For Ministers

HN Books

  • Navigating the Storm: Resources of HOPE for Church Leaders by HOPE Network Ministries
    HOPE Network exists to be helpful to church leaders and congregations. Like the first disciples on a boat with Jesus in a windstorm, today’s leaders and congregations feel the storm in our culture and the world. Regardless of the kind of storm, leaders are called to help navigate the storm and calm God’s people with the spirit of Jesus. We are a group of people experienced in church life with a deep commitment to the health and growth of God’s people. This book is a compilation of resources for leaders in navigating the storm—however you define it. We are convinced, that Jesus is not asleep on the boat and he is awake calming the winds and the waves. He does it today through leaders who refuse to let the waters swamp the boat. We look forward to navigating the storm with you to the glory of God!
  • Doing God’s Work: A Primer for Church Leaders by HOPE Network Ministries
    This book is a compilation of wisdom from the members of Hope Network Ministries. Think of it as both an introduction and an invitation. It’s an introduction to the practical nature of what Hope Network does. Each chapter is written by someone in the trenches who both understands the challenges of contemporary ministry and has experience in navigating them. It’s also an invitation to reach out to any of the authors of this volume for deeper conversation. They didn’t write their chapters to show off what they know. They wrote them to make you aware of their availability to walk this path with you. While each chapter of this book addresses ministry challenges from a different perspective, they all communicate the same basic message. That message is that you are not alone in your struggle. There is hope in the form of a network of other ministers who are here to assist you.

Self Assessment Resources

  • Compelling Preaching Survey Report (2023) was collaboratively designed by Pepperdine University and Hope Network Ministries in response to the guiding questions within the Lilly Endowment’s Compelling Preaching Initiative. The survey presented eight target audiences within Restoration Heritage Churches with a series of questions and choices related to compelling characteristics of sermon design and delivery, compelling personal characteristics of preaching ministers, qualities that make the story of Jesus feel real, powerful, and important to the listener, opportunities for improvement, and connectedness.
  • The Emotionally Healthy Leader: How Transforming Your Inner Life Will Deeply Transform Your Church, Team, and the World by Peter Scazzero
    Going beyond simply offering a quick fix or new technique, The Emotionally Healthy Leader gets to the core, beneath-the-surface issues of uniquely Christian leadership. This book is more than a book you will read; it is a resource you will come back to over and over again.
  • Burnout Inventory
    This inventory, originally designed for ministers, has proven to be helpful to Church of Christ elders/shepherds as well.  It is instrumental in revealing a minister’s or elder’s level of burnout so that the necessary steps can be taken to remain, retain and/or regain personal health and vitality in their Kingdom work.
  • Theological Worlds Inventory
    This inventory is designed to assist in that task of discerning the “world” (your experiences, thoughts, feelings, surroundings, etc.) in which you are living, in order to help gauge whether or not your “world” has become stifling and unhealthy.
  • Why Hope Network Uses the Grip-Birkman
  • Stuck!: Navigating Life and Leadership Transitions by Terry B. Walling
  • The Third Third of Life: Preparing for Your Future by Walter C. Wright Jr.
    Considering retirement can be daunting. How do you know how to best plan for the future? This is a helpful guidebook/workbook that leads you thoughtfully into the third third of life and provides eight sessions to help those moving toward retirement plan out their next steps.

Team Building


Leadership Marriage Care

  • WebGrowing Love Network
    Growing Love Network, founded and directed by Hope Network Ministries Partner Jon Anderson, exists to help struggling and/or failing marriages through weekly classes, seminars, retreats, and professional counseling.
  • Growing Love: The 9 Essentials of Lifelong Love  by Jon R. Anderson
    A nine-week guide to transforming relationships. Designed for optimal use as a class curriculum or group study, this workbook can also be used as a self-growth aid for individuals whose mate or spouse is unwilling to get help. No matter how tough your past relationships, or how hopeless you see your future, within the pages of this book you’ll find your unique path to a transformed heart.
  • 365 Days of Growing Love by Jon R. Anderson
    Devote just a few moments, every day for a year, to growing the way you love, and your marriage can’t help but get profoundly better. 365 Days of Growing Love is like taking a daily supplement of all the essential nutrients for your relational health. It doesn’t take much time and the rewards far outweigh the effort!
  • Marriage Mentoring: 12 Conversations

Spiritual Formation

  • eleven:28 Ministries
    eleven:28 Ministries, founded and directed by Hope Network Partner Rhesa Higgins, exists to offer spiritual vitality to all who serve in the Kingdom of God.  It is a safe place to ask questions, explore who God is, and deepen your experience of God.
  • God Hungry
    This blog, “A Place for the God-Hungry,” is where Hope Network Ministries Partner Jim Martin shares encouraging ideas about life, marriage, parenting, leadership, and ministry.  Each week, he dedicates at least one post to those who serve as church leaders.
  • In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership by Henri Nouwen
    For a society that measures successful leadership in terms of the effectiveness of the individual, Father Nouwen offers a counter definition that is witnessed by a “communal and mutual experience.” For Nouwen, leadership cannot function apart from the community. His wisdom is grounded in the foundation that we are a people “called.” This beautiful guide to Christian Leadership is the rich fruit of Henri Nouwen’s own journey as one of the most influential spiritual leaders of the 20th century.
  • The Way of the Heart: Connecting with God Through Prayer, Wisdom, and Silence by Henri Nouwen
    Within this one small book lies the most relevant and inspiring challenge that we shall ever face: to surrender the compulsive noise of the world for the way of the heart that leads us to God.
  • Practicing God’s Presence: Brother Lawrence for Today’s Reader (Quiet Times for the Heart) by Robert Elmer
    For centuries, the sayings of Brother Lawrence, a seventeenth-century monk, have shown believers how to follow and live like Christ. Now a new generation can discover the joy of practicing the presence of God with this updated version.

Church Health


Children’s Ministry


Leadership Bootcamp for Women in Ministry

  • Leadership Bootcamp for Women in Ministry – Two experienced women in ministry guide a small group of other female ministers through virtual sessions to give them skills that will increase their confidence, conflict resolution ability, credibility, and courage. Email HN Associate Amanda Box or Becky Burroughs for more details.

 

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