Recreating the Church: Leadership for the Postmodern Age (TCP Leadership Series)

Dick Hamm has written an informative, insightful, and inspirational book on congregational transformation for mainline Protestant congregations. With Dick's experience in the Christian Church [Disciples of Christ] as a pastor and denominational leader, he understands the dilemma faced by many mainline congregations. In this volume he effectively communications a pathway for these congregations to experience being recreated. His efforts at applying the work of leadership guru Ron Heifetz on adaptive change versus technical change are powerful for many congregations. He effectively weaves the concept of the perfect storm to show how congregations in many mainline denominations have been hit by a perfect storm which makes it difficult for them to transform. Coupled with three other resources, this book makes a great guide for congregations to use to engage in a transformational journey. These resources are, Renew Your Congregation: Healing the Sick, Raising the Dead (TCP Leadership Series) Pursuing the Full Kingdom Potential of Your Congregation (TCP Leadership Series) Reaching People Under 40 While Keeping People Over 60: Being Church for All Generations (TCP Leadership Series)

Richard Hamm understands church leadership from the inside out. He currently serves as the first executive leader for the broadest-based ecumenical collaboration in the US, Christian Churches Together. Before that, he was the General Minister and President of a mainline denomination. Before that, he served as a regional minister (a middle judicatory pastor, a bishop), and before that as a gifted congregational pastor and a new church planter. Dr. Hamm understands churches. He understands leadership. And he knows what makes people tick. This book reveals both Hamm's incisive perception and his love for the church. It will be most helpful for established church leaders (both clergy and lay) who are trying to make effective shifts in the current, chaotic cultural climate. Hamm's perceptions will enrich your understanding. Recreating the Church will give you hope and help you start taking steps toward transformation.

This excellent resource for ministry in congregatons covers the bases. It is a book about context. The context for congregational ministries both empowers and limits the work of a congegation. Dr. Hamm has offered dozens of ways of analyzing the context for mainline congregations in this first part of the 21st Century. His writing is both informational and inspirational. He helps people in congregations understand the cultural and social changes that have reshaped the context for congregational ministry. When congregations use this book to understand the world in which they do ministry, they will be much better equipped to alter what they are doing to be more effective. I highly recommend this book for pastors and lay leaders in congregations. It will serve as a great conversation partner as you imagine new ways to be church in the North American context in the 21st Century. Dan Moseley, Professor of Practical Parish Ministry

Here is another helpful resource for anyone who works with churches and church organizations in this rapidly changing context. Hamm is a credible coach with decades of celebrated investment in all facets of church life. Those of us who have worked with Dick know him as a gifted leader and a serious disciple of Jesus Christ. What makes this book so particularly useful is the way it reads. If you ever enjoyed viewing Rick Steves' Europe on PBS, you'll enjoy reading Hamm's foray into leadership for the post-modern age. Our mid-level judicatory pastoral staff is reading the book. The conversations it generates are well worth the price of purchasing extra copies to go around. Bill Rose-Heim NW Area Pastor Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Mid-America 811 S. Walnut Cameron, MO 64429 www.nwareacc.org

It's no secret: Mainline Protestantism has suffered dramatically in membership losses and influence these past few decades. Where once Mainline denominations were the dominant force in American religious life, others have taken their place. Whether or not that's to change is yet to be seen. Richard Hamm offers the Mainline churches a manifesto that calls on these historic churches to essentially seize the day and embrace the future. Hamm writes as one who has experienced all levels of church leadership. He has served as a local pastor, a middle judicatory, and head of a national denomination. Soon he will take on a new role as the first Executive Director of "Christian Churches Together." So it can be said that this is a person who knows his subject well. The book is written to leaders of congregations, regional bodies, and national bodies. He speaks from his own experience - both the positives and the negatives (he retired early from his second term as General Minister and President of the Disciples of Christ). From that experience he has discerned a new way forward, one that is "missional" in orientation. He calls for change in the churches, but it's substantive change that he's calling for, not just rearranging the chairs on the deck of a sinking ship. He challenges leaders to move from management to mission, from being CEO's and caregivers to being pioneers and change agents. At the center of this manifesto is Hamm's concern for preserving the core values of the Mainline churches in the face of challenges from secularism and fundamentalism. The problem, as he sees it, is that the structures that developed over the years have become obsolete and they prevent the church from adapting to the cultural context in which it lives. By embracing the "missional church" idea Hamm is less interested in quick fixes, but rather calls for long term reinvention of the church so that the Mainline values can be preserved and can influence not just the religious context but the world context. The choice of the word "postmodern" in the subtitle is key, for this book is written with this changing dynamic in mind. What worked then, in the days before 1968 (and Hamm places the dividing line at 1968, which interestingly is the date of Disciple Restructure). In this postmodern world change will come not via democracy, which has been a hallmark of the Disciples decision making, but through discernment and consensus. It takes longer and is messy, but in the long run Hamm believes it is more effective. Leaders in this new environment must become a "non-anxious presence" rather than an "anxious non-presence." That is, the way ahead will require of us, a willingness to brave an unknown world while remaining non-anxious. What makes the way forward difficult, and Hamm is very aware of this, is generational differences. Mainliners have been pretty good about dealing with racial and gender issues - at least at the national levels - but it's quit