Pastoral Helps
Showing 3101–3150 of 4114 results
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Services For The Advent Wreath
$17.95Add to cartHow does a pastor who follows the lectionary make the Advent wreath relevant to the rest of the service? Here is a very easy-to-use resource which includes every Sunday in Advent, as well as Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It provides bulletin inserts, litanies, prayers, scripture readings, and flexible and easy-to-use original choral introits, which can be sung by a choir, ensemble duet, or as a solo.
This resource covers all three years of the lectionary cycle. It is adaptable for any size congregation, large or small.
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Preaching Lukes Gospel
$24.95Add to cartPreachers and Bible teachers will find this book helpful in guiding them to be biblical storytellers. Testimonies to the value of Dr. Richard Jensen’s book have been numerous and include the following:
Rather than preach about the biblical text one is encouraged and equipped to proclaim the biblical narrative. His book is refreshingly practical and biblical. It stimulates biblical preaching, preparation and proclamation. The preacher is moved from telling a story to telling the story.
Pastor Paul Gunsten
St. Philip Lutheran Church
Roanoke, VirginiaI really appreciate the direction each chapter opens for possible preaching emphasis. I thought the first few chapters might just be flukes … but each succeeding one holds its own. Thanks!
Pastor William Lawson
Trinity Lutheran Church
Green Bay, WisconsinThrough a process of “narrative analogy” Dr. Jensen shows how the stories in the appointed texts of the Revised Common Lectionary relate to the other stories in Luke/Acts. In so doing, he opens up new discoveries for preaching.
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Many Faces Of Evil
$16.95Add to cartEvil and suffering are a part of everyone’s experience. Kenneth Cauthen breaks new ground in exploring the torments and terrors of this life. Some of his positions may be considered daring and controversial. But his approach, while creative, is rooted in a deeply biblical faith as he interprets the meaning of suffering and the relationship of God to human anguish.
This book will be a useful resource for counselors, pastors, teachers and others who are called upon to help people cope with tragedy. It will be helpful to individuals who are attempting to understand the torment or suffering in their own lives.
The author addresses many difficult questions and illustrates his answers with fascinating real-life examples:
How is evil related to suffering?
What is God’s responsibility in causing and overcoming evil?
How does faith provide a basis for hope in the midst of suffering?
Why is evil a part of our world? -
Best Wedding Meditations
$12.95Add to cartThis resource book for busy pastors provides homilies for marriage services, as well as two unique orders of service and a service for a fiftieth wedding anniversary.
Ministers from around the United States have contributed to this collection of classics. Each of the homilies is biblically based and can be used as is or adapted to different circumstances.
The contents include:
A Contemporary Wedding Service
Marriage Likened To A Wedding Cake
Leeches Or Lovers
Marriage As A Crisis
We Belong To Each Other
Let God Be The Go-between
A Motto For Marriage
Living In Harmony
The Greatest Of These Is Love
Love, Honor, Forgive
Dearly Beloved and more -
Advent Instructor : Reflections On Christmas Symbolism
$8.95Add to cartThe Advent/Christmas season is full of symbols that inspire and instruct us in our understanding of the Christian faith. The information in this book will be especially welcomed by families for nightly stories around the dinner table. It will also be useful for children’s sermons, Sunday school classes or even preparing sermons.
This collection will help enrich readers and listeners awareness of the symbols that surround them during the seasons of Advent and Christmas.
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Christians Christians Everywhere How Do Your Gardens Grow
$7.95Add to cartChristians, Christians, Everywhere, How Do Your Gardens Grow? helps congregations to get the proper focus on stewardship for youth through a suggested order of service to be presented by youth.
Within the service are songs, a skit and meditation, all centered on a gardening theme.
Cynthia E. Cowen writes that her goal for this resource is to enable youth to participate in a worship service based on the theme of sowing and reaping in the Kingdom of God.
This resource helps participants and the congregation to understand the process of growth in the giving of our talents and offerings to the work of the church.
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And You Welcomed Me
$37.99Add to cartThis book presents a collection of early Christian texts regarding hospitality and its practices. The range of experts both in time and space shows just how central a role of hospitality played in Christian life throughout the early centuries. Yet this book is not a set of instructions for hospitality, nor does the word “hospitality” even appear in many of these excerpts, and this in itself is good cause for reflection for us today. The excerpts come from letters, diary accounts, instructions, sermons, travelogues, and community records and rules. They are windows into a world of early communities that saw it as their moral duty and also privilege to care for the sick, to safeguard the pilgrim, and to host the stranger. Abram and Sarai hosting the three angels at Oaks of Mamre, and Jesus and his disciples feeding the crowds are two familiar biblical examples, but this book also delves into lesser know texts that offer rich insight to those willing to read and then integrate the early fathers’ and mothers’ wisdom and hospitality into their own lives.
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Ministry Is A High Calling Aim Low
$22.00Add to cartKurt Schuermann writes with humor and grace about the everyday happenings in a pastor’s life. After being forced to purge his book collection by a move to a smaller office, Schuermann discovers a dark truth about himself: he is addicted to ten-step books. In this book he collects the things that he has found to be true since he threw away his collection of ten-step and how-to books. Topics of the fifty-two reflections include the minister’s call, church-growth seminars, and the local church.
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Life Injections 1
$15.95Add to cartWritten by a priest and hospital chaplain with many years of experience, this series of inspirational messages confronts a wide range of human emotions. Zajac not only connects scripture to the human experience, but he nudges the reader/listener to change his thinking or to alter her lifestyle. He injects hope and peace into lives wearied by pain and suffering and heartache. Heavy doses of captivating illustrations make this a book for inspiration and enjoyment.
This book will be a useful resource for …
the preacher who wishes to sensitively address difficult issues
the counselor who seeks to help the distressed
any individual who seeks answers and comfort and solaceTitles include:
Bad Habits
Tears
Antidotes For Perfectionism
One Day At A Time
Maalox Moments
What To Do About The Loss Of Someone Special -
Angels We Have Heard
$7.95Add to cartIf you’re looking for a fresh new approach to telling the old, old story — what better way to celebrate the Christmas message than to do it from the viewpoint of the angels? From the promise to Abraham to its fulfillment in Bethlehem, angels are a vital part of the story. Angels We Have Heard is a beautiful service that combines many of the traditional elements of Christmas worship with brief dialogues between angels and a number of characters relating to the Christmas narrative. Along with candlelight, an optional communion celebration, and many of the favorite carols we all love to sing, the encounters described in the scriptures between angels and Abraham, Zechariah, Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds are paraphrased. There’s also a short closing exchange between an angel and a contemporary person that sheds light on the meaning of Christ’s birth for our modern times.
This easy-to-use service is adaptable for any size congregation — while a number of speaking parts are specified, it’s easy to combine parts and use just two readers, allowing the participation of as many or as few as you wish. There’s also a convenient order of service for use in bulletin preparation. And while designed for worship use, the drama of the angels speaking with and to different people through the ages can be used in other settings such as youth meetings or church school. Very little (if any) rehearsal is required — this is a simple and versatile way to make the pageantry and drama of the biblical story come alive in your Christmas worship.
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Community Ministry : New Challenges Proven Steps To Faith Based Initiatives
$29.00Add to cartIn this era of “faith-based initiatives,” congregations increasingly find themselves in the business of establishing and supporting community ministries-daycare for infants and toddlers, respite care for elders, and programs for housing rehab and home repair, tutoring, and social justice advocacy. In this volume, Carl S. Dudley revises and updates his earlier book, Basic Steps toward Community Ministry, which Loren Mead called “the most valuable book on parish ministry I’ve seen in a decade.”
Once again, Dudley offers guidance for congregational leaders who need to create tools, get started, and take next steps to respond to God’s call to extraordinary ministry in their community. With thought-provoking discussions about congregations as learning organizations, the relationship between ongoing faith formation and social action, examples from outstanding new ministries, and an updated resource list, Dudley rounds out this essential, practical, and readable manual. Foreword by James P. Wind, President of the Alban Institute.
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Moving Beyond Church Growth
$18.00Add to cartAre unrealistic expectations for church growth sapping your morale and putting you at risk of burnout? Do you sense dissension within your congregation? Issuing a clarion call to church leaders for bold new thinking, Olson envisions faith communities that are radically centered on God, profoundly compassionate and engaged, and sustained in relationship.
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Educating In Faith
$23.95Add to cartMary Boys offers a new way of thinking about what it means to educate religiously. Utilizing the method of map-making to broaden the context of American religious education, Boys defines a process that incorporates each instructor’s own experiences, perspectives, and analytical insights to develop more compelling teaching methods.
By placing both Protestant and Catholic religious education in both a historical and conceptual framework, Boys establishes a theological and educational basis for providing answers to central questions: What does it mean to educate in faith? What is the teacher’s role? How much emphasis should be given to psychology, anthropology, and sociology? Toward what view of society is a theory of religious education oriented?
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Best Funeral Meditations
$10.95Add to cartThis collection of best funeral meditations provides a wide range of messages that address almost every death situation from the anticipated to the tragic. These classic meditations have been gathered from the writings and contributions of pastors, church leaders, and teachers of many denominations.
Among the situations addressed are:
For the nominal church member
For a little child
For a non-Christian
For the death of a child shortly after birth
For a college student killed in an auto accident
For a sixteen-year-old shot to death
For a woman who committed suicide
For a church member who served others
For a 40-year-old cancer patient
For a man who loved the outdoors
For a Sunday morning worship service following a death
and many more! -
Be All That You Can Be
$12.95Add to cartThough the title sounds like a promotional campaign for the U.S. Army, that’s not its intent. Instead, what is contained in this book are road marks for the journey into a new and stronger sense of what it means to be fully alive. All people are created with inherent purpose, promise and potential. All are endowed with abilities to do more and be more than we sometimes dare imagine. Herein are sermons intended to help readers and listeners discover their own powers and possibilities, to own them, to cultivate them and to live within them.
The chapters do not form an exhaustive list of human potentials. They do, however, provide an important inventory of what we all were created to become and can become, if we choose.
Chapter titles include:
You Can Be Articulate — Based upon Mark 7:31-37
You Can Be Intelligent — Based upon 2 Chronicles 1-11
You Can Be Like Children — Based upon Mark 10:13-16
You Can Be Beautiful — Based upon Hosea 14:1-7
You Can Be Well Fed — Based upon 1 Corinthians
You Can Be Eternal — Based upon 2 CorinthiansReaders will sense their own calls to be more than they have been thus far and the extraordinary power of One who promises to make the journey with them.
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Chrismons They Point To Jesus
$8.95Add to cartThis book provides patterns, instructions and background information for twenty different Chrismons, or “monograms of Christ.” It also includes a church program for presenting and explaining the meanings of these Christian symbols. The program includes children and adults and incoorporates the singing of the Christmas hymns.
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Multigenerational Congregation : Meeting The Leadership Challenge
$26.00Add to cartCongregations need to learn new cultural languages and practices in order to speak to and be heard by new generations of people. But how do congregations enter the wilderness of ministry with these new generations when many of those in the entourage do not appreciate the trip?
In contrast to many writers about church growth, Rendle works with three important observations:
Most congregations are not “pure markets,” discrete groups with uniform values and behaviors, that can be targeted to the exclusion of all other audiences;
Some of the differences and discomforts experienced in the congregation are based on the members’ tenure, or length of membership, rather than their age;
Leadership in congregations is not a matter of marketplace savvy but of spiritual authenticity in which we continue to shape our faith tradition to be heard and understood by a changing culture.
Rendle shows us how to talk with and really understand one generational cohort while another cohort is present “looking over one’s shoulder.” Foreword by Lovett H. Weems, Jr., President, Saint Paul School of Theology. -
Faith Under Fire
$16.95Add to cartDaniel Simundson shows how the Bible can speak to the universal human experience of suffering. He examines various biblical responses to suffering and explains what the New Testament can add to the thought of such classic works as the books of Job, Ecclesiastes, and the prophets.
This book, written for the general reader, is full of wisdom also for caregivers, including clergy, counselors, and laypersons.
Contents:
1.The Basic Biblical View of Suffering
2.The Power of Negative Thinking
3.Suffering for Others
4.God, Job, and the Counselors
5.Is There Any Hope?
6.What Is New in the New Testament?
7.Comfort and Hope -
Honey Bee Dance
$10.95Add to cartJulia Bland’s children’s messages are popular with pastors, Sunday school teachers, and parents all across the country. That’s because children love them and learn from the stories, drawings, and activity pages. Her work has been translated into Spanish and used by churches in Mexico and South America. The six lessons in this booklet, all based on Ephesians 4:32-5:2a, provide a perfect series for Vacation Bible School, a retreat, or a summer series for children. Using the busy, productive life of a honey bee as a metaphor for the life of a Christian, Bland offers charming lessons.
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He Took A Towel
$8.95Add to cartAppropriate for Maundy Thursday or any time throughout the year, this resource contains several sermons and a full-blown service of Holy Communion, Feetwashing, and Agape Meal (or Love Feast). Detailed bread recipes and instructions for all the preparations are included along with bulletin texts.
Examination Service And Feetwashing Service
Meditation: “Broken For You”
Service: The Lords Supper
Sermons Include:
“Seeing A Familiar Friend All Over Again For The First Time”
“Peter Asks A Question”
“No Forks Or Napkins” -
Many Faces Of Evil Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.95Add to cartEvil and suffering are a part of everyone’s experience. Kenneth Cauthen breaks new ground in exploring the torments and terrors of this life. Some of his positions may be considered daring and controversial. But his approach, while creative, is rooted in a deeply biblical faith as he interprets the meaning of suffering and the relationship of God to human anguish.
This book will be a useful resource for counselors, pastors, teachers and others who are called upon to help people cope with tragedy. It will be helpful to individuals who are attempting to understand the torment or suffering in their own lives.
The author addresses many difficult questions and illustrates his answers with fascinating real-life examples:
* How is evil related to suffering?
* What is God’s responsibility in causing and overcoming evil?
* How does faith provide a basis for hope in the midst of suffering?
* Why is evil a part of our world? -
Raising The Roof
$26.00Add to cartPastoral-to-program size change is frequently described as the most challenging of growth transitions for congregations. Now Alban senior consultant Alice Mann, author of The In-Between Church: Navigating Size Transitions in Congregations, addresses the difficulties of that transition in this resource designed specifically for a congregational learning team.
Conceptualized and developed by Mann for an Alban on-line seminar program test event conducted with 12 congregations in transition, her newest book features a five-step process enabling the learning team to engage a wider circle of congregational leaders and members in study, discernment, and planning. Never-before published resources include discussion of a major new concept-passive barriers to growth-plus Mann’s “System Change Index” tool to help congregations measure their progress from pastoral-size to program-size ways of operating.
From preparing the congregation’s board and members, selecting the person to guide the learning process, and recruiting the learning team, to creating and celebrating a plan for congregational learning and action, Mann provides all the resources a congregation needs to address this significant size transition period.
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Literary Companion To The Lectionary
$29.00Add to cartThis beautiful book offers poems and literary pieces for Sundays and principal feasts throughout the liturgical year. Each selection relates to an aspect of the Scripture readings for the Eucharist in the Revised Common Lectionary, the Roman Catholic lectionary, and the Book of Common Prayer. Drawn from many centuries and many countries including Britain, Ireland, North America, Africa, and Australia, these readings bridging literature and liturgy can prompt private prayer or public worship through imaginative engagement. A short note before each passage connects with an idea, image, or story found in one of the biblical readings or the seasonal theme. From Robert Herrick to Brendan Kennelly, from Christina Rossetti to Emily Dickinson, from Dante to Monica Furlong, the poets, novelists, and playwrights gathered here bring an added dimension that graces the life of the church.
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Dont Forget The Child
$13.95Add to cartAlex Gondola says that in our modern culture we sometimes “experience Christmas at its worst: overcommercialized, expensive, exhausting, nearly devoid of spiritual significance.” In this collection of twenty cogent and inspiring sermons for Advent and Christmas, he reminds us of the key to putting the season in its proper perspective — “Don’t forget the child!” For it is only when we are drawn nearer to the child of Bethlehem, celebrating the simple beauties of the stable, that we can escape from the rush of the season into the divine light of saving grace heralded by the birth of God’s Son. This volume is an exceptional source of inspiration for sermon preparation, but it’s also excellent for personal devotions exploring the meaning of Advent and Christmas. It’s a great Christmas gift!
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Lectionary Preaching Workbook Series 7 Cycle A (Workbook)
$41.95Add to cartProviding a fresh, timely reflection every week on assigned scripture passages can be one of a pastor’s most daunting tasks. But when time or inspiration is flagging and you need the jump-start of creative ideas, the latest edition of the classic CSS resource Lectionary Preaching Workbook is just what the doctor ordered! Prominent pastor, former seminary president, and prolific author Jerry Schmalenberger draws upon the experiences of a lifetime in the ministry to help readers effectively share God’s Word with crisply written insights. He’s created an outstanding set of practical aids to help preachers with their weekly sermons. Each chapter includes a listing of the applicable Revised Common, Roman Catholic, and Episcopal lectionary texts; a theme for the day’s service; commentary on the Old Testament, New Testament, and Gospel lessons; suggestions on preaching possibilities; an outline of possible sermon moves; and additional illustrations to flesh out the message.
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Curious Commercials
$14.95Add to cartCurious Commercials approaches the Christmas event from a different perspective. Daniel Weitner doesn’t treat the nativity as a kind of warm and fuzzy feeling of longing for universal peace that envelops the earth around the end of the year or as a sign pointing to something greater in our lives. In trenchant messages that are liberally sprinkled with contemporary illustrations, he reminds us that to know what Christmas is all about, we don’t have to look outside Bethlehem…beyond the manger…or past the baby Jesus. Instead we should focus on the birth of Jesus the Redeemer – it is the wonderful event!
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2 Tenebrae Readings And Services
$7.95Add to cartTwo Tenebrae Readings And Services provides pastors and congregations with dramatic ways to remember the Passion of the Lord.
Tenebrae I – 9 reading parts
Tenebrae II – 12 reading partsParts are simple enough for both young people and adults. They are creatively drawn from the Bible narratives and present realistic human responses from those who would be his disciples.
These resources require very little preparation. They were conducted in the author’s congregation by calling the readers together an hour before the service.
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Speaking With Signs
$7.95Add to cartSpeaking With Signs is a unique series of six object lessons for children during the Lenten season … making worship more meaningful for them (and for adults). Each lesson brings them a story from scripture by focusing upon a symbol related to the Easter story. Lessons are based on texts from Matthew and John.
Objects include:
a lantern
a rope
a crown of thorns
dice and a robe
a stepladder and sponge
a spear
a picture of an empty tomb -
God Sense : Reading The Bible For Preaching
$23.99Add to cartThroughout the modern period, history has been the dominant lens through which preachers have viewed the biblical text. The historical-critical method, with its emphasis on the context of a scriptural text’s origins, has been the principal, or sole, tool with which preachers have approached the question of the text’s meaning. Preachers have been in danger of losing the Bible as revelation and with that losing the rich varieties of God-centered meanings that our ancient forebears understood were the purpose of Scripture. He then demonstrates how a critical and informed understanding of the “spiritual” meanings of the text, rather than importing meaning into the text, as is often claimed, opens new possibilities for a faithful proclamation of the biblical witness
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When Suffering Persists
$19.95Add to cartThe pain of loss may pass quickly, or suffering may go on and on. For people of faith, the resulting crisis may be deeper than the loss itself. We look for ways to comfort those who are hurting. But sometimes, in spite of our good intentions, the cliches and simplistic theology we offer only add to their pain and misery. In When Suffering Persists, Frederick W. Schmidt explores ways to understand suffering, and offers a theology that takes the devastating character of suffering seriously, one that truly allows us to help people in pain.
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Inside The Small Church
$30.00Add to cartEven as so-called megachurches capture the attention of many church watchers, small congregations continue to dominate America’s religious landscape in both rural and urban settings. Although sometimes obscured by their larger siblings, these small churches play a prominent role and hold a unique place in both local and national cultures. How can leaders help to keep these often at-risk churches alive and to meet their potential for ministry?
Small-church expert Tony Pappas has gathered a cornucopia of essays into an indispensable book for anyone interested in the rich life of these small but significant congregations. Drawing on classic and updated articles by a variety of writers from his own small-church newsletter The Five Stones; from Alban journals Action Information and Congregations; and adding new pieces developed especially for this volume, Pappas provides timeless ideas on learning to value, pastor, develop, and lead the small church.
In addition to time-honored articles by the editor, other contributors to this volume include Sherry and Douglas Alan Walrath, Gary Farley, Lawrence W. Farris, Loren Mead, Caroline Westerhoff, Steven Burt, Carl Dudley, David Ray, James Lowery, and a host of others known for their work-and love-for the small church. Readers of Inside the Small Church will come away with a renewed love and appreciation for these vital congregations as well as with new skills for ministry.
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Pastoral Theology In The Classical Tradition
$28.00Add to cartModern pastoral care, Andrew Purves believes, has been overly influenced by psychological theory and too often uninformed by historical practice. The result is a pastoral practice that has diminished the reality of God. In this book, Purves aims to reclaim pastoral theology as a theological discipline. He does this by examining classical texts from the tradition, texts that have the, and he argues that a thoughtful reading of these works–by Gregory of Nazianus, John Chrysostom, Gregory the Great, Martin Bucer, and Richard Baxter–will force a reevaluation of many of the assumptions that shape contemporary pastoral work. He includes a brief biography of each author, introduces the major themes in each writer’s pastoral theology, and discusses the issues relevant to pastoral work today.
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Giving Counsel : Ministers Guidebook
$34.99Add to cart“Giving Counsel: A Minister’s Guidebook is conversational, engaging, and accessible. I have no hesitation enthusiastically recommending it to beginning students. Advanced students and experienced ministers may find it useful as a reminder of good practice.”
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Discovering A Sermon
$23.99Add to cart“Discovering a Sermon is a treasure-chest of wisdom for preaching written by an academic pastoral theologian who loves to preach and who is keenly aware of how his own discipline of pastoral theology can speak a helpful word to those who teach and learn preaching. Dykstra is not only a scholar, but a self-reflective preacher, able to look deep into his own soul and draw forth insights that will help preachers avoid serious pitfalls, while pursuing what really matters.”
