Healthy Churches, Faithful Pastors: Covenant Expectations for Thriving Together
Congregations want to support their pastors, but don’t know how. Pastors love their congregations, but they don’t know what to ask of their congregations to garner needed support. Everyone wants to thrive together, but so often we get stuck. This clear and engaging guide helps pastors and congregations bridge communication gaps and set mutual goals and expectations.
Reverend Keck grounds his framework of expectations on both scholarly research and on interviews he’s conducted with pastors and lay people. He finds many common difficulties in churches arise from failing to discuss priorities and expectations, and from not effectively working through the problems that arise when expectations aren’t met. For pastors and congregants to arrive at common expectations, they need to understand each other—their respective needs, hopes, and distinctive callings.
This book provides concrete steps to aid congregants and pastors communicate their mutual expectations. Keck presents fifty “expectation statements”—examples of what pastors and congregations can expect of one another; a vital resource to anyone who seeks to initiate a discussion of expectations in their own church. Elucidating goals and expectations allows congregations and pastors to support one another and flourish, and fosters church health and harmony.
- offers clear statements of what laity can expect from their pastors, what pastors can expect from their congregants, and what they can expect from each other
- written for both lay leaders and pastors
- based on interviews with and surveys of lay leaders, pastors, and denominational executives
- offers commentaries and contrasting points of view through six composite characters, three laity and three clergy, who present the voices of successful and not-so-successful churches and pastorates
- can be read straight-through, in chapters, or even one Expectation at a time
- user-friendly structure allows pastors and congregants to focus on the issues they want to address
- concise 2-page format for Expectations statements allows for ease of use in multiple settings, such as a Bible study, Sunday School class, or officer training
- a scale for evaluating churches on each Expectation is provided to promote reflection and discussion
Foreword
Preface
Introduction: What Everyone Wants--A Healthy, Vibrant Church Community
Part I: Shared Expectation
Introduction: The Power of Expectations
1. Ten Principles for a Vibrant Church Community
2. Six Guides for You and Your Church
Part II: What Healthy Congregations Expect from Faithful Pastors
Introductions: What It's Like to Be a Pastor
3. Theology and Worship: Focusing on God
4. Self-Knowledge and Self-Care: Pastors Practicing What They Preach
5. Healthy Servant Leadership: Serving So Others Can Lead
Part III: What Faithful Pastors Expect from Healthy Congregations
Introduction: How to Cultivate a Great Pastor
6. Mission and Ministry: Following a Crucified Savior and Being Prepared to Die
7. Administration and StructureL Organizing for Effective Ministry
8. Supporting the Pastor: A Covenantal Approach
9. The Pastor's Family: Supporting Those Who Support the Pastor
10. Concluding Expectations: Personal Maturity and Communal Wisdom
Conclusion: Looking Ahead, with Specifics
Appendix 1: Conducting a Mutual Ministry Review
Appendix 2: Ten Principles and Fifty-Six Expectations for a Healthy, Vibrant Congregation
Bibliography
Notes
David Keck’s Healthy Churches, Faithful Pastors is a refreshing addition to the conversation about expectations. . . . The book emerged from a research project funded by the Louisville Institute, which yielded ten organizing principles for a ‘vibrant church community.’ Drawing on his research, Keck also created three composite lay leaders and three composite clergy who act as guides throughout the book. Most of the book is organized by chapters, each addressing an aspect of ministry or congregational life.
Keck’s book is a valuable addition to that conversation and will be a useful tool for seminary classes, congregations, and judicatories in addressing these concerns.
All too often, laypeople like me don’t fully understand what a pastor does. We want to help, but we don’t know how. This book helps laypeople to support their pastors – and it helps pastors to recognize what they might need to be doing differently. I recommend reading this book with your pastor. Churches can indeed have healthy relationships with their pastors by having thoughtful conversations about what they expect from each other. This book helps to frame these important discussions.
No matter the health or size of your congregation, Healthy Churches, Faithful Pastors provides a rich guide that will motivate pastors and congregations to clear up misunderstandings and evaluate expectations, while fostering a more faithful covenantal relationship. David Keck allows pastors and congregations to examine the principles of healthy congregations, hear fictional voices that will hit close to home, and answer engaging questions that will elicit great discussion. If you are thirsty for renewed hope, vision, and life in your congregation, Keck provides a deep well that can be drawn from again and again.
Thank God for Healthy Churches, Faithful Pastors! When so many books on ministry offer quick fixes, David Keck gives us what we need: a guide for pastors and congregations to have a conversation that matters about what it takes to thrive together in the service of God. I look forward to using this book with seminary students and recommending it to pastors and lay leaders.
Product Details
- Title : Healthy Churches, Faithful Pastors: Covenant Expectations for Thriving Together
- Author: Keck, David A.
- Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
- Publication Date: 2014
- ISBN: 9781566994507
David A. Keck, Ph.D, the pastor of College Presbyterian Church and College Chaplain at Hampden-Sydney College. Dr. Keck earned his master's degree and doctorate from Harvard University and his master's of divinity from Duke Divinity School. Over the years, he has served on two Committees of Ministry in two separate presbyteries. He is the author of Forgetting Whose We Are: Alzheimer’s Disease and theLove of God. He lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.