Church Life
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Very Large Church
$27.99Add to cartAmerican institutions such as schools and businesses have all become larger—what does this mean for our congregations? Schaller believes the organizational structure of the church must change, too, in order to minister effectively—and here’s where the transformation begins. Let this organizational expert help turn your body into a megachurch, while retaining Christian integrity!
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Church Planting
$19.99Add to cart1. Church Planting: Listening To The Critics
2. Church Planting: A Theological Framework
3. Church Planting: A New Testament Practice
4. Church Planting: A Historical Perspective
5. Church Planting And The Task Of The Church
6. Church Planting And The Shape Of The Church
7. Church Planting And The Ethos Of The Church
8. Church Planting And The Structures Of The Church
9. Church Planting And The Leadership Of The Church
10. Church Planting: Models And Methods288 Pages
Additional Info
Describing his church planting ministry, the apostle Paul writes,“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. . .For we are God’s fellow-workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no-one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
Mixing his metaphors, Paul speaks of the church in Corinth as both a field and a building. Church planters are co-workers with God, planting seeds from which churches grow and larying foundations on which they are built. God is the life source of these churches. Jesus Christ is their foundation. Other workers, like Apollos, water the seed which has been planted and build on the foundations which have been laid. The role of the church planter is to ensure that good seed has been sown and firm foundations laid.
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Ordinary Ministry Extraordinary Challenge
$25.99Add to cartIn Ordinary Calling Extraordinary Challenge, Norma Cook Everist brings together several women clergy to demonstrate what parish ministry is like in women’s experience. Drawing on years of parish experience, they examine such a wide range of topics as the ministry of preaching, the ministry of stewardship, the ministry of justice, the ministry of outreach, and many more. Written for women and men, this volume will provide support, encouragement, and guidence for performing the many tasks and assuming the many roles of parish minister.
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New Creation : A Liturgical Worldview
$18.00Add to cartFrank Senn, one of today’s most knowledgeable liturgical theologians and historians, contemplates the furture shape of liturgy. He believes that ritual systems-liturgy- express and inculcate a worldview, and implicit theology; and fears that “lest the community of faith gain the whole world and lose its soul.” New Creation proposes the lines of a “Christian culture” or worldview or way of life that can inform liturgical renewal.
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Soul Of The Congregation
$23.99Add to cartThomas 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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Mainline To The Future
$24.00Add to cartWhile others lament the declining attendance of mainline churches and blame it on a stodgy and out of date tradition, Jackson W. Carroll offers a more hopeful perspective. According to Carroll, the key to the future health and vitality of mainline churches can be found in that same tradition. In Mainline to the Future: Congregations for the 21st Century, Carroll states that tension between change and tradition has always been part of the Protestant heritage. He believes that when older practices are challenged by change, tradition can no longer be accepted at face value and must be adapted. In this spirit, Carroll calls mainline churches to “go forward, remembering.”
Neither change nor tradition supercedes the other. Both are gifts of divine grace that enable churches to live faithfully in the world. When churches no longer accept tradition as unchangeable, they are free to engage in dialogue with the secular culture and are able to retrieve and reinterpret selective aspects of their tradition in ways that are meaningful for today’s congregations. True to the Protestant tradition itself, the ability to adapt allows the authority of tradition to shift from being “out there” to being “in here.” Thus does the church reclaim its interpretive power to make the Gospel relevant to every time and place.
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True Worship : Reclaiming The Wonder And Majesty
$15.99Add to cartWorship is one of the most divisive Issues in churches today. Donald Hustad responds to the cataclysmic changes in worship styles over the last fifty years, examining the biblical elements of worship and offering a model for richer, God-honoring services. This provocative book is must reading for all pastors, church music leaders and educators, worship committees, and all Christians interested in worship.
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Serve The Community Of The Church A Print On Demand Title
$37.99Add to cartServe the Community of the Church, the second volume in the First-Century Christians in the Graeco- Roman World series, explores the nature of organization and leadership roles in the first-century Christian community, especially as they were variously taught by Paul and practiced in the earliest congregations.
Drawing from ancient source material as well as from the New Testament, Andrew Clarke describes the theories and practices of organization and leadership in key areas of first-century Graeco-Roman society – the city, the colony, voluntary associations, Jewish synagogues, the family – and discusses the extent to which these models influenced the first Christians in defining their own communities. Clarke then turns to the Christian community itself, discussing how Paul, through correspondence with a number of congregations, laid out important parameters for leadership that he considered appropriate to the new Christian context. Some of these parameters, Clarke shows, were defined in express contrast to the patterns of leadership widely practiced in Graeco-Roman society and occasionally also in the early Christian communities.
Providing a fascinating look at the social and historical background of the New Testament, this volume is also important for its discussion of a subject that has implications for the organization of church life in our own time.
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1 Body One Spirit (Student/Study Guide)
$9.99Add to cart1. That All Of Them May Be One – John 17
2. The Do-ers And The Don’t-ers – Romans 14:1-4
3. Can We Judge Another’s Motives? – Romans 14:5-12
4. What If We See A Christian Sinning? – 1 Corinthians 5; 2 Corinthians 2:5-11
5. Can’t I Do What I Want To Do? – Romans 14:13-18
6. What Does Stumbling Mean? – Romans 14:19-23
7. Following Jesus’ Example – Romans 15:1-7
8. But Don’t I Know Best? – 1 Corinthians 8:1-8
9. When Do I Give In? – 1 Corinthians 8:9-13
10. Why Do Eyes Need Ears? – 1 Corinthians 12:12-26
11. What Happens If I Don’t Forgive? – Ephesians 4:25-32
12. Is Tension Healthy? – Galatians 5:13-26Additional Info
Unity among Christians? Does that mean merging into one super church? Celebrating communion exactly the same way? Singing the same kind of music? Never differing on points of theology? No! Unity conformity – it’s oneness. Discover what unity in Christ means through the Larsen’s dynamic studies. And then put it into practice in relationships with other believers. -
Suffering Divine Things
$31.50Add to cartUsing “pathos”-“suffering” God’s saving activity-as a powerful theological motif, Hutter offers fresh insight into the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the church, between doctrine and theology, and between beliefs and practices. In addition, Hutter shows how reclaiming “pathos” as a central motif for theology challenges modern and postmodern views focused on human identity, agency, and creativity as definitive of theology’s character and task. Throughout, Hutter remains acutely aware of recent trends in theological discourse and develops his argument in conversation not only with the Christian tradition but with leading contemporary theologians from North America and Europe. The result is a pioneering work that promises to reclaim theology’s crucial role in the life and mission of the church.
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Healing Spiritual Abuse
$22.99Add to cartContents
1. An Invitation To Freedom
2. The Seat Of Moses-The Power To Abuse
3. Sniffing Cut The Yeast Of The Pharisees
4. Heavy Loads
5. They Do It For Show
6. Majoring On Minors And Missing The Point
7. Who Gets Hooked And Why
8. Healed By Grace
9. Healthy Church Leadership
10. Healthy Church Discipline
Notes P. 163Additional Info
* Are you discouraged from questioning the decisions or teachings church leaders make?
* If you do little or no volunteer work for the church, do you feel like a second-class Christian?
* Does your pastor insist on being addressed by a title such as “Dr.” or “Pastor”?
* Do you hear many broad, vague appeals to “surrender fully,” yield completely” or “lay it all on the altar”?
* Are public reports about various ministry activities sometimes exaggerated?
* Do church members feel safe talking only about past victories, not present struggles?If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may he a victim of spiritual abuse. Many of us have gone through bad church experiences that have left us feeling like failures. Blaming ourselves, we asked for God’s forgiveness, but still felt distant from the church and sometimes from God too.
Often, however, the fault is not ours but that of Christian leaders who abuse spiritually. How can we recognize the signs of spiritual abuse? What can we do to gain healing from the wounds we have experienced? With clarity and refreshing honesty, Ken Blue answers these questions and offers hope
and healing to the victims of spiritual abuse. In addition he shows Christian leaders how to avoid abusive patterns and instead offer Christ’s gospel of grace to every casualty of bad church experiences. -
Teaching Like Jesus
$24.99Add to cartAs a teacher, you long to help others do more than understand the Bible. You want them to experience its relevance and power for their lives. Teaching like Jesus is the answer! This commonsense guide offers examples of Jesus’ teaching style from the Gospels, then shows how you can make these principles work for you — regardless of what age group or ethnic background you’re dealing with. Using a proven, four-step plan, Teaching Like Jesus gives you action steps, summaries, and other practical resources that will make your classroom a lively place to learn and apply the lessons so vitally important for transforming lives and nurturing disciples. You’ll learn to think in terms of “see, hear, and do” in your lesson plans. And you’ll find sample plans for age groups and cultures ranging from African-American preschoolers to Chinese married couples.
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Women In The Church
$35.99Add to cartThis painstaking work will enlighten people on all sides of the issue, though Stanley Grenz makes no secret of his bold conclusion. Historical, bibical, and theoological considerations, he writes, converge not only in allowing, but also in insisting, that women serve as full partners with men in the work of the church.
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Meditations For Vestry Members
$12.95Add to cartWho is this God who seeks us in so many ways, who calls us from our familiar and comfortable places and moves us into new roles? Part of the answer can be found within the Church. We come to know God better by serving as church members and in church ministries. God is present with us and in others all around us as we worship and serve.
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Following Jesus In The Real World
$19.99Add to cartIn this guidebook for the post-college generation, Richard Lamb deftly blends scriptural insights, stories of recent graduates and his own life experience to offer sound advice and practical encouragement for a confusing time. From jobs to relationships to the ministry, he shows how spiritual growth can continue after you leave the college community.
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Visually Speaking
$36.00Add to cartWhat can preachers learn from the art of radio broadcasting? How can preachers develop more imaginative patterns of speaking?
Visually speaking is a brilliant book about radio preaching in Britain and America, but also an alert, deeply thoughtful book. It is an important and pioneering book, grounded in the realities of the pulpit and the broadcasting studio.
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Eros Defiled : The Christian And Sexual Sin
$23.99Add to cartIVP Print On Demand Title
With tough-minded compassion, seasoned wisdom, and an awareness of sin’s destructiveness, White offers forgiveness and a way out for Christians struggling with premarital and extramarital sex, homosexuality, and masturbation. He concludes with a telling chapter on how your church can help strugglers in a context of love and forgiveness.
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Revisioning Evangelical Theology
$28.99Add to cart1. Revisioning Evangelical Identity
2. Revisioning Evangelical Spirituality
3. Revisioning The Theological Task
4. Revisioning The Sources For Theology
5. Revisioning Biblical Authority
6. Revisioning Theologys Integrative Motif
7. Revisioning The ChurchAdditional Info
IVP Print On Demand TitleRecent decades have witnessed new gains in respectability and influence for evangelical theology. To strengthen that influence evangelicals can no longer simply maintain a defensive posture. The postmodern era calls for a fresh articulation, a renewed vision for theology that will address the gospel to new concerns.
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What They Dont Always Teach You At A Christian College
$15.99Add to cartIVP Print On Demand Title
Prepare your high-school graduates for the challenges that await them as they enter college life! From time management to dating to living for Christ, this relevant resource will help them make faith-full decisions as they face the complex issues of life.
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Church That Never Sleeps
$18.99Add to cartAuthor Barnett tells of a dream his renowned evangelist father, Tommy Barnett, experienced as he drove through the streets of Los Angeles more than thirty years ago: a vision to take the inner city for Christ. Supposedley hand-picked by God, then seconded by the elder Barnett, young Matthew leaves his comfy, suburban church home and heads for Los Angeles, seeking to flesh out his father’s vision. Barnett shares the struggles and success stories from his position as pastor of the L.A. International Church that he and his father co-founded. With a 24-hour open-door policy, this five-year-old church now leads more than 200 ministries, feeding roughly 10,000 people weekly, distributing more than 1000 articles of clothing monthly, caring for the 100 addicts who live in the Discipleship Home, rescuing troubled teens and homeless young people off the streets and running a free medical clinic. Through individual personal testimonies, Barnett reveals the work that he feels God has accomplished in the lives of the locals. He also recounts stories of miraculous monetary provision to continue this work and equip the workers to serve the city’s people. Barnett excitedly tells how the poorest and the wealthiest stand side by side to minister to others, united through the inspiring, enduring bond of a vision for a better world.
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Church : Contours Of Christian Theology
$35.99Add to cartPerhaps no other doctrine has more tangible impact on Christians that their doctrine of the church. In a cultural climate where the very word church sounds a tone of dull irrelevance, the doctrine of the church has suffered studied neglect. The persistent demands to market and grow the church threaten to quench serious theological reflection on its abiding nature and mission. But few activities bear greater promise for renewing and reshaping the church than the work of theology. Edmund Clowney addresses these issues from decades of thinking and teaching. Biblical, historical, systematic and reformed, The Church is a timely reflection on the life, order and purpose of the household of God.
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Women Authority And The Bible
$35.99Add to cartIVP Print On Demand Title
Evangelical advocates of traditional roles for women say the heart of the matter is biblical authority. Supporters of more open roles say the crux is biblical interpretation and application. The 26 evangelical leaders represented here ask the hard questions about women’s roles and refuse to shirk the hard exegesis needed to get answers. Essential reading for all concerned with women’s roles in the church.
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Peculiar People : The Church As Culture In A Postchristian Society
$30.99Add to cartContents
/12 Chapters
Additional Info
Christians feel increasingly useless, argues Rodney Clapp, not because we have nothing to offer a post-Christian society, but because we are trying to serve as “sponsoring chaplains” to a civilization that no longer sees Christianity as necessary to its existence. In our individualistic, technologically oriented, consumer-based culture, Christianity has become largely irrelevant.The solution is not to sentimentally capitulate to the way things are. Nor is it to retrench in an effort to regain power and influence as the sponsor of Western civilization. What is needed is for Christians to reclaim our heritage as a peculiar people, as unapologetic followers of The Way.
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1 New People
$27.99Add to cartIf you are aware of the rich benefits of fellowship that crosses racial lines, but aren’t sure how to make that happen in your church, then this book is for you. Loaded with models from those who have done it, One New People will inspire you to broaden the ministry of your church. With questions to help groups process the material, it will give you everything you need to find the model that fits your situation so you can begin the process of change and growth. And if you are already in a multiethnic church, you’ll find ideas and principles for improving communication, developing new leadership and managing conflict from someone who has been there.
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Women In Ministry
$28.99Add to cartMay women teach or exercise authority over men? Should they be ordained? Questions like these rage in the debate over women in ministry. Four committed evangelicals, Robert Culver, Susan Foh, Alvera Mickelsen, and Walter Liefeld, explain their positions and respond to the others, making for a lively exchange of ideas.
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Chaplaincy Ministry And The Mission Of The Church
$35.99Add to cartIn Chaplaincy Ministry and the Mission of the Church, Victoria Slater explores the significance of chaplaincy for the mission and ministry of the contemporary Church. She discusses the reasons for the recent growth in new chaplaincy roles in the contemporary cultural and church context and provides a theological rationale for chaplaincy along with practical suggestions for the development and support of chaplaincy practice. The book provides conceptual clarity about what chaplaincy actually is and will move beyond the common polarisation of chaplaincy and Church to position chaplaincy as a distinctive form of ministry with its own identity and integrity that, together with other forms of ministry, makes a significant contribution to the mission of the Church.
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Firestorm : Preventing And Overcoming Church Conflicts (Reprinted)
$20.00Add to cartAccording to one survey, as many as one third of all congregations have suffered conflicts severe enough to result in the firing or forced resignation of one or more of their pastors. Ron Susek, who has firsthand experience of the lasting effects of church controversy and has ministered to churches in turmoil, offers a detailed portrait of how events can often spiral out of control–not unlike the flames of a wildfire.
Firestorm describes the six successive phases through which conflicts generally pass. In each phase, Susek identifies the tensions that tend to develop, explains how they are compounded if left unresolved, and offers practical, spiritual guidance for pastors and congregational leaders.
The book also explains the spiritual, social, and psychological causes of conflict; the most appropriate means for dealing with controversy in its various stages; and what can be done in the firestorm’s aftermath to restore faith and hope.
A detailed plan of action is included.
If you think that God fell into good fortune the day you committed your wonderful leadership skills to his work and that the two of you are building a masterpiece of a church that will stand until the Lord returns, then don’t bother reading this book. Enjoy your illusion while it lasts.
If, on the other hand, you have been in the ministry long enough to know that your church could blow into a firestorm of conflict despite your best efforts and that it demands a constant vigil to keep the temperature set at spiritually warm, not destructively hot, then this book may be of some assistance.
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Discover Your Spiritual Type
$29.00Add to cartFrom Urban T. Holmes’ spiritual typology and her own experience as a spiritual director and pastoral counselor, Ware provides a framework for people to name and understand their spiritual experience-in much the same way Myers-Briggs typology provides a framework for understanding personality type. Readers explore four spiritual types-head, heart, mystic, and Kingdom-and exercises allow individuals and groups to assess their type. Additional help for clergy to use this tool with congregations is included, which will help them gain greater understanding of how members learn about, worship, and celebrate God-and why there may be tension about such issues as the form or content of the worship service
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Saying Goodbye : A Time Of Growth For Congregations And Pastors
$23.00Add to cartLeaving a pastorate is hard on both congregation and pastor. Learn how to make this transition a growth experience for all. Written for congregations and pastors, Goodbye skillfully weaves accounts from clergy, laity, and educators of seven denominations with White’s own insight as a former General Presbyter to create a resource for meaningful and healthy partings. Includes examples of a “farewell” worship service and litany for closure of a ministry.
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Inviting Church : A Study Of New Member Assimilation
$23.00Add to cartEver wonder why some people never return after their first visit? Why some join but you rarely see them? Or why others become active participants in your church family’s life and worship? Discover how your congregation can meet growth challenges. Based on Alban Institute research, The Inviting Church includes a self-study design for assessing assimilation processes and analyzing visitors’ perceptions.
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Total Ministry : Reclaiming The Ministry Of All Of Gods People
$23.00Add to cartUsed successfully in Episcopal dioceses and congregations, Total Ministry describes a new way for local congregations (especially small ones) and judicatories to organize their response to God’s call and to provide resources, support, and encouragement for ministry-a way that is not dependent only on full-time, seminary-trained, ordained leaders.
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Evaluating Ministry : Principles And Processes For Clergy And Congregations
$23.00Add to cartGrounding evaluation in the theological and organizational context of mission (everyone a minister), Hudson describes case studies of four successful evaluation models that include the whole church. She suggests how “whole church” reviews might result in stronger pastoral ministry and new directions for mission. An important resource that will help clergy and laity explore mutual ministry, judicatory executives strengthen congregations, and new pastors get through their first congregational evaluation.
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Once And Future Church
$23.00Add to cartMead takes a broad look at past and present changes in the church, and postulates a future to which those changes are calling us. Denominations, once structured to deliver resources to far-off lands of foreign mission, now encounter the mission field in the layperson’s workplace and the community surrounding the local congregation. Thus, the church is called to reinvention for this new mission frontier. Study guide information follows.
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In Between Church
$23.00Add to cartAlban Senior Consultant Mann draws on her lengthy experience in helping congregations deal with the hurdles and anxieties of expansion or contraction in size. Often, congregations experiencing size change do not recognize the need to change culture and form as part of the successful adaptation process. Mann details the adjustments in attitude-as well as practice-that are necessary to support successful size change.
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Discerning Your Congregations Future
$31.00Add to cartDrawing on extensive consulting experience with congregations, the authors provide a step-by-step guide to congregational planning that grounds strategic planning techniques in a process of spiritual discernment. The result: members will own the vision and be eager to participate in the congregation’s calling, life, and ministry. You and your planning committee learn the theory behind the techniques, along with receiving help for addressing specific situations.
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Once And Future Pastor
$25.00Add to cartHobgood examines new pressures on clergy that are emerging in the “post-Christendom era:” financial stresses; the effects of a conflicted and confrontational culture; the needs of an increasing number of people living broken or dependent lives; dysfunctional behavior on the part of pastors and parishioners; questions regarding clergy respect and job satisfaction. How is ministry being affected by these changes? What skills will clergy need as they enter the new century? An invaluable resource thoroughly grounded in research and full of practical observations for clergy, judicatory executives, seminary professors, and long-range planners.
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User Friendly Evaluation
$23.00Add to cartEach 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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Longing For Community
$21.99Add to cartUnderstanding the strength and unity of the ummah- the worldwide Muslim community-and its role in an individual’s identity is essential in comprehending the struggles that Muslims undergo as they turn to faith in Jesus Christ. It has been a place of security, acceptance, protection, and identity; turning away from it entails great sacrifice. Where, then, will Muslims who choose to follow Jesus find their longing for community fulfilled: ummah, church, or somewhere in between?
Longing for Community compiles the research and reflection of twenty missiologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and linguists-among them Muslims who have become believers in Jesus Christ- presented at the second Coming to Faith Consultation in February 2010. The contributors explore the multiple levels and hybrid nature of social identity, pointing to the need to free our discussions from single- dimensional scales, which are far from adequate to describe the complex nature of conversion and lived-out faith. Beyond the issue of identity, the contributors offer important lessons from mission history, explore liturgy as an appropriate vehicle for teaching, discuss appropriate means of communication, and point to both the need and contextually appropriate possibilities of greater involvement of women in training and ministry.
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Your Church Sign
$19.99Add to cartSigns 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
$21.99Add to cartCould 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
$14.95Add to cartThe 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
$23.99Add to cartEveryone 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
$11.95Add to cartThis 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. -
Waking To Gods Dream
$20.99Add to cartBone-weary pastors can easily slip into survival mode, leading to spiritual stagnation for themselves and their flock. Relating his own brush with burnout, Wills shares how his large church went from decline to dynamic growth. Learn how the personal commitment of his leaders—more than mere innovation—helped infect the congregation with a vision for outreach.
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Congregations In Conflict
$47.99Add to cartCongregations in Conflict uses the suburbs of Chicago to examine the nature of American congregations as institutions, looking in particular at how they deal with conflict within their ranks, to gain insight into religious culture. In detailed and well documented case studies of conflict in twenty-three congregations including Protestant parishes, Catholic parishes, and Jewish synagogues, Becker examines such factors as organizational processes, the extent and types of ties among church members, their shared understandings about mission and identity, and their level of public commitment. At the local level Becker finds vital “public religion”: congregations that provide caring and support for members, service to the local community, and important arenas for moral debate and public activism.
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Worship Maze
$24.99Add to cartIVP Print on Demand Title
As the debate over worship styles rages, leaders and laypeople are often caught in confusion. Which style is right for your congregation? With gentleness and sensitivity, Basden addresses this question. His examination of five worship styles (liturgical, traditional, revivalist, praise, and seeker-sensitive); practical suggestions for choosing a style; and more will help you approach worship with joy.
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Stewardship Scrapbook
$24.00Add to cartThis 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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Royal Waste Of Time
$37.99Add to cartLearn how worshiping with appropriate adoration can liberate the hearts of jaded churchgoers who are trapped in today’s postmodern, media-saturated culture! Based on solid theological and biblical foundations, Dawn offers experience-based insights to help you navigate beyond destructive worship wars and stimulate renewal in your congregation. Includes nine Scripture-based sermons.
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5 Star Church (Reprinted)
$18.00Add to cartEver wonder how a restaurant or hotel earns a five-star rating? Is it the people? The location? The service? In most cases, it is all of this and more. Why should your church be any different? The Five Star Church reveals how you can pursue Christian excellence and uphold the Lord’s command to “honor one another above yourselves” (Romans 12:10). It contains tips, tools, and the inspiration you need to build a top-quality church that people will flock to and participate in. Now matter how small your ministry or budget, God can use your church effectively to make everyone there feel welcome and cared for–the marks of a five-star church!
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Rehearsing The Soul
$14.99Add to cartThe 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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Preaching While The Church Is Under Reconstruction
$22.99Add to cartIn this book the author constructs a framework for how to preach in this time of transition and failing certainties. He demonstrtes that, enlivened by the work of God’s Spirit, it is possible to preach with vision and insight, and help God’s people perceive their place in the world which God is creating anew
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Losing Our Virtue
$25.50Add to cartWells loudly throws down the gauntlet to the evangelical church in this perceptive analysis of our culture in crisis. Painting a vivid description of society’s moral and spiritual confusion, he explains how the church can regain its effectiveness and influence in our postmodern world. A challenging look at social reform vs. spiritual transformation.
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Equipping Your Church To Minister To Ex Offenders
$8.95Add to cartPrison 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-OFFENDERS -
Spectacle Of Worship In A Wired World
$23.99Add to cartExamining the three central elements of electronic culture the author demonstrates that for those steeped in this culture, meaning arises from the convergence of these elements rather than from any one of them individually. He goes on to discuss how these are already present in Christian worship and how they might be made more evident. In adition, he explains that worship can serve as a corrective to electronic culture and concludes the book with suggestions on how to build worship around an awareness of this new kind of human perception.
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Revolution In Leadership
$25.99Add to cartEquipping God’s people for the ministry to which they are called can no longer be the responsibility solely of professional clergy. Increasingly we see that a new team of leaders, drawn from the membership of each congregation or its community, is arising to meet the challenges that ministry in the third millenium will present. Yet where, and how, will these leaders be trained?
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Snapshots Of The Kingdom
$11.99Add to cart24 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. -
Where The Nations Meet
$30.99Add to cartIVP Print on Demand Title
Peppered with inspiring and challenging stories from multicultural congregations, this book not only provides a theological basis for multicultural ministry but also suggests how such ministry can be successfully conducted in all churches. This book for all pastors and laypersons who want their church to be a place of unbounded celebration where the nations meet.
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Human Disability And The Service Of God
$34.99Add to cartHuman Disability and the Service of God is an important contribution to the growing literature on religion and disabilities. In this volume major Christian scholars across the biblical, historical, theological, and pastoral fields bring their areas of expertise to bear on the challenge of a holistic ministry that will no longer marginalize persons with disabilities.
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Masters Plan For Making Disciples (Reprinted)
$20.00Add to cart1. The Vision To Fulfill
2. The People To Win
3. The Fellowship To Cherish
4. The Ministry To Give
5. The Discipline To Keep
6. The Power To BecomeAdditional Info
Robert Coleman’s best-selling The Master Plan of Evangelism, which has sold over two million copies, told how Jesus made disciples. Now learn how the disciples did it in this companion volume. The Master Plan of Discipleship, now available in mass-market paperback, will help you discover a discipling lifestyle from the early church. -
Religious Experience In Earliest Christianity
$25.00Add to cartCombining trenchant criticism with careful analysis, Luke Johnson calls for a radically new direction in New Testament studies, one that can change the way we view the entire phenomenon of early Christianity. In three fasinating probes of early Christianity – examining baptism, speaking in tongues, and meals in common – Johnson illustrates how a more holistic approach opens up the works of healings and religious power, of ecstasy and spirit – in short, the religious experience of real persons. Early Christian texts, he finds, reflect lives caught up in and defined by a power not in their control but engendered instead by the crucified and raised Messiah Jesus.
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Rural Ministry : The Shape Of The Renewal To Come
$30.99Add to cartGrounded 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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44 Questions For Congregational Self Appraisal
$23.99Add to cartChurches don’t sit still; they are either planning for the future or wishing for the past. Yet, even when setting about to discern the future into which the Spirit is leading, how does a congregation map its way? How does it understand its strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and limitations, gifts and graces? In 44 Questions for Congregational Self-Appraisal, Lyle E. Schaller directs the reader to the crucial questions a church must ask itself if it is to understand its mission and the course it must chart in order to achieve that mission. He helps pastors, congregational leaders, and strategic planning groups understand that the questions we ask and the data we gather tend to set our priorities, and for this reason it is crucial to seek the correct information from the outset. Schaller shows church leaders how not to become trapped by “means to an end” questions (real estate, staffing, money, and schedules) and focus instead on questions related to the congregation’s distinctive mission (identity, purpose, role, and God’s call) and message.
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Brazilian Popular Church And The Crisis Of Modernity
$129.00Add to cartThis study explores one of the most dramatic contemporary interactions between religion and politics: the development of progressive Catholicism in Latin America. From the late 1960s this religious movement sought to transform the church and society. In the 1980s, however, the popular appeal of liberation theology was threatened. Focusing on a Brazilian community, Manuel Vasquez’ incisive book examines the fate of progressive Catholicism amid changes in the Vatican and in the economy, and a wider crisis of modernity and humanistic thought.
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Reshaping Religious Education
$39.00Add to cartCelebrated religious educators Harris and Moran challenge the religious education community to risk change. They identify a process of creative and imaginative education, moving beyond traditional solutions while incorporating ecumenical and international perspectives.
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Deeply Woven Roots
$25.00Add to cartImproving the quality of life in your community. Gunderson takes the eight major strengths of congregations and shows how they can be used to fill the gap between what a health care system will pay for and what it won’t in caring for their members. Help your church become a more imaginative, courageous, and effective enabler of healing and well-being in personal and societal life.
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Truly The Community A Print On Demand Title
$31.99Add to cartOriginally published in 1992 as The Hilarity of Community, this edition includes a new title, preface, and entirely new cover design. Truly the Community continues to be one of the best sources for understanding what it means to live together as the church of Christ.
Many writers, both secular and religious, have decried the lack of intimacy and community in our contemporary culture. Few of them, however, offer practical suggestions for counteracting the isolation and alienation felt by so many people today. But Marva Dawn does this–and more–in Truly the Community. Through an intensive study of Romans 12, Dawn offers specific guidance for building vital Christian community life.
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After Our Likeness
$37.99Add to cartIn this first volume in the Sacra Doctrina series, Miroslav Volf explores the relationship between persons and community in Christian theology. The focus is the community of grace, the Christian church. The point of departure is the thought of the first Baptist, John Smyth, and the notion of church as “gathered community” that he shared with Radical Reformers. Volf seeks to counter the tendencies toward individualism in Protestant ecclesiology and to suggest viable understanding of the church in which both person and community are given their proper due.
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End Of Christian Psychology
$13.00Add to cartEastgate Publishers Title
What can be wrong with “Christian psychology”? When it is comprised of the same confusion of contradictory theories and techniques as secular psychology. “Christian” psychologists have simply borrowed their theories and techniques from this world’s wisdom. Packed with biblical and scientific evidence, this book thoroughly demonstrates that professional psychotherapy with its underlying psychologies is questionable at best, detrimental at worst, and a spiritual counterfeit in any event.
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Another Days Journey
$19.00Add to cartAn analytical portrayal of the internal life of black churches and their many effective forms of social ministry. The author provides the reader with an excellent set of practical guidelines that churches will find useful as they strive to increase their resources for worthy projects.
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Praying Church Sourcebook (Reprinted)
$36.00Add to cartInnovative ideas for your prayer ministry.
Use the link above to download the table of contents and a sample chapter!As seen in Pray! magazine, this best-selling resource a “must-have” for anyone involved in prayer ministry. In 33 chapters and over 350 pages, you’ll discover how to implement effective prayer strategies, including
concerts of prayer
solemn assemblies
houses of prayer
prayerwalkingThe Praying Church Sourcebook also features valuable essays on prayer, true stories of prayer in action, a directory of selected prayer ministries, and a reading list of classic and contemporary books on prayer.
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Crisis In The Church
$29.95Add to cartDrawing on his wealth of experience as both a seminary professor and minister, John Leith identifies and confronts the contemporary crisis in theological education. He argues that the crisis in the seminaries is interwoven with the crisis in the church, and that the secularization of educational institutions has led seminaries to move away from their primary responsibility – preparing pastors for ministry.
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Contemporary Worship : A Sourcebook For Spirited Traditional Praise And See
$31.99Add to cartThis handbook contains everything a congregation needs in order to plan, launch, and stabilize contemporary worship services. Three formats for contemporary worship are shown: spirited-traditional, contemporary praise, and contemporary seeker (or outreach-oriented) services. The resources include sample formats, sample messages that are appropriate for the format, sample skits, interviews, or dramas, and a database of worship choruses that are appropriate to each of the three contemporary formats.
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Life And Thought Of Kanzo Uchimura 1861-1930 A Print On Demand Title
$25.99Add to cartWhile staying in the United States in 1884 at the age of 23, Kanzo Uchimura (1861-1930) felt a sense of religious calling that led him to devote the rest of his life to Christian mission in Japan. His subsequent life and work earned him recognition as one of the most important Japanese thinkers, essayists, and theologians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Uchimura claimed that Japan adopted Western civilization at the reopening of the country in the late nineteenth century but did not adopt Christianity itself – the very cause, spirit, and life of Western civilization. This was the origin of all the difficulties Japan had been experiencing. There is no question that Uchimura believed Christianity would save Japan and the Japanese; the real question was “What kind of Christianity?”
In his view Christian faith entails a radical dependence on the gospel; baptism, communion, and the other sacraments are not necessary. He also believed that God’s truth can be revealed directly to each individual, so that an intermediary between God and people, such as a minister, priest, or pope, is not required. This argument led Uchimura to start the Mukyokai-shugi (Non-churchism), a denial of the institutional church. Miura here explores in depth this theme in Uchimura’s thought as well as Uchimura’s particular vision of Japan’s mission to the world.
This study not only offers Western readers new information about Kanzo Uchimura and the Japanese Non- church Movement; it also provides important insights into the way Christianity can be indigenized in a new culture, such as that of modern Japan.
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Images Of The Church In Missions
$19.99Add to cartThe Bible shows that the very existence of the church is grounded in God’s saving mission. The church is a visible demonstration of the reign of God, his “experimental plot” in the midst of history, pointing toward the restoration of all things.
Driver offers studies of 12 biblical images for understanding the church. They steer us toward a church more in harmony with God’s missionary purpose for his people, and toward a mission solidly based in the biblical vision of peoplehood. These images communicate with power and clarity, reflecting the sense of identity in early Christian communities. In our own time, such images can inspire the church to live up to its reason for being. The images the church uses to understand itself will largely determine what the church will become.
Driver explores images of pilgrimage, of God’s new order, of peoplehood, and of transformation. By its calling, the church must be in mission. The church needs the vital sense of identity inspired by these biblical images to serve God’s saving purpose for all creation.
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Connecting To God
$23.00Add to cartAlthough spiritual growth occurs within an individual, Ware explains that it is the calling of the congregation to be a community of support and encouragement. Indeed, it is amidst the support of a group that an individual learns how to live out personal faith. Ware provides a very practical and accessible model of spiritual formation for self-directing groups that can be led by clergy or laity. Includes thorough guidelines, do’s and don’ts, and ground rules for the successful pursuit of spiritual growth in small groups. See also Ware’s helpful book on spiritual type on next page.
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Interventionist
$27.99Add to cartThe 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
$22.99Add to cartWhite 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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Spiritual Entrepreneurs : Six Principals For Risking Renewal
$21.99Add to cartThis book tells the story of an innovative pastor and leadership team who intentionally led their church to take spiritual risks. By using six principles, renewal can come to any church, asserts Slaughter. These six principles are focused on Jesus Christ, the Bible, new forms of worship, a commitment to membership, equipping lay people for ministry, and spiritual leadership.
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Partners In Prayer
$14.99Add to cartForeword By Max Lucado.
1. Unleashing The Potential Of Prayer.
2. Getting To Know Your Father
3. Developing Practical Prayer Skiffs
4. Avoiding Personal Prayer Killers
5. Expanding Your Prayer Focus
6. Protecting And Partnering With Your Pastors
7. Praying Your Church To Its Potential
8. Organizing A Prayer Partner Team:
Afterword: Anticipating RevivalSpecial Section: Releasing God’s Power Through Fasting By Bill Bright
Appendices: How To Start A Prayer Partner Ministry In Your Home Church
A: Planning Your Prayer Partner Retreat
B: Preparing Prayer Partner Breakfasts
C: Creating Prayer Partner Guides And LettersAbout The Author P. 179
Additional Info
“John, I believe God has called me–a layrnan–to disciple, encourage, and pray for pastors. And the reason I came here today is so that I could pray for you.”With those words, respected leader, speaker, and author John Maxwell saw his agenda replaced by God’s agenda. The stranger who felt God’s calling to pray for this pastor fulfilled a need in Maxwell that he didn’t even know he had–and fourteen years later, the results are evident at the 3,500 member Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, California.
Partners in Prayer, the first book in the John Maxwell Church Resources series, shows church leaders and lay people how to unleash the potential of prayer on behalf of themselves, one another, and the church. If your church–or private devotional life–is starving in the area of prayer and you want to tap into the power and protection prayer provides, Maxwell gives practical insight into
–the fundamentals of prayer
–improving personal prayer life
–praying for others, including church leaders
–building a prayer partners ministry in the local church
–encouraging prayer revival nationwide
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* Are you missing out on God’s gift and blessing of prayer? Is there someone you know who would benefit from your committed prayers on their behalf. Despite God’s promise of the power of prayer to change our world, many of us never experience it. John Maxwell shows you how to strengthen your prayer life and reap the benefits awaiting those who become Partners in Prayer. -
In Search Of The Unchurched
$23.00Add to cartWhat’s working and not working in your congregation? You’ll explore the factors that inspired and motivated changes to reverse decline as other congregations wrestled with the same issues you’re facing: ministry to current members, ministry to the unchurched, worship, changing neighborhoods, and more.
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Alabadle : Hispanic Christian Worship
$20.99Add to cartBy looking at the wide variety of Hispanic Christian worship that exists within the Hispanic community, Alabadle! highlights the cultural, generational, and denominational elements that comprise the spectrum of Hispanic worship.
Justo L. Gonzalez and seven other contributors provide an insightful look into the variety of worship styles that exist among numerous church traditions including Assemblies of God, United Methodist, Catholic, American Baptist, Presbyterian, and Disciples of Christ. And yet, in the midst of this variety, is a common thread of excitement – about worship and about the gospel!
Anyone interested in exploring worship, music, and liturgy styles from a particular Hispanic perspective will find Alabadle! a valuable learning tool.
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Empowering Ministry : Ways To Grow In Effectiveness
$36.00Add to cartOver a period of years, Donald Smith probed, analyzed, interpreted, and reinterpreted data pertaining to what makes for effective ministry. Through all his research, one fact kept emerging: pastors who focus on empowering others are recognized as the most effective. This book distills the best information about cultivating an effective ministry from the voices of several hundred highly effective congregational leaders.
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New Complete Server
$11.95Add to cartThis classic guide helps servers to perform with confidence and reverence, allowing the liturgy to unfold in a smooth and prayerful manner. A glossary of words and objects accompanies illustrations of vessels, linens, altar preparation, vestments, posture symbols, and examples of processions. Also contains easy-to-draw symbols that servers can use to make a diagram of their sanctuary’s layout for study and practice.
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Reclaiming The Urban Family
$22.99Add to cart17 Chapters
Additional Info
Hands-on answers to the crises of urban homes. The problems urban families face–low income, drug abuse, divorce, gang involvement, domestic violence, and more–are devastating. But solutions exist in the local church that can transform troubled homes into places of love, security, hope, and growth. In Reclaiming the Urban Family, Dr. Willie Richardson gives pastors and leaders methods that can make inner-city churches a powerful force for restoring, training, and strengthening families, single-parent homes, and individuals. Using the principles and strategies described, the family training ministry of Dr. Richardson’s own Christian Stronghold Baptist Church in Philadelphia has – Brought about a near-zero divorce rate – Produced strong marriages built on deep lovebonds between couples – Helped numerous low- and moderate-income families become debt-free – Trained men to be competent husbands and fathers–and raised adult male membership in church to as high as 48 percent – Lowered the number of teenage pregnancies – Helped win to Christ those who have seen transformation in their loved ones. Reclaiming the Urban Family covers concerns as diverse as lay biblical counseling, singles and youth ministry, marriage preparation, occupational enrichment, single-parent households, evangelizing families, and more. Complete with a section of resources for African-American family ministries, it shows how local churches can become dynamic agents for building thriving homes and individuals and for evangelizing the unsaved. -
Death Of The Church
$26.99Add to cart“Death of the Church is intended to provoke, although we have been careful to be accurate and responsible in our statement of the issues. We will have failed if you only yawn. You may not like what we say, but you must at least acknowledge the issues, for they are very real. The institutional church in America will look very different twenty-five years from now. Indeed, several denominations may no longer exist. We are sure that there will be hundreds of local congregations that won’t. The forces reshaping our culture are too many and too strong. We see signs of social fragmentation and collapse everywhere. But we also believe deeply in the hope of the Gospel and the security of the church. Both will survive. But how the church universal is expressed in and through the churches in America will look very different. This is the issue we write about.” — From the Introduction
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Church For The Unchurched
$22.99Add to cart6 Chapters
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CHURCH FOR THE UNCHURCHED
A rebirth of the apostolic way.This work shows that there is an apostolic way for a congregation to live out the gospel. This book calls for revolution–the revolution that must take place if the churches in America are to thrive and to fulfill the Great Commission. Church for the Unchurched is about the “abolition” of the laity.
God’s dream for his church from the earliest time has been that we practice the priesthood of all believers, that we be a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6). In its first 300 years of history, the church had no clergy. Rather, it was made up of believers who understood they were to be apostles, sent on mission by the living Christ. With the phenomenal growth of that early church, both numerically and in influence, two classes of Christians emerged, leaders and spectators. The spectators were supposed to learn sound doctrine, to pray, sing, listen to sermons, and pay the bills. But when the question is asked, as it often is, “Why doesn’t the church do something about…,” “the church” is synonymous with “the clergy.”
This book studies a number of apostolic congregations from various traditions and assorted geographical locations that are successfully reaching the unchurched. It is full of recipes that any serious congregation could copy and use. Reading this book could result in a Copernican revolution in the church-the empowerment of the laity.
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Church Growth Handbook
$20.99Add to cartHere are twenty tested church-growth strategies that have been implemented by church consultant William Easum with more than 4,000 chuch leaders across the United States and Canada. The handbook provides diagnostic tools, which now can be used with the Complete Ministry Adult.
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Sacred Cows Make Gourmet Burgers
$20.99Add to cart11 Chapters
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William Easurn shows how an atmosphere of permission-giving, which signals the end of permission-giving, which signals the end of leaders as enablers, will help church leaders transcend bureaucracy and gratuitous regulations, and will enhance spiritual gifts rather than assign them. The sacred cows of control and regulation can be devoured, as leaders and people are converted to a new style of ministry. -
Team Ministry : Putting Together A Team That Makes Churches Grow
$16.99Add to cartUsing a step by step approach, Dick Iverson explains the biblical pattern for local chruch admisistration – a plurality of elders led by God’s “set man”. He provides a method for establishing a team ministry within any local chruch that includes 12 principles on how to maintain the leadership team once it is put into place. He concludes the text with information on how to discover and train young leaders within the church.
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Effective Keys To Successful Leadership
$14.99Add to cartLearn, from this dynamic model, what it takes to build an effective leadership team and healthy local church. Common ministry temptations and tensions are candidly discussed, emphasizing the need for personal vision and mission in your ministry.
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Evangelicals And Catholics Together
$19.99Add to cartCan evangelicals and Roman Catholics be allies in the culture wars now being waged against Christian beliefs and values?
This courageous book seeks a way to allow sectarian strife between the two groups to give way to a decision to work together to mend the fabric of values that has been relentlessly rent in the last thirty-five years. Here, both evangelicals and Roman Catholic authors ask whether the time has come to present a united front against the onslaught of publicly sanctioned unbelief in the land.
Growing out of a historic seminar in the spring of 1994, this bold statement with its probing questions admits the deep differences in Roman Catholic and evangelical attitudes toward the Church, Papal authority, and the sacraments. But it also holds that with more openness, and more clarity about continuing doctrinal differences, enough common ground can be found to engage the larger enemy of skepticism that threatens the country’s foundations.
Several of the contributors to this book have been criticized for daring to suggest cooperation between evangelicals and Roman Catholics. They respond with careful concern for their detractors but affirm courageously with Martin Luther: “Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise.”
All thinking Christians owe it to themselves to see whether this conviction is based on God’s Word – and to consider the shared spiritual commitment proposed by these authors.
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Help For The Small Church Pastor
$12.99Add to cartChurches of less than 150 remain the rule rather than the exception in American Christianity. However, seminaries don’t equip their students in every way that’s necessary to effectively lead smaller congregations — despite the fact that most seminary graduates will becomes small-church pastors. Help for the Small-Church Pastor offers pastors of small churches the guidance and encouragement they need. In this common-sense book, Steve Bierly draws from his eleven years in ministry to show what makes smaller congregations tick. Help for the Small-Church Pastor provides practical insights on uniquely “small-church” issues, such as– The characteristics of small churches – How to work effectively as an “insider” within the small church – How God is at work in powerful ways in smaller assemblies – How to motivate your church toward positive change and true growth – How to invest your own time and energy in the right directions – How your church can reach out to the community in ways that are practical and productive — “There are many ways for even the smallest congregation to be true to the church’s calling,” says Steve Bierly. Help for the Small-Church Pastor will steer you through the strengths and weaknesses of your small church to unearth its true riches.
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Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down
$33.99Add to cartBoomers vs. busters, clergy vs. laypeople, organists vs. guitarists—“worship wars” are tearing our churches apart! In this provocative book, Dawn calls us to more God-centered worship and away from the “entertain me” attitude. You’ll learn practical ways to determine the best methods for deepening worship life, nurturing new and mature believers, and strengthening your ministry in the church and the world.
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Faithquakes
$26.99Add to cartIn this book Leonard Sweet invites the church to take more than a stand, but to begin to take an active role in compliance with the time we live in. With up-to-the-minute monitoring of changes and trends that affect our lives, Sweet provides refreshingly unconventional glimpses into the future that must be grasped by church leaders. We learn: how to pursue a more effective, “go and tell” evangelism that reaches the “cocooning” culture; how to rekindle Christian imagination through sensuality, virtual reality, and energized prayer, music, or spiritual experience; how the church can open house for all of God’s people, and more!
