Small Christian Communities Imagining Future Church

The editor of this collection is a member of the ETHS class of 1939.

Imagining the Small Church: Celebrating a Simpler Path bears witness to what God is doing in small churches. Steve Willis tells stories from the small churches he has pastored in rural, town, and urban settings and dares to imagine that their way of being has something to teach all churches in this time of change in the American Christian Church. Willis tells us in the introduction, 'This book boasts no ten or fifteen steps to a successful small church. Instead, I hope to encourage you to give up on steps altogether and even to give up on success, at least how success is usually measured. I also hope to help the reader imagine the small church differently; to see with new eyes the joys and pleasures of living small and sustainably.' The joys and sorrows Willis helps us see through the compelling stories of faith in the small church puts flesh and bones on the possibilities that lie ahead for congregations in the future as well as the here and now. From the foreword by Tony Pappas: 'In Imagining the Small Church, pastor, writer, and lover of small things Steve Willis takes us on a narrative and imaginative journey. Some readers will have a sense that what Willis is describing simply names what they have already known in their hearts about their small churches. For them the journey will cover some familiar ground, explore some territory from a fresh angle, but deposit them nearly home again, hopefully with just a bit more awareness and appreciation. For others, though, Willis will take them on a long journey to a far and foreign place. They probably won't bother to finish reading it, and they will miss his invitation to find pastoring a small church extremely rewarding and meaningful. They will find this a strange book weird, off-center, and impractical; unlivable in the twenty-first century and undesirable in any event. This is because Willis is taking on the ethos, the values of our age, and claiming that it needn't be so. We can live on a different basis. We can live on the basis of gospel values.' There will be a variety of paths as the Church seeks new ways of being in this time. Willis knows this. In Imagining the Small Church he presents us with one that embraces a life of faith on the periphery and challenges church leaders to do the same.

Suppose for a moment that it is the present way in which we are being church that is not working? If that is the case, then no amount of new thinking about ministry in isolation will be enough to take us forward … It is the contention of this book that a new vision of what it means to be church is required.’ Christians in every place are asking questions about the life of the church. How do we re-imagine what congregations can become? How are we to develop new ways of being church which are sustainable and have the capacity for growth, mission and renewal? Steven Croft believes that part of the answer lies in developing small transforming communities as basic building blocks of Christian congregations. In this important new book he develops a biblical and theological understanding of what the church is called to be, a worked strategy for the future and practical guidelines for those called to help the church’s transition to new models. Transforming Communities draws on the best new thinking about the church from a variety of sources including academic theology, cell church, base ecclesial communities, and the author’s own experience of wrestling with these issues as an Anglican vicar and theological educator. Intended for clergy, ordinands and student ministers, lay leaders concerned with pastoral re-organisation, small group leaders and church members, it is suitable for all denominations and includes study guides to facilitate group work.

How can churches in America, modeling the oldest Christian communities, renew themselves form within? They can look to examples of thriving small Christian communities within their own country and throughout the world. This inspiring book shows what is happening now across six continents to give pastors and lay leaders of every denomination encouragement through useable examples from their counterparts around the world.

Dudley's work in Making the Small Church Effective (1978) broke new ground in understanding the dynamics of life in the small congregation. In this revised edition, Dudley revisits the small church, posing new questions reflective of the considerable changes that have swept over small churches in the last two decades. Among the most significant recent developments are shifts in institutional loyalty and individual's sense of identity in relation to larger groups and organizations. Dudley explores the key components that contribute to a small congregation's sense of unity and that motivate its members to more faithfully live out their faith.

This revised and updated edition of Small Christian Communities: A Vision of Hope for the 21st Century is a rich source of practical information about how to make the vision of the parish as "a community of many small communities" come alive.y

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