Back from the Dead: The Book of Congregational Growth

by Gerald W. Keucher

Overview

Almost everywhere throughout the greater church are unsustainable trends-endowments are being depleted, building maintenance deferred, congregations are aging and dwindling, and budgets are too far out-of-whack. And although there is much literature on what to do to grow congregations, little has been said about how to get those things done.

In highly accessible, anecdotal prose, church management expert Gerald Keucher focuses in very practical terms on how to bring the right spirit, approach, and tactics to the work of bringing a congregation back from the edge of the abyss.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780819228062
Publisher:	Church Publishing, Incorporated
Publication date:	10/01/2012
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Gerald W. Keucher is an Episcopal priest, retired chief operating officer of the Diocese of New York, and author of Remember the Future: Financial Leadership and Asset Management for Congregations. He lives in Staten Island, New York.

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

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Father Jerry Keucher has written a book of meaningful, encouraging, and above all practical advice for church leaders who are serious about turning around a dying parish. In Back from the Dead, Keucher draws on his long experience as both an observer and an orchestrator of such church growth, offering proven principles that will make a difference where faithfully applied.”
—The Right Rev. J. Scott Barker, Bishop of Nebraska

“This book could have prevented my worst mistakes, the ones I still cringe over, and the things I did right are all things this book teaches. I wish this book had existed when I began my ministry and I am so grateful it exists now. It blends the deeply spiritual with the eminently practical, all with the warm, witty, and wise tone of someone who’s been there, knows where the land mines are, and where to find the oasis in the desert. You will thank God you have read this book.”
—Lucia Lloyd, Rector the Continuing Episcopal Church of St Stephen’s, Heathsville Virginia

Editorial Reviews

Father Jerry Keucher has written a book of meaningful, encouraging, and above all practical advice for church leaders who are serious about turning around a dying parish. In Back from the Dead, Keucher draws on his long experience as both an observer and an orchestrator of such church growth, offering proven principles that will make a difference where faithfully applied.”
—The Right Rev. J. Scott Barker, Bishop of Nebraska

“This book could have prevented my worst mistakes, the ones I still cringe over, and the things I did right are all things this book teaches. I wish this book had existed when I began my ministry and I am so grateful it exists now. It blends the deeply spiritual with the eminently practical, all with the warm, witty, and wise tone of someone who’s been there, knows where the land mines are, and where to find the oasis in the desert. You will thank God you have read this book.”
—Lucia Lloyd, Rector the Continuing Episcopal Church of St Stephen’s, Heathsville Virginia

From the Publisher