Almost everywhere throughout the greater church are unsustainable trends-endowments are being depleted, building maintenance deferred, congregations are aging and dwindling, and budgets are too far out-of-whack. And although there is much literature on what to do to grow congregations, little has been said about how to get those things done. In highly accessible, anecdotal prose, church management expert Gerald Keucher focuses in very practical terms on how to bring the right spirit, approach, and tactics to the work of bringing a congregation back from the edge of the abyss."

A roadmap for church leaders to break the model of "managing" their parish to setting a foundation for growth and hope. This practical, no-nonsense guide challenges church leaders to get out of "survival mode" and start imagining-and living out-a future filled with growth and hope. In his years of work with congregations in the Episcopal Diocese of New York, Gerald Keucher discovered that the shrinkage in numbers in many congregations of mainline churches "has deeply affected the psyches of those who lead our congregations. In many cases, they've been 'managing decline' for so long that they've forgotten to look to the future." Keucher outlines a method for sound leadership and asset management in clear, easy-to-follow chapters.

To be effective, leadership must be humble and strong. The leadership we often see in churches and not-for-profits, as well as in corporations, can be neither. The purpose of this book is to analyze these assertions, then to discuss how those who are preparing to be leaders and those who wish to be more effective leaders can recognize and avoid the pitfalls that lead to weak and arrogant leadership by adopting certain habits of life.