Church Life
Showing 51–100 of 531 results
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Church Forsaken : Practicing Presence In Neglected Neighborhoods
$22.00Add to cart“There are no God-forsaken places, just church-forsaken places.” -Jon Fuller, OMF International
Jonathan Brooks was raised in the Englewood neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. As soon as he was able, he left the community and moved as far away as he could. But through a remarkable turn of events, he reluctantly returned and found himself not only back in Englewood but also serving as a pastor (“Pastah J”) and community leader.
In Church Forsaken, Brooks challenges local churches to rediscover that loving our neighbors means loving our neighborhoods. Unpacking the themes of Jeremiah 29, he shows how Christians can be fully present in local communities, building homes and planting gardens for the common good. His holistic vision and practical work offers good news for forgotten people and places. And community stakeholders and civic leaders will rediscover that churches are viable partners in community transformation in ways that they may never have considered.
God has always been at work in neglected neighborhoods. Join Pastah J on this journey and discover new hope for your community.
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Seeing Jesus In East Harlem
$18.00Add to cartIntroduction
Part 1: Show Up
1. El Testimonio: Go And Show Yourself
2. The “Here I Ams” Of Life: Calling And Holy Disorientation
3. Incarnational: Tracing Our Presence Through Christ’s Body
4. Naming Whiteness: Discerning Space As Disciple MakingPart 2: Staying Put
5. Staying Public: Welcoming Home The Prophets
6. Remaining At Work: Becoming God’s Crowdsource In The Barrio
7. Staying Together: When Hope Became A HouseholdPart 3: See
8. Look Again: Generous Seeing As A Measure Of Discipleship
9. Curating Heaven: Dance And Dirge At Christ’s Table
10. El Culto: Marking Life’s Moments, Rescripting Trauma
11. Apocalypse: Church From A Different Vantage PointAcknowledgments
NotesAdditional Info
We are all located in different places. Some of us move from neighborhood to neighborhood or even state to state. And the way we grow as disciples and lead others in spiritual growth depends on our contexts. Pastor Jose Humphreys recognizes how deeply our faith is tied to our particular stories in our particular places. Grounded in his own deep faith and wisdom, he writes out of his experiences as a Puerto Rican pastor who has planted a multiethnic church in East Harlem. In this book, he offers a framework to help church leaders take discipleship seriously in their places, calling them to show up, stay put, and see what God is doing in their midst. Combining spiritual formation with activism, vivid narrative with exhortation, and realism with hopefulness, Humphreys offers pastors and church planters a thoughtful look at discipleship in a complex world. -
Placemaking And The Arts
$32.00Add to cartWe are, each one of us, situated in a particular place.As embodied creatures, as members of local communities and churches, as people who live in a specific location in the world, we all experience the importance of place. But what role does place play in the Christian life and how might our theology of place be cultivated?In this Studies in Theology and the Arts volume, Jennifer Allen Craft argues that the arts are a significant form of placemaking in the Christian life. The arts, she contends, place us in time, space, and community in ways that encourage us to be fully and imaginatively present in a variety of contexts: the natural world, our homes, our worshiping communities, and society. In so doing, the arts call us to pay attention to the world around us and invite us to engage in responsible practices in those places.Through this practical theology of the arts, Craft shows how the arts can help us by cultivating our theological imagination, giving shape to the Christian life, and forming us more and more into the image of Christ.
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True Inclusion : Creating Communities Of Radical Embrace
$14.99Add to cartDiscover how to move your church beyond mere welcome to radical embrace.
So your church website says you’re welcoming, a rainbow flag flies out front, worship uses gender-inclusive language, and you make sure you greet the stranger next to you on Sunday mornings. But is all of that really enough? And what if those welcoming gestures actually keep visitors from returning and exclude dozens of other groups or people in your community?
In True Inclusion, public theologian and pastor Brandan Robertson shares how to move your church from mere welcome to radical embrace. Pointing to a clear biblical imperative for radical inclusivity in the sanctuary and in the public square, Robertson presents a paradigm-shifting vision of community, “where nothing is simple, nothing is easy, but everything is beautiful.” Learn practical, step-by-step approaches to becoming deeply, robustly, and richly inclusive of all people regardless of race, gender identity, sexual orientation, political affiliation, and socioeconomic status.
Written for people and communities at every stage of the journey, True Inclusion will challenge and inspire you to embody a gospel of radical embrace for all.
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Exploring Worship Third Edition
$20.00Add to cartEXPLORING WORSHIP is a 240-page textbook that gives worshipers a balanced theology of worship, and trains your worship team in the art of leading worship. This book covers all the bases, both devotional and practical. Equip them with one of the most comprehensive tools available today for worship leaders, musicians, songwriters, and singers.
First written in 1986, Bob completely rewrote the book in 2018, producing this THIRD EDITION. This new edition is stronger than ever and relevant for today’s changing worship landscape. Used as a text internationally, Exploring Worship is a “must read” for worshipers. It lays a scriptural foundation for understanding what praise and worship really is, and then provides a practical framework for implementing praise and worship in the local church. This is one of the foremost worship texts used today by Bible Schools, Universities, and local church worship ministries.
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Welcoming The Stranger
$22.00Add to cartForeword By Leith Anderson
1. The Immigration Dilemma
2. “Aliens” Among You: Who Are Undocumented Immigrants?
3. Nation Of Immigrants: A Historical Perspective On Immigration To The United States
4. Immigrating The Legal Way: Our Immigration System Today
5. Thinking Biblically About Immigration
6. Concerns About Immigration
7. The Value Of Immigrants To The United States
8. Immigration Policies And Politics
9. Immigration And The Church Today
10. A Christian Response To The Immigration Dilemma
Acknowledgments
Appendix 1: Discussion Questions
Appendix 2: Evangelical Statement Of Principles For Immigration Reform
Appendix 3: Ministries And Organizations Serving Refugees And Other Immigrants In The United States
Appendix 4: Ministries And Organizations Addressing The Root Causes Of Immigration
Appendix 5: Selected Resources For Learning More About The Immigration Issue
Appendix 6: Tools For Political Advocacy
Notes
IndexAdditional Info
Immigration is one of the most complicated issues of our time. Voices on all sides argue strongly for action and change. Christians find themselves torn between the desire to uphold laws and the call to minister to the vulnerable.In this book World Relief immigration experts Matthew Soerens and Jenny Yang move beyond the rhetoric to offer a Christian response to immigration. They put a human face on the issue and tell stories of immigrants’ experiences in and out of the system. With careful historical understanding and thoughtful policy analysis, they debunk myths and misconceptions about immigration and show the limitations of the current immigration system. Ultimately they point toward immigration reform that is compassionate, sensible, and just as they offer concrete ways for you and your church to welcome and minister to your immigrant neighbors.This revised edition includes new material on refugees and updates in light of changes in political realities. -
New Apostolic Reformation
$19.99Add to cartThis critique provides a framework for understanding and interpreting the widespread but little-known New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement. As the authors state in the preface: “We write this book with two major goals in mind. First, to give people an idea of the sheer size and reach of the NAR movement. And second, to systematize its key teachings and practices and evaluate them on the basis of Scripture and careful reasoning – . In our judgment, the NAR perspective crosses these boundaries [that is, certain broad parameters, revealed in Scripture and practiced in the historical orthodox church], and it does so in part because of flawed theology rooted in a flawed understanding of Scripture. We wish to warn readers about a possible confusion: Some critics have linked the NAR movement with mainstream Pentecostalism and charismatics. We do not do this. In fact, it is our contention that the NAR movement deviates from classical Pentecostal and charismatic teachings. This movement has emerged out of independent charismatic churches and, thus, has gained a foothold in many of those churches in varying degrees.”
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Disruptive Witness : Speaking Truth In A Distracted Age
$17.00Add to cartIntroduction
Part One: A Distracted, Secular Age
1. The Barrier Of Endless Distraction
2. The Barrier Of The Buffered Self
3. Searching For Visions Of FullnessPart Two: Bearing A Disruptive Witness
4. Disruptive Personal Habits
5. Disruptive Church Practices
6. Disruptive Cultural Participation
Conclusion: Large And Startling Figures
NotesAdditional Info
We live in a distracted, secular age.These two trends define life in Western society today. We are increasingly addicted to habits-and devices-that distract and “buffer” us from substantive reflection and deep engagement with the world. And we live in what Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor calls “a secular age”-an age in which all beliefs are equally viable and real transcendence is less and less plausible. Drawing on Taylor’s work, Alan Noble describes how these realities shape our thinking and affect our daily lives. Too often Christians have acquiesced to these trends, and the result has been a church that struggles to disrupt the ingrained patterns of people’s lives. But the gospel of Jesus is inherently disruptive: like a plow, it breaks up the hardened surface to expose the fertile earth below. In this book Noble lays out individual, ecclesial, and cultural practices that disrupt our society’s deep-rooted assumptions and point beyond them to the transcendent grace and beauty of Jesus.Disruptive Witness casts a new vision for the evangelical imagination, calling us away from abstraction and cliche to a more faithful embodiment of the gospel for our day. -
Serving God In A Migrant Crisis
$19.00Add to cart“God has used migration for millennia to achieve his purposes for his people,” writes Patrick Johnstone. “He is doing so again in our time.”
Millions are on the move, driven by war, drought, terrorism, poverty, failed states, environmental catastrophes, disease, revolutions, and the desire for a better life. Christians have a unique perspective on the migrant crisis: after all, Jesus was a refugee. So were Abraham, Joseph, and Moses.
Today, some turn their backs on refugees. In Serving God in a Migrant Crisis, Patrick Johnstone and Dean Merrill help us understand what’s causing today’s refugee crisis, explore Christian theology and tradition on migration, and show us how Christian workers around the globe are opening their hearts to embrace these modern outcasts.
“The world has literally come to our doorstep,” they write. “Will we open the door?”
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Quit Church : Because Your Life Would Be Better If You Did (Reprinted)
$18.00Add to cartBased on research among congregations across the country, seasoned church coach and pastor Chris Sonksen reveals habits we need to simply let go, along with spiritual practices we need to relearn in order to thrive as individuals and produce growth in our churches.
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Who Is My Neighbour
$15.99Add to cartFollowing Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, and with increasing division, xenophobia, and confusion over future national and international relationships, this thought- and action-provoking book considers the crucial question: Who is my neighbor?
What does the Christian injunction to “love your neighbor as yourself” actually mean in practice today? Contributions by renowned theologians and practitioners reflect on this subject in relation to issues of poverty, ecology, immigration, fear, and discrimination, and the recent political upheavals both in Europe and the United States.
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Free At Last
$10.99Add to cartGods Life Publishing
What is one of the most stubborn problems permeating America churches today? Racism! It divides Christian’s brothers and sisters and hinders the spreading of the gospel. Free at Last! Is a concise, in-depth study that reveals the malignancy hampering the Body and gives a biblical antidote to address this spiritual hindrance.
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Life Tastes Better
$3.99Add to cartIt’s easy to think that following Jesus would make life less fun and more limited. Drawing on his decades of introducing the real Jesus to people, founder of NewFrontiers Terry Virgo reveals the surprising truth that the Jesus who turned water into wine is ready to make every life taste better, both now and eternally. Easy-to-read, short, clear, faithful and conversational, this is a perfect book to give to an interested friend.
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Building Credibility In Leadership
$19.99Add to cartToday there is a lack of trust in leaders, notably those leading the church, potentially leading to a lack of trust in God Himself – the Leader. As secondary leaders we must help to build credibility in leadership by remembering that our service is “unto the Lord.” This book giving sound instructions on how to become the type of leader God has destined you to be.
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7 Dangers Facing Your Church
$16.99Add to cartOur culture is changing, and the church seems to be under increasing pressure. But these dangers are not new, and God’s word shows us how to meet them head on. Discover how Jesus’ messages to seven first-century churches in Revelation 2 3 is his message to your church today too. Together, you can live as Christ’s faithful, hope-filled people in a changing culture.
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From Jerusalem To Timbuktu
$22.00Add to cartChristianity started in Jerusalem. For many centuries it was concentrated in the West, in Europe and North America. But in the past century the church expanded rapidly across Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Thus Christianity’s geographic center of density is now in the West African country of Mali-in Timbuktu.
What led to the church’s vibrant growth throughout the Global South? Brian Stiller identifies five key factors that have shaped the church, from a renewed openness to the move of the Holy Spirit to the empowerment of indigenous leadership. While in some areas Christianity is embattled and threatened, in many places it is flourishing as never before.
Discover the surprising story of the global advance of the gospel. And be encouraged that Jesus’ witness continues to the ends of the earth.
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People Are The Mission
$17.99Add to cartWhen it comes to interacting with guests, churches typically gravitate towards one of two camps: over-the-top, shock-and-awe, let-us-entertain-you or oh-man,-some-people-just-showed-up, underwhelming experience. Each extreme has drawbacks: on one end, people become the center of the universe. On the other, hospitality is effectively ignored in deference to the “serious business” of worship.
People Are the Mission proposes a healthy middle, one where guests are esteemed but the gospel is the goal. Danny Franks, Connections Pastor at Summit Church, shows churches how to take a more balanced approach – a “third way” that is both guest-friendly and gospel-centric. He shows why honoring the stranger doesn’t stand in opposition to honoring the Savior. People are the mission that Christ has called us to, and if we focus on people we can better assist people to focus on the gospel.
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Dangers Of American Christianity
$15.99Add to cartThe message of the gospel should be the lens through which our world view is formed.
The author believes that instead our culture has made us water down the true message to fit contemporary American Culture.The dangers he identifies include:
-Getting too mixed up in our culture
-Isolating ourselves too much from contemporary culture
-Safe and easy believism without proper life changing repentance
-Making it all about what God can do for me
-Entitlement
-The prosperity gospel
-Not being busy with the things of GodThe Church needs to rediscover what made it the powerful force it is supposed to be in a culture that wants to adapt the Church to fit its own values.
We cannot water down or dilute the gospel message in any way and remain effective in a world of secular humanistic values.
The Church has to get back to biblical values and not compromise with the world’s values and culture.Each chapter has questions for reflection, if you’re reading on your own, or discussion in groups.
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Small Church Checkup
$16.00Add to cartMany small membership churches today are faced with the sobering reality of attendance loss and overall decline. This resource provides a guide to help you find hope, alternatives, and the possibility of a new beginning. Included are tools to help you measure your church’s vitality, evaluate the results, and diagnose your church’s condition, along with several options for treatment plans as you seek to faithfully serve your community. Remember that we can choose our story. If we believe in our hearts there is another possibility, we can be faithful in choosing intentional pathways forward that honor God, the church founders, and generations to come. Follow the steps outlined in these pages to evaluate where you are and what the next steps on your journey need to be as you seek to be a “not yet big church,” “a stable, small church,” or a church that chooses to close and be repurposed for unexpected new life.
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New Copernicans : Understanding The Millennial Contribution To The Church
$16.99Add to cartIn The New Copernicans: Understanding the Millennial Contribution to the Church, author John Seel, PhD, provides a road map to this new millennial landscape, and an antidote to being drawn off course.
The millennial generation is steering the church in a new direction and is providing a missional opportunity for the church. The church will either follow their lead, or meander in a direction leading them further away from the ultimate path of making disciples.
Millennials are the carriers of a profound shift in the culture narrative, one that will reshape our understanding of human society in the coming years. Rather than being a problem for the church to lament, this shift represents an occasion to celebrate. Yet it demands being able to understand this direction to a more accurate assessment of human nature and reality.
In The New Copernicans: Understanding the Millennial Contribution to the Church, author John Seel, PhD, provides a road map to this new millennial landscape, and an antidote to being drawn off course. Rather than give the reader a formula for their local church, Recalculating will provide a lens though which to see the world in the light of the millennial frame. It addresses the “why” questions, empowering the reader to assess their own situation and apply the appropriate direction. It will not advocate “cookie cutter” programs, rather provide a refreshed vision with which to interact along side this important generation.
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Vibrant Church : Strategies For Church Renewal
$13.99Add to cartHelp your church reach its potential to become a beacon in your community, a model of all that God has called the church to be. The Vibrant Church provides guidance for pastors and key lay leaders, teaching you how to make your church healthy in all areas of church life.
You’ll learn to:
-Write a specific vision for your church
-Improve your leadership skills
-Establish a strategic plan for the future
-Build the ministry team
-Grow a dynamic outreach ministry
-Disciple fully devoted followers of Christ
-Create an environment of genuine love and concern
-Develop meaningful worship
-Train faithful stewards of money and time -
American Church In Crisis
$24.99Add to cartGroundbreaking research based on a national database of over 200,000 churches shows that the overall United States population is growing faster than the church.
The director of the American Church Research Project, Dave Olson, has worked to analyze church attendance, showing that it is virtually unchanged from fifteen years ago while our population has grown by fifty-two million people. What does this mean for you, your church, and the future of Christianity in North America? The American Church in Crisis offers unprecedented access to data that helps you understand the state of the church today. “We live in a world that is post-Christian, postmodern, and multiethnic, whether we realize it or not,” says the author. This book not only gives a realistic picture that confirms hunches and explodes myths, but it provides insight into how the church must change to reach a new and changed world with the hope of the gospel. Readers will find a richly textured mosaic with optimistic and challenging stories. Charts, diagrams, and worksheets provide church leaders and motivated church members with a stimulating read that will provoke much discussion. Questions for discussion accompany the chapters.
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Infants And Children In The Church
$24.99Add to cartInfants and Children in the Church: Five Views on Theology and Ministry addresses an important, but often overlooked, theological and ministry issue facing the church today: How should churches receive and minister to the infants and children God has entrusted to their care?
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Stay In The City
$16.99Add to cartWe live in an urban age. To a degree unprecedented in human history, most of the world’s people live in cities. It is thus vital, say Mark Gornik and Maria Liu Wong, for Christians to think constructively about how to live out their faith in an urban setting.
In Stay in the City Gornik and Liu Wong look at what is happening in the urban church–and what Christians everywhere can learn from it. Once viewed suspiciously for their worldly temptations and vices, cities are increasingly becoming centers of vibrant Christian faith. Writing from their experience living and working in New York City, Gornik and Liu Wong invite readers everywhere to join together in creating a more flourishing–and faith-filled–urban world.
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MultiChurch : Exploring The Future Of Multisite
$17.99Add to cartIs it time for your church to go multisite? It seems everybody is doing it these days, so how do you know if it is the right solution for your congregation? MultiChurch brings clarity to the multisite movement and assembles the lessons it has learned over the past fifteen years. It explores the opportunities presented by the various forms of multi-site church, identifies areas of concern, and concludes that multisite is not only a biblically sound ecclesiological model, but also a model that provides a compelling solution to contemporary reductionism in the church.
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Tears In The Desert
$13.95Add to cartAre you interested in Christian service or studying for the Christian ministry? This book is uniquely designed to help you prepare for the challenges ahead and is endorsed by a pastor who served his church for thirty-eight years and the presidents of two seminaries who will recommend it to their students.
Karl Heller’s new book, Tears in the Desert: Lessons from the Joys and Sorrows of God’s Call, provides an up-close and personal account from the frontline of pastoral ministry. This is a refreshingly candid account of why pastoral ministry is so very challenging and at the same time so very important. By recounting the triumphs and tragedies of his own ministry, Dr. Heller is an able and wise guide, especially for seminarians preparing for pastoral ministry.
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Imagine Church : Releasing Dynamic Everyday Disciples
$14.99Add to cartJesus Christ has been the dominant figure in the history of Western culture for two millennia, and his birth the pivot of our calendar. He is the focus of Scripture and the heart of mission, the message that countless Christians cross land and sea, continents and cultures, to deliver.In masterly surveys, John Stott looks at the New Testament witness, at the way the church has portrayed Christ down through the centuries, and at the influence Christ has had on individuals over the last two millennia. Finally, turning to the book of Revelation, he asks what Jesus Christ should mean to us today. Here is the fruit of a lifetime of biblical study, rigorous Christian thought and devotion to the person of Jesus Christ.
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Ready Steady Grow
$15.99Add to cartDo you love your church and want to see it thrive?Are you keen to learn from someone whose own church has grown and started others too?Are you ready for the downsides as well as the inevitable joys?Ray Evans takes us on an interesting and exciting journey. He looks at the barriers to growth, as well as the hurdles of reorganization and structural changes that growing churches face. His findings are anchored in the Bible and the real world which we all inhabit.’Many have learned how to lead what they have,’ says Ray, ‘but they don’t know how to take it forward. You don’t see the glass ceilings until you crash into them, and the splinters bring pain everywhere.’In Ray, you will find a humble, wise and warm-hearted guide. This book will not only equip your church to grow, but will help prevent unnecessary disasters.
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Faith Generation : Retaining Young People And Growing The Church
$20.99Add to cartThe recent Church Growth Research (see www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk) identifies that the successful transmission of faith to children and young people is a key factor in stemming decline and promoting growth. This book explores the cultural and theological reasons as to why this is the case and makes research-based recommendations for the faith formation of children and young people. The central argument is that church communities need to engage in deliberate strategies that help foster “intentional Christian Communities’ within which children and young people can form and sustain Christian identity.
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Online Mission And Ministry
$14.99Add to cartMany clergy and churches are now taking to the internet and social media to promote their churches or ministries, but few have thought through some of the difficult pastoral and theological issues that may arise.’Virtual vicar’ Revd Pam Smith guides both new and experienced practitioners through setting up online ministries and considers some of the issues that may arise, such as:Are relationships online as valid as those offline? Is it possible to participate in a ‘virtual’ communion service? How do you deal with ‘trolls’ in a Christian way? What is it appropriate for a clergyperson to say on social media?
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Economics Of Neighborly Love
$20.00Add to cart13 Chapters
Additional Info
What does the good news of Jesus mean for economics?Too often, Christian teaching and ministry have focused only on the gospel’s spiritual significance and ignored its physical, real-world ramifications. But loving our neighbor well has direct economic implications, and in our diverse and stratified society we need to grapple with them now more than ever.
In The Economics of Neighborly Love pastor Tom Nelson sets out to address this problem. Marrying biblical study, economic theory, and practical advice, he presents a vision for church ministry that works toward the flourishing of the local community, beginning with its poorest and most marginalized members. Nelson resists oversimplification and pushes us toward more complex and nuanced understandings of wealth and poverty. If we confess the gospel of Jesus, he insists, we must contend anew with its implications for the well-being of our local communities. Together we can grow in both compassion and capacity.
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What Clergy Do
$18.99Add to cartClergy have a pivotal role in creating and nurturing church communities in which all people can grow up into Christ. This book explores the nature of that role by considering key similarities with the essential but often conflicting demands of motherhood. Like mothers, clergy need to preserve and hold people faithfully, while encouraging them to grow, take initiatives and become more confident and self-supporting. This book will help clergy to think about how this is achieved through the myriad of ‘small’ things they do from day to day, highlighting skills such as comforting, cherishing and multi-attending – skills that are centrally important but often unarticulated and undervalued.
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Messy Church : Fresh Ideas For Building A Christ Centered Community
$20.00Add to cartWe like the idea of community, but where do we start? The Messy Church series provides resources to help your church bring together people of all ages and stages of faith, allowing them to experience a creative and fun-filled Christian community. Messy Church, the first book in the series, offers your church a tool to create a unique, come-as-you-are experience built on:
creativity-allowing space for all to play and create
celebration-worshiping God and his redeeming work in Jesus
hospitality-sharing a meal where all are welcomeThis complete resource helps you share the love of God and his people with families in your community, creating an opportunity for connection and learning in a fun and welcoming environment. With instructions for starting a program at your church, Messy Church includes fifteen sessions for use throughout the year. Let’s get messy!
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Lay Servants As Christian Transformation Leaders Participants Book (Student/Stud
$18.00Add to cartBuilding on the previous Lay Servant course “Does Your Church Have a Prayer?”, this Participant’s Book will guide Lay Servants seeking to be more empowered to lead their congregations toward vitality. Written with two distinct purposes, “Lay Servants as Christian Transformational Leaders” will first define the three types of Christian transformational leadership and the four qualities of Christian transformational leaders. Then the course will focus on congregational vitality, organizational life cycles, assessing current realities, and leading transformational change. The accompanying Leader’s Guide is in PDF form and is also available for downloading here.
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Sharing Gods Blessing
$15.99Add to cartA tried-and-tested resource for the renewal of the local church. Faced with the unsustainability of many inherited patterns of church, the temptation may be to fall into despondency rather than seeking to regenerate patterns of mission and ministry. This book is the result of a two-year research project aimed at enabling local churches to regain a sense of confidence through exploring God’s blessing and how that might be shared with the communities they serve. In Part One, Robin explores the meaning of blessing and the power of face-to-face group conversations to transform church congregations. Part Two of the book contains outlines for five guided conversations for change on the theme of blessing. Part Three contains case study material of how this material has been used in different contexts, including for Mission Action Planning (MAP).
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Forbearance : A Theological Ethic For A Disagreeable Church
$28.99Add to cartOffers a faithful, constructive way to deal with dissent
What happens when we approach disagreement not as a problem to solve but as an opportunity to practice Christian virtue?
In this book James Calvin Davis reclaims the biblical concept of forbearance to develop a theological ethic for faithful disagreement. Pointing to Ephesians and Colossians, in which Paul challenged his readers to “bear with each other” in spite of differences, Davis draws out a theologically grounded practice in which Christians work hard to maintain unity while still taking seriously matters on which they disagree.
The practice of forbearance, Davis argues, offers Christians a dignified, graceful, and constructive way to deal with conflict. Forbearance can also strengthen the church’s public witness, offering an antidote to the pervasive divisiveness present in contemporary culture.
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Developing A Powerful Praying Church
$8.95Add to cartBlackaby Ministries International
Today’s church faces challenges and crises it can only overcome through prayer. In their latest book, Blackaby and Fisher focus on the adjustments pastors and church leaders must make in their prayer life in order to see a rebirth of God-honoring, world-impacting …
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Caminos Olvidados – (Spanish)
$19.99Add to cartEl clasico cambio de paradigma propuesto por Alan Hirsch continua siendo la declaracion definitiva de la iglesia como un dinamico movimiento misional. El exito literario que fue la primera edicion, encendio una conversacion acerca de como aprovechar el poder de los movimientos para el crecimiento futuro de la iglesia. En esta edicion actualizada, Hirsch comparte conocimientos significativos obtenidos a lo largo del camino, proporciona nuevos ejemplos frescos de iglesias en crecimiento y reflexiona sobre los ultimos diez aos del movimiento misional. La nueva edicion ha sido completamente actualizada y revisada e incluye graficos, diagramas, un glosario ampliado de terminos, nuevos apendices, un nuevo prologo escrito por Ed Stetzer y un nuevo epilogo escrito por Jeff Vanderstelt. Conocido por su enfoque innovador a la mision, Hirsch es ampliamente reconocido como un lider pensador y estratega para iglesias en todo el mundo occidental. El considera a Caminos Olvidados como el trabajo guia para todos sus otros escritos. El libro cuidadosamente explora los factores que confluyen para generar movimientos de Jesus espiritualmente vibrantes, exponencialmente explosivos y de alto impacto en cualquier momento y en cualquier contexto. Esta amplia actualizacion del influyente trabajo de Hirsch ofrece un sistema de seis claves vitales para ver surgir un movimiento cristiano y estamos seguros que le dara forma al futuro del movimiento misional durante aos por venir.
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Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow
$17.00Add to cartBestselling, Easy-to-Use Spiritual Gifts
Resource for Group UseThis trusted spiritual gifts resources has been helping individuals and congregations learn about their unique giftings for generations. Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow is the quintessential group resource. Comprehensive and easy to understand, this guide includes the questionnaire and will help you and your group identify the gifts God has given you. More than that, you will discover how each gift works so that you and your group or congregation can use your unique gifts to help your church and community flourish.
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New Day In The City
$20.99Add to cartFrederich Buechner once wrote, “Dreams of fame and fortune die hard, if they ever die at all.” Many mainline urban congregations remember the days of fame and fortune-days when their prominence downtown mattered. Population shifts, the decline of mainline congregations, and demographic changes have robbed many downtown churches of these dreams – but not all churches. Many congregations struggle to survive while others are positioned to thrive. These churches have learned to let go of nostalgic dreams and tired habits, to walk with God into a new day of vibrancy, mission, and ministry. Authors Donna Claycomb Sokol and Roger Owens have pastored urban congregations that have managed to grow again, reversing decades of decline. In A New Day in the City they share the stories of the churches they’ve served, and the lessons they’ve learned from other successful urban churches and pastors. Their aim is to help others join God in the deep and wide mission of embodying the Kingdom. Along the way, they challenge some cliches about church leadership, offering a fresh perspective on what congregational renewal can look like and how it can become a reality. The book does not offer easy answers, because churches can’t simply replicate what someone else has done. Rather, the book offers the framework for crucial conversations urban churches need to have in order to find their own way to renewal. The end of each chapter features a set of practical guidelines for leading a congregation to address the questions that matter most.
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Preaching In The Era Of Trump
$14.99Add to cartNow more than ever, it’s time to preach.
The election of Donald Trump left countless faith leaders across the country speechless. Now that he is president, silence must give way to prophetic preaching.
Christians have long debated whether politics should be addressed from the pulpit. Following Donald Trump’s controversial, divisive rise to power and the sweeping changes his fledgling administration has already proposed, that s no longer a question political preaching will be the order of the day, even for pastors who try to steer clear of controversy. It s up to preachers to make the church great again by leading it to embrace and embody God s concern for those whose lives are at stake in a Trump administration. Veteran teacher, preacher, and author Wes Allen offers a blueprint for addressing current events through a Gospel lens, persuasively and pastorally without engaging in divisive, antagonistic rhetoric.
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Unstuck Church : Equipping Churches To Experience Sustained Health
$16.99Add to cartAcclaimed church leader, blogger, founder and chief strategic officer of The Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan unpacks the lifecycle of a typical church, identifies characteristics of each phase, and provides practical next steps a church can take to move towards sustained health.
Think about your church for a moment. Is it growing? Is it diminishing? Is it somewhere in between? Acclaimed church leader, blogger, and founder and chief strategic officer of The Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan has identified the seven stages of a church’s lifecycle that range from the hopeful and optimistic days of launch, to the stagnating last stages of life support.
Regardless of the stage in which you find your church, it carries with it the world’s greatest mission-to “go and make disciples of all the nations . . .” With eternity at stake the Church should be doing most everything within its power to see lives changed forever. The Church should strive for the pinnacle of the lifecycle, where they are continually making new disciples and experiencing what Morgan refers to as “sustained health.”
In The Unstuck Church, Morgan unpacks each phase of the church lifecycle, and offers specific and strategic next steps the church leader can take to find it’s way to sustained health . . . and finally become unstuck.
The Unstuck Church is a call for honest an assessment of where your church sits on the lifecycle, and a challenge to move beyond it.
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Gospel DNA : 21 Ministry Values For Growing Churches
$15.99Add to cart22 Chapters
Additional Info
Acts chapter 20 tells how Paul sat down to train the elders of the Ephesian church he had planted some years before. The principles of gospel ministry he lays down are simple, but absolute dynamite.In 21 simple, practical principles, Richard Coekin sets out how this “Gospel DNA” should shape our approach to building churches today.
This book draws on his experience as Director of the London-based Co-Mission church-planting initiative in the UK. It will help you be part of a dynamic strategy for growing gospel churches today.
Includes a Foreword by D.A. Carson
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To Alter Your World
$22.00Add to cartIntroduction
1. God Groans Like A Woman In Labor
2. What’s Standing In Our Way?
3. A Divine Disruption
4. Midwives To The Birth Of The New Creation
5. Making Space For Birth To Happen
6. On Being Adaptive And Daring
7. How To Really Change The World
8. Changing The World Through Our Work
9. Changing The World Through Placecrafting
10. Being Changed As We Bring Change
11. Suffering Along The Way
Acknowledgments
NotesAdditional Info
In Christ, a new world is being born and the new creation is unfurling all around us. God is directing history toward the future restoration, repair, and renewal of all creation. And our job is to cooperate with God in being a sign and foretaste of that coming world. Renowned missional leaders Michael Frost and Christiana Rice introduce the bold metaphor of a midwife to depict us as God’s birthing assistants as the kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven. With groundbreaking ideas and practical illustrations from all corners of the globe, To Alter Your World will change the way you see how your church can partner in God’s world-altering mission. Nothing else could be more rewarding than laboring alongside a God who is birthing the new creation and inviting all to join in its benefits and blessings. -
Transcending Mission : The Eclipse Of A Modern Tradition
$40.00Add to cartPrologue
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Enigma Of MissionPart I: Justifying Mission
1. Partisans And Apologists
2. Reading Scripture As Mission
3. Presenting History As Mission
4. Rhetoric And TropePart II: Innovating Mission
5. Holy Conquest
6. Latin Occupation
7. Mission Vow
8. Ignatian MissionPart III: Revising Mission
9. Protestant Reception
10. Missionary ProblemsEpilogue: Toward Pilgrim Witness
Abbreviations
Works CitedAdditional Info
Mission, missions, missional, and all its linguistic variations are part of the expanding vocabulary and rhetoric of the contemporary Christian missionary enterprise. Its language and assumptions are deeply ingrained in the thought and speech of the church today. Christianity is a missionary religion and faithful churches are mission-minded. What’s more, in telling the story of apostles and bishops and monks as missionaries, we think we have grasped the true thread of Christian history. But what about those odd shapes, those unsettling gaps and creases in the historical record? Is the language of mission so clearly evident across the broad reaches of time? Is the trajectory of mission really so explicit from the early church to the present? Or has the modern missionary enterprise distorted our view of the past? As with every reigning paradigm, there comes a point when enough questions surface to beg for a close and critical look, even when it may seem transgressive to do so. In this study of the language of mission-its origin, development, and application-Michael Stroope investigates how the modern church has come to understand, speak of, and engage in the global expansion of Christianity. There is both surprise and hope in this tale. And perhaps the beginnings of a new conversation. -
Right Thinking In A Church Gone Astray
$16.99Add to cartKeeping the Church on Track in a Secular World
One of the greatest challenges to Christianity today is the pervasive influence popular culture has on the church. When Christians embrace a secular worldview, it causes division within the church and greatly diminishes its impact.
Right Thinking in a Church Gone Astray offers responses from trusted evangelical voices on 20 timely issues. With a careful look at God’s Word, you’ll gain wisdom and insights on highly relevant topics such as…
*countering the church’s celebrity culture
*ministering to the “Me Generation”
*discovering where science meets Scripture
*responding appropriately to homosexuality
*reclaiming the essentials of the Christian faithWith biblical guidance on these and other controversial matters, this resource provides much-needed clarity for today’s church.
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Organizing Church : Grassroots Practices For Embodying Change In Your Congr
$24.99Add to cartWhat if congregations embraced community organizing? While many theories exist on how to plant or how to renew a church and its leadership, Organizing Church offers a unique perspective that brings together the tools of community organizing and a robust ecclesiology to suggest a new way forward for revitalizing and empowering churches. This book is a helpful field guide for pastors and other church leaders trying to build healthy congregations, create a deep culture of discipleship in their community, and to respond to the challenges presented by the global culture of the 21st century.
