Most pastors are comfortable with the role of leader. Inspiring people and helping them discover and make use of their own gifts are tasks to which ministers generally feel called. Too many pastors and church leaders, however, forget that along with skills at leadership must come at least some acquaintance with the work of managing staff (whether it be paid or voluntary) and resources. What are the chief qualities and functions of a leader? Why are management skills necessary for an effective leader? Most important, how can pastors and other church leaders adapt these insights to their...

This book tells how the contemporary church can reclaim its ancient witness through hands-on ministries with the unchurched.

When it comes to transforming people's lives and leading them into active Christian discipleship, why does there seem to be such a difference between the church we read about in the New Testament and our own churches today? What was it about those earliest Christians that empowered them to spread the gospel with such startling results? One core reason, says George G. Hunter III, is that they reached out into the communities in which they lived. Instead of...

Hunter discusses the rebirth of the apostolic congregation, Christianity's vision of what people can become, how small groups shape an apostolic people, how lay ministry advances the Christian movement, and how apostolic churches reach secular people.

This work shows that there is an apostolic way for a congregation to live out the gospel, and here is why church leaders think so:

"George Hunter hits the nail on the head with this practical and encouraging guide to church-based evangelism."-Steve Sjogren, Senior Pastor, Vineyard Community Church, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Provides six proven successful "mega-strategies" for bringing more people into the church. Explains why John Wesley's writings still hold valuable insights for church growth.

"In reading the manuscript, I was inspired by the constant swing between theory and practice. Here is a valid principle, writes Hunter; here is how it works in Tampa, Florida, or Wilmington, Delaware. I was also enthused, as you will be, to observe how McGavran and Wesley targeted 'responsive' people, how they both used indigenous music and language and culture, how they identified needs and met them, and how...

A church in the heart of Manhattan and a congregation among the Inuit people of Northern Canada would seem to have little in common with one another. Yet in one way they are surprisingly similar: They are both apostolic congregations, churches whose every program exists for the purpose of presenting the gospel to non-Christians, and making disciples of Jesus Christ.

What is the secret of churches like these; how have they learned to make evangelism central to everything they do? In studying apostolic congregations around the world, George G. Hunter III has discovered a set of...