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dixonbooks.com: Plans & Prayers
These books will help you be both practical and prayerful in your building program.
NEW!
Book Review from Faith & Form magazine:
Building a New Church: A Process Manual for Pastors and Lay Leaders
by James E. Healy
Liturgical Press, paperback, 152 pages, $18.95, September 2009
There is an abundance of beautiful books on styles of architecture and worship for churches. While those are fine in theory; this book is pure practice: a DIY instruction manual that covers the nuts and bolts of needs assessment, committee structure, fundraising, design, and construction.
This is a valuable blueprint for all those pastors and church volunteers who find themselves blessed with the opportunity to build a new church, but burdened by too much responsibility and not enough experience. There are full descriptions of the research and planning required, complete with helpful statistical information on results to expect and prudent advice on how to maintain communication and participation among the membership. Links to online appendices of checklists and worksheets make these tools readily available to all parties involved in a particular exercise, helping them to plan well at every phase and thereby save time and money on the entire project.
The author is a Roman Catholic priest who has turned his own experience with a building program into a concise guide for the uninitiated. His perspective is both practical and pastoral, as these seemingly mundane tasks are always made meaningful by an emphasis on the opportunity to build community while constructing a building. Readers of other faiths may stumble over specific denominational terms but the general information is clearly written, well organized, and applicable to any building or renovation project in a worship environment. This handbook also could enlighten architects and artists who serve the church, with some insight into their clients’ needs and expectations, and help all who collaborate on building a new church to share the same vision.
Dixon Books is a service of Dixon Studio
323 N Central Avenue; Staunton, VA 24401
Phone: 800-619-1112
Email: dixonstudio@earthlink.net
©2009 Dixon Studio
Image at top left: stained glass window at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Mathews, Virginia.
Image at upper right: design for stained glass window depicting a medieval scribe.
See more original works in glass, wood, marble, and mosaic at www.dixonstudio.com
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