How to Hit the Ground Running: A Quick Start Guide for Congregations with New Leadership

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Description

A practical and comprehensive guide and workbook for new church leadership to set up a sustainable foundation, for pastors, vestry, and in administrative roles.

The quick-start program described in this book is designed for the new rector or pastor who wants to "hit the ground running." It is also designed for principal lay leaders who will be instrumental in the transition to new leadership.

The program takes the new pastor, vestry, or other leadership bodies from one month prior to the new leader's arrival through the first 18 months afterward. Organized in a user-friendly workbook format, this guide gives step-by-step suggestions on how the sometimes stalled and directionless period of transition in a faith community can be made dynamic and purposeful - a time of true congregational development.

Author Bio

Neal O. Michell is Canon to the Ordinary with the Diocese of Dallas and previously served as Canon for Strategic Development. A former practicing attorney, he has served churches of various sizes in the dioceses of West Texas and in West Tennessee, where he and his wife Varita planted a church in Germantown that achieved parish status within nine months of its first Sunday service. He has served as a consultant in congregational development and led vestry retreats and workshops, focusing on vision-casting and leadership development. He holds a DMin in Church Growth from Fuller Seminary, where his doctoral dissertation was "Contemporary Anglican Worship in a Postmodern Era." He has also gone on short-term mission trips to Ukraine, South Africa, Mexico, and Honduras. In addition to his books, he has published numerous articles and has served the Episcopal Church at diocesan, provincial and national levels.