Church Life
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Treasures For The Transformed Life
$20.99Add to cartTransformational Spiritual Development
The book, Treasures of the Transformed Life offers an appealing theme for your members – Satisfying Your Soul’s Thirst for More. It offers your congregation the broad benefits of deepening well-rounded spiritual growth. Their newly enhanced connection to God and to each other will help them to view everything with a new perspective. As a result, all areas of their Prayers, Presence, Gifts, and Service can be improved.These 40 days of daily readings embrace:
Desiring a Better Life
Experiencing Meaningful Prayer
Building the Church as a Team
Finding New Ways to Serve
Unleashing Generous Giving
Living the Transformed Life
40 DAYS OF TRANSFORMATION
A Spiritual Growth Resource for Christians and Congregations
Whether it is used for personal study, a class lesson plan, or in a congregation-wide 40-day reading program, this book aids ongoing transformation by building –MORE
More Strength
More Participation
More Ownership
More Service
More Teamwork
More Commitment
More Gratitude
More Generosity -
From Cooperation To Competition
$25.99Add to cartCongregational life has changed in so many ways in recent years, not least among them the transition from cooperation to competition as the central model of how churches relate to one another. Simply put, congregations that don’t learn to compete in this new “economy” will have few chances to thrive.
This change can be scary, because it forces us out of established patterns of behavior and thinking. This is why trying to lead a congregation in these changing times seems so often to lead to conflict. Yet that conflict is not inevitable, says Lyle Schaller. We can’t stop the change that has led to higher levels of competition, but we can manage that change in a variety of ways, such as making certain that we accompany it with an increase in the number of choices a congregation experiences, and by allowing change to lead to healthy competition.
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Life Scripts For The Church Volume 3 Holiday
$24.99Add to cartThis is the third in a series of volumes, each containing 24 skits of brilliant, insightful, often comedic material ideal for performance during church services, specifically geared to the major holidays. Does not require huge casts or highly experienc
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Life Scripts For The Church Volume 2
$24.99Add to cartThis is the second in a series of volumes, each containing 24 skits of brilliant, insightful, often comedic material ideal for performance during church services. Does not require huge casts or highly experienced players — most skits use 2-6 performers,
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Life Scripts For The Church Volume 1
$24.99Add to cartThis is the first in a series of volumes, each containing 24 skits of brilliant, insightful, often comedic material ideal for performance during church services. Does not require huge casts or highly experienced players — most skits use 2-6 performers, m
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Divine Agenda : A Last Day Message To The Church
$16.99Add to cartThere is much to be done before the close of the Church Age. Many have confused busyness with My work, My Spirit work. I have a plan, an ordered list of things that must be done, A Divine Agenda!” This is no ordinary book. Dr. Stephens shares a message given her by the Holy Spirit. Your spirit will bear witness as you discover the seven critical things on His agenda that every believer must know. Individually and corporately, the Holy Spirit instructs His Body, “See to it that you do these things”: First and Foremost, Love, Love, Love Trust Me – I Am Your Source Discern the Spirit of Division Among You Do Not Neglect Your Work Set the Captives Free Replace Fear With Peace Sow Into My Kingdom Each critical “must do” is addressed in a separate chapter as Stephens shares personal insights, visions, dreams, revelations, and encounters with angels and demons. These augment the Spirit’s message as they attest to His faithfulness to guide, bless, chastise, and deliver His children from evil. In this book you will also discover ten practical ways to overcome fear. Key points at the end of each chapter make A Divine Agenda an excellent source for private devotions or group study
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Jesus Has A Cousin
$10.99Add to cartJesus Has a Cousin is a powerful book that talks about something on the Lord’s heart. The Lord is in a cleaning mode and the church is His target. The word for this hour is repent! This book will lead the church back to simplistic truths about our faith. It reveals John the Baptist’s true purpose, as well as his importance to the church today. Jesus Has a Cousin is a book for our time. This book will help us prepare our hearts for the next move of God, which requires a true purity of heart to receive it. Whether you are just beginning a relationship with Jesus or have walked with the Lord for years, you need to read this book.
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When Steeples Cry
$21.00Add to cartThe United Methodist Church (USA) has lost more than 3.3 million members. The Presbyterian Church (USA) has lost more than 2.3 million members since 1971. The Episcopal Church (USA) has lost more than 1.1 million members. The Evangelical Lutheran Church (USA) has lost more than 540,000 members, including a loss of 61,871 members between 2001-2002. Forty-five churches closed their doors in 2002. The majority of North American Protestant congregations and denominations, says Hamman, have experienced significant losses since the 1960s. Moreover, the dynamic and growing churches that are changing their traditions experience the loss of what was familiar to them. In many churches, losses past and present remain unnamed and unmourned.
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Multi Site Church Revolution
$22.99Add to cartHow multi-site churches increase their evangelistic impact. Rather than pouring millions of dollars into constructing new buildings, churches of all sizes are learning new ways to take church to the streets, reaching people in new ways. They extend into gyms and multipurpose rooms, or across town into theaters, schools, and empty warehouses. From the suburbs to urban and rural settings, churches are discovering the advantage of becoming “one church, with many locations.” This book from a new publishing partnership between Zondervan and Leadership Network called the Leadership Network Innovation Series tells the story of this revolution and explains the multi-site ministry approach as a way of serving a variety of target groups and target communities. Through in-the-trenches examples from more than fifty different multi-site churches, it highlights a wide variety of creative approaches and identifies the primary reasons multi-site churches succeed-as well as how they overcome common snags. Written in an extremely practical style, this book guides churches to answer the question, “How could God use our church if we were open to joining this ‘revolution’?”
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Needs Based Evangelism
$18.99Add to cartBy meeting needs of people through intentional ministries, churches will grow; but more importantly they will fulfill their biblical mandate to care for those who are hurting and suffering.
Being a Good Samaritan church begins with the leadership. It requires an absolute commitment to address the needs of people in order to invite them to become disciples of Jesus Christ. But in order to compete with and appeal to unchurched people in today’s secular and consumer-driven society, the church needs to be entrepreneurial in its method of evangelist outreach. In this book, Rev. Robert Pierson, shows how churches can better organize ministry in order to be effective witnesses. By meeting felt needs of people through intentional ministries, the church will grow to be sure; but more importantly it will fulfill its biblical mandate to care for those who are hurting and suffering.
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From Head Hunters To Church Planters
$22.99Add to cartIVP Print On Demand Title
There is a tendency today to associate revival and miracles with charismatic churches, but there were none of those in Nagaland when God first brought revival there. These powerful and life-changing visitations came to orderly, conservative Baptist congregations. As a result, Nagas found their true dignity not in themselves, their ethnic roots, their head-hunting, or the defense of their homeland, but they discovered it in the person and life of Jesus Christ, the living and one true God. This is a moving story of bravery and betrayal, suffering, persecution, supernatural intervention, and subsequent human weakness.
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Resurrecting Excellence : Shaping Faithful Christian Ministry
$24.99Add to cartChristians are of two minds about excellence. We commend excellent teaching, seek out excellent health care, and celebrate excellence in the arts. When a Christian life or congregation is described as excellent, however, we suspect that ambition or success may be getting the better of us.
Resurrecting Excellence aims to rekindle and encourage among Christian leaders an unselfish ambition for the gospel that shuns both competition and mediocrity and rightly focuses on the beauty, power, and excellence of living as faithful disciples of the crucified and risen Christ. Drawing on ancient traditions and on contemporary voices, L. Gregory Jones and Kevin R. Armstrong offer both a theology of excellence and compelling portraits of pastors, lay leaders, and congregations that embody “a more excellent way.”
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Balancing Acts : Obligation Liberation And Contemporary Christian Conflicts
$13.95Add to cartAmerican congregations are more divided than ever over a broad range of theological and social issues — and this book outlines an innovative way to understand and address these difficult conflicts. Balancing Acts introduces readers to the two major spiritual themes that animate life in America today — obligation and liberation — and discusses how most Christians align themselves with one of these attitudes. One group focuses on the obligations of religious life and seeks moral clarity, while the other tends to see religion as a liberation movement and stresses God’s love for the oppressed of the earth.
The ability to strike a balance between these competing camps is the key to managing tension in the church and in the larger community — and Balancing Acts provides readers with the tools to find and nurture Christian unity in the face of political, cultural, and theological diversity. Whether the issue is women in ministry, presidential politics, immigration, homosexuality, or war, this book demonstrates how common ground can be found by people of faith who are willing to perform a balancing act between obligation and liberation.
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Gods Potters : Pastoral Leadership And The Shaping Of Congregations
$35.99Add to cartPastoral ministry is an occupation in flux. In this comprehensive study Jackson Carroll considers the many factors – changing roles among clergy and laypeople, the opening of ordination to women, an increasing shortage of clergy, and more – that are shaping congregations and ministers today. Building on Paul’s image of Christians as “clay jars,” Carroll paints a portrait of “God’s potters” – pastors whose calling is to form their congregational jars so that they reveal rather than hide God’s treasure.
A veteran clergy watcher, Carroll uses data from what is likely the most representative survey of Protestant and Catholic clergy ever undertaken, as well as focus group interviews and congregational responses, to take a hard look at who is doing ministry today, what it involves, and how pastors are faring in leading their congregations. Significantly, his study covers clergy from a broad range of traditions – Catholic, mainline Protestant, conservative Protestant, and historic black churches.
Replete with pertinent tables and figures, God’s Potters culminates with specific strategies for strengthening pastoral leadership and nurturing excellence in ministry.
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Thriving Churches In The 21st Century
$20.99Add to cartIf the body of Christ is truly a living structure, then we must know what to do to keep it functioning, hearty, and mature! Exploring the 10 interacting systems that make up a healthy church, McIntosh and Reeves demonstrate the importance of spiritual energy, corporate intercession, spiritual disciplines, mentoring, team ministry, and more.
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Hidden Power Of Electronic Culture
$22.99Add to cartDoing Church in a Media-Drenched Culture It has been said, “the future is now.” From cell phones to mp3 players to the Internet, no previous age has seen such profound change manifested so quickly. But these thrilling, dizzying transformations are forcing the church to decide where it fits in all this progress. Shane Hipps presents the promise and peril of the emerging culture and its relationship to the emerging church. Looking beyond the details of what’s happening in communities of faith, Hipps analyzes the broader impact of technology and media on the church while engaging readers with questions such as: – Is media/technology value-neutral? – How has technology changed the way we think about Scripture, community, and worship? – What cultural opportunities has the church missed? – How should the church position itself to take advantage of coming cultural trends? Providing both history and prophecy, The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture invites us to engage new cultural realities while staying connected to our spiritual heritage.
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Growing Healthy Asian American Churches
$30.99Add to cartIVP Print On Demand Title
The Asian American church is in transition. Congregations face the challenges of preserving ethnic culture and heritage while contextualizing their ministry to younger generations and the unchurched. Many Asian American church leaders struggle with issues like leadership development, community dynamics and intergenerational conflict. But often Asian American churches lack the resources and support they need to fulfill their callings. Peter Cha, Steve Kang and Helen Lee and a team of veteran Asian American pastors and church leaders offer eight key values for healthy Asian American churches. Drawing on years of expertise and filled with practical examples from landmark churches like Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles, NewSong Church and Lighthouse Christian Church, the book provides soundly biblical perspectives for effective ministry that honors the Asian American cultural context. Insights from such pioneering leaders as Ken Fong, David Gibbons, Grace May, Wayne Ogimachi, Steve Wong, Nancy Sugikawa and Soong-Chan Rah make this an essential guide for Asian American church leaders wanting to help their congregations achieve health and growth. Produced in partnership with the Catalyst Leadership Center, a resource organization for Asian American church ministry.
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Called To Be Church
$31.99Add to cartDescription: Called to be Church seeks to introduce Acts to a congregation of faithful readers. It includes such topics as Christian community, the Holy Spirit and the life of the Church, the conversion of Saul to become the great missionary to the Gentiles, the Gospel to a multicultural church as particularly related to the ministry of Peter, the challenge of change, and a host of other topics that stem from the study of the book of Acts.
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Basic Business Principles For Growing Churches
$10.95Add to cartPastors are schooled in theology and ministry, but few receive training in the fine points of church administration. Learning how to handle a congregation’s finances “on the job” can be a harrowing experience. Yet efficiently managing your church’s business affairs is a key element in keeping current members satisfied with their pastoral leadership — and in attracting the new members you need for your church to grow in size and influence.
In Basic Business Principles For Growing Churches, Arnold Cirtin shares expertise gained from more than four decades of corporate and academic experience. He provides a clear and helpful primer for pastors with limited training in business administration on such practical topics as accounting, fiscal management, and marketing.
This is an indispensable book for pastors of small- and medium-sized churches (who typically are also their congregations’ principal financial officers), as well as for church treasurers, trustees, and other financial board members. When you follow the guidelines in Basic Business Principles For Growing Churches, your church will be fiscally responsible, managed efficiently, and able to maximize its growing stewardship of God’s resources.
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Reproducible Pastoral Training
$25.99Add to cartPatrick O’Connor highlights specific action-oriented principles from the teachings of George Patterson as he guides the reader through the various aspects of cross-cultural ministry: the gathering of new believers, the development of new churches, the mobilization of new churches into a movement, the training of new leaders, and the departure of the pioneering ministers.
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Generous Orthodoxy : Why I Am A Missional Evangelical Post Protestant Liber
$14.99Add to cartWhy I am a missional, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, catholic, green, incarnational, depressed- yet hopeful, emergent, unfinished Christian. A confession and manifesto from a senior leader in the emerging church movement. A Generous Orthodoxycalls for a radical, Christ-centered orthodoxy of faith and practice in a missional, generous spirit. Brian McLaren argues for a post-liberal, post-conservative, postprotestant convergence, which will stimulate lively interest and global conversation among thoughtful Christians from all traditions. In a sweeping exploration of belief, author Brian McLaren takes us across the landscape of faith, envisioning an orthodoxy that aims for Jesus, is driven by love, and is defined by missional intent. A Generous Orthodoxy rediscovers the mysterious and compelling ways that Jesus can be embraced across the entire Christian horizon. Rather than establishing what is and is not “orthodox,” McLaren walks through the many traditions of faith, bringing to the center a way of life that draws us closer to Christ and to each other. Whether you find yourself inside, outside, or somewhere on the fringe of Christianity, A Generous Orthodoxy draws you toward a way of living that looks beyond the “us/them” paradigm to the blessed and ancient paradox of “we.” Also available on abridged audio CD, read by the author.
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Adventures In Missing The Point
$26.99Add to cartHow the Culture-Controlled Church Neutered the Gospel If you’re brave enough to take an honest look at the issues facing the culture-controlled church-and the issues in your own life-read on. Do you ever look at how the Christian faith is being lived out in the new millennium and wonder if we’re not doing what we’re supposed to be doing? That we still haven’t quite “gotten it”? That we’ve missed the point regarding many important issues? It’s understandable if we’ve relied on what we’ve been told to believe or what’s widely accepted by the Christian community. But if we truly turned a constructive, critical eye toward our beliefs and vigorously questioned them and their origins, where would we find ourselves? Bestselling authors Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo invite you to do just that. Join them on an adventure-one that’s about uncovering and naming faulty conclusions, suppositions, and assumptions about the Christian faith. In Adventures in Missing the Point, the authors take turns addressing how we’ve missed the point on crucial topics such as: salvation, the Bible, being postmodern, worship, homosexuality, truth, and many more.
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Cruciform Church : Becoming A Cross Shaped People In A Secular World (Anniversar
$19.99Add to cartThis new edition of The Cruciform Church finds Churches of Christ at a quite different place than they were sixteen years ago when the book was first released. On the one hand, our culture is more clearly post-modern and post-Christian. All of the Christian players today are finding themselves cultural outsiders, much like the earliest Christians. We are waking up to the reality that we are in a missionary situation in our own culture, and this is forcing us (slowly, by fits and starts) to rethink our priorities and our mission. On the other hand, Churches of Christ themselves are engaging more and more in the kind of healthy theological rethinking that this book called for back in 1990. Many congregations are shedding the sectarian or exclusivist outlook, gaining new appreciation for their heritage, refocusing on the central doctrines of the faith, and entering into serious dialogue about carrying out the mission of God in this new time…Perhaps this new edition can continue to provide stimulus and guidance as the adventure continues. Toward that end, this edition contains a new chapter, “Last(ing) Things,” that seeks to show the close relationship between eschatology and discipleship, between one’s view of the coming kingdom of God and the cruciform life.” – From Allen’s Preface to the Revised Edition
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Christian Woman Set Free
$14.95Add to cartSeventeen hundred years is enough! Edwards leads the call to vanquish the inequality of women in the kingdom of God. His weapons of revelation? History, the Greek language, and his own witness of women in churches who are free.
The author challenges Christian ministers to take up the cause of eliminating inequality in the church and dare to discover what happens in the body of Christ when all members function.
The author goes to the root of our present-day Bible translations and lays the axe to the centuries-old tree of mistranslation. You will be shocked to discover that the King James Version does not say what the original Greek text said about women in Paul’s letters (and neither do most other Bible translations).
This book brings to light the mindset that has held both women and men prisoners of misconceptions through the centuries. Reading The Christian Woman…Set Free liberates the reader of any doubt regarding a woman’s place in the kingdom of God. (You will be awed as you see that the greatest friend of women in all of human history, the Lord Jesus Christ, broke all the rules of his day in regard to the treatment of women.)
Best of all, what makes The Christian Woman…Set Free unique is that it is not based on theory, nor is it an intellectual treatise. It is a revolutionary document forged on the anvil of the author’s experiences in daily church life. Edwards writes from a matrix where equality is a way of life and full participation in the church is the territory of both men and women. Edwards give you the practical how-to of the way to experience this freedom in your gathering. There are testimonies in the book of women who experience freedom to share in all the functions of the church. In their churches there is no specific leader, but all are joint leaders.
The Christian Woman…Set Free is a fast paced, high-energy book that takes dead aim at the very foundation of our present-day mindset concerning women and men in church life.
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Holy Hospitality : Worhsip And The Baptismal Covenant
$17.95Add to cartWhat does it really mean to “proclaim the good news of God in Christ” and to “continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers?” These promises from the baptismal rite of the Book of Common Prayer have become very familiar to most Episcopalians, but they have yet to be fully lived out in most congregations. In this lively and accessible guide, Clayton Morris argues that everyone present on Sunday mornings has a ministry of hospitality, coming together in a proclamation of welcome to all.
Praise for Holy Hospitality
“For some, Holy Hospitality will raise eyebrows, and for others it will bring a sigh of relief. Morris has named the elephant in the worship space and recognized that its tail and trunk extend into daily life. He does not give the answers but pointedly asks congregational leaders to contextualize worship in terms of mission and ministry. It is well worth reading and reflecting upon by persons who are seeking to embody the fullness of the gospel imbedded in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer or its equivalent books in Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist, and other churches.”
–The Rev. Daniel Benedict, retired Worship Resources Director, General Board of Discipleship, United Methodist Church“Holy Hospitality is an excellent primer for those who are just beginning liturgical leadership and is full of wisdom and friendly reminders for those who have been at it for a while. Everyone involved in parish worship–presiders, deacons, musicians, altar guilds, ushers, worship committee members–will profit from the rich experience that Dr. Morris brings to bear.”
–The Right Rev. J. Neil Alexander, Episcopal Bishop of Atlanta“Holy Hospitality sets the stage for a renewed conversation about worship and how people are drawn into God?s own mission. Though written from an Anglican perspective, the shape and content of this book invites worship planners from other traditions into the dialogue, the hospitable back and forth of feeding and being fed.”
–The Rev. Michael Burk, Ph. D., Executive for Worship, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America“Clayton Morris has crafted a useful and very thoughtful handbook and guide to congregations intending to enhance the welcome they offer newcomers. The theology offered here, always mindful of matters of justice, has a hospitable baptismal heart.”
–The Rev. William Seth Adams, B.D., Ph.D., retired Professor of Liturgics, Episcopal Seminary o -
Traveling Together : A Guide For Disciple Forming Congregations
$30.00Add to cartMany church leaders feel-at least on some level-that virtually all the old answers about what it means to be and do church don’t work anymore. Author Jeffrey D. Jones believes that if the old answers don’t work any more it is because the world in which they had worked is no more. A new world has dawned and new answers are urgently needed.
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Tell It Like It Is
$29.00Add to cartWhen a study group at the seemingly traditional Church of the Redeemer in New Haven, Connecticut, read about the practice of testimony, members approached the descriptions of people sharing their faith as if they were reading an anthropology article-an intriguing account about what other people from some entirely different culture did.
During the 2000 Lenten season, however, the congregation slowly began exploring the practice of testimony-a practice that would eventually revitalize their worship and transform their congregational culture. In Tell It Like It Is, Lillian Daniel, pastor of the congregation, describes how the practice of testimony strengthened lay leadership, fostered more intimate community, and drew the congregation closer to God.
Tell It Like It Is includes some of the testimonies worshipers heard and reflections from both those who spoke and those who listened to these stories about God at work in the world. Through the simple practice of speaking about God’s presence in their lives, Daniel and her congregation discovered that speaking about God’s transformation had the power to transform their church.
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Whats Theology Got To Do With It
$30.00Add to cartTheology can be a loaded word for mainline Protestant congregations. It often suggests the dogmatic or implies fault lines for conflict. But when unleashed from its narrow academic sense, “theology” offers a powerful way to get at many of the issues that impact the health and vitality of congregations.
Anthony Robinson carefully defines theology as the “core convictions” that help members of a congregation understand their common perspective and shared identity. Theology is the foundational Christian experience, the wisdom that both forms and transforms lives. Rather than avoiding theology, congregations should openly express their beliefs and values to clarify their purpose, argues Robinson. Instead of trying to define the boundaries of belief, a “center-set” congregation will zero in on a reasonably clear core faith.
He examines the problems that occur when congregations are reluctant to focus on theology and are unsure of their beliefs. They risk having a weak identity with nothing at stake. They risk being little more than an exclusive social club. Absent core convictions, structure replaces Spirit, indirection replaces healthy dialogue, and agendas replace leadership.
Central to the book is the notion that Christianity is a revealed religion apart from our own personal preferences. The Bible as Scripture offers a doorway to God and a critical unifying narrative. The Trinity, as a powerful metaphor, provides a balanced approach to fulfilling a congregation’s purpose. Core convictions about God as creator, the person and work of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are crucial to a congregational vitality.
Too many mainline Protestant churches are theologically “underfunded.” Congregations are strengthened when what they believe backs what they do. Indeed, theology, it turns out, has everything to do with it.
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Wonder Of Worship
$22.99Add to cartWorship is ground zero for spiritual warfare and affects every part of the believer’s life. The Wonder of Worship defines true, acceptable worship, its real purpose, and the three things necessary for worship to occur. Starting with the basics of what it means to worship God in spirit and truth, The Wonder of Worship discusses the relationship of the Christian’s private worship and public worship experiences. In the process it explores the practical side of worship, worship preparation, and even the format for public worship. Ultimately, worship that is pleasing to God does not depend on the contemporary believer’s worship practices or preferences. It all comes down to the Person of worship. Jesus is the One who makes true worship a wonder to enjoy, now and in eternity. He is the Wonder of Worship.
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Wonder Of Worship
$14.99Add to cartWorship is ground zero for spiritual warfare and affects every part of the believer’s life. The Wonder of Worship defines true, acceptable worship, its real purpose, and the three things necessary for worship to occur. Starting with the basics of what it means to worship God in spirit and truth, The Wonder of Worship discusses the relationship of the Christian’s private worship and public worship experiences. In the process it explores the practical side of worship, worship preparation, and even the format for public worship. Ultimately, worship that is pleasing to God does not depend on the contemporary believer’s worship practices or preferences. It all comes down to the Person of worship. Jesus is the One who makes true worship a wonder to enjoy, now and in eternity. He is the Wonder of Worship.
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Clergy Burnout : Recovering From The 70 Hour Week And Other Self Defeating
$23.00Add to cart1.Painful Pastoring
2.Burnout And Codependence
3.Personalities And Codependence
4.The Church And Codependence
5.Holiness And Spirituality
6.Becoming Gospel-centered
7.Developing Spiritual Maturity
8.Regaining Balance
9.Stretching And Bridging
10.Knowing The Boundaries
11.Becoming Empowered
12.Un-trashing The TempleAdditional Info
In this highly accessible book, Fred Lehr clarifies the nature and practice of clergy codependence. In short, insightful, and highly readable chapters, filled with many examples and stories from his own life and those he has counseled, Lehr identifies the typical forms codependence takes in the life and ministry of clergy:1.the chief-enabler, the one who keeps things functioning;
2.the scapegoat, the one on whom everything’s blamed when it goes wrong, the one who’s responsible;
3.the hero, the example, the pure and righteous one;
4.the lost child, the one no one really knows or cares about;
5.the rescuer, the one who saves the day, makes the visit, fixes the problem, makes everything all right again;
6.the mascot, the cheerleader, the one who offers comic relief, brings down the tension level after a heated discussion. -
Myth Of The 200 Barrier
$18.99Add to cartThere are two different ways of being a church – pastor size and program. The transitional church is really a hybrid of these two cultures, and this dual nature produces stress and tension where the idea of a 200 barrier often becomes a self-fulfilling expectation.
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Hearts To Heaven And Tempers Raise
$14.49Add to cartLike a favourite TV comedy series, Reg Frary returns with another collection of all-too believable stories about anarchy and revolt waiting to break out in the choirstalls. They may look angelic in their robes, and may (on rare occasions) even sound like angels, but it’s a dirty game keeping one step ahead of the vicar’s trendy ideas and the choir director’s aspirations to dictatorship. It all necessitates frequent councils of war down at the Dog and Duck after practice…
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Welcome Pastor : Building A Productive Pastor Congregation Partnership In 4
$12.95Add to cartA 40-day devotional guide to help churches with new pastors strengthen their relationships with God and one another. Much time, effort, and prayer goes into selecting a new pastor. However many pastors get off to a poor start because the members of the congregation and the new pastor don???t have an effective means for getting to know each other.
This study helps congregations and pastors get off on the right foot and build a successful partnership that starts strong and endures. A poorly begun pastor-congregation relationship results in hurt and frustration, eventually lurching to a miserable conclusion. Churches invest a lot into finding a pastor, and this book will help make sure your church gets the relationship off to a great start.
Getting a new pastor off to a good start is critical to the over 100,000 churches facing changes in leadership each year. This 40-day congregation-wide study provides the foundation for a successful ministry partnership.
“Welcome Pastor” is the first book to offer a clear, simple process for building a successful partnership between a new pastor and a congregation. Its combination of devotional readings and dialogue is easy and pleasurable to read without being simplistic or trite.
People Who Will Benefit From This Book
Congregational Group Study
Pastors and Church Leaders
Pastoral Search Committees
Denominational Leaders
Seminaries: Teaachers and Students -
New Perspectives On Breaking The 200 Barrier
$12.99Add to cart1. What Are Choice Points?
2. Common Choice Points
3. A Choice Point Growth Strategy
4. The 200 Barrier
5. Spiritual Preparations
6. Planning
7. Implementing
8. Leading
9. Conclusion: You Can!Additional Info
Your church can rise from its plateau and Break The 200 Barrier!New Perspectives On Breaking The 200 Barrier is directed to both the pastor and the layperson and offers insights and strategies that will help your church move beyond the average and into the extraordinary. Based on current church trends, new research, and years of experience, strategist Dr. Bill Sullivan returns to the topic of his earlier work, Ten Steps To Breaking The 200 Barrier (1988), and revisits the challenges churches face when trying to grow beyond an attendance of 200. This time he focuses on how the decisions of the congregation affect the church as a whole. He stresses why it is important to train the people, as well as the pastor and church leaders, to understand and accept the changes that come with growth and the desire to expand Christ’s kingdom.
New Perspectives On Breaking the 200 Barrier will help your church:
* Examine the decisions made toward church growth and understand how to make better choices
* Develop a strategy for dealing with tacit assumptions that remain fixed and unresponsive to change without placing all of the responsibility on the pastor
* Focus on prayer and faith with new insight
* Recognize that the gate of change is locked on the inside and it is the congregation that holds the key -
Revival : Gods Proven Method Of Awakening His Church
$14.99Add to cartGod longs to send a nationwide revival wherever He finds a people totally obedient to His will and given to desperate prayer. Revival-God’s Proven Method of Awakening His Church is the result of the author being deeply touched by God for revival, which led to his becoming involved in the awakening experienced in central India in 1969. In this study you’ll find examples of God’s response to the prevailing prayer of His people in the Old and New Testaments, in church history, and in Europe, Asia, and America, as well as His work in the lives of individuals, churches, and colleges in America and large areas of many nations-all of which have been changed by the work of His Spirit. In answer to God’s promise in 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people will…I will…,” Christians in India prayed and God answered. Even so, our hearts resonate with Habakkuk, as he prayed, “In this time of our deep need, begin again to help us, as you did in years gone by” (LB).
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New Testament Church And Its Ministries
$12.99Add to cartNew Testament Church And It Ministries lays out God’s plan for the church’s construction and His concern for the active involvement of every member in their ministry and calling. Emphasizing the function of the members, each of the five-fold ministries is defined and developed in the context of its function in the Body of Christ..
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Drama Of Dance In The Local Church
$13.49Add to cartWhat is liturgical dance? And where does it come from? Does it have any scriptural foundation? These are relevant questions discussed in The Drama of Dance in the Local Church, which looks at liturgical dance and its place in the worship service. Liturgical dance has been acknowledged by many in the religious community as a way to assist individuals and church bodies in enhancing the worship experience. This book is for anyone who wishes to explore their gifts through drama and dance, as well as those who are still struggling with the idea of dance in the church. It is designed to help readers understand the great significance a liturgical dance ministry can have on the church. It will help familiarize church leaders and parishioners with scriptures that support dance ministries.
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Job Descriptions And Duties For Church Members And Workers
$17.99Add to cartThis material was produced around the general theme of outlining the duties and responsibilities of Christian people who live for and serve God. It takes the form of a manual to provide guidance in Christian living and service. The content is divided into two parts: (1) duties of church and Sunday workers, and (2) suggestions for the development of Christian character and conduct. Job descriptions for each church program are supplied.
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So Youre On The Search Committee (Revised)
$13.00Add to cartSo You’re on the Search Committee focuses on the experience of pastoral search committees and the unique role that laity in most denominations play in this crucial process. Because a change of pastors is, as Alban Institute founder Loren Mead puts it, a “critical moment of ministry,” participation as a member of a search committee is a big investment with tremendous rewards, both for the congregation as well as for the individual.
Authors Ketcham and Hahn find that the pastoral search process presents both search committee members and the congregation as a whole with limitless opportunities for growth and faith development. They offer insightful reflections on the deeper issues of congregational identity and transformation that search committees will find themselves wrestling with, as well as raise warnings about some of the obstacles committee members can expect to encounter in the search process.
So You’re on the Search Committee began as a conversation between Celia Allison Hahn, former editor-in-chief at the Alban Institute, and Bunty Ketcham, a consultant with considerable experience serving on search committees. First published in 1985, this new edition retains the original book’s interview format and includes significant updates and revisions based on new learnings and experiences with congregations going through pastoral transition.
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Loving The Church
$9.99Add to cartDeveloping a healthy, loving congregation begins with a clear understanding of the nature of the church. Loving the Church addresses the different attitudes and ideas associated with the visible church. Larry McKain shows you how to develop a new vision for your community of faith and helps you discover a renewed passion for Christ and His kingdom.
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Power To Be Free
$14.99Add to cartAre you one of the millions of believers who has gathered with other believers in churches or homes across the land to discover your purpose? Have you wondered how to move from discovering your purpose to fulfilling it?
You’ll need power to do that, you know. And there is power in a life guided by the Spirit of Christ.
College professor and author Frank Moore leads you in this quest of discovering the power to live in freedom. This 40-day adventure will launch you into the powerful life in Christ you’ve longed for.
