Jump Start This Church!: How to Go From Declining Church to Dynamic Church

With young families more likely to choose soccer over church on Sunday morning and over five thousand churches closing every year, church as we know it is fast disappearing. Pastors and church leaders need new skills to grow their congregations and build larger, stronger, and more financially stable churches. Jump Start This Church! shows leaders how to sell their churches; it’s about packing the pews, generating money for missions, and building a strong community presence while following the Gospel. The ultimate how-to guide for church growth, this book combines the unique front-line perspective of a caring pastor with the proven techniques of an expert in sales. Together, they approach church growth from a fresh perspective. The practical ideas in this user-friendly guide will trigger dialogue and action for churches throughout the world. Are you ready to take action TODAY and jump start your church?

Reverend Jane Willan is pastor of the Congregational Church of Grafton, Massachusetts, United Church of Christ. Her ten year career as a minister began in a small town in rural Iowa where she grew a small and struggling church into a thriving congregation. Since then she has pastored two more churches, leading each into exciting revitalization even when the odds were against growth.

Jane has served a variety of leadership positions, all of which helped her envision a vibrant future for her churches. As Moderator of the Iowa Conference Board of Directors, United Church of Christ, and a member of the Board of Directors for Justice and Witness Ministries, a National Board for the United Church of Christ, she learned how good leadership can affect the growth of a church.

Jane has a Master of Science degree from Boston University, and a Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt Divinity School. She lives in a 130 year-old church parsonage with her husband Don and two dogs, Magi and Moses.

Peter G. Dennis is the Moderator at the Congregational Church of Grafton, Massachusetts, United Church of Christ. He is also the President of PMD Sales Training & Consulting, Inc., a Westborough, MA based firm he founded in 2008. The firm specializes in sales training and consulting services to companies through a broad range of industries. His 28-plus years of sales experience includes senior positions with Veritude, a Fidelity Investments company, and CDI Corporation, a Philadelphia-based staffing and consulting organization. He is the author ofThe Golden 120 Seconds of Every Sales Call, published by NorLightsPress.