CORPS HEALTH
Resources at Your Fingertips
Welcome to the Corps Health page! Corps Health means many different things to many different congregations. For some corps it means exploring a new area of ministry, for others it means reexamining all of congregational life in order to intentionally step into a preferable future. In general it should result in spiritual renewal and a new engagement in mission to the surrounding community and the world.
Please see below resources to help your ministry with Corps Health opportunities.
Natural Church Development
NCD focuses on increasing the quality of your church rather than on numerical growth goals.
Congregational Life Cycle
A short guide to doing a congregational lifecycle assessment has been developed that is available as a pdf. This guide provides an overview as well as a list of more detailed resources.
Download: Congregational Life Cycle Assessment (pdf)
Congregational Life Cycle (Graphic)
This graphic demonstrations the different stages in a corps life cycle.
DOWNLOAD - Congregational Life Cycle
Also available in French:
DOWNLOAD - Cycle de vie de la Congregation
The Unstuck Group
The Unstuck Group helps pastors grow healthy churches by guiding them through experiences to align vision, strategy, team and action. With every tool and consulting process that Unstuck provides, their priority is always helping churches help people meet and follow Jesus.
Flourishing Congregations Institute
The Flourishing Congregations Institute and Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries invite Christian congregants and leaders across Canada to share insights in our ten to fifteen minute online survey.
Explore experiences, attitudes, and beliefs surrounding mental health within Canadian Christian churches. Your voluntary participation is confidential.
The Church Revitalization Checklist
“The Church Revitalization Checklist” by Sam Rainer
“Your church (corps) has the opportunity of a lifetime. The world has shifted, and a new, brighter tomorrow awaits. God has placed you exactly where He wants you. But let’s be honest. If you’re leading a church, it isn’t easy.”
Through this very practical book, there is a deeper understanding from where pastors lead in this current culture and where to go from here.
In his book, Sam Rainer talks about priorities, pace, perspective, people, place, purpose and pathway and unpacks these in a very understandable way in each chapter. Learning to lead into an era of renewed optimism and great hope for the future is a real win from this read.
If you are praying about revitalization, this would be a great read.
Reclaiming Glory Book Review
Book review by Everett Barrow.
"Reclaiming Glory, revitalizing dying churches" by Mark Clifton opens the conversation about breathing life into dying churches! The focus of the book lingers longer on the concept of re-planting...what does that look like and some of the painful steps to get there. It may involve remembering and repenting, to reclaim glory for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. He touches on diagnosing a dying church, replanting pathways, sharing stories of transformation and suggests 'the only metric that matters'! And the big question: Am I a re-planter?
If you are in a 'dying corps situation', you may to order this book for Amazon.ca as a good resource for you and your corps leaders/board.
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Reclaiming Glory Book Review
Book review by Everett Barrow.
"Reclaiming Glory, revitalizing dying churches" by Mark Clifton opens the conversation about breathing life into dying churches! The focus of the book lingers longer on the concept of re-planting...what does that look like and some of the painful steps to get there. It may involve remembering and repenting, to reclaim glory for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. He touches on diagnosing a dying church, replanting pathways, sharing stories of transformation and suggests 'the only metric that matters'! And the big question: Am I a re-planter?
If you are in a 'dying corps situation', you may to order this book for Amazon.ca as a good resource for you and your corps leaders/board.
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The Next Wave Book Review
Book Review by Everett Barrow.
After the Covid experience, many churches are tempted to go back to a world that no longer exist. This is an opportunity to reset, reformate, revitalize, renew, rethink or whatever such words that come to mind. Steve Pike in his book "The Next Wave" delivers a very practical framework to look at doing church differently. He talks about rediscovering the church, reimagining discipleship, rethinking team-building, refocusing church habits, and more. This is a good read, a great resource, that will awaken your heart and prepare you for the new wave of the Spirit. (You can find this book on Amazon.ca)
