The following written resources will help your church grow. 

Roadmap to Renewal:  Rediscovering the Church's Mission by Douglas W. Ruffle.  Take a journey of rediscovering your church's true mission and ministry.  "A practical guide for congregations seeking to journey toward greater health and ministry potential," according to Dr. Bob Logan.

The Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations by Bishop Robert Schnase.  Bishop Schnase explains how radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk-taking mission and service and extravagant generosity can lead our churches to greater vitality.

The Discovery Church Journey by Douglas Ruffle.  There is no magic formula for transforming a congregation.  There is, however, a process that churches can engage in to understand and reach their full potential for mission and ministry.  That process, outlined in Dr. Ruffle’s book, The Discovery Church Journey:  An Invitation to Congregational Transformation is designed to help congregations look beyond the walls of the sanctuary and reach into their communities. 

The Gospel According to Starbucks by Leonard Sweet.  Dr. Sweet's provocative book that helps step outside of our usual patterns to reach people in an EPIC and grande way.

New Consecration Sunday, Revised Edition by Herb Miller.  A great stewardship program that helps put a biblical perspective on our giving to God.

Faithful Witnesses:  United Methodist Theology of Mission by John Nuessle.  This is the first resource book of the Academy of Mission Renewal from the General Board of Global Ministries. This group study book offers a United Methodist perspective on Christian mission. Church groups and individuals can use this study process to define and articulate their own mission theology as faithful witnesses of the Gospel. Includes study guides for several settings. 

NATURAL CHURCH DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES available from our Conference Office (Please call April Castaldo at 732-359-1047):  

ABCs of Natural Church Development by Christian Schwarz: This booklet is designed to introduce a congregation or any interested persons to Natural Church Development in just 20 minutes. It covers the research project, the eight quality characteristics and the minimum factor barrel illustration in a quick and simple format that makes the reader feel as if they were talking with the author over a cup of coffee.

Price $2.00 

El ABC de Desarrollo Natural por Christian Schwarz:  Este pequeño libro describe de manera amena, los principios fundamentales del desarrollo natural de la iglesia. En 30 minutos de lectura cualquier miembro de su iglesia puede aprender las ideas clave y su aplicación a cada creyente y cada iglesia.
Price $2.00 

Color Your World with Natural Church Development by Christian Schwarz will inform you of the exciting principles that can move your church toward greater health. Based on the worldwide research project with 1000 churches over a decade ago and now numbering over 56,000 churches in the database we can help churches identify their strengths and weaknesses and engage in a process of taking steps toward health. With a ten year track record we have stories from around the world about how NCD principles have helped churches reach their communities and helped their members draw closer to the heart of God.

Schwarz introduces fresh teaching on the Trinity that brings this doctrine alive with a variety of assessments and three-color concepts that will engage your heart and mind. NCD has become a worldwide movement that is revitalizing individual believers and churches.

Discover how to assess your church so you have solid data to make decisions about ministry and programming in your church. Discover how following a strategic process and working with a coach can help your church improve it's quality of health and the quantity of people reached in your community! 

Price:  $10.00

The 3 Colors of Ministry by Christian Schwarz:  Would you like to use your spiritual gifts to their full potential? The 3 Colors of Ministry  presents a holistic approach to identifying and developing your spiritual gifts. It is based on the three dimensions of God's nature, for which the author has chosen the colors of green, red and blue. In addition to emphasizing the critical importance of using your gifts in an authentically trinitarian way, this book shows you where you most need to focus your energies in order to bring this kind of balance to your Christian service. The natural result will be increased effectiveness. A gift test is included with this resource.
Price $10.00 

How to Implement The Three Colors of Ministry in your Church by Christoph Schalk and Jon Haley:  This handbook assists church leaders in the implementation of gift-oriented ministry as described in the book 3 Colors of Ministry. This book contains many worksheets, checklists, and implementation ideas. Moreover, it includes a CD-ROM with all of the diagrams and cartoons from the 3 Colors of Ministry book for use in teaching, as well as software to help you analyze the composite change compass and three-color gift test results in your church.
Price $15.00

Implementation Guide to Natural Church Development by Christian A. Schwarz and Christoph Schalk:  This workbook contains numerous worksheets and checklists related to the eight quality characteristics discussed in Natural Church Development and is based on the most comprehensive research project ever conducted on the causes of church health and growth. More than 1000 churches in 32 countries on all 5 continents took part in this study. A total of 4.2 million responses were analyzed. The result is an approach to church growth that won't be found in any text-books on the subject. Instead of trying to 'produce' the church of Jesus Christ with human efforts, Natural Church Development focuses on unlocking the potential that God has already put into every church.
Price $15.00 

Natural Church Development (Revised) by Christian A. Schwarz:  Critics of the church growth movement have often emphasized the need for quality congregations. We should not focus on numerical growth, but rather, we should concentrate on qualitative growth.

Christian Schwarz has done extensive research world-wide and found that healthy, growing churches seem to share eight quality characteristics. These characteristics are:

• Empowering leadership
• Gift-oriented ministry
• Passionate spirituality
• Functional structures
• Inspiring worship service
• Holistic small groups
• Need-oriented evangelism
• Loving relationships

Schwarz uses the illustration of a barrel with eight staves to symbolize the eight quality characteristics. The barrel can only hold water to the height of the lowest stave. So too, Schwarz argues, a church can only grow as far as their 'Minimum factor,' which is the lowest of the eight quality characteristics in their church. He challenges churches to resist the temptation to work on improving areas in which they already excel, for by doing this they do not increase their minimum factor or their church quality.

This revised version of Natural Church Development now includes Schwarz's '3 Colors' teaching.
Price $20.00

Paradigm Shift in the Church by Christian Schwarz:  Paradigm Shift in the Church speaks about nothing less than a reformation. Some critics suggested that this term sounds rather lofty. That may be true. But Christian Schwarz is convinced that we will make no significant progress in our churches without changes as radical as those of the Reformation.

In the Introduction to this book Schwarz says, 'Every reformation movement is confronted with an opposing force known as 'orthodoxy'. This was true in the days of the 16th century Reformation (when the opponent was Roman Catholic orthodoxy); it was true in the days of the Pietistic revival in Europe (which was opposed by orthodox Protestants); and the same seems to apply to the different movements that fight for a reformation of their churches today.'

This book presents the theological paradigm that is the foundation of the practical tools and concepts behind natural church development. Natural church development is not just one church growth method among many, it is a different theological paradigm altogether. It introduces a different way of thinking for Christians. You may be wondering, can we really experience something like a new reformation in our days? Yes, in many churches around the globe there are signs that this is far more than a vague hope.
Price $20.00 

The 3 Colors of Love by Christian Schwarz:  Love. It is one of the most central words of Christian theology, and yet one of the foggiest words on planet earth. Many Christians who use this term communicate a clearly secular understanding rather than a fully biblical concept. Sometimes it almost seems that as Christians we haven't even really begun to grasp the full scope of the biblical concept of love, let alone put it into practice. But what is the biblical understanding of love?

When you choose to grow in love, you are not dealing with a weekend hobby that may be of interest to you, but others can safely ignore. You are dealing with the heart of the Christian faith. At the same time you are dealing with the heart of church development. The motive of church development is love, the message is love, and it is empirically demonstrable that there is no better church growth method than love.

This book focuses on the three fundamental dimensions of God's love that every believer can reflect in his or her life: justice, truth and grace. Depending on your starting point, your personal growth path may be very different to someone else's.The 3 Colors of Love offers practical tools to help you identify your starting point and experience the revolutionary power of God's unconventional love in your life.

Price:  $10.00

The Threefold Art of Experiencing God by Christian Schwarz:  A new understanding of the Trinity not only leads us toward a new view of God, it also guides us to new experiences with God. It leads to a deeper recognition of our strengths, our limitations, our images of adversaries, our dreams, and our fears. In an amazingly simple way it explains the conflicts that so often paralyze Christianity, and can become a creative key in directing the energy hidden beneath such conflicts toward a constructive process of change.

Since mere words cannot adequately communicate the mystery of the divine Trinity, this colorful book has been developed around many diagrams. The reader is encouraged to study the diagrams and relate them to the text to gain the most from this booklet.
Price $4.00 

Be Fruitful and Multiply by Robert E. Logan:  Church multiplication is part of the very fabric of what it means to be a church. God has always intended for His living creation to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and the church is certainly no exception.

Jesus called us to go and make disciples of all nations. That means not just a few more churches, but many more ... exponentially more. This is the work of the Kingdom that Jesus entrusted to his disciples and to us.

You can be a part of a great movement of God, cooperating with His Spirit, living out His church the way it was intended to be. You are invited to take the risk and engage in the adventure God has in store for all who desire to be fruitful and multiply!

Price $7.20 

Leading Turnaround Churches by Gene Wood:  Leading turnaround churches is one of the most pressing challenges facing every denomination in America. We know that plateaued ministries soon become dying institutions if they are not guided by turnaround leaders. Where will these leaders come from? How will we recognize them? What steps must they take to change the downward spiral? The author offers hope for a turnaround situation and explores topics such as: How to assess if your are a turnaround leader, Scenarios that contribute to plateau and decline, Obstacles to initiating change, and How to develop a compelling vision for the church.
Price $12.00