Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work - Expanded and Updated - Softcover

Tomberlin, Jim; Bird, Warren

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1506463355 ISBN 13: 9781506463353

Publisher: Fortress Press, 2020

Synopsis

Thousands of Protestant churches are perplexed by plateaued or declining attendance, while other congregations nearby thrive. Is there a way for them to combine forces, drawing on both their strengths, in ways that also increase their missional impact?

In Better Together, Expanded and Updated: Making Church Mergers Work, church merger consultant Jim Tomberlin and award-winning writer Warren Bird make the case that mergers today work best not with two struggling churches but with a vital, momentum-filled lead church partnering with a joining church. This much-needed resource describes the range of mergers for strong, stable, stuck, and struggling churches. No matter what type of merger a church may be considering, the authors address key questions about the process: How can a merger help a church go forward? How will a merger process unfold? Where can a declining church find another congregation to join? What are the pitfalls that both pastor and congregation should avoid? How can "better together" lead to more, rather than fewer, life-giving, high-impact, reproducing churches? They provide a complete, practical, hands-on guide for church leaders of both struggling and vibrant churches, so they can understand the issues, develop strategies, and execute mergers for church expansion and renewal--ultimately, so they can reinvigorate declining churches and give them a "second life."

No matter what your motivation for merging your church with another--to begin a new church life cycle, cross racial lines, reach more people for Christ, multiply your church's impact, or better serve your local community--Better Together will give you the tools you need to create a thriving new entity.

About this title

About the Authors

Jim Tomberlin, through The Unstuck Group, helps churches get "unstuck" and multiply through multisite and merger coaching. He has pastored churches in New Mexico and Germany, grown a megachurch in Colorado, and pioneered the multisite strategy for Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago. Since 2005 he has been consulting and coaching churches in developing and implementing multisite strategies. A graduate of Georgia State University and Dallas Theological Seminary, Jim is the author of three books: 125 Tips for MultiSite Churches, Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work, and Church Locality: New Rules for Church Buildings in a Multisite, Church Planting, and Giga-Church World. Contact Jim on Twitter @MultiSiteGuy or @MergerGuru.

Warren Bird is vice president for research and equipping at the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). His research has been cited in dozens of mainstream media such as CNN and major newspapers, as well as in Christianity Today and numerous other religious channels. An award-winning writer, he has authored or coauthored thirty-one books for ministry leaders. These include pioneering books on church trends, leadership development, healthy pastoral succession, breaking church growth barriers, and developing effective senior leadership teams.

From the Inside Flap

For the past decade, we have been witnessing a swelling wave of

mission-driven church mergers that is transforming the church landscape

across North America. Mergers are occurring among churches

of all sizes and types. They are happening in urban centers, suburban

neighborhoods, and rural communities. They reflect a growing trend

where two local churches at different life stages leverage their common

DNA and complementary differences to generate greater synergy for a

stronger regional impact.

These new kinds of merger are not what have been typical of the

past, when two struggling churches made a last-gasp effort to survive.

Church-merger conversations may begin because of financial difficulties;

they may surface through local partnerships or denominational

affiliations or initiated by a church planter or a multisite church. But

these mergers succeed today largely because of a united and compelling

vision that lifts a church, especially a church that's stuck or on a downward

slope, into a new pattern of life and growth.

Roughly 80 percent of the 320,000 Protestant churches in the United

States have plateaued or are declining, and many of them are in desperate

need of a vibrant ministry. Among the 20 percent of growing

congregations across the United States, many are in desperate need of

space. These conditions present a potential win-win for forward thinking

church leaders who believe that "we can do better together

than separate," and it is revitalizing church topography.

In essence, we believe that almost a 100 percent of today's Protestant

churches could become a candidate for a merger.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1506463355
• ISBN 13: 9781506463353
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240