Publications

ACT MONOGRAPH SERIES The Impact of Church Consultancy Explore the Impact of One Model of Church Consultancy on Church Health and Church Growth in NSW/ACT Baptist Churches by Ian Duncum
This book follows the journey of ten churches who underwent church consultancies, and explores in depth both the consultancy and its outcomes. Pre-consultancy and post-consultancy “snapshots,” four to five years apart, of vitality indicators and attendance figures (using National Church Life Survey and other data) are used to compare these with churches that have not undertaken church consultancies. Theologies of church consultancy, church health, and church growth are also developed and examined, intersecting with a wide body of literature, including contemporary ecclesiologies.
“As we grapple with missional leadership and congregational transformation in the Western world, we desperately need reliable assessments, valid metrics, and practical tools for understanding and fostering church health and growth. Sometimes churches need a consultant to come alongside to ask diagnostic, curious, and subversive questions. But sometimes consultants need someone else to ask diagnostic, curious, and subversive questions of their processes. Ian Duncum has been asking insightful questions for twenty years as a pastor and church consultant and now offers a timely in-depth analysis of church consultancy in a group of Australian Baptist Churches. The Impact of Church Consultancy is a gift and resource for churches, pastors, denominational leaders, and consultants to learn about the necessary dance between pastor and congregational system that fosters church health and lays the groundwork for church growth.”
—Darren Cronshaw, Head of Research & Professor of Missional Leadership with Australian College of Ministries
“It’s very helpful to see empirical evidence that supports the good work of the church consultancies offered by the Baptist Association of NSW/ACT. Thank you, Ian Duncum for this important contribution to the life of our churches.”
—Michael Frost, Director, Tinsley Institute, Morling Theological College, Sydney
“Ian Duncum’s book is an important study of the impact of church consultancies on church health and growth. When church consultancies are done well, they help churches become healthy, be revitalised, embrace fresh purpose and vision, and grow missionally. This is a valuable and timely book.”
—Graham Hill, Founding Director of The GlobalChurch Project
About the author: Ian Duncum is a trained and accredited church consultant with 20 years experience of working with non-profit enterprises and churches across a number of denominations.