Table of Contents
1 The Ground Has Shifted 1
Writing The Book of Congregational Growth
"Closing the Sale"
Can This Parish Be Saved?
How Can We Talk About These Matters?
Why It Isn't Working
A Method, Not a Checklist or a Tool
How We Will Proceed
Filling in the Blanks
2 New Ways of Living in Our Structures 16
The Legacy of Establishment
Obsession with Hierarchy
Preoccupation with the Institution
The Seductive Power of Coercion
3 Our Conventional Wisdom Isn't Helping 28
A System Produces What It Is Designed to Produce
The Question of Diversity
Uniformity Versus Comprehensiveness
Talking About Decline
4 Packing Your Toolkit 49
Make All Relationships Two-Way
Believe That Death Is Not Inevitable
Be Enchanted
Keep Some Emotional Perspective
Remember: Laypeople Are the Solution, Not the Problem
Integrate Your Prayer and Your Work
Let Proportional Giving Change You
Figure Out How to Deal with Being Taken Advantage Of
Put on the Whole Armor of God
5 Getting Started 68
Get the Gestalt
The Totalitarian Vestry
Be Transparent
Remember: You Are Indispensable, But It's Not About You
Get the Right People on Board
Address the Major Sources of Anxiety
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
Start Talking, Start Doing
If Manna Falls from Heaven, Eat It
Personal Generosity Primes the Pump
Summing Up
6 Get Control of the Buildings 88
Get Rid of the Junk
Tackle the Immediate Problem
Reasonable Debt Plays a Role
Note to the Diocese: You Have to Help
Develop Some Kind of Capital Plan
Learn About Buildings
Let Other Things Happen as They Can
7 Make the Budget Work 100
Getting from Here to Health
There Are No "Bad" Sources of Income
Papering Over Financial Problems
Misplaced Faith, Unrealistic Projections
Hiding Numbers in the Budget
The Shape of the Budget
The Solution Is Always on the Income Side
How to Stop Overspending the Investments
8 Healthy Leadership in a Post-Christendom Church 122
Remember: The People Are Part of the Solution
Difficult Things Do Not Require Conflict
A Fight Worth Having
Central Authority and Personal Faith
Control as Little as Possible
Live with What Cannot Be Fixed
I Have No Agenda: I Just Want It to Work
Endnotes 139