The Inviting Church: A Study of New Member Assimilation

Roy M. Oswald has provided leadership for hundreds of conferences and training events in the United States and Canada. A variety of denominations have called on him to focus on the pastoral role and the dynamics of parish leadership. He also frequently consults with local congregations and judicatories where his planning model utilizes norms, myths, and meaning statements from a church's past. Roy Oswald is identified with research into the transitions clergy make when they enter parishes for the first time and for clergy in longer pastorates. More recently he has headed studies of the candidacy process, leadership needs of small congregations, and new methodology for assessing ministries using clergy/lay teams.

Speed Leas is a nationally known consultant to religious organizations and an educator of church leaders, including pastors, laity, and church executives. For more than three decades, he has worked full-time as a teacher and consultant to ecclesiastical groups throughout the U.S. and Canada. He has an extensive background as a management consultant to churches and has earned a special reputation as an authority on conflict. His experience with conflicted congregations, judicatories, and church agencies places him in a preeminent position in the nation. From this work and his research, he has written eleven books and numerous articles and monographs, and has given hundreds of seminars and lectures.