Ichak Adizes stands head and shoulders above the rest in understanding the organizational lifecycle. Here’s his paradigm.
Adizes has written two books on the topic. Corporate Lifecycles and it’s updated version, Managing Corporate Lifecycles. He’s technical but if you have an interest in this area, he’s the best.
He’s a business writer, but plenty of parallels for understanding the lifecycle of movements, churches and Christian organizations.
You can visit him on the web here.
The best application of the lifecycle to religious movements is Lawrence Cada’s, Shaping the Coming Age of Religious Life. He’s writing about Catholic religious orders. It’s out of print but you’ll pick it up at abe.com for a dollar if you’re quick.
Here’s the model Cada uses:
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Hi Steve, this probably isn’t the topic to ask this but seemed like as good as any.
I was in a Christian bookshop yesterday and i was looking around at the various sections and thought i would check out the evangelism section…to my suprise there was no evangelism section. In fact there seemed to be a real lack of recent written resources on the subject. My questions are what are the best 3-4 books you’ve read about evangelism and do you think there’s a lack of publication/discussion on the matter and if so why might this be.
Trav… I recommend Brian McLaren’s ‘More ready then you realise’ and William Abraham’s ‘Logic of Evangelism’ as a starter. Not that you asked me! But that’s my 2 cents worth!
Trav, not sure if I can help on this one. I tend to be a ‘systems thinker’. When I think evangelism I think not just of the individual person but the context. In that sense Christian Schwarz book Natural Church Development is a great for helping us see what church health looks like and how effective evangelism is interrelated to every facet of church life.
My thinking on movements goes beyond one local church and asks, what movements have seen significant evangelistic impact over time and what can we learn from them.
Someone needs to write a book on evangelism from a movements perspective and help individuals and churches make the practial application. My thinking is probably too general to do it myself and I’m not the best practitioner!
There maybe others out there who could advise you on particular books on evangelism better than I can.
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