Church Life
Showing 151–200 of 863 results
-
Funding Ministry With Five Loaves And Two Fishes
$18.99Add to cartThis book is for any pastor, church planter or lay leader struggling to do ministry with a lack of financial resources but hungry to reach the lost with the Good News of Jesus Christ. Clergy are trained to preach, teach, and lead a congregation in spiritual matters. However, it has become increasingly alarming that there is no training for clergy when it comes to the “business” matters of the church in regards to finances, debt reduction, fundraising, and building maintenance. The added and sometimes unexpected load for clergy can become cumbersome and extremely stressful. In addition, the decline of the church and the passing of key funders of churches leave many pastors with dying churches and few resources to do anything about it. Rosario Picardo has been in this very position starting a church in a movie theater with no people and very little financial support and revitalizing a dying congregation in a deteriorating physical structure. Through trials and failures, new creative ways of doing ministry and entrepreneurial thinking, God provided, and Picardo learned new ways for reaching the least and lost and growing disciples. In Funding Ministry with Five Loaves and Two Fishes, Picardo shares the lessons he’s learned with confidence that the Church is not dead; it’s just time for a new wineskin.
-
State Of Missiology Today
$38.99Add to cartThe 2015 Missiology Lectures at Fuller Theological Seminary marked the fiftieth anniversary of the School of Intercultural Studies (formerly School of World Mission). The papers from that conference present a “state of the art” in the field of missiology, drawing on the past and looking ahead to a diverse, global future.
-
Tactful Advice For Calling Your Next Pastor
$10.99Add to cartA change of pastoral leadership creates a special kind of stress and strain on a congregation. Your church may prefer the more practical starting points, such as appointing a search team, getting assistance from a denomination, shoring up finances, addressing maintenance issues, and developing a quick timeline. Then there are the deeper matters: grief work, sober evaluation of effectiveness, prayer around core reasons for being, attending matters of the heart around communal healing and reconciliation, and authentic conversation about who we are called to be for the sake of the Gospel and the world around us.
Gary Straub articulates the dynamics of the pastoral search process from both sides of the equation. With more than 50 years of ministry experience-including calls to large congregations, interim positions, and coaching of pastoral candidates-Straub integrates practical advice with prayerful counsel. Healthy dialogue helps keep you passionately open to the Holy Spirit. Tactful Advice for Calling Your Next Pastor starts the dialogue and keeps it focused.
-
Beauty Of Grace
$14.99Add to cartEncouraging and Heartfelt Stories of Grace Connect Women’s Hearts with God–Now in Paper
In this hectic life, it’s easy to forget that God is always near, even though he sends us frequent reminders. The beauty amid the mess, a well-timed word of encouragement from a friend, the memories that won’t let go of our hearts–they’re all ways God extends us grace. But if we’re not paying attention, we can miss them. With heartfelt stories from some of today’s foremost writers, The Beauty of Grace is a haven of calm contemplation amid the chaos. These inspiring stories helps readers appreciate the benefits of cultivating friendship, waiting on God, choosing joy, staying connected, learning to trust, and much more.Contributors include Jessica Turner, Lisa-Jo Baker, Holley Gerth, Ann Voskamp, Bonnie Gray, Tsh Oxenreider, Leeana Tankersley, Emily Freeman, Margaret Feinberg, and many others. -
Gaining By Losing
$19.99Add to cartPeople are leaving the church J.D. Greear pastors. Big givers. Key volunteers. Some of his best leaders and friends. And that’s exactly how he wants it to be. When Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commission, he revealed that the key for reaching the world with the gospel is found in sending, not gathering. Though many churches focus time and energy on attracting people and counting numbers, the real mission of the church isn’t how many people you can gather. It’s about training up disciples and then sending them out. The true measure of success for a church should be its sending capacity, not its seating capacity. But there is a cost to this. To see ministry multiply, we must release the seeds God has placed in our hands. And to do that, we must ask ourselves whether we are concerned more with building our kingdom or God’s. In Gaining By Losing, J.D. Greear unpacks ten plumb lines that you can use to reorient your church’s priorities around God’s mission to reach a lost world. The good news is that you don’t need to choose between gathering or sending. Effective churches can, and must, do both.
-
Grab Gather And Grow
$15.99Add to cartJim and Jen Cowart, authors of Start This, Stop That, offer a fresh strategy for developing community groups for your whole church and beyond. Harvest Church (www.harvestchurch4u.org), a young United Methodist congregation twenty miles southwest of Macon, met for seven years (on Sundays) on the move in a rented theatre. They learned about adaptive systems, digital tools, and flexible overhead. Since building a multipurpose facility on 43 acres near Warner Robins, Georgia in 2007, Harvest Church applied what they learned about mobility and sustained rapid growth to 2700 in worship attendance, with seven weekend services. They dispensed with a typical education wing (at significant cost savings) and classrooms in favor of four multipurpose rooms. They adapted a community groups strategy, which meets primarily in homes. Over 18 months they have expanded from 76 community groups to over 250 community groups. In this leadership book, Jen and Jim offer a five-part method for transforming a congregation through launching community groups. Community groups become a multiplication strategy because they nurture an urgent expectation outside the congregation to share the good news with persons not yet professing faith, while creating a well defined path for growth in discipleship. The book will include the following themes: Group Explosion – New Strategy for 100% plus group participation Overcoming Obstacles – Structuring for Maximum Growth vs Control – Crowd to Core Group Growth The Power of the Pulpit – This system is driven from the stage Living the 5 through Group Life – How the CG lives into Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry, Evangelism, and Worship Creating Infrastructure for Facilitators
-
Praying For Your Pastor
$18.99Add to cartIt’s tough to be a pastor. Pastors face demands and pressures on every side, from the challenges of church ministry to the realities of spiritual warfare. But you can make a difference. Your prayers provide a lifeline for your pastor’s spiritual health and ministry effectiveness. Eddie Byun offers a handy, practical guide to praying for pastors. He shares stories of how congregational intercession changes things, with specific guidelines for prayers for protection, rest, anointing, integrity and more. God calls us to pray for our leaders. When we do, their ministry is strengthened, the kingdom is advanced and lives and communities are transformed.
-
Flipping Church : How Successful Church Planters Are Turning Conventional W
$18.00Add to cartAn innovative anthology written by successful church planters who have consistently and successfully challenged prevailing assumptions about healthy church development and “best practices.” This informative book gives insight into how they broke the mold of church planting. Includes chapters written by Michael Baughman, Olu Brown, Doug Cunningham, Kenda Creasy Dean, Mark DeVries, Amanda Garber, Trey Hall, Diane Harrison, Elaine Heath, Jerry Herships, Derek Jacobs, Matt Miofsky, David Rangel, and Owen Ross.
-
True Church : The Multi-Dimenisonal Manifestation Of The Real Church
$19.99Add to cart1. The Birth Of The Promised Church
2. The Church: A Spiritual Entity
3. The Church: The Body Of Christ
4. The Church: The Bride Of Christ
5. The Church: The Temple Of God
6. The Church: A House Of Prayer
7. The Church: In The World
8. Beware Of The Synagogue Of Satan
9. The Present-Day ChurchAdditional Info
This book reveals what Heaven expects from the church. It reveals what Jesus meant by “I will build my church.” It is not a critique but a standard of spiritual measurement and divine alignment as to the definition of a true church. The true church (The Ekklesia) is not a denominational gathering of any kind, whether orthodox, charismatic, or pentecostal. The true church is one which has placed primacy on building the dispensational temple (the man) only according to God’s pattern. This book will be a great eye opener for you. You will no longer strive in the flesh after going through this book. The issues of competition, comparison, sense of inferiority, and superiority complex, which are some of the distractions and strategies of the enemy, will be exposed. Your work and ministry with God will never remain the same. You can’t read this book and still retain your old mentality and operating system. Whatever you are building for the Lord from now on shall be to the Lord’s glory and according to his specifications. Personal agenda will be given up. Deeper truths and insights are made available inside this book. -
True Church : The Multi-Dimenisonal Manifestation Of The Real Church
$14.99Add to cart1. The Birth Of The Promised Church
2. The Church: A Spiritual Entity
3. The Church: The Body Of Christ
4. The Church: The Bride Of Christ
5. The Church: The Temple Of God
6. The Church: A House Of Prayer
7. The Church: In The World
8. Beware Of The Synagogue Of Satan
9. The Present-Day ChurchAdditional Info
This book reveals what Heaven expects from the church. It reveals what Jesus meant by “I will build my church.” It is not a critique but a standard of spiritual measurement and divine alignment as to the definition of a true church. The true church (The Ekklesia) is not a denominational gathering of any kind, whether orthodox, charismatic, or pentecostal. The true church is one which has placed primacy on building the dispensational temple (the man) only according to God’s pattern. This book will be a great eye opener for you. You will no longer strive in the flesh after going through this book. The issues of competition, comparison, sense of inferiority, and superiority complex, which are some of the distractions and strategies of the enemy, will be exposed. Your work and ministry with God will never remain the same. You can’t read this book and still retain your old mentality and operating system. Whatever you are building for the Lord from now on shall be to the Lord’s glory and according to his specifications. Personal agenda will be given up. Deeper truths and insights are made available inside this book. -
Fellowship Of Differents
$22.99Add to cartIn this compelling book, Scot McKnight shares his personal experience in the church as well as his study of the Apostle Paul to answer this significant question: What is the church supposed to be?
For most of us the church is a place we go to on Sunday to hear a sermon or to participate in worship or to partake in communion or to fellowship with other Christians. Church is all contained within one or two hours on Sunday morning.
The church the Apostle Paul talks about is designed by God to be a fellowship of difference-how people differ socially-and differents-how people differ culturally. God did not design the church to be a two-hour experience on Sunday but a mixture of people from all across the map and spectrum: men and women, rich and poor, Caucasians or African Americans, and Mexican Americans, Latin Americans, Asian Americans, and Indian Americans, and a mixture of people with varying personalities and tastes. The church McKnight grew up in was a fellowship of sames and likes. There was almost no variety in his church. White folks, same beliefs about everything, same tastes in music and worship and sermons and lifestyle. Because of his experience, he writes incisively and compellingly.
The church is God’s world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God’s show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a family. -
Riddle Of Life
$23.99Add to cartFresh translation of a classic treatise on Christian belief
In the spirit of C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, eminent Calvinist thinker J. H. Bavinck’s Riddle of Life offers a compact and compelling treatise on Christian belief, starting with the eternal questions that haunt every conscious human being: Why are we here? Where do we come from? What is our destiny? How should we live? He goes on to explore essential topics including sin, salvation, and Jesus the Redeemer; faith and idolatry; God’s great plan for creation; and the ultimate purpose behind our lives.
This lucid new translation by Bert Hielema of a classic text will make Bavinck’s profound reflections on faith and the meaning of human life accessible to a new generation of seekers.
-
Made To Lead
$16.99Add to cartWomen were made to lead. Even in church.
Jesus affirmed women as leaders-many contend Mary Magdalene was the first female minister. Yet women in ministry face challenges and obstacles, both from churches and from their own self-doubts. Both men and women miss out when women don’t lead.
Made to Lead empowers you to live out your calling boldly and confidently. Draw closer to God with relevant biblical examples and heartfelt prayers. Break down stereotypes of women in leadership. And create your own successful reality in which you are a key part of God’s holy community.
-
50 Ways To Help Save The Earth (Revised)
$18.00Add to cartRebecca Barnes outlines fifty ways in which you, your congregation, and your local community can help fight global warming and enjoy participation in a vital part of Christian discipleship. In 50 Ways to Help Save the Earth, Revised Edition, she makes a clear connection, in a practical and unintimidating way, between stewardship of the earth and living one’s faith.
This easy-to-follow book consists of seven chapters on topics related to global climate change: “Energy,” “Food and Agriculture,” “Transportation,” “Water,” “People,” “Other Species,” and “Wilderness and Land.” Each chapter begins with a statement on how the content relates to global warming, followed by action items ranging from individual efforts to activities that encourage the involvement of the congregation and wider communities.
-
Apostolicity : The Ecumenical Question In World Christian Perspective
$40.99Add to cartAbbreviations
1. The Problem Of Apostolicity
2. Apostolicity Under The Horizon Of Schism
3. Culture As The Nature Of Apostolic Continuity
4. Apostolicity And Colonization: A Relationship?
5. Subordinating Apostolicity To The Apostolate
6. Historical Continuity In The Perspective Of World Christianity
7. Jesus Christ, The One Ground Of The Apostle
8. Apostolicity: The Livingness Of The Living Word
Bibliography
Author Index
Subject Index
Scripture IndexAdditional Info
What constitutes the unity of the church over time and across cultures? Can our account of the church’s apostolic faith embrace the cultural diversity of world Christianity? The ecumenical movement that began in the twentieth century posed the problem of the church’s apostolicity in profound new ways. In the attempt to find unity in the midst of the Protestant-Catholic schism, participants in this movement defined the church as a distinct culture-complete with its own structures, rituals, architecture and music. Apostolicity became a matter of cultivating the church’s own (Western) culture. At the same time it became disconnected from mission, and more importantly, from the diverse reality of world Christianity. In this pioneering study, John Flett assesses the state of the conversation about the apostolic nature of the church. He contends that the pursuit of ecumenical unity has come at the expense of dealing responsibly with crosscultural difference. By looking out to the church beyond the West and back to the New Testament, Flett presents a bold account of an apostolicity that embraces plurality. -
Equipping Church : Serving Together To Transform Lives
$22.99Add to cartPicture your church as a place where the priesthood of believers finds its expression in creative and powerful ways. Picture leaders and staff equipping and unleashing people to minister in ways consistent with how God designed them. Think of the effectiveness, vitality, and contentment that come when the body of Christ nurtures itself through the healthy give-and-take of each member. In The Equipping Church, Sue Mallory describes the benefits, the structure, and the culture of an equipping church and shows how your congregation can become one. This book is about limitless possibilities. Think “vision.”
What might your church look like if its members became vital, fully empowered partners in ministry? How can you help them discover and release their full potential? How would their roles change–and yours?
AN EQUIPPING CHURCH IS A CHURCH WHERE:
* pastors and leaders enable church members to share in ministry
* people’s gifts, talents, and life callings are matched with areas of service
* ministry opportunities are recognized and developed
* the culture encourages the growth of a broad array of ministries
*a well-designed system addresses needs of every kind, both individual and corporate *the pastor doesn’t have to be all things to all peopleUnpacking insights and principles uncovered by Leadership Training Network over the last several years, Mallory helps you customize an equipping system and culture in your church. You’ll proceed from preparation (what you need to know), to foundations (what you need to change), to construction (what you need to do). In the process, Mallory takes you inside the story of her own church, Brentwood Presbyterian, to observe the different stages of their trial-and-error journey and how it has transformed their approach to “doing church.” See how they dealt with various concerns that arose along the way, and meet men and women whose lives have been changed because Brentwood took the ministry road less traveled. Each chapter includes a section of “Equipping Principles,” questions for discussion and reflection, and a summary of different equipping churches from around the country. With the accompanying Equipping Church Guidebook, this book will be a mile marker in your church–and the gateway to a more effective and biblical approach to ministry.
-
Cruciform Church : Becoming A Cross Shaped People In A Secular World (Expanded)
$19.99Add to cart“This new edition of The Cruciform Church finds Churches of Christ at a quite different place than they were sixteen years ago when the book was first released. On the one hand, our culture is more clearly post-modern and post-Christian. All of the Christian players today are finding themselves cultural outsiders, much like the earliest Christians. We are waking up to the reality that we are in a missionary situation in our own culture, and this is forcing us (slowly, by fits and starts) to rethink our priorities and our mission. On the other hand, Churches of Christ themselves are engaging more and more in the kind of healthy theological rethinking that this book called for back in 1990. Many congregations are shedding the sectarian or exclusivist outlook, gaining new appreciation for their heritage, refocusing on the central doctrines of the faith, and entering into serious dialogue about carrying out the mission of God in this new time…Perhaps this new edition can continue to provide stimulus and guidance as the adventure continues. Toward that end, this edition contains a new chapter, “Last(ing) Things,” that seeks to show the close relationship between eschatology and discipleship, between one’s view of the coming kingdom of God and the cruciform life.” – From Allen’s Preface to the Revised Edition
-
Impossible People
$16.00Add to cart1. New World, Old Challenge
2. The Greatest Challenge Ever
3. The War Of Spirits
4. Exploring The Heart Of Darkness
5. Life With No Amen
6. Yesterday, Today, Forever
7. Give Us The ToolsAdditional Info
The church in the West is at a critical moment. While the gospel is exploding throughout the global south, Western civilization faces militant assaults from aggressive secularism and radical Islam. Will the church resist the seductive shaping power of advanced modernity? More than ever, Christians must resist the negative cultural forces of our day with fortitude and winsomeness. What is needed is followers of Christ who are willing to face reality without flinching and respond with a faithfulness that is unwavering. Os Guinness describes these Christians as “impossible people,” those who have “hearts that can melt with compassion, but with faces like flint and backbones of steel who are unmanipulable, unbribable, undeterrable and unclubbable, without ever losing the gentleness, the mercy, the grace and the compassion of our Lord.” Few accounts of the challenge of today are more realistic, and few calls to Christian courage are more timely, resolute?and hopeful. Guinness argues that we must engage secularism and atheism in new ways, confronting competing ideas with discernment and fresh articulation of the faith. Christians are called to be impossible people, serving an Impossible God. -
Kingdom Conspiracy : Returning To The Radical Mission Of The Local Church
$26.00Add to cartAn Award-Winning Challenge to Popular Ideas of the Kingdom
According to Scot McKnight, “kingdom” is the biblical term most misused by Christians today. It has taken on meanings that are completely at odds with what the Bible says and has become a buzzword for both social justice and redemption. In “Kingdom Conspiracy,” McKnight offers a sizzling biblical corrective and a fiercely radical vision for the role of the local church in the kingdom of God. Now in paper.
Praise for “Kingdom Conspiracy -
Navigating The Nonsense
$17.00Add to cartCascade Books
Navigating the Nonsense will change the way your church approaches conflict and communication. It will unlock the untapped potential that exists in your church. It is a book for clergy and lay leaders. It is for churches tired of getting a new pastor every four years. It is for pastors who are afraid conflict may derail the effectiveness of their ministry. It is for pastors who are afraid conflict with a small group of people may lead to an early departure from their pastorate. It is for church leaders who want to find ways to protect their pastors from disgruntled members. It is for leadership teams and boards that feel their ministries are frozen in place or in a permanent state of decline. It is for those who believe the church cannot focus on ministry if it is bound up by so much conflict. It is for anyone who is tired of feeling frustrated and wants their church to become more centrally focused on Jesus and his way of doing things. -
Serving A Movement
$18.99Add to cartOur goal as Christians is never simply to build our own tribe. Instead, we seek the peace and prosperity of the city or community in which we live through a gospel movement led by the Holy Spirit, a movement united by the gospel of Jesus Christ, a common mission to reach and serve others, and a commitment to be gracious and generous to those who disagree with you.
In Serving a Movement, best-selling author and pastor Timothy Keller looks at the nature of the church’s mission and its relationship to the work of individual Christians in the world. He examines what it means to be a “missional” church today and how churches can practically equip people for missional living. Churches need to intentionally cultivate an integrative ministry that connects people to God, to one another, to the needs of the city, and to the culture around us. Finally, he highlights the need for intentional movements of churches planting new churches that faithfully proclaim God’s truth and serve their communities.
This new edition contains the third section of Center Church in an easy-to-read format with new reflections and additional essays from Timothy Keller and several other contributors.
-
Why Bother With Church
$7.99Add to cartIntroduction
1. Foundations: How To Consider Church
2. Life Changing: How To Attend Church
3. Running: How To Organize Church
4. Imperfect: How To Survive Church
5. Wonderful: How To Love Church
ConclusionAdditional Info
The church has an image problem.It is widely viewed in the world at large as being outdated, boring, irrelevant and filled with backbiting hypocrites.
How different that picture is to how the Bible talks about the new family that Jesus has gathered. It is a precious bride, a sparkling jewel, a lifeboat for forgiven sinners that is precious and holy; nurturing and warm; filled with truth, friendship and all embracing, forgiving love.
Sam Allberry understands the collision between these two views, and how, even as Christian believers, we can lose sight of how truly wonderful church is and should be, and what a privilege it is to be part of, and to serve.
In this brief accessible but thorough guide to church, Sam outlines what church is and why we need it. And how, when we have got it wrong, we can move closer to what a true church should be.
-
Growing Gods Church (Reprinted)
$20.00Add to cartIt’s no secret that the evangelism methods of yesterday are not yielding the kinds of results they did in the 1970s and 1980s. So how are new Christians hearing the Gospel today? How are they finding churches? And what makes them stay at a church? The answers to these questions have the power to dramatically alter the way we do outreach. And Dr. McIntosh has them.
Based on ten years of scientific research, Growing God’s Church shows pastors and church leaders how people are actually coming to faith in the 21st century. It covers factors such as our motive for ministry, the priorities churches set for themselves, the reality of churchless Christians, generational and gender-based differences in evangelism effectiveness, the name of your church, the influence of pastors, and much more. The appendix includes a copy of the survey that provides the basis for McIntosh’s arguments and an overview of the study is provided in the first chapter.
-
Trouble Ive Seen
$29.99Add to cartWhat if racial reconciliation doesn’t look like what you expected? The high-profile killings of young black men and women by white police officers, and the protests and violence that ensued, have convinced many white Christians to reexamine their intuitions when it comes to race and justice.
In this provocative book, theologian and blogger Drew G. I. Hart places police brutality, mass incarceration, antiblack stereotypes, poverty, and everyday acts of racism within the larger framework of white supremacy. Leading readers toward Jesus, Hart offers concrete practices for churches that seek solidarity with the oppressed and are committed to racial justice.
What if all Christians listened to the stories of those on the racialized margins? How might the church be changed by the trouble we ve seen?
Key Features:
-Written by well-known theologian and blogger Drew Hart with foreword by Christena Cleveland
-Hard-hitting analysis of racial injustice in the twenty-first century
-Provides a call to action for Christians committed to racial justice and creative proposals for antiracist practices for churches -
Next Worship : Glorify God In A Diverse World
$20.99Add to cartWhat happens when a diverse church glorifies the global God? We live in a time of unprecedented intercultural exchange, where our communities welcome people from around the world. Music and media from every culture are easily accessible, and our worship is infused with a rich variety of musical and liturgical influences. But leading worship in multicultural contexts can be a crosscultural experience for everybody. How do we help our congregations navigate the journey? Pioneering worship leader Sandra Van Opstal is known for crafting worship that embodies the global, multiethnic body of Christ. Likening diverse worship to a sumptuous banquet, she shows how worship leaders can set the table and welcome worshipers from every tribe and tongue. Van Opstal provides biblical foundations for multiethnic worship, with practical tools and resources for planning services that reflect God’s invitation for all peoples to praise him. When multiethnic worship is done well, the church models reconciliation and prophetic justice, heralding God’s good news for the world. Enter into the praise of our king, and let the nations rejoice!
-
Beyond The Local Church
$18.99Add to cartForeword
Introduction
1. The Power Of A Balanced Anatomy
The Biblical Genius And Design For Apostolic Structures And Movements
2. Limping Or Leaping Through Time
The Encouragement Of Apostolic Missionality In History
3. Mother Teresa Wasn’t A “Para-Catholic”!
Why “parachurch” Is A Dirty Word
4. So What Is “Apostolic”?
The Oft-neglected Essential To Authentic Missionality
5. Holy Discontent And Sanctified Ambition
The Apostolic Imperative Of Ephesians
6. Setting Visionaries Free
Pioneering As A Second Decision Entrepreneur
7. Finding Second Decision People
How To Engage And Release Apostolic Leaders
8. Running Together!
The Exponential Leverage Of Interdependence
9. Movements Of God
The Extraordinary Results Of Apostolic Gifting Lived Out In Apostolic Structures
10. The Momentum Of Movements
To Kill Or To Multiply, That Is The Question
Conclusion: Be A History Shaper
AcknowledgmentsAdditional Info
Many people have given up on the church. But that doesn’t mean that they’ve given up on God or Christianity. In many cases, it was merely that local church congregations were not the best context for missional people to live out their sense of God’s call.The good news is that God is raising up vibrant movements of Christians in a vast array of vocations around the world: disciple-making ministries, missions, relief and development, social activism, advocacy and much more. These are all strategic ways to live for the kingdom-in venues beyond the local church.
Wherever movements of the gospel have occurred, visionary people and apostolic structures have been essential. Mission leader Sam Metcalf shows how God has always worked through entrepreneurial individuals and organizations that launched out in fresh ways. He gives biblical and missiological foundations for missional movements, showing that what has often been called “parachurch” is an equally valid manifestation of the church. Affirming the strengths of apostolic personalities, Metcalf shows how they can be deployed to cross cultural barriers, renew secular societies and transform the nations with the power of the gospel.
God may be inviting you to join what he is doing around the world. Answer the call and discover how God can use you beyond your imagination.
-
Prophetic Lament : A Call For Justice In Troubled Times
$22.99Add to cartWhen Soong-Chan Rah planted an urban church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his first full sermon series was a six-week exposition of the book of Lamentations. Preaching on an obscure, depressing Old Testament book was probably not the most seeker-sensitive way to launch a church. But it shaped their community with a radically countercultural perspective. The American church avoids lament. But lament is a missing, essential component of Christian faith. Lament recognizes struggles and suffering, that the world is not as it ought to be. Lament challenges the status quo and cries out for justice against existing injustices. Soong-Chan Rah’s prophetic exposition of the book of Lamentations provides a biblical and theological lens for examining the church’s relationship with a suffering world. It critiques our success-centered triumphalism and calls us to repent of our hubris. And it opens up new ways to encounter the other. Hear the prophet’s lament as the necessary corrective for Christianity’s future. The Resonate series recovers the ancient wisdom of Scripture and helps us understand how it resonates with our complex world. The stories and insights of a book of the Bible are brought into conversation with contemporary voices of hope and lament–the cultural messages we interact with on a daily basis. The Scriptures become a meeting ground where God speaks to the pressing concerns of our day, and we are confronted in turn with a fresh experience of God’s truth.
-
Volunteer Church : Mobilizing Your Congregation For Growth And Effectivenes
$24.99Add to cartWorking with volunteers can be a rewarding and exciting experience-for them as well as for those who recruit, train, and maintain their services. However, if church leaders are honest, they know there are times that it can be frustrating. They know that volunteers are essential, vital to creating growth and new ministries, and are the key to introducing youth and children to Jesus Christ. They have the welcoming smiles at the door, they serve the food, pray for needs, stuff bulletins, organize missions trips, and on and on. If they want to see their church grow, it must be a volunteering church, a church that runs on volunteers. The Volunteer Church was developed out of the ministry of Leith Anderson at Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, where a vital and vibrant volunteer program boasting 4,000 participants grew under the leadership of Jill Fox. The principles and training have been applied in churches of all sizes and denominations in seminar settings across the country as well as at Wooddale Church. In The Volunteer Church, leaders will Learn how to effectively recruit and train volunteers Discover how to build sustainable, long-lasting ministries led by volunteers Find methods for encouraging and maintaining your volunteers for success Know how to build teams of volunteers Understand how to find the right service that fits a willing volunteer If you lead a church and are exhausted by the lack of volunteer help, or if you are a volunteer and dream of adding numbers to your team, this book is for you. If you are on a church staff and know that a new ministry is needed but volunteers and training are required to make it happen, here you will find the resources to recruit, inspire, train, and maintain the church’s most vital workforce.
-
Your Church Is Too Safe
$24.99Add to cart“These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.” – Acts 17:6 That was the startled cry, circa 50 AD, from a hastily assembled mob in Thessalonica. Paul and Silas had been arrested for preaching the gospel. They were viewed as revolutionaries, dangerous men who were upsetting the status quo and inciting riots. But they were just two ordinary men, walking in the power of God, sharing a simple message of his love and grace. It’s been a while since we’ve seen the likes of this. If you ever find church boring or you believe something is missing from our churches today, you aren’t alone. Mark Buchanan believes there is a visible gap between the life Jesus offered to us and the life we’re living, between the church Jesus envisioned and the church we see today. When Jesus announced that the Kingdom was at hand, this can’t be what he meant. Instead of counting everything loss to be found in Christ, we’ve made it our priority to be safe instead of dangerous, nice instead of holy. Author and pastor Mark Buchanan believes that we need to recover a simple idea: that God meant his church to be both good news and bad news, an aroma and a stench – a disruptive force to whoever or whatever opposes the Kingdom of God and a healing, liberating power to those who seek it.
-
Counterfeit Christianity : The Persistence Of Errors In The Church
$21.99Add to cartHistoric heresies didn’t die or fade away. Each generation boasts its own. Even while these counterfeit teachings remain outside the accepted bounds of Christianity, modern-day versions plague churches.So how does a church leader or pastor understand and deal with these age-old controversies when they pop up in the congregation? In this book, Roger Olson describes the curses but also gifts that heresies bring the Church. While heresies can occasionally correct a version of orthodoxy, they are not simple confusions or misunderstandings about impenetrable mysteries of divine revelation. Instead they undermine the faith and are dangerous distortions. The author describes major heresies and how the church dealt with them, the players, and what pastors can do to address these faith issues in order to educate congregations about Jesus, God, and salvation. Also included are questions for individual or group study.
-
Spent Matches : Igniting The Signal Fire For The Spiritually Dissatisfied
$22.99Add to cartSpent Matches explores the possibility that a few small paradigm shifts within the church might make the difference between extinction and effectiveness. In fact, taking a clue from the automobile industry, the church might be able to not only halt the rapid decay in attendance but also become an effective tool in achieving Jesus’ final command. For instance, the Hybrid car has become the answer to Detroit’s environmental and oil crisis issues. Finding the synergy between two technologies, gas and electric has created a new day for the auto industry. Likewise, Spent Matchesexplores how the church can find synergy between two seemingly competing thoughts: an invitation to come and a command to go. The Hybrid metaphor brings energy to the church’s mission and an explanation to the age-old argument of Missional versus Attractional methods.
Features include:
*Innovative ideas for growing the church
*Methods to reach those who may never have attended church
*Scripture passages that touch on the subject of church growth -
Young Faith : Expressions Of Faith Hope And Love By A Young Generation Of C (Stu
$10.99Add to cartIntroduction
Trusting Our Creator
Lindsey Davenport
Bill And Casi Kenyon
Nathaniel Metherel
Michael Mitchell
Lauren Morton
Brady Preston
Ian Quinn
Hearing The Word Of God In An Age Of Sound-bites
Aaron And Kelli Morton
Trevonte Peterson
Jackie Preston
Lacey Sargent
Catherine Simmons
Gerald Stevens
Jordan And Erin Tanner
God’s Help In Time Of Struggle
Amanda Benezra
James Franklin
Andrew Gifford
Alan Pitchford
Britney Mitchell
Danny And Kenzie Wilson
The Importance Of A Spiritual Community
Chance And Lindsy Bailey
Casey And Hannah Haynes
Stephen And Danielle Morton
Molly Risley
Daniel And Leigh Roberts
Traci Russell
Living As Sons And Daughters Of Light
Caleb And Tara Bailey
Dallis Bailey
Janelle Garcia
Jesse Gauther
Marcus And Alex Yi Yue Riley
Taylor And Sarah Robles
Patricia Wampol
ConclusionAdditional Info
Stop wringing your hands! The Lord’s church is successfully surviving the changes brought on by our shift into post-modern, post-Christian America. The Christian landscape is teeming with bright, dedicated twenty-and thirty-somethings who have picked up the torch of faith and are spreading the good news here at home.Bruce Morton has gathered their stories for our encouragement. In an age of no absolutes, you’ll discover that there are still plenty of young people – from Christian universities, state schools, and more – who are firmly grounded in God’s Word and actively involved in making a difference for the sake of His kingdom.
So, stop fretting about the future. There is a bold, young faith already taking root and making a difference in today’s church.
-
When God Builds A Church
$19.99Add to cartPastor Bob Russell shares the ten principles upon which Southeast Christian Church, one of the largest and fastest growing churches in America, was founded. He shares not only the story of one of the most amazing churches in America, but also what your church can become if you follow the principles and allow God to build your church.
Can the church truly be the “city on a hill that cannot be hidden” that Jesus talked about in the Sermon on the Mount? Can it grow large enough to attract throngs of seekers and yet be loving enough to care for each individual that comes? Bob Russell, pastor of Southeast Christian Church one of the largest and fastest growing churches in America says that it most certainly can. But it can only be done when we are submissive to God’s will and allow Him to build that church. In the pages of this far-sighted, uncompromising book, Bob Russell and his son Rusty share the ten principles upon which this remarkable church was founded. Throughout the book, you will see God’s mighty power at work in a church that began in 1962 with only 50 members and has now grown to over 14,000 and has become a bustling “city on a hill” whose beaming faith powerfully impacts its community and the world. This book shares not only the story of one of the most amazing churches in America but also the story of what your church can become as you follow these ten time-tested principles and allow God to build your church.” -
Wholeness After Betrayal
$23.95Add to cartFocuses on healing and reconciliation for congregations that have experienced
physical, sexual, emotional, spiritual, and financial misconduct or betrayal by a leader* Explores the unintended consequences of “moving on” after misconduct without fully
going through a process toward healing* Includes charts, checklists, and outlines to aid in the process of congregational
healingIn the wake of misconduct by trusted clergy and lay leaders, members of congregations
find themselves adrift. Often there are deep divisions within the church and open, direct,
honest communication ceases. Wholeness After Betrayal offers an understanding of
these dynamics and a process to help members take the first steps toward reconciling
relationships with one another.This specialized instruction is tested and proven, having been used effectively many times
in a variety of congregational settings. It holds tremendous value for institutional healing,
both immediately following misconduct or even decades later.For professionals serving dioceses, conferences, synods, and churches; those serving
in any capacity with a disciplinary process; advocates; church communicators, media
spokespersons; affected congregants; victims, and people who work in crisis intervention
in communities of faith. -
Creative Church Handbook
$25.99Add to cartThe time has come for the church to reclaim its role as a center of creativity. Among your membership are artists, musicians and other creatives whose gifts can enhance your worship, inform your theology and impact your community. A comprehensive vision and manual for unleashing creativity in your congregation.
-
Christian Writers Guide To The Book Proposal
$10.95Add to cartA complete proposal sells your book, pure and simple. But some authors don’t think a proposal is necessary. Perhaps you already have a contract, or you plan to self-publish. If you don’t have to sell the book to a publisher, why write a proposal? That reasoning sounds logical, but there are purposes for a book proposal beyond selling it to a publisher. In A Christian Writer’s Guide to the Book Proposal, I share six reasons why it benefits you to write a book proposal and seven items that should be part of every book proposal. A Christian Writer’s Guide to the Book Proposal is based on my previously published writing and on my teaching at Christian writers’ conferences around the country. The material included applies to writers and book projects of all sorts: fiction and nonfiction; completed manuscripts and unwritten book ideas, first-time and previously published authors, traditionally published, indie, and self-published. So, give your book idea a chance for success. Learn how with A Christian Writer’s Guide to the Book Proposal.
-
Brain Savvy Leaders
$27.99Add to cartLeadership is tough. Church leadership can be even tougher. Leadership demands constant reframing and reappraisal of the situation, focus, objectivity, honest appraisal of yourself and others, and astute evaluation of available resources. Church leadership is all that and more. To be an effective church leader, you also have to love and have others’ best interest at heart. You have to align yourself and your church with God’s desire to transform lives for the better, both within and beyond your reach.
Using up-to-date research from brain science in easy-to-understand language, author Charles Stone will help you increase your personal productivity, handle stress and your emotions in constructive ways, create and sustain collaborative teams, and manage change in your church. Using illustrations and acronyms, Dr. Stone will show you how brain science can complement and reinforce what the Bible says about life and leadership. He will show you how basic brain processes affect leadership and your team’s ability to follow while becoming more cohesive and collaborative.
Each chapter gives practical tips and actionable steps to help leaders improve personal and organizational skills.
-
Big Lessons From Little Places
$19.95Add to cartHighlights the ministry of the small congregation, a category into which 68% of
Episcopal congregations fall* Follows up on the author’s Becoming the Transformative Church and continues the
conversation about church re-structuring* Reflection/Study Guide questions included
Churchwide discussions on structure and growth tend to focus on the importance of
increasing “butts in the pews and bucks in the plates.” Suggestions have been made on
merging smaller dioceses to create larger ones and closing the doors of congregations
which do not have Sunday attendance of at least 200. This is a model of scarcity without
consideration of the value and abundance to be found in small churches.Discover the roles, possibilities, promise, and potential of being a small church! Travel
with Kay Collier McLauglin as she takes the back roads and byways of the United States,
visiting small churches that are making a difference in their community. Each chapter tells
a story about an example of faithfulness in the life of a small congregation and relates
that story to the essentials of faithful living and being church. The book challenges the
decision-makers in the Episcopal Church to think beyond traditional measures and shortterm
economic fixes to discover the life-giving opportunities and models presented by the
smallest congregations.For diocesan leaders, lay professionals, clergy, seminarians, and small groups.
-
New Adapters : Shaping Ideas To Fit Your Congregation
$17.99Add to cartJacob Armstrong shares time-tested principles for church pastors and leaders with a brief introduction at the beginning of each chapter from mega-church pastors Adam Hamilton and Michael Slaughter. Armstrong demonstrates how classic principles are being translated in a variety of new contexts, by a new generation of leaders. The book provides guidance for pastors and leaders on how to translate ideas and practices for their own context and reflects the sense of opportunity and hope that is beginning to flourish in some mainline churches today. These principles are adaptable for any size congregations across denominations.
-
10 Prescriptions For A Healthy Church
$18.99Add to cartIn 10 Prescriptions for a Healthy Church, authors Bob Farr and Kay Kotan offer the Top Ten prescriptions for issues seen during church consultations. Farr and Kotan share their expertise from working with churches to detail the most common concerns and obstacles found when consulting with congregations.
In their conversational style, Farr and Kotan offer a practical approach to fixing common problems, offering strategies sure to help congregations achieve success in specific areas of ministry. Proven success stories offer application, hope, and practicalities from benefiting congregations.
-
Minister As Entrepreneur
$20.99Add to cartBuilding on his own experiences as a priest and an entrepreneur, Volland argues that the concept of entrepreneurship offers churches a helpful lens through which to view Christian ministry and mission, and an understanding and approach to ministry that is well fitted for the mission task in a rapidly changing world. He shows how an entrepreneurial approach is consistent with understandings of leadership in the major denominations and in the new churches. He also argues that such an approach is consistent both with the nature of God and with human collaboration with God’s activity in the world. “To be a minister is to face the everyday challenge of finding new ways to express the faith, and to refresh the life of the Church. This is the call to be an entrepreneur. Michael Volland sets out the case for the minister as an agent of change and as the one who looks for new ways to do things . . . This is an important and a timely book which will help us to see entrepreneurship as gift of God and a delight for the Church.’Pete Ward, Professorial Fellow in Ecclesiology and Ethnography, Durham University
-
Women In The Church Revised Updated 2nd Edition
$7.99Add to cartDr. Everett Ferguson has made substantial revisions in this second edition of Women in the Church: Biblical and Historical Perspectives. In chapter one, he writes in detail regarding the New Testament texts concerning women’s roles in the assembly of the church. In chapter two, Dr. Ferguson explores the evidence from early church history concerning these same roles in the assembly. In chapter three, he addresses doctrinal considerations in light of the New Testament texts and the witness of early church history.
-
Propel : Good Stewardship Greater Generosity
$17.99Add to cartChurches are hurting in multiple areas including dwindling finances and shrinking congregations. Seminaries are educating and training the future of ministry yet doing so with limited resources and declining enrollment. There’s an urgent need for resources aimed at addressing those hurts in specific ways. Tangible stewardship models resulting in greater generosity can offer financial peace and a thriving membership base, propelling ministry to new heights.
Propel offers solutions beyond the church’s walls to reach all areas of training and resources to support and sustain vital ministry, scholarship, education, and mission. Through creating a culture of generosity, Clayton Smith outlines detailed models to increase giving through various outlets including planned giving, vision casting, and capital campaigns.
-
Me To We
$20.99Add to cartChurches with front doors that open up mission fields rather than buildings.When Christians answer the clarion call to be missional, too often it is primarily to feel good or to grow in their own faith. But ultimately we remain unsatisfied because, in the end, it’s still about “me”-my church, my faith, my salvation. Then sometimes inspiration dries up.
We forget that Jesus is the head of the Church, which exists at God’s pleasure and disposal. God is birthing a new Social Gospel, meant to reclaim mission and justice ministries as prime directives for the Church, and not with the naive thinking of the 19th or 20th centuries.
What are the characteristics of this new Social Gospel? There is an expectation that mission is “with” and not “for” others. There is an acknowledgement that tolerance is not a dirty word and we have to find a peaceable way to live in our intercultural world. It carries the Wesleyan impulse to change the world by working to build God’s kingdom in this world. It offers the grace and salvation of Christ to those in need, believing that none are free unless all are free. It means that we feed the hungry, educate to poor, and equip the powerless in tangible ways.
-
Heart Of Holiness
$13.99Add to cartWhat is the place of compassion in the life of holiness? It concerns not only the life of the individual disciple but poses important missional questions for the Church.
Is compassionate ministry a distraction from the core message of heart of holiness?
Are ministries of compassion best understood as effective tools to open doors for evangelistic outreach?
Is compassionate ministry one of those specialized ministries that we may choose to do where we have interest and opportunity?
As they draw from scripture, theology, the deep history of the Church, and the more recent history of the Wesleyan-Holiness movement, discover what scholars and ministry leaders believe is the place of compassion in the life of holiness.
-
Our Global Families
$31.00Add to cartAs Christians, we belong to not only a diverse global Christian family but also a diverse human family. Todd Johnson, a noted expert on global Christianity and world missions trends, and Cindy Wu show how divisions within these families work against our desire to bring about positive change in the world. They provide an overview of global Christian identity, exploring how we can be faithful to our own tradition while engaging Christians across denominations and be better informed as we work with people of other religions. The book utilizes the latest research data on global Christianity and world religions and includes tables, graphs, charts, and end-of-chapter discussion questions.
-
With All Our Prayers
$19.99Add to cartA resource for both corporate worship and personal devotion, With All Our Prayers invites readers to pray, think, and live into God’s purpose for the world and for their own lives. Written by a longtime Presbyterian pastor, the beautiful prayers in this book are theologically grounded in God’s steadfast love and invincible grace and contain traditional elements of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, petition, and intercession.
In this helpful volume church leaders will find prayers ordered around the liturgical calendar with themes appropriate to the seasons of the church year. Individuals and prayer groups will find guidance in praying for church and world, in interceding on behalf of strangers and enemies as well as loved ones and friends.
-
God Gave The Growth
$34.95Add to cartThe Episcopal Church has recognized that planting new churches is a high priority through the Mission Enterprise Zones initiative, which provides grant funding for new worshiping communities, in partnership with dioceses. While there is significant literature and training available for church planters in evangelical contexts, very little is available for planters in the Episcopal/mainline context. This book addresses how to rise up and train leaders for the difficult task of planting new churches in the twenty-first century. It answers the essential questions, such as why should we plant churches, what models of church planting are most successful, what kinds of leaders are necessary, and what problems can be expected. Through the author’s personal experience and interviews with diocesan experts and leaders in mainline denominations, it provides strategies, approaches, and problem-solving techniques.
-
Father Tims Church Survival Guide
$20.95Add to cartIf you have little tolerance for ecclesiastical blowhards; if you’ve ever fantasized about implementing a clergy rating system (CRS); if you’ve ever sought tips on surviving diocesan convention; if you’ve ever tried to weasel your way out of pledging; then this book is for you,” says author Tim Schenck. “My take on church life isn’t for everyone-clergy who take themselves too seriously will hate it. But know that it all comes out of a place of deep love for God and the Church. There are inevitably things that drive us nuts about such an imperfect (i.e., human) institution. Yet if we can’t observe and comment on our own foibles we’re left without much hope. And anyway if God doesn’t have a sense of humor, I’m hosed.””
