Making Your Church More Inviting: A Step-by-Step Guide for In-Church Training

Praise for the Book

“This is a wonderful book for congregations that wish to grow with integrity. It offers an approach to attracting and incorporating new members which does not violate people's boundaries, does not promote sectarianism, and does not cater to the consumerism of our culture. It is an approach that emphasizes listening, attention to values, and the generation of mature disciples. Both the people and the Gospel are taken seriously. This book is a refreshing exception to the church growth literature that is preoccupied with gimmicks, manipulation, and the marketing mentality.” —Edward A. White

“Church leaders do not take action unless they are motivated. They are not motivated unless they see a need. Oswald's book can help to achieve those objectives. He thoroughly covers the congregational evangelism spectrum—from identifying the membership-growth barriers in churches of various sizes, through challenging leaders to see that growth cannot happen without change, to effective new-member assimilation. Designed to help a leadership group attain insights into numerous key issues through fifteen sessions of sharing experiences, personal observations, and discussion, the book focuses on helping pastors and laity identify and dismantle the barriers that restrict them from living out the motivated actions that draw a bigger circle for Jesus Christ.” —Herb Miller

“Growing churches—and those wishing to grow—will be well served by the clear and well-written process outlined in this book by Roy Oswald. Here Oswald distills the essentials of new member outreach and assimilation and presents them in a 15-session format for use in training those who will be doing these tasks in the church. The comprehensiveness of this book creates confidence that one could produce an Alban Institute workshop at home, complete with centering exercises, theory pieces, and surveys. I found myself stopping in the middle of chapters and making phone calls to begin implementing the ideas immediately.” —The Rev. Amy J. Schultz