what others say about living stones associates...
As the new pastor of a church which was nearly 75 years old with a history of struggles, I was excited that the church was growing and good things were happening, but overwhelmed by the many voices about what next steps to take. Among our leaders there was no clear sense of what we needed to do when it came to our facility, finances, ministries, and staffing. Some wanted to build, but the church was still saddled with debt. Partnering with Living Stones was the most providential moment for our church, as they gave us tremendously helpful insight in all of these areas as well as how to help our church become even healthier. Our two planning processes with them helped us to more than double our attendance over the next 8 years without adding one square inch of space, to eliminate our debt to free resources for ministry and staffing, and helped set us on a pathway to increased effectiveness in our ministries. The More-with-Less Church now makes available to a much wider audience the principles that have been so life-giving for Riverside. I thank the Lord for the ministry of Living Stones and how God used them to help us in an amazingly comprehensive way.
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I was called to a church that had split in half several months before my wife and I arrived. The urgency was to bring calmness, order, and peace to a chaotic situation. We needed to cultivate forgiveness, healing, reconciliation, and restoration. After a few years of working at this it was evident that we needed outside help in gaining perspective, focus, and creating a new identity. That's where Living Stones came in. For the next two years Living Stones taught us, equipped us, and empowered us to create a new church culture with a new identity and a new mission. We now minister with much more clarity and focus. We are learning to be more proactive and intentional. Living Stones identified our church's strengths and weakness and showed us how to invest our time and energy where it would make the greatest impact in overcoming our weaknesses.
I highly recommend Living Stones to pastors and church leaders. With their qualified, experienced staff they are able to help churches assess where they are and where they could be. Often what stands between where churches are at and where they could be is lacking the know-how. Living Stones provided that for us. It is so good to now have tools to manage the church better and pursue our mission with more clarity and purpose. |
We have just completed our final visit with Living Stones. WOW! Skipp Machmer led this trip and did an outstanding job of taking aspirational ideas and turning them into logical steps.
We are a church in transition after major upheaveal. We have been on a journey with Living Stones for the last 10 months. The team of Eddy Hall, Ken Dean, Gary Diehl and Skipp Machmer did an outstanding job of quickly assimilation information about the current situation, and presenting us with a brutally honest, candid and at the same time, loving look at where we were based on extensive surveys, interviews and observations from our congregation. They have interacted with every level of leadership, staff and lay person in our church. These guys worked tirelessly during their first visit to make sure we have an action plan before they left that was both impactful and doable. They were in constant contact with us as we navigated our plan. They provided the proper training and support throughout. These guys are very good at what they do. They have the experience to know what a good plan looks like and have walked though the fire with enough churches to help guide you through whatever you are dealing with, The best praise I can give this group is that they aren't your "typical" consultants. They don't just show you where you are and suggest things to do. They actually help you build YOUR PLAN and hold you accountable with support as you execute YOUR PLAN. They will not just show you the path, they will walk it with you. We have seen God work in some amazing ways to heal and revive our church during the past 10 months. We can't wait to see what God has in store for Grace Community Church now. Thank you Living Stones. |
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