About Living Stones Associates
Since 1980, Living Stones consultants have partnered with hundreds of congregations in 30 or so denominations throughout the U.S. and Canada. Our mission is to help churches become healthier and more effective in carrying out their mission through:
- Strategic planning that integrates ministries, staffing, facilities and finances. We identify present and future barriers to healthy growth in each of these four areas and work with you to develop a sequenced, prioritized plan for removing them.
- Leadership training—equipping church leadership teams to more clearly discern God’s vision for the church and more effectively empower the people of the church to discover and fulfill God’s call.
- Leading churches through cultural change—collaborating closely with pastors and leadership teams as they implement their strategic plan. Implementing technical fixes (such as building plans) is the easy part. The greater challenge is leading congregations through the process of making the cultural changes required to go from where they are to where God is calling them to be.
- Offering select resource—our online bookstore features many of resources we most often recommend to our clients, including Natural Church Development resources.
Our Story: “Confessions of a Surprised Architect”
This chapter from our book WHEN NOT TO BUILD: An Architect’s Unconventional Wisdom for the Growing Church tells the story of founder Ray Bowman’s call which led to his leaving his architectural practice to begin this ministry.
Our Team
Click on the above link for photos and bios of our consulting team. Our team members come from a variety of professional backgrounds—architecture, construction, business, pastoral ministry, law, and more. They represent a wide variety of denominational backgrounds—evangelical, mainline, and charismatic. And they come from throughout the U.S, each working out of a home office. We usually work in teams of 2 or 3 because we believe God designed us to work most effectively in teams, and we serve churches most effectively when we work as a team.
Only a small fraction of those who inquire about working with Living Stones are accepted into our apprenticeship program. Our consultants must each complete an intensive 2- to 3-year apprenticeship with Living Stones, even if they come to us as experienced consultants. Our superb team members are our greatest asset.
Our Ministry Philosophy
Living Stones team members work out of a deeply shared vision of the nature and mission of the church and how we can best assist churches in becoming healthier and more effective. This statement summarizes some of our key understandings.
Printable Brochure
Looking for a quick way to introduce your board or members of
your congregation to Living Stones? Make as many copies as you wish.