Pastoral Helps
Showing 2151–2200 of 2387 results
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Joy Of Living
$18.99Add to cartManufactured On Demand Title
The apostle Paul wrote to the church at Philippi in order to help “make their joy complete.” In this practical exposition of the letter to the Philippians, J. Dwight Pentecost helps the reader discover a joy that transcends any circumstance and a contentment that is greater than any trial.
Dr. Pentecost observes that “knowing Christ, walking in fellowship with Him, and being obedient to Him floods the life and heart and mind of the apostle Paul with an incomparable joy…so that in Christ he has found perfect rest, satisfaction, and contentment.”
This commentary on the English text can be used for personal Bible study of sermon preparation. Helpful study and review questions are included at the end of each chapter. Some of the topics included are the antidote for worry, the secret of contentment, and the way to find joy in the midst of suffering.
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Pitfalls In Preaching A Print On Demand Title
$21.99Add to cartThis is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable.
This informal yet substantive guidebook is designed to help clergy and pastors identify and avoid the major pitfalls that plague the preaching task. Richard Eslinger discusses with insight, humor, and concision what he sees as the most critical pitfalls in the various contexts of preaching and offers practical strategies for avoiding them. His book is also studded with highlighted quotations, pertinent references to a wide range of homiletical thinkers and concepts, boxed hints and suggestions, and brief bibliographies.
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Making Of A Leader
$23.99Add to cartHistory shows us: nations rise and fall according to how effective their leaders are. Frank Damazio tells us: so do churches! In The Making of a Leader, Damazio provides a deep discussion of what it means to be responsible for a group of “followers.” He explains the philosophy, history, qualifications, preparation, and practice of Christian leadership—and equips you to rise above the evil forces competing for lost souls.
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Threat Of Life
$24.00Add to cartThese twenty-two sermons from a master interpreter demonstrate how ancient texts can speak to the whole gamut of human experience even now. Included in Walter Brueggemann’s purview are keen observations about the timeless issues of human life, both personal and social: the pain we face, often inflicted on each other; the use and abuse of power; the weakness and fragility of life; the redemptive power of faith; and much more.
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Fundamentals Of Preaching (Reprinted)
$39.00Add to cartCompletely rewritten! “Absolutely superb, it is comprehensive, balanced, and substantive and will be helpful both to neophytes and veterans who wish to increase their effectiveness,”—Theology Today. Covers visualizing the listener, brainstorming, keeping the catnapper awake, and lots more.
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Gods Paintbrush Teachers Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$8.95Add to cartMulticultural, Nondenominational, Nonsectarian
Includes steps for exploring the book’s theological foundations with students from kindergarten through Grade 4 and above. Lesson plans, classroom activities, and more.Contributors: Renee Frank Holtz, Elizabeth McMahon Jeep, Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, Rabbi Jeffrey L. Schein, Alice Weinstein.
About God’s Paintbrush
Through fantasy, involvement and the imagination, God’s Paintbrush invites children of all faiths and backgrounds to encounter God openly through moments in their own lives-and helps the adults who love them to be a part of that interactive encounter. This book provides a gift of images that nurture and encourage children in making meaning of their world. -
Partners In Prayer
$14.99Add to cartForeword By Max Lucado.
1. Unleashing The Potential Of Prayer.
2. Getting To Know Your Father
3. Developing Practical Prayer Skiffs
4. Avoiding Personal Prayer Killers
5. Expanding Your Prayer Focus
6. Protecting And Partnering With Your Pastors
7. Praying Your Church To Its Potential
8. Organizing A Prayer Partner Team:
Afterword: Anticipating RevivalSpecial Section: Releasing God’s Power Through Fasting By Bill Bright
Appendices: How To Start A Prayer Partner Ministry In Your Home Church
A: Planning Your Prayer Partner Retreat
B: Preparing Prayer Partner Breakfasts
C: Creating Prayer Partner Guides And LettersAbout The Author P. 179
Additional Info
“John, I believe God has called me–a layrnan–to disciple, encourage, and pray for pastors. And the reason I came here today is so that I could pray for you.”With those words, respected leader, speaker, and author John Maxwell saw his agenda replaced by God’s agenda. The stranger who felt God’s calling to pray for this pastor fulfilled a need in Maxwell that he didn’t even know he had–and fourteen years later, the results are evident at the 3,500 member Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, California.
Partners in Prayer, the first book in the John Maxwell Church Resources series, shows church leaders and lay people how to unleash the potential of prayer on behalf of themselves, one another, and the church. If your church–or private devotional life–is starving in the area of prayer and you want to tap into the power and protection prayer provides, Maxwell gives practical insight into
–the fundamentals of prayer
–improving personal prayer life
–praying for others, including church leaders
–building a prayer partners ministry in the local church
–encouraging prayer revival nationwide
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* Are you missing out on God’s gift and blessing of prayer? Is there someone you know who would benefit from your committed prayers on their behalf. Despite God’s promise of the power of prayer to change our world, many of us never experience it. John Maxwell shows you how to strengthen your prayer life and reap the benefits awaiting those who become Partners in Prayer. -
Handbook For Counseling Youth
$29.99Add to cart50 Chapters
Additional Info
A Comprehensive, Up-to-Date Resource for the 50 Major Issues Facing Today’s YouthIn the work of a lifetime, Josh McDowell and his collaborator Bob Hostetler have developed this easy-to-use handbook to help parents, teachers, pastors and youth workers guide today’s young people through the minefields on the path to adulthood. Drawn from over 6,000 pages of research, this book will equip you to help youth cope with the major issues they face, from simple challenges of growing up to the major traumas of extreme crisis.
The book is designed for easy use. Each issue is organized to lead you through the helping process in five easy steps for effective analysis and results:
1. identify the problem, 2. discover its causes, 3. determine its effects, 4. view it from a biblical perspective, and 5. prescribe the right response.
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Creative Bible Lessons In Romans
$16.99Add to cartThink of it as a lean, mean Bible doctrine course–without the lecture. But with lots of options, videos, music, and drama. And small group work. And reproducible, interactive worksheets with eye-catching designs and soul-searching content. (Like, what else do you expect from St. Paul when he sits down to write the meatiest book of doctrine in the Bible?) in the 12 clear, complete sessions of Creative Bible Lessons in Romans. Author Chap Clark guides kids (and you) through the Big Ideas in this first-century letter to Christians trying their darndest to live godly lives in an ungodly culture. (Sound familiar?) From the not-so-savory picture the apostle paints of humankind in the opening chapters. . .through his celebration of grace and acceptance in midbook. . .to his tightly reasoned argument that love should fuel a Christian’s decisions and relationships–here are topics made to order for teenagers living at the turn of the 21st century. Teach your way through Romans with these read-to-go sessions. Or scavenge whatever you want of the creative scripts, handouts, and other options to customize lessons of your own. Any way you use it, Creative Bible Lessons in Romans is your no-doze ticket to solid Bible doctrine.
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Through The Eyes Of Women
$39.00Add to cartThis insightful sourcebook covers a range of pastoral care topics including the role of women in pastoral theology and pastoral care, care of African American women and women entering ministry, as well as issues from a range of women’s experiences such as anger, aggression, loss of mothers, eating disorders, hysterectomy, mastectomy, rape, and older women’s issues. Transformative essays on women’s spiritual care, community, self-sacrifice, and self-denial conclude this collaborative work.
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7 Deadly Lawsuits
$25.99Add to cartDuring the last two decades, American law has undergone some startling developments that will affect all church leaders and religious organizations, regardless of denomination. Reacting to events allegedly occurring in the church counseling office or board room, the American public is suing its religious leaders and organizations at an unprecedented rate.
7 Deadly Lawsuits is about preventing lawsuits against clergy, religious professionals, churches, and religious organizations. The book, however, is not about “how to fight back.” Thomas Taylor leaves this to the lawyers, once the alleged damage is done. Instead, this book is about how clergy, religious professionals, and religious organizations can be educated about the kinds of lawsuits that are typically levied against them. Taylor then shows how to avoid such costly legal involvement. The final chapter discusses “responding to lawsuits.”
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What If : 450 Thought Provoking Questions To Get Teenagers Talking Laughing
$22.99Add to cartHow will your kids answer these provocative questions? What if. . .you could talk to you family about anything? . . .you could have one superhuman power? . . .you could grade your teacher? . . .You found out your best friend had AIDS? . . .you could exchange bodies with anyone? . . .you could ask God three questions? Their answer will spark lively discussion, debate, and real thinking. You can use the 450 stimulating questions you’ll find in What If. . .? to break the ice, get a discussion rolling, build community, get kids to wrestle with spiritual issues, or just have fun. The follow-up questions–What could you do? What would you do? What should you do?–provide an added twist to the process. And the convenient size makes it easy to stick in your pocket or the glove compartment of your car. You’ll find What If. . .? an indispensable part of your youth ministry.
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Help Im A Sunday School Teacher
$19.99Add to cart1. Fifty Ways To Make Sunday School Come Alive
2. Extra Credit
3. Resources
138 PagesAdditional Info
Yes, Help Is On The Way! – in this fun, funny, yet extremely practical volume. Flannelgraph-tested Sunday school veteran Ray Johnson offers empathy and understanding as he serves up 50 creative thoughts, tips and ideas you can use to make your Sunday school come alive.As an added bonus, Ray has included resources that you can use to improve your effectiveness, including a “Pick Your Topics” survey, a learning styles inventory, an active learning planning sheet, and much more.
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Counseling Adolescent Girls
$17.00Add to cartDetailed sociological, psychological, and spiritual data about the conflicts and heartaches common among today’s teenagers, including depression, eating disorders, premarital sex, and date rape, with sound advice on how concerned caregivers should respond. Especially helpful to parents, youth leaders, and pastors.
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Cross Cultural Counseling
$19.00Add to cartBoth informative and reflective, Gary Simpson’s book traces the genesis of critical social theory in Germany’s Frankfurt School of Social Research. But he also explains the reconception of critical theory in the work of Jurgen Haberma, especially in ideas about interpretation, praxis, communicative action, and civil society. Finally, Simpson shows how Christian theology and Christian congregations can employ critical theory to retrieve their prophetic vocation in the life of our society.
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Scripture And Discernment
$24.99Add to cartThis work is a revision and expansion of Luke Timothy Johnson’s earlier work, Decision Making in the Early Church: A Biblical Model. Here he expands his earlier thoughts on the biblical text and decision making in the church. Often, churches simply attempt to turn to the Scripture for support of their decisions. Johnson argues, however, that there are so many complex issues that are not directly addressed in the Scriptures that a closer look at how decisions were made in the early church is needed for a complete picture of the decision making process. Looking, then, at the early events of Acts, Johnson shows how discernment is critical to correctly interpret Scripture for church decisions. Luke Timothy Johnson is Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.
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Stewards Of Life
$20.99Add to cartSondra Wheeler has written an extordinary introducation to bioethics. She defines with clarity the central bioethical principles of autonomy, non maleficence, beneficence and justie, while at the same time maintaining intergrity with the christian story. The book includes difficult clinical cases, drawn from real life, which give it depth; it portrays bioethical problems in technicolor. This book is recommended for pastors, hosptials and chaplains.
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New Complete Server
$11.95Add to cartThis classic guide helps servers to perform with confidence and reverence, allowing the liturgy to unfold in a smooth and prayerful manner. A glossary of words and objects accompanies illustrations of vessels, linens, altar preparation, vestments, posture symbols, and examples of processions. Also contains easy-to-draw symbols that servers can use to make a diagram of their sanctuary’s layout for study and practice.
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Preaching The Miracles Series 2 Cycle B
$15.95Add to cartWhile this book offers information for the sermon writer, the design of its contents provides more than the ho-hum. It avoids presenting a ready-made cloak of words for a morning sermon. Instead it invites preachers and their audiences to explore the gap between the “back then” and the “now.” It not only helps answer questions, it generates them — a crucial element in understanding the miracles of Jesus.
Five sections are devoted to each of the nine miracles in Cycle B (all from Mark):
Text — For easy access the entire lectionary text is provided, preventing the need to flip back and forth to the Bible.
What’s Happening? — This gives a synopsis of points of action within each miracle story. By reviewing the story action, readers define its movement, the conflict and the change or resolution.
Connecting Points – Conversations — This section offers the central material of each chapter. Here Brauninger engages the preacher in an imaginary exchange before the text is given its usual preparatory attention. A visit with main characters and an occasional bystander nudges readers toward stepping into their sandals. This section invites the preacher and listening audience. This section invites the preacher and the listening audience to ask questions relevant for them, thus expanding their questioning, and therefore their understanding.
Words — Here significant words are examined. While this work is not intended as a scholarly study, it assists in placing things in proper context.
Gospel Parallels — This section highlights similarities and differences among parallel stories and other gospels.There is also a helpful bibliography included.
This new series from Brauninger promises to be a favorite among preachers. Through it audiences will become aware of how God speaks to them through miracle stories and will enable them to hear their inner voice and more clearly understand it themselves.
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Church For The Unchurched
$22.99Add to cart6 Chapters
Additional Info
CHURCH FOR THE UNCHURCHED
A rebirth of the apostolic way.This work shows that there is an apostolic way for a congregation to live out the gospel. This book calls for revolution–the revolution that must take place if the churches in America are to thrive and to fulfill the Great Commission. Church for the Unchurched is about the “abolition” of the laity.
God’s dream for his church from the earliest time has been that we practice the priesthood of all believers, that we be a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6). In its first 300 years of history, the church had no clergy. Rather, it was made up of believers who understood they were to be apostles, sent on mission by the living Christ. With the phenomenal growth of that early church, both numerically and in influence, two classes of Christians emerged, leaders and spectators. The spectators were supposed to learn sound doctrine, to pray, sing, listen to sermons, and pay the bills. But when the question is asked, as it often is, “Why doesn’t the church do something about…,” “the church” is synonymous with “the clergy.”
This book studies a number of apostolic congregations from various traditions and assorted geographical locations that are successfully reaching the unchurched. It is full of recipes that any serious congregation could copy and use. Reading this book could result in a Copernican revolution in the church-the empowerment of the laity.
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Prepare The Way Of The Lord
$12.95Add to cartThose looking for a resource that will deepen and enrich their spiritual life during the Advent/Christmas season will find that resource here. These reflections will strengthen the reader’s mental preparation and will serve as a starling point for prayer and meditation.
Pastors will be helped with themes and illustrations for Advent/Christmas preaching
Teachers will use this material in their classes to help renew the right spirit of Christmas among their students
Those who are seeking a deeper spiritual life will be uplifted and inspired by these daily meditations -
Fringe Front And Center Cycle B
$12.95Add to cartFor many years Professor Hoyer was editor and writer for Currents In Theology And Mission. In that publication he called the homiletical section “Preaching Helps.” But he explained that the emphasis was to be put on the second word. “It is more than a noun. It’s a verb,” he said. “Preaching does help! Preaching conveys both the wisdom and power of God.”
When sermons only talk about the gospel, they fail to utilize the power. They may be wise, but they don’t work the work of God. Medics who answer a 911 call do more than talk about CPR. They diagnose. Then they supply the breath of life. In these Gospel-based sermons Hoyer shows how to draw out the power of the word. His messages breathe life and hope into listening ears.
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Light In The Land Of Shadows Cycle B
$12.95Add to cartLight In The Land Of Shadows contains 16 sermons for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany and Transfiguration Sundays.
This book makes connections between Old Testament themes and contemporary issues. The preacher will find it exegetically sound yet filled with illustrations and insights. The lay person will find it comprehendible and useful for exploring ultimate issues within the context of meaningful Bible study.
(The) sermons are fleshed out in normal, everyday language, grammar and sentence structure — Yet the faithful preacher can take comfort in the fact that they are backed up by sound biblical exegesis. (from the Introduction)
Hal Warlick is a master at weaving a fascinating story or illustration into the sermon, dramatically portraying the scriptural message. This is Old Testament preaching at its best.
Sermon titles include:
Lighting A Fire In A Cold Room
All Dressed Up And Somewhere To Go
Any FAX From God Today?
Will We Enjoy Heaven?
Pain And Promise In The Hand Of God -
God Images In The Healing Process
$19.00Add to cartWhat does it mean when a seriously ill person has a vision or other vivid experience of God? How should a caregiver respond? Armistead sensitively explores these questions, offering practical psychological and theological guidance for pastors and counselors. Discover how to empathize with care-seekers, interpret their religious language, and more.
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Claiming The Center
$28.00Add to cartCLAIMING THE CENTER, by Jack Rogers The thesis of this book is that the root cause of mainstream church decline is an internal confict of worldviews. Using the Presbyterian Church (USA) as an example Rogers argues that the worldview that some members have developed has caused them to see life in conservative terms, whereas others have acquired a worldview that gives a liberal interpretation of life. Confict occurs when Christian people make their theological elaborations or ideological application or experiential colorings the ultimate reference point rather than the religious worldview itself. Rogers writes: “Hope for reconciliation and renewal lies in both leaders and members claiming the center and reconstituting a common worldview. This begins by patiently returning to a common affirmation of the root religious worldview that is more fundamental than any ideological application. Recognizing that those who differe with us accept the same religous worldview could enable us to build together on a foundation of Jesus Christ, the head of one body.”
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Gift Of Anger
$32.00Add to cartAll people experience anger at some point in their lives, although the way in which anger is experienced and expressed is often shaped by social context and religious background. Carroll Saussy offers this book to assist people in learning how to evaluate, understand, and effectively express authentic anger. She explores the psychology, the ethical considerations, and some practical ways of dealing with anger and proposes a theology of anger that is instrumental in addressing injustice. She also identifies ways that anger can be harmful and ways it can provide an impetus for constructive action. A helpful three-step technique for evaluating and expressing anger is presented and illustrated
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Everyday Life In Bible Times
$16.99Add to cartThis handy reference guide gives Bible teachers and students a resource for deepening their familiarity with the biblical world. The book describes many aspects of daily life in Bible times, and explains many of the references in Scripture to daily life tasks that may be unfamiliar to modern readers. By understanding more of the background to the Bible, people will be able to understand Scripture more fully, and communicate it more effectively. This volume is part of the Concordia Teacher Education Program. It is designed to assist teachers and general students of the Bible and can be used for individual or group study.
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Team Ministry : Putting Together A Team That Makes Churches Grow
$16.99Add to cartUsing a step by step approach, Dick Iverson explains the biblical pattern for local chruch admisistration – a plurality of elders led by God’s “set man”. He provides a method for establishing a team ministry within any local chruch that includes 12 principles on how to maintain the leadership team once it is put into place. He concludes the text with information on how to discover and train young leaders within the church.
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Making Of A Leader (Student/Study Guide)
$7.99Add to cartIn The Making Of A Leader, Frank Damazio lays out for the serious student a broad and deep discussion of what it means to be responsible for a group of “followers.” This perennial bestseller presents a scriptural analysis of the philosophy, history, qualifications, preparation and practice of Christian leadership. It’s concepts and principles have been tested and taught in classrooms and seminars world wide. Charts, diagrams and illustrations enhance this intriguing study on Christian Leadership. Both in its breadth and depth, it is a commendable work and recommended for your careful study.
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What Do You Say To A Burning Bush Cycle A
$12.95Add to cartMany who preach from the lectionary are drawn to the gospel for their sermon focus. Yet Steve Burt’s alluring treatment of these first lesson texts will stimulate the desire to proclaim the captivating tales drawn from these Old Testament lessons. In many ways it is easier for the contemporary hearer to identify with these Old Testament characters. They are less perfect, approachable, very human in their faith struggles and in many respects much like us.
Titles include:
* What Do You Do When Life Ain’t Fair? (Genesis 29:15-28)
* The Face of God (Genesis 32:22-31)
* Need Help Removing that Roadblock? (Exodus 14:19-31)
* But You Can’t Get Water Out of a Rock! (Exodus 17:1-7) -
Stained Glass Ceiling
$24.00Add to cartAs record numbers of women graduate from seminaries,they are increasingly filling positions once held exclusivelyby men. Purvis documents what happened in the lives of two congregations that appointed women senior pastors and the impact these appointments had on all concerned. She carefully assesses the changes and discerns the significance of female leadership as opposed to male leadership in these two settings.
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Effective Keys To Successful Leadership
$14.99Add to cartLearn, from this dynamic model, what it takes to build an effective leadership team and healthy local church. Common ministry temptations and tensions are candidly discussed, emphasizing the need for personal vision and mission in your ministry.
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Real Hope In Chicago
$19.99Add to cartWhen Wayne Gordon and his wife started a Bible study for high school kids in North Lawndale, Chicago, people warned them that a white couple moving into a black neighborhood as a recipe for disaster. That was twenty-five years ago. Today, what began as the Gordons’ seedling Bible study has become the Lawndale Community Church. It has a staff of 150, has renovated more than 100 local apartments, has helped more than 50 young people graduate from college, runs a medical clinic that treated 50,000 patients in 1994, and has become a vital part of rebuilding an inner-city neighborhood into a community of faith and hope. Real Hope in Chicago is Wayne Gordon’s inspiring account of how people, white and black, rich and poor, old and young, worked together to transform a decaying neighborhood into a place where love is lived out in practical and miraculous ways. It offers an exciting model for interracial cooperation, urban-suburban church partnering–and real hope for the inner cities of our nation.
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Getting The Word Across
$31.99Add to cartIf you’ve had little or no speech training, here’s how to “get the Word across.” Offering practical lessons in disciplined speech, Jacks, a professor of speech communication in ministry, discusses various methods of effective oral interpretation, as well as voice and diction techniques to improve the impact of God’s Word on your audience.
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Theology And Pastoral Counseling A Print On Demand Title
$28.99Add to cartThis is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable.
This volume lays out an important new interdisciplinary approach to the relationship between theology and psychology in the work of pastoral counseling. Hunsinger sets forth a method for relating theology and psychology from a Barthian theological perspective. Her work shows that Barth’s theology provides a wealth of material for pastoral counselors who wish to bring a consistent theological perspective to the interpretive task.
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Surviving The Death Of A Child
$20.00Add to cartSurviving the Death of a Child is about enduring and surviving the most painful of all loses: the death of one’s child. This is the story of a journey from grief to healing. But more, it is a story of faith and love told so that others may find comfort and understanding when faced with this most devasting loss.
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Hum : Call And Response In African America Preaching
$20.99Add to cartIn The Hum: Call and Response in African Preaching, Evans E. Crawford, with Thomas H. Troeger, relates his analysis of African American folk preaching by relying upon an indigenous scheme for evaluation. The call/response tension in black preaching (derived from a West African tradition) is what drives the musicality of speech in black churches. Crawford refers to this musicality as “hum thoughts” and one can imagine the choir responding with a low rumbling hum to the musical intonations of a motivated preacher.
Key features: a new volume in the Abingdon Preacher’s Library, edited by Thomas H. Troeger; a different approach to preaching, firmly rooted in the black experience; leads the reader to understand preaching as an oral event; uses the term “homiletical musicality” to describe the musical understanding of the way sermons are heard and the oral response they awaken in the listener; and, coins new phrases for describing the preaching event.
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Godly Play : An Imaginative Approach To Religious Education
$19.00Add to cart1. Playing And Reality
2. An Adult At Play
3. Children At Play
4. The Spoken Lesson
5. The Unspoken Lesson
6. The Imagination And Godly Play
7. The Theology Of ChildhoodAdditional Info
Meaningful, lasting learning comes from childlike curiosity and play. The approach of this book is to make relgious instruction fun, spontaneous and deeply spiritual. Godly Play is a practical yet innovative approach to religious education–becoming childlike in order to teach children. -
Lift Up Your Heads
$12.95Add to cartAs the year 2000 draws closer the second coming of Christ will get more and more attention by Christians and non-Christians alike. If the past is any indication, speculative notions will be widespread, many of which will contribute to feelings of fear and anxiety at the prospect of an end to our world.
This book aims to help Christians evaluate the many conflicting ideas about the second coming by examining what the Bible actually says about it.
Important reading any time of year, these four chapters especially lend themselves to an Advent bible study for adult classes. Study questions for each chapter are provided at the back of the book.
Pastors will also find it a helpful sermon resource for Advent preaching.
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Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit Cycle A
$15.95Add to cartStorytelling is the way much of the Gospel is presented to us. Many or most of today’s dynamic preachers make wide use of narratives in their preaching. This book provides 56 stories that enhance the preacher’s ability to drive home the message of the scripture texts. It is a valuable addition to every lectionary preacher’s resource library.
*Two boys decide to paint their old car. They think it will be an easy task until their father teaches them that “preparation is the most important part of the job.”
*A tenant farmer collects scrap farm machinery to be sold for the production of war weapons …
*A grandfather teaches his grandson about the virtue of patience in waiting for a garden to grow.These themes and many others become skillfully woven word pictures. They keep listeners in rapt attention and enable the preacher to impress the meaning of the scripture texts on their minds.
Chapter titles include:
*Invitation From A Jogger
*The Credit Line
*The Bible Class
*Better Than The Lottery
*Even Junkyard Dogs Need Forgiveness
*New Life On A Dead Mountain -
Whispering The Lyrics Cycle A
$14.95Add to cartBased on texts from the Revised Common and Catholic lectionaries, Thomas Long provides inspirational messages to motivate and help preachers through their most difficult preaching time of the year, the seasons of Lent and Easter.
The road to Easter takes us through the most sacred stretch of the Gospel story, and the narratives simply overwhelm us … Congregations who blithely assume that their pastor eagerly relishes the chance to preach the passion and resurrection of Jesus are, for the most part, mistaken. To be sure the pews are more crowded as Easter approaches, the choirs are well-rehearsed and in full voice, and an electric charge courses through the sanctuary, but the preacher stands there with the obligation to proclaim the truths of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and it seems, at one and the same time, to be a set of claims too little to go on in a secular and cynical age and a range of mysteries too profound to speak. (from author’s foreword)
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God In Flesh Made Manifest Cycle A
$12.95Add to cartThe old saw, that the preacher’s task is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, proclaims a profound theological truth. For when we are afflicted, that is when God comforts us. If we are comfortable, God must first penetrate our false security. Only then can the news of the Messiah’s coming strike our ears as a word of comfort. From sermon for the second Sunday in Advent.
Mark Radecke has the ability to do both — comfort and afflict — through his provocative treatment of the lectionary texts for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany and the Transfiguration. His illustrations are often electrifying in their capturing of the Gospel kerygma.
Sermon titles include:
Come, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come!
Would We Rather Be Comfortable Or Comforted
Holy Love And Herod’s Love
Light In Darkness, Speech From Silence
Jesus’ Counter-cultural Sermon
Don’t Sweat The Numbers
Main Features And Coming Attractions -
Empowered By The Light
$13.95Add to cartEach of the 17 sermon topics in this book consists of a charge or a command. We might even call them messianic imperatives. Since Christ has come, will come and is coming, how shall we live? The messages are eminently practical, but they do not constitute a self-help book. On the contrary, the call to be alert, to enlarge our horizons, to live together in harmony, to judge others charitably simply cannot be done in our human strength. The focus centers always on the Son. In a word, we are Empowered By The Light. (from the author’s introduction)
Sermon titles include:
Learn To Wait Creatively — James 5:7-10
Follow The Man With The Plan — Ephesians 1:3-14
Be Charitable In Your Judgment — 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 -
Hope Beneath The Surface Cycle A
$12.95Add to cartOn these pages one encounters the moving image of the holy God with Isaiah in the temple, the powerful call to justice through the thundering voice of Amos, the depth of despair in the heart of Jeremiah and the struggle for faithfulness in the prophetic work of Hosca, Elijah and others.
Underlying every page is the presence of Jesus of Nazareth, who is constantly uppermost as each sermon unfolds. Robinson’s writing. Like his preaching, reveals a person who is in close touch with the common ventures of life, More significantly he is in touch with the common people of the working, playing and suffering worlds. And he is in touch with the verities of the Christian faith.
Reverend Vernon Bigler
Buffalo, New YorkThe gripping illustrations in this book are worth the price alone.
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Critique Of Modern Youth Ministry
$7.00Add to cartThe church today does not expect what it ought to from children and their parents, and this can be attributed in large part to a flawed concept of youth ministry. This booklet discusses the reasons behind this problem and presents biblical solutions.
The intent of this booklet is to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.
