Church Life
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Wolf In Their Pockets
$16.99Add to cartThe world has changed. And we feel it in our homes, schools, and congregations.
We can hardly remember a time when we didn’t feel the influence of that back pocket device. The average social media user spends about two-and-a-half hours a day using social media. That’s more than enough time to shape our values and desires. Pastors, teachers, and parents feel their influence slipping away. We’re seeing increased loneliness, disunity, and self-absorption. But where do we go from here?
In The Wolf in Their Pockets, Internet expert Chris Martin examines the many ways we are being changed by social media. With a biblically informed voice, Martin both exposes the ways the Internet is distorting our life in Christ and shows us how to faithfully respond. Martin teaches us how to care for people who are obsessed with followers, views, and likes–and how to love those whose online influences have filled them with cynicism and contempt. Martin looks at how the social Internet is changing how we understand sex and beauty–what to do about the epidemic levels of anxiety–and how to redirect our hearts to worship Jesus Christ.
Shepherding and leading people has never been easy, but the social Internet has brought new challenges. We need the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit and a powerful prayer life. Martin provides the biblical wisdom, direction, and hope necessary to combat The Wolf in Their Pockets.
Signs Of Life
$22.00Add to cartSigns of Life offers a clear-eyed consideration of the challenges facing congregations as well as a celebration of practices that contribute to spiritual vitality in congregations.
In your church, where are the signs of life? Signs of Life offers a clear-eyed consideration of the challenges facing congregations as well as a celebration of practices that contribute to spiritual vitality in congregations. These best practice principles–signs of life–emerge from a ministry called RenewalWorks, a concerted effort to make spiritual growth a priority in congregations and to build cultures of discipleship within them. The book is written free from illusion that there is a quick fix. Nor does it propose a prescriptive focus on programmatic solutions. What you have in this book is an exploration of the catalysts and best practices for spiritual growth-and the hopeful confidence that it can happen. After all, with God all things are possible.
Praying Church : Becoming A People Of Hope In A Discouraging World
$21.99Add to cartPaul Miller, Bestselling Author of A Praying Life, on the Transforming Power of Praying Together
In our current culture, the church and prayer are often dismissed as irrelevant. But when believers gather and pray together, powerful things happen: the Spirit equips the saints for ministry, the helpless are met with help, and believers experience the joy of being led by the Spirit of Jesus. In this book, Paul E. Miller, bestselling author of A Praying Life, casts a vision for a return to the simple yet life-changing practice of praying together.
Through personal stories and biblical examples, Miller teaches the why, what, and how of praying together. Readers will learn how praying with other Christians can transform their communities into beacons of hope and be given practical strategies–such as finding a prayer partner and prioritizing a structured prayer time–to implement these changes in their own church.
*Ideal for Group Study: Small groups, Sunday school classes, and others will find helpful strategies to think through and discuss
*Engaging and Personal: Features real life stories, word pictures, and charts to help readers understand the content
*”A Word to Pastors” Miller closes several chapters with thoughtful reflections specifically for church leaders
*Foreword by Dane C. Ortlund: Author of the bestselling book, Gentle and Lowly, who praises A Praying Church, calling it “winsome and compelling”
Welcome : Loving Your Church By Making Space For Everyone
$16.99Add to cartWalking into church can be intimidating, whether for the first time or after a period of absence, whether you are a non-believer or a believer. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your church was a place where everyone received a warm welcome? A place where newcomers can quickly feel at home and where non-believers receive the welcome of God’s people alongside the welcome of Jesus?
This warm, practical book by Jen Oshman explores what the Bible says to help readers discover how to make space for others, however different they are to them, in their church and in their lives. She also gives practical advice, drawing on good practice from churches around the world in a range of situations. In a world of division, individualism and isolation, readers will see that their church can witness to Christ by being a place of welcome, community and connection.
Chapters include how Jesus welcomes us, the impact of welcoming in the early church, the effect of being siblings in Christ, how to welcome beyond Sunday, helpful systems and strategies, how our joy in Christ causes us to be outward-looking, and mirroring the glorious vision set out in Revelation.
Whether you’re a pastor looking to encourage your congregation to welcome others or a church member wanting to see unbelievers come to faith and help everyone feel part of the family, this book is for you.
Gather : Loving Your Church As You Celebrate Christ Together
$16.99Add to cartWhy do we meet on Sundays?
Now that technology allows us to access services remotely, many see little need to meet face to face every week. Others think that because we have a personal relationship with Jesus as Christians, church is an optional add-on. For some, they know deep down that there is a reason why gathering on Sundays is important, but they are weary and don’t feel excited about it. So what is the purpose of corporate worship, and what is our role in it?
In this book, Tony Merida highlights how in-person Sunday gatherings are central to God’s plans and to our faith and joy. He reminds believers of their privileges as citizens of heaven, members of God’s family and stones in God’s temple.
Readers will see how each part of a church service (preaching, praying, singing, baptism, Lord’s Supper and building each other up in conversations) are ways to enjoy and share God’s grace, and are therefore essential for spiritual endurance. You’ll also be reminded that your presence in corporate worship matters because you have a part to play in encouraging your brothers and sisters and spurring them to love and good deeds:
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)
Read this book to renew your understanding and enjoyment of going to church and to be excited by the ways in which your presence can encourage others.
Belong : Loving Your Church By Reflecting Christ To One Another
$16.99Add to cartAuthor Barnabas Piper states in the first chapter of his book:
“We are looking for something personal, something deeply meaningful, something with which we can identify. And this book is an invitation to find that in the church, because God wants us to …Part of God’s perfect strategy is offering hurting, tired, worn out, needy sinners like you and me a place to belong in … A place in which to encounter the profound, transformative, healing, restoring grace of Jesus Christ.”
This book explores how you can help to create a church where everybody feels at home: a place where fellow believers build genuine, honest, meaningful Christian relationships and enjoy deep fellowship as a community of believers.
You may be a new believer and wonder what it means to belong to a church; you may be reluctant to commit to your church because of past experiences; you may have recently relocated and want to find a church where you feel at home; or you may love your church and desire to commit to it more deeply and serve it more fully. Whatever the case, this book will help you to see that belonging to a church is a good gift from God, the outworking of our identity as brothers and sisters in Christ, and worth your time, love and commitment.
Becoming The Church
$18.00Add to cartMany today have given up on church. But God has not and does not give up on the church. The church is God’s idea. And once we truly understand what God has in mind for his people, we can become who he wants us to be.
Bishop Claude Alexander shows how the original Christians did not always understand what the church was supposed to be, but God worked in them anyway to become the community that he intended. After the resurrection of Jesus, his followers were transformed from disillusion and doubt to become a people of conviction and new life. The book of Acts describes the unfolding purposes, principles, and practices discovered by the apostles as they gave themselves to Christ’s call. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we too can be transformed by Jesus and model to the world what it means to know him-as the church.
Fight For Your Pastor
$9.99Add to cartFight for Your Pastor is an exhortation for church members to support their pastors through the difficulties of ministry through prayer, encouragement, generosity, and forgiveness.
Breakthrough : Trusting God For Big Change In Your Church
$16.99Add to cartThe last 30 years of American church life have played a familiar refrain: The church is old, out of touch, dying, and it’s too late. Why bother? What if the church is not old enough, not out of touch enough, and not dying enough? When survival-rooted panic is supplanted with calm, spirited creativity, that may be exactly the moment your church was made for, that your community was hoping for– and that God is waiting for. First Christian Church of Odessa, Texas made a radical choice and was reborn as Connection Christian Church, with a new view on ministry and new energy. Breakthrough: Trusting God for Big Change in Your Church tells the story of what happened when this church dared to place their desperate, dying selves into the hands of a God whose middle name is Surprise! — and hints how readers might find that audacity in their own congregations.
Vital Christian Community
$28.95Add to cartTwelve characteristics of healthy Christian communities and the congregational and personal practices that develop them.
Congregations have been the bedrock of mainline Christian life and practice for centuries but in recent years many have dwindled in energy and impact. Leaders conclude that change is needed, that they can’t keep applying the same models and practices that have served in the past but no longer seem to work.
At a time when all kinds of institutions are being buffeted by swift and strong cultural forces, Brochard and Newton believe the congregation to be a primary site for the transformation of individuals, communities, and the world and that the measures for congregational vitality begin with health, faithfulness, and effectiveness as local expressions of the Church.
The authors offer readers insights into developing a sense of purpose, building trust, encouraging curiosity, becoming more collaborative, appreciating productive conflict, and other vital skills.
Sacred Us : A Call To Radical Christian Community
$17.99Add to cartFor every person who has felt lonely or isolated, The Sacred Us explores a new way of living through the practice of biblical community.
In a world that celebrates individuality and autonomy, too many of us struggle to form deep, meaningful relationships. Loneliness is the norm, rich friendships are rare, and the church is no exception. We long for real community but often don’t know how to get there. What will it take to develop healthy friendships?
The Bible gives us a compelling blueprint for community, but it must be built on more than shared interests or Sunday-morning smiles.
This book explores the substance of biblical community through seven principles:
*Proximity that provides opportunity
*Vulnerability that creates connection
*Discipleship that sets direction
*Fun that amplifies grace
*Mission that drives adventure
*Sacrifice that matures love
*Boundaries that sustain growthThese principles seek to guide the reader beyond loneliness and isolation into a life of rootedness and connection.
Anatomy Of A Revived Church
$14.99Add to cartThere is hope. God can save your church.
In this book, Thom Rainer reveals seven findings of revived churches. Through new research, he figuratively dissects hundreds of churches that were on the path toward death. But they turned around. They revitalized. They did so in the face of facts and naysayers who told them it could not be done. Today, three out of four churches are declining in our nation, and twenty percent of churches are close to death. What are the secrets of the churches who avoided this fate and experienced revival?
In Anatomy of a Revived Church, Thom will show you how these churches experienced renewal. He will cover everything from “expanding the scorecard” to “dealing with toxins” to “choosing meaningful membership.” When you finish reading this book, you will have the tools to strengthen, restore, and energize your church.
You can choose life for your church.
When Narcissism Comes To Church
$18.00Add to cartWhy does narcissism seem to thrive in our churches? We’ve seen the news stories and heard the rumors. Maybe we ourselves have been hurt by a narcissistic church leader. It’s easy to throw the term around and diagnose others from afar. But what is narcissism, really? And how does it infiltrate the church? Chuck DeGroat has been counseling pastors with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, as well as those wounded by narcissistic leaders and systems, for over twenty years. He knows firsthand the devastation narcissism leaves in its wake and how insidious and painful it is. In When Narcissism Comes to Church, DeGroat takes a close look at narcissism, not only in ministry leaders but also in church systems. He offers compassion and hope for those affected by its destructive power and imparts wise counsel for churches looking to heal from its systemic effects. DeGroat also offers hope for narcissists themselves–not by any shortcut, but by the long, slow road of genuine recovery, possible only through repentance and trust in the humble gospel of Jesus.
Next Worship : Glorifying God In A Diverse World
$20.00Add to cartWhat happens when a diverse church glorifies the global God?
We live in a time of unprecedented intercultural exchange, where our communities welcome people from around the world. Music and media from every culture are easily accessible, and our worship is infused with a rich variety of musical and liturgical influences. But leading worship in multicultural contexts can be a crosscultural experience for everybody. How do we help our congregations navigate the journey?
Innovative worship leader Sandra Maria Van Opstal is known for crafting worship that embodies the global, multiethnic body of Christ. Likening diverse worship to a sumptuous banquet, she shows how worship leaders can set the table and welcome worshipers from every tribe and tongue. Van Opstal provides biblical foundations for multiethnic worship, with practical tools and resources for planning services that reflect God’s invitation for all peoples to praise him.
When multiethnic worship is done well, the church models reconciliation and prophetic justice, heralding God’s good news for the world. Enter into the praise of our king, and let the nations rejoice!
Church Of Us Vs Them
$20.00Add to cartWe are living in angry times. No matter where we go, what we watch, or how we communicate, our culture is rife with conflict. Unfortunately, Christians appear to be caught up in the same animosity as the culture at large. We are perceived as angry, judgmental, and defensive, fighting among ourselves in various media while the world looks on. How have we failed to be a people of reconciliation and renewal in the face of such tumult?
Claiming that the church has lost itself in the grip of an antagonistic culture, David Fitch takes a close look at what drives the vitriol in our congregations. He traces the enemy-making patterns in church history and diagnoses the divisiveness that marks the contemporary evangelical church. Fitch shows a way for the church to be true to itself, unwinding the antagonisms of our day and making space for Christ’s reconciling presence in our day-to-day lives. He offers new patterns and practices that move the church beyond making enemies to being the presence of Christ in the world, helping us free ourselves from a faith that feeds on division.
What If Jesus Was Serious About The Church
$14.99Add to cartResearchers have uncovered the following three trends: First, distrust of institutions, including the church, is at an all-time high. Second, young people raised in the church are leaving at alarming rates and not returning. Third, loneliness and social isolation are at pandemic levels. What’s the connection? It appears that an entire generation is starving for the very thing the church is called to provide but has chosen to look for it elsewhere. Why is this happening? Following the model set by What If Jesus Was Serious?–short readings and engaging illustrations– What If Jesus Was Serious about the Church? looks at what the Bible really says about the church, its purpose, and the impact of its modern captivity to consumer values. Rather than an event, a building, or an institution, the New Testament calls the church to be a community living in communion with God and one another for the sake of the world.
Equipping Biblical Counselors
$19.99Add to cartBehind every spiritually fit church are leaders in the constant process of preparing other members to become counselors, caregivers, elders, and mentors. But the success of this mission can be undermined when there isn’t a practical, results-driven process for training the next generation to serve.
In Equipping Biblical Counselors, pastor and counselor Bob Kellemen shares his plan for envisioning, enlisting, equipping, and empowering new Christian counselors–a practical, four-step process he has spent decades refining. With this book, Dr. Kellemen humbly comes alongside church leaders to help them:
*assess their congregation’s strengths and weaknesses,
*shepherd new leaders with confidence and wisdom, and
*encourage the consistent spiritual growth God longs for in His followersInvest where it matters the most! Equipping Biblical Counselors reveals the steps needed to fulfill the calling in Ephesians 4:11-16 to embolden the body of Christ to continue changing lives with Christ’s unchanging truth.
Not In It To Win It
$22.99Add to cartPeople often use religion to justify their personal views–but Christianity isn’t a weapon we wield to win arguments. Sadly, many Christians today have confused what Jesus came to do and accomplish with political agendas and the latest round of the culture wars. But the message of Jesus transcends cultural skirmishes and political affiliations. It calls us to follow another king and to live by the ethics of another kingdom. Jesus never asked his followers to agree on everything, but he did command them to love their neighbors and exercise their faith for the benefit of others–not at the expense of others.
Not In It To Win It is a relatable and practical resource that guides readers by focusing on the priorities of Jesus, even as we are navigating the complicated and emotionally-charged terrain of today’s cultural divides and hot-button disagreements. Rather than viewing Christianity through the filter of partisanship, Andy challenges readers to evaluate all of life through the wide-angle lens of faith.
Jesus called his followers to obey a new command, to love others in the same way he has loved us. Instead of asserting our rights or fighting for power, we are to ask ourselves: what does love require of me? Don’t settle for winning a game that God isn’t playing. Instead seek to live in a way that your life makes a difference for others, showcasing the love of God to the world.
Inalienable : How Marginalized Kingdom Voices Can Help Save The American Ch
$18.00Add to cartWith our witness compromised, numbers down, and reputation sullied, the American church is at a critical crossroads. In order for the church to return to health, we must decenter ourselves from our American idols and be guided by global Christians and the poor, who offer hope from the margins, and the ancient church, refocusing on the kingdom, image, Word, and mission of God.
The American church is at a critical crossroads. Our witness has been compromised, our numbers are down, and our reputation has been sullied, due largely to our own faults and fears. The church’s ethnocentrism, consumerism, and syncretism have blurred the lines between discipleship and partisanship. Pastor Eric Costanzo, missiologist Daniel Yang, and nonprofit leader Matthew Soerens find that for the church to return to health, we must decenter ourselves from our American idols and recenter on the undeniable, inalienable core reality of the global, transcultural kingdom of God. Our guides in this process are global Christians and the poor, who offer hope from the margins, and the ancient church, which survived through the ages amid temptations of power and corruption. Their witness points us to refocus on the kingdom of God, the image of God, the Word of God, and the mission of God. The path to the future takes us away from ourselves in unlikely directions. By learning from the global church and marginalized voices, we can return to our roots of being kingdom-focused, loving our neighbor, and giving of ourselves in missional service to the world.
Invisible Divides : Class, Culture And Barriers To Belonging In The Church
$23.99Add to cartWe’re called to be like Jesus, not like each other – so why are most Western churches predominantly middle class? Could it be that we’re reaching out to people in poverty, but struggling to connect them into church life?
Natalie Williams and Paul Brown know all too well that those saved from working-class backgrounds often find themselves discipled effectively – but into middle classism rather than authentic Christianity. Drawing on their own experiences, and mixing theory with practical application, they explore the invisible divides that prevent churches from becoming places of true inclusion and keep poor and working-class people on the edges of faith.
Packed full of surprising insights and helpful advice, Invisible Divides will change the way you see church life. Essential reading for anyone concerned with the class divide within the church, it will challenge you to look at the ways in which we inadvertently exclude, alienate and offend people who aren’t like us, and equip you to start working towards making church a more open, inclusive space for everyone.
Jesus calls for us all to follow him, no matter our background; together, we can break down the invisible divides between us so that people from all walks of life can come to know Christ and find family in our churches.
Spiritual Formation As If The Church Mattered
$49.99Add to cartMost books on spiritual formation focus on the individual. But spiritual formation is at the heart of the church’s whole purpose for existence. It must be a central task for the church to carry out Christ’s mission in the world. This book offers an introduction to spiritual formation set squarely in the local church. The first edition has been well received and widely used as a textbook. The second edition has been updated throughout, incorporates findings from positive psychology, and reflects an Augustinian formation perspective. Foreword by Dallas Willard.
Spiritual Formation As If The Church Mattered
$26.99Add to cartMost books on spiritual formation focus on the individual. But spiritual formation is at the heart of the church’s whole purpose for existence. It must be a central task for the church to carry out Christ’s mission in the world. This book offers an introduction to spiritual formation set squarely in the local church. The first edition has been well received and widely used as a textbook. The second edition has been updated throughout, incorporates findings from positive psychology, and reflects an Augustinian formation perspective. Foreword by Dallas Willard.
Pastoral Ministry : How To Shepherd Biblically
$29.99Add to cartPastor John MacArthur combines his passion for the Bible with the training expertise of faculty members at The Master’s Seminary to guide seminary students and ministry leaders in developing their pastoral ministry skills.
Pastors today can easily become preoccupied with the many pitfalls of modern culture, buying into the idea of image and straying from Jesus’s call to shepherd leadership.
Pastoral Ministry: How to Shepherd Biblically presents a practical pastoral theology aimed at showing pastors and pastors-in-training the vital role God’s word plays in shaping the preparation and maintaining the priorities of pastoring.
The authors examine the biblical teaching about the high and demanding call to ministry required of any spiritual shepherd. You’ll learn how to pursue intentional growth through the stages of calling, training, and ministering to God’s church–along the way, uncovering answers to questions such as:
*How does the Bible establish a philosophy of pastoral ministry, and what is it?
*Who is personally qualified to be an undershepherd of God’s flock?
*What are the biblical preparations required of shepherd leaders?
*What priority does God’s word place on activities involved in pastoral ministry?United in affirming shepherd leadership as the biblical model for pastoral ministry, The Master’s Seminary faculty contributes a treasury of expertise alongside insights from well-known Bible teacher John MacArthur.
This book will inspire any pastor dedicated to serving God’s church in the pattern of Jesus Christ.
Centered Set Church
$24.00Add to cartChristians can be adept at drawing lines, determining what it means to be a good Christian and judging those who stray out of bounds.
Other times they erase all the lines in favor of a vague and inoffensive faith. Both impulses can come from positive intentions, but either can lead to stunted spiritual life and harmful relationships. Is there another option? The late missionary anthropologist Paul Hiebert famously drew on mathematical theory to deploy the concepts of bounded, fuzzy, and centered sets to shed light on the nature of Christian community. Now, with Centered-Set Church, Mark D. Baker provides a unique manual for understanding and applying Hiebert’s vision. Drawing on his extensive experience in church, mission, parachurch, and higher education settings, along with interviews and stories gleaned from scores of firsthand interviews, Baker delivers practical guidance for any group that seeks to be truly centered on Jesus. Baker shows how Scripture presents an alternative to either obsessing over boundaries or simply erasing them. Centered churches are able to affirm their beliefs and live out their values without such bitter fruit as gracelessness, shame, and self-righteousness on the one hand, or aimless whateverism on the other. While addressing possible concerns and barriers to the centered approach, Baker invites leaders to imagine centered alternatives in such practical areas of ministry as discipleship, church membership, leadership requirements, and evangelism. Centered-Set Church charts new paths to grow in authentic freedom and dynamic movement toward the true center: Jesus himself.
Church Revitalization Checklist
$16.99Add to cartYour church has the opportunity of a lifetime. The world has shifted, and a new, brighter tomorrow awaits. The Church Revitalization Checklist is a tool to help you start fresh, leverage your strengths, and discover hidden opportunities for church growth.
God has placed you exactly where He wants you. But let’s be honest, if you’re leading a church, it isn’t easy. Maybe your church has been in the doldrums for years. Maybe you’re hearing a lot of complaints, and you’re simply tired or disheartened. Maybe you’ve been hurt. But you are not alone. Many church leaders have sore backs from carrying a heavy load. This book will lighten that load.
The Church Revitalization Checklist provides a step-by-step path to a hope-filled future for both you and your church. Popular church expert Sam Rainer will walk you and your leadership team through a seven-point checklist-everything from reconsidering your priorities to evaluating your location and facilities. It is an extremely practical tool to unleash your congregation and help them step into God’s unique purpose for them.Your brighter future starts now.
Finding Our Way
$22.00Add to cartWhat if the way the Church is “”doing church”” is the very reason the world is seeing less of Jesus in it every day? Beginning with the biblical basics, Jeff Lockyer walks readers through the underlying theology and practical application of how Southridge Community Church has approached ministry for nearly a quarter century. While providing a fresh approach to ministry, the book stimulates how to think–not what to think. It’s written by a local church practitioner for local church practitioners. By providing clarity to the confused, it helps church leaders find their way. By providing practical examples delivered uniquely in multiple church contexts, it supports leaders in finding their own way. And, most of all, by re-framing the operation of the church around fostering full devotion instead of facilitating consumerism, it enables leaders of local churches to reclaim the lifestyle of Jesus among its people. It supports churches and leaders to find their Way–the Way of Jesus.
Finding Our Way
$31.00Add to cartWhat if the way the Church is “”doing church”” is the very reason the world is seeing less of Jesus in it every day? Beginning with the biblical basics, Jeff Lockyer walks readers through the underlying theology and practical application of how Southridge Community Church has approached ministry for nearly a quarter century. While providing a fresh approach to ministry, the book stimulates how to think–not what to think. It’s written by a local church practitioner for local church practitioners. By providing clarity to the confused, it helps church leaders find their way. By providing practical examples delivered uniquely in multiple church contexts, it supports leaders in finding their own way. And, most of all, by re-framing the operation of the church around fostering full devotion instead of facilitating consumerism, it enables leaders of local churches to reclaim the lifestyle of Jesus among its people. It supports churches and leaders to find their Way–the Way of Jesus.
Rediscover Church : Why The Body Of Christ Is Essential
$12.99Add to cartWhy We Need the Church Now More than Ever
Churches are currently facing a host of difficult issues–potential shut-downs and restrictions due to COVID-19, political dissension among members, racial division, church abuse scandals, and the list continues. While some attendees have temporarily turned to virtual church services, others are wondering if committing to a local church is worth the trouble. Is it really that important to gather each week?
Written for anyone struggling to answer this question, Collin Hansen and Jonathan Leeman help readers rediscover why the church is essential. Rediscover Church starts from the ground up, examining topics such as the mission of the church, the importance of preaching and teaching, church membership, church discipline, and how to love members who are different. This book is a timely reminder that the church is more than just a livestream–it is an essential fellowship of God’s people furthering God’s mission.
Color : God’s Intention For Diversity
$15.99Add to cartWhen we talk about color in the church, we are talking about so much more than race and ethnicity-yet at the same time we cannot leave race and ethnicity out of the conversation altogether.As a white woman and a black man, Carla Sunberg and Dany Gomis have coauthored a harmoniously blended collection of reflections comparing a bride adorned in luxurious colors for her groom to the bride of Christ. Explore what it would look like for the bride of Christ to discover and use a full array of hues, both biblically and culturally. More than a book about skin tone, Color challenges the church to rise above a monochromatic perspective to see the fresh beauty of interweaving threads to complete the church bride’s adornment for her bridegroom. With a friendly, collaborative style and questions for reflection at the end of each chapter, Sunberg and Gomis encourage us to celebrate the vibrancy and intensity of the Christian life the way God designed us to live it as filled with Color.
Field Guide For Genuine Community
$15.99Add to cartI’m surrounded by people at church . . . so why do I feel so alone?
You show up at church every Sunday. You see people you know. You listen to a sermon together. And then you go home feeling just as isolated as you did before. What’s going on?
We all know that a church is supposed to be a community. The trick is to actually make it one. Communities don’t happen by chance-certainly not in our Lone Ranger culture that values independence and individualism. A truly Christian community must be built by intentional practices that allow for deeper connections, centered on the unity that can only be found in Christ.
In A Field Guide for Genuine Community, longtime pastor and discipleship trainer Ben Connelly shows you that the biblical model for community is the family of God. In twenty-five short, practical readings, he takes you beyond the surface and helps you learn to connect with your brothers and sisters as true family members. The church isn’t meant to be a collection of strangers. God intends for you to find a unified and purposeful household where you truly belong.
Let The Stones Cry Out
$29.95Add to cartToday we see many magnificent old church buildings abandoned because the Gospel went out of them long ago. However, good architecture and the proclamation of the Gospel should go hand in hand.
Jesus Christ by his death on the cross made the kingdoms of this world His. The architecture of our church buildings should proclaim His lordship.
In Let the Stones Cry Out , Douglas Wilson reflects on what a Christian church should look like, and how human nature wants to get it wrong. A glorious building without the gospel will soon be empty, and an ugly building is lying about the nature of our salvation.
From fundraising to the first Sunday, Douglas Wilson provides much-needed wisdom on how to go about building a church and filling it so as to expand greatly the opportunities for ministry, locally and nationally. After all, worshipping God is not a means to another end. Worshipping God is the highest calling that any human being has. It requires no other justification.
Reawakened : How Your Congregation Can Spark Lasting Change
$16.99Add to cartDoes your church have gummed-up gears? Or are you activated for ministry?
Are you relevant in the community in which you serve? More and more people are moving away from the church–not because they lack faith in God, but because the church is no longer relevant to their lives. The church, not God, is the problem. There are eight keys to unlocking the power of relevance in your ministry. In the pages of [title], Glen Guyton, executive director of a Mennonite denomination, explores those keys and gives practical suggestions to churches for reaching out. Offering a biblical scaffold for the idea of the activated church and sharing stories from successful ministries that are actively engaging their communities, Reawakened helps Christians ask the big questions about God’s work in the world.
Reawakened : Activate Your Congregation To Spark Lasting Change
$29.99Add to cartEvery church wants to make a lasting difference. Unlock the keys to how.
More and more people are moving away from the church-not because they lack faith in God but because the church is no longer relevant to their lives. The church, not God, is the problem. In Reawakened, Glen Guyton explores eight keys to developing the abilities of congregations to bring healing and hope to their communities. These eight keys give voice to the most urgent needs of a community and offer practical suggestions for how churches can spark holistic and lasting differences in their communities.
Built on a solid biblical framework, Rewakened positions churches as catalysts for transformative mission and change. Filled with stories from successful ministries that are actively engaging their communities, Reawakened helps Christians ask the big questions about God’s ongoing work in the world.
Indispensable Church : Powerful Ways To Flood Your Community With Love
$16.99Add to cartYou have a passionate desire to take the church outside its four walls and make the love of Jesus practical, visible, and lived out in daily life. But how? How do you put into action what is stirring in your heart?
Indispensable Church provides you and your church real-world, hands-on steps to create a revolution of service to your local community in the name of Christ. By exploring the life of Jesus and the strategic ways he modeled serving the people around him, pastor Chris Sonksen shows you how to put love into action in your neighborhood and your city. The step-by-step instructions, biblical challenges, and teaching resources will help you take love to the streets and make an impact right where you live.
Belong : Retracing The Way Of God’s Embracing Love
$16.99Add to cartWhile conversion is always a personal experience, discipleship never is. The church that Jesus established is meant to embrace and welcome all who want to be followers of Christ. Belong invites readers to dialogue with three ministry practitioners who are calling the church to return to its true identity as the body of Christ and its vocation to model our life together after our crucified and risen Lord. This book is not a surefire method to enhance church growth or yet another failproof evangelism tool. Reorienting the mission of the church can be painful and uncomfortable, but its purpose is to form a radically welcoming body where, with Jesus as the head, lives are transformed and hearts are set on God. Join Crocker, Kester, and Lobdell in reviving an ancient vision for the people of God to cultivate a community where everyone can Belong.
Enneagram Goes To Church
$18.00Add to cartIf I had known the Enneagram earlier in my ministry, I would have been a much better pastor.
When this thought came to Todd Wilson, he had already served as a pastor in several churches for the better part of fifteen years and was successfully leading a large, historic, and diverse congregation. He’d started out in ministry with a strong education in everything from biblical exegesis and homiletics to organizational development and Christian education. However, at its root, pastoral ministry is about shepherding, serving, leading, and loving people, and Todd realized that what he lacked was wisdom about how people work. He says, “When it came to empathetically shepherding people and sensitively engaging their manifold personalities and diverse ways of seeing the world, I was an amateur.” Whether you are on a church staff or leading a small group, you will find that the insights from the Enneagram that have helped many grow in self-awareness can be applied to life in our faith communities. The Enneagram can help us to become better teachers. It can influence how we develop worship and Christian education. And it can guide us in building and leading teams. It’s time to take the Enneagram to church–and to allow it to shape our life together.
How To Prepare Your Church For New Christians
$8.99Add to cartUpdated in 2020, this booklet will help you find practical tips and strategies to prepare your church for new Christians and how to equip new believers.
Is your church ready to care for new followers of Jesus Christ? Let’s consider some important questions: Is your church a place of love and acceptance? Is your church engaging in long-term training and discipleship of those who come to Christ? This booklet will help you find practical tips and strategies to answer these questions. Glean from the experience of thousands of churches that have successfully participated in Crusade evangelism sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Interactive Christianity : Connecting The Dots: The Interactions Of Christ
$20.99Add to cartWe are all bombarded with words and images. We are not conscious of most because our subconscious thinking filters them out. Yet too often the church relies almost exclusively on words and images to tell the most important story of all: the good news of Jesus Christ. In His book, Interactive Christianity, John W. Mowat takes us back to the methods and teachings of Jesus Christ Himself, all of which are relational, thus interactive. John examines three different areas of interaction. He believes that it is only when all 3 are healthy that larger numbers of individuals and groups of people can come to ongoing growing relationships with God. Any one of these relationships that are **missing, or out of focus, ** will tend to result in either; no birth, stillbirth, or choked birth. Jesus described this in the parable of the seed and soils. John examines **first our interaction with Jesus Christ.** This interaction he believes is foundational to the other two. Many will tend to skip over this believing they have arrived, however this is a mistake. Second, John examines **our interaction with unbelievers.** Some readers want to go to this section and skip the rest. While there is very critical information in this section; readers, especial pastors and teachers need to get the whole picture. Finally, John examines the **believer’s interaction with other believers, as we relate together to each other, and to the unbelieving world around us.** This is a complicated relationship. Learning to love is the greatest ongoing challenge of the Church, yet it is critical to the difference between making decisions and making disciples.
Devoted To Gods Church
$15.00Add to cartBeing a Christian is not an individualistic or isolated activity. Believing also involves belonging. Being a Christian, by definition, involves belonging to the church.
This is not a book full of ideas about how your church ought to change or what it needs to do in order to grow or to be successful. Rather it is about how we fit into our own church. There are hallmarks of church life that should be stamped on all our churches because they are applicable everywhere and anywhere — New Testament values for any size of church, in any part of the world, at any time.
Devoted to God’s Church will serve to help new Christians understand what it is to be part of a church, and will also be a refreshing reminder to every Christian of what it should look like to belong to the family of God.
Future Church : 7 Laws Of Real Church Growth
$24.99Add to cartChurch growth models have often been long on promises and short on disciple-making. We continue to watch consistent church attendance shrink, and our desire to reach the lost is infected with a need for self-validation by growing our numbers at any cost. If we believe that God wants his church to grow, where do we go from here? What is the future of the church?
Drawing from his 20 years and 15,000 hours of consulting, author Will Mancini shares with pastors and ministry leaders the single most important insight he has learned about church growth. With plenty of salient stories and based solidly on the disciple-making methods found in Scripture, Future Church exposes the church’s greatest challenge today, and offers 7 transforming laws of real church growth so that we can faithfully and joyfully fulfill Jesus’s Great Commission.
1 Blood : Parting Words To The Church On Race And Love
$15.99Add to cartDr. Perkins’ final manifesto on race, faith, and reconciliation
We are living in historic times. Not since the civil rights movement of the 60s has our country been this vigorously engaged in the reconciliation conversation. There is a great opportunity right now for culture to change, to be a more perfect union. However, it cannot be done without the church, because the faith of the people is more powerful than any law government can enact.
The church is the heart and moral compass of a nation. To turn a country away from God, you must sideline the church. To turn a nation to God, the church must turn first. Racism won’t end in America until the church is reconciled first. Then-and only then-can it spiritually and morally lead the way.
Dr. John M. Perkins is a leading civil rights activist today. He grew up in a Mississippi sharecropping family, was an early pioneer of the civil rights movement, and has dedicated his life to the cause of racial equality. In this, his crowning work, Dr. Perkins speaks honestly to the church about reconciliation, discipleship, and justice… and what it really takes to live out biblical reconciliation.
He offers a call to repentance to both the white church and the black church. He explains how band-aid approaches of the past won’t do. And while applauding these starter efforts, he holds that true reconciliation won’t happen until we get more intentional and relational. True friendships must happen, and on every level. This will take the whole church, not just the pastors and staff.
The racial reconciliation of our churches and nation won’t be done with big campaigns or through mass media. It will come one loving, sacrificial relationship at a time. The gospel and all that it encompasses has always traveled best relationally. We have much to learn from each other and each have unique poverties that can only be filled by one another. The way forward is to become “wounded healers” who bandage each other up as we discover what the family of God really looks like. Real relationships, sacrificial love between actual people, is the way forward. Nothing less will do.
Winsome Conviction : Disagreeing Without Dividing The Church
$20.00Add to cartIn today’s polarized context, Christians often have committed, biblical rationales for very different positions. How can Christians navigate disagreements with both truth and love? Tim Muehlhoff and Rick Langer provide lessons from conflict theory and church history on how to negotiate differing biblical convictions in order to move toward Christian unity.
We generally assume that those sitting around us in church share our beliefs. But when our personal convictions are contested by fellow Christians, everything changes. We feel attacked from behind. When other Christians doubt or deny our convictions, we don’t experience it as a mere difference of opinion, but as a violation of an unspoken agreement. Tim Muehlhoff and Rick Langer offer a guide to help Christians navigate disagreements with one another. In today’s polarized context, Christians often have committed, biblical rationales for very different positions. How do we discern between core biblical convictions and secondary issues? How do we cultivate better understanding and compassion for those we disagree with? Muehlhoff and Langer provide lessons from conflict theory and church history on how to avoid the dangers of groupthink and how to negotiate differing biblical convictions to avoid church splits and repair interpersonal ruptures. Christian unity is possible. Discover how we can navigate differences by speaking in both truth and love.
Church Called Tov
$22.99Add to cartWhat is the way forward for the church?
Tragically, in recent years, Christians have gotten used to revelations of abuses of many kinds in our most respected churches-from Willow Creek to Harvest, from Southern Baptist pastors to Sovereign Grace churches. Respected author and theologian Scot McKnight and former Willow Creek member Laura Barringer wrote this book to paint a pathway forward for the church.
We need a better way. The sad truth is that churches of all shapes and sizes are susceptible to abuses of power, sexual abuse, and spiritual abuse. Abuses occur most frequently when Christians neglect to create a culture that resists abuse and promotes healing, safety, and spiritual growth.
How do we keep these devastating events from repeating themselves? We need a map to get us from where we are today to where we ought to be as the body of Christ. That map is in a mysterious and beautiful little Hebrew word in Scripture that we translate “good,” the word tov.
In this book, McKnight and Barringer explore the concept of tov-unpacking its richness and how it can help Christians and churches rise up to fulfill their true calling as imitators of Jesus.
Bigger Table Expanded Edition With Study Guide
$22.00Add to cartThis new edition includes a small-group study guide complete with ideas for exploring A Bigger Table in a congregation-wide sermon series and program along with a new foreword by Jacqui Lewis and new afterword by the author to explore the challenges of living out the bigger table when voices of hate and exclusion seem stronger and louder than ever.
A Bigger Table invites readers to envision a church that is big enough for everyone, by holding up a mirror to the modern church and speaking clearly on issues at the heart of the Christian community: LGBT inclusion, gender equality, racial tensions, global concerns, and theological shifts. John Pavlovitz shares moving personal stories, his careful observations as a pastor, and his understanding of the ancient stories of Jesus to set the table for a new, positive, more loving conversation on these and other important matters of faith. Though there are many who would remove chairs and whittle down the guest list, we can build the bigger table Jesus imagined, practicing radical hospitality, total authenticity, messy diversity, and agenda-free community.
Volunteer Effect : How Your Church Can Find, Train, And Keep Volunteers Who
$19.00Add to cartEvery ministry needs capable and reliable volunteers, but so often it feels like no one is coming forward to fill your church’s needs. In reality, the people around us do want to volunteer their time and talents, but we often fail to connect potential volunteers to ministry opportunities or lose them somewhere along the way.
The Volunteer Effect is your start-to-finish guide to recruiting, leading, and retaining volunteers for your ministry. Based on solid management theory delivered in an engaging narrative form, this book shows you how to:
– recruit people to a mission, not just a role
– create low-risk entry points
– build a team that evokes pride
– train them for the bigger picture
– and much moreYour most effective volunteers are already in your church! Let this resource show you how to find–and keep–them.
Post Quarantine Church
$12.99Add to cartA trustworthy and respected guide for pastors and church leadership in the post-quarantine world, providing hope and vision for the future of your congregation.
From thousands of surveys of church leaders and in-person consultations, Thom Rainer and his Church Answers team have gathered the essential wisdom you will need to face the challenges and opportunities that the quarantine crisis creates for the local church, including:
New and better ways to lead the gathered churchA wide-open door for growing the digital churchA moment to rethink the facilitiesNew strategies for church growth . . . and much more!
This book is, in effect, your personal church consultant, helping you plan and prepare for the future. In the midst of heartbreak, tragedy, and struggle due to Covid-19, here’s hope, wisdom, encouragement and vision.
This book is valuable for those looking for local church and pastor resources to enhance church leadership, grow your church, and serve digital and online church communities in the post-quarantine world.
As a former pastor and founder of Church Answers, Thom S. Rainer is intimately familiar with the ever-present demands that pastors face. He has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of the local church.
Volunteers : How To Get Them, How To Keep Them
$6.99Add to cartI have written this book out of my experience working in small to medium sized churches. I address the great challenges of finding, training, and keeping volunteers. There are some simple techniques that I learned to have happy and engaged volunteers who do not get burned out.
I also spend time describing how you can run a successful children’s ministry with a minimum of people and yet not overburdening any of them. I talk about ways to combine functions so that you still cover all the age levels but in an efficient and effective manner.
Beautiful Community : Unity, Diversity, And The Church At Its Best
$17.00Add to cartThe church is at its best when it pursues the biblical value of unity in diversity. Our world has been torn asunder by racial, ethnic, and ideological differences. It is seen in our politics, felt in our families, and ingrained in our theology. Sadly, the church has often reinforced these ethnic and racial divides. To cast off the ugliness of disunity and heal our fractured humanity, we must cultivate spiritual practices that help us pursue beautiful community. In The Beautiful Community, pastor and theologian Irwyn Ince boldly unpacks the reasons for our divisions while gently guiding us toward our true hope for wholeness and reconciliation. God reveals himself to us in his trinitarian life as the perfection of beauty, and essential to this beauty is his work as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The gospel imperative to pursue the beautiful community-unity in diversity across lines of difference-is rooted in reflecting the beautiful community of our triune God. This book calls us into and provides tools for that pursuit.
Adept Church : Navigating Between A Rock And A Hard Place
$15.99Add to cartA theologically grounded, yet practical, user-friendly guide for church leaders seeking to save their churches. A methodical, logical approach for strategic development and decision-making. A clear process for showing congregations how to define their reality, and a map showing the way to move forward.
Offers a clear process to help congregations understand their situation by taking an honest “look in the mirror.”
Helps congregations build a realistic roadmap for moving forward.
Illustrates how the status quo (institutionalism) is rewarded and that seeking transformation goes against institutionalism.
Outlines what it means to be an adept church, a church that can navigate between a rock and a hard place because it makes decisions based upon where it needs to go and not where it is currently.
Provides practical, first step for congregations to move forward.
Part Time Is Plenty
$27.00Add to cartChurches experiencing numerical and financial decline may dread the day when they can no longer afford a full-time pastor. Freeing up funds that would go to a full-time salary sure would help the budget–maybe even enough to turn things around–but is it even possible to run effective ministries with just a half- or quarter-time professional? Journalist and part-time pastor Jeffrey MacDonald says yes–churches can grow more vibrant than ever, tapping into latent energy and undiscovered gifts, revitalizing worship, and engaging in more effective ministry with the community. Readers get a much-needed playbook for helping congregations to thrive with a part-time ministry model. They learn to see the model in a new light: to stop viewing part-time as a problem to be eradicated and to instead embrace it as a divine gift that facilitates a higher level of lay engagement, responsibility, playfulness, and creativity.
Gifted : Women In Leadership
$12.95Add to cartGifted – women in leadership. You would be mistaken if you thought this book was just for women. It looks at the history of women in church life and leadership, at egalitarianism and complementarism and says – women are leaders and so are men , what can we learn from each other ? It’s looks at different leadership styles, gifts and skills. And it’s also includes other women’s stories from Margaret Sentamu and Christy Wimber to a Vicky Thompson and Bev Murrill. There are other contributors.
When Narcissism Comes To Church
$24.00Add to cartWhy does narcissism seem to thrive in our churches?
We’ve seen the news stories and heard the rumors. Maybe we ourselves have been hurt by a narcissistic church leader. It’s easy to throw the term around and diagnose others from afar. But what is narcissism, really? And how does it infiltrate the church? Chuck DeGroat has been counseling pastors with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, as well as those wounded by narcissistic leaders and systems, for over twenty years. He knows firsthand the devastation narcissism leaves in its wake and how insidious and painful it is. In When Narcissism Comes to Church, DeGroat takes a close look at narcissism, not only in ministry leaders but also in church systems. He offers compassion and hope for those affected by its destructive power and imparts wise counsel for churches looking to heal from its systemic effects. DeGroat also offers hope for narcissists themselves–not by any shortcut, but by the long, slow road of genuine recovery, possible only through repentance and trust in the humble gospel of Jesus.
Our Witness To The World
$12.99Add to cartConcise Wisdom from a Seasoned Pastoral Veteran
The Kingdom Pastor’s Library is a new series of books that brings you a succinct, complete pastoral philosophy and training from Tony Evans.
Our Witness to the World teaches you how to equip every member of your church to go out into their neighborhoods and do effective outreach. It also demonstrates how important social impact is for the spreading of the gospel.
Faithful. Powerful. Practical. Become a Kingdom Pastor Today.
Growing A Healthy Church
$14.99Add to cart19 Chapters
Additional Info
Sheep Swapping. Shuffling of the Saints. Whatever you call it, many churches are growing only because Christians transfer from one church to another. What’s more, many churches aren’t growing at all.The problem, according to authors Dann Spader and Gary Mayes, is that too many church calendars are filled with out-dated, mediocre programs that have become more of a burden than a blessing. That, coupled with the fact that these programs minister almost exclusively to Christians, leaves little for the non-Christian ‘seeker’ to get excited about.
Growing a Healthy Church is not a list of trendy new programs for your church agenda. It is a journey of rediscovery. Dann Spader and Gary Mayes look closely at the four stages of spiritual growth in relation to outreach. Using the innovative “M-level” system, these gifted men show how a church can minister to all individuals regardless of their levels of maturity in potential service. This helps eliminate the mistakes of forcing new Christians into service that may overwhelm them or may leave the mature Christian unchallenged.
Proven successful through SonLife and churches who have used this system, this resource will help you focus on the simplicity of Christ’s ministry, enabling you to build an effective discipline strategy for your church.
Faith That Dares To Speak
$24.95Add to cartThe Catholic Church at the dawn of the twenty-first century is arguably the last feudal system in the West. Once the feudal structure of the church is recognized, the bishops’ response to the clergy abuse crisis comes into focus. Bishops and other church authorities reacted to the scandal the only way their feudal culture allowed–with secrecy, denial, and a no holds barred effort to protect the reputation, authority, and resources of the institution. While tragic, and in many cases reprehensible, their response was consistent with the way feudal systems function.
In Faith That Dares to Speak, Donald Cozzens addresses the laity’s role in challenging a feudal church to embrace accountability and transparency and to bring light where there is now darkness. Awakened to their dignity and responsibility as full, equal, and adult members of the church, lay Catholics in North America are finding their voice and daring to speak to church authorities long accustomed to deferential obedience and compliance.
Church life, Cozzens believes, will never be quite the same.
The current crisis in the Church, while profoundly disturbing and troubling, offers possibilities for a renewed and revitalized Church. In Faith That Dares to Speak, Cozzens underscores the critical need for laity and clergy to speak honestly and courageously to church authorities. He addresses the obstacles to faithful speech as well as the spiritual and moral foundations of mature, adult conversation and commitment. The current crisis in the Church, while profoundly disturbing and troubling, offers possibilities for a renewed and revitalized Church. In Faith That Dares to Speak, Cozzens underscores the critical need for laity and clergy to speak honestly and courageously to church authorities. He addresses the obstacles to faithful speech as well as the spiritual and moral foundations of mature, adult conversation and commitment.
Chapters include “The Courage to Speak,” “The Humility to Listen,” “Love That Dares to Question,” “The Liberation of the Laity,” “Voice of the Faithful,” and “Contemplative Conversation.”
Our Fathers House
$14.99Add to cartMost people visit a church for the first time either by invitation or reputation. Many books have been written on the subject of personal evangelism and the importance of being a bringer. This book however, explores the power of reputation specifically, God’s reputation as upheld and reflected in a church’s culture. Based on the story of the Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon and how her initial encounter with his kingdom left her breathless and astounded, this book explores the profound effect a church’s culture can have on the heart of a seeker as they pursue rumors of King Jesus and His Kingdom. It warns that Kingdom-culture doesn’t happen by chance, but only as every member of the King’s household lays down their own comfortable and familiar culture to surrender instead to the common culture of Heaven. This book has been written to inspire every Christian to vigilantly uphold Heaven’s culture when living, loving and serving in the Father’s House their local church. It implores us all not to waste another minute in engaging our God-given gifts and talents to create Heaven on Earth so that the Kingdom of God might be revealed in all of its glory to a world that is in desperate need of its wisdom, power and atmosphere. Only then, having tasted Heaven, will lost people truly desire to seek out this Kingdom s magnificent King!
Liquid Church : 6 Powerful Currents To Saturate Your City For Christ
$18.99Add to cartWhat’s the difference between a thriving Christ-centered church that’s saturating its city with the Gospel, and other churches that love the Lord, but are plateaued or declining? A key part of the answer lies in identifying new wineskins for ministry, ones that can earn a fresh hearing for the Gospel with spiritually thirsty generations.In a fluid, rapidly-changing world, every church struggles with finding fresh ways to win a hearing for Christ with the current generation. What worked 20, 10 or even 5 years ago too often loses its effectiveness as our world experiences a tsunami of cultural change, especially among the younger rising generations. Church leaders want to know not only how people are responsive today, but also why. They want to understand how leading churches are pouring the living water of Jesus Christ through new wineskins, and how some of the ideas, along with their underlying values, could work for them as well.Looking underneath Liquid Church’s phenomenal growth from a dozen people to more than 5,000 weekly attenders in 12 years, this book explains how this vibrant church has pioneered a number of ministry shifts that has resulted in strong cross-generational appeal. How does a church effectively saturate its community with the good news about Jesus without diluting the truth and power of the gospel? Lucas and Bird look at seven spiritual currents that churches can leverage to reposition themselves for community impact while holding fast to the timeless, unchanging truth of Christ. These shifts reflect national trends as well, and the authors include examples of how other churches are doing the same thing in different cultural contexts.
Honest Guide To Church Planting
$17.99Add to cartChurch planting has become a cottage industry. National conferences, hip planting organizations, and all-in-one resource kits celebrate the thrill of pioneering a church and inspire visions of glorious victories. Yet few who respond to the call are warned what they’ll actually encounter: the relentless opposition they’ll endure; the eventual scattering of their entire core group; the failure of their tried-and-true, field-tested system.Here’s the dirty little secret of church planting: the roadside is strewn with casualties. Many have closed their churches. Some left ministry permanently. Others abandoned the faith altogether.Church planting is at once the greatest and most grueling ministry work on earth. This book is for those toiling in the trenches, those about to bail out, and those considering jumping in. It’s for the church planters laboring and struggling, seeing little movement, and wondering what they’re doing wrong or why God is failing them. It’s also for mother churches, planting organizations, and denominations, as a challenge to rethink and re-calibrate the way they approach and measure planting endeavors.The Honest Guide to Church Planting is a fresh and candid conversation about the challenges and joys of planting new churches. Tom Bennardo speaks the truth so that those involved in church planting can embrace a more accurate and realistic picture of what planting a church is really like; one that not only enables them to survive, but to thrive in this difficult work.
Rooting For Rivals
$18.00Add to cartFaith-based organizations are sometimes known for what we’re against–and all too often that includes being against each other. But amid growing distrust of religious institutions, Christ-centered nonprofits have a unique opportunity to link arms and collectively pursue a calling higher than any one organization’s agenda.
Rooting for Rivals reveals how your ministry can multiply its impact by cooperating, rather than competing. Peter Greer and Chris Horst explore case studies illustrating the power of collaborative ministry. They also vulnerably share their own failures and successes in pursuing a kingdom mind-set. Discover the power of openhanded leadership to make a greater impact on the world
Bridgebuilding : Making Peace With Conflict In The Church
$27.00Add to cartThere is a prevailing culture of ‘niceness’ within churches which can lead to conflict avoidance, suppression and denial. Consequently, ministers and church leaders often struggle to handle tensions, difference and competing demands within their congregations.
Drawing on practical theology, conflict theory, family systems theory and experience, Bridgebuilding will help church ministers and church members find more fruitful ways of engaging with tensions and conflicts in the life of the Church. It offers numerous practical tools for transforming conflict into opportunities for personal and corporate growth.
It complements the ‘Growing Bridgebuilders’ training course developed by Bridge Builders with CPAS.
Hope For Healing Church Wounds
$8.99Add to cartStatistics from George Barna Research Group reveal that twenty-five to thirty million adults stay away from the Christian church because of hurtful treatment experienced at the hands of the body of Christ. Having gone through several church hurts himself, the author has written this book to be a practice guide on how to be restored, renewed and healed from church inflicted wounds so that one’s relationship to God is joyous and fruitful.
From his own experience and documented research through surveys to pastor’s, church members and non-church goers, the author provides a training manual that churches and church leaders can use to reach and restore church members to a healthy relationship with God and His church. We all want the church to be a place where we can go to worship God with freedom and joy. We all want to be encouraged to grow in our faith and walk with Christ. We all want a place where we find joy in serving others, a place of safety and unconditional love. No one wants to be part of a church that acts like the world, treating people with judgment, condemnation, lack of compassion and love. Church wounds happen but God is a restorer of the broken hearted. God is the great healer of our pain and disappointment. The author believes that if one takes the steps outlined in the book, there will be renewal and restoration. If churches reach out to those who have been wounded in the way outlined in this book, many will come back into fellowship with the Lord and His church.
Re Membering God
$19.95Add to cart* Reflections on tradition and change for the twenty-first-century church * Something for both newcomers and those familiar with liturgy and spirituality Like the scribe and master of the household cited by Jesus in Matthew 13, Re-membering God “brings out of treasure what is new and what is old,” and empowers us to go and do likewise. As both critique and encouragement for the church in the early part of the twenty-first century, it seeks to reclaim the foundational riches of the church’s liturgy and spirituality in the face of cul-tural change. These resources, some lost or neglected and others under-utilized, can help rebuild the church, raising up what has been cast down and renewing what has grown old. This series of reflections explore with discernment what is “fashionable,” and acknowledge the deepest and most endur-ing human needs and hopes, which only God can answer. Re-membering God puts liturgical and spiritual practice into terms easily understood by both newcomers and seasoned devotees, for the benefit of this and future generations. Understanding the value of the past and with an eye to the future, this book will inform our next conversations about evangelism and church growth.
How The Body Of Christ Talks
$19.00Add to cartIn today’s highly-charged social and political environment, we often don’t know how to talk well with others–especially people whose backgrounds differ from our own C. Christopher Smith, coauthor of the critically acclaimed and influential Slow Church, addresses why conversation has become such a challenge in the 21st century and argues that it is perhaps the most needed spiritual practice of our individualistic age.
Smith likens practicing conversation to the working of the human body. Bodies are wondrous symphonies of diverse, intricate parts striving for our health, and our health suffers when these parts fail to converse effectively. Likewise, we must learn to converse effectively with those who differ from us in the body of Christ so we can embody Christ together in the world. In community, we learn what it means to belong to others and to a story that is bigger than ourselves.
Smith shows how church communities can be training hubs where we learn to talk and listen to each other with kindness and compassion. The book explores how churches can initiate and sustain conversation, including working through seasons of conflict; suggests the contours of a spirituality that can foster conversation; and features stories from a diverse range of congregations that are learning to practice conversation.
Connecting For A Change
$16.99Add to cartAt its simplest, Mission Strategy is about aligning the what, who, how and when with God’s why. Learn to implement Mission Strategy in your community of faith! Church and community relevance and vitality depends on leaders who see their situation through the lens of mission strategy. At its simplest, mission strategy is about aligning the what, who, how and when with God’s why. The authors have lived Mission Strategy in a variety of bold ways and have helped others do the same. In doing so, they have created vitality in existing congregations and in newly formed clusters of churches. They have helped create zones of innovation and new ministry development. The sky is the limit when pastors, church leaders and laity in local churches begin emphasizing mission strategy in their conferences, regions, neighborhoods and churches.
Becoming A Makeover Congregation
$16.95Add to cart“There can be no resurrection without a death.”
This quote from H. George Anderson, former presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), speaks to the makeover approach to ministry that evolved during the course of more than nine years at a small, struggling congregation in Janesville, Iowa called Messiah Lutheran Church.
When Pastor Beth Olson arrived, members told her they weren’t sure from week to week if they would see each other in worship or if the church would even be open the following Sunday.
How did that same congregation, then, end up building the first new church and education unit in the Northwest Iowa Synod? How did it come to host an ELCA Division for Outreach regional workshop on ministry in action? How did this congregation, which had looked death in the eye, experience a resurrection few might have expected?
The answers are in Becoming a Makeover Congregation, a story that shows how things as diverse as glow sticks for Christmas Eve worship, jumper cables as an image for transformational ministry and a makeover scene from the Disney movie The Princess Diaries can bring about resurrection and renewal. Pastor Olson’s story will equip you to assemble your own makeover for mission and ministry toolkit so you too can celebrate the power of resurrection in your church.
Piloting Church : Helping Your Congregation Take Flight
$19.99Add to cartA majority of churches are grounded – shrinking in membership and resources, unsure how to make the changes needed to be vital again. Pastor and pilot Cameron Trimble has helped hundreds of congregations get airborne again, and Piloting Church: Helping Your Congregation Take Flight guides you through the steps to getting your congregation out of the maintenance hangar and back into the skies. Using piloting as an engaging framework for organizational transformation, Trimble addresses the process of planning, executing, and completing a church revitalization project in 10 easy-to-read chapters:
– Decide You Want to Fly
– What Kind of Pilot Will You Be?
– The Fundamentals of Flight
– Your Flight Crew
– Charting Your Course
– Preflight Checklist – Funding Your Flying Habit
– Managing Comms
– Mayday Moments
– Making a Successful LandingTrimble is the executive director and CEO of the Center for Progressive Renewal (CPR) and has years of experience helping to start new congregations and revitalize older congregations. Piloting Church reflects her learnings as a congregational consultant and national faith leader. Having worked with twelve denominational partners and their congregations, she believes the Church’s best days are ahead.
Church And Foster Care
$15.99Add to cartWith roughly 500,000 children and growing in America’s foster care system, the new mission field for the church is clear. The Church & Foster Care shows how to simply engage in life-giving ministry to an underserved community. From real-life situations, foster care parent, educator, and advocate Dr. John DeGarmo lays out why God is calling the church to become involved. Sharing from the decades of support he received from his local church, this book is filled with practical and manageable suggestions on how to meet practical needs while planting seeds of faith.
Benedictine Reader 530-1530
$49.95Add to cartThis Benedictine Reader, 530-1530, has been more than twenty years in the making. A collaboration of a dozen scholars, this project gives as broad and deep a sense of the reality of the first one thousand years of Benedictine monasticism as can be done in one volume, using primary sources in English translation. The texts included are drawn from many different genres and from several languages and areas of Europe. The introduction to each of the thirty-two chapters aims to situate each author and text and to make connections with other texts and studies within and outside the Reader. The general introduction summarizes the main ideas and practices that are present in the Rule of Saint Benedict and in the first thousand years of Benedictine monasticism while suggesting questions that a reader might bring to the texts.
Letters To The Church
$22.99Add to cartMillions are satisfied to sit through hour-long, weekly religious services. Millions more have left the church, brokenhearted and cynical. But God is waking up His people–people who will risk everything and sacrifice anything to become the dynamic, powerful Church seen in Scripture.
We Are Church calls Christ-followers, young and old, to hold fast to their biblical roots while seeking radical change. Scripture promises an exuberant and unstoppable Church. That wondrous early church of Acts can be our reality today–but not until we devote ourselves to her original priorities.
Read this book and be challenged, guided, and encouraged to passionately pursue God’s magnificent and beautiful vision for His Church. Come and claim your part in this body of believers that is not just possible–it’s promised.
Awesome Glory : Resurrection In Scripture, Liturgy, And Theology
$19.95Add to cartIn Awesome Glory, Abbot Jeremy Driscoll offers readers a deep dive into the mystery of the Resurrection of Jesus. Starting from the conviction that the liturgy is meant to be for Christians an immediate and effective contact with the Resurrection, this profound book draws out the riches of each celebration from the Paschal Triduum through Pentecost. Abbot Jeremy focuses particularly on the Scripture texts of Mass, but also on important rituals like the washing of feet, the lucernarium, and the baptism of catechumens.
Loaded with new insights and approaches, this book will be a welcome resource for homilists, pastors, liturgy directors, catechists, faith formation leaders, scholars, and any Christian adult who wants to better understand, teach, and live the startlingly good news of Christ’s Resurrection.
Healing Racial Divides
$19.99Add to cartCan the church help America emerge from its racist shadows empowered to heal racial divides? Church pastor and former police officer Terrell Carter says yes.
While our faith inarguably calls Christians to unity, the hard fact remains: we’re still tragically divided when it comes to race, even – and especially, many say — in our churches. Racism pervades our faith, our relationships, and our institutions in deep, often imperceptible ways. In Healing Racial Divides, Terrell Carter, a pastor, professor and former police officer takes us on a revelatory journey into the abyss of the racial divide and shows us how we’ve arrived at this divisive place. Understanding racism’s roots – and our place in it – we surface more committed and empowered to defeat racism once and for all.
Drawing from the Bible, scholarly research, and personal experience as a both a former police officer and a black pastor serving white congregations, Carter unpacks the deep roots of racism in America, how it continues to be perpetuated today, and practical strategies for racial reconciliation. Looking forward, he shapes a bold and faithful vision for healing racial division through multicultural communities focused on relationship, listening, and learning from each other.
With a pastor’s heart and an academic’s head, Carter invites us to look at where we’ve been-and where God calls us as spiritually mature Christians, seeking healing and true unity on earth.
Neighborhood Church : Transforming Your Congregation Into A Powerhouse For
$22.00Add to cartHow can we embody the values of love, grace, and justice? As faith communities, how can our collective embodiment of these values shine even brighter? The answers to these questions must always unfold right here, right now, exactly where God has planted us. Neighborhood Churchacts as a resource to inspire churches to become a vibrant and engaging community partner with the families and neighborhoods living around them. The need for transformation is acute. Congregational decline continues across all mainline denominations. The abandonment of the church by the millennial generation is ubiquitous; no denomination is escaping it. This is, in part, a consequence of disconnection from our communities. Van Tatenhove and Mueller believe that, parish by parish, we can reverse this trend. They dare to have an audacious hope for local congregations not only as signs of God’s kingdom but as life-giving institutions that anchor their neighborhoods. Drawing on their combined sixty years of parish experience, wisdom from Asset-Based Community Development, and compelling case stories, Van Tatenhove and Mueller do more than just call us to incarnational ministry. They give practical, essential tools that lead to communal conversion, develop the DNA of listening, spur fruitful partnerships, promote integrated space, and sustain long-term visions. They believe these tools will spark true revival and unleash the power of incarnational ministry.
Glad Obedience : Why And What We Sing
$22.00Add to cartThe Christian practice of hymn singing, says renowned biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann, is a countercultural act. It marks the Christian community as different from an unforgiving and often ungrateful culture. It is also, he adds, an “absurd enterprise” in the midst of the hyper-busy, market-driven society that surrounds us. In this helpful and engaging volume, Brueggemann discusses both why we sing and what we sing. The first part of the book examines the Psalms and what they can teach us about the reasons that corporate song is a part of the Christian tradition. The second part looks at fifteen popular hymns, including classic and contemporary ones such as “Blest Be the Ties That Binds,” “God’s Eye Is on the Sparrow,” “Once to Every Man and Nation,” “Someone Asked the Question,” and “We Are Marching in the Light of God,” and the reasons why they have caught our imagination.
“To know why we sing,” Brueggemann writes, “may bring us to a deeper delight in our singing and a strengthened resolve to sing without calculation before the God ‘who is enthroned on the praises of Israel’ (Ps. 22:3).
Church Happens : What Your Pastor Needs From The People They Lead
$3.99Add to cartAn invaluable resource for pastors as well as church members and a needful tool that can be a building block to the church and surrounding communities.
Humilitas : A Lost Key To Life Love And Leadership
$17.99Add to cartHumility, or holding power loosely for the sake of others, is sorely lacking in today’s world. Without it, many people fail to develop their true leadership potential and miss out on genuine fulfillment in their lives and their relationships. Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership shows how the virtue of humility can turn your strengths into true greatness in all areas of life. Through the lessons of history, business, and the social sciences, author John Dickson shows that humility is not low self-esteem, groveling, or losing our distinct gifts. Instead, humility both recognizes our inherent worth and seeks to use whatever power we have at our disposal on behalf of others. Some of the world’s most inspiring and influential players have been people of immense humility. The more we learn about humility, the more we understand how essential it is to a satisfying career and personal life. By embracing this virtue, we will transform for good the unique contributions we each make to the world.
Church Forsaken : Practicing Presence In Neglected Neighborhoods
$16.00Add 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.
Reciprocal Church : Becoming A Community Where Faith Flourishes Beyond High
$20.00Add to cartIntroduction: Reciprocal Church
Part 1: A Theological Vision For The Reciprocal Church
1. Eating Melon On Tuesdays: Young People And Faith
2. Galloping Mares: The Gospel Without Christ’s Church
3. A Vital Identity: God Gathers A People
4. A Vital Purpose: Christ Is Reconciling Relationships
5. A Vital Avenue: The Spirit Transforms You, Me, And UsPart 2: Values And Practices For Flourishing Communities
6. Tetherballs And Floodlights: Valuing Memory
7. The Oxpecker’s Gift: Valuing Mutuality
8. Seeing Beyond The Epidemic: Recognizing Potential
9. Moving Beyond The Epidemic: Valuing Contribution
10. Windmills Of Hope: Valuing MaturityEpilogue: Faith Flourishes With Practice
Acknowledgments
Discussion Questions
NotesAdditional Info
The church faces an unprecedented loss of rising generations. Young adults who were active and engaged in the local church are leaving the community behind after high school. What can we do? Responding to these concerning statistics, Sharon Galgay Ketcham reflects theologically on the church community and its role in forming faith. She exposes problems in the way leaders conceive of and teach about the relationship between individual faith and the local church, and offers fresh solutions in the form of values and practices that can shape a community into a place where faith will flourish in those both young and old.
Welcoming Justice : Gods Movement Toward Beloved Community
$18.00Add to cartWe have seen progress in recent decades toward Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of beloved community. But this is not only because of the activism and sacrifice of a generation of civil rights leaders. It happened because God was on the move.
Historian and theologian Charles Marsh partners with veteran activist John Perkins to chronicle God’s vision for a more equitable and just world. Perkins reflects on his long ministry and identifies key themes and lessons he has learned, and Marsh highlights the legacy of Perkins’s work in American society. Together they show how abandoned places are being restored, divisions are being reconciled, and what individuals and communities are now doing to welcome peace and justice.
Now updated with a new preface to reflect on current social realities, this book reveals ongoing lessons for the continuing struggle for a just society. Come, discover your part in the beloved community. There is unfinished work still to do.
99 Prayers Your Church Needs But Doesnt Know It Yet
$9.99Add to cartWhen the unexpected comes and you can’t find the words to pray, 99 Prayers Your Church Needs (But Doesn’t Know It Yet) will provide the starting point that will help lead you to the prayer your congregation or pastor needs. From prayers for a family who has lost a loved one to addiction, to a prayer for the new pastor in a new congregation, these 99 prayers will help you respond to a multitude of unexpected prayer requests? whether celebratory or grieving, or somewhere in between?in the course of your congregation’s life.
Peacemaking Church
$15.99Add to cartWhen human beings are involved in any endeavor, conflict is inevitable. But the best fight is the one a church never has to have because its members have been intentionally cultivating practices that lead to peace and preserve unity. Whether they are dealing with conflict right now or hoping to avoid it later, church members, pastors, and ministry leaders will benefit from the proactive approach to peacemaking found in The Peacemaking Church, which will equip them with the knowledge and practices they need to instill in their church leadership and membership. Foreword by Ken Sande.
Ordinary Radicals : A Return To Christ Centered Discipleship
$13.99Add to cartChurch leadership must be focused on discipleship. If you have a leadership problem, you have a discipleship problem, and if you have a discipleship problem, you have a Great Commission problem. This book offers a step-by-step process for living out the Great Commission to revolutionize the world through the local church.
Catholic All Year Compendium
$19.95Add to cartIf you’ve been wondering how to bring the rich traditions of the Catholic Church’s liturgical year into your home and into your family, this is the book for you. If you have no idea what the liturgical calendar is, this still might be the book for you, if you are looking for ways to bring your faith home from Sunday Mass, in every season, all year long.
Catholic blogger and mother of many, Kendra Tierney shares how her family incorporates traditional Catholic practices into today’s family life throughout the Church year–from Advent and Christmas, through Lent and Easter, to Pentecost and beyond. She provides ideas for stories, decorations, activities, and foods that will help you to celebrate your Catholic faith with your family and friends without expertise or much advance planning. She also offers tips and tricks from her fifteen years in the Catholic mommy trenches on things like surviving bringing young children to Mass and saying a family Rosary.
Whether you’re a convert or a revert, an expert theologian or a brand-new Catholic, a member of a big family or a little one, a stay-at-home or a working parent, you’re sure to find ways to make your Catholic faith a memorable and meaningful part of your busy family life. And have fun doing it!
8 Virtues Of Rapidly Growing Churches
$17.99Add to cartLeaders who are interested in planting or revitalizing congregations often feel discouraged and defeated after leadership conferences, or after reading about the ‘heroes’ of church planting and church growth. “They are amazing,” they say. “I can’t be that amazing.” But Jesus’ load is easy and his burden is light. When we examine the practices and characteristics of those ‘heroes’, we see striking trends and commonalities. Aspiring church leaders can learn the practices and develop the characteristics that will lead to successful churches. Instead of feeling defeated, new leaders should have a hope-filled sense of what new thing they can do. Authors Matt Miofsky and Jason Byasse carefully researched, interviewed, and profiled successful church-growers across the U.S., and identified 8 characteristics these leaders and their congregations have in common. These pastors are still learning, still figuring out how to do this work and how to faithfully live into God’s call. But for now, how are they doing what they do? What mistakes have they made & learned from? Where have they paid the stupid tax that others should avoid? Each of these ‘heroes’ is painfully ordinary and up front about their flaws. And each can see slightly farther than the rest of us. What do they see that we can learn from? Discover the 8 characteristics, and learn how to adapt them for your own congregation and calling.
Book Of The Elders
$49.95Add to cartIn the early part of the fourth century, a few Christians, mostly men and some women, began to withdraw from “the world” to retreat into the desert, there to practice their new religion more seriously. The person who aspired to “renounce the world” first had to find an “elder,” a person who would accept him as a disciple and apprentice. To his elder (whom he would address as abba–father) the neophyte owed complete obedience; from his abba, he would receive provisions (as it were) for the road to virtue. In addition to the abba’s own example of living, there was the verbal teaching of the elders in sayings and tales, setting out the theory and practice of the eremitic life.
In due course, these sayings (or apophthegmata) were written down and, later, collected and codified. The earliest attempts to codify tales and sayings are now lost. As the collection grew, they were first organized alphabetically, according to the name of the abba who spoke them, in a major collection known as the Apophthegmata Patrum Alphabetica. A supplementary collection, the Anonymous Apophthegmata, followed. Later, both collections were combined and arranged systematically rather than alphabetically. This collection was created sometime between 500 and 575 and later went through a couple of major revisions, the second of which appeared sometime before 970.
This second revision was published in an excellent new critical edition, with a French translation, in 1993. Now, in The Book of the Elders, John Wortley offers an English translation of this collection, based entirely on the Greek of that text.
Elemental Life : Mystery And Mercy In The Work Of Father Matthew Kelty OCSO
$19.95Add to cartFather Matthew Kelty was an especially beloved monk at the historic Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. Perhaps best known as Thomas Merton’s colleague and confessor in the year prior to Merton’s death, Father Matthew was also an enormously gifted spiritual writer in his own right, one whose homilies at Gethsemani attracted a wide following. This is the first book-length study of Matthew Kelty’s life in relation to his spiritual writings and his profound reflections on the virtues of the monastic life in the modern age.
Placemaking And The Arts
$30.00Add 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.
Surrender To Christ For Mission
$24.95Add to cartThis multiauthor book celebrates the bicentenary of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), founded by St. Eugene de Mazenod, and arises from an international conference on French spiritual traditions hosted by the Oblates in San Antonio, Texas, in November 2016. More broadly, this book aims to make available to a wide readership the riches of the important family of French spiritual traditions originating between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries–not least the emphasis on mission to the poor. French traditions have been greatly underestimated in conventional histories of Christian spirituality, but their spiritual wisdom offers much to today’s believers.
Catholic Traditions And Treasures
$19.95Add to cartNew converts and cradle Catholics alike are often perplexed by the myriad of devotions, traditions, practices, and beliefs that the Catholic Church has accumulated over the past twenty centuries. Why pray to St. Anthony to find something lost? Why keep a St. Christopher medal in your car? Or why bury a statue of St. Joseph – upside down! – in your yard when selling your house?
In Helen Hoffner’s lovingly-illustrated, encyclopedic Catholic Treasures and Traditions, you’ll find succinct – and sometimes amusing – answers to these and hundreds of other questions. This delightful book explains the origin and nature of most of the common traditions of the Catholic Faith, as well as the source and meaning of many of the quaint and obscure ones.
From Forty Hours to First Fridays and from Holy Hours to Holy Days, you’ll find in these pages an informative, delightful compendium of the Catholic way of life, including information about:
Novenas * Penance * Prayers for the Dead * First Fridays * Votive Candles * Religious Medals * St. Francis Statues * Bathtub Madonnas * Holy Cards * Crucifixes * House Blessings * Prayer Corners * Advent Calendars * Jesse Trees * Marian Apparitions * Vestments * Icons * Divine Mercy * The Sacred Heart * The Liturgical Year * Holy Days * Religious Orders * The Holy See * The Roman Curia * The Divine Office * Holy Oils * Genuflecting * Relics * Stations of the Cross * The Sacraments * The Angelus * Litanies * Patron Saints
Letters To The Church
$17.99Add to cartLetters to the Church reminds readers how powerful the Church can be and calls this generation to passionately pursue God’s vision for His beloved Bride.
God’s Church started as a radical, spiritually intimate gathering of believers that ultimately changed history. Yet millions today are content to be mere observers at church. Many more have left, brokenhearted and cynical. But God is waking up His people-people who will risk anything and sacrifice everything to be the dynamic, world-changing Church of Scripture.
In Letters to the Church, Francis Chan invites readers to wrestle with the fact that many churches have drifted from God’s desire for them. He challenges Christians to ask, “What does God want for His Church? When Jesus returns, will He find us caring for His Bride-even more than for our own lives?”
Speaking out of deep love for the Church, Chan guides Christ followers to live out God’s magnificent and beautiful vision for His Church-a vision we may have lost but God has never forgotten.
Exploring Worship Third Edition
$19.00Add 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.
Leading From Horseback
$16.99Add to cartHorses are accustomed to leaders. They want a leader. They expect a leader. A person becomes a leader of horses by making the horse move his or her feet-like the dominant mare in the pasture. She asserts and establishes her position by making the other horses move. She applies subtle pressure, such as pinning her ears. If that doesn’t work, she increases the pressure with a nip or a kick until she gets the other horse to move away from her. Lead horses in wild herds discipline young horses who are being unruly, by using the horse equivalent of a “time out.” They drive the trouble maker out of the herd until the rebel is contrite and changes behavior. When he or she starts acting like a respectable citizen again, the horse is allowed back in. The world of horsemanship has much to teach us about ministry leadership. From the first bridle to horse’s last day in the barn, horse-lovers know that life with a horse is a complicated, challenging, beautiful, and sometimes bewildering experience. It takes Patience, Partnership, Communication, Trust, and Preparation-among other qualities-to train and enjoy life with a horse. Those same qualities are essential in good leaders. Jim Cowart, a pastor and horseman, shares leadership lessons he’s learned in the stables of Georgia, working with horses and professional trainers. Cowart also shares distinct insights from Australia’s legendary horseman Clinton Anderson. Written in Cowart’s easygoing style, and full of humor, this book brings a light and engaging touch to a serious subject, and is packed with practical advice and instruction. Jim Cowart is the founding pastor of Harvest Church, a United Methodist congregation in Warner Robins, GA, near Macon. Harvest Church, launched in 2001, has an average attendance of nearly 3,000 each weekend. The church grows primarily through professions of faith from new Christians. Jim is the author or coauthor of Start This Stop That, Grab-Gather and Grow, Living the Five, Grounded in Prayer, and Grounded in Creed. Jim serves as a trainer and coach, helping pastors launch and maintain healthy church environments. For more information go to harvestchurch4u.org. Serenity Al Jannat, who answers to the name, Seri, is a Straight Egyptian Arabian mare from the Dahmah Shahwan Strain. She can trace her lineage back to King Solomon’s stables in Israel, but now lives in Middle Georgia with her best buddy Jim Arch Cowart.
Everyday Life At La Trappe Under Armand Jean De Rance
$29.95Add to cartThis is an annotated translation of the classic Description de l’abbaye de La Trappe, the most important eye-witness account of life at the abbey of La Trappe under Armand-Jean de Rance. The work includes a map showing the physical layout of the abbey and detailed discussions of the monks’ daily life and practice. It was written by Andre Felibien des Avaux for Jeanne de Schomberg, duchess of Liancourt, in 1671, with a new and enlarged edition being published in 1689. That is the edition translated here, with copious notes to help the reader appreciate Felibien’s account.
Mapping Church Missions
$20.00Add to cartForeword By Paul Borthwick
Introduction: Charting Our Course
1. Good News And Good Deeds
2. Neighbors Near And Far
3. Crisis Response And Sustainable Development
4. Time And Money
5. Benefits And Drawbacks Of Short-Term Teams
6. Serving The Undiscipled And Discipling The Servant
7. Minimizing And Embracing Risk
Conclusion: Mobilizing Our Congregations
Acknowledgments
Appendix 1: Beyond Minute For Missions: Connecting Churches With Mission Partners
Appendix 2: Scenarios For Further Reflection
NotesAdditional Info
The terrain of church missions is often bewildering.Should we prioritize evangelism or works of service? Local ministries or overseas missions? What’s more important: giving our money or giving our time? Crisis relief or building sustainable, long-term ministries? And what about the often debated pros and cons of short-term missions trips?
In Mapping Church Missions, Sharon Hoover brings her years of experience in local church missions to bear on these and other thorny questions. Instead of taking a hardline stance on one end of the spectrum or the other, she approaches each question with nuance, adding helpful data, presenting new perspectives, and always pressing gently past surface questions to the heart of the matter.
Whether we’re fully aware of it or not, our churches come up against these questions whenever we consider how best to use our resources for the mission of God. Written by an experienced guide, this book maps the terrain of church missions in careful detail, helping us plot our church’s unique course as we seek to serve Christ’s kingdom.
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.
Broken And Blessed
$14.99Add to cartOnly 2 in 10 Americans under 30 believe attending a church is important or worthwhile. Well over half of young adults raised in the Church have dropped out with many having a strong anti-Church stance, many even believing the Church does more harm than good.Fr. Josh Johnson was one of these people. In Broken and Blessed he tackles the harsh realities facing the Church in the 21st century.
With charity and courage he speaks to his own generation of Catholic Millennials, who often feel their needs and concerns are not being addressed by the Church, or who simply do not believe the Catholic Faith has any relevance to their lives. Using his own experiences, both as a former struggling young Catholic and as a priest, Fr. Josh offers an inspiring witness of how he came to know God, rather than just knowing about him and presents practical ways for us to truly know God as well.
Broken and Blessed:
*Addresses head-on Millennials most pressing issues with the Catholic Faith
*Presents powerful and inspiring stories from Fr. Josh s own faith journey
*Shows how one can truly encounter Jesus in a personal way Offers practical insights on how to overcome habitual sins
*Discusses the nature of prayer, as well as the challenges to prayer and how to overcome them
It Takes A Church To Baptize
$18.00Add to cartA popular New Testament scholar explores the biblical basis, history, meaning, and practice of infant baptism, arguing that it must begin with the family and then extend to the church.
What Does It Mean To Be Welcoming
$18.00Add to cart“Welcoming?” (An Introduction)
Part One: The Complexity
1. Meanings, Motives, Regrets, And Hopes
2. A Difficult, Knotty, Potentially Thorny Conversation
Testimonial: My Son
Testimonial: Our Daughter
3. The Terrifying Beauty Of A Diverse Church Or DenominationPart Two: The Topic
4. The Affirming Position
Testimonial: A Lesbian Christian
5. The Traditional Position
6. What Does The Bible Say?Part Three: The Way Forward
7. What Options Does A Same-Sex Attracted Christian Have?
8. We Can’t Just Sing Kumbaya Forever
9. Welcoming But Not Affirming And Mutually Transforming
Testimonial: Called To Stay
Testimonial: Why We Left
10. What Can We Do?Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Appendix A: A Process
Appendix B: A Statement On Sexuality
Discussion Guide
Notes
For Further ReadingAdditional Info
Is your church wrestling with LGBT questions from membership to marriage? Travis Collins has been there. A pastor who has walked congregations through the complex issues surrounding gay Christians, he knows firsthand the confusion and hurt that often follow. He has also seen churches have these conversations with grace and understanding. In this practical resource, readers will gain insight into relevant biblical passages and hear from interpreters on both sides of the debate. They will consider the implications of their convictions for ministry practice, relationships, church policy, and more. They will hear testimonies from gay friends and family members about their experiences in the church. Collins calls readers to both grace and truth, with humility.What Does It Mean to Be Welcoming? considers how we might welcome everyone into the church while calling for all to be transformed.
Let Your Church Grow
$12.99Add to cartThis book shows pastors of plateaued or declining churches how to develop a first-time guest retention program that results in measurable growth in attendance. This is accomplished through an understanding of biblical principles and sound business strategies.
Richard has pastored churches in Blythe, CA (1968-1963) Bloomington, CA (1975-1985) and the church he founded in Coachella Valley CA (1985-1998) Twenty-Nine Palms in Thousand Palms, CA (2005-2007) Richard has served the Southern California Assemblies of God Network as both presbyter and executive presbyter. He is the founding President of the Southern California Assemblies of God Founders Fund which he served from 1998-2006. As president he assisted hundreds of people in preparing Christian will and also brought $45 million in assets under management.
Welcoming The Stranger
$17.00Add 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.
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.