Pastoral Helps
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These Are Our Bodies High School Participant Book (Student/Study Guide)
$12.95Add to cartThis book is the high school participant’s guide to use during each session of the These Are Our Bodies program. It is filled with prayers, scripture, and reflection questions designed to help the participant see the connection between their sexuality and their faith. With lots of space for journaling, a glossary of important terms and words are included, as well as appropriate websites for further learning or help.* An easily accessible, theologically progressive, mainline Christian Ed resource on human sexuality * A High School program resource to engage youth in connecting faith and sexuality in grades 9-12
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These Are Our Bodies High School Parent Book
$12.95Add to cartA resource for parents or caregivers, this book will keep the parent informed about each session. In each chapter they will read about what their high schoolers is learning as well as journal questions that will help them connect faith with sexuality and with parenting. The adult reader will have an opportunity to reflect on the same scripture that their child has reflected upon so that all involved will learn new was to think about sexuality and how faith is relevant to understanding the complexities of sexuality and the responsibilities involved. In this program both participants and parents learn and grow together.* An easily accessible, theologically progressive, mainline Christian Ed resource on human sexuality * A High School program resource to engage youth in connecting faith and sexuality in grades 9-12
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Psalm 3 NIV Preacher Edition
$39.99Add to cartWhat if you could study the Psalms with your favorite Bible scholars from across the ages? With The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible, you can! This unique resource is designed to empower pastors and leaders to effectively preach and teach God’s Word. This is much more than a commentary — it takes the best scholarly works available and combines them in a single resource. Inside each volume of The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible you’ll find: A verse by verse outline alongside each passage of Scripture that draws out key concepts. In depth commentary synthesized from hundreds of trusted sources, including Matthew Henry, John MacArthur, Charles Spurgeon…and many more. Thoughts designed to provide practical application of Scripture for your congregation. Deeper studies that expand on original Greek sources, provide historical background, and explain key points. An Outline & Subject Index designed for topical study — perfect for quickly creating messages on a particular theme. There’s a volume of The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible series for nearly any sermon you can imagine. Explore the full series on our website at: www.outlinebible.org
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Play The Man Participants Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$10.99Add to cartSomewhere along the way, our culture lost its definition of manhood, leaving generations of men and men-to-be confused about their roles, responsibilities, relationships, and the reason God made them men. It’s into this “no-man’s-land” that New York Times bestselling author Mark Batterson declares his mantra for manhood: play the man.In this inspiring call to something greater, he helps men understand what it means to be a man of God by unveiling seven virtues of manhood. Mark shares inspiring stories of manhood, including the true story of the hero and martyr Polycarp, who first heard the voice from heaven say, “Play the man.” Mark couples those stories with practical ideas about how to disciple the next generation of men. This is more than a book; it’s a movement of men who will settle for nothing less than fulfilling their highest calling to be the man and the father God has destined them to be. Play the man. Make the man.
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Teaching Faith With Harry Potter
$26.95Add to cartJ. K. Rowling was less obvious than C. S. Lewis or J. R. R. Tolkien in her grounding of the Harry Potter series in deeply held Christian convictions, leaving many with a strong sense that these stories are spiritual lessons but not sure how to flesh out these theological ideas for teaching, parenting, mentoring, and forming faith. The Harry Potter series stands as one compelling narrative, rooted in Rowling’s Anglican convictions of the communion of saints, the power of sacraments, the redemption of sacrificial love, and the defeat of death in the resurrection through grace.
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Shoulders And Shadows
$9.99Add to cartWe often follow a successful leader, and it is said we are “filling our predecessor’s shoes,” or we are “continuing a lasting legacy.” However, the truth is that although we are standing on their shoulders, we are often operating in their shadow. Shoulders and Shadows: Following Legendary Leaders helps new leaders succeed at succession.
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Disciple Making Encounters
$16.99Add to cartTeacher preparation for Sunday School can become monotonous and routine. But when you open God’s Word and encounter Him in personal Bible study, your life as a teacher will be radically changed.
That first encounter with God prepares you and transforms your presentation from a predictable lesson to a facilitator-led, revolutionary, classroom encounter with God. Your purpose and your passion will focus on directing those in your group to meet God and be inspired by an encounter with Him in His Word.
Walk with me on a journey with simple but transformational steps and make a revolutionary change in your Sunday School preparation and presentation.
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Thatll Preach : 5 Simple Steps To Your Best Sermon Ever
$13.99Add to cartExperienced preacher, teacher and author, Charley Reeb, gives readers a 5-step plan for writing and delivering a sermon that can transform lives for Christ. He covers preparation, sermon structure, storytelling, and how to ‘preach with presence’. He examines lectionary and topical preaching models, and shows the reader how to determine which model to use; he further instructs the reader to use the 5-step plan for each model. Finally, That’ll Preach! offers sermon outlines and full sermons, as examples to illustrate the book’s teaching. The entire book stems from the author’s view that sermons must be engaging in order to be effective. This laser focus results in a book that is powerful and immediately useful, concise and purposeful. It is a book for every preacher.
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New Day In The City
$20.99Add to cartFrederich Buechner once wrote, “Dreams of fame and fortune die hard, if they ever die at all.” Many mainline urban congregations remember the days of fame and fortune-days when their prominence downtown mattered. Population shifts, the decline of mainline congregations, and demographic changes have robbed many downtown churches of these dreams – but not all churches. Many congregations struggle to survive while others are positioned to thrive. These churches have learned to let go of nostalgic dreams and tired habits, to walk with God into a new day of vibrancy, mission, and ministry. Authors Donna Claycomb Sokol and Roger Owens have pastored urban congregations that have managed to grow again, reversing decades of decline. In A New Day in the City they share the stories of the churches they’ve served, and the lessons they’ve learned from other successful urban churches and pastors. Their aim is to help others join God in the deep and wide mission of embodying the Kingdom. Along the way, they challenge some cliches about church leadership, offering a fresh perspective on what congregational renewal can look like and how it can become a reality. The book does not offer easy answers, because churches can’t simply replicate what someone else has done. Rather, the book offers the framework for crucial conversations urban churches need to have in order to find their own way to renewal. The end of each chapter features a set of practical guidelines for leading a congregation to address the questions that matter most.
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Beauty For Truths Sake (Reprinted)
$23.00Add to cartMuch of the confusion and meaninglessness of the twenty-first century stems from the fragmentation of knowledge. Our postmodern times cry out for a return to wholeness. Enter Stratford Caldecott, who calls for renewal in education in Beauty for Truth’s Sake. By reclaiming the classic liberal arts and viewing disciplines such as science and mathematics through a poetic lens, the author explains that unity is present within diversity. Ultimately, God is behind all truth.This book will benefit parents, homeschoolers, lifelong learners, and readers interested in the history of ideas. It is appropriate for Christian college and university students and will play an especially important role in curriculum development.
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Christmas Plays And Biblical Skits
$28.95Add to cartWill Maudine ever stop being so bossy? Should Aunt Vera get a hearing aid for Christmas? Does Richard really miss his pink flamingo? Can John say anything other than uh-huh and huh-uh? Find the answers to these questions when you join Aunt Vera and her friends as they prepare for their Christmas pageants. Follow them as they find themselves in various situations involving lighthearted rivalry, mystery, and good-natured humor.
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Christmas Plays And Biblical Skits
$13.95Add to cartWill Maudine ever stop being so bossy? Should Aunt Vera get a hearing aid for Christmas? Does Richard really miss his pink flamingo? Can John say anything other than uh-huh and huh-uh? Find the answers to these questions when you join Aunt Vera and her friends as they prepare for their Christmas pageants. Follow them as they find themselves in various situations involving lighthearted rivalry, mystery, and good-natured humor.
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Preaching In The Era Of Trump
$14.99Add to cartNow more than ever, it’s time to preach.
The election of Donald Trump left countless faith leaders across the country speechless. Now that he is president, silence must give way to prophetic preaching.
Christians have long debated whether politics should be addressed from the pulpit. Following Donald Trump’s controversial, divisive rise to power and the sweeping changes his fledgling administration has already proposed, that s no longer a question political preaching will be the order of the day, even for pastors who try to steer clear of controversy. It s up to preachers to make the church great again by leading it to embrace and embody God s concern for those whose lives are at stake in a Trump administration. Veteran teacher, preacher, and author Wes Allen offers a blueprint for addressing current events through a Gospel lens, persuasively and pastorally without engaging in divisive, antagonistic rhetoric.
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Unstuck Church : Equipping Churches To Experience Sustained Health
$16.99Add to cartAcclaimed church leader, blogger, founder and chief strategic officer of The Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan unpacks the lifecycle of a typical church, identifies characteristics of each phase, and provides practical next steps a church can take to move towards sustained health.
Think about your church for a moment. Is it growing? Is it diminishing? Is it somewhere in between? Acclaimed church leader, blogger, and founder and chief strategic officer of The Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan has identified the seven stages of a church’s lifecycle that range from the hopeful and optimistic days of launch, to the stagnating last stages of life support.
Regardless of the stage in which you find your church, it carries with it the world’s greatest mission-to “go and make disciples of all the nations . . .” With eternity at stake the Church should be doing most everything within its power to see lives changed forever. The Church should strive for the pinnacle of the lifecycle, where they are continually making new disciples and experiencing what Morgan refers to as “sustained health.”
In The Unstuck Church, Morgan unpacks each phase of the church lifecycle, and offers specific and strategic next steps the church leader can take to find it’s way to sustained health . . . and finally become unstuck.
The Unstuck Church is a call for honest an assessment of where your church sits on the lifecycle, and a challenge to move beyond it.
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Know Why You Believe
$14.99Add to cartThe Christian life depends upon faith, but there are good reasons for that faith. In Know Why You Believe professor and author K. Scott Oliphint answers the “why” questions both Christians and non-Christians often ask, laying out a simple and convincing case for the core teachings of Christianity.
As part of the KNOW series, Know Why You Believe is designed for personal study or classroom use, but also for small groups and Sunday schools wanting to better understand the traditional defenses of Christian belief. Each chapter covers a foundational teaching and includes a rationale for that teaching, responses to common objections, reflection questions to prompt further consideration, and suggested readings for readers wanting to dig deeper.
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Good Book Participants Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$8.25Add to cartThis 8-week companion to The Good Book and The Good Book DVD encourages small-group members to dig deeper into the Bible’s biggest ideas.
With questions for reflection and discussion that follow the trade book, The Good Book Participant’s Guide will foster group discussion among small groups and Sunday School members, helping them understand the Bible’s most prominent themes in a way that applies to their own lives.
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Foundations Of Pastoral Counseling
$44.99Add to cartFoundations of Pastoral Counselling offers a completely new approach to its subject, through an integration of philosophical ideas, theological thought, and psychotherapeutic psychology. Using the work of philosophers including Martin Buber, Simone Weil and Soren Kierkegaard to begin the conversation in each chapter the author then draws on relevant theologians and psychotherapeutic thinkers to enrich the dialogue. The result is a rich, multi-faceted, and often surprising round-table discussion about the fundamental issues in pastoral counselling.
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Shared Understanding Of Church Leadership (Revised)
$12.99Add to cartHow does your church work with leadership issues? How do you make decisions about calling church leaders? Are your models of leadership consistent with Anabaptist Mennonite belief and practice? A Shared Understanding of Ministerial Leadership, a revision of an earlier book, A Mennonite Polity for Ministerial Leadership, provides a common understanding of how the church approaches leadership. It is an effort to build lasting relationships of respect and integrity between congregations, area conferences, and their credentialed leaders. For use by pastors and congregational leaders, this book can also be used for leadership training, churchwide discussion, and study in seminary courses.
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Reset : Living A Grace Paced Life In A Burnout Culture
$14.99Add to cartLargely due to overwork and the stresses of modern life, men in work and ministry are increasingly run-down, anxious, and depressed. But is this level of physical and spiritual weariness inevitable? Just as a car needs to be regularly refueled, retuned, and repaired in order to keep running, a balanced life can be sustained only when a man takes proper steps to stay on track. In this hopeful book, experienced pastor and counselor David Murray shares stories from his own life and the lives of friends, offering gospel-centered advice for avoiding, assessing, and recovering from burnout. With chapters on rest, relationships, routines, and more, this book lays out a host of practical remedies men can use to reset their lives on a more sustainable course-resulting in renewed energy, joy, and purpose.
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Answers For Beginners And Teachers
$17.95Add to cartAnswers for Beginners and Teachers is filled with interesting Bible scriptures and the author’s comments on them. Ladonna shares her personal experiences, God’s audible voice, spiritual dreams, and visions, how she was healed of cancer, and two out-of-body experiences.
Teachers can use this book as a guide for Bible-study groups and sermons. Or it can be read through like a book.
It is written for new Christians and others who are thirsting for God’s Word. Expect to have your memory refreshed on the deeper things of God and find answers to questions you may have that are similar to those the author had for many years.
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Proliferate : Church Planting Strategy For Everyday Churches
$13.99Add to cartThe tendency is to think churches with less than 200 people in weekly attendance are ordinary or everyday-conventional wisdom says that bigger is better and Everyday Churches can have only a limited impact. However, Jesus compared the Kingdom to a mustard seed-the smallest of seeds, but with the potential to change the landscape.
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Are You In The Game Or In The Way
$14.99Add to cartA men’s ministry reality check: What is standing in the way of a vital men’s ministry in your church? The guy who should be at the forefront is often in the way of the program getting off the ground.
Are you, as pastor, the main obstacle to the growth of a vital men’s ministry?
Are you the guy who wants to start a men’s ministry in your church but don’t know how?
Is fear or a sense of inadequacy keeping you from starting such a ministry?
Pastor Ross Holtz tells his personal story of how he became a catalyst for growth, instead of an impediment will inspire pastors and men’s ministry leaders.What works, what doesn’t, and what is required in forming a vital men’s ministry. Practical and honest teaching filled with relevant and tested examples from recognizing the problem to finding the fix.
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Whole Life Worship
$14.99Add to cartThis book is a continuation of the LICC series begun by Neil Hudson’s Imagine ChurchWhole-Life Worship will demonstrate that the contemporary Western Church has reached a point where our “gathered” worship is separated from our “scattered” lives outside of church. This is detrimental to the congregation’s spiritual development and their effectiveness on their “frontlines”. Church worship should be inspired and informed by our everyday experiences. It should empower and send the congregation out to continue worshipping. The book will provide patterns and resources to better connect gathered worship with the lives of the congregation beyond church meetings.The book will unpack a biblical grounding for both gathered and scattered worship. It will then identify patterns within our gathered services which help us re-make these connections. It will provide practical resources such as songs, prayers and activities which can help churches connect Sunday to the rest of the week. It will draw examples and stories from other church streams and traditions, to demonstrate how different kinds of Christian spirituality engage worshipfully with everyday life. In the second half of the book is a practical resource looking specifically at different aspects of a gathered service, and how each one can have an “outward” dimension.
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Self Aware Leader
$20.99Add to cartIntroduction
1. Seeing The Race Before Us
2. Seeing Your Self
3. Seeing Your Past
4. Seeing Your Temptations
5. Seeing Your Emotions
6. Seeing Your Pressures
7. Seeing Your Conflicts
8. Seeing Your Margins
9. Seeing Your Best
Acknowledgments
NotesAdditional Info
Effective ministry begins here. You’ve studied what you think you need to know before entering a career in ministry. Is there anything that is more important than knowing about hermeneutics, homiletics, theology, exegesis, and everything else you have likely learned in seminary and church ministry so far? Yes, there is. How well do you know yourself? You need to build your ministry career on the right foundation of an objective understanding of self. If you don’t comprehend your strengths and weaknesses, then you won’t be fully prepared to enter the crucible of ministry. Serving as a pastor is one of the toughest calls there is. But it can also be one of the most fulfilling and rewarding, especially if you have taken the time to examine both your gifts and vulnerabilities. The church needs leaders who have the clear-eyed courage to pursue the hardest part of the ministry journey: seeing yourself. The Self-Aware Leader will help you to do just that. -
Right Thinking In A Church Gone Astray
$16.99Add to cartKeeping the Church on Track in a Secular World
One of the greatest challenges to Christianity today is the pervasive influence popular culture has on the church. When Christians embrace a secular worldview, it causes division within the church and greatly diminishes its impact.
Right Thinking in a Church Gone Astray offers responses from trusted evangelical voices on 20 timely issues. With a careful look at God’s Word, you’ll gain wisdom and insights on highly relevant topics such as…
*countering the church’s celebrity culture
*ministering to the “Me Generation”
*discovering where science meets Scripture
*responding appropriately to homosexuality
*reclaiming the essentials of the Christian faithWith biblical guidance on these and other controversial matters, this resource provides much-needed clarity for today’s church.
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Organizing Church : Grassroots Practices For Embodying Change In Your Congr
$24.99Add to cartWhat if congregations embraced community organizing? While many theories exist on how to plant or how to renew a church and its leadership, Organizing Church offers a unique perspective that brings together the tools of community organizing and a robust ecclesiology to suggest a new way forward for revitalizing and empowering churches. This book is a helpful field guide for pastors and other church leaders trying to build healthy congregations, create a deep culture of discipleship in their community, and to respond to the challenges presented by the global culture of the 21st century.
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Top 50 Instant Bible Lessons For Elementary
$24.99Add to cartPart of our Top 50 series, enjoy 50 fully-reproducible kids’ Bible lessons for elementary-aged children (ages: 5-10). This brand new resource includes two bonus lessons for Christmas and Easter, making it perfect to use as an easy full year curriculum. Each story comes with an easy-to-follow object lesson and 2-3 volunteer-friendly activities. Use this reproducible book for weekend curriculum or mid-week teaching opportunities. Each lesson is volunteer-friendly and child approved! Packed with object lessons, puzzles, games and crafts, these kids’ Top 50 Bible stories will keep your elementary-aged children actively involved and growing in God’s Word.
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Top 50 Instant Bible Lessons For Preschoolers For Ages 2-5
$24.99Add to cartFrom the popular Instant Bible Lessons series, enjoy the top 50 fully reproducible Kids’ Bible Lessons for Preschoolers (Ages: 2-5). This great resource comes with quick, age appropriate and easy to use activities in an updated format. You can use this reproducible book as a weekend curriculum or mid-week teaching opportunities, enough for a whole year’s worth of lessons. Each lesson is volunteer friendly and child approved. Packed with puzzles, games, crafts, and awesome Bible stories, these kids’ Bible lessons will keep your preschoolers actively involved in creative learning.
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Boomer Spirituality : Seven Values For The Second Half Of Life
$18.00Add to cartIntroduction
Part One: Spiritual Roots
1. Brokenness
2. Loneliness
3. Rootlessness
4. Self-Seeking
Part Two: The Search For God
5. Godliness
6. Supernaturalism
7. Wholeness
NotesAdditional Info
As the boomer generation navigates dramatic change as it ages, it will be informed by a unique spirituality that was forged in the tumultuous years of the 1960s and 1970s. If you are a boomer, you are sure to be reminded of the events and experiences that had an impact on you when you were young. If you are the child of a boomer, this book will help you understand why your parents act the way they do. If you are creating ministry for this generation, this will be your guide to the way boomers view the world and look toward the future. -
Marriage Preparation Workbook (Workbook)
$9.95Add to cartLife is filled with choices, but one of the most significant choices a person will ever make is the decision to marry someone. The questions in this marriage preparation workbook are designed to help you explore a number of issues that couples face as they contemplate life together.
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Recovering From Un Natural Disasters
$25.00Add to cartRecovering from Un-Natural Disasters is a must-read handbook for pastors and church leaders of communities who could or perhaps already have experienced an un-natural disaster, such as gun violence, suicides, or sexual abuse.
Unlike natural disasters, un-natural disasters deal with the concept of sin and require a different recovery strategy. In this book, readers will explore the four phases of human-caused disaster – Devastation and Heroism, Disillusionment, Reforming, and Wisdom – and receive step-by-step suggestions to use with their faith community during the recovery process. Example worship resources, including prayers, music suggestions, and sermons that are appropriate to use during periods of trauma and recovery, are included.
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Preaching The Women Of The Old Testament
$28.00Add to cartTake an in-depth look at over twenty fierce, faithful, and strong women featured in the Old Testament with Preaching the Women of the Old Testament. Inside this unique resource author Lynn Japinga interprets the stories of various biblical women, including Eve, Rebekah, Dinah, Tamar, Miriam, Deborah, Jael, Abigail, Bathsheba, and Vashti. Along with providing an interpretation, Japinga demonstrates how the character’s story has been read in Christian tradition and offers sermon ideas that connect contemporary issues to each story. This book is ideal for pastors who want to know more about the many women of the Old Testament and learn how to better incorporate them into their sermons.
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12 Women Of The Bible Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$16.99Add to cartIn this 12-session small group Bible study, Twelve Women of the Bible, Lysa TerKuerst, Elisa Morgan, Jeanne Stevens and other leaders look at the spiritual lessons learned from twelve biblical women and what they mean for your life today.
You’ll learn about the triumphs and failures of Mary Magdalene, Rebekah, Hannah, and nine other women, studying their lives and learning how to:
*Apply biblical lessons to their own modern-day struggles
*Live through their failures as well as successes
*Draw near to God in a world filled with trials
*Find lasting contentment
*Overcome rejection and insecurity and much moreEach of the 12 sessions focuses on one biblical character. You’ll also discover lessons from each of these women that will help you persevere through the circumstances you are facing today.
This Study Guide features discussion questions, background information on each character, space to write down thoughts, a helpful Leader’s Guide, and much more. It is designed for use with the Twelve Women of the Bible DVD (sold separately).
Sessions include:
1. Eve: Finding Lasting Contentment in the Truth (Lysa TerKeurst)
2. Rebekah: Breaking Free of Feminine Stereotypes (Jonalyn Fincher)
3. Leah: Overcoming Rejection and Insecurity (Naomi Zacharias)
4. Hannah: Surrendering in Waiting (Amena Brown)
5. Abigail: Dealing with Confrontation in Relationships
6. Gomer: Learning to Accept Unconditional Love (Jeanne Stevens)
7. Mary, Mother of Jesus: Moving from Comfort to Courage (Jeanne Stevens)
8. Mary Magdalene: Transforming from Outcast to Follower (Jonalyn Fincher)
9. Mary of Bethany: Putting Our Faith into Action (Elisa Morgan)
10. Martha: Finding Our Identity in Jesus (Amena Brown)
11. The Woman at the Well: Turning Our Messes into Messages (Lysa TerKuerst)
12. The Syrophoenician Woman: Approaching God with Persistency and Boldness (Naomi Zacharias) -
Discipleship Is A Journey
$15.00Add to cartAutumn Light Publications
Christian Discipleship is the outward expression of the relationship which baptism has restored. It is the deep, abiding friendship between God and one who has chosen to accept His gift of salvation. In practice, discipleship is the earnest attempt to become like Christ, doing everything possible to LEARN what Christ wants His followers to do AND then trying to DO it. Discipleship is a Journey is an activity-based study guide created to help young believers to understand what is meant by discipleship and what they should do to grow in their new relationship with Jesus. The book can be used independently by the young person to have fun as he learns more about being a disciple or it can be used as a tool in a church’s mentoring plan for their young believers. The content is broken into five sections, focusing on: understanding the new role as a Christian, understanding and using resources that God provides, understanding the role of worship in a Christian’s life, understanding the role of service in a Christian’s life, and understanding that discipleship is a lifelong journey.
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What The Bible Says To The Minister (Student/Study Guide)
$34.99Add to cartGod has called you into ministry…now what? The Bible is full of wisdom, instruction, and sage advice for the minister on every topic, including: Your Calling, Your Purpose, Your Mission, Security In Christ, Your Family and Relationships, Your Daily Walk, Preaching and Teaching, Your Reward, and over 100 other topics! What the Bible Says to the Minister is a cherished resource for pastors and ministers all over the world. Available in 12 languages, this handbook is one that pastors return to over and over again as they seek to fulfill their call to serve God.
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Who Lynched Willie Earle
$19.99Add to cartPastors and leaders long to speak an effective biblical word into the contemporary social crisis of racial violence and black pain. They need a no-nonsense strategy rooted in actual ecclesial life, illuminated in this fine book by a trustworthy guide, Will Willimon, who uses the true story of pastor Hawley Lynn’s March of 1947 sermon, “Who Lynched Willie Earle?” as an opportunity to respond to the last lynching in Greenville, South Carolina and its implications for a more faithful proclamation of the Gospel today. By hearing black pain, naming white complicity, critiquing American exceptionalism/civil religion, inviting/challenging the church to respond, and attending to the voices of African American pastors and leaders, this book helps pastors of white, mainline Protestant churches preach effectively in situations of racial violence and dis-ease.
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Integrative Psychotherapy : Toward A Comprehensive Christian Approach
$45.99Add to cart12 Chapters
Additional Info
Mark McMinn and Clark Campbell present an integrative model of psychotherapy that is grounded in Christian biblical and theological teaching and in a critical and constructive engagement with contemporary psychology.Now in paperback, this foundational work integrates behavioral, cognitive, and interpersonal models of therapy within a Christian theological framework. Not only do the authors integrate Christian faith and spirituality with the latest thinking in behavioral science at a theoretical level, they also integrate the theoretical and academic with the pastoral and clinical, offering a practical guide for the practitioner.
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Journey To The Pulpit
$13.95Add to cartMy parents love their pastor, but they rarely get much from his sermons. Sound familiar?
Why live with word salad, rabbit trails and bouncing around like a ball in a pin ball machine when you can work smarter, not harder.Frank pastors a country church. His positive attitude and effective preaching create an air of expectation for something great each week. As a multi-vocational pastor he rarely experiences the Saturday night panic and arrives at the pulpit ready to preach.
George, a loner, also pastors a country church. The services are lack luster, he is approaching burn out and he questions his call to a pulpit ministry. George just toughs it out thinking it to be more godly. Saturday night is repetitively panic time and Sunday often brings excuses. George does not understand that he might need more preparation than does his sermons.
What makes the difference?Frank recognized his need for help, and found a mentor. He learned to establish the purpose of the sermon first, match it with divine inspiration and have others help gather materials. This reduced preparation time, balanced his work schedule, family time, self-care and sermon preparation. By working on his illustrations and delivery, he could take a lesser quality sermon and turn it into a great event.
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Holding Up Your Corner
$17.99Add to cartHolding Up Your Corner: Talking About Race in Your Community, equips pastors to respond with confidence when crises occur, lower their own inhibitions about addressing this topic, and reclaim their authority as prophetic witnesses and leaders in order to transform their communities Pastors and other church leaders see, to varying degrees, racially rooted injustice in their communities. Most of them understand an imperative, as part of their calling from God, to lead their congregations to address and reverse this injustice. For instance, preachers want to be preaching prophetically on this topic. But the problems seem irreversible, intractable, overwhelming, and pastors often feel their individual efforts will be futile. Additionally, they realize that there is a lot of risk involved, including the possibility that their actions may offend and even push some members away from the church. They do not know what to do or how to begin. And so, even during times of crisis, pastors and other church leaders typically do less than they know they could and should. This book provides practical, foundational guidance, showing pastors how to live into their calling to address injustice, and how to lead others to do the same. Holding Up Your Corner prompts readers to observe, identify and name the complex causes of violence and hatred in the reader’s particular community, including racial prejudice, entrenched poverty and exploitation, segregation, the loss of local education and employment, the ravages of addiction, and so on. The book walks the church leader through a self-directed process of determining what role to play in the leader’s particular location. Readers will learn to use testimony and other narrative devices, proclamation, guided group conversations, and other tactics in order to achieve the following: Open eyes to the realities in the reader’s community-where God’s reign/kingdom is not yet overcoming selfishness, injustice, inequality, or the forces of evil. Own the calling and responsibility we have as Christians, and learn how to advocate hope for God’s kingdom in the reader’s community. Organize interventions and activate mission teams to address the specific injustices in the reader’s community.
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Serving Local Schools
$22.99Add to cartThe heartbeat of every local community is found in its local schools. Yet many churches have little to no connection with school leaders, much less an active ministry presence. But if the church wants to effectively reach its community, it must take the time to invest in school administrators, teachers, and families. Not having a relationship just isn’t an option.
Thankfully, there are new opportunities where schools and churches can work together for the common good of students and the community. Many schools today are facing budget crises’ and financial shortfalls or declining enrollment. Few church leaders know how to walk through the doors of their local school and partner in a sustainable way. Some are worried about crossing the line of separation between church and state, while others just aren’t sure what they have to offer.
This book tells the story of churches that have overcome these barriers, providing biblical support and practical resources to equip churches to meet the needs of local schools while faithfully witnessing to the good news found in Jesus Christ.
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Ethics In Christian Ministry
$16.99Add to cartPastoring is packed with unexpected challenges-both good and bad. Improvising in the face of the unforeseen is often the norm. But like talented athletes and great jazz musicians, improvisation for pastors only comes by first knowing and practicing the basics. Ethics in Christian Ministry is about preparing for the highs and lows of ministry by internalizing and rehearsing the ethical essentials of Christ-centered pastoring. Here is a resource designed to equip pastors with the tools needed to make healthy and theologically sound ethical decisions in the areas of communication, relationships, preaching, counseling, and finances. With such preparation in hand, responding to the unexpected becomes about well-grounded decision-making that leads to the best in pastoral practices.
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What Makes You Happy Participants Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99Add to cartEverybody wants to be happy. Everybody is on a happiness quest. For many, happiness is measured in moments. Experiences. It’s elusive. Unsustainable. What about you? What makes you happy?
Something comes to mind for each of us.
In this six-session video Bible study, pastor Andy Stanley examines the ways in which we tend to define happiness and explains how that definition influences the way we pursue it. He reveals that happiness is about who, not what, and that happy people are at peace with God, with others, and with themselves. He also shows how sin undermines peace because it separates us from God, others, and ourselves by substituting pleasure for fulfillment, things for people, images for intimacy, and self-expression for self-control. We are often tempted to believe that happiness comes from acquiring things, but happiness is actually an outcome of what we sow in our lives. We can’t acquire, consume, or exercise our way to happiness, but we may be able to serve and volunteer our way there. In the end, we find that if we live as if it’s all about us, we will never be happy.
Sessions include:
*Nothing
*Plan for It
*Peace with God
*Happy
*Money
*Shoes You’re Not EnoughDesigned for use with the What Makes You Happy DVD (sold separately).
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Cherish Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99Add to cartMost married couples survive by gritting their teeth and holding on. But what if husbands sought to truly cherish their wives? What if in social settings they did their best to make sure she was heard? What if they supported her goals so she could work in her gifts? What if they bought the things she needed to open up her home and put the beauty of her hospitality on display? And what if wives adopted the same attitude? What if she made sure her husband knew she was his strongest supporter? What if she were willing to support him, stabilize him, bind up his wounds-spiritual and emotional-and turn him so his strongest side was always showing? What if she helped him risk failure out in the world because she made it known to him that he would always be her courageous champion? What would that do to him? For the relationship? In the Cherish Him, Cherish Her video-based study, bestselling author Gary Thomas shows how marriages can not only survive but also thrive when husbands and wives learn to cherish one another. How we can go from neglect and disrespect to cherish and adore. How we can send our marriages into a different dimension. How we can recalibrate our marriages when needed so we don’t suffer from apathy, indifference, and gradual drift. None of us want marriages where we grit our teeth and just tolerate each other because God’s Word says we don’t qualify for divorce. We don’t want marriages where our spouses really don’t like us, much less respect us. We want to be married to someone we cherish and who cherishes us, and it is possible to get to that point.
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Keeping Faith In Fundraising
$21.99Add to cartA biblically grounded call for Christians to engage in fundraising as ministry
Fundraising has always been an essential element of the Christian life-churches, schools, and many other organizations rely on it to function. But it is a risky enterprise, fraught with questions and challenges. How can Christians raise funds with integrity?
In this book Peter Harris and Rod Wilson, experienced fund-raisers themselves, bring fundraising within the scope of normal Christian life and work. After first laying a biblical foundation by discussing 2 Corinthians 8-9, Harris and Wilson develop seven themes central to the giving and receiving of money. They offer valuable insights based on their many years of fundraising as Christians.
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Restored Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$12.99Add to cartOften we make a mess of our lives and wonder if there is any redemption. In this six-week study, pastor and author Tom Berlin helps us see our mess through the eyes of Christ to find redemption and restoration. Using Scripture, devotional tools, and the writings of Ignatius of Loyola, John of the Cross, St. Augustine, John Wesley, Evelyn Underhill, and others, Berlin encourages reflection and meditation through our own brokenness. Only then can we focus on the cross as the place where we truly surrender control, leave our mess, and find redemption. The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the 6-week study for Lent, including session plans and discussion questions, as well as multiple format options.
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Restored : Finding Redemption In Our Mess
$15.99Add to cartOften we make a mess of our lives and wonder if there is any redemption. In this book, pastor and author Tom Berlin helps us see our mess through the eyes of Christ to find redemption and restoration. Using Scripture, devotional tools, and the writings of Ignatius of Loyola, John of the Cross, St. Augustine, John Wesley, Evelyn Underhill, and others, Berlin encourages reflection and meditation through our own brokenness. Only then can we focus on the cross as the place where we truly surrender control, leave our mess, and find redemption.
Chapters include:
This Is a Real Mess
Who Left This Mess?
Bless This Mess
No Messing Around
Address This Mess
The Message in the Mess -
Creed Youth Study Book (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99Add to cartWe’re all searching. Sometimes the search is easy: simply type a question and the answer pops up. But sometimes our questions are complicated, and the answers are difficult to see and harder to articulate. How do we discover and examine the truths that give meaning and purpose to life? Adam Hamilton believes that some powerful answers are contained in the Apostles’ Creed, an early statement of foundational Christian beliefs. In this six-week study for Lent, Easter, and beyond, Hamilton considers important questions of life, reality, and truth. He explores not only what Christians believe, but also why they believe it and why it matters. This Youth Study Book takes the ideas presented in Adam Hamilton’s book and interprets them for young people grades 6-12. Can be used with the adult-level DVD.
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Creed Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$12.99Add to cartWe’re all searching. Sometimes the search is easy: simply type a question and the answer pops up. But sometimes our questions are complicated, and the answers are difficult to see and harder to articulate. How do we discover and examine the truths that give meaning and purpose to life? Adam Hamilton believes that some powerful answers are contained in the Apostles’ Creed, an early statement of foundational Christian beliefs. In this six-week study for Lent, Easter, and beyond, Hamilton considers important questions of life, reality, and truth. He explores not only what Christians believe, but also why they believe it and why it matters. The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the 6-week study for Lent and Easter, including session plans and discussion questions, as well as multiple format options.
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Creed : What Christians Believe And Why (Large Type)
$20.99Add to cartWe’re all searching. Sometimes the search is easy: simply type a question and the answer pops up. But sometimes our questions are complicated, and the answers are difficult to see and harder to articulate. How do we discover and examine the truths that give meaning and purpose to life? Adam Hamilton believes that some powerful answers are contained in the Apostles’ Creed, an early statement of foundational Christian beliefs. In this book for Lent, Easter, and beyond, Hamilton considers important questions of life, reality, and truth. He explores not only what Christians believe, but also why they believe it and why it matters. Chapters include: Is There a God? Jesus: More Than a Rabbi? The Holy Spirit: A Rushing Mighty Wind Death’s Funeral Holy? Catholic? Church? The Forgiveness of Sins The Resurrection of the Body Creed: What Christians Believe and Why is also part of a six-week church-wide program that includes a Leader Guide, DVD, and youth and children resources.
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Creed Childrens Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$18.99Add to cartWe’re all searching. Sometimes the search is easy: simply type a question and the answer pops up. But sometimes our questions are complicated, and the answers are difficult to see and harder to articulate. How do we discover and examine the truths that give meaning and purpose to life? Adam Hamilton believes that some powerful answers are contained in the Apostles’ Creed, an early statement of foundational Christian beliefs. In this six-week study for Lent, Easter, and beyond, Hamilton considers important questions of life, reality, and truth. He explores not only what Christians believe, but also why they believe it and why it matters. The Children’s Leader Guide contains session ideas for younger and older children, including games, activities, craft ideas, and reproducible handouts. Children are forming their own faith, and we can help shape it by looking at the beliefs contained in the Apostles’ Creed and presenting them in a way children can follow and enjoy.
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Singing Gods Psalms
$27.99Add to cartDrawing on his decades of experience as a pastor, hymn writer, and hymnal consultant, Fred Anderson here offers pastors and worship leaders a rich treasury of singable psalms – one for each psalm text or canticle appointed in the three-year Revised Common Lectionary.
Anderson renders each psalm into metered text, using contemporary, biblical, inclusive language, and suggests appropriate pairings with familiar hymn tunes. Short pastoral reflections on each psalm text provide background on what is being sung – and are also useful for sermon preparation and personal meditation.
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Visual Arts In The Worshiping Church
$31.99Add to cartAlthough numerous studies have examined biblical and theological rationales for using the visual arts in worship, this book by Lisa J. DeBoer fills in a piece of the picture missing so far – the social dimensions of both our churches and the various art worlds represented in our congregations.
The first part of the book looks at Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Protestantism in turn – including case studies of specific congregations – showing how each tradition’s use of the visual arts reveals an underlying ecclesiology. DeBoer then focuses on six themes that emerge when Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant uses of the visual arts are examined together – the arts as expressions of the church’s local and universal character, the meanings attributed to particular styles of art for the church, the role of the arts in enculturating the gospel, and more.
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Unique Time Of God
$41.00Add to cartWorld War I changed Karl Barth’s theology forever. In this book William Klempa presents for the first time in English thirteen sermons that offer Barth’s unique view and commentary on the Great War. Barth saw the war as “a unique time of God,” believing it to represent God’s judgment on militarism. The sermons reveal a deep strain of theological wrestling with the war’s meaning, as Barth comes to see the conflict as the logical outcome of all human attempts to create God in our own image. As it demonstrates a decisive shift in Barth’s early theology, this volume is essential for anyone who wishes to understand the twentieth century’s greatest theologian.
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Breaking The Huddle
$20.99Add to cartMost Christians are stuck in the huddle. Even though we believe in outreach, our communities tend to focus on our own needs. That makes us into insular groups that don’t have many relationships with outsiders. So evangelism is occasional and conversions are rare. How do we change? In their groundbreaking I Once Was Lost, Don Everts and Doug Schaupp identified five thresholds that individuals move across from skeptics to followers. Now they and Val Gordon show how huddled communities can become witnessing communities. The authors have studied the growth of witnessing communities, what enhances and limits them, and have gathered best practices for transformation. Our churches and fellowships can become places where evangelism is not done by a just few people, but where the whole community itself becomes a winsome, thriving witness to those around it. Break out of the huddle. It’s time to get in the game.
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James 1 And 2 Peter And Jude
$30.00Add to cartFocused Biblical Scholarship to Teach the Text
To craft informed sermons, pastors scour commentaries that often deal more with minutia than the main point. Or they turn to devotional commentaries, which may contain exegetical weaknesses. The Teach the Text Commentary Series bridges this gap by utilizing the best of biblical scholarship and providing the information a pastor needs to communicate the text effectively. The carefully selected preaching units and focused commentary allow pastors to quickly grasp the big idea and key themes of each passage of Scripture. Each unit of the commentary includes the big idea and key themes of the passage and sections dedicated to understanding, teaching, and illustrating the text.The newest New Testament release in this innovative commentary series is Jim Samra’s treatment of James, 1 & 2 Peter, and Jude. -
Beyond Business As Usual (Expanded)
$26.95Add to cartThe revised and expanded edition will include new information, new teaching resources, and perspectives gained in the last eight years, as well as the General Convention resolutions of 2015. Beyond Business as Usual is full of resources for forming the vestry as a learning community. It deals with the “soft” side of leadership that enables the pastor and vestry together to journey along the leadership path. Each chapter can be read and reviewed at a series of vestry meetings or as part of a vestry retreat, and includes questions for group and individual discussion. The book also contains resources for vestries, based upon different preferred learning styles, for the formation part of the vestry meeting or retreat.
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Pattern Of Our Calling
$44.99Add to cartMinistry has always changed, adapting to time and place. But the pace of change has increased. There is a greater need for success and less tolerance of diversity. A few high-achievers hold up their heads whilst others struggle or wonder how to make sense of what feels like failure. Our theology is impoverished and we are so quick to adopt new models that we have forgotten our own past. This book explores the changing theologies of ministry during the church s history with the aim of challenging the lack of theological reflection in some of today s results-driven understanding of ministry that seems more influenced by the business world than by Christian theology and tradition. Setting out to explain why theologians said what they said about ministry, why it might matter, and why it might be exciting, David Hoyle covers nearly two thousand years of theological reflection from the Didache to Michael Ramsey and current writers, and provides a synthesis not found anywhere else. The book offers realistic sustenance to practitioners struggling with the new demands on clergy.
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Take The Flag (Large Type)
$14.99Add to cartThe purpose of this book is not to turn readers into race fans but to help them become stronger disciples of Jesus Christ by paying attention to the signals God gives us each day.
In this Bible -based, 7-week churchwide series, Fuquay uses the flags from auto racing as a way to discuss different aspects of our life of faith.
Green Flag (start) – How do we start our journey of faith?
Yellow Flag (caution) – The decisions we make can sometimes put us in danger. How do we learn to heed God’s caution?
Red Flag (delay) – Finishing well involves pit stops. How does God help us get the most our of these breaks?
Blue Flag (yield) – Each of us may run our own race, but we also need to respect others. How does God help us focus on others’ needs?
Black Flag (disqualification) – What happens when our own violations take us out of the race, and how does God help us get back in?
White Flag (final lap) – As we head toward the finish line, how do we steer according to God’s will?
Checkered Flag (victory) – If we persevere – navigating the hazards, managing the pit stops – then victory is ours. But how does God want us to experience victory?This book will captivate your congregation and engage them in an exciting adventure of spiritual growth.
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From Suriving To Thriving
$13.95Add to cartSome Chapters Included:
Stop Making Excuses And Start Doing Something
Get Your Church’s Financial House In Order
Reclaim Your Inactive Members
Reach The Unchurched In Your Community
Remove The Roadblocks That Impede Thriving
Expect God’s MiraclesAdditional Info
For years, Rev. Dr. John H. Krahn has been one of his denomination’s most successful interim pastors whom God has used to save many dying churches. He shares his proven methods for helping churches which are barely surviving to once again thrive. Whether your church is on life support or is doing quite well, this book shares ways and insights which will strengthen your church and its ministry. Unlike other books on church growth, From Surviving to Thriving — A Practical Guide to Revitalize Your Church, is a hands-on approach that will assist you and your church greatly. Dr. Krahn believes that no church should fail. He has written this book to help your church once again thrive.Inside you will find a good measure of practical advice, pressed down, shaken together and running over with experience and good sense. There are not many suggestions that cannot immediately be put into practice by pastors and members of congregations alike. Pastor Krahn has done what he recommends and seen the results of intentional missional ministry in more than one context. The book is overflowing with good stories and examples of excellent ministry. He draws richly from the pastoral imagination of other settings. We all know that the current culture does not necessarily support our congregational revitalization, but rather than simply analyze the situation and describe the problem, the author proposes concrete and effective practices in worship, finances, and programs that he has seen work. There are no silver bullets to address our challenges but a comprehensive approach including, among others, getting the church’s financial house in order, practicing good stewardship, developing a strategic plan and vision, marketing the church in new and old ways, and developing an evangelism program. Here is a book by a veteran pastor who knows how to revitalize a congregation that is long on hope and short on excuses.
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Preaching Christ From Psalms
$52.99Add to cartIn this final volume of his series on preaching Christ from the Old Testament, Sidney Greidanus offers expert guidance for busy pastors on preaching Christ from Psalms.
Beginning with a general introduction on how pastors can interpret and preach from the biblical psalms – and why they should – Greidanus proceeds by discussing twenty-two psalms in the Revised Common Lectionary, Year A, supplying the building blocks necessary to preach from Psalms at Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and other major days and seasons of the church year. In addition to laying out basic homiletical-theological approaches suitable for each selected psalm, these chapters also provide verse-by-verse exposition, bridges to Christ in the New Testament, and ideas for placing the psalmist’s words into contemporary context.
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Way Of A Disciple
$19.99Add to cartThe Walking with God series was developed as the curriculum for small groups at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois. Since its release in 1992, it has been used by churches and small groups to help raise up devoted disciples of Christ. Group members who work through the program will lay a solid foundation for a lifelong walk with God.
While small groups may be formed for a variety of purposes, the goal of this curriculum is for groups to produce disciples-fully devoted followers of Christ-by studying God’s Word in community. To this end, the goal of the study is to produce disciples who walk with God, have a personal relationship with Jesus, and live in step with the Holy Spirit. It is also to produce believers who live the Word in all areas of life and contribute to the work that God is doing in the local church. Ultimately, the goal is to develop believers who impact the world and are prepared and eager to spread the good news of Christ to others.
This material will help develop these attributes in group members. Each lesson includes group Bible study and discussion questions in addition to devotions, reflections, and personal study for use by individuals between the group sessions.
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Polycentric Missiology : 21st Century Mission From Everyone To Everywhere
$26.99Add to cartThe Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary Conference was the most famous missions conference in modern church history. A century later, five conferences on five continents displayed the landscape of global mission at the dawn of the third millennium: Tokyo 2010, Edinburgh 2010, Cape Town 2010, 2010Boston and CLADE V (San Jose, 2012). These five conferences provide a window into the state of world Christianity and contemporary missiology. Missiologist Allen Yeh, the only person to attend all five conferences, chronicles the recent history of world mission through the lenses of these landmark events. He assesses the legacy of Edinburgh 1910 and the development of world Christianity in the following century. Whereas Edinburgh 1910 symbolized Christendom’s mission “from the West to the rest,” the conferences of 2010-2012 demonstrate the new realities of polycentric and polydirectional mission-from everyone to everywhere. Yeh’s accounts of the conferences highlight the crucial missiological issues of our era: evangelism, frontier missions, ecumenism, unengaged and post-Christian populations, reconciliation, postmodernities, contextualization, postcolonialism, migration and more. What emerges is a portrait of a contemporary global Christian mission that encompasses every continent, embodying good news for all nations.
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How To Pioneer
$15.99Add to cartSmall new Christian communities created by pioneer ministers, both lay and ordained, are popping up everywhere – on housing estates, in community centres, schools, cafes, among different age groups and in numerous other contexts beyond the local church. This practical book is for all who are engaged in this form of ministry and it begins by identifying some basic principles from a wide variety of creative examples of pioneer ministry.
Illustrated with actual examples throughout, it explores
-how to ‘listen’ to the physical, social and spiritual environment of a local context
-how to discern a community’s needs and the appropriate missional response
-how to build a creative team
-the art of the start – how to begin well
-how to build relationships and create community by acts of authentic love
-how to become and stay Jesus-centred
-how to live and tell the gospel in meaningful ways
-how to grow disciples
-how to stay fresh (and avoid rotas!) -
3 Simple Rules For Christian Living Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$14.99Add to cartThis small-group study by Jeanne Torrence Finley is based on Rueben P. Job’s book Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living. Six sessions provide extended reflection for adults on three principles of Christian life: do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God. Each rule has a session to help you understand the rule and a session to help you explore ways to practice the rule. The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the 6-week study, including session plans, discussion questions, and other useful information for organizing, leading, and publicizing your study group.
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Introduction To African American Preaching
$38.99Add to cartThis book by Frank A. Thomas serves as an introduction and primer on African American preaching. He sets out to answer six questions: 1) What is the historical study and scholarly treatment of black preaching? The formal study of black preaching matured in the 1990s from Abingdon Press, through the books Black Preaching by Henry Mitchell (Interdenominational Theological Center) and The Hum by Evans Crawford (Howard University). The initial chapter traces how and why black preaching evolved. 2) What is black preaching? What makes black preaching distinctive? What are the substantive methodologies and content of black preaching? Does black preaching include the preaching of the African Diaspora or is it limited to American shores? How does black preaching correlate with the preaching methodologies of other communities, i.e. Euro-American, Latino/Latina, Korean, etc. 3) What are the benchmarks of excellence in black preaching? In every preaching tradition, models and styles or examples emerge based on community recognition and acclaim within the cultural preaching tradition. These models are built on criteria that point to “excellence” in oral practice. The goal in the classroom is to surface conscious and unconscious codes of excellence, which the student can then adapt in a particular congregation. 4) What methods are practiced in African American preaching? Three methods are explored from “folk” and “educated” preaching. Methods of “old-time Negro Preaching,” are compared to the Hegelian method of Samuel DeWitt Proctor and the celebrative preaching method of Henry H. Mitchell, Frank A. Thomas, and Luke Powery. 5) What are the future trends in black preaching? What cultural and media forces are changing black preaching? 6) What are the best bibliographic resources in African American preaching?
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Parish Handbook
$35.99Add to cartA parish church gathers people together from across the community and is a site of resistance against the increasingly atomized and segregated society in which we live. The social and political revolution at the heart of parish life is people learning to relate to each other in the name of Christ.
Making clear that it is ordinary living which is at the heart of parish life, Bob Mayo provides an important and accessible resource for all involved in church leadership. Drawing on a wealth of experience and research, the handbook brings together sociological observation and theological insight to shape sound practical theological reflection. It will appeal to ordinands as much as practicing incumbents. -
Road To Growth
$24.00Add to cartChurch House Publishing
Based on his consultancy experience with churches and dioceses over the last three years and further research on the causes of church growth, Bob Jacksons new book shows how the Church at parish, diocesan and national level can overturn its old cycle of decline and begin a new cycle of growth. At its heart this book is about how local churches can thrive and grow in the early twenty-first century. Part 1 outlines the current context, offering a sharp analysis behind the reasons for church growth and decline. Part 2 describes churches which are already experiencing growth both in numerical and ministry strength. It looks at lessons learnt and what is at the heart of a resurgent, thriving Church. Parts 3 and 4 set out workable strategies and unpacks ways in which human and financial resources can be deployed to support and sustain the growth of the local church. This is not about glib, short-term solutions promising quick results. The goal of this book is to help transform fragile signs of hope for the Church into a solid road to growth.
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God At Work Cycle A
$12.95Add to cartThe lectionary Gospel readings for the first third of the season after Pentecost (Pentecost Sunday through Proper 12-Cycle A) launch us immediately into a series of teachings by Jesus, many in the form of a parable, about what it means to follow him in the Kingdom of God. Only three of the eight readings, for example, narrate distinct events in the ministry of Jesus. Given the heavy pedagogic emphasis in the other eight lections, it would be easy to treat discipleship as a thing or an object to be studied at a safe, intellectual distance. Nothing could be further from what author Kevin Mohr believes the Holy Spirit wants us to experience as we grapple with these readings. The parables and teachings of Jesus in Matthew, chapters seven through thirteen, illustrate what began at Pentecost: God is at work in the world through those who believe in Jesus Christ. Through these musings the reader might be able to catch enough of a glimpse of God at work to be caught up again into what God is doing in Christ Jesus through his church.
The sermons presented in God At Work are generally more topical or thematic than expository. All of them have been edited from their original context of sermons shared with the people of English Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bluffton, Ohio. But the liveliness and spirit of these messages have not been lost in the editing.
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Pickled Priest And The Perishing Parish
$11.95Add to cartJust as baby boomers comprise the largest generation in America’s history, they also represent the largest percentage of current senior pastors in American churches. Boomer pastors all over the country are struggling to transition from their roots in twentieth-century church culture to ministry and leadership in our challenging twenty-first century–and this transition must take place for traditional churches to be a relevant factor in world redemption.
In The Pickled Priest and the Perishing Parish: Boomer Pastors Bouncing Back, Senior Pastor Hal West, himself a baby boomer, offers essential insights and words of inspiration for pastors, leaders, and Christians who desire to see renewal and transformation in their churches, in America, and in themselves.
The challenges facing traditional churches and the boomer pastors who lead them are many– not the least of which are pastors’ ensconced perspective of their own spiritual formation, theological training, and experience. In his unique, conversational, and at times humorous tone, Pastor Hal West first offers proof through his own -pickled- perspective and then explores, with help from the lessons of biblical prophets like Isaiah and Nehemiah, how boomer pastors can and must bounce back.
Change is challenging, but in our day of cultural conflict, political corruption, and spiritual crisis, change is imperative. It falls to church leaders, regardless of their decades of experience in ministry and leadership, to approach transformation with an open mind and provide guidance, vision, and restoration to their churches and the souls they serve. -
Preaching The Luminous Word
$37.99Add to cartInsights from one of the most distinctive and eloquent scholar-preachers of our time Inviting serious theological engagement with texts from all parts of the Christian Bible, Preaching the Luminous Word offers fifty-one engaging sermons from noted preacher Ellen F. Davis. A brief preface sets each sermon in its geographic and liturgical context, highlights distinctive themes, and draws attention to elements of structure and rhetorical style. The sermons are arranged in canonical order and cover a wide scope of texts – Torah, Prophets, Writings (including Psalms, Proverbs, Lamentations, Song of Songs, and Job), Gospels, Epistles, and Revelation. Also included in the volume are five choice essays by Davis that discuss various aspects of biblical preaching. At once accessible, theologically informed, and richly instructive, these sermons will engage Christian readers at any stage of their faith journey.
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E-Giving Guide For Every Church
$12.99Add to cartThe purpose of this book is to help churches raise more money for ministry and mission by better using electronic media. Although philanthropy in the US is growing, churches continue to receive a declining portion of that philanthropy. Part of the challenge is that America is becoming significantly less dependent on paper currency (cash and checks) yet the church continues to count on paper currency as their primary media for donations. There have been warning signals for several years. Many churches face shrinking budgets and membership and are beginning to ask the right questions. The author’s goal is to capture this teachable moment with a resource that will encourage pastors and church leaders to utilize tools already available to change the trajectory of their resourcing; because nothing is more important than what God has called them to do. The banking and electronic giving industries have not made it easy for churches to understand their services or fees. This book will take the confusion and fear away and open churches to new possibilities.
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Funding Ministry With Five Loaves And Two Fishes
$18.99Add to cartThis book is for any pastor, church planter or lay leader struggling to do ministry with a lack of financial resources but hungry to reach the lost with the Good News of Jesus Christ. Clergy are trained to preach, teach, and lead a congregation in spiritual matters. However, it has become increasingly alarming that there is no training for clergy when it comes to the “business” matters of the church in regards to finances, debt reduction, fundraising, and building maintenance. The added and sometimes unexpected load for clergy can become cumbersome and extremely stressful. In addition, the decline of the church and the passing of key funders of churches leave many pastors with dying churches and few resources to do anything about it. Rosario Picardo has been in this very position starting a church in a movie theater with no people and very little financial support and revitalizing a dying congregation in a deteriorating physical structure. Through trials and failures, new creative ways of doing ministry and entrepreneurial thinking, God provided, and Picardo learned new ways for reaching the least and lost and growing disciples. In Funding Ministry with Five Loaves and Two Fishes, Picardo shares the lessons he’s learned with confidence that the Church is not dead; it’s just time for a new wineskin.
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Training Missionaries : Principles And Possibilities
$25.99Add to cartMissionaries must know God, be able to relate well to other people, understand and engage with another culture, and be able to use the Bible in a way that informs all aspects of their lives and ministries. Missionary training must address each of these areas if it is to help Christians to be effective in taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. Effective training has been shown to prevent people from prematurely leaving the field. It also reduces the danger of cross-cultural workers uncritically exporting culturally bound forms of Christianity. This book details four key areas that every missionary training program, whatever its context, must focus on developing. It shows how these can be holistically addressed in a learning community where trainers and trainees engage in cross-cultural ministry together.
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Professional Guidelines For Christian English Teachers
$17.99Add to cart“This handbook is for people in the field of English language teaching who are looking for practical ways to be both committed followers of Jesus and ethical TESOL professionals. What do such teachers actually do in the classroom? What materials do they use? How do they relate to their students and colleagues in and outside the classroom? How can they treat students as whole people, with spiritual and religious identities? How can they set a high bar for ethical teaching? Professional Guidelines for Christian English Teachers has grown out of Kitty Purgason’s experience as a Christian seeking to follow the Great Commandment and the Great Commission, as a practitioner with a deep concern for excellence and integrity, and as a teacher trainer with experience in many parts of the world.”
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Choosing To Be Grateful Cycle A
$12.95Add to cartIn this latest collection of Cycle A gospel sermons for Pentecost (last third), Albert Butzer shows that we Christians live our lives with one leg in the ancient and sacred world of the Bible and the other leg in our modern, scientific world. The job of the preacher is to make holy sense of the intersection of these two worlds. It is a great honor and a sacred responsibility to do this, as well as a weekly lesson in humility.
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Lectionary Preaching Workbook Series 10 Cycle A
$59.95Add to cartDavid Bales’ latest Lectionary Preaching Workbook: Series X, Cycle A invites teachers of the word to peer deep beneath the pages of scripture to consider broader perspectives and messages. Bales presents themes, summaries, exegesis, and a prayer, in each lectionary day, as resources to guide sermon development, always attempting to expose preachers to different perspectives and deeper knowledge.
As Bales carefully unpacks his thoughts upon each selected scripture passage, he combines his personal ideas with the time-tested analysis of other great Christian thinkers, resulting in a thoughtful and critical exposition on God’s word. This unique style empowers pastors to engage with God’s word, and the end result is a resource that will equip congregations to be challenged through a deliberate, well-informed message.
Written specifically as a preaching resource for Cycle A, the Lectionary Preaching Workbook will benefit any student of the word, and can be used for sermon starters, adult study groups, and individual Bible study.
Each chapter includes:
Revised Common Lectionary texts for the day
Scripture references and intensive exposition
Theme analysis and narrative illustration
Citation attributions to various apologists, teachers, and authors
A pastoral prayer -
Work Of A Disciple
$19.99Add to cartThe Walking with God series was developed as the curriculum for small groups at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois. Since its release in 1992, it has been used by churches and small groups to help raise up devoted disciples of Christ. Group members who work through the program will lay a solid foundation for a lifelong walk with God.
While small groups may be formed for a variety of purposes, the goal of this curriculum is for groups to produce disciples-fully devoted followers of Christ-by studying God’s Word in community. To this end, the goal of the study is to produce disciples who walk with God, have a personal relationship with Jesus, and live in step with the Holy Spirit. It is also to produce believers who live the Word in all areas of life and contribute to the work that God is doing in the local church. Ultimately, the goal is to develop believers who impact the world and are prepared and eager to spread the good news of Christ to others.
This material will help develop these attributes in group members. Each lesson includes group Bible study and discussion questions in addition to devotions, reflections, and personal study for use by individuals between the group sessions.
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Surprise Surprise Surprise Cycle A
$12.95Add to cartBut What Of Lazarus? (John 11:1-45)
For The Glow Of It (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21)
Friday (John 18:1-19:42)
Learning To Walk In The Dark And Remembering The Dark Is As Day To God (Matthew 26:14– 27:66)
Nicodemus Came By Night (John 3:1-17)Additional Info
Two voices, fourteen sermons…The lives of David and Marian Plant have been intertwined for 46 years, their mutual ministries, for even longer. Their voices were shaped by their ministry experiences that began together in shared, co-pastorate positions, and then matured into individual settled ministry positions and then again, moved into their own specialties of the last 20 years: Marian, in the teaching ministry and David in the interim and church revitalization ministry. Marian’s voice is one practiced well from a traditional setting of pulpit with written text in hand. David’s voice is one practiced in a relational style of informal conversation, often done without notes, and in back and forth dialogue with the gathered worshipers.
Their latest work, Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! provides fourteen cycle A gospel sermons for Lent/Easter. In these sermons you will see the mix of the lives of the Plants, committed to social justice, the important context of the role of the church as that which speaks for Christ, and the importance of the need for individuals to take up the challenge of living their faith more fully. There is no doubt that their mutual passions for addressing the ills befalling our culture and our world were foremost on their minds, and they could not but help influence one another’s work by virtue of their lives lived in the practice of ministry and marriage. They offer these words to you, as colleagues in ministry, even if only a sentence is valuable to you.
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Grace And Peace Cycle A
$17.95Add to cartEaster may be the highest holy day in the life of the church but in American culture that honor goes to Christmas. Christians often find themselves trying to straddle the divide between Christmas as “Christ Mass” and Christmas as a family gathering and a retail extravaganza. In Grace and Peace, Dean Feldmeyer’s latest collection of sermons for Cycle A, the seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany are celebrated by acknowledging the secular, cultural parts of the season and, at the same time, they are first and foremost celebrations of God’s incarnation in the living Christ.
Sermon titles included
Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! (Matthew 24:36-44)
Less Fear; More Fruit (Matthew 3:1-12)
Preparing the Way (Matthew 11:2-11)
The New Moses (Matthew 1:18-25)
Jesus Incognito (Matthew 25:31-46) -
Beyond Fairness Cycle A
$12.95Add to cartThe stories of Jesus continue to challenge listeners toward new and better ways of living. The sermons of Beyond Fairness: The Stories Of Jesus express these stories, with joyful seriousness, in the hope they will encourage faithful discipleship. Preachers, teachers, and all who want to engage the stories of Jesus, will find these sermons to be bread for their journey beyond fairness toward grace for all.
Beyond Fairness includes sermons for Pentecost (middle third). These sermons could also be used by adult forums and small group Bible studies for helpful conversation.
Some sermon titles included in Beyond Fairness:
You Feed the Hungry (Matthew 14:13-21)
Stepping into Liminal Space (Matthew 14:22-33)
Who Are You Following (Matthew 16:21-28)
One Feisty Woman (Matthew 15:21-28)
What Are We Protecting? (Matthew 21:33-46)
The Stop and Think Chair (Matthew: 18:15-20 -
Prodigal Son Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99Add to cartNearly two thousand years ago, Jesus told a simple parable about a father and his two sons. It was a story of rebellion, repentance, and unfathomable grace. This parable of the prodigal son stands out because it presents, in clear and inspiring terms, our struggle with sin, our need for repentance, and the Father’s inexhaustible mercy and love for us. Even those who know next to nothing else about the Bible know something about this tale. In this study, John MacArthur provides fascinating new insights into this parable and explores why so many of us recognize ourselves in its narrative. For believers, the prodigal son is a humbling reminder of who we are and how much we owe to God’s grace. For those who are conscious of their guilt but unrepentant, the prodigal’s life is a searing reminder of the wages of sin, the duty of the sinner to repent, and the goodness of God. For sinners coming to repentance, the father’s eager welcome and costly generosities are reminders that God’s grace and goodness are inexhaustible. For all of us, the elder brother’s attitude is a powerful warning that reveals how easily unbelief can masquerade as faithfulness. This five-session video-based study includes re-enacted vignettes from the parable with accompanying teaching from John MacArthur. With this study, experienced and new group leaders alike will be equipped to lead a life-changing study for their group members.
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Crossing Cultures In Scripture
$30.99Add to cartCrosscultural Mission from Eden to Eternity From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is a crosscultural book. Scripture is filled with narratives of God’s people crossing cultures in pursuit of God’s mission. Biblical texts shed light on mission dynamics: Sarah and Hagar functioning in an honor/shame culture, Moses as a multicultural leader, Ruth as a crosscultural conversion, David and Uriah illustrating power distance, the Queen of Sheba as an international truth-seeker, Daniel as a transnational student, Jesus’ crosscultural encounters as communication across worldviews, Paul in Athens as a model of contextualization, and much more. Missionary and missions professor Marvin Newell provides a biblical theology of culture and mission, mining the depths of Scripture to tease out missiological insights and crosscultural perspectives. Unlike other books that are organized topically, this text is organized canonically, revealing how the whole of Scripture speaks to contemporary mission realities. Comprehensive in scope, filled with biblical insight and missional expertise, this book is an essential resource for students and practitioners of crosscultual ministry and mission.
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Modern Psychopathologies : A Comprehensive Christian Appraisal (Revised)
$60.00Add to cart14 Chapters
Additional Info
Modern Psychopathologies is addressed to students and mental health professionals who want to sort through contemporary secular understandings of psychopathology in relation to a Christian worldview. Written by well-known and respected scholars, the book, in nine core chapters, provides an introduction to a set of disorders along with overviews of current research on etiology, treatment and prevention. Prior chapters give a context for the integration of Christianity and the scientific study of psychopathology, and articulate integrative themes discussed throughout the book, providing a foundation for the concluding vision for Christian health professionals and the church. This is a unique and valuable resource for Christians studying psychology and counseling, or providing counseling services, pastoral care, Christian healing ministries or spiritual direction. Though fully capable of standing on its own, it is also a useful companion volume to Modern Psychotherapies by Stanton L. Jones and Richard E. Butman. -
Church As Movement
$30.99Add to cartForeword
Introduction
Prologue
Part I: Distributing
1. Movement Mentality
2. Polycentric LeadershipPart II: Discipleship
3. Being Disciples
4. Making DisciplesPart III: Designing
5. Missional Theology
6. Ecclesial ArchitecturePart IV: Doing
7. Community Formation
8. Incarnational PracticeEpilogue
Additional Info
A training resource to help readers plant missional-incarnational churches, written by leading thinkers and practitioners in the area of church planting and missional living. This book is a thorough, comprehensive manual to help those on the long and challenging journey of church planting to survive and thrive. -
Lectionary Stories For Preaching And Teaching Series 2 Cycle A
$19.95Add to cartho doesn’t love a good story? Storytellers who excel at their craft have the ability to draw readers or listeners into the worlds they create, using characters and situations to entertain and enlighten us. Jesus, the Master Storyteller, often spoke using parables — short stories that conveyed spiritual truths. By drawing his listeners into his stories, he unlocked their minds and hearts to hear the truth he was relating to them.
This compilation of stories for the entire church year, written by Peter Andrew Smith, follows in that same tradition. The stories within CSS Publishing’s latest Lectionary Stories for Preaching and Teaching, Series II, Cycle A are inspired by the source gospel passages and serve to highlight and illustrate the gospel Jesus taught through his words and life. They can serve as a companion when studying the scripture, as illustrations for sermons, and as devotional material for personal or group use. Smith offers thought-provoking contemplations on Cycle A lectionary passages that draw out the biblical theme by relating it to aspects of modern life we have all experienced.
Some chapters included in this volume
Always Room for Another
Starting A New Life
Preparing for Temptation
The Taste of Cold Water
Because I Love You -
Feed My Lambs
$23.95Add to cartFeed My Lambs is a collection of 103 children’s object lessons, written in script form, so that those who desire to give fun and effective sermons will be able to easily prepare the message.
I hope to encourage people who might pick up Feed My Lambs to give children’s sermons a try. I think about how I went about it years back. I walked into a Christian bookstore, asked where the children’s sermon book section was, picked up a few books, and wondered if I were biting off more than I could chew. I want people to know they can. God will certainly bless them and all the little ones they are trying to help. Jesus said, “Feed My Lambs.”
*Included in Feed My Lambs
*Index of Seasonal Themes
*Notes to the Reader
*Index of Bible references
*Liturgical calendar suggestions
*Chapter-by-Chapter synopsis
*Some of the chapter titles in this book are:
*Having a Right Relationship with God
*Trust in the Lord and His Perfect Plan
*Our Sins and Jesus’ Forgiveness
*Talking with God
*Holidays -
DNA Of Pioneer Ministry
$35.99Add to cartSorted is a successful Fresh Expression of church based in Bradford, which has now sent out pioneers using the lessons learnt to begin planting a fresh expression in Thamesmead, London and begin a pioneering project in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Fresh Expressions story has been well-told, but there have been relatively few attempts to relate the experiences and methodologies the author and his team have learnt over 10 years of pioneering Sorted (3 fresh expressions of church), so that pioneers, missionaries and the wider Church may be better equipped and informed when pioneering fresh expressions, mission communities and church plants in a whole range of different contexts. Relevant and timely, this book aims to share these lessons and methodologies using the Sorted story. -
Church Buildings : A Strategic Guide To Design Renovation And Construction
$14.99Add to cartHow can church leaders make wise decisions when planning, designing, and constructing their church’s facilities?
How do church leaders address the needs and wants of the church while staying within their budget? When should they begin planning their future facility? Pastors, elders, and leaders beginning the process of renovation or construction are faced with the questions of where to begin, when to hire professionals, and how to successfully oversee the many details of their building project.
In “Church Buildings,” PlanNorth Principal Architect Katie Burch draws from extensive industry experience to give church executives the tools and knowledge to successfully lead their church’s renovation or new building construction from beginning to end. Leaders will learn useful tips and advice of how to:
Refine the vision and purpose for their church
Create an informative, clear fundraising campaign
Ensure their facilities meet the unique needs of their congregation
Creatively work within their church’s budget
Navigate the terms and processes of the design and construction industriesWhether church leaders are just beginning their ministry or are knee-deep in a growing congregation, this book will serve as an excellent reference guide for an organized, informed approach to facilities. Most importantly, leaders will walk away understanding how to ensure their church facility will serve people for decades to come.
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Kingdom Marriage Group Video Experience Participants Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$9.99Add to cartThis uplifting new small-group study guide is based on the book Kingdom Marriage and is meant to be used with the Kingdom Marriage Group Video Experience. It instructs every Christ-following couple on how to tap into the power of God as they seek God’s purpose and perspective for their marriage. Participants will be led through thought-provoking discussion and application activities as Tony Evans explains how kingdom couples bring light and life to their family and communities (estimated 6-week video study curriculum).
“You can reflect the glory of God and the unity of the Trinity through your shared purpose, honor, and love as a true kingdom couple.” – Tony Evans
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Kingdom Marriage Group Video Experience With Leaders Guide
$29.99Add to cartThis uplifting new video small-group study is based on the book Kingdom Marriage. It instructs every Christ-following couple on how to tap into the power of God as they seek God’s purpose and perspective for their marriage. This resource is filled with practical insights and applications as Tony Evans explains how kingdom couples bring light and life to their families and communities (estimated 6-week video study curriculum).
Included in this product are a printed Participant’s Study Guide, a digital Leader’s Guide, and the DVD curriculum.
“You can reflect the glory of God and the unity of the Trinity through your shared purpose, honor, and love as a true kingdom couple.” -Tony EvansKingdom Marriage shows couples that the key to influencing our society and the world with lasting impact is found in solidifying biblical marriage in the way God intended. It starts with both wife and husband reflecting God and His image and modeling that reflection within the roles and responsibilities of their union. This is based on a correct understanding of God’s kingdom and their responsibilities in it.
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Watch Your Mouth Interactive Workbook (Workbook)
$10.99Add to cartDr. Tony Evans says your greatest enemy is actually in your mouth. The tongue has more power to quickly destroy your life than anyone or anything else. But, as an image bearer of God, your highest calling is to model with your mouth the character of God. How can we learn to control our tongues?
Perfect for group or individual study, this interactive workbook serves as a companion to Dr. Evans’s compelling DVD series, Watch Your Mouth. Dig deeper into the life-changing truths about the tongue as you follow along with Dr. Evans’s teaching. Includes insightful discussion questions to help you work through what you’re learning, Scripture passages to learn more about this powerful weapon, and ideas to help you put what you’re learning into practice.
Learn how to use your words to minister to and speak life into the world around you.
