading a multi-racial church, this book looks at the state of racial relationships within the United States before zooming into the church and offering advice on how congregations can overcome obstacles to become more diverse.
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Relational Judaism: Using the Power of Relationships to Transform the Jewish Community
Based on research from more than 100 interviews and site visits, this resource offers best practices for building a strong community, giving an overview of different kinds of personal relationships, case studies, and skills for building community.
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Deep & Wide: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend
This book argues that congregations should focus on designing their church for the unchurched, equipping readers with strategies and a detailed guide on how to transition an established congregation to an attractive place for the unchurched.
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Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism
This book focuses on the concept of evangelism --- its challenges, the reason for doing it, and stories of churches who do it effectively. This resource is for congregations looking for an in-depth analysis of evangelism and ideas on how to encourage faith sharing.
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Christians and the Color Line: Race and Religion After Divided by Faith
This collection of essays from various scholars explores race relations and the role religion has played in mending or straining those relations. Written in two parts --- history and future --- this book looks at how religious institutions can move forward in an increasingly multi-cultural America.
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Cut Dead But Still Alive: Caring for African American Young Men
Based off the author's personal experience, along with the stories of six young black men, this resource reveals the vulnerability of African-American men in the United States and offers tools for care-givers who encounter anyone who feels invisible and hopeless.
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Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church: Mandate, Commitments and Practices of a Diverse Congregation
Written in three parts, this book encourages churches to seek diversity, and gives best practices for a multi-ethnic church before summarizing everything in a section that shows how to implement diversity.
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The Welcoming Congregation: Roots and Fruits of Christian Hospitality
This book analyzes the theme of hospitality from multiple aspects, including the author's own research and an exploration of how different faith communities approach hospitality, concluding that congregations receive multiple blessings when they exhibit welcoming traits.
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Guidelines for the Building and Renovation of Churches
Written by The Diocesan Commission on Church Art and Architecture for the Archdiocese of Chicago, this resource is designed to be used with Built of Living Stones, a statement by U.S. bishops about renovating and building Roman Catholic churches. This book provides additional information on topics that include icons and places for prayer.
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Small Is Big! Unleashing the Big Impact of Intentionally Small Churches
This book presents the small house church as a way to achieve ministry as described by Jesus and Paul throughout the New Testament. It delves into topics like prayer, humility, lay leadership, and relationships as it exists within the house church.
web resource
Rural Church Network of the United States and Canada
This web resource, by Rural Church Network, provides space for congregational leaders in rural communities to share ideas and gather information about rural life and ministry to improve and enhance the lives of church members and their neighbors.
web resource
Center for Congregational Health - Interim Ministry
This web resource for The Center for Congregational Health's Interim Ministry program asserts the transition time between pastorates is vital for congregations and new ministers establishing "a solid ministry team" and offers a range of resources and services that either help congregations in transition or train clergy for interim ministry.
web resource
Clergy Sexual Misconduct: Awareness and Prevention
Baylor University’ s website offers individuals and congregations several resources related to clergy sexual misconduct which touch upon topics such as hints for preventing abuse, the civil and criminal consequences of sexual misconduct, and the vulnerability of both clergy and laypeople in counseling sessions.
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Flying in the Face of Tradition: Listening to the Lived Experience of the Faithful
This resource critiques the Roman Catholic church with love and grace, diagnosing its current challenges and offering solutions that will transform the church into a space people will find relevant and welcoming.
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Clergy Sexual Misconduct: A Systems Approach to Prevention, Intervention, and Oversight
This comprehensive book offers a systemic approach to clergy and congregation recovery after clergy sexual misconduct, discussing topics such as treatment, the effect on the church, prevention, and intervention.
web resource
Areyvut
This web resource promotes areyvut, a term that means “mutual responsibility”, as a foundational Jewish faith value and goal with respect to youth and teenagers. It provides resources to a variety of synagogues, families, and Jewish community centers and schools for helping youth “become thoughtful, giving members of the Jewish community of tomorrow.”
web resource
Community Tool Box
This free web resource is a public service of the University of Kansas and its KU Work Group for Community Health and Development, and teaches the skills needed for building healthier communities by addressing topics such as leadership, finance, communication, and more.
web resource
GenerationOn
This web resource, provided by the youth division of the 1989 President George H.W. Bush Points of Light initiative GenerationOn, seeks to empower children and youth to grow into being community leaders, live lives of service to others, and "make their mark on the world" by offering hands-on projects, internships, and scholarships.
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The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World
This resource views missional churches as the best response to modern-day malaise in many congregations. It offers values of missional churches as well as solutions to overcoming challenges that go along with congregational transformation.
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Mobilizing Congregations: How Teams Can Motivate Members and Get Things Done
This resource examines all aspects of ministry teams --- how they function, benefits, and challenges that can impede effectiveness, all of which combine to offer congregations insights on how to implement this organizational structure within their ministry.
web resource
Jim Tomberlin on Church Mergers and Multi-Sites
In this web resource, Church Law Group attorney David Middlebrook conducts an interview with author and church consultant Jim Tomberlin and focuses on questions about church mergers, with Tomberlin arguing that mergers can create healthier congregations.
web resource
Externally Focused Churches Becoming the New Norm
This web resource offers a YouTube video narrated by Eric Swanson, author and Leadership Network’s Community Director, which describes externally focused or what are called “missiona” congregations and shares stories from missional churches where service to “outsiders” is integral and where expressions of love of neighbor are evident by the service rendered.
web resource
Calvin College Pubs Clubs Alt Worship Compilation
This less than three-minute video from YouTube has no spoken words, but speaks volumes about England’ s Calvin College's alternative worship and its many facets and elements. Viewers see informal and formal gatherings where participants are both prone or standing in reverence.
web resource
Prayerscapes
This website, provided by Prayerscapes, a group of Christian musicians, dramatic readers, and worship and prayer creators, offers videos and films that have both spoken and musical content and include daily prayers, a house blessing, and well-known prayers, such the Lord’ s Prayer and Psalm 23.
periodical
Religious Buildings
The annual Traditional Building magazine is targeted to professionals in architecture, interior design, construction and landscape design who specialize in traditional design and offers congregations an extensive list of vendors that provide products and services that are sometimes hard to find.