Books To Read With Your Church Staff at Each Growth Level

To build a successful church, you’ve got to lead your team to work together. Everyone has to be on the same page, collaborating toward the same goals. I’m not sure if enthusiastically shouting words like ‘synergy’ at each other is necessary, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.

How do you create harmony for your church staff? One easy way is to read leadership books together. Sure, this might make some team members groan and roll their eyes. But collaborative book studies are effective. Plus, team members who groan and roll their eyes may not be the best people to have on your team anyway. Just saying.

But what church leadership books do you read? There are lots out there—almost too many. And they’re all different. Where to begin? It depends on where your church is in its growth. Picking out books to read as a staff based on growth stage is a great place to start.

Getting Started

Congratulations! You’ve been called to plant a church. You’ve overcome the anxiety and drove in head first and started making disciples. Aren’t you brave? Yes, you are because starting a new church is hard work.

If you have a church staff, it’s likely small. These are the people crazy enough to move with you across the country and start this journey together. Isn’t that sweet? You’ll need to maintain their enthusiasm and stoke their passion.

There are plenty of books out there on church planting. You’ve probably read a few already. And then a few more. Here are a few more you may not have already seen. Starting with Why isn’t even a Christian book—but it is about becoming a great leader and inspiring people to take action.

• Launch: Starting a New Church from Scratch by Nelson Searcy & Kerrick Thomas
• Visioneering: Your Guide for Discovering and Maintaining Personal Vision by Andy Stanley
• Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
• Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers by Ed Stetzer & Warren Bird

Getting Out There

Your church has been successfully planted. You’ve had a few bumps and bruises along the way, but your enthusiasm is still intact. You’ve hired a few more crazy people to join you on staff. And you even have a few more people crazy enough to attend worship with you. Crazy!

Now you’re hungry to get even more people into your church’s doors. You want to share the message of the Gospel. You want to change lives. Good for you! All you need is to get people’s attention and the baptisms will start flowing freely.

These books are all about spreading the word for your church. You’ll need to learn some marketing in order to share your message. It’s also a good idea to start empowering others on staff to help you grow the church—you can’t do this all on your own.

• Be Known For Something: Reconnect with Community by Revitalizing Your Church’s Reputation  by Mark MacDonald
• Building a Storybrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller
• The Social Church: A Theology of Digital Communication by Justin Wise
• How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge: Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority by Clay Scroggins

Growing Fast

You’ve started marketing the church and attendance is growing like a weed. There’s a buzz in your community about this new church. More and more people show up on Sunday to see what it’s all about. You’re so excited you can hardly stand it.

Don’t let the growth go to your head. Rapid growth can sometimes be the most difficult stage in a church’s life cycle. You might outgrow your current space. You might have to move to multiple services. You might have to hire more people on staff—more people to read books with you!

These are all great problems to have. But you’ll have to know how to handle them in the right way. That’s exactly what these books focus on—navigating the tricky waters of church growth. And being sure to keep your church staff on the same page in the meantime. (Even literally.)

• Sticky Teams: Keeping Your Leadership Team and Staff on the Same Page by Larry Osborne
• Less Clutter, Less Noise: Beyond Bulletins, Brochures and Bake Sales by Kem Meyer
• Holy Shift: Think Funny, Grab the Mic and Accelerate Church Growth by Jonathan Herron
• Unreasonable Churches: 10 Churches That Zagged When Others Zigged and Saw More Impact Because of It by Rich Birch

Plateau

Eventually, all that growth slows down. Plenty of people are still attending every Sunday. But that buzz has died off. There isn’t the same excitement in the air. Worst of all, the passion and energy you and your staff once had has begun to wane.

This is a tough spot for any church leader. You’ve got to get creative and keep pushing in the right directions. This doesn’t mean abandoning your original vision and mission. But it might mean changing some ways you do things.

• The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy by Jon Gordon
• Lasting Impact: 7 Powerful Conversations That Will Help Your Church Grow by Carey Nieuwhof
• You’ve Got This: A Pep Talk for Church Communicators by Kelley Hartnett
• Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull

Decline

Not only has your church’s growth started to dip, now attendance is in a sharp decline. People are leaving—either for a different church or have just stopped worshiping altogether. You start to worry.

Decline is the stage that no church wants to be in. But it happens to more churches than we’d like to admit. Thousands of churches close their operations every year. And you certainly don’t want to be one of them. You’d much rather change a few things than disappear altogether.

If so, you might consider picking up one of these books to help you through this. It may even be smart to read some of these together before you get into decline. It’s always better to be proactive than reactive.

• Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 12 Ways to Keep Yours Alive by Thom Rainer
• Unwelcome: 50 Ways Churches Drive Away First-Time Visitors by Jonathan Malm
• PR Matters: A Survival Guide For Church Communicators by Justin Dean
• Kill the Spider: Getting Rid of What’s Really Holding You Back by Carlos Whittaker

Revitalization

Good news—your church is back on the mend. Your church staff came together and has the church back growing again. It took making some changes, but they were worth it. No one really liked that worship bulletin any way.

Best of all, you’re ready to start planting churches of your own. You’ve been grooming some of the other church leaders on your staff so that they can plant their own church and start this cycle all over again. At least you’ll know what books to recommend.

Now that your church has endured plenty of ups and downs, you know enough to keep things going smoothly. You know how to navigate conflict and build the right relationships. You’re ready to start helping others and impacting other churches in other communities.

• Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples by Francis Chan
• Zombies, Football and the Gospel: At Least 10 Somewhat Irrefutable Game-Changers for Church Leaders and Whoever They Follow by Reggie Joiner
• Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success By Adam Grant
• Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World by Bob Goff

A Few Other Thoughts

Not all of these books are specific to church leadership—I threw in a few recommendations from outside the church to get some perspective.

I’ve personally read 13 of these 24 books. Several more are on my shelf waiting to be read.

What leadership books would you recommend for a church staff?