Lyle E. Schaller

All Protestant denominations face difficult times ahead. Some are merely surviving financial crisis. Many have no compelling direction regarding missions and evangelism. Most are in denial about the outcome. What will happen to your denomination? Will you be a victim or a reformer? Will you relax and enjoy a personal hobby? Will you mutter, 'Who cares?' Or will you cut through the denial in your dysfunctional denomination and contribute to the strategies that restore the mission and that call yo... more info>>

The imperative need for social change today has made almost everyone an agent of change, in one capacity or another. There are, however, two basic facts of life involved in planned social change which need to be recognized. First, relatively little is known about how to achieve predictable change. Second, much of what is known will not work. With these facts in mind, Mr. Schaller advocates a systematic and anticipatory approach to planned social change which would emphasize the need for the chan... more info>>

When Congress approved the Economic Opportunity Act a new war on poverty was fully launched by the government. This book deals with the churches' involvement in that war. The church has always been concerned about the poor. But the focus here is on new efforts in this new war on poverty resulting from a new mobilization of religious and secular resources.

Frequently decision-making means trading one set of problems for a different set of problems. The basic law of traditionalism: If it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change. Whenever there is disagreement on alternatives the situation becomes a political situation. Lyle E. Schaller, an expert in parish planning, makes statements such as these in the hope that the decision-makers in the local churches and denominational organizations will better understand the realities and so i... more info>>

Lyle E. Schaller is a professional church planner and consultant. His experience has shown him that as most churches plan for the future they are not asking themselves the right questions and are not aware of the myriad possibilities and problems. With professional thoroughness, Mr. Schaller takes the reader in minute detail into the procedures and problems of church planning. Much of the book is developed around reconstructed discussions of which the author was a part. Throughout... more info>>

Middle-sized churches (100-200 worshipers) have always been unwieldy and difficult to grapple with. They are not close-knit families, like small churches. They are not staff-centered and as highly structured as large churches. The middle-sized church is usually too small for the leaders to agree the congregation needs a full-scale systematic new member enlistment effort, but too large for enough new members to come in on their own initiative to offset the inevitable attrition. ... more info>>

Larger churches are different -- in expectations, in performance, in staffing, and in use of lay volunteers. Their unique differences require special handling. And that's what this first-of-its-kind book is all about. Expert Lyle Schaller helps the leaders of larger churches understand the special characteristics of these churches, and helps members of multiple staffs see their role and the context of that role more clearly. Schaller fully describes the differences that mark the ... more info>>

With the attention to appropriate and telling details for which he is famous, Lyle Schaller begins this book by pointing out an overlapping set of changes that have taken place in American society and American churches in recent years. First, to the traditional economic activities of gathering commodities and producing and selling goods and services, the economy has added the production and distribution of knowledge and the creation and sale of experiences. Second has been the rise of consumeris... more info>>

Of Lyle Schaller's twenty-one signs of the New Reformation, here are five: a new era in Christian music; hundreds of new information resources for congregations, from theological seminaries to retreat centers; market-driven planning; a new level of trust in the laity; and the flattening of hierarchical structures....

With brilliant insight and engaging descriptions, Lyle E. Schaller looks at the seven-day-a-week church, revealing key findings about the characteristics of "megachurches." He analyses the "program church" and the "full-service church"--the traditional congregation and the parish that has created a seven-day-a-week ministry.

One of the most crucial changes in North American life, Lyle E. Schaller explains, has been the shift from small to large institutions. Sixty years ago one-teacher, one-room schoolhouses still abounded, and the average number of students in all American schools was one hundred. Now new construction on elementary schools is often for facilities that will accommodate more than twelve hundred students, and average school size is over six hundred. Similar changes have happened in sev... more info>>

We are living in "The Big Revolution"--a time when the rights of the individual are expanding and the cultural pressures lessoning. we are immersed in liberation, rebellion, and abandonment of tradition. With so many factors now at work shaping changes in tomorrow's world, what will the twenty-first century be like? Where is America headed? Lyle Schaller helps the reader understand these changes, the increasing complexity of society, and what the future may hold. In eighteen concise insights, he... more info>>

Declaring himself an unabashed optimist, Lyle E. Schaller looks back at four decades of observing religious life in North America and concludes that the church has far more reason for hope than for worry as it charts its course into the next forty years. Acknowledging that the roles of parish pastors and leaders have become increasingly complex, he also points out that these leaders can be far better equipped to contribute to congregational vitality and growth than were their pre... more info>>

Women in ministry--the call, the opposition, the successes, the failures, the limitations, the effect on their families--it's all here in these encouraging, sometimes touching testimonials from women who are now experiencing life in the ministry. Each story stands alone in its impact and implications; each is a success story affirming the role of women as effective pastors and challenging others to follow their example.