Pastoral Helps
Showing 901–950 of 4114 results
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How To Lead When Youre Not In Charge Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99Add to cartAre you letting your lack of authority paralyze you?
One of the greatest myths of leadership is that you must be in charge in order to lead. Great leaders don’t buy it. Great leaders lead with or without the authority and learn to unleash their influence wherever they are. With practical wisdom and humor, Clay Scroggins will help you nurture your vision and cultivate influence, even when you lack authority in your organization. And he will free you to become the great leader you want to be so you can make a difference right where you are. Even when you’re not in charge.In this six-session video study (video sold separately), author and pastor Clay Scroggins explains what is needed to be a great leader-even when you answer to someone else.
Sessions include:
*The Oddity of Leadership
*Lead Yourself
*Choose Positivity
*Think Critically
*Reject Passivity
*Challenging UpDesigned for use with the How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge Video Study (9780310095958), sold separately.
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Everybody Always Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99Add to cartAs followers of Christ, there is question we need to be asking ourselves every day: How do we prove who we are? This doesn’t refer to what our driver’s licenses say we are, or what our careers suggest about who we are, or who other people tell us we are. Rather, this refers to what Jesus said we should be-and he said that his followers would be identified simply by how they loved people. Love isn’t something we just haphazardly fall into; it is someone we become. Jesus wants us to love everybody, always.
In this five-session video study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), bestselling author Bob Goff shares some of the stories from his life that have helped him understand what it truly means to love everybody the way Jesus loved them-without fear, insecurity, or restriction. This begins by loving people right where you are through serving and helping the neighbors God has placed into your world. It means loving people when they mess up and helping them move past the place of shame to acceptance. It continues by being courageous and following where God leads one step at a time-even if you feel you are flying blind. Above all, it means not just agreeing with Jesus but actually stepping out and doing what Jesus said.
Following Christ means more than just putting a toe in the water when it comes to loving others. It means grabbing your knees and doing a cannonball! And, as Jesus revealed, it means loving the difficult ones. Everybody, Always, will provide practical steps to help you take that journey.
Sessions include:
*Love People Where You Are
*Catch People on the Bounce
*Don’t Play It Safe
*Do More Stuff
*Love Even the Difficult PeopleDesigned for use with the Everybody, Always Video Study (sold separately).
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Plan To Protect Association Edition
$59.99Add to cartThis “Plan to Protect” manual to assist Associations (Schools, Clubs, Sporting Leagues, and Camps) in the United States in protecting their children, youth, association and personnel. The manual mirrors the insurance standards in United States to qualify for abuse coverage. The manual includes policies on: recruitment and screening, implementation and training, children and youth program procedures, and reporting and responding to suspicions and allegations of abuse, reflecting the laws of United States. The extensive appendices include templates of forms, signs, policies, checklists, and more.
The USA Association version of “Plan to Protect” also includes sample outlines for training modules.
With your purchase we include a code to download the appendices which you can customize for your own organization’s use.
Copyright regulations allow you to copy portions of “Plan to Protect” for training purposes at your organization.
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Canoeing The Mountains (Expanded)
$25.00Add to cartPart 1: Understanding Uncharted Territory
1. Seminary Didn’t Prepare Me For This
2. Adventure Or Die
3. A Leadership Model For Uncharted TerritoryPart 2: On-the-Map Skill Set
4. Competence And Credibility
5. Preparing For The Unknown
6. Eating Strategy For BreakfastPart 3: Leading Off The Map
7. Navigating The “Geography Of Reality”
8. My Italian Grandfather Was Killing Me
9. Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There . . . Then Do Something
10. The Mission Trumps!
11. Take A Good Look Into The CoffinPart 4: Relationships And Resistance
12. Gus And Hal Go To Church
13. Et Tu, Church?Part 5: Transformation
14. How A Nursing Mother Saved America
15. The End Of Our ExploringEpilogue: Taking The Hill With Grandma
Study Guide
Acknowledgments
NotesAdditional Info
14th Annual Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year, LeadershipExplorers Lewis and Clark had to adapt. While they had prepared to find a waterway to the Pacific Ocean, instead they found themselves in the Rocky Mountains. You too may feel that you are leading in a cultural context you were not expecting. You may even feel that your training holds you back more often than it carries you along.Drawing from his extensive experience as a pastor and consultant, Tod Bolsinger brings decades of expertise in guiding churches and organizations through uncharted territory. He offers a combination of illuminating insights and practical tools to help you reimagine what effective leadership looks like in our rapidly changing world.If you’re going to scale the mountains of ministry, you need to leave behind canoes and find new navigational tools. Now expanded with a study guide, this book will set you on the right course to lead with confidence and courage. -
After The Miracle
$14.99Add to cartWhat happens when the miracle of sobriety shakes up the way we’ve trained the people in our lives to treat us as opposed to what we need from them now? Where do we turn when getting what we’ve prayed for messes up everything we thought we knew and believed? After the Miracle: Illusions On the Path To Restoration addresses the illusions we have as we begin to break the cycles in our lives and face the reality of what healthy living will really cost. David Hampton poses a realistic view of what the path will be to a new way of being for everyone concerned After the Miracle.
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Learning To Study The Bible Leader Guide For Tweens (Teacher’s Guide)
$14.99Add to cartLearning to Study the Bible is an eight-week curriculum designed for tweens to help them learn the basics of biblical interpretation. The Leader Guide includes easy-to-use instructions to guide students as they explore topics like genre, historical context, biblical geography and more. Sessions are: 1. Who? * Learn to identify the original author and audience * Understand your own social location and biases * Practice reading a text with the author and original audience in mind 2. What? * Understand the significance of genre * Practice identifying genre in biblical texts 3. When? * Understand the significance of historical context * Learn about the major social contexts of biblical texts * Practice reading Scripture contextually 4. Where? * Learn how to utilize biblical maps * Understand the significance of geography and shifting national borders for biblical interpretation * Practice interpreting a biblical text with a geographical lens 5. Why? * Learn about the formation of the canon * Understand the significance of a text’s changing meaning over time * Practice reading a text with multiple layers of meaning 6. How? Close reading * Learn the value of reading texts slowly and carefully * Understand how to use study bibles and commentaries * Practice reading a short text carefully 7. How? Side-by-side reading * Learn about the Revised Common Lectionary and its purpose * Understand how to use a concordance to cross-reference texts * Practice reading a text intra-canonically 8. How? Lectio Divina * Learn about the ancient practice of Lectio Divina * Understand the significance of a spiritual reading of Scripture * Practice Lectio Divina individually and as a group
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Unafraid Youth Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$14.99Add to cartAmericans are anxious people. A recent study found that one in five of us has an anxiety disorder and we spend over $2 billion a year on anti-anxiety medications. Often our life events play a significant role in our worries and fears. In this study based on his book Unafraid, Adam Hamilton explores the most common worries and fears experienced by Americans today. He considers practical steps for overcoming these fears, and reflects upon fear in the light of Scripture and a faith that promises again and again that we don’t need to live in fear. We can live with courage and hope. This Youth Study Book takes the ideas presented in Adam Hamilton’s book and interprets them for young people grades 6-12.
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Christ On The Psych Ward
$17.95Add to cartChrist on the Psych Ward is a series of reflections on the intersections among mental health, faith, and ministry. Beginning with his own experience, Finnegan- Hosey shares ways communities of faith can be present with those suffering from mental illness and crises. Weaving together personal testimony, theological reflection, and practical ministry experience, he offers a message of hope for those suffering and for friends and faith communities struggling to care for them. Ultimately, his journey of recovery and healing reveals the need for a theological understanding of a vulnerable God, important not solely for ministry with those with mental health struggles, but offering a hopeful vision forward for the church.
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Church In Life
$78.00Add to cartChurch in Life breaks fresh ground by proposing a new framework for thinking about innovation in the church, by arguing that starting new ecclesial communities should be at the centre of the church’s life and thought, and by offering new theology and methodologies for church planting. Church planters will find in it the theoretical and practical resources for a radical missional ecclesiology, while theologians will find a nuanced reworking of the purpose and nature of the church. “”I love the framework for innovation that Mike uses here. It’s a really exciting way to come at mission and pioneering, and a welcome voice in a church that can so often be risk averse. There’s a lot of energy in an approach that is fuelled by imagination, possibility and hope rather than anxiety. As a result of seeing the material I invited Mike to teach pioneers at CMS and they found it energising for their pioneering practice.
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Secret Of Academic Progress And Success
$9.99Add to cartThe common questions among college and university Christian and non Christian students are: what is the secret of academic success? How can I succeed? How can I balance my academics with my spirituality? These and many other relevant questions are intelligently and concisely discussed in this booklet
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Church In Life
$51.00Add to cartChurch in Life breaks fresh ground by proposing a new framework for thinking about innovation in the church, by arguing that starting new ecclesial communities should be at the centre of the church’s life and thought, and by offering new theology and methodologies for church planting. Church planters will find in it the theoretical and practical resources for a radical missional ecclesiology, while theologians will find a nuanced reworking of the purpose and nature of the church. “”I love the framework for innovation that Mike uses here. It’s a really exciting way to come at mission and pioneering, and a welcome voice in a church that can so often be risk averse. There’s a lot of energy in an approach that is fuelled by imagination, possibility and hope rather than anxiety. As a result of seeing the material I invited Mike to teach pioneers at CMS and they found it energising for their pioneering practice.
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Does God Always Get What God Wants
$46.00Add to cartTim’s wife, Anne, died of breast cancer at the age of forty-nine, having battled against the disease for more than six years. Her suffering had a profound influence on their lives and that of their church, and raised challenging questions: – If “”God is in control,”” does that mean God is to blame for suffering? – Why did God not heal Anne? – Is Anne’s death what God wanted to happen? – Does prayer make any difference? – What is God doing about evil? People’s experience of suffering causes them to examine the kind of God they believe in, the nature of the universe God made, and God’s activity in the world. This book explores all three aspects and responds constructively to the complex issues that the above questions pose–and provides powerful reasons for confidence in the firm Christian hope.
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7 Dangers Facing Your Church
$16.99Add to cartOur culture is changing, and the church seems to be under increasing pressure. But these dangers are not new, and God’s word shows us how to meet them head on. Discover how Jesus’ messages to seven first-century churches in Revelation 2 3 is his message to your church today too. Together, you can live as Christ’s faithful, hope-filled people in a changing culture.
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Friend Of Sinners Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99Add to cartIn the Bible, we find that Jesus was called a lot of names. Many of the religious leaders of the day were jealous of his success and wanted to discredit him in the eyes of the public, so they said all sorts of crazy things about him. They whispered that he was an illegitimate child. They accused him of being demon-possessed. They denounced him to the Roman authorities as a rioter, a threat to public peace.
However, in this five-session video study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), pastor and author Rich Wilkerson, Jr. reveals how one of their nicknames for Jesus was true: “Here is a . . . friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Luke 7:34). In the religious leaders’ minds this was one of the greatest indictments imaginable, but for Jesus it was a sign of success because it was the very definition of his mission. Today, Jesus still calls us “friends” not because of who we are or what we have done, but because of who he is. While he was on earth, he knew that people needed to belong before they would want to behave. He understood that the power within him was greater than the darkness around him, so he loved fearlessly.
Rich shows that by following his example, we can have the same clear conviction and compassion for the lost that Jesus did. His gospel of scandalous grace cannot be overestimated. When we embrace the truth that we all need Jesus equally and when we trust him to bring transformation in people’s hearts, we will walk as Jesus walked, experiencing the glory of God in our own lives and in the lives of those around us.
Sessions include:
*Missed Message
*Weight Shift
*Lost and Found
*Comfortably Uncomfortable
*How to Be GreatDesigned for use with the Friend of Sinners Video Study (sold separately).
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Exodus Preaching : Crafting Sermons About Justice And Hope
$23.99Add to cartExodus Preaching is the first of its kind. It is an exploration of the African American prophetic rhetorical traditions in a manner that makes features of these traditions relevant to a broad audience beyond the African American traditions. It provides readers a composite picture of the nature, meaning, and relevance of prophetic preaching as spoken Word of justice and hope in a society of growing pluralism and the world-shaping phenomenon of racial, economic and cultural diversity. African American preachers have distinctively invested great symbolic significance in the Exodus story, the messianic witness of Jesus, and the prophetic literature for developing and shaping prophetic sermons. Kenyatta Gilbert demonstrates how four distinctive features of discourse can shape sermon preparation, for effective preaching in a period of intense social change, racial unrest, and violence. Gilbert includes dozens of practical suggestions and five practical exercises to equip the reader for preaching in new ways and in new environments. He offers an holistic approach, fully equipping the reader with the theological and practical resources needed to preach prophetically.
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Does God Always Get What God Wants
$26.00Add to cartTim’s wife, Anne, died of breast cancer at the age of forty-nine, having battled against the disease for more than six years. Her suffering had a profound influence on their lives and that of their church, and raised challenging questions: – If “”God is in control,”” does that mean God is to blame for suffering? – Why did God not heal Anne? – Is Anne’s death what God wanted to happen? – Does prayer make any difference? – What is God doing about evil? People’s experience of suffering causes them to examine the kind of God they believe in, the nature of the universe God made, and God’s activity in the world. This book explores all three aspects and responds constructively to the complex issues that the above questions pose–and provides powerful reasons for confidence in the firm Christian hope.
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Discipleship Gospel Workbook (Workbook)
$10.49Add to cartARE YOU MAKING DISCIPLES WITH THE GOSPEL JESUS PREACHED?
Solid disciple-making curriculum is hard to find. That’s why Ben Sobels and Bill Hull-pastors, practitioners, and authors of The Discipleship Gospel-created this workbook, which guides your discipleship group through the Gospel of Mark chapter by chapter to multiply disciples. Disciple makers use this sixteen-week group discipleship study to train people to understand the Bible and put into practice what they’re learning while learning the gospel Jesus preached.
Using the essential elements of The Discipleship Gospel, this interactive study encourages you to step outside your comfort zone, vulnerably share your journey, and embrace gospel-motivated action. Help your discipleship groups clarify their understanding of Jesus’ kingdom gospel, practice obedience to Jesus, and multiply disciples. Make this your church’s disciple-making curriculum for new disciples, yet-to-be disciples, and disciple-making experts alike. Use this tool to multiply disciples with Mark’s Gospel.
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Discipleship Gospel : What Jesus Preached We Must Follow
$17.99Add to cartIS THE GOSPEL YOU PREACH MAKING DISCIPLES-OR CONVERTS?
Many today preach a gospel that makes converts, but not disciples. This is the result of “non-discipleship gospels,” which exclude the necessity to follow Jesus from their message. The Discipleship Gospel challenges the church today with a fresh reading of Jesus’ gospel-one that we must learn to preach again.
“The gospel you preach determines the disciples you make,” the authors write. Bill Hull and Ben Sobels use key biblical texts to describe why discipleship is not just an add-on to the gospel, but an essential part of it. The authors define seven essential elements of Jesus’ gospel and why you must include each one in your gospel if you want to make disciples, not just converts. In this book, they help you clarify your understanding of the gospel, learn how to contextualize your message, and create a plan to make disciples who embrace the full gospel-in your church and beyond.
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People Are The Mission
$17.99Add to cartWhen it comes to interacting with guests, churches typically gravitate towards one of two camps: over-the-top, shock-and-awe, let-us-entertain-you or oh-man,-some-people-just-showed-up, underwhelming experience. Each extreme has drawbacks: on one end, people become the center of the universe. On the other, hospitality is effectively ignored in deference to the “serious business” of worship.
People Are the Mission proposes a healthy middle, one where guests are esteemed but the gospel is the goal. Danny Franks, Connections Pastor at Summit Church, shows churches how to take a more balanced approach – a “third way” that is both guest-friendly and gospel-centric. He shows why honoring the stranger doesn’t stand in opposition to honoring the Savior. People are the mission that Christ has called us to, and if we focus on people we can better assist people to focus on the gospel.
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Confessing Our Faith
$25.00Add to cartHow can the Book of Confessions help elders and lay leaders when they face challenging situations within their congregations? John P. Burgess offers answers in Confessing Our Faith. Using the confessions as a framework, Burgess covers areas of ministry such as stewardship, evangelism, discipleship, and conflict resolution, offering in each case ways in which the lay leader can respond. A unique and practical reference, Confessing Our Faith is designed to aid church leaders in understanding how their work can be informed by the confessional documents.
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Final Words From The Cross
$14.99Add to cartIn life and in death, Jesus’ words were powerful and meaningful. Despite the serious effort and increased pain required for Jesus to speak as he hung on the cross, Jesus spoke seven “final words”-statements that have much to teach us about Jesus, his Father, and ourselves: Father Forgive Them Today You Will Be with Me in Paradise Behold Your Son…Behold Your Mother My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me? I Thirst It Is Finished . . . Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit Postscript: The Words After That In 24 Hours That Changed the World, Adam Hamilton took us on a Lenten journey through the last day of Jesus’ life. Now in this inspiring follow-up book, Hamilton explores these final words as seen and heard through the eyes and ears of those who stood near the cross. Each chapter begins with the biblical account followed by a first-person story as might have been told from the viewpoint of one of the characters at the cross. Then the chapter explores the meaning of Jesus’ dying words for our lives today. Following the last statement, a postscript recounts the words Jesus spoke following his resurrection, including what truly were the final words Jesus spoke while walking this earth. Join the crowd now and experience the final words from the cross. Final Words from the Cross offers six chapters/sessions plus a postscript chapter/session, so that classes have the option of a seventh session on Easter Sunday.
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Navigating The River Of Grief
$16.95Add to cartWhen members of the church experience loss, it can be difficult for pastors to discern how best to care for them. What can spiritual leaders expect in the grief process? What are we to do, to say, to journey with those who have experienced loss? What mistakes might we make that do more harm than good?
In Navigating the River of Grief, Rev. Dr. Bonnie Bates shares the results of her important research into the grief process. Her concept of grief as a river is inspired by several biblical references to water, both its ability to threaten and give life. Bates uses case studies to present grief not as the neat linear progression of stages we’d like it to be; rather, it is a river that sweeps the bereaved along in unpredictable ways. Its choppy waters cause pain and its depths are menacing, but when we understand the flow of its currentas a spiritual journey we can better help the bereaved navigate toward new life.
Navigating the River of Griefprovides pastors with invaluable resources when providing grief ministry:
Evidence-based best practices for spiritual counseling
Case studies to provide context
Guidance on the use of specific scriptures
Explorations of theological conflictsTogether with the Bible itself, Navigating the River of Grief will inform your ministry with spiritual truth about those hours between the night of weeping and the joy the Lord brings in the morning (Psalm 30:5).
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Cure For Todays Dying Church
$16.99Add to cartThe church is in the desert today!! The arid conditions existing in the church leave the people parched, thirsty and longing for refreshing. Many church leaders do not know how to get the spiritual water for themselves and therefore they cannot lead God’s people into the Promised Land of true fellowship and discipleship. This sad state of the church causes many church buildings to stand empty because people are tired of church leaders committing gross indecencies and leading people astray with messages that “tickle their ears” or boring them to tears with sermons that contain no life-changing truths.
In The Wellspring of Life: Why the Church is Dying of Thirst, Dr. Meyer van Rensburg addresses the issue by pointing out many of the mistakes that have been made (from spraying people with “Doom” insecticide in Africa to church leaders refusing to be criticised because they see themselves as “little gods,” as well as the vacuous Sunday services that leave people in the same state that they came to church, instead of inspiring them and changing their lives). The church is dying of thirst in the desert and the condition can only be treated by discovering the living water to quench that thirst. Too many church leaders do not know how to hear the voice of God and therefore cannot lead people to the living water.
By following the listing of the well in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, this book demonstrates that the church needs the living water the Wellspring of Life provides. Each mention of the well is dealt with separately to show the significance of what is revealed there, to prove how these Scriptures were specifically put in this order to provide a systematic study of the importance of the well to the church and to point out the mistakes people in the church make. For instance, with Hagar, the fact that the well existed in the desert is first explored and then the fact that it had to be revealed for her to see it. Many people live next to the Well, but it has never been revealed to them that it can change their lives. Further revelations follow with each mention of the well: from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob through to David and the prophets. This continues to the New Testament and the Book of Revelation to show how God will provide for us if we can but follow His instructions regarding the Wellspring of Life. The truths discovered are applied as lessons for the church today.
Pastors and ministry professionals will find this book illuminating as
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Liking Jesus Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$10.99Add to cartWe all love the benefits of technology and social media, but even with the incredible upsides, many of us suspect there are unintended negative consequences beyond our control. The more we compare ourselves with others, the less satisfied we are. The more we interact online, the more we crave face-to-face intimacy. The more filtered our lives become, the more challenging it is for us to be authentic. The more information we receive about the pain and crises in the world, the more difficult it is for us to care.In this timely five-session video-based study (DVD/downloads sold separately), New York Times bestselling author Craig Groeschel taps in to some of the most up-to-date studies on social media to help us understand how it affects our emotions, our relationships, our attitudes, and our beliefs. He offers real-life examples to reveal the depths to which each of us battles with social media, how it masks our real struggles, and how we can reclaim a Christ-centered life. He encourages us to regain control over our lives by rediscovering the principles real life with Jesus brings: contentment, intimacy, authenticity, compassion, and rest.It’s time to refresh and rediscover what it means to be “like Jesus” and find true authenticity, a healthy self-image, and compassion for others in an age when we relate to each other so differently than ever before. It is time to no longer be defined by who follows you but by the One you follow.
Sessions include:
*Recovering Contentment
*Restoring Intimacy
*Revealing Authenticity
*Resurrecting Compassion
*Replenishing RestDesigned for use with the Liking Jesus Video Study (sold separately).
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Mental Health And The Church
$22.99Add to cartThe church across North America does a weak job of welcoming and including families of children, teens, and adults with common mental health conditions or trauma. One obstacle is the absence of a widely accepted model for mental health inclusion ministries for kids, teens, adults, and their families.
In Mental Health and the Church, Dr. Stephen Grcevich seeks to put forth a model for a mental health/trauma inclusion ministry of sufficient flexibility to be implemented by churches of all sizes, denominations, and organizational styles. This model is based upon an understanding of seven barriers that families of kids, teens, and adults with common mental health conditions face if they seek to regularly attend a local church: ADHD, anxiety disorders, attachment disorders, mood disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and difficulties with social communication/interaction. The model includes seven broad inclusion strategies for helping persons with common mental health conditions and their families to overcome barriers to active engagement in the full range of ministries offered by the local church.
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Why Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$14.99Add to cartWhere is God when tragedy and suffering strike? When the ground shakes, and a poor nation’s economy is destroyed; when the waters rise, washing away a community’s hopes and dreams; when a child suffers neglect and abuse; when violence tears apart nations where is God? If God is all powerful, and if each one of us is a beloved child of God, then how can God allow tragedy and suffering to mar his creation? In Why?, best-selling author Adam Hamilton brings fresh insight to the age-old question of how to understand the will of God. Rejecting simplistic answers and unexamined assumptions, he lays out core ideas for comprehending God’s plan for the world, including: God will not take away our free will, even when we use it to grieve him. God will never abandon us, especially in the midst of our suffering. While God is not the author of suffering, God will bring blessing out of tragedy.
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How To Preach A Dangerous Sermon
$18.99Add to cartLearn to use four characteristics of “preaching with moral imagination” to proclaim freedom for all. The author describes the four characteristics using examples like Robert F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,Prathia Hall, and the Moral Monday Movement, along with musicians and other artists of today. Moral imagination helps the hearer to see what they cannot see, to hear what they cannot hear–to inhabit the lives of others, so that they can embody Christ and true freedom for those others. This book equips and empowers preachers to transcend their basic skills and techniques, so that their proclamation of the Word causes actual turnaround in the hearts and lives of their hearers, and in their communities.
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Grounded In Creed Participant And Leader Book (Student/Study Guide)
$13.99Add to cartSession One: I Believe
Session Two: In God
Session Three: In Jesus
Session Four: In The Spirit
Session Five: In The Church
Session Six: In The PromiseAdditional Info
This offer to community groups (and small groups of any kind) is a six-session study based on the Apostles creed, which has served the church for nearly 1500 years as a basic summary statement about core Christian beliefs. This participant experience expands on the principle that “Growing People Change” their hearts and lives (a changed heart and life is the meaning of the New Testament concept metanoia, which in Elizabethan English is translated as “repentance”). This growth is accomplished by (1) understanding what changes in belief come through turning away from the practices that separate us from God (2) reflecting about our relationship to God while learning how to think theologically. -
Diddy Disciples 1 September To December
$56.99Add to cartDiddy Disciples is a creative and playful new worship and Bible storytelling resource for babies, toddlers and young children. Diddy Disciples aims to encourage participation, discipleship and leadership from children’s earliest years, using storytelling, singing, colour, repetition, art and lots and lots of movement! Peer-learning is actively encouraged with many opportunities for young children to learn from each other. Groups are invited to build their own Diddy Disciples sessions, choosing from different options. Leaders can use the material to create a service to follow the pattern of their church’s Sunday worship, a simple midweek baby and toddler singing session, or anything in between! Book 1 includes: Over 20 weeks’ worth of fully worked-out sessions organized into 4-6 week units from September to December All the information you need to set up and run Diddy Disciples in your group Plenty of opportunities to tailor the material to your own context, resources and tradition All sorts of creative “starter ideas’ for using everyday art and play resources to sparkchildren’s imaginations and engagement as they respond to the biblical stories. The Units are: Jesus’ wonderful love: six weeks introducing some of Jesus’ most famous parables God the maker: six weeks on creation and caring for it, including a Harvest celebration In November we remember: four weeks including All Saints and Remembrance Sunday Getting ready for baby Jesus: five weeks journeying through Advent to Christmas
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New Playlist Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$12.99Add to cartWhether we know it or not, we are living with a playlist. Caused by schedule overload and multiple distractions, it causes stress and anxiety. There is a playlist that causes us great anxiety. Schedule overload and many distractions play into it. The playlist sounds like this: You have to do everything. You have to say “yes” to everything. You are supposed to be in all places at all times. Jesus gives us a different playlist. It says: You are supposed to do two things: love God and love your neighbor. Saying no is often the best yes. You can only be one place at a time. This book addresses the anxiety, distraction addiction, and schedule overload that result from listening to the world’s playlist and gives us permission to hear and live by Jesus’ words. The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the six-week study including session plans, activities, and discussion questions, as well as multiple format options.
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Interrupting Silence : Gods Command To Speak Out (Student/Study Guide)
$17.00Add to cartSilence is a complex matter. It can refer to awe before unutterable holiness, but it can also refer to the coercion where some voices are silenced in the interest of control by the dominant voices. It is the latter silence that Walter Brueggemann explores, urging us to speak up in situations of injustice.
Interrupting Silence illustrates that the Bible is filled with stories where marginalized people break repressive silence and speak against it. Examining how maintaining silence allows the powerful to keep control, Brueggemann motivates readers to consider situations in their lives where they need to either interrupt silence or be part of the problem, convincing us that God is active and wanting us to act for justice.
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Boundaries Workbook : When To Say Yes How To Say No To Take Control Of Your (Wor
$16.99Add to cartThe New York Times bestselling book Boundaries has helped millions understand that being a loving Christian does not mean never saying no. This newly updated and expanded companion workbook provides practical exercises for setting boundaries in marriage, parenting, business, and friendships in a digital age.
Following the newly updated and expanded edition of Boundaries chapter-by-chapter, this interactive workbook helps you look at specific relationships in your own life. With those situations in mind, you can ask and answer:
Why do I feel guilty about setting clear boundaries?
What if the boundaries I set hurt the other person?
Is it difficult for me to hear no from others?
What are examples of legitimate boundaries at work and home?
How can I have good boundaries online?
How can I stay connected while still setting boundaries with my phone?
In what ways do I need to set better boundaries with social media?Boundaries Workbook gives a biblical foundation and practical tools for helping others respect your boundaries-whether you are not responding to a text message immediately or saying no when someone asks you to volunteer for one more activity.
Discover firsthand how good boundaries give you the freedom to live as the loving, generous, fulfilled person God created you to be.
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Dangers Of American Christianity
$15.99Add to cartThe message of the gospel should be the lens through which our world view is formed.
The author believes that instead our culture has made us water down the true message to fit contemporary American Culture.The dangers he identifies include:
-Getting too mixed up in our culture
-Isolating ourselves too much from contemporary culture
-Safe and easy believism without proper life changing repentance
-Making it all about what God can do for me
-Entitlement
-The prosperity gospel
-Not being busy with the things of GodThe Church needs to rediscover what made it the powerful force it is supposed to be in a culture that wants to adapt the Church to fit its own values.
We cannot water down or dilute the gospel message in any way and remain effective in a world of secular humanistic values.
The Church has to get back to biblical values and not compromise with the world’s values and culture.Each chapter has questions for reflection, if you’re reading on your own, or discussion in groups.
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Learning To Study The Bible Student Journal
$9.99Add to cartLearning to Study the Bible is an eight-week curriculum designed for tweens to help them learn the basics of biblical interpretation. The Student Journal gives tweens an opportunity to apply the tools of biblical interpretation to “texts” from pop culture, the Bible, and everyday life.
Sessions are:
1. Who? * Learn to identify the original author and audience * Understand your own social location and biases * Practice reading a text with the author and original audience in mind
2. What? * Understand the significance of genre * Practice identifying genre in biblical texts
3. When? * Understand the significance of historical context * Learn about the major social contexts of biblical texts * Practice reading Scripture contextually
4. Where? * Learn how to utilize biblical maps * Understand the significance of geography and shifting national borders for biblical interpretation * Practice interpreting a biblical text with a geographical lens
5. Why? * Learn about the formation of the canon * Understand the significance of a text’s changing meaning over time * Practice reading a text with multiple layers of meaning
6. How? Close reading * Learn the value of reading texts slowly and carefully * Understand how to use study bibles and commentaries * Practice reading a short text carefully
7. How? Side-by-side reading * Learn about the Revised Common Lectionary and its purpose * Understand how to use a concordance to cross-reference texts * Practice reading a text intra-canonically
8. How? Lectio Divina * Learn about the ancient practice of Lectio Divina * Understand the significance of a spiritual reading of Scripture * Practice Lectio Divina individually and as a group -
Understanding Sexual Abuse
$18.99Add to cartForeword By Debra Hirsch
Introduction
1. A Safe Place
2. Why Abuse Hurts
3. Justice, Anger, And True Forgiveness
4. Breaking The Power Of Secrets
5. What Can Recovery Look Like?
6. Where Was God?
7. A Broken Hallelujah
8. Choosing Life And Learning To Walk Unafraid
NotesAdditional Info
“It is said that the true test of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable members.”As many as one in four girls and one in six boys experience sexual abuse during childhood, and it’s estimated that as many as half of the incidents are never reported. This means that countless millions in our societies, both children and adults, carry this complex, often hidden pain. What does the path to healing look like for survivors? And how can ministry leaders, pastors, and counselors best help them as they walk this difficult road?
Drawing on both his own experience and his wife’s experience as survivors of childhood sexual abuse, minister and lecturer Tim Hein offers his expertise, practical guidance, and empathy-both for ministry leaders and for survivors themselves. How can we best respond when a survivor shares their secret with us? Where can survivors turn for encouragement when the road to recovery seems so long and lonely? Hein presents clinical data and resources alongside pastoral wisdom and care, addressing both psychological and spiritual aspects of sexual abuse.
Both for those who have suffered sexual abuse and those in a position to help them, this book is a rich resource. Filled with both sober truths and the hope of Christ, it calls survivors to take courage and walk unafraid down the road of healing.
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Preaching Adverbially
$33.99Add to cartReflections from a pastor and teacher on preaching as a dynamic event
Christian preaching obviously entails the sermon, but in reality it involves much more. Preaching happens when the entire assembly, the worshiping congregation, gathers to speak and sing, pray and listen, eat and drink, bless and baptize. Preaching at root is a dynamic event that is best captured not in adjectives but in adverbs.
In Preaching Adverbially Russell Mitman shows how eleven select adverbs-biblically, contextually, invitationally, doxologically, and others-serve to identify what essentially happens in Christian preaching. Each chapter draws on scriptural paradigms, liturgical and musical forms, the insights of scholars and teachers, and the author’s own rich experience. Mitman’s purpose is for these adverbs to become practical, revitalizing guides for all who are called to proclaim the Word of God within the framework of Christian worship.
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Sustainable Childrens Ministry
$22.99Add to cartIntroduction
1. From Chaos To Clarity: What’s So Different About Sustainable Children’s Ministry?
2. The Workhorse Syndrome: Moving Beyond A Do-It-Yourself Ministry
3. Beyond Goldfish And Bubble Machines: A Different Way Of Doing Children’s Ministry
4. Measuring Up: Knowing What It Takes
5. Building Your Ministry With Simple Machines: The Essential Systems For A Sustainable Children’s Ministry
6. From Pearls To A Necklace: Putting The Pieces Together
7. Seeing What Others Can’t-Yet: Clarifying Your Vision
8. The Delegation Dance: Building Your Ministry Partners
9. Beyond Rotation: Building Your Dream Team
10. Beyond The Victim: Swimming In The Deep Waters Of Church Politics
11. Children’s Ministry Is Family Ministry: A Recipe For Turning Parents Into Partners
12. More Than Planning: The Essential Systems Of Chaos Management
13. Your Ministry Marathon: Preparing Yourself To Go The Distance
14. Finding Your Bounce: The Inside Secret Of Sustainable Children’s Ministry
Acknowledgments
Appendix A: Communication Plan
Appendix B: Sample Goals And Benchmarks
Appendix C: Sample Values Statements
Appendix D: Core Competencies Samples
Appendix E: Resources For Parents
Appendix F: Preventative Maintenance Calendar
Appendix G: Systems Checklist
Appendix H: For Reflection And Discussion
NotesAdditional Info
Are you a children’s ministry leader on the edge of burnout? Do you find yourself working harder and harder to tame the chaos?Mark DeVries and Annette Safstrom know how you feel. Flash and fizz can be effective at attracting young families, but without sustainable systems beneath the unforgettable moments, the impact is almost always short-lived. In this practical resource, you’ll learn how to recruit volunteers, partner with parents, navigate politics, and care for your own soul instead of frantically scrambling to do it all yourself. Sustainable Children’s Ministry will help you build a ministry foundation that will still be standing long after you are gone.
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Voices In The Wilderness
$48.00Add to cartFINALLY, a scholarly description of the development of Black preaching in the United States that is accessible to the average reader, but also contributes to the academic conversation about both style and theological content. Written from the perspective of a seasoned practitioner and tenured practical theologian, Thomas surveys Black preaching as it has responded to various social and historical time periods. Starting with the brutality of chattel slavery, early formations in segregated Southern life, rapid migration to and urbanization in Northern cities, and various events throughout the post-civil rights era, the book gives convincing details and examples of how the Black preacher helped to guide and sustain the masses of African American people through the wilderness of social change. At the heart of the book, three prime examples are presented as models of the real “”genius”” of Black preaching. The reader will never again think about Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Reverend Jesse Jackson in the same way. A special chapter is devoted to the contributions of Black women preachers along with a closing chapter that makes new proposals for the future. The book is a provocative and critical analysis of why Black preaching still matters.
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Voices In The Wilderness
$28.00Add to cartFINALLY, a scholarly description of the development of Black preaching in the United States that is accessible to the average reader, but also contributes to the academic conversation about both style and theological content. Written from the perspective of a seasoned practitioner and tenured practical theologian, Thomas surveys Black preaching as it has responded to various social and historical time periods. Starting with the brutality of chattel slavery, early formations in segregated Southern life, rapid migration to and urbanization in Northern cities, and various events throughout the post-civil rights era, the book gives convincing details and examples of how the Black preacher helped to guide and sustain the masses of African American people through the wilderness of social change. At the heart of the book, three prime examples are presented as models of the real “”genius”” of Black preaching. The reader will never again think about Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Reverend Jesse Jackson in the same way. A special chapter is devoted to the contributions of Black women preachers along with a closing chapter that makes new proposals for the future. The book is a provocative and critical analysis of why Black preaching still matters.
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Small Church Checkup
$16.00Add to cartMany small membership churches today are faced with the sobering reality of attendance loss and overall decline. This resource provides a guide to help you find hope, alternatives, and the possibility of a new beginning. Included are tools to help you measure your church’s vitality, evaluate the results, and diagnose your church’s condition, along with several options for treatment plans as you seek to faithfully serve your community. Remember that we can choose our story. If we believe in our hearts there is another possibility, we can be faithful in choosing intentional pathways forward that honor God, the church founders, and generations to come. Follow the steps outlined in these pages to evaluate where you are and what the next steps on your journey need to be as you seek to be a “not yet big church,” “a stable, small church,” or a church that chooses to close and be repurposed for unexpected new life.
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New Copernicans : Understanding The Millennial Contribution To The Church
$16.99Add to cartIn The New Copernicans: Understanding the Millennial Contribution to the Church, author John Seel, PhD, provides a road map to this new millennial landscape, and an antidote to being drawn off course.
The millennial generation is steering the church in a new direction and is providing a missional opportunity for the church. The church will either follow their lead, or meander in a direction leading them further away from the ultimate path of making disciples.
Millennials are the carriers of a profound shift in the culture narrative, one that will reshape our understanding of human society in the coming years. Rather than being a problem for the church to lament, this shift represents an occasion to celebrate. Yet it demands being able to understand this direction to a more accurate assessment of human nature and reality.
In The New Copernicans: Understanding the Millennial Contribution to the Church, author John Seel, PhD, provides a road map to this new millennial landscape, and an antidote to being drawn off course. Rather than give the reader a formula for their local church, Recalculating will provide a lens though which to see the world in the light of the millennial frame. It addresses the “why” questions, empowering the reader to assess their own situation and apply the appropriate direction. It will not advocate “cookie cutter” programs, rather provide a refreshed vision with which to interact along side this important generation.
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Empowering Leadership : How A Leadership Development Culture Builds Better
$19.99Add to cartPastor and author Michael P. Fletcher asserts that a leadership pipeline can’t be bought, rather it has to be built from the ground up. Fletcher guides the reader on how to build better leaders faster by creating a leadership development culture in your church or organization.
The key to continued success in any church or organization is a steady stream of healthy, growing leaders; but not just any leaders-leaders who carry the culture and embody its core values. But where can you find leaders like this?
Author and leadership consultant Michael Fletcher says these types of leaders can’t simply be “bought” nor can they be hired off of someone else’s “assembly line.” These types of leaders have to be built through a leadership pipeline.
A good leadership pipeline will help articulate the values of the church or organization and define the process required to move forward in it. However, to develop leaders at every level in the organization, to create an environment that attracts potential leaders, and to build better leaders faster, an organization needs more than a pipeline-it will need a culture that develops leaders organically.
If your organization needs good a leadership development structure, then you’re holding the right book. Empowering Leadership details Michael’s greatest insights on how to build better leaders faster by creating a leadership development culture in your organization-naturally, organically, continually.
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Life Changing Prayer Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99Add to cartIn this six-session video-based Bible study (DVD/digital video sold separately), Jim Cymbala, pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle, unlocks the truths he has learned about prayer that transformed his church from a struggling inner-city congregation to a thriving community of believers who pray with passion, focus, and faith. He reveals how prayer can likewise transform your life and your church when you “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence” (Hebrews 14:1), certain in the knowledge that will meet with you, answer your requests, and extend his mercy to you. It is at the throne of grace that you will also receive power to confront your problems without anxiety, and where the Holy Spirit will gradually shape you into a person who impacts others for Christ. Prayer is the force that binds believers together, and when God’s people unite and call on his name, powerful things happen in our world.
Sessions include:
Session 1: The Throne of Grace
Session 2: Receiving Mercy
Session 3: Perfect Peace from God
Session 4: Praying with Faith
Session 5: God Brings the Answer
Session 6: The Church that Prays TogetherDesigned for use with the Life-Changing Prayer Video Study (sold separately).
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Draw The Circle Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99Add to cartHave your prayers become stagnant? Do you long to see God move in fresh ways? Are you ready to move to new places in your walk with God? If so, it’s time to take the 40-day prayer challenge and press into God like never before.In this five-session video study, bestselling author and pastor Mark Batterson reveals how taking up this challenge will not only change the way you pray today but also dramatically impact the rest of your life. While this challenge won’t be easy, and you will certainly experience setbacks along the way, as you pray through you can be assured that God will come through for you in new and exciting ways. Miracles that happen in your life decades from now will trace their origin back to this season of prayer, and breakthroughs that occur will become generational blessings that will live on long after your time on earth is over.
Today is the day for you to not only draw your prayer circle but also form your prayer circle with other believers in Christ. Now is the time to join with the more than half a million people who have already accepted this 40-day challenge to pray like it depends on God and work like it depends on them. As you do, you will witness the miraculous results in your life, your church, your community, and your world that only God can bring.
The Draw the Circle Study Guide includes video discussion questions, personal reflection questions, and daily devotional readings for each of the 40 days in the challenge.
Sessions include:
*Drawing a Circle
*Dream Big
*Pray Hard
*Think Long
*The Ripple EffectDesigned for use with the Draw the Circle Video Study (9780310094685) sold separately.
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Rhapsody Of Realities Topical Compendium Volume 5
$15.99Add to cartThe Rhapsody Of Realities Topical Compendium Series are comprehensive reference materials that have enhanced word based training among Christians. These series are renowned with inspiring articles that articulate the Gospel of our Lord Jesus, and it’s therefore an important tool for the spiritual development of god’s children.
The rhapsody of realities topical compendium volume 5 is the newest instalment in this series of compilations of choice articles by Rev. Chris Oyakhilome. What’s more, the articles in this volume have been organized under exciting chapters such as:
– the acts of God
– the efficacy of God’s Word
– the lordship of Jesus Christ
– the Holy Spirit and you
– the mindset of the just
– the ministry of reconciliation
– the glory – life
– the authority of believers
– divine benefitsThis is a sure complete resource book, that guarantees your profound walk with the lord through fellowship with his word.
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Vibrant Church : Strategies For Church Renewal
$13.99Add to cartHelp your church reach its potential to become a beacon in your community, a model of all that God has called the church to be. The Vibrant Church provides guidance for pastors and key lay leaders, teaching you how to make your church healthy in all areas of church life.
You’ll learn to:
-Write a specific vision for your church
-Improve your leadership skills
-Establish a strategic plan for the future
-Build the ministry team
-Grow a dynamic outreach ministry
-Disciple fully devoted followers of Christ
-Create an environment of genuine love and concern
-Develop meaningful worship
-Train faithful stewards of money and time
