Church Life
Showing 101–171 of 171 resultsSorted by latest
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Here To There
$19.36Did you know that some 80% of all church growth is just people moving from one church to another? People are going to change churches but they need to leave for the right reasons in the right way. Discover Ten Good Reasons to leave and avoid Ten Poor Reasons to leave. Discover how to be sure that you leave well for a good reason and have a deep walk at your new church. It is time for Christians to be the Church. It is time for believers to be happy together and apart. It is time for each believer to live well and learn well at home before they ever think about leaving. Don’t guess! Are you changing churches? Are you tired of people changing churches so much? How can you help your friends who are leaving? Here to There can help you understand and answer all of these questions.
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Fidelity Of Betrayal
$21.00What if one of the core demands of a radical Christianity lay in a call for its betrayal, while the ultimate act of affirming God required the forsaking of God? And what if fidelity to the Judeo-Christian Scriptures demanded their renunciation? In short, what would it mean if the only way of finding real faith involved betraying it with a kiss?
Employing the insights of mysticism and deconstructive theory, The Fidelity of Betrayal delves into the subversive and revolutionary nature of a Christianity that dwells within the church while simultaneously undermining it.
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Suburban Church
$28.00Over half of all North Americans live in the suburbs. In The Suburban Church, retired pastor Arthur DeKruyter encourages Christians to “go where the people congregate” and illustrates how to plant, grow, and renew suburban congregations.
Throughout this book, DeKruyter relies on forty-five-plus years of pastoral ministry experience in which his own congregation grew from five families to more than five thousand members. He demonstrates how to minister successfully, dispels myths about suburbia, and explains how to recruit and support volunteers and how to connect international missions to local church growth, and more.
Each chapter concludes with questions for discussion, making the book ideal for pastors and church committees.
Foreword by Leith Anderson
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7 Strategic Changes Every Church Must Make
$16.99Author Mark Conner reveals seven strategic changes that every church must make to remain relevant and progressive in today’s culture. These shifts – from inreach to outreach, from events to relationships, from consumers to contributors, from local to kingdom – will transform your church into a powerful force in the 21st Century.
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Discovering Church Life Teacher Edition (Teacher’s Guide)
$24.99Discovering Church Life is a 24-lesson series designed to teach believers the foundational truths concerning life in the local church, the corporate church, and the Kingdom of God. This teacher edition of the study series shows the group leader how to assist believers in building community with a spirit of harmony and commitment toward a local church. Along with the student edition, it can be used as a church membership course, a new believer’s series, or a small group study.
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Effectiveness By The Numbers
$25.99Chapter One: The Fear Of Numbers
Chapter Two: If You Could Count Only One Thing
Chapter Three: How Many And How Often
Chapter Four: How Many Stick?
Chapter Five: How Many Serve?
Chapter Six: Who’s New?
Chapter Seven: Growing By Staying Small
Chapter Eight: What’s More Important Than Dollars?
Chapter Nine: What Product Are You Producing Anyway?Additional Info
Accurately counting the right things can profoundly impact ministry effectiveness. Knowing “the story in the stats” can inform decisions and lead to the things that produce the results most pleasing to God. Gathering and studying the right numbers can help a church wisely invest its resources of time, effort, people, money, and facilities. Effectiveness by the Numbers will help ensure that your church is measuring the right things for the right reasons. Counting what counts enables a church to fulfill its mission–making mature followers of Jesus Christ.Jesus and his disciples counted. They knew how many he fed with the five loaves and fishes. When a crowd gathered they often knew and recorded the number of men, women and children present for the event. The early church counted. They knew that on the day of Pentecost about 3,000 were added to their number. The book of Acts reports that “many believed,” “people were added,” and “many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.” If Jesus counted and the early church kept track of numbers, it is not unreasonable to expect churches today to use metrics to increase their effectiveness in doing God’s work on earth.
This title contains a CD-ROM containing Excel templates for calculating some of the measures discussed in the book.
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2nd Resurrection : Leading Your Congregation To New Life
$20.991. When It’s Not A Matter Of Sickness
2. Are We Spiritually Dead?
3. How Churches Die Spiritually
4. Turnaround Is An Eternal Issue
5. Leaders: It’s Time To Die To Yourself
6. A Life Worth Watching
7. Resurrection Begins With You
8. Rolling Away The Stone
9. Life Beyond The Tomb
10. Pastor, Are YOU Ready For Resurrection?
Epilogue: The Meaning Of FaithfulnessAdditional Info
For many congregational and denominational leaders, the goal for churches experiencing declining worship attendance is to turn those congregations around. The “turnaround church” is one that has stagnated or is in decline. The old trends are reversed, new members are added, and everyone rejoices in this story of a congregation restored to health and vitality. But what if the metaphors of decline, stagnation, and loss of health just aren’t getting to the problem? What if the situation is much worse than what those ways of describing it imply? What if the congregation is spiritually dead? The only solution is resurrection. Churches that have lost their sense of mission, that exist only to provide fellowship for the “members of the club,” that expect their leaders to focus solely on ministering to the members’ personal spiritual needs; these churches have died to the purpose of the New Testament church, to make disciples of Jesus Christ. They cannot be turned around; they must come to life again. The key to that resurrection is leaders who are not afraid to diagnose the problem for what it really is, and who realize that resurrection is what being a Christian is about.The goal of this book is to guide the leaders of these churches through the painful, yet ultimately life-giving work of leading a church to new life in the Spirit. If you want to find new life for your church, read on . . .
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Teacher Leader Shepherd
$12.99Teacher, Leader, Shepherd: The New Testament Pastor does not attempt to tell the minister how preach or to describe how the pastor should go about his work, or to treat the practical problems faced by pastors. On the contrary, Teacher, Leader, Shepherd focuses on an understanding of what the Bible has to say to or about the pastor and his ministry. The author gives a solid treatment of the New Testament passages, which speak specifically, whether directly or indirectly, to the role of the pastor.
The author presents an exegetical approach to the New Testament passages that includes practical exposition of the implications of the biblical text. Such a study is beneficial to any pastor-whether a veteran or new candidate for pastoral ministry.
The work is informing and challenging, helping to point the pastor’s understanding in the right direction. The author does not offer chapters on each passage, but presents a more thematic approach, a succession of chapters on various aspects of the pastor’s call, qualifications, and role. Yet, the discussions are entirely grounded in exegesis of several passages. At the beginning of the book the passages are listed, together with a brief exegetical outline and a pointer to the chapters that will give more attention to them.
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Faithful Preacher : Recapturing The Vision Of Three Pioneering African Amer
$18.99The cliche is that those who do not learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them. But Thabiti Anyabwile contends that it is not the mistakes we must study; it is the people who have overcome them. So he presents three of the most influential African-American pastors in American history who can teach us what faithful ministry entails.
Lemuel Haynes (1753-1833) reminds pastors that eternity must shape our ministry. Daniel A. Payne (1811-1893) stresses the importance of character and preparation to faithful shepherding. And Francis J. Grimke (1850-1937) provides a vision for engaging the world with the gospel. While they are from the African-American tradition, they, like all true saints, belong to all Christians of every background and era. Distinctive for its use of rare and out-of-print messages, Anaybwile’s work is valuable as a reference as well as a devotional resource.
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Understanding Four Views On Baptism
$24.99Christians have long differed with one another on both the meaning and the practice of water baptism. Using the classic Counterpoints forum of presentation-critique-response, this insightful book explores four prominent views of baptism held by different branches of Protestantism: Baptist, Christian Church/Church of Christ, Lutheran, and Reformed.
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Healthy Congregations : A Systems Approach
$42.85In this sequel to How Your Church Family Works, Steinke takes readers into a deeper exploration of the congregation as an emotional system. Learn ten principles of health, how congregations can adopt new ways of dealing with stress and anxiety, how spiritually and emotionally healthy leaders influence the emotional system, factors that could put your congregation at risk, and more.
The same content you’ve come to rely on in an exciting new format.
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Jesus Has A Cousin
$13.73Jesus Has a Cousin is a powerful book that talks about something on the Lord’s heart. The Lord is in a cleaning mode and the church is His target. The word for this hour is repent! This book will lead the church back to simplistic truths about our faith. It reveals John the Baptist’s true purpose, as well as his importance to the church today. Jesus Has a Cousin is a book for our time. This book will help us prepare our hearts for the next move of God, which requires a true purity of heart to receive it. Whether you are just beginning a relationship with Jesus or have walked with the Lord for years, you need to read this book.
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Called To Be Church
$31.99Description: Called to be Church seeks to introduce Acts to a congregation of faithful readers. It includes such topics as Christian community, the Holy Spirit and the life of the Church, the conversion of Saul to become the great missionary to the Gentiles, the Gospel to a multicultural church as particularly related to the ministry of Peter, the challenge of change, and a host of other topics that stem from the study of the book of Acts.
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Basic Business Principles For Growing Churches
$13.68Pastors are schooled in theology and ministry, but few receive training in the fine points of church administration. Learning how to handle a congregation’s finances “on the job” can be a harrowing experience. Yet efficiently managing your church’s business affairs is a key element in keeping current members satisfied with their pastoral leadership — and in attracting the new members you need for your church to grow in size and influence.
In Basic Business Principles For Growing Churches, Arnold Cirtin shares expertise gained from more than four decades of corporate and academic experience. He provides a clear and helpful primer for pastors with limited training in business administration on such practical topics as accounting, fiscal management, and marketing.
This is an indispensable book for pastors of small- and medium-sized churches (who typically are also their congregations’ principal financial officers), as well as for church treasurers, trustees, and other financial board members. When you follow the guidelines in Basic Business Principles For Growing Churches, your church will be fiscally responsible, managed efficiently, and able to maximize its growing stewardship of God’s resources.
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Cruciform Church : Becoming A Cross Shaped People In A Secular World (Anniversar
$28.31This new edition of The Cruciform Church finds Churches of Christ at a quite different place than they were sixteen years ago when the book was first released. On the one hand, our culture is more clearly post-modern and post-Christian. All of the Christian players today are finding themselves cultural outsiders, much like the earliest Christians. We are waking up to the reality that we are in a missionary situation in our own culture, and this is forcing us (slowly, by fits and starts) to rethink our priorities and our mission. On the other hand, Churches of Christ themselves are engaging more and more in the kind of healthy theological rethinking that this book called for back in 1990. Many congregations are shedding the sectarian or exclusivist outlook, gaining new appreciation for their heritage, refocusing on the central doctrines of the faith, and entering into serious dialogue about carrying out the mission of God in this new time…Perhaps this new edition can continue to provide stimulus and guidance as the adventure continues. Toward that end, this edition contains a new chapter, “Last(ing) Things,” that seeks to show the close relationship between eschatology and discipleship, between one’s view of the coming kingdom of God and the cruciform life.” – From Allen’s Preface to the Revised Edition
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What On Earth Is The Church For
$22.48David Devenish believes that the church exists as a means of taking the gospel message to every people group. He believes that the church is very much at the center of God’s
purposes, and in this book presents the church, not as a static pastoral community, but as a vibrant, active body totally committed to world mission.David investigates the importance of church planting to reach the nations and looks at Church-based mission and how to make local churches “missional” in both thinking and
practice.Set within a framework of the Kingdom of God, David demonstrates what the “Kingdom down to earth” really implies for Church-based Kingdom social action. Finally, David examines the culture and contextualization of social action along with some of the dangers and difficulties of apostolic mission, before asking the fundamental
question, “Who will go?”Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
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Churchmarketing 101 : Preparing Your Church For Greater Growth (Reprinted)
$17.00Seeks to demystify questions about why some churches grow and some do not, while helping churches to recognize and remove roadblocks they set for visitors.
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Whats Theology Got To Do With It
$42.85Theology can be a loaded word for mainline Protestant congregations. It often suggests the dogmatic or implies fault lines for conflict. But when unleashed from its narrow academic sense, “theology” offers a powerful way to get at many of the issues that impact the health and vitality of congregations.
Anthony Robinson carefully defines theology as the “core convictions” that help members of a congregation understand their common perspective and shared identity. Theology is the foundational Christian experience, the wisdom that both forms and transforms lives. Rather than avoiding theology, congregations should openly express their beliefs and values to clarify their purpose, argues Robinson. Instead of trying to define the boundaries of belief, a “center-set” congregation will zero in on a reasonably clear core faith.
He examines the problems that occur when congregations are reluctant to focus on theology and are unsure of their beliefs. They risk having a weak identity with nothing at stake. They risk being little more than an exclusive social club. Absent core convictions, structure replaces Spirit, indirection replaces healthy dialogue, and agendas replace leadership.
Central to the book is the notion that Christianity is a revealed religion apart from our own personal preferences. The Bible as Scripture offers a doorway to God and a critical unifying narrative. The Trinity, as a powerful metaphor, provides a balanced approach to fulfilling a congregation’s purpose. Core convictions about God as creator, the person and work of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are crucial to a congregational vitality.
Too many mainline Protestant churches are theologically “underfunded.” Congregations are strengthened when what they believe backs what they do. Indeed, theology, it turns out, has everything to do with it.
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Hearts To Heaven And Tempers Raise
$14.49Like a favourite TV comedy series, Reg Frary returns with another collection of all-too believable stories about anarchy and revolt waiting to break out in the choirstalls. They may look angelic in their robes, and may (on rare occasions) even sound like angels, but it’s a dirty game keeping one step ahead of the vicar’s trendy ideas and the choir director’s aspirations to dictatorship. It all necessitates frequent councils of war down at the Dog and Duck after practice…
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Becoming Conversant With The Emerging Church
$24.99A perceptive evaluation of the new “emerging church” movement showing how we must not only interact with a fast-changing culture but also have our vision and practice of ministry shaped by biblical theology with Scripture as the norm.
From the Back Cover
A careful and informed assessment of the “emerging church” by a respected author and scholar
The “emerging church” movement has generated a lot of excitement and exerts an astonishingly broad influence. Is it the wave of the future or a passing fancy? Who are the leaders and what are they saying?The time has come for a mature assessment. D. A. Carson not only gives those who may be unfamiliar with it a perceptive introduction to the emerging church movement, but also includes a skillful assessment of its theological views. Carson addresses some troubling weaknesses of the movement frankly and thoughtfully, while at the same time recognizing that it has important things to say to the rest of Christianity. The author strives to provide a perspective that is both honest and fair.
Anyone interested in the future of the church in a rapidly changing world will find this an informative and stimulating read.
D. A. Carson (Ph.D., University of Cambridge) is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He is the author of over 45 books, including the Gold Medallion Award-winning book The Gagging of God, and is general editor of Telling the Truth and Worship by the Book. He has served as a pastor and is an active guest lecturer in church and academic settings around the world.
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Silent Words Loudly Spoken
$16.18Like a miniature billboard, the church sign offers an unparalleled opportunity to promote God’s kingdom beyond the walls of the congregation. Thousands of cars pass each day with potential readers of its content, so the church sign has the potential to be a powerful pulpit from which silent words are loudly spoken, communicating brief but significant messages of God’s love to a spiritually thirsty world.
Silent Words Loudly Spoken provides a wealth of fresh and inspiring messages that will maximize the impact of your church sign. With more than 700 uplifting, thought-provoking statements conveniently formatted to easily fit most church signs, it contains enough material to last several years. A humorous but pithy “Ten Commandments for a Good Church Sign” offers plenty of specific nuts-and-bolts advice for making the most of this powerful but sometimes overlooked ministry tool:
* Phrases should be short enough and letters large enough for effortless drive-by reading.
* Messages should be changed regularly, especially date-specific ones.
* “In-house” announcements better suited for the church bulletin should not be wasted on a disinterested public.
* Give the gift of a positive, inspirational message; negative statements turn off those the church wants to attract.
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Body Broken : Answering Gods Call To Love One Another
$10.99For those brave writers who attempt to dispense spiritual wisdom from their own experiences, each sentence can be fraught with peril. Those who traffic in their own experiences of God for a public audience run the risk of disclosing too much or too little-having too many answers to be convincing, or not enough to satisfy the hungry reader. What saves Episcopal layman and veteran spiritual writer Benson’s autobiographical musings from becoming routine is his willingness to share his struggles with a specific issue: why is the fellowship of believers broken into so many competing parties? Benson’s desire to understand, respect and honor the faith of other Christians is a powerful force here, animating that which otherwise might have seemed mundane. Reflecting on how difficult it is for even those bound by a mutual faith to seek a common scriptural understanding, Benson comments: “We are not called to explain the Christ; we called to follow the Christ. We are not called to build walls that keep his friends apart from each other; we are called to build the kingdom together.” Alternatively tender, sad, regretful and joyous, Benson offers his tales with the honesty of a man who doesn’t pretend to have all the answers. He brings to the topic a profound, if chastened, sense of God’s presence in his daily life and relationships. Benson’s passion will appeal to many readers seeking a well-crafted meditation on a topic that has persistently bemused Christians of all denominations.
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Power Of Asset Mapping
$42.85Asset mapping isn’t a new system or theory. It’s a way of thinking, a doorway into an “open-sum” perspective rooted in the Bible and common experience. The Power of Asset Mapping, by long-time community developer Luther K. Snow, shows congregational leaders how to help a group recognize its assets and the abundance of God’s gifts and to act on them in ministry and mission.
Congregations will find the book easy to read and immediately useful. Leaders can begin with the tested Quick and Simple Asset Mapping Experience to strengthen and inspire any group in the congregation in as little as an hour. Futher tips, techniques, stories, and lessons drawn from the experience of diverse congregations will help readers discover how asset mapping works. Finally, Snow provides lessons about why asset mapping strengthens faith and community.
With Snow’s guidance, readers will find new, positive energy to break out of the negative cycles of need, dependency, and inaction that sometimes trap congregations. As they experience asset mapping, they will learn how God empowers us. Snow shows us how to turn over control and open ourselves to the unexpected and amazing gifts of God. Foreword by John McKnight and Jody Kretzmann
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Growth By Accident Death By Planning
$22.99A congregation that had been growing in numbers and spiritual vitality reaches a plateau, and then begins to decline. What has happened? Whitesel explains where churches go wrong planning for growth and how they can correct themselves by looking at three related phenomena: the factors that cause initial growth; the erroneous decisions that lead to getting stuck on the plateau; and corrective steps they can take to regain growth and vitality.
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Community Of The King (Revised)
$27.99The Church is the Community of the King. What on earth is the kingdom of God? Howard Snyder probes the relationship between the kingdom of God and the church as we know it in our daily life. The church is a part of God’s dramatic plan to reconcile all things to himself, “things in heaven and things on earth.” The New Testament calls this reconciling work the kingdom of God. Snyder pleads for a model of the church which emphasizes the God-given gifts of all members as he sets forth his theology of the church and gives practical guidelines for those concerned about church life and growth.
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Christian Assembly : Marks Of The Church In A Pluralistic Age
$40.00What is church? What makes the church one? While these questions may seem innocuous, church has become conflicted territory, with internal factions, external pressures, and ecumenical turmoil all calling for a more positive, sturdy, more resilient notion of Christian community.
Wengert approaches the questions as a Reformation historian. He shows how the New Testament notion of ”marks” of the church was taken up by Martin Luther and developed by Phillip Melanchthon not as a descriptive tag but as a criterion for authenticity in Christian community. Lathrop, a liturgical theologian, shows concretely how those marks can stamp the worship life of a congregation as well as the evaluative work of congregations with their pastors, bishops, superintendents, and conference ministers.Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
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Season Of Ash And Fire
$20.99In addition to prayers and liturgies for Ash Wednesday through Ascension Day, this book includes suggested themes and symbols for the Sundays of Lent, daily Scripture readings for Lent and the fifty Days of Easter, household prayers for Lent and Easter, and an order for Lenten study groups. A Selected Scripture Index is included. This book has been designed for ease of use in both thematic and lectionary-based worship services.
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Your Church Can Thrive
$18.99The author describes the four main groups of people churches can reach with their ministries: those in the pews, those who walk in, friends and family of current members, and those who live in the neighborhood. He then provides short-term steps and long-term strategies for teaching out to these groups, drawing them into the church, and helping them grow into disciples of Jesus Christ. This book helps readers focus the development of the ministries and programs of the church on those whom the church is trying to reach.
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Take The Next Step
$26.99Transformational leaders know how to build on their church’s identity. They know how to make the story of change the next chapter in the book of the congregation’s life, rather than throwing the book away and trying to start over. An astute student of management and leadership theory, Weems offers congregational leaders essential insights into how they can bring about authentic and faithful growth. Includes congregational case studies, visual illustrations of key ideas, and insights from other leadership experts.
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Broken Cisterns
$18.73Broken Cisterns is a forthright and honest look at the true state of affairs in the Church, with radical conclusions and urgent appeals for change. It is a prophetic insight into what is wrong and what can be done, coming out of the author’s lifetime of dealing with traditional Christianity. Taken from Jeremiah 2:13, the author contends that the Church has made the same mistake as ancient Israel in forsaking God, the “fountain of living waters,” and building “broken cisterns” to take His place. It is not too late to change, and the Bible tells us how.
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Empowered Church Leadership
$26.99IVP Print On Demand Title
Have you been guiding your church using secular marketing ideas and leadership strategies? Instead, Dodd issues a clarion call for pastors and laypersons to build their ministries on the New Testament apostolic principles of prayer, followership, partnership, servanthood, and willingness to run against the current. Learn to lead where God wants you to go.
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Unfinished Business : Returning The Ministry To The People Of God (Revised)
$24.99A comprehensive listing of field-tested programming material designed to supplement a church9s creative process of service planning The Source is an encyclopedic catalog of music, drama, and video resources compiled by the Willow Creek Association. It provides worship planners and creative directors with a quick, topical reference to help them relate sermon topics, drama, music, and movie clips to a unifying theme. Complete with a clear, thorough user9s guide, this one-stop workbook for effective worship planning covers more than 130 topics. Major headings include Christian Life Issues, Holidays and Special Services, Identity of God, Life Issues, Relationships with God, Social Issues, Seeker Issues, and Relationships. This revised edition is geared to meet the needs of both seeker-oriented churches and traditional churches that use contemporary music or drama or video in their services.
New features include:
* A worship chorus section, including over 150 songs from Integrity, Maranatha!, EMI, Vineyard, Word, and more
* Interviews with programming directors from various WCA churches focusing on how different churches use the arts in their specific settingsAdd to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
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21 Positive Principles For A Powerful 21st Century Church
$19.36The author, Dr. Dennis Davis, builds the thesis of this book on the premise that there are irrefutable, undeniable laws, both moral and physical, that govern the universe. He contends that these God-establiched laws cannot be broken. They can be denied, but not broken, as the law will always remain intact. He also contends that God has established “laws” that guide the growth, success, and future of the Church, and that when one operates within the framework of these laws (principles), there will be a natural consequence of both numerical and spiritual growth.
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Transforming Congregational Culture
$22.99We’re living in a postmodern society where mainline church membership is declining and congregants are aging. What’s the key to bringing about renewal? Transforming Congregational Culture, says Anthony Robinson. Arguing that “cultural change” goes deeper than just adding new programs, he suggests ways to lead life-transforming worship; implement Christian formation for all ages; involve people in ministry; be sensitive to the Holy Spirit; and more.
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Serving By Safeguarding Your Church
$18.99Church ought to be the safest place on earth. Here’s how to fulfill that goal in practical ways, from developing a security structure and team, to assessing interior and exterior building security, training ushers and greeters to be sensitive to security, forming an emergency reaction team, establishing financial accountability, and much more.
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How To Keep The Pastor You Love
$26.99IVP Print On Demand Title
While Paul urges the church to “overwhelm them with appreciation and love” (1 Thessalonians 5:13), research and anecdotal evidence shows that most pastors experience little support when they need it the most. The result? One long-time pastor reports that he thinks about quitting the ministry as often as twice a week, and an estimated twenty-five percent of all ministers relocate every year.
In Jane Rubietta explores the “flip side” of pastoral care–caring for your pastor. She breaks down the largely unexamined myth of the superhuman pastor. And she provides everything you need to know to build healthy, caring, mutually sustaining relationships among your church and its leaders.
Ministers and their families can profitably read the book along with lay leaders to become more aware of where they need the help and encouragement of their congregations. Questions at the end of each chapter guide pastoral families in reflecting on their own experiences–both positive and negative–of life in the church.
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Help Our Church Is Growing
$16.76It’s the secret, unspeakable dream shared by every minister. After years of diligent work in an average-sized church, you glance up one Sunday and notice a new family. The next month you notice another. Soon it seems like somebody new arrives almost every week. Suddenly you are the leader of a living, breathing, growing church!
Like any roller coaster ride, this one begins with a long, slow ascent. Attendance climbs. Giving climbs. Expectations climb. Of course a few problems crop up along the way, because, as with every other roller coaster, this one has a long and often scary downside. Even as your church continues to climb in every measurable statistic, you, the spiritual leader, may well find yourself in a virtual free-fall as you struggle over how to manage the impact this change will have on your congregation.
What can you, as a minister in a growing church, do to survive the pitfalls that lie just around the corner? What do you do when the old ways no longer work?
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Song Of Songs (Student/Study Guide)
$9.99Song of Songs, the latest 8-week Studyguide, gives the reader insight into Song of Songs — one of the richest and most beautiful books of the Bible. This guide offers reflection on the intimacy God intends for marriage and the intimacy God desires to have with us. Written for those who long for more closeness with God and more depth in their relationships. This book is ideal for those who want to learn more about Song of Songs; engaged or married couples seeking a greater understanding of God’s design for intimacy; pastors and counselors looking for a guide to use in pre-marital counseling; and those who want to learn more about God’s desire for intimacy with his children and his Church.
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Church God Blesses
$12.99In this second book of a three-book series on the way God wants to pour out his blessings, best-selling author Jim Cymbala describes the kind of church God wants to bless and use mightily for his kingdom. Cymbala, who pastors The Brooklyn Tabernacle and has seen his church grow from a handful of the faithful to a vibrant, multi-ethnic and growing beacon of hope in the city, believes that God desires to bless the church but that the church is often more interested in programs and “fads.” He outlines the qualities that God is looking for in the church and shows how any church can become a vessel for God’s blessings. Through the use of stories from his own congregation and this pastor’s wise insights from Scripture, this book will satisfy the hunger every Christian has to see the church become what God intended it to be.
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Christian Community : 10 Studies For Individuals Or Groups
$13.99One of the greatest gifts that Christ has given us is each other. Through Christ’s body, the church, we discover our unique gifts and experience worship, healing and power. In ten studies, Rob Suggs leads us to grow in community–loving and nurturing one another, and in reflecting Christ’s love to the world around us.
Now available in IVP’s revised LifeGuide Bible Study format, Christian Community features questions for starting group discussions and for personal reflection, as well as a new “Now or Later” section following each session.
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Soul Of Wit
$20.99A delicious collection of the very best of wit, satire and humorous quotations about the Church, its clergy,the people who put up with them – and vice versa. Spanning the centuries from Chaucer to the present day, it is a glorious send tip of the human foibles that so often ger in the way when the Church tries to live up to its calling. Many familiar figures from literature and letters arc inducted, but there arc endless surprises and novelties too, making The Soul of Wit not only a book to give great pleasure, but an essential resource for speakers, writers and preachers too.
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Congregational Fitness : Healthy Practices For Layfolk
$32.85When serious conflict surfaces in a congregation, lay people are usually stunned. They feel frightened, angry, and helpless. Congregational Fitness explores why congregations are prone to conflict and describes healthy behaviors lay people can practice to manage conflict constructively. Goodman argues that since it is members of the congregation who carry on from one pastor to another, it is important for them to know and practice positive behaviors continually, rather than reacting out of emotion and anxiety to an unexpected situation. Designed for use by individuals, study groups, and retreat participants. Foreword by Hugh F. Halverstadt.
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Soul Of The Congregation
$24.99Thomas Edward Frank points out that the dominant paradigm of many comtemporary books about church administration reflects an underlying “theology of progress,” a distilling of the gospel into self-worth, a conflation of basilea with market growth. According to Frank, good fortune and blessing are confused; praise and good feeling are identified. The paradigm of success and progress, however, fails to account adequately for the vision of the believers’ presence in the world as ecclesia. “The soul of the congregation,” argues Frank, is a way of being and being-in-the-world, and not didactic or productive.
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User Friendly Evaluation
$32.85Each congregation must evaluate itself in light of its own mix of gifts, backgrounds, talents, and opportunities. Presenting the best of evaluation theory past and present, Woods shows clergy and lay leaders how to engage in mutual evaluation-not judgment-of ministry, mission, and community as a shared responsibility. The goal is building up the congregation. A special chapter provides commentary from church evaluation experts Roy Oswald (Alban), Paul Light (ABUSA denominational staff), and Jill Hudson (PCUSA judicatory executive) on dilemmas congregations face in evaluation
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Your Church Sign
$19.99Signs have been almost as much a part of the modern church as the front doors. For that matter, they’ve been the entry into church life for countless people who have responded to their brief but cogent message. Your church sign has more potential than you may imagine — if you’re smart in using it. Your Church Sign offers you sound pointers on signage. You’ll find tips on impactful sign placement, captions, themes, and how to write effective messages. And you’ll get more than one thousand ready-made, eye-catching sayings. Some are humorous, some are encouraging, some are wise, some are convicting. All are designed to turn scant seconds of drive-by time into active spiritual awareness. Arranged by theme, Your Church Sign offers captions on: -Marriage and the Family – Prayer – Going to Church – Seasonal Themes – Christian Living – God in Charge – Evangelism – The Bible – Speech . . . and more. Turn to this practical, easy-to-use book for fast ideas and proven advice for helping your church sign make a difference in people’s lives.
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Partners In Ministry
$22.99Could you use a partner in your ministry? Utilize the laity! Writing from the standpoint that ministry is the fundamental vocation of all Christians, the authors provide practical guidance on how the work of clergy and laity complements and strengthens each other; understanding of the functions of each; and direction on building ministry teams.
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Torch Of The Testimony
$14.95The 2,000 year history of those Christians – and churches – that have stood outside the Protestant-Catholic tradition. This book was originally published in India in 1964 and is little known in the western world. Beginning in the first century John Kennedy traces the history of Christian groups who remained outside formalized religion down through the ages. A stirring, passionate and sometimes heart-rending story of suffering to the centrality of Christ within the Body of Christ.
John W. Kennedy is from Great Britian, but has lived in India since 1952 ministering among indigenous and apostolic Christian groups.
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Imagining A Church In The Spirit A Print On Demand Title
$23.99Everyone has an opinion about why mainline churches are declining, but few provide concrete, workable ideas to help stem the tide. As an academic, Johnson effectively couples his suggestions with McDonald’s pastoral experience. Together, they seek to re-energize the body of Christ with new vision.
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How To Meet In Homes
$11.95This book is an invitation to revolution!
Warning: Do not read this book if you enjoy Sunday morning church services!
This book is for those believers, be they Catholic, Protestant, Conservatives, Fundamentalists, or Pentecostal/Charismatics who want to utterly abandon it all, from top to bottom, and start over in a way that is a revolutionary, radical departure from all present-day church practices.Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
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Stewardship Scrapbook
$24.00This remarkable book represents the very best of William Phillippe’s lifelong stewardship files: materials he has used in four decades of training, talks, and sermons about giving to the church. It includes biblical texts, sermons, sermon ideas, inspiring stories, quotations, and other miscellaneous suggestions and aids for ministers, lay leaders, and others interested in the many facets of stewardship.
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Rehearsing The Soul
$14.99The church choir prepares musically and vocally at each of its 52 weekly rehearsals. It is the purpose of this book to assist in choir members’ spiritual preparation, as focus is aimed away from notes and rythms and temporarily toward matters of faith and life. These thoughtful, easy-to-use devotions are ideal for use during choir rehearsal, before a choir program, or as food for personal meditation. Written by a life-long participant in the music of the church, each devotion is geared toward church choir members and their particular faith-walk. Each week’s devotional reflection begins with a Scripture or hymn passage and concludes with a brief prayer.
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Equipping Your Church To Minister To Ex Offenders
$11.18Prison ministry does not end at the prison gates. In any area of the country where there is a prison or a jail, or where ex-offenders reside, there is a need to help incarcerated men and women make a successful transition from prison to society. These 104-page manual gives practical, Biblically-based instructions on starting such a ministry, whether through the local church, or as a separate ministry working with the local church. This manual includes the following topics:
WHO ARE EX-OFFENDERS, AND WHY SHOULD THE CHURCH REACH OUT TO THEM?
WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO GET THE CHURCH INVOLVED?
THE GOAL OF EX-OFFENDER MINISTRY
INITIAL PREPARATION FOR THE EX-OFFENDER MINISTRY
DEALING WITH RACIAL ISSUES AND CROSS-CULTURAL SITUATIONS
FINANCING THE EX-OFFENDER MINISTRY
PEDOPHILES AND SEX OFFENDERS
GODLY LOVE TOWARD THE EX-OFFENDER-WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
DISCIPLESHIP FOR THE EX-OFFENDER: LEAVING THE NETS
THE PRUNING PROCESS: HOW TO DEAL WITH SUFFERING
THE SCRIPTURAL BASIS FOR THE MINISTRY TO INMATES AND EX-OFFENDERS
SCRIPTURES RELATED TO PRISONERS
LEGAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF YOUR MINISTRY
STARTING AN AFTERCARE CENTER
BENEFITS FOR THE ELDERLY AND DISABLED
THE WORK OPPORTUNITY TAX CREDIT ACT
FEDERAL AND STATE BONDING FOR EX-OFFENDERSAdd to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
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Snapshots Of The Kingdom
$11.9924 Chapters
Additional Info
Picture perfect moments. The Gospels are full of them. Reading The Bible can be a lot like bringing out the family album. Because photographs help us remember. They bring to mind times and places important to us. They recapture people, relationships, and priorities. They help define us. Snapshots bring a piece of the past into the present. Have you ever thought of the Gospels as snapshots of Jesus’ life and ministry? Each episode, each story is a picture of His kingdom on earth. By reading them we learn what Kingdom life is like. Steve Rodeheaver is convinced that one of the primary purposes of the Church is to be a snapshot of God’s kingdom. When people see Christians in action, he says they should see wallet-size pictures of the coming Kingdom. Our lives and ministries are to reflect the model Jesus gave us so long ago. Snapshots of the Kingdom will challenge you to answer the call to Kingdom living. The opportunities are all around you. Right now. Where you are. It’s an adventure guaranteed to bring your life back into focus.Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
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Rural Ministry : The Shape Of The Renewal To Come
$31.99Grounded in social research, Rural Ministry evaluates the diminishing establishment of the church in rural America, which is linked to the fifty-year-old crisis in rural ministry. It names the primary issues for leaders of Protestant and Catholic churches to ponder: the graying of the population; the closing of schools, hospitals, and factories; and the corporate buyout of farms during the 1980s. In addition to retelling the history of this crisis, Shannon Jung and the other contributors to this volume offer a set of Christian principles that respond to social problems in rural life. The situation is so intense that the book offers examples from around the heartland of cooperative or collaborative parishes that blend denominational and theological differences across the Protestant and Catholic spectrum.
Key Benefits: Offers a vision of nationwide renewal in rural America; Advocates true ecumenical solutions to issues confronting the rural church in America; Sidebars feature examples and illustrations; Informs new rural ministers of the culture and issues about to confront them, allowing them to better handle the challenges and opportunities of the rural environment; Motivates congregations to activate ministries in new and provocative ways, insuring the spread of the gospel; Can help troubled churches survive.
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Interventionist
$28.99The most effective way to influence both individual and institutional behavior is to ask questions. The Interventionist provides a conceptual framework for asking questions about congregations, and it classifies various syndromes that prevent a church from making the changes that are needed for new life. It will help church leaders find a good match between the needs of the congregations and the gifts, skills, experience, personality, leadership style, and priorities of the candidate. The book is also a productive guide for the trained, career interim minister who comes purposely for six to twenty-four months to sort out the issues and syndromes that plague a congregation.
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White Soul : Country Music The Church And Working Americans
$23.99White Soul examines the social, political and religious foundations of country music as the soul music of the white, working-class Americans. Country music gives voice to an economically battered subculture of hard-living and hard-working people who find self-expression in the music of honky-tonks and heartaches. It celebrates the “wild side of life” as a form of populist anarchism and escapist festivity. This unusual medley of sociology, theology, and country music history is also a compelling critique of the elitism of “good taste” in the dominant culture. Tex Sample challenges the church to reach out to working-class people, who have often been ignored and demeaned by churches held captive to the tastes and lifestyles of the upper middle class.
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New Complete Server
$17.26This classic guide helps servers to perform with confidence and reverence, allowing the liturgy to unfold in a smooth and prayerful manner. A glossary of words and objects accompanies illustrations of vessels, linens, altar preparation, vestments, posture symbols, and examples of processions. Also contains easy-to-draw symbols that servers can use to make a diagram of their sanctuary’s layout for study and practice.
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Team Ministry : Putting Together A Team That Makes Churches Grow
$16.99Using a step by step approach, Dick Iverson explains the biblical pattern for local chruch admisistration – a plurality of elders led by God’s “set man”. He provides a method for establishing a team ministry within any local chruch that includes 12 principles on how to maintain the leadership team once it is put into place. He concludes the text with information on how to discover and train young leaders within the church.
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Effective Keys To Successful Leadership
$17.99Learn, from this dynamic model, what it takes to build an effective leadership team and healthy local church. Common ministry temptations and tensions are candidly discussed, emphasizing the need for personal vision and mission in your ministry.
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After Christendom : How The Church Is To Behave If Freedom Justice, And A C
$24.99Liberal/conservative and modern/postmodern concepts define contemporary theological debate. Yet what if these categories are grounded in a set of assumptions about what it means to be the church in the world, presuming we must live as though God’s existence does not matter? What if our theological discussion distracts us from the fact that the church is no longer able to shape the desires and habits of Christians? Hauerwas wrestles with these and similar questions constructing a theological politics necessary for the church to be the church in the world. In so doing, he challenges liberal notions of justice and freedom.
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Prewrath Rapture Of The Church
$26.99CONTENTS
PART 1: JESUS IS COMING
1. The Tension And Anguish Surrounding A Consideration Of The Timing Of The Rapture
2. The Ultimate Absolute Of History
3. The Options Of “When” Laid Out
4. The Conflict That Makes It Necessary
5. But First The Counterfeit
6. The Background That Must Be Understood
7. The Question That Had To Be Answered
8. And What Of The Tribulation Period?
9. And Then The Day Of The Lord
PART 11: THE DAY OF THE LORD
10. Cosmic Disturbance
11. Elijah Must Appear First
12. The Day Of His Wrath
13. The 144,000 And A Great Multitude No Man Could Number
14. The Last Trump
15. The Apostasy And The Man Of Sin
PART III: THE PREWRATH RAPTURE
16. The Coming And The End
17. Kept From The Hour
18. Are Pretribulation Rapture Arguments Really Unanswerable?
19. The Prewrath Rapture: Why This View Now?
20. The Prewrath Rapture: Catalyst For Holy Living
Benediction
Notes
Scripture Index
About The AuthorAdditional Info
For thirty years a confirmed pretribulationist, he now believes that the Church will have to endure the persecution of the Antichrist: “God never promised Hs children immunity from the trials of this godless world or the assault of the Antichrist. He did promise, ‘greater is he [the Holy Spirit] that is in you, than he that is in the world’ (1 John 4:4). ” In view of the fact that Christians will not escape all of the oppression of the “Tribulation” period, Rosenthal urges godly living in light of a clear understanding of the last days so that we will be prepared for Satan’s intense opposition. Rosenthal does, however, believe that the Church win escape the wrath of God, which will be poured out beginning with the opening of Revelation’s seventh seal sometime during the second half of the “Tribulation” period. “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:9).Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
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Church Leadership : Following The Example Of Christ
$47.12As the body of Christ, the church is basically an organism, not an organization. This fact is full of implications for the way the church organizes itself and the way leadership functions in the church. No book on church leadership has become as controversial as this one. Nor is there a book that spells out so clearly the scriptural implications of the present rule of Christ in the church and the calling of church leaders to be, first of all, servants. This is must reading for pastors, elders, church staff members, and students preparing for ministry in the church.
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Handbook Of Church Discipline
$14.9911 Chapters
Additional Info
This is a handbook for pastors, elders, and all Christians who want to see how Scripture presents the process of discipline that should operate in the Christian community. It was written in response to an urgent need. In order to help church leaders deal with the sorts of problems that require the church to respond with discipline, the author has developed the book around the five steps of corrective discipline found especially in Matthew 18:15 — 17. Because there is not merely one kind or one stage of discipline, church leaders must learn how to discern. And once the right discernment has been made, then the right action can follow. This is a simple and very readable little handbook. The influence it can and should have on the church is, however, quite profoundAdd to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
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Tithing : Call To Serious Biblical Giving
$19.99R. T. Kendall believes that all Christians are called to tithe. What is more, he is convinced that the church would be revitalized and the world transformed if all Christians did begin to tithe. Dr. Kendall combines this bold claim with biblical, theological, and practical implications of tithing. Tithing is sometimes regarded as threatening, but it emerges in this book as both challenging and inspiring. Numerous exciting testimonies are told, all demonstrating in individual lives the principle that underlies tithing. “You cannot outgive to the Lord.”
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