Pastoral Helps
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This Way To Youth Ministry Companion Guide
$24.99“Duffy Robbins’s book This Way to Youth Ministry is a foundational Introduction to youth ministry. This companion text, Embarking on the Grace Adventure, is filled with supplemental material, primarily case studies, but other resources as well. It is written by Dr Leonard Kageler, professor at Nyack College in New York, with Duffy Robbins. This companion booklet gives Robbins’s main book “legs’ and is a resource that professors and students can use to implement concepts and applications. It will assist youth ministry professors in teaching from the Robbins text and to help students engage with the text’s contents in ways that are experiential, participatory, image based, and connective. Many youth ministry professors lack contemporary and relevant youth ministry illustrations. Many have not been youth workers themselves, or, in some cases, are decades past in-the-trenches experience. Embarking on the Grace Adventure is a vital resource for educators who don’t have the time or opportunity to be practicing youth workers. Embarking on the Grace Adventure supplies case studies, discussion questions, simulations, websites, applications, relational activities and “homework assignments” in order to facilitate student involvement and engagement. At the end of every chapter, several options for processing the material are offered–a modular, user-friendly menu of choices for the instructor. The best use of Embarking on the Grace Adventure will be every student to have, and use, his/her own copies, and therefore the design includes spaces in the text to note their own responses for later sharing in class, to take note of instructors’ points, and to process discussion items. Embarking on the Grace Adventure includes a preface by Duffy Robbins; an Introduction by Len Kageler including a word to professors about how to use the book and to students about maximizing their use of it; and 10-12 pages of material for each of the 12 chapters in the Robbins text. And in each instance 8-10 pages of case studies/short examples, and 2-4 pages of discussion questions, activities, simulations, reflection exercises, etc. Embarking on the Grace Adventure “closees the circle” and form a perfect companion-piece for the foundational This Way to Youth Ministry. “
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Practicing Congregation : Imagining A New Old Church
$29.00Diana Butler Bass’ groundbreaking project to explore encouraging signs of vitality among mainline Protestant churches is now gaining the momentum of a movement. The author’s cover story in Sojourners magazine offers a compelling overview of what characterizes these healthy, vital, and inspiring congregations. The Practicing Congregation is a central text on the road to envisioning a new way of being a church. From Nomads to Pilgrims, its follow-up companion book, contains reflections on practices by the pastors of some of the vibrant congregations that were studied in the writing of The Practicing Congregation.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The conventional wisdom about mainline Protestantism maintains that it is a dying tradition, irrelevant to a postmodern society, unresponsive to change, and increasingly disconnected from its core faith tenets. In her provocative new book, historian and researcher Diana Butler Bass argues that there are signs that mainline Protestant churches are indeed changing, finding a new vitality intentionally grounded in Christian practices and laying the groundwork for a new type of congregation.
The Practicing Congregation tracks these changes by looking at the overall history of American congregations, noting the cultural trends that have sparked change, and providing evidence of how mainline churches are reappropriating traditional Christian practices. The signs of life that Butler Bass identifies lead the reader beyond the crumbling “liberal vs. conservative” dualities to a more nuanced and fluid understanding of the shape of contemporary ecclesiology and faithfulness. In so doing, she helps readers understand tradition in new ways and creates an alternative path through the culture wars that today arrest the energies of most denominations.
Invigorated by stories from Bass’s own experience, The Practicing Congregation provides a hopeful and exciting vision of “the once and future church” that Alban founder Loren Mead first named over 10 years ago. The imaginative “retraditioning” the author identifies and celebrates will guide pastors and other leaders on this “pilgrimage of creating church,” and convincingly counter the naysayers that long ago gave up on the viability of the mainline church.
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Playing With Fire
$16.95The discipline of homiletics can be undertaken via many approaches. In Playing with Fire, David J. Schlafer offers an invitation to the art of preaching by way of metaphor. Metaphors are perhaps the best teaching techniques at our disposal, and two–fire and play–dance together across the pages of this book. Fire is multisensory and mysterious, life nurturing and life threatening, and the history of preaching is a story of sacred fire sharing. How can those called to proclaim the Gospel tend and transmit this fire? Perhaps by playing with it, by participating in God’s own sacred play.
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Informed By Faith
$15.95All of us educate, teach, and form others; as Christians, the place in which this formation takes place is our community. Every waking moment offers opportunities for education, and the home especially is a place for ongoing Christian formation. At home, we equip the family to know that God is a mystery and a God of life and love, and our families can be much-needed examples of how best to struggle with what it means to know God in everyday life experiences of love, suffering, and death.
In Informed by Faith, Mark Francisco Bozzuti-Jones creates a dialogue between religious educators and parents that is designed to lead to meditation, prayer, reflection, and a new perspective on the ministry of teaching. Through examination of the history of education, education as life, and the meaning of being a Christian, Bozzuti-Jones offers those who teach a sense of refreshment in soul, mind, and body, leading to a new commitment to teaching and proclaiming God’s life and love.
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Hidden Lives Of Congregations
$30.00Faced with crisis, lack of direction, or just plain “stuckness,” many congregations and their leaders are content to deal only with surface issues and symptoms-only to discover that the same problems keep recurring, often in different, and more serious, ways. In The Hidden Lives of Congregations, Christian educator and consultant Israel Galindo takes leaders below the surface of congregational life to provide a comprehensive, holistic look at the corporate nature of church relationships and the invisible dynamics at play.
Informed by family systems theory and grounded in a wide-ranging ecclesiological understanding, Galindo unpacks clearly the factors of congregational lifespan, size, spirituality, and identity and shows how these work together to form the congregation’s hidden life. He provides useful tools for diagnosing and understanding how one’s congregation fits into the various categories he names and suggests what leadership skills are necessary to get beyond the impasse of surface issues and help the congregation achieve its mission.
The Hidden Lives of Congregations provides one of the most far-reaching looks into the invisible nature of faith communities written in recent years. For seminaries and divinity schools, it provides a standard text for getting a solid start in congregational practices; for experienced pastors, it provides support for renewing ministry; for lay leaders and committees, it offers insight to deepening mutual ministry. Israel Galindo has written an indispensable manual that leaders will return to repeatedly for new wisdom and guidance on the unseen mechanisms that drive congregational life.
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Becoming Barnabas : The Ministry Of Encouragement
$28.00Western culture has made a cult of success, and the church has accepted the larger culture’s definition, focusing on success as growth in membership and budget, rather growth in faithfulness as disciples of Jesus. When we do not measure up, we become discouraged, disillusioned, and perhaps even envious.
Paul Moots offers a welcome antidote: a vision for the ministry of encouragement. Based on his study of the book of Acts, Moots has identified five incidents from the ministry of Barnabas, an easily overlooked character, that provide a starting point to explore encouragement and how it can work in a congregation. Moots then examines five components of this ministry: partnership, hospitality, courage, reconciliation, and authenticity.
Moots details numerous examples to show how the ministry of encouragement offers a workable, effective pattern for church leadership. “I am convinced,” he writes, “that accepting Barnabas as my model has changed my ministry for the better and that Barnabas’s example can benefit any pastor and congregation who take his lessons seriously.”
Barnabas and his ministry of encouragement offer us a focus for the vital, messy, and exhilarating work required of us as faith communities. Foreword by Robert Reber
“At last! Here is a leadership book that provides practical help for congregations of every size and setting and pastors with a variety of gifts. Drawing from his own experience as a pastor, Moots shares a model of faithful ministry that is within the reach of every pastor, layperson, and congregation.”-Rueben P. Job
“In an age when so many pastors and leaders are discouraged, no work of the Spirit is more needed or more welcome than encouragement. Moots’s book moves beyond diagnosis and actually shows readers how to ‘become Barnabas’ in ministries of partnership, hospitality, courage, and reconciliation.”-Donna Duensing
Paul Moots has served as pastor in a variety of settings in his 22 years of ministry: associate pastor, campus ministry, pastor of an urban congregation, and his current position in the village church of First United Methodist in Mount Sterling, Ohio.
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When Better Isnt Enough
$28.00Many sociologists and a growing number of church scholars have noted that we live in a time of transition-from the modern era to the postmodern. Whenever a shift of this magnitude occurs, it leaves all of life, including the church, in flux. We instinctively strive to stabilize the situation by re-establishing what has worked in the past. Increasingly, however, congregations are finding that the same old things done harder or better don’t seem to make a difference.
Author Jill Hudson argues, “We must identify new criteria for success, and perhaps even for faithfulness, and hold ourselves accountable to them.” Approaching the postmodern era as a tremendous opportunity, Hudson identifies 12 characteristics by which we can measure effective ministry for the early 21st century.
Based on those 12 criteria, Hudson has created evaluation tools, “an early measuring stick” to help congregations evaluate their work in this new era. Not everything of the past is ineffective and best discarded, she says, nor will everything we try in the future be successful. But by faithfully listening for God’s guidance and carefully evaluating progress using Hudson’s tools, looking at the ministry of the whole people of God as well as that of the professional staff, congregations can improve their ministry, help members and staff grow in effectiveness, deepen a sense of partnership, and add new richness to the dialogue about the congregation’s future.
Jill Hudson makes us face the hard reality that the world has changed, but the church hasn’t. This gap can create a problem when assessing the effectiveness of church leadership. Practical and easy to read and understand, this book will prove an effective new tool in assisting pastors to lead today.-Mike Regele
Our kicking and screaming aside, the postmodern church beckons, and Jill Hudson provides guidance and information to equip us for this enormous ministry challenge.-The Rev. Christine Shiber
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Jazz Of Preaching
$20.99What if preachers were as contagiously joyful in their preaching as Louis Armstrong was in his playing and singing? As rich in their sermonic renderings as Sarah Vaughan was in her musical vocals? As honest about heartache as Billie Holiday was every time she sang about the blues of life? As alluringly clear as the angelic voice of Ella Fitzgerald? As tenaciously uninhibited in the action of creating as Duke Ellington?
Of course, this is too much to ask of people, even those called by God. However, it is not too much to ask this question: Can preaching be enhanced through the metaphor of jazz? Can an understanding of the inner dynamics of jazz–its particular forms, rules, and styles–inform one’s practice of preaching as well? Can jazz’s simultaneous structure and spontaneity help preachers better understand their own art? The answer to these questions, says Jones, is an unqualified yes. He explains how one can dramatically improve one’s preaching through understanding and applying key elements of the musical art form known as jazz. No musical background is necessary; all examples are well explained and tied in with preaching.
The key elements include innovation (what one commentator refers to as “the experimental disposition of jazz”), improvisation, rhythm, call and response, honesty about heartaches, and delight. After discussing the reality and role of each of these elements in jazz, and how they can be important for preaching as well, each chapter concludes with five exercises for applying the jazz element to preaching preparation and performance.
Drawing on a deep love of jazz and enlivening the discussion with insights drawn from the realities of African American preaching, Jones introduces readers to rich and rewarding possibilities for constructing and delivering the sermon.
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Creative Bible Lessons In 1-2 Timothy And Titus (Student/Study Guide)
$16.99This newest installment of the bestselling Creative Bible Lessons series provides practical faith-sustaining principles for Christian teenagers from every walk of life. These “pastoral epistles,” written by the Apostle Paul at the end of his life, give sound instruction on how to lead the young church in a world of oppression, danger, and difficulty. In twelve chapters this book covers leadership, worship, getting in shape, walking the talk, knowing your enemy, money, overcoming opposition, and the Bible.
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Teaching That Makes A Difference
$34.99This comprehensive, research-informed textbook reviews all aspects of traditional and contemporary theories and experience in youth ministry, but also points to the future by analyzing youth culture and charting innovative paradigms in the art and craft of teaching. The book is fueled by the urgent need in youth ministry to better reach students, to inform them about God’s will for their lives, and to encourage change in their lives beyond the youth group setting. Features include: * Website dedicated to the book, including chats hosted by the author * Scriptural instruction on reaching the minds, hearts, and souls of students * Cultural analysis of adolescents in ministry contexts and in the larger community * Explanation of learning styles: auditory, visual, tactile, kinesthetic * Explanation of multiple intelligences: imaginative, analytic, common sense, dynamic * Tips on creativity: where to find ideas, list of teaching methods
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Prayer (Student/Study Guide)
$9.99This book will explore and define biblical and contemporary images of prayer. All the sessions exploring prayer will be based upon God’s relationship with humans as the ground of all prayer and the essential human need to reach toward God that leads to prayer. Readers will explore definitions of prayer, a variety of scriptures that show Jesus’ teachings and practices related to prayer, methods of prayer, aids to prayer, the varieties of individual and communal words, needs, and emotions that form the content of prayer, ways people interpret answered or unanswered prayer, and the unity between prayer and human action. The book will invite readers to reflect upon questions like: Why do we pray? What is God’s role in prayer? the human role? How is God’s grace involved in prayer? What is prayer? What did Jesus teach about prayer? How do we pray? What do we pray? What is an attitude of prayer? How does God answer prayer? What difference does prayer make in our lives? Have I been praying all along? What happens in the quiet times of my week? in the busy times?
Is prayer possible in both quiet and busy times? Why do I feel like I don’t have
time to pray? Do I need to make time for prayer? How? The book will affirm
persons and groups who struggle with an understanding of prayer or with
a style of prayer. It will provide opportunities for transforming encounters with
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Lifetime Of Blessing
$20.99In the same successful formula as ‘World of Blessing’, Geoffrey Duncan has compiled blessings from a great variety of resources to commemorate every conceivable stage of life from planning and praying for a child to bidding loved ones farewell. aaIn between there are a wide range of thanksgiving and blessing prayers for pregnancy, the birth of a baby, adoption and fostering, christening or naming ceremonies,godparents, growing up, starting school, birthdays, confirmation or church membership,friendship, love, work, leaving home, engagement, marriage, moving house, anniversaries, the big’O’s(!)and all important occasions in life-joyful or sad. aaA unique pastoral and personal resource that will be used over and over again.
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Postmodern Childrens Ministry
$19.99This practical, thought-provoking book presents a new paradigm for children’s ministry in the emerging 21st century and explores how churches are currently putting that vision into practice. Advocating the need to regard children as full participants in their faith communities, the book provides strategies for building intergenerational community where children feel they belong and have the opportunity to serve.
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Divine Distinction : The Ministry Of The Apostle The Office Of The Bishop
$10.99It’s very important that we use utmost sensitivity as we embrace the significant subject of apostles and bishops in the New Testament and attempt to present a biblically sound position statement. Approaching this kind of discussion with preconceived notions and closed minds could put at risk those who trust our input for divine direction. Correct interpretation of the Scriptures, not history, must be what we trust as the order of God. Church history has not always demonstrated the will of God. Where it does, it can be used as a divine pattern; where it does not, it must be replaced with the truth of God, even if it presents the challenge of accepting something different from our traditions.
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Keys To Becoming An Effective Associate Minister And Church Leader
$14.95Joshua Ministry Title
Hopewell shares the truths that he has discovered in his journey that will strengthen the relationship between the pastor and associate minister, and create an atmosphere that allows both to work together as a team, fulfilling God’s purpose.
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Pastoral Protocol : A Guide To Ministerial Ethics
$15.49Every profession and vocation has rules that govern its operation and dictates the behaviour and conduct of its professors, so also is the church world. The ministry has ethics of behaviour different from all other professions. In this book, the minister’s relation with his church, community, opposite sex and colleagues are all spelt out. Dealing with finances, the family and denomination amongst others have also been dealt with by Dr. Agyin-Asare. Pastoral Protocol emphasises the fact that people’s opinion about God and Christianity and your own church are shaped by the ethical standards the minister maintains. Ministers of the gospel, ministers in training, aspiring Church leaders, lay church workers and in fact every individual believer who sees himself herself as part of the “universal priesthood of the believer” would benefit by this book to prevent spiritual disaster and ministry suicide. Apostle Dr. Michael Ntumy M.Th President of the Ghanna Pentecostal Council, Chairman of the Church of Pentecost I thorougly enjoyed this book “Pastoral Protocol”. It is one of the best I have ever read on this subject. Every minister should read it. Bishop Paul E. Paino D.D., Th.D, D.Lt. Carol Road Christian Fellowship Fort Wayne, Indiana
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Postmodern Life Cycle
$24.99“Friedrich Schweitzer is knowledgeable of both European and American cultural shifts into postmodernity. This well-written account of the impacts of media saturation, the relativization of religious authority, and the rapid global emergence of varieties of spiritual orientations and practices, is the first of its kind. Schweitzer’s knowledge of practices of faith and his mastery of the available research literature on posmodern conditions make this work indispensable for religious leaders, students of postmodernity, and a broad reading public. A great achievement!”
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Moderatism Pietism And Awakening
$58.99The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church is a multivolume study by Hughes Oliphant Old that explores the history of preaching from the words of Moses at Mount Sinai through modern times. In Volume 5, Moderatism, Pietism, and Awakening, Old brings the story of preaching up through the eighteenth century, showing how, after the tumultuous age of the Reformation, preaching in the eighteenth century was driven in several very different directions. The book’s first chapter considers moderatism, an inevitable reaction against the high tensions of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. In the second chapter Old discusses pietism, examining the contributions of Philipp Jakob Spener, Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen, John Wesley, George Whitefield, Samuel Davies, and other preachers. The remaining seven chapters delve into a variety of national or denominational schools of preaching.
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When Prisoners Return
$11.95“When Prisoners Return” identifies the need for individuals and churches to be involved as prisoners return to society; this book also equips individuals and churches with the information they need to effectively assist former prisoners.
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Word Made Plain
$27.00Preaching mediates the word of God into a cultural matrix. And no American preaching has done so more effectively and powerfully than African American preaching, claims noted homiletician James Harris. Known for its rhetorical strength, social-justice orientation, and dead-on connection to the community’s lived experience, black preaching is here analyzed and proposed as a model for all preaching.
Harris grounds black preaching in the self-understanding of the historic black church and its most prominent preachers, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Samuel Proctor. Harris also explores the hermeneutical and aesthetic dimensions of preaching, especially at the intersection of sacred text and the broader culture. He then lays out the specific distinguishing characteristics of black preaching, including verbal cadence and rhythm, use of gestures, and, most thoroughly, the narrative model of the sermon. His last chapter, “Preaching Plainly,” provides specific instructions on how to put the sermon together employing this model.Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
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Raising Up Young Heroes
$22.99Youth ministry is about much more than Sunday night Bible study and lock-ins. It’s about changing the lives of youth and empowering young heroes to change their world. Here is a model for holistic ministry that addresses all the needs of students–body, soul and spirit. Powerful stories from the author’s urban, multiethnic context shape the context of this book, while the principles within are designed to serve the whole body of Christ.
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Experiential Youth Ministry Handbook
$24.99This handbook offers more than eighty activities youth workers can use to help students connect. It also offers twenty-one examples of specific program sequences that show how these activities can be used intentionally to become more than just games. Additionally, seven templates for specific contexts common in youth ministry enable youth workers to adapt the activities into an infinite number of program combinations.
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Growth By Accident Death By Planning
$21.99A congregation that had been growing in numbers and spiritual vitality reaches a plateau, and then begins to decline. What has happened? Whitesel explains where churches go wrong planning for growth and how they can correct themselves by looking at three related phenomena: the factors that cause initial growth; the erroneous decisions that lead to getting stuck on the plateau; and corrective steps they can take to regain growth and vitality.
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Ducking Spears Dancing Madly
$19.99Leadership among God’s people is not a matter of easy answers or simple solutions. There is no foolproof list of character traits that one can acquire and develop in order to be a successful leader. Authentic leadership is a complex interaction of the leader’s gifts and calling, the people’s needs and response, the particular situation of the moment, and, above all, the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Birch and Parks believe if we wish to understand the intricate and messy character of leadership in the church, the obvious place to start is Scripture. The Bible portrays leaders not as heroes placed on a pedestal, but rather as flawed and fallen human beings who nonetheless work with the people around them and with the situation at hand to move toward accomplishing the will of God.
Ducking Spears, Dancing Madly is a penetrating look at church leadership through the stories of Saul, David, and other central Old Testament figures. The authors demonstrate that those who have a clear and honest understanding of the triumphs and flaws of the individuals who lead God’s people in Scripture will be better prepared to lead God’s people today. In order to provide that understanding, they engage in a dialogue with the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, texts that portray the people of Israel in frequent social and political transition, and hence in need of effective leadership.
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More Movie Based Illustrations For Preaching And Teaching
$14.99Preachers and teachers recognize that movies are having a powerful voice in influencing the thoughts and ideas of modern Americans. Therefore, increasing numbers of preachers/speakers are using video movie clips or verbal references to contemporary movie scenes in church services and classrooms. But how do they find an appropriate movie to relate to a particular theme or text? Using the extensive indexes in More Movie-Based Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching will enable them to refer to illustrations in context and even locate where the clip can be found. The illustrations are contemporary and provide extended descriptions of the settings and dialogue for the selected scenes. Ninety to ninetyfive percent of these illustrations have never before appeared in print. Purchasers of the book will also receive a free threemonth subscription to Christianity Today’s PreachingToday.com. This useful reference tool will help any preacher or speaker find moving illustrations to connect with today’s audiences and reinforce biblical truths.
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Right Road : Life Choices For Clergy
$17.00Many clergy are in startlingly bad health. Not only do they regularly report depression, stress, and serious family and financial problems, they also exhibit higher than normal incidences of obesity, high cholesterol levels, inactivity, high blood pressure, and heart disease. How effective can professionals in ministry be with such debilities and vulnerabilities? Are clergy too busy helping others to take care of themselves?
Gwen Halaas’s caring and savvy book addresses clergy health directly: clergy have a spiritual as well as physical need to care for themselves, to live to the fullest, to ensure that they enjoy the life and gifts God gave them. Building her brief, practical book around the wellness wheel, Halaas emphasizes not just healthy eating but a whole array of life-affirming choices for clergy. Halaas provides the tools for clergy to choose growth and well-being over burnout and decline. With this practical and upbeat volume, clergy can begin to put their own lives in perspective and ‘keep [themselves] in training for a godly life’ (1 Timothy 4:7).
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Bored With God
$18.99IVP Print On Demand Title
In this book, Sean Dunn catalogs what he’s seen of apathy in his ministry to youth. Teenagers can be frustratingly sleepy in their faith, but once these slumbering giants are awakened to a life with God, they can apply virtually tireless energy to the problems of a world bored with God. And their energy is particularly contagious.
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Family Based Youth Ministry (Revised)
$26.99Disappointed with the results from the glitzy programs and entertaining activities you’ve used with your church’s young people? Try Mark DeVries’s newly revised Family-Based Youth Ministry for a multigenerational approach that takes seriously the job of discipling teens and building mature believers. You’ll learn how to involve not just the nuclear family but the entire church body, from singles to seniors. Includes a bonus curriculum for youth and adults.
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Spiritual Direction And The Care Of Souls
$30.99Gary W. Moon and David G. Benner, along with a team of expert contributors, provide a comprehensive survey of spiritual direction in its myriad Christian forms. Specific chapters offer careful historical perspective and contemporary analysis of how Christians from various backgrounds have practiced spiritual direction, with particular attention to each tradition’s definition of spiritual direction, the process of authentic transformation, the role of the spiritual direction, indicators of mature spirituality and other aspects of the spiritual direction process. Chapters also provide psychological and clinical insight into how spiritual direction is similar to, different from and can be integrated with psychotherapy and pastoral counseling. Spiritual direction holds the potential to revolutionize how soul care is practiced in our troubled society. This volume is an extraordinary resource for understanding and helping others experience spiritual transformation and union with God.
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Multicultural Ministry : Finding Your Churchs Unique Rhythm
$24.99An inspiring and practical guide for learning how to transition from a unicultural to multicultural church The changing ethnic face of America will increasingly require evangelicals to minister to people of a variety of ethnic backgrounds, including AfricanAmericans, Hispanics, Asians, and others. In Multicultural Ministry, author and pastor David Anderson provides practical ideas to show how both new and existing churches can embrace greater cultural diversity and discover their unique rhythm. Anderson shares many stories from his experiences in planting Bridgeway Community Church, a successful multicultural church that has grown to about 1,500 people, half of whom are AfricanAmerican, 30 percent are Caucasian, and about 15 percent are from other racial and ethnic groups. This book provides transferable principles and practical ideas adaptable for churches of any size and setting. Features include: *How to discover your church’s unique rhythm and identify where you are on the racial reconciliation continuum, and move forward along the continuum *How to move from stadiumlevel repentance to strategylevel realities *Scriptural basis for multicultural ministry *Inspiring stories, specific howto’s, and dangers to avoid
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Preaching The Calendar
$25.00Pastors face a perennial challenge of knowing how to treat special days in the calendar. For days marked in the church year, the challenge is how to speak a fresh word about a familiar theme or story. For days marked in the civil calendar, the challenge is to discern within secular celebrations appropriate connections with the Christian gospel. In Preaching the Calendar, masterful preacher Ellsworth Kalas discusses the importance of embracing holidays and special days as occasions when sermons can enlarge and deepen spiritual yearnings. His words of wisdom demonstrate how this type of preaching can be done well and serve as valuable sources of stories and sermon illustrations for pastors eager to help people find new and renewed relationships with God.
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Glory Of The Atonement
$55.99The Glory of the Atonement offers a wide selection of essays by notable scholars in the Reformed tradition presented in honor of Roger Nicole. Divided into three sections-biblical, historical and practical-the essays include Scriptural exegesis of important atonement passages, studies in historical theology examining particular Christian thinkers and eras, and probing inquiries into the practical implications of the doctrine in the Christian life and in contemporary preaching. This insightful and wide-ranging volume includes contributions from Henri Blocher, D.A. Carson, Timothy George, Bruce McCormack, J.I. Packer, Kevin Vanhoozer, and Bruce Waltke, all of whom, examine the atonement from their respective fields of expertise. Although the doctrine of the atonement has fallen under strong criticism in recent times, this volume offers constructive proposals and exegetical foundations for understanding some of its major facets, applying those insights to Christian living, and recapturing the awe of this wondrous doctrine.
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Raising The Bar
$20.99Two-thirds of today’s teens are interested in having a meaningful relationship with God, yet less than one-third of them are active in a local church. Alvin Reid – an experienced pastor and youth ministry speaker – suggests that these statistics indicate that it is time to change how the church does youth ministry.
Today’s generation of teens is marked by teamwork, authenticity, and a “can – do” attitude. They have incredible potential and a desire to be taught how to be Christian adults. This compelling book provides an impassioned plea for the church to set their standards higher, to reinvent the fundamental ways we minister to teens and their families.
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Bivocational Pastor : Two Jobs One Ministry
$15.99Succeed in bi-vocational ministry. Bi-vocational ministers face unique challenges. Often times, you are called to lead smaller churches with few resources, many of which have plateaued or are in decline is looked at by some as a “second-class” ministry performed by people who do not have the opportunity to serve a larger church. Along with your family and church responsibilities, your second job also requires a large amount of time each week.
But you have a special calling, as both of your jobs can provide opportunities for ministry. In his new book, Dennis Bickers provides solid advice to help you succeed in bi-vocational ministry. You’ll learn how to:
*Manage time wisely
*Define success on your own terms
*Develop a vision for your church
*Maintain a passion for the ministry
*And much more!Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
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3 Months With Revelation (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99Available in English for the first time, Three Months with Revelation is popular author Justo Gonzalez’ study of Revelation. Eminently readable, the study uses the see-judge-act method to bring readers closer to the text and informs and challenges the daily life of the Christian. These thirteen studies can be used for Sunday school, for evening Bible study, for home study meetings, for faith communities, for retreats, and for personal Bible study. In addition, Three Months with Revelation can easily be used as a daily Bible study, as each lesson is divided into seven parts. This is the third Gonzalez title to be translated from the Spanish
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Family (Student/Study Guide)
$9.99What, exactly, is a family? Is it a married couple with 2.3 children, a dog, and a minivan? Couples without children? Single adults? Friends> Church groups? Colleagues? The notion of “family” encompasses these forms and more. In this study, family is shaped and nurtured by our relationship with God, a relationship that encourages mutual growth in love of God, self, and neighbor through our interactions with those whom we identify as “family.” This resource helps users explore their questions about family with insights, images, and stories from Scripture. Each session delves into specific issues about family and contains suggestions about how an individual or group can use the session ot look at family form a Christian perspective.
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Hate Work
$35.001. Many Ways Of Hating : A Spectrum Of Hates
2. Transforming Moment : Breakthrough To Empathy
3. Learning To Hate : Hate Taught And Caught
4. Hate And Memory : Living Out The Past
5. Hate And The Shadow : Exploring The Soul
6. Demon Of The Absolute : The Need To Be Right
7. Ultimate Triumph Of Hate : The Horror Of The Holocaust
8. Fear Of The Other : The Faces Of The Enemy
9. Justice Mercy And Hate : Contempt Becomes CompassionAdditional Info
Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the word hate is being used in our society more than ever, argues respected teacher and author David Augsburger, yet we still most often see hate in others and refuse to see it in ourselves. This book is at once a psychological, theological, and sociological analysis of hate and an argument for moving from hatred to compassion in our dealings with others.Augsburger explores the different levels of hate, which he believes range across a continuum, from extremely destructive to constructive patterns of hating. As he discusses how it is possible for hatred to become compassion, Augsburger helps the reader understand hate as it operates in ourselves and in others, and he proposes a path to help us move away from violent expressions of hate.
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On Being A Priest Today
$16.95This important book on priestly identity embraces the many contemporary and denominational varieties of priestly ministry; male and female, paid and unpaid, parish and work-based, catholic, evangelical, charismatic. Examining the “root,” the “shape,” and the “fruit” of priestly identity, On Being a Priest Today is essential reading for priests, priests in training, and everyone considering the ministry. Part One “roots” a priest’s human and church life in the theological convictions derived from the Christian understanding of God as being for and with others. Part Two explores the “shape” of priestly life in relation to worship, word, and prayer, each supported by the three key virtues of love, faith, and hope. Part Three examines the “fruit” of priestly life by focusing on three fundamental features of priestly identity: holiness, reconciliation, and blessing.
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Making Your Childrens Ministry The Best Hour Of Every Kids Week
$22.99Promiseland is Willow Creek’s highly successful children’s ministry. Using examples from Promiseland and churches of all sizes around the country, this book provides stepbystep guidance and creative application exercises to help churches develop a thriving children’s ministry_one that strives to be the best hour of every kid’s week. Included are Scripturebased principles and practical resources for church staff members and volunteers who agree with the critical role children’s ministry plays in a local church. Making Your Children’s Ministry the Best Hour of Every Kid’s Week, based on twentyeight years of experience at Willow Creek, explains four ministry foundations: Mission, Vision, Values, and Strategy. Content includes: Detailed answers to questions facing every children’s ministry: *What does Jesus expect from children’s ministry? *How can we evangelize lost kids and disciple saved kids at the same time, and should we? *How do we engage kids so they don’t become bored? *How do we get better at recruiting and leading volunteers? *How can our ministry be a safe place for children? *Six specific ministry values that address the needs of today’s children *Practical first steps for ministries that want to get serious about change *Clear indicators of success in children’s ministry
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Do I Know What The Bible Says
$21.99Your youth group is like no other-so a cookie-cutter curriculum just won’t do. With a single book you have the basics for 15 complete sessions-and you can put it all together in a way that works for you. Each topic has been developed by ministry experts to be teen-relevant and spiritually enriching. Each five-session book also includes a 14-point plan for customizing your program, a selection of ice breakers, thought provokers, reproducible handouts, and an encouraging how-to article from well-known youth ministry experts!
Do I Know What the Bible Says?
In the Beginning…What?–The Bible Talks about Creation (Fresh approach to the topic of creation. Kids will explore issues like beginning of creativity, significance of divine rest, introduction of God’s plan for humankind.)
O.T Speedway–A Zip Through the Old Testament (Takes kids on a whirlwind tour of O.T. Along with creation, covenants, and colorful characters, they’ll see the big picture–that God takes an interest in them and wants to help them make some history of their own.)
N.T. Speedway–A Zip through the New Testament (Fast-track tour of the N.T. Explore the miracles and parables of Jesus, exciting adventures of early believers. Kids will discover the truths of Christianity are as relevant today as they were 2000 years ago.)
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Ministry Of Childrens Education
$22.00This highly anticipated resource establishes the importance of children’s education to the life of today’s faith communities. A very readable textbook, The Ministry of Children’s Education presents foundations for education in the faith, explores contexts in which contemporary faith is nurtured, and suggests practical helps for creating programs that work in congregations.
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Educating For Shalom
$30.99In addition to his notable work as a premier Christian philosopher, Nicholas Wolterstorff has become a leading voice on faith-based higher education. This volume gathers the best of Wolterstorff’s essays from the past twenty-five years dealing collectively with the purpose of Christian higher education and the nature of academic learning.
Integrated throughout by the biblical idea of shalom, these nineteen essays present a robust framework for thinking about education that combines a Reformed confessional perspective with a radical social conscience and an increasingly progressivist pedagogy. Wolterstorff develops his ideas in relation to an astonishing variety of thinkers ranging from Calvin, Kuyper, and Jellema to Augustine, Aquinas, and Kant to Weber, Habermas, and MacIntyre. In the process, he critiques various models of education, classic foundationalism, modernization theory, liberal arts, and academic freedom.
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Creative Church Leadership
$30.49Following “Management and Ministry” and “Leading Managing, Ministering”, this third MODEM handbook explores an issue at the very heart of the Church – how can an ancient institution with so many encumbrances remain a living sign of the Kingdom of God?
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Ordination : Celebrating The Gift Of Ministry
$34.99For graduating seminary students, Stephen Sprinkle has written a practical theological guide for preparing for ordination in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), United Church of Christ, American Baptist Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), and other closely related denominations. He provides a theology of what ordination is and what it means to the person being ordained, to the life of the church at large, and to the congregation gathered for the celebration. Sprinkle includes “hands-on” practical guidance on how to plan the service, plus samples of ordination services from each of the four traditions.
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