Pastoral Helps
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Walk : Five Essential Practices Of The Christian Life
$18.99Add to cartExamine five essential spiritual practices rooted in Jesus’ own walk with God.
How do we walk with Christ-daily follow him, grow in him, and faithfully serve him?
In the Gospels, Jesus modeled for us the Christian spiritual life. The apostles taught it in their writings. And the Church has, through the last 2,000 years, sought to pursue this Christian spiritual life.
In The Walk, Adam Hamilton focuses on five essential spiritual practices that are rooted in Jesus’ own walk with God and taught throughout the New Testament. Each of these practices is intended as part of our daily walk with Christ while also being an essential part of growing together in the church.
In each chapter, Hamilton explores one of these practices, its New Testament foundation, and what it looks like to pursue this practice daily in our personal life and together in the life of the church. Deepen your walk with Christ as we explore the five essential practices of worship, study, serving, giving, and bearing witness to our faith.
Additional components for a six-week adult study include a comprehensive Leader Guide and a DVD featuring the engaging teachings of author and pastor Adam Hamilton. Also available are resources for children and youth.
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How Not To Read The Bible Study Guide Plus Streaming Video (Student/Study Guide)
$19.99Add to cartThis study guide includes:
*Individual access to 6 streaming video sessions
*Discussion and reflection questions with video notes
*Personal study for between sessions
*Leader’s GuideFor centuries, the Bible was called “the Good Book,” a moral and religious text that guides us into a relationship with God and shows us the right way to live. Today, however, some people argue the Bible is outdated and harmful, with many Christians unaware of some of the odd and disturbing things the Bible says.
Whether you are a Christian, a doubter, or someone exploring the Bible for the first time, in this six-session video study bestselling author Dan Kimball guides you step-by-step in how to make sense of the most misunderstood, difficult, and disturbing Bible passages related to women, science, violence, slavery, and world religions. Filled with stories, visual illustrations, and memes reflecting popular cultural objections, How (Not) to Read the Bible is a lifeline for individuals who are confused or discouraged with questions about the Bible. This study can be done in youth groups, single’s groups, small groups, Sunday classes, and by individuals.
Sessions include:
*Never Read a Bible Verse
*Stranger Things
*Boys’ Club Christianity
*Jesus Riding a Dinosaur
*My God Can Beat Up Your God
*Rated NC-17Designed for use with How (Not) to Read the Bible Video Study, sold separately.
*Access code subject to expiration after 12/31/2026. Code may be redeemed only by the recipient of this package. Code may not be transferred or sold separately from this package. Internet connection required. Eligible only on retail purchases inside the United States. Void where prohibited, taxed, or restricted by law. Additional offer details inside.
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Call : The Life And Message Of The Apostle Paul
$16.99Add to cartWalk Beside the Great Apostle
With Adam Hamilton, we have traced the life of Jesus from his birth The Journey, through his ministry The Way, to his death and resurrection 24 Hours That Changed the World. What happened next?
Follow the journeys of Paul, beginning with his dramatic conversion, as he spread the Gospel through modern-day Greece and Turkey. Travel to the early church sites and explore Paul’s conversations with the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. In this six-week study, you are invited to experience faith through Christ’s greatest teacher and missionary.
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Case For Classical Christian Education
$21.99Add to cartPublished almost twenty years ago, Douglas Wilson’s Case for Classical Christian Education is a call for parents and educators to do more than just teach kids how to read or to do math and science. Instead, parents and teachers need to educate children’s minds, hearts, and imaginations.
Both homeschooling parents and Christians seeking to build schools will find a lot of guidance from this book. Wilson explains the benefits of an education that is both distinctively classical and distinctively Christian, and explains what such an education might look like. He also draws on years of educating and pastoring to talk about how parents and teachers can manage schools well and train their children’s hearts.
Education is not just preparing kids for the job market, but should be about instilling discipline, character, and love for God and the world He has made.
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Counseling : How To Counsel Biblically
$29.99Add to cartGain a knowledge of counseling methods that are practical and consistent with Christian theological convictions.
What do the Scriptures say about counseling? What is the biblical basis for using Scriptures in counseling? What does it mean to think biblically about counseling-related issues?
At the root of this book is the confidence that Christ and his Word are not only sufficient for effectively handling the personal and interpersonal challenges of life but are superior to the resources found in the world. The practice of psychological counseling is a ministry and should not belong only to the realm of humanistic and secular theories of the mind.
Written to pastors, elders, deacons, seminary students, and laypeople; well-known pastor John MacArthur and contributors present a system of biblical truth that brings together people, their problems, and the living God. This kind of counseling is based on the convictions that:
*God’s Word should be our counseling authority.
*Counseling is a part of the basic discipling ministry of the local church.
*God’s people can and should be trained to counsel effectively.Counseling: How to Counsel Biblically provides biblical guidelines to counsel people who are struggling. The contributors represent some of America’s leading biblical teachers and counselors, including: Ken L. Sarles, David Powlison, Douglas Bookman, David B. Maddox, Robert Smith, William W. Goode, and Dennis M. Swanson.
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Pastoral Ministry : How To Shepherd Biblically
$29.99Add to cartPastor John MacArthur combines his passion for the Bible with the training expertise of faculty members at The Master’s Seminary to guide seminary students and ministry leaders in developing their pastoral ministry skills.
Pastors today can easily become preoccupied with the many pitfalls of modern culture, buying into the idea of image and straying from Jesus’s call to shepherd leadership.
Pastoral Ministry: How to Shepherd Biblically presents a practical pastoral theology aimed at showing pastors and pastors-in-training the vital role God’s word plays in shaping the preparation and maintaining the priorities of pastoring.
The authors examine the biblical teaching about the high and demanding call to ministry required of any spiritual shepherd. You’ll learn how to pursue intentional growth through the stages of calling, training, and ministering to God’s church–along the way, uncovering answers to questions such as:
*How does the Bible establish a philosophy of pastoral ministry, and what is it?
*Who is personally qualified to be an undershepherd of God’s flock?
*What are the biblical preparations required of shepherd leaders?
*What priority does God’s word place on activities involved in pastoral ministry?United in affirming shepherd leadership as the biblical model for pastoral ministry, The Master’s Seminary faculty contributes a treasury of expertise alongside insights from well-known Bible teacher John MacArthur.
This book will inspire any pastor dedicated to serving God’s church in the pattern of Jesus Christ.
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Centered Set Church
$24.99Add to cartChristians can be adept at drawing lines, determining what it means to be a good Christian and judging those who stray out of bounds.
Other times they erase all the lines in favor of a vague and inoffensive faith. Both impulses can come from positive intentions, but either can lead to stunted spiritual life and harmful relationships. Is there another option? The late missionary anthropologist Paul Hiebert famously drew on mathematical theory to deploy the concepts of bounded, fuzzy, and centered sets to shed light on the nature of Christian community. Now, with Centered-Set Church, Mark D. Baker provides a unique manual for understanding and applying Hiebert’s vision. Drawing on his extensive experience in church, mission, parachurch, and higher education settings, along with interviews and stories gleaned from scores of firsthand interviews, Baker delivers practical guidance for any group that seeks to be truly centered on Jesus. Baker shows how Scripture presents an alternative to either obsessing over boundaries or simply erasing them. Centered churches are able to affirm their beliefs and live out their values without such bitter fruit as gracelessness, shame, and self-righteousness on the one hand, or aimless whateverism on the other. While addressing possible concerns and barriers to the centered approach, Baker invites leaders to imagine centered alternatives in such practical areas of ministry as discipleship, church membership, leadership requirements, and evangelism. Centered-Set Church charts new paths to grow in authentic freedom and dynamic movement toward the true center: Jesus himself.
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Romans Study Guide Plus Streaming Video (Student/Study Guide)
$22.99Add to cartThis Study Guide includes:
*Individual access to 6 streaming video sessions
*Personal study between sessions
*Scripture memory cards and verse coloring pages
*Leader’s GuideIn this six-session, video Bible study of Romans, you will get to know truly who God is and, in that knowing, you will know better who you are as a person and who you are as part of your surroundings. Romans presents you with an invitation to both intimacy and inspiration–but it requires that you come with an appetite greater than your current circumstance because God has prepared a God-sized feast of what love in action looks like, feels like, and results in.
Designed for use with Romans Video Study (9780310117674), sold separately. Streaming video access included.
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Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Expanded Edition Workbook Plus Streaming V (Exp
$22.99Add to cartPeter Scazzero learned the hard way: you can’t be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature.
In the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Workbook Expanded Edition (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), Peter outlines a roadmap for discipleship with Jesus that is powerfully transformative. He unveils what’s wrong with our current definition of “spiritual growth” and offers not only a model of spirituality that actually works, but seven steps to change that will help you experience authentic faith and hunger for God. Though Peter was an experienced pastor of a growing church, his life and faith remained emotionally unhealthy. Like so many in the church, he routinely:
*avoided healthy conflict in the name of keeping the peace
*ignored and suppressed emotions
*used work for God as an excuse to run from God
*lived without limitsIn this updated and expanded workbook, Peter helps you unpack core biblical principles to guide you into an experience of lasting, beneath-the-surface transformation in your relationship with Christ. The workbook includes session introductions, group discussion questions, application, and between-sessions personal study.
This workbook is Part One of the Emotionally Healthy Discipleship Course that also includes the bestselling books, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Day by Day. Join us for a powerful journey that will walk you through a door that will change forever the way you love God, others, and yourself.
Designed for use with the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Video Expanded Edition (sold separately).
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Witness At The Cross
$17.99Add to cartExperience Holy Friday from the perspective of those who watched Jesus die: Mary his mother; the Beloved Disciple from the Gospel of John; Mary Magdalene and the other women from Galilee; the two men, usually identified as thieves, crucified with Jesus; the centurion and the soldiers; Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Jews and Romans, friends and strangers, the powerful and the powerless, the hopeful and the despairing.
In Witness at the Cross, Amy-Jill Levine shows how the people at the cross each have distinct roles to play in the Gospels. For each, Jesus has a particular meaning and message, and from each, we learn how those meanings and messages cross the centuries to any who would come to the cross today.
Additional components for a six-week study include a DVD featuring Dr. Levine and a comprehensive Leader Guide.
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Organic Disciples Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99Add to cartCould sharing your faith be the secret to unlocking your spiritual growth?
For many followers of Jesus, spiritual growth involves a series of spiritual practices that promise to deepen our connection with God and train us in the ways of Jesus. Unfortunately, these practices are often disconnected from the mission and purposes of God in reaching a lost world with the gospel message. But what if the secret to unlocking spiritual growth was as simple as infusing our spiritual practices with an outward focus?
In the Organic Disciples Study Guide, Kevin and Sherry Harney walk ordinary followers of Jesus through seven markers of spiritual maturity, showing how simple shifts in our prayers, Bible reading, giving, and other practices can connect us with God’s work of reaching people with his love. Taking a holistic approach that unites evangelism and discipleship, Kevin and Sherry explain how God’s plan for our own spiritual growth is intimately connected to his purposes for the church, unleashing God’s power in our lives as we engage God’s mission to the world.
True spiritual growth and maturity will always lead believers outward to engage the world with the good news and truth of Jesus. And in a surprising twist, our own spiritual growth will often remain stunted and limited until we take the step of joining God in his mission to love others. This book will help you see how Jesus modelled a lifestyle of loving others, overcome the common roadblocks and false narratives that stand in the way of spiritual maturity, and design a personal pathway of growth to be more like Jesus in character and mission.
Used together with the Organic Disciples book and the free video study and online assessment available at OrganicOutreach.com, churches and individuals can better identify where they are in their growth journey and what the next steps are in becoming more like Jesus.
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John : The Gospel Of Light And Life
$16.99Add to cartThe Gospel of John is the most deeply spiritual of the four gospels. This writing is filled with rich images and profound truths, but John notes that his aim in writing the gospel is that readers will not only believe in Jesus Christ, but that they “may have life in his name.”
Adults, youth, and children alike can experience a season of spiritual growth and life-changing renewal in Adam Hamilton’s six-week, DVD-series, John: The Gospel of Light and Life. You’ll follow the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus through the Gospel of John and understand the context of some of the best-known verses in the New Testament. Everything you need to lead small groups of all ages is available for this special study including the entire Gospel of John in the CEB translation printed in the book.
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Flourishing Pastor : Recovering The Lost Art Of Shepherd Leadership
$20.99Add to cartPastoral leadership is in crisis.
It’s not just that many pastors feel overwhelmed and stressed out; many have lost their way. With the risk of burnout at an all-time high, what pastors need is not just a new leadership strategy, but a new framework for ministry–one that will help them move from survival to flourishing. In these pages, Tom Nelson looks to the biblical image of the shepherd leader in response to the contemporary context. If pastors are to lead congregations, then they must first learn what it means to be led by the Good Shepherd. Pulling from his years of experience as a lead pastor and president of a nonprofit, Nelson offers pastors and ministry leaders a timely vision for leadership that incorporates in-depth biblical teaching and whole-life discipleship. His wisdom and insight provide a roadmap for ministry resilience and longevity.
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Bible In 52 Weeks For Men Small Group Workbook (Workbook)
$15.99Add to cartGather a study group and explore the entire Bible in one year
Studying the Bible with others helps you open yourself up to greater meaning and reflection than studying alone. This small group workbook guides Christian men through the entire Bible every week for one year. Together, you’ll explore prompts, questions, activities, and prayers that lead you from Genesis to Revelation.
*Written for men–Find thoughtfully curated discussion topics that focus on what it means to be a man of faith.
*Easy to manage–The readings are only a few pages long, paired with a schedule to fit every chapter of the Bible into 52 weeks.
*Opportunities to engage–Each week includes suggested passages to read, a short devotion, questions and exercises for the group, and a prayer to close each session.
Get to know the Word in a new light and strengthen your relationship with Christ with this group Bible study for men.
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Bible In 52 Weeks For Women Small Group Workbook (Workbook)
$15.99Add to cartGather a study group and explore the entire Bible in one year
Studying the Bible with others helps you open yourself up to greater meaning and reflection than studying alone. This small group workbook guides Christian women through the entire Bible every week for one year. Together, you’ll explore prompts, questions, activities, and prayers that lead you from Genesis to Revelation.
*Written for women–Find thoughtfully curated discussion topics that focus on what it means to be a woman of faith.
*Easy to manage–The readings are only a few pages long, paired with a schedule that fits a sampling of each chapter of the Bible into 52 weeks.
*Opportunities to engage–Each week includes suggested passages to read, a short devotion, questions and exercises for the group, and a prayer to close each session.
*Don’t forget the companion book–Use this workbook alongside The Bible in 52 Weeks: A Yearlong Bible Study for Women to practice your faith on your own and deepen your faith even further.
Get to know the Word in a new light and strengthen your relationship with Christ with this Bible study guide for women.
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Sweet Sound : The Power Of Discipling Kids In Worship
$24.95Add to cartA Yancy Ministries Inc. Title
UNLOCK THE POWER OF DISCIPLING KIDS IN WORSHIP
STOP just doing songs and START leading worship by making disciples who know what it means to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.
No matter our age, each one of us was designed to praise, and for our praise to shift the atmosphere and usher in freedom and deliverance. Our worship is a sacrifice unto the Lord-this includes the praises of children. It’s powerful. It’s beautiful. It’s sweet. Can you imagine children singing out, with their whole hearts, praises to their King? It’s quite possibly the sweetest sound you will ever hear! It matters. Jesus himself said, “From the lips of children and infants, you, Lord, have called forth your praise.” (Matthew 21:16)
This book is full of prophetic, practical, and power-filled truth. It will change the way you view kids worship, as well as your own ability to lead. By using examples from the life of King David, as well as her own personal experiences, Yancy is purposed to empower you to raise up kids who desire to live a life of worship on a daily basis, not only on Sundays. This is about their future. Are you ready to be a part of that?
Together let’s learn to lift up the Sweet Sound of praise we were made for!
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Dont Blow Up Your Ministry
$20.99Add to cartThere’s a ticking time bomb in your ministry. Is it you?
The pressures of pastoring are endless, leading many to burnout and depression, sexual misconduct, or substance abuse. But moral failures can be averted and shipwrecked ministries can be repaired. Counselor Michael MacKenzie, a longtime expert in helping pastors at risk, deals with the issues beneath the issues, such as shame, fear, and pain. If we don’t address our own weakness and brokenness, we will hurt ourselves and those around us. With vivid pictures of both self-destructive patterns and reconstructive grace, MacKenzie shows how to lay the groundwork for restored identity and service. God can use those exact areas of vulnerability as a catalyst to you becoming the pastor and person he intends you to be. Defuse the bomb before it goes off. Find hope for healing and recovery.
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Crisis Leadership
$12.95Add to cartRecent crises have revealed the desperate need for wise, grounded leadership.
Too often, leaders have little experience and even less training in how to address crises in a way that strengthens their communities and guides them into the future. Drawing on examples from government, business, health care, non-profits, and the church, this book helps leaders in those sectors in the present crises and beyond. When a pandemic closes down churches, schools, and offices; when protests rage over racist police brutality; when everything you’ve always done as a leader becomes irrelevant, where can you turn? This book examines leaders who creatively navigated crises, drawing out principles of crisis leadership from them.
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Revelation
$45.00Add to cartTo 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. By keeping the discussion of each carefully selected preaching unit to six pages of focused commentary, the volumes in this series 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; sections dedicated to understanding, teaching, and illustrating the text; and full-color illustrations, maps, and photos.
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Following Jesus The Son
$8.99Add to cartDetermined to return humanity to the original hopes and dreams for us, God the Father sent Jesus the Son to our world to free us from our self-inflicted bondage. Jesus came to restore our relationship with God. Encounter Jesus in new ways!
The Holy Life Bible Study Series is a practical discipleship tool for both new and seasoned Christians. Author Frank Moore takes readers on a journey that unpacks theological truths of faith in a way that is both inspirational and motivating. He invites us to discover the incredible love of a God who empowers us to overcome any circumstance to live with joy, peace, and power-a God who calls us to take part in his divine nature.
Each book in the series includes thought-provoking questions to stimulate discussion in a small-group study setting.
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God Of The Dangerous Sermon
$19.99Add to cartEvery sermon has a theology, and a god of that theology behind it. Preaching is more effective, and has more integrity when preachers understand the god behind their theology. Specifically, whether the god is a universal God, like the one expressed by Christ and the Christian faith, or a tribal god, which is sometimes dressed up to resemble Christianity but is something else entirely.
Frank A. Thomas culminates his exploration of the Dangerous Sermon with this book, which leads readers through the process of identifying and understanding the gods behind theology, and their connection to preaching. The reader is equipped to discern the metaphors, symbols, and rhetorical indicators which point to the god a preacher is serving and calling others to serve.
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Pastoral Theology In The Baptist Tradition
$49.99Add to cartA veteran Baptist pastor and ministry professor offers a distinctive free church vision for pastoral ministry, attending to voices from the past four centuries as they speak about the practice of pastoral ministry. The book contains theological reflection on current ministry issues among Baptists based on biblical and historical foundations and reflects a diversity of Baptist life across time and around the world, including many different kinds of voices. Each chapter contains reflection questions to help readers consider the implications of Baptist thinking.
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1-2 Samuel
$45.00Add to cartTo 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. By keeping the discussion of each carefully selected preaching unit to six pages of focused commentary, the volumes in this series allow pastors to quickly grasp the big idea and key themes of each passage of Scripture. The text and its meaning are made clear, and sections dedicated to effectively teaching and illustrating the text help pastors prepare to preach. Full-color illustrations, maps, and photos are included throughout each volume to illustrate the world and events described in the Bible.
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Christian Meditation In Clinical Practice
$40.99Add to cartChristians are hungry for a return to their own tradition to cultivate meditation practices that are both psychologically and spiritually fruitful.
In recent decades, mindfulness meditation, which originates from the Buddhist tradition, has been embraced in many settings as a method for addressing a plethora of symptoms. What would it look like to turn instead to the Christian faith for resources to more effectively identify and respond to psychological suffering? Over the last decade, Dr. Joshua Knabb has conducted a variety of empirical studies on Christian meditation, focusing on both building theory and testing specific, replicable practices. In this overview and workbook he presents the foundations of a Christian-sensitive approach to meditation in clinical practice. Filled with practical features for immediate use by Christian clients and their therapists, Christian Meditation in Clinical Practice provides:
*an introduction to the rich resources on meditation from eight major streams of the Christian tradition
*practices from the early desert Christians, Ignatius of Loyola, Celtic Christians, the Puritans, contemporary writers, and many others
*guidance for targeting transdiagnostic processes–patterns of cognition, affect, behavior, the self, and relationships that may lead to psychological suffering
*research-based evidence for the benefits of Christian meditation
*client-friendly tools for practicing meditation, including step-by-step instructions, worksheets, journaling prompts, and links to tailored audio resources
Using the approach of Christian psychology, Knabb’s model dually builds on a biblical worldview and integrates the latest research in clinical psychology. As clients engage the variety of meditative exercises in this book, they will move toward healthier responses to difficult experiences and a deeper awareness of, and contentment in, God.
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Not Quite Fine
$16.99Add to cartA practical guide for people who care
There is no time in history and no place in the world where so many people have understood themselves to be suffering from mental health problems. There is also virtually no time and no place in the world where people who are suffering have been so readily ostracized.
In Not Quite Fine, author Carlene Hill Byron tackles the mounting dilemmas that pastors and churches face around mental health. Medicines and therapies have their roles in supporting those who live with mental health problems or mental illness. But God’s own body as the church is intended to be our greatest support in this world. How can the church step up for such a time as this? How can the body of Christ become a healing community for its members in pain–a place where the weary find strength for the journey, a place where those who mourn are raised up as rebuilders of the cities left in ruins?
Drawing on her own history of mental health problems and her experience as a teacher and lay counselor, Byron offers words of hope for those who struggle as well as practical insights to equip congregations to better support those who are suffering in their midst.
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Living By The Holy Spirit
$8.99Add to cartThe Father and Son gave believers the Holy Spirit to be with us and live in us. The transforming power of the Spirit conforms us to the image of Christ as we allow Him to work freely in our lives. Life in the Spirit accomplishes God’s hopes and dreams for your abundant living!The Holy Life Bible Study Series is a practical discipleship tool for both new and seasoned Christians. Author Frank Moore takes readers on a journey that unpacks theological truths of faith in a way that is both inspirational and motivating. He invites us to discover the incredible love of a God who empowers us to overcome any circumstance to live with joy, peace, and power-a God who calls us to take part in his divine nature. Each book in the series includes thought-provoking questions to stimulate discussion in a small-group study setting.
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Meeting God The Father
$8.99Add to cartGod created humanity in love. God placed humanity in a perfect environment with parental hopes and dreams for abundant living. Return to your roots and explore all God has in mind for you!
The Holy Life Bible Study Series is a practical discipleship tool for both new and seasoned Christians. Author Frank Moore takes readers on a journey that unpacks theological truths of faith in a way that is both inspirational and motivating. He invites us to discover the incredible love of a God who empowers us to overcome any circumstance to live with joy, peace, and power-a God who calls us to take part in his divine nature.
Each book in the series includes thought-provoking questions to stimulate discussion in a small-group study setting.
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Journey : Walking The Road To Bethlehem (Large Type)
$19.99Add to cartSince 2011, tens of thousands of churches and small groups have turned Adam Hamilton’s best-selling book on the birth of Christ into a classic that’s read each year.
In The Journey, Adam Hamilton travels from Nazareth to Bethlehem in a fascinating look at the birth of Jesus Christ. As he did with Jesus’ crucifixion in 24 Hours That Changed the World, Hamilton once again approaches a world-changing event with thoughtfulness.Using historical information, archaeological data, and a personal look at some of the stories surrounding the birth, the most amazing moment in history will become more real and heart-felt as you walk along this road.
Read The Journey on your own or, for a more in-depth study, enjoy it with a small group utilizing the Leader, DVD featuring Adam on-site in the Holy Land, and resources for youth and children.
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Journey Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$14.99Add to cartSince 2011, tens of thousands of churches and small groups have turned Adam Hamilton’s best-selling book on the birth of Christ into a classic that’s read each year.
In The Journey, Adam Hamilton travels from Nazareth to Bethlehem in a fascinating look at the birth of Jesus Christ. As he did with Jesus’ crucifixion in 24 Hours That Changed the World, Hamilton once again approaches a world-changing event with thoughtfulness.
Using historical information, archaeological data, and a personal look at some of the stories surrounding the birth, the most amazing moment in history will become more real and heart-felt as you walk along this road.
This 64-page Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide your group through the 5-session DVD study, The Journey: Walking the Road to Bethlehem. Inside you’ll find session plans, discussion questions, as well as multiple format options and suggestions of ways to make the study a meaningful experience for any group.
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Matthew
$45.00Add to cartIn this latest addition to the Two Horizons New Testament Commentary series, biblical scholar Jeannine Brown and theologian Kyle Roberts together illuminate the Gospel of Matthew for pastors, scholars, and serious students of Scripture.
Including an original translation of the text along with section-by-section commentary, this volume features chapters on “thinking theologically with Matthew” about such themes as kingdom, Christology, the Holy Spirit, and discipleship. Brown and Roberts also offer constructive theological engagement with a number of contemporary viewpoints, including feminist, global, political, and ethical (post-Holocaust) perspectives. At once interdisciplinary and insightful, their commentary will appeal to a wide readership.
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Heart That Grew Three Sizes Youth Study Book (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99Add to cartWe don’t know why the Grinch hated Christmas. We just know he did. If we’re being honest, there’s probably something within the Christmas season celebration that awakens a Grinch within all of us. Maybe the gift we unwrap was all wrong, or memories that were supposed to be joyful never were. When everything seems wrong in the world, even joyful celebrations are much too loud.
In his new Advent study, Matt Rawle explores the faith themes in the Christmas classic, How the Grinch Stole Christmas including how did the Grinch’s heart grow three sizes come Christmas morning? How did Christmas save the Grinch? Could it be that the very thing we think we hate, is the one thing that changes our life?
Rediscover and reinvigorate your Christian faith this Advent and Christmas season and look at this familiar classic through the lens of faith.
The Youth Study Book interprets the Grinch, his struggles, and his redemption in a way that youth can relate to and understand, using humor, down-to-earth discussion, and examples from contemporary culture. For young people grades 6-12. Includes leader helps with discussion questions that can be used with the adult-level DVD.
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Kingdom Heroes Workbook (Workbook)
$9.99Add to cart“Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”-Hebrews 11:1
You must act out your faith before you can harvest the fruits of trusting God. But what does that look like in everyday life? As you look to people in the Bible who walked with assurance in God’s power, you’ll discover you can be confident that He will always provide for those who follow Him.
Dr. Tony Evans’ Kingdom Heroes Interactive Workbook-which can be used on your own or with a group in companion with the Kingdom Heroes DVD-will help you refine your reliance on God’s strength. Learn from the examples of biblical role models like Noah, Abraham, and Rahab so you can experience what it means to live by faith in your daily life.
Complete your experience with:
Kingdom Heroes
Kingdom Heroes DVD -
Women Of The Bible
$11.99Add to cartLoaded with charts, graphs, images, and fascinating facts, the Women of the Bible: Old Testament Bible Study is easy enough that the new believer understands, but in-depth enough that the longtime churchgoer still comes away learning something new.
This six-session Bible study explores the impact of incredible women from the Old Testament. With fascinating historical insights and engaging discussion questions, you’ll learn about Old Testament women such as:
*The outspoken matriarch Rebecca
*Five daughters who reshaped the law for women in ancient Israel
*The outstanding judge Deborah and the feisty warrior Jael
*A life-saving wise woman of a city under siege
*The hospitable woman of Shunem
*Lady Wisdom from the book of Proverbs who is the picture of wise living -
You Were Made For This Moment Study Guide Plus Streaming Video (Student/Study Gu
$19.99Add to cartRacial divides. Political strife. Uncertain futures. This is the story of our day. But it is also the story of the exiles in Persia. The Jewish people had been taken from their homeland. They were being pressured to conform to foreign customs. They were facing discrimination. Now, an edict was being issued that would stamp out the Jewish race forever. Everything seemed to be falling apart for God’s people. But then two figures emerge on the scene . . . and everything changes.
As Max Lucado relates in this five-session study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), Esther and Mordecai are these unlikely heroes of the tale. Both had spent their lives trying to fit in and conform. But both experience a turning point-a crucial moment where they choose to step up and stand out for the God they served. As a result of their courageous actions, winter turned to springtime for God’s people. They emerged from the crisis stronger, more unified, and more committed to serving the God of their forefathers, even in their exile.
The promise for God’s people in the book of Esther is the same promise that we have today. Our God triumphs in troubled times. When it seems as if everything is falling into pieces, he is working in our midst, causing everything to fall into place. The very one who seeks to destroy us will be destroyed. Even when it appears that evil has won, and that there is no hope for our future, we can know God’s throne is still occupied. We will triumph in the end.
The question for you today is not whether God will show up on the scene. Rather, it is whether you will choose to be a part of it when he does. Will you, like Mordacai and Esther, realize you are a position “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14)? God is calling you to rise up in these chaotic times. You were made for this moment.
Sessions include:
1. The Problem of Conformity (Esther 1:1-2:18)
2. A Moment of Decision (Esther 2:19-4:14)
3. Heaven Set in Motion (Esther 4:15-6:14)
4. The God of Great Turnarounds (Esther 7:1-8:17)
5. Remembering God’s Faithfulness (Esther 9:1-10:3)Designed for use with You Were Made for This Moment Video Study (sold separately).
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Evangelism : How To Share The Gospel Faithfully
$29.99Add to cartPaul’s challenge to Timothy 2,000 years ago remains a clarion call for pastors today: “Do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Tim 4:5). Because evangelism is the central work of a Christian’s life, there is a great need for pastors to understand what evangelism is and what makes it effective. Much of modern evangelical culture has become memorized conversations, pre-packaged formulas, and programmatic approaches that serve as poor substitutes for the simple proclamation of the gospel. In Evangelism: How to Share the Gospel Faithfully, John MacArthur along with pastors, missionaries, and church planters from Grace Community Church give the summons to return to the basics.
Evangelism covers four primary topics:
*Theological presuppositions and biblical foundations of evangelism
*Evangelism from a pastoral perspective
*One-on-one witnessing
*How outreach fits into and shapes the activities of the local churchYou’ll learn theological principles of sharing the gospel and practical approaches to incorporating outreach into your life, including specialized areas, like:
*Sharing the gospel with children and youth
*Witnessing to those with special needs
*Working with people suffering from addiction
*Immigrant outreach International missionsThere is an urgent need for the gospel in today’s fallen world. This insightful guide to biblical evangelism will ignite your passion and equip you to spread the gospel faithfully from your pulpit, in your church, and within your community.
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Everyday Connections For Year C
$40.00Add to cartThis beautifully bound volume provides a full fifty-two weeks of devotional prompts based on the Revised Common Lectionary for Year C. Drawing from the insightful Bible commentaries in the Connections series, each week of offerings also includes scriptural and literary readings, lectio divina, spiritual practices, questions for journaling, and a prayer. This resource has been crafted with mainline, lectionary preachers and lay leaders in mind, both to supplement their planning for the week and to feed their souls in the midst of the work of ministry.
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All The Good Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$14.99Add to cartIn All the Good: A Wesleyan Way of Christmas, a group of diverse Wesleyan scholars will take you on an Advent journey guided by the practices in John Wesley’s means of grace. In four sessions of study, prayer, and conversation, readers will look at preparing the way for God, the discipline of prayer, the substance of good works, and the recognition of God’s presence with us in communities that are called to serve the world.
This Advent learn and practice works of mercy and works of piety examining on how God’s love is embodied in communities of faith in the world.
The Leader Guide includes session outline for each group meeting with Scripture, prayer, opening activity, discussion questions, activity, and ending call to action.
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Heart That Grew Three Sizes Childrens Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$18.99Add to cartWe don’t know why the Grinch hated Christmas. We just know he did. If we’re being honest, there’s probably something within the Christmas season celebration that awakens a Grinch within all of us. Maybe the gift we unwrap was all wrong, or memories that were supposed to be joyful never were. When everything seems wrong in the world, even joyful celebrations are much too loud.
In his new Advent study, Matt Rawle explores the faith themes in the Christmas classic, How the Grinch Stole Christmas including how did the Grinch’s heart grow three sizes come Christmas morning? How did Christmas save the Grinch? Could it be that the very thing we think we hate, is the one thing that changes our life?
Rediscover and reinvigorate your Christian faith this Advent and Christmas season and look at this familiar classic through the lens of faith.
The Children’s Leader Guide contains session ideas for younger and older children including games, activities, craft ideas, and reproducible handouts.
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Heart That Grew Three Sizes (Student/Study Guide)
$16.99Add to cartWe don’t know why the Grinch hated Christmas. We just know he did. If we’re being honest, there’s probably something within the Christmas season celebration that awakens a Grinch within all of us. Maybe the gift we unwrap was all wrong, or memories that were supposed to be joyful never were. When everything seems wrong in the world, even joyful celebrations are much too loud.
In his new Advent study, Matt Rawle explores the faith themes in the Christmas classic, How the Grinch Stole Christmas including how did the Grinch’s heart grow three sizes come Christmas morning? How did Christmas save the Grinch? Could it be that the very thing we think we hate, is the one thing that changes our life?Rediscover and reinvigorate your Christian faith this Advent and Christmas season and look at this familiar classic through the lens of faith.
Additional components for a four-week Advent study include a DVD featuring Matt Rawle, a comprehensive Leader Guide, and resources for children and youth.
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Forming Resilient Children
$24.99Add to cartMany children today are growing up in the midst of adversity, whether family difficulties or larger societal crises.
All children need to be able to deal with stress, cope with challenges, and persevere through disappointments. While we cannot protect children from all hardships, we can promote healthy development that fosters resilience. In this interdisciplinary work, Holly Catterton Allen builds a bridge between resilience studies and children’s spiritual formation. Because children are spiritual beings, those who work with them can cultivate spiritual practices that are essential to their thriving in challenging times. This book equips educators, counselors, children’s ministers, and parents with ways of developing children’s spirituality to foster the resilience needed to face the ordinary hardships of childhood and to persevere when facing trauma. It offers particular insight into the spiritual experiences of children who have been hurt by life through chronic illness, disability, abuse, or disasters, with resources for healing and hope.
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Together In Ministry
$22.99Add to cartWomen and men are designed to work together in fulfilling God’s mission on earth.
Yet God’s original intent for equal partnership has been so distorted that churches and organizations continually struggle to foster healthy mixed-gender ministry collaboration. Is it even possible to return to the Genesis ideal of co-laborers in today’s contexts? Longtime ministry leader Rob Dixon knows it’s possible–though it takes intentionality, courage, and wisdom. Based on qualitative field research among ministry practitioners, Together in Ministry offers a prophetic roadmap for individuals and communities as they seek to develop flourishing ministry partnerships for women and men. Organized around the key domains of inner life, community culture, and intentional practices, this model identifies ten key attributes of partnerships that are both personally satisfying and missionally effective. For each attribute Dixon presents research findings and biblical examples, along with benefits, barriers, and practical next steps. With plenty of real-life stories from ministry leaders and reflection questions in each chapter, Together in Ministry casts a compelling–and encouraging–vision for flourishing partnerships and equips teams and individuals with next steps for making that vision a reality.
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Person Of Interest Investigators Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99Add to cartImagine investigating a murder in which there was no crime scene, no physical evidence, and no victim’s body. How would you identify a person of interest in such a case?
Designed to be used alongside Person of Interest and the Person of Interest Video Study, this study guide will teach you the same investigative strategies used by detective J. Warner Wallace to examine the claims of history.
Dateline featured cold-case detective and bestselling author, J. Warner Wallace, has investigated a number of these “no body missing person” cases and has successfully identified and convicted the killers, even without the victim’s body or evidence from the crime scene.
Can the historicity of Jesus be investigated in the same way? Can the truth about Jesus be uncovered even without a body or a crime scene? In Person of Interest, Wallace describes his own personal investigative journey from atheism to Christianity, as he employs a unique investigative strategy to confirm the historicity and deity of Jesus–without relying on the New Testament manuscripts.
Imagine a scenario in which every New Testament document has been destroyed, Wallace carefully sifts through the evidence from history alone to reconstruct the identity of Jesus as the world’s most important person of interest.
Person of Interest will:
*Invite readers into the life of a cold-case detective as he uncovers the truth about Jesus, using the same approach he also employs to solve a real murder case*Teach readers how to become good detectives, using an innovative and unique “‘fuse’ and ‘fallout'” investigative strategy they can also use to examine other claims of history
*Help readers to explore common objections to Christianity
Concrete, compelling, and unique in its approach, Person of Interest will strengthen the faith of believers, while engaging those who are skeptical and distrusting of the New Testament.
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Body Connections : Body-Based Spiritual Care
$24.99Add to cartBody Connections teaches pastors and other spiritual leaders to make the connections between their embodied experience and faithful spiritual care. Instead of reinforcing the mind body split that leads to body/self-alienation and impedes holistic relationships with God/self/others, this book treats the body as a central rather than as ancillary subject in care through engagement with the body’s narrative.
Michael Koppel engages religious texts and traditions along with scientific insights to develop a “faithfully hybrid’ practical theological resource. This unique book offers intelligent and accessible theology plus spiritual practices for the healing and care of the body. Koppel introduces readers to the body as a source of vitality for faith, and the notion that our bodies are God’s beloved and trusted partners.
Each chapter illuminates a facet of pastoral and spiritual care with the body, and includes stories that draw the reader into the issues, challenges, and questions to be raised in the pages; body practices that suggest practical skills for use in personal and community care; reflection questions and small group exercises to spark discussion; conversation with contemporary culture to reveal the wider context in which spiritual and pastoral care takes place; and a closing body care prayer to anchor the reader to the wider community of faith.
This book is highly useful for individuals and groups. It is for clergy, chaplains, spiritual directors, seminarians, clinical educators, lay people in churches, and those who are institutionally unaffiliated but care deeply about fostering a holistic spiritual path.
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1 And 2 Thessalonians Study Guide Plus Streaming Video (Student/Study Guide)
$19.99Add to cartThe 40 Days Through the Book series has been designed to help believers actively engage with God’s Word. Each study encourages participants to read through selected books in the New Testament at least once during the course of the study. As they do, they will gain an understanding of the background and culture of the book, insights into key passages they might have overlooked before, and clear takeaways they can apply today to their lives.
In this study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), bestselling author and pastor Levi Lusko guides small-group members through Paul’s letters to the believers in the city of Thessalonica, revealing what the apostle’s words meant to his original readers, and how they apply to us today. Participants will be encouraged as they listen to Levi’s teachings and, through the accompanying study guide, challenged to study the books of 1 & 2 Thessalonians during the forty days of this course.
Designed for use with 1 & 2 Thessalonians Video Study (sold separately).
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Acts Leader Guide
$14.99Add to cartLearn to awaken to God’s Spirit today and every day by studying the Book of Acts with Melissa Spoelstra.
Whether it’s because of distractions, busyness, or a case of the blahs, we can experience a drift toward indifference in our spiritual lives. We have a need for an ongoing spiritual awakening if we want to become more aware of God’s presence and activity in our everyday lives.
In Acts: Awakening to God in Our Everyday Lives, a six-week study of the Book of Acts by Melissa Spoelstra, you will journey with the first followers of Jesus and witness the birth and growth of the early church through spiritual awakening to the power of God’s Spirit, message, freedom, grace, mission, and direction.
From their experiences you will learn postures that will help you attune your own spiritual heart to experience God’s presence, hear God’s voice, and see God at work all around.
This study offers a fresh encounter with God to prepare you to:
– Face daily battles
– Be able to discern the messages of our culture
– Be ready to share God’s love with others alwaysComponents for this six-week Bible study, each available separately, include a Participant Workbook, a Leader Guide, and video sessions with six 20 to 25-minute segments (with closed captioning).
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Gentle And Lowly Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$11.99Add to cartA Study Guide Companion to the Best-Selling Book Gentle and Lowly
In his best-selling book, Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortlund takes readers into the depths of Christ’s very heart for sinners. Focusing on Jesus’s words that he is “gentle and lowly in heart,” Ortlund dives deep into Bible passages that speak of who he is, encouraging readers with the affections of Christ for his people.
Designed as a supplement to the book, the Gentle and Lowly Study Guide helps readers reflect further on these key biblical truths. This helpful resource written by Dane Ortlund features discussion questions organized into 8 lessons, with each lesson covering 2-3 chapters from the book. Perfect for small groups and individuals alike, the Gentle and Lowly Study Guide can be used together with the book, the Gentle and Lowly Video Study, or both.
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Sermons That Sing
$30.99Add to cartPreaching and music are both regular elements of Christian worship across the theological spectrum.
But they often don’t interact or inform each other in meaningful ways. In this Dynamics of Christian Worship volume, theologian, pastor, and musician Noel A. Snyder considers how the church’s preaching might be helpfully informed by musical theory. Just as a good musical composition employs technical elements like synchrony, repetition, and meter, the same should be said for good preaching that seeks to engage hearts and minds with the good news of Jesus Christ. By drawing upon music that lifts the soul, preachers might craft sermons that sing.
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Following : Embodied Discipleship In A Digital Age
$26.00Add to cartThis book offers theological perspectives on the challenges of discipleship in a digital age, showing how new technologies and the rise of social media affect the way we interact with each other, ourselves, and the world. Written by a Gen X digital immigrant and a millennial digital native, the book explores a faithful response to today’s technology as we celebrate our embodied roles as followers of Christ in a disembodied time.
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Worship Architect : A Blueprint For Designing Culturally Relevant And Bibli
$32.99Add to cartWorship professor and practitioner Constance Cherry shows how to create services that are faithful to Scripture, historically conscious, relevant to God, Christ-centered, and engaging for worshipers of all ages in the twenty-first century. More than 150 colleges and seminaries have used or currently use the first edition as a required text. In this new edition, each chapter has been substantially updated and revised, including illustrations, key terms, examples, technological references, and suggested resources for further reading. A new chapter on global worship and a new appendix on live-streamed worship are included.
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Difficult Words Of Jesus
$17.99Add to cartJesus provided his disciples teachings for how to follow Torah, God’s word; he told them parables to help them discern questions of ethics and of human nature; he offered them beatitudes for comfort and encouragement. But sometimes Jesus spoke words that followers then and now have found difficult. He instructs disciples to hate members of their own families (Luke 14:26), to act as if they were slaves (Matthew 20:27), and to sell their belongings and give to the poor (Luke 18:22). He restricts his mission (Matthew 10:6); he speaks of damnation (Matthew 8:12); he calls Jews the devil’s children (John 8:44).
In The Difficult Words of Jesus, Amy-Jill Levine shows how these difficult teachings would have sounded to the people who first heard them, how have they been understood over time, and how we might interpret them in the context of the Gospel of love and reconciliation.
Additional components for a six-week study include a DVD featuring Dr. Levine and a comprehensive Leader Guide.
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Acts Participant Workbook (Student/Study Guide)
$17.99Add to cartLearn to awaken to God’s Spirit today and every day by studying the Book of Acts with Melissa Spoelstra.
Whether it’s because of distractions, busyness, or a case of the blahs, we can experience a drift toward indifference in our spiritual lives. We have a need for an ongoing spiritual awakening if we want to become more aware of God’s presence and activity in our everyday lives.
In Acts: Awakening to God in Our Everyday Lives, a six-week study of the Book of Acts by Melissa Spoelstra, you will journey with the first followers of Jesus and witness the birth and growth of the early church through spiritual awakening to the power of God’s Spirit, message, freedom, grace, mission, and direction.
From their experiences you will learn postures that will help you attune your own spiritual heart to experience God’s presence, hear God’s voice, and see God at work all around.
This study offers a fresh encounter with God to prepare you to:
– Face daily battles
– Be able to discern the messages of our culture
– Be ready to share God’s love with others alwaysComponents for this six-week Bible study, each available separately, include a Participant Workbook, a Leader Guide, and video sessions with six 20 to 25-minute segments (with closed captioning).
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Integration Of Psychology And Christianity
$30.99Add to cartOver the course of recent decades, scholars and practitioners have been working to integrate contemporary psychology-related fields and Christianity.
This project continues to move forward, evidenced in associations, publications, degree programs, and conferences around the world. While much progress has been made, there are still foundational issues to be worked out and aspects of integration the community is just now venturing into. In this expert overview, psychologists William L. Hathaway and Mark A. Yarhouse take stock of the integration project to date, provide an introduction for those who wish to come on board, highlight work yet to be done, and offer a framework to strategically organize next steps. The authors’ attention encompasses five domains:
*worldview integration
*theoretical integration
*applied integration
*role integration
*personal integrationTheir comprehensive approach yields insights relevant for non-clinical areas of psychological science as well as for counseling, social work, and other related mental health fields. Done properly, integration enriches our understanding of both Christianity and psychology. Through biblical and theological grounding and numerous examples, Hathaway and Yarhouse demonstrate how synthesis can continue to serve the field and make a difference in caring for individual lives.
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Ephesians Study Guide Plus Streaming Video (Student/Study Guide)
$22.99Add to cartThe book of Ephesians is about identity. It’s about learning who we are, living who are, and then leveraging who we are. When we do that, we stop walking in defeat, and instead, walk with our heads held high.
Too often, our shoulders slump under the weight of family struggles, financial stress, and feelings of insecurity. We are pushed down by insignificance, insecurity, and an overwhelming sense of powerlessness, disappointment and discouragement.
You are not meant to be under that burden any longer. You are a chosen child of God, saved by His grace, forgiven and free. It’s time to walk with your head held high.
In this six-session video Bible study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), Lori Wilhite draws on her experience as the pastor’s wife of the fifth largest congregation in the country located in the town otherwise named ‘Sin City’ to share the truth of what Paul tells the Ephesians about unity and its direct reflection of our hearts, our focus, and our love for God.
The Beautiful WordTM Bible Study Series helps you connect God’s Word to your daily life through vibrant video teaching, group discussion, and deep personal study that includes verse-by-verse reading, Scripture memory, coloring pages, and encouragement to receive your own beautiful Word from God. In each study, a central theme-a beautiful word-threads throughout the book, helping you connect and apply each book of the Bible to your daily life today, and forever.
Designed for use with Ephesians Video Study (sold separately).
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For The Common Good
$14.00Add to cartFor the Common Good reminds us that the Holy Spirit gives each Christian one or more spiritual gifts to be used for the common good. It guides readers to discover their own particular gifts and learn to use their gifts to serve others.
Examining key passages in Paul’s writings, author Christine Harman leads readers through a personal spiritual gift assessment. She names 25 distinct spiritual gifts-such as discernment, hospitality, compassion, evangelism, or music-and helps people explore scripture references on each one. After identifying their particular gifts, clergy and laypeople will learn how to apply them for the good of their church, community, and the world. This book is ideal for both group study and self-discovery. The book also includes suggestions for how to build a ministry team based on the gifts of each individual.
This book is the text for a Lay Servant Ministries advanced course on spiritual gifts. It also can be used for a small-group study.
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Transforming Worship : Planning And Leading Sunday Services As If Spiritual
$20.99Add to cartSpiritual formation is the key to the survival of our faith.
Stigmatized by scandal, the church in North America and throughout Europe has been branded as useless and irrelevant. To stem the tide of nominal Christianity, we need to get serious about making disciples who can make other disciples. There is an urgent need today for church services that are substantive and purposeful. Rory Noland is a worship leader who has led in contexts ranging from megachurches to small retreat settings such as the Transforming Center. Combining discipleship and worship–what Noland calls “Transforming Worship”–he offers a vision for worship as spiritual formation. We need to reclaim our worship services as a formative space, and through that we will become the light of Christ in a dark world.
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Celebrate Recovery Updated Participants Guide Set Volumes 1-4 (Student/Study Gui
$30.99Add to cartAlcoholism–Divorce–Sexual Abuse–Codependency–Domestic Violence–Drug Addiction–Sexual Addiction–Food Addiction–Gambling Addiction.
Move beyond your hurts, habits, and hang-ups to experience the forgiveness of Christ. The Journey Begins Participant Guides are essential tools in the Celebrate Recovery program for your personal recovery journey. These four guides by Pastor John Baker walk you through the eight recovery principles, drawn from the Beatitudes, upon which the 12-step Celebrate Recovery program is built.
This shrinkwrapped pack includes one each of all four participant’s guides for the Celebrate Recovery Program:
Guide 1: Stepping Out of Denial
Guide 2: Taking an Honest and Spiritual Inventory
Guide 3: Getting Right with God
Guide 4: Growing in ChristBy working through the lessons and exercises found in each of the four Participant’s Guides, you will begin to experience the true peace and serenity you have been seeking, restore and develop stronger relationships with others and with God, and find freedom from life’s hurts, habits, and hang-ups.
Note: This shrinkwrapped pack is identical to the participant’s guides included in the Celebrate Recovery Updated Curriculum Kit (9780310131601). Designed for use with the Celebrate Recovery Journal (9780310090342), sold separately.
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Celebrate Recovery Updated Leaders Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$21.99Add to cartThere is a way the church can help the wounded move beyond their hurts, habits, and hang-ups to experience the forgiveness of Christ. Celebrate Recovery helps the church fulfill its role as Christ’s healing agent. You don’t have to lead alone. To lead people forward in spiritual, physical, and emotional restoration is to walk in the footsteps of Christ. And that’s why the Celebrate Recovery Leader’s Guide is so important.
With everything you need to encourage lasting life-change, the leader’s guide is the best way to facilitate Celebrate Recovery in your church and help people look forward to a whole new future.
The Celebrate Recovery Leader’s Guide includes:
*Fresh testimonies
*A 90-day start-up strategy
*A clear, easy-to-follow format
*Step-by-step instructions for each meeting
*Guide for conducting leader training
*Teaching notes for the 25 lessons of The Journey Begins (Participant Guides 1-4)
*Overview of the 25 lessons of The Journey Continues (Participant Guides 5-8)Along with a willing heart, this leader’s guide is invaluable for leading men and women forward in complete restoration and transformation through Christ.
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Helping Couples : Proven Strategies For Coaches, Counselors, And Clergy
$18.99Add to cartThe ultimate guide to marriage mentoring so you can feel confident in offering wisdom, encouragement, and practical help to couples who want to live out a love that lasts!
Drs. Les & Leslie Parrott and Dr. David Olson–renowned marriage experts and founders of the two largest marriage support organizations, SYMBIS and PREPARE/ENRICH–share what they have learned from decades of research involving more than 5 million couples. Packed with practical and proven methods, data-driven techniques, and immediately usable strategies, Helping Couples includes:
*The secrets–and the science–behind couples who thrive with lasting love
*Why romantic love is never enough, and what to do about it
*Strategies to instantly help reduce conflicts and increase intimacy
*The game-changing boost scientific assessment tools give couples at any age or stage
*Four common myths about marriage and how to debunk them
*The distilled wisdom from hundreds of insightful surveys and studies
*How you can reduce a couple’s chances of divorce by 31 percentThe ultimate guide for coaches, counselors, and clergy who want to know what really works!
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Caring Congregation Ministry
$14.99Add to cartThe Care Minister’s Manual is the personal training workbook and reference guide for Congregational Care Ministers (CCM’s), who serve a central role in the Caring Congregation Ministry. CCM’s receive in-depth training, where they learn the theological foundations of congregational care, plus the behaviors, habits, and practices they will need to follow in order to serve others well. Each CCM-in-training should have a copy of this Manual. It serves as their training workbook, which then becomes the CCM’s personal reference guide.
The Caring Congregation Ministry is a model for congregational care that’s been proven to work in small and large churches across the U.S. It is a laity-centered ministry, where laypersons receive training and then are commissioned to serve as Congregational Care Ministers or CCM’s, caring for the people in their congregation and community. The Caring Congregation Ministry: Implementation Guide is the main book for pastors and other leaders seeking to build, launch, and sustain a Caring Congregation Ministry in their church.
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Caring Congregation Ministry
$19.99Add to cartPastors and congregations everywhere yearn to care for others, especially those who are suffering from loss or pain of any kind. But pastors cannot care for an entire church, and laity typically don’t have the training to do it. The Caring Congregation Ministry is a model for ministry that’s been proven to work in small and large churches across the U.S. It is a laity-centered ministry, where laypersons receive rigorous training and then are commissioned to serve as Congregational Care Ministers, caring for one another, for their own congregation.
This remarkable approach to congregational care was first developed by author Karen Lampe and her team at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, in Kansas City. It has been tested, refined, and strengthened, and is now being adapted in all sorts of congregational settings. One early adapter was co-author Melissa Gepford, who launched a Caring Congregation Ministry in her own rural church. Karen and Melissa have partnered to share this immensely practical guide for any pastor or leader seeking to create a version of this ministry in their own church.
This Implementation Guide is the main book for getting started. It introduces the ministry model and explains the Five Essentials which form the ministry’s foundation. It is extremely practical, full of checklists and other tools to help pastors and other leaders understand (and explain) this way of providing congregational care.
The Implementation Guide also includes a section focused on the crucial component of this ministry–the Congregational Care Minister, or CCM. This section fully describes the characteristics of CCM’s, how to recruit people to this ministry, how to discern if candidates are a good fit, and how to conduct the CCM training over a multi-week period. It details the critical information CCM’s must know, and the behaviors and habits they must practice in order to be effective.
Note that the companion book, The Caring Congregation Ministry: Care Minister’s Manual, is required for the CCM training. It serves as a training workbook, which then becomes the CCM’s personal reference manual.
The Implementation Guide closes with thoughtful and immediately helpful chapters full of information on situations involving special care, including personal crisis and trauma, community trauma, mental illness, recovery/addiction, and important considerations for doing this ministry in times of social distancing.
This book provides ev
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Elijah Teen Girls Bible Study Leader Kit
$59.99Add to cartJoin Priscilla Shirer on this 7-session journey through the life and times of the prophet Elijah to discover how the fire on Mount Carmel was forged in the valley of famine. Elijah demonstrates how the strength of faith, character, and boldness are first shaped in the hidden fires of silence, sameness, solitude, and adversity. Those who patiently wait on God in the darkness always emerge with their loyalty, courage, and belief in Him set afire. And the emboldened, fiery faith you desire is being fashioned by God in your life at this very moment.
Leader Kit Includes:
*One Bible study book with personal study segments to complete between 7 weeks of group sessions and a leader guide to lead discussion within small groups
*1 DVD with enriching teaching videos, approximately 15-20 minutes per session
*Card with 3 additional digital downloads of teaching videos
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Elijah Teen Girls Bible Study Book (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99Add to cartFaith and Fire
Join Priscilla Shirer on this 7-session journey through the life and times of the prophet Elijah to discover how the fire on Mount Carmel was forged in the valley of famine. Elijah demonstrates how the strength of faith, character, and boldness are first shaped in the hidden fires of silence, sameness, solitude, and adversity. Those who patiently wait on God in the darkness always emerge with their loyalty, courage, and belief in Him set afire. And the emboldened, fiery faith you desire is being fashioned by God in your life at this very moment.
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Whats So Amazing About Grace Participants Guide Updated Edition (Student/Study G
$13.99Add to cartIn this six-session revised and updated video Bible study, bestselling author Philip Yancey explores the concept of grace-the one thing the world cannot duplicate and the one thing it craves above all else-and explores what it looks like in action. He also examines how Christians, as the sole dispensers, are doing at lavishing the grace on a world that knows far more of cruelty and unforgiveness than it does of mercy.
As Yancey explains, true grace is shocking and scandalous, for God does not excuse sin but always treasures the sinner. God always extends his grace to individuals regardless of what they have done-for no one is unforgiveable in his eyes. Grace thus shakes our conventions with its insistence on getting close to sinners and touching them with mercy and hope. It forgives the unfaithful spouse, the racist, the child abuser. It loves today’s AIDS-ridden addict as much as the tax collector of Jesus’ day.
Yancey offers compelling and true portraits of grace’s life-changing power. He searches for its presence in his own life and in the church. He asks how Christians today can contend graciously with moral issues that threaten all they hold dear. And he challenges each of us to become living answers to a world that desperately wants to know, “what’s so amazing about grace.”
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I Love Jesus But I Want To Die
$17.00Add to cartWhat happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you.
You just want a way out.
But there’s hope.
In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better.
Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.
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Reawakened : How Your Congregation Can Spark Lasting Change
$16.99Add to cartDoes your church have gummed-up gears? Or are you activated for ministry?
Are you relevant in the community in which you serve? More and more people are moving away from the church–not because they lack faith in God, but because the church is no longer relevant to their lives. The church, not God, is the problem. There are eight keys to unlocking the power of relevance in your ministry. In the pages of [title], Glen Guyton, executive director of a Mennonite denomination, explores those keys and gives practical suggestions to churches for reaching out. Offering a biblical scaffold for the idea of the activated church and sharing stories from successful ministries that are actively engaging their communities, Reawakened helps Christians ask the big questions about God’s work in the world.
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Reawakened : Activate Your Congregation To Spark Lasting Change
$29.99Add to cartEvery church wants to make a lasting difference. Unlock the keys to how.
More and more people are moving away from the church-not because they lack faith in God but because the church is no longer relevant to their lives. The church, not God, is the problem. In Reawakened, Glen Guyton explores eight keys to developing the abilities of congregations to bring healing and hope to their communities. These eight keys give voice to the most urgent needs of a community and offer practical suggestions for how churches can spark holistic and lasting differences in their communities.
Built on a solid biblical framework, Rewakened positions churches as catalysts for transformative mission and change. Filled with stories from successful ministries that are actively engaging their communities, Reawakened helps Christians ask the big questions about God’s ongoing work in the world.
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Table For Two
$16.99Add to cartBreaking free from an eating disorder is difficult and complex. Those who are suffering often feel misunderstood. They struggle with feeling alone and afraid, ashamed to tell those closest to them. Their loved ones also feel helpless and ill-equipped to care for them. Within this dynamic, hurt, disappointment, and neglect often thrive. From the unique perspective of a husband and wife team, Table for Two shares Krista Dunham’s journey to freedom from her eating disorder while David shares insights as the loved one coming beside her.
Krista suffered from an eating disorder for over ten years and, by God’s grace and through biblical counseling, overcame it. She openly and honestly shares her experience, describing what she did, what she needed, and what proved helpful in the process of change. In conjunction with her insights, David shares what he did, how he failed, and what he learned along the way as a biblical counselor that was helpful to Krista.
Without minimizing complicated issues, the Dunhams provide practical, gospel hope and biblical encouragement to those suffering and help for loved ones walking with them. They share personal narratives, interactive exercises, and biblical direction for those navigating recovery. Individuals suffering from an eating disorder – and loved ones – will find practical help, hope, and encouragement in this couple’s story. Applying the truth of Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, they know two are better than one and understand the need to connect and jointly navigate the process together.
This powerful, redemptive book reveals an intimacy beyond personal stories of struggle told through a biblical counseling lens; it highlights the close-knit relationship of husband and wife and a home life where one person struggles with an eating disorder.
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From Research To Teaching
$20.99Add to cartIt’s a long way from the research carrel to the classroom.
No matter your personality, your prior experience, or the specifics of your situation, the transition from graduate studies to teaching involves a set of challenges for which no one is ever fully prepared. In this practical guide Michael Kibbe, author of From Topic to Thesis, provides a helpful companion for the journey. With plenty of personal examples and tested advice, Kibbe covers preparation for teaching, best practices in the classroom, self-evaluation, and the discovery of your mission and method. He also reflects on the spiritual lives of professors, including social media practices, Sabbath, and relationships. From Research to Teaching is the concise, accessible resource every new and aspiring professor needs.
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How To Fight Racism Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99Add to cartThe How to Fight Racism Study Guide, used together with the How to Fight Racism Video Study, provides groups and individuals with practical tools and suggestions, along with real-world examples of change, to enable them to become proactive initiators of racial justice.
Tisby offers an array of actionable items to confront racism in our relationships and in everyday life through a simple framework–the A.R.C. Of Racial Justice–that helps readers consistently interrogate their own actions and maintain a consistent posture of anti-racist action. This book is for anyone who believes it is time to stop compromising with racism and courageously confront it.
The study guide, along with the video study, offers readers the opportunity to be part of the solution to racial problems and suggests that the application of these principles can offer us hope that will transform our nation and the world. Tisby encourages us to reject passivity and become active participants in the struggle for human dignity across racial and ethnic lines. Readers of the book will come away with a clear model for how to think about race in productive ways and a compelling call to dismantle a social hierarchy long stratified by skin color.
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Relational Spirituality : A Psychological-Theological Paradigm For Transfor
$45.99Add to cartAs our society becomes more socially fragmented, many Christians feel disconnected and struggle to grow spiritually. Common models of spiritual transformation are proving inadequate to address “the sanctification gap.” In recent decades, however, a new paradigm of human and spiritual development has been emerging from multiple fields. It’s supported by a critical mass of evidence, all pointing to what psychologists Todd W. Hall and M. Elizabeth Lewis Hall call a relational revolution.
In Relational Spirituality, Hall and Hall present a definitive model of spiritual transformation based on a relational paradigm. At its heart is the truth that human beings are fundamentally relational-we develop, heal, and grow through relationships. While many sanctification models are fragmented, individualistic, and lack a clear process for change, the relational paradigm paints a coherent picture of both process and goal, supported by both ancient wisdom and cutting-edge research. Integrating insights from psychology and theology, this book lays out the basis for relational spiritual transformation and how it works practically in the context of relationships and community.
Relational Spirituality draws together themes such as trinitarian theology, historical and biblical perspectives on the imago Dei, relational knowledge, attachment patterns, and interpersonal neurobiology into a broad synthesis that will stimulate further dialogue across a variety of fields. Highlighting key characteristics of spiritual communities that foster transformation, Hall and Hall equip spiritual leaders and practitioners to more effectively facilitate spiritual growth for themselves and those they serve.
Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS) Books explore how Christianity relates to mental health and behavioral sciences including psychology, counseling, social work, and marriage and family therapy in order to equip Christian clinicians to support the well-being of their clients.
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Pursued Womens Bible Study Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$15.99Add to cartDiscover how God is pursuing you as you explore His relentless love from Genesis to Revelation in Pursued by Jennifer Cowart.
We all want to be loved. We long to be desired, pursued-whether by a special someone, our friends, or others in our lives. This longing for love and acceptance is the underlying story of many of our lives, and it’s the overarching story we see throughout the Scriptures. Although the Bible tells many stories, the main theme is God’s relentless love for us.
In Pursued, a six-week Bible study by Jennifer Cowart, we will explore God’s great love for us from Genesis to Revelation. We will see that God passionately pursues people who do not deserve His love, and we are those people!
Like Cain, Abraham, Sarah, Rebekah, David, the woman caught in adultery, Peter, and so many others, we are the ones who have broken relationship with God. But He runs after us anyway to bring us home.
In this study, we will explore God’s love as evidenced in the stories of creation, the patriarchs, the judges and prophets, Jesus, and the early church. Together we will dive into a great love story and discover that it is our story!
Through this study women will:
*See the big picture of God’s love for them throughout the Scriptures
*Discover that God wants a personal relationship with them
*Experience God’s relentless love for them individually
*Realize that God never stops pursuing themComponents for this six-week Bible study, each available separately, include a Participant Workbook, a Leader Guide, and video sessions with six 20 to 25-minute segments (with closed captioning).
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Sensible Shoes Leaders Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$16.99Add to cartSensible Shoes is an unusual novel, blending a fictional story with nonfiction teaching elements.
Some readers view it only as a story of four characters on a journey. Others say yes to a deeper level of reading, embracing the opportunity to take a “sacred journey” along with the characters, by opening themselves to the Spirit’s work and attending to God’s invitations. The Sensible Shoes Leader’s Guide offers two ways to invite readers into a deeper journey: first, there are resources here for a twelve-week small group experience through the Sensible Shoes Study Guide. Each week you’ll be provided with a few prayer prompts for your work as a leader, tips for facilitating the group, and behind-the-scenes information about the characters and their journeys that can be used as opening materials for your sessions. The second set of resources in this guide relates to leading a retreat based on Sensible Shoes. After years of creating and speaking at “Sensible Shoes Retreats,” spiritual director Sharon Brown offers here additional content to help you design the ideal space for your context as you gather people in longer sessions to experience this material. In addition to one-day, weekend, and online schedules, there are many creative ideas from leaders of groups who have used Sensible Shoes for retreats over the years. Sensible Shoes was written for the purpose of bringing God’s healing and spiritual transformation into the lives of readers traveling in community. Is there an invitation here for you to bring this message to your community? Also available: Sensible Shoes Leader Kit and Sensible Shoes Participant Kit, with everything you need for a small group or retreat experience.
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Sensible Shoes Participant Kit (Student/Study Guide)
$57.99Add to cartSensible Shoes is an unusual novel, blending a fictional story with nonfiction teaching elements.
Some readers view it only as a story of four characters on a journey. Others say yes to a deeper level of reading, embracing the opportunity to take a “sacred journey” along with the characters, by opening themselves to the Spirit’s work and attending to God’s invitations. The Sensible Shoes Participant Kit offers everything you need for two different types of experiences: a twelve-week small group or a one-day, weekend, or online retreat. There’s also a copy of the book and a beautiful journal with a ribbon and quotes from the characters. Sensible Shoes was written for the purpose of bringing God’s healing and spiritual transformation into the lives of readers traveling in community. Is there an invitation here for you to bring this message to your community?
The Sensible Shoes Participant Kit includes:
*Sensible Shoes
*Sensible Shoes Prayer Cards (sold as part of this kit only)
*Sensible Shoes Journal
*Sensible Shoes Study Guide -
Sensible Shoes Leader Kit
$74.98Add to cartSensible Shoes is an unusual novel, blending a fictional story with nonfiction teaching elements.
Some readers view it only as a story of four characters on a journey. Others say yes to a deeper level of reading, embracing the opportunity to take a “sacred journey” along with the characters, by opening themselves to the Spirit’s work and attending to God’s invitations. The Sensible Shoes Leader’s Kit offers everything you need to invite participants into two different types of experiences: a twelve-week small group or a one-day, weekend, or online retreat. Included in the kit is both a participant and a leader guide. The leader guide provides prayer prompts, tips for facilitating the group, and behind-the-scenes information about the characters and their journeys that can be used as opening materials for your sessions. Also provided are schedules for differing retreat formats and creative ideas gathered from the many groups that have used Sensible Shoes in retreats over the years. There’s also a copy of the book and a beautiful journal with a ribbon and quotes from the characters. Sensible Shoes was written for the purpose of bringing God’s healing and spiritual transformation into the lives of readers traveling in community. Is there an invitation here for you to bring this message to your community?
The Sensible Shoes Leader’s Kit includes:
*Sensible Shoes Leader’s Guide
*Sensible Shoes
*Sensible Shoes Prayer Cards (sold as part of this kit only)
*Sensible Shoes Journal
*Sensible Shoes Study Guide -
Treatment Of Childhood Disorders
$55.00Add to cartCaring for the mental health of children and their families is complex and challenging-and meaningful.
For Christian clinicians who work with childhood disorders, however, few resources exist to address such treatment from a research-based Christian integration perspective. Treatment of Childhood Disorders fills this gap by combining biblical and theological understanding with current psychological literature on empirically supported treatments for children. Sarah E. Hall and Kelly S. Flanagan present an integrated approach based in developmental psychopathology, which offers a dynamic, multifaceted framework from which to understand the processes that affect children’s development. In this unique textbook, Hall and Flanagan consider a variety of disorders commonly diagnosed in children and adolescents, including anxiety, depression, ADHD, and autism spectrum disorder. After discussing prevalence, risk and causal factors, patterns throughout development, and assessment, they focus on evidence-based practices that have been found to be effective in treating the disorders. Each chapter also features ideas for Christian integration in treatment and an extended case study that brings the content to life.
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Preaching : How To Preach Biblically
$29.99Add to cartMany sermons preached today lack the divine knowledge and spiritual understanding available only through dynamic expository preaching. In Preaching: How to Preach Biblically, John MacArthur” well-known passion for the Bible combines with the expertise of faculty members at The Master’s Seminary to inspire and equip preachers in effective biblical preaching.
Preaching: How to Preach Biblically flows from biblical foundations for expository preaching through a detailed process of developing expositions and creating sermons to the actual delivery of expository messages, connecting what pastors learn in seminary with the sermons preached in a local church. This volume shows how to progress purposefully from one phase to the next in preparing to minister to God’s people through preaching.
This book answers these questions and more:
*What is expository, biblical preaching?
*What are the theological and historical foundations for insisting on expository preaching?*What are the steps involved in preparation for and participation in biblical preaching?
*What models exist for expository preaching today?The Master’s Seminary faculty, with over thirty years’ experience in preaching and seminary training of preachers, contributes a treasury of expertise alongside insights from expositor John MacArthur. While united on their commitment to exposition, the variety of individual expressions and methodological preferences discussed offers beneficial assistance for any preacher seeking a higher level of expository excellence.
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Connections Year B Volume 3 Season After Pentecost
$55.00Add to cartDesigned to empower preachers as they lead their congregations to connect their lives to Scripture, Connections features a broad set of interpretive tools that provide commentary and worship aids on the Revised Common Lectionary. This nine-volume series offers creative commentary on each reading through the lens of its connections to the rest of Scripture and then seeing the reading through the lenses of culture, film, fiction, ethics, and other aspects of contemporary life. Commentaries on the Psalms make connections to other readings and to the congregation’s experience of worship.
Connections is published in partnership with Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
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Practical And Indispensable Pastors Handbook
$19.95Add to cart“Could you please teach your students to do what pastors actually do?”
Such was the question many ministry leaders asked Brian A. Ross after his transition from a lead pastor to a full-time seminary professor. The Practical (And Indispensable!) Pastor’s Handbook: Exploring What You Actually Need to Do as A 21st-Century Minister is Ross’ answer.
Being a pastor encompasses far more than theology and scripture, despite how important that knowledge is. A pastor is responsible for leading a church, including everything from welcoming new members and prayerfully constructing sermons that speak to the congregation’s heart to managing the budget and staying ahead of potential legal pitfalls. Leadership, delegation, teamwork, and organization are all tools in the pastor’s toolbox, along with planning just about everything well in advance. Divine duty or mundane practicality, the pastor is responsible for seeing it done.
The Practical (And Indispensable!) Pastor’s Handbook presents Ross’ guidelines and tips for new solo and senior pastors on a wide variety of topics, including a manual of “do/don’t and why” generated from his studies, observations, and personal experience. While there is, as he says, no “right way” to minister, his handbook has brought benefit and fresh insight to both students and veterans alike.
Enlightening topics include:
– Handling Sundays
– Handling Leadership
– Handling Ministries
– Handling Pastoral And Self-Care
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Indispensable Church : Powerful Ways To Flood Your Community With Love
$19.00Add to cartYou have a passionate desire to take the church outside its four walls and make the love of Jesus practical, visible, and lived out in daily life. But how? How do you put into action what is stirring in your heart?
Indispensable Church provides you and your church real-world, hands-on steps to create a revolution of service to your local community in the name of Christ. By exploring the life of Jesus and the strategic ways he modeled serving the people around him, pastor Chris Sonksen shows you how to put love into action in your neighborhood and your city. The step-by-step instructions, biblical challenges, and teaching resources will help you take love to the streets and make an impact right where you live.
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Leaves From The Notebook Of A Tamed Cynic
$31.00Add to cartLeaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic is Niebuhr’s account of the frustrations and joys he experienced during his years at Bethel. Addressed to young ministers, this book provides reflections and insights for those engaged in the challenging yet infinitely rewarding occupation of pastoral ministry.
Renowned theologian Reinhold Niebuhr began his career as pastor of Bethel Evangelical Church in Detroit, Michigan, where he served from 1915-1928. Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic is Niebuhr’s account of the frustrations and joys he experienced during his years at Bethel. Addressed to young ministers, this book provides reflections and insights for those engaged in the challenging yet infinitely rewarding occupation of pastoral ministry.
With a foreword from Jonathan Walton on Niebuhr’s enduring insights into the challenges and relevance of pastoral ministry, this powerful book remains as useful today as it was last century.
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Not Forsaken Leader Guide With Participant Helps
$21.99Add to cartForsaken: Growing up Black, Male and Christian in the Hood encapsulates principles author Chris McNair gleaned from successfully working with at-risk African American boys in the inner city in over thirty years of ministry. This book teaches how youth workers can address social, emotional, physical and spiritual issues facing young black men in the city. It is about building a relational ministry among black youth, centered on instilling a sense of identity in Christ and provides a study curriculum to use with the young men themselves.
The book with study sessions contains everything needed to begin to equip leaders and guide a group through the study including session plans, activities, and discussion questions.
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Wild At Heart Field Guide Revised Edition (Revised)
$19.99Add to cartIn Wild at Heart, bestselling author John Eldredge thrust a generation of men, young and old, toward a journey to recover true masculinity?the soul of a man as God designed him. He reminded men they needed adventure in their lives-in their work, in their love, and their spiritual lives-and showed how God designed them to be dangerous. Sadly, most men today have abandoned these dreams and desires-aided by a Christianity that feels like nothing more than pressure to be a “nice guy.” It is no wonder that many men avoid church, and those who go are often passive and bored to death.
The Wild at Heart Field Manual, which corresponds chapter-by-chapter with the book, helps men understand how God wants to heal these deep wounds from earlier years that take away their confidence and, in some case, their masculinity. Men will discover that deep within their heart is a longing for a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue-because that is how God created them. It is time for the church to reclaim these wounded warriors. It is time to give men permission to be what God designed them to be-dangerous, passionate, alive, and free!
Packed with new information and insights, the Wild at Heart Field Manual guides men along “the road less traveled.” Filled with probing questions, creative exercises, and space to record personal field notes, this companion volume is designed to transition men from reading about the wild heart to living from it.
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Positive Psychology In Christian Perspective
$45.99Add to cartOriginally the field of psychology had a threefold mission: to cure mental illness, yes, but also to find ways to make life fulfilling for all and to maximize talent. Over the last century, a focus on mental illness has often been prioritized over studies of health, to the point that many people assume “psychologist” is just another way of saying “psychotherapist.” This book is about one attempt to restore the discipline’s larger mission.
Positive psychology attends to what philosophers call “the good life.” It is about fostering strength and living well–about how to do a good job at being human. Some of that will involve cheerful emotions, and some of it will not. There are vital roles to be played by archetypal challenges such as those involving self-control, guilt, and grit, and even the terror of death enters into positive psychology’s vision of human flourishing. Charles Hackney connects this still-new movement to foundational concepts in philosophy and Christian theology. He then explores topics such as subjective states, cognitive processes, and the roles of personality, relationships, and environment, also considering relevant practices in spheres from the workplace to the church and even the martial arts dojo. Hackney takes seriously the range of critiques positive psychology has faced as he frames a constructive future for Christian contributions to the field.
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Enneagram Goes To Church
$18.99Add to cartIf I had known the Enneagram earlier in my ministry, I would have been a much better pastor.
When this thought came to Todd Wilson, he had already served as a pastor in several churches for the better part of fifteen years and was successfully leading a large, historic, and diverse congregation. He’d started out in ministry with a strong education in everything from biblical exegesis and homiletics to organizational development and Christian education. However, at its root, pastoral ministry is about shepherding, serving, leading, and loving people, and Todd realized that what he lacked was wisdom about how people work. He says, “When it came to empathetically shepherding people and sensitively engaging their manifold personalities and diverse ways of seeing the world, I was an amateur.” Whether you are on a church staff or leading a small group, you will find that the insights from the Enneagram that have helped many grow in self-awareness can be applied to life in our faith communities. The Enneagram can help us to become better teachers. It can influence how we develop worship and Christian education. And it can guide us in building and leading teams. It’s time to take the Enneagram to church–and to allow it to shape our life together.
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Purpose Gap : Empowering Communities Of Color To Find Meaning And Thrive
$28.00Add to cartIn The Purpose Gap, Patrick Reyes reflects on a family member’s death after a long struggle with incarceration and homelessness. As he asks himself why his cousin’s life had turned out so differently from his own, he realizes that it was a matter of conditions. While they both grew up in the same marginalized Chicano community in Southern California, Patrick found himself surrounded by a host of family, friends, and supporters. They created a different narrative for him than the one the rest of the world had succeeded in imposing on his cousin. In short, they created the conditions in which Patrick could not only survive but thrive.
Far too much of the literature on leadership tells the story of heroic individuals creating their success by their own efforts. Such stories fail to recognize the structural obstacles to thriving faced by those in marginalized communities. If young people in these communities are to grow up to lives of purpose, others must help create the conditions to make that happen. Pastors, organizational leaders, educators, family, and friends must all perceive their calling to create new stories and new conditions of thriving for those most marginalized. This book offers both inspiration and practical guidance for how to do that. It offers advice on creating safe space for failure, nurturing networks that support young people of color, and professional guidance for how to implement these strategies in one’s congregation, school, or community organization.
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Wild At Heart Study Guide Updated Edition (Student/Study Guide)
$13.99Add to cartIn this updated edition of the bestselling classic, author John Eldredge reminds men they need adventure in their lives . . . in their work, in their love, and their spiritual lives. He reveals how God designed men to be dangerous. Simply look at the dreams and desires written in the heart of every boy: to be a hero, to be a warrior, and to live a life of adventure and risk. Sadly, most men today have abandoned these dreams and desires-aided by a Christianity that feels like nothing more than pressure to be a “nice guy.” It is no wonder that many men avoid church, and those who go are often passive and bored to death.
In this provocative six-session video study (DVD/digital video downloads sold separately), John Eldredge explains how God wants to heal these deep wounds from earlier years that take away a man’s confidence and-in some cases-his masculinity. He shows that deep within the heart of every man is a longing for a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue-because that is how God created him. It is time for the church to reclaim these wounded warriors. It is time to give men permission to be what God designed them to be-dangerous, passionate, alive, and free!
Sessions include:
1. The Heart of a Man
2. The Wound
3. A Battle to Fight
4. An Adventure to Live
5. A Beauty to Rescue
6. A Band of BrothersDesigned for use with the Wild at Heart Video Study (sold separately).
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Starfish And The Spirit
$19.99Add to cartLeveraging the metaphor Ori popularized in his NYT best-selling book, The Starfish and the Spider, Ori Brafman shows why the distributed structures of starfish organizations are uniquely fit to the church. They can function without a rigid central authority, and their regenerative abilities make them nimbler in reacting to external forces. Seeding starfish networks inside todays churches will prepare the church of tomorrow to be agile while still maintaining the necessary accountability to be effective.
Rather than advocating the adoption of a starfish structure in place of the hierarchy of the spider, Brafman, along with pastors Lance Ford and Rob Wegner, emphasize the advantages of adapting the structure and order inherent in a spider organization toward a hybrid model–either a Spiderfish approach (leaning toward centralization) or a Starder approach (leaning toward decentralization).
The Starfish and the Spirit is about creating a culture where church leaders view themselves as curators of a community on mission, not the source of certainty for every question and project. It is about creating a team of humble leaders “in the middle” of the church, not at the top–leaders who naturally reproduce multiple generations of leaders, from the middle out on mission. Imagine a church led by a team whose gifts and talents are completely unleashed, enabling everyone to show up and step up with all they really are. The joy and vigor coming from the collective strength, intelligence, and skill in the community of leaders not only brings greater potency but better yields for your ministry as well. What would it be like to see this kind of healthy leadership reproduced into the second, third, and fourth generation, on multiple strands?
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Redeemed Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$13.99Add to cartGod never designed us to just figure things out on our own. When Jesus came to earth to start a revolution, he did so by gathering a small band of ordinary men around him. These men had unique backgrounds, diverse occupations, and individual personalities. Jesus orchestrated learning environments as they worked alongside each other that changed them into the most powerful transformative community in the history of the word. Together, they went from self-centered individuals to united powerhouses.
The goal of the CORE studies is to set men on a similar journey that will transform them and their group into this type of community. Each study features five real-life stories of men who have faced real-life challenges and discovered transformation, redemption, restoration, purpose, and identity. These stories serve as a catalyst for men to start being real about their own stories and realize they are not alone in the struggle. In turn, this opens them up to getting the encouragement necessary to engage in life proactively.
There has never been a more critical need to equip men with the tools to win the battles over their hearts and futures. CORE gives them the ability to create spaces where they can show up as they are without judgment, be open about their struggles, and find freedom to discover who God says they are. They will be invited to step out of shame and isolation and encouraged to step into their God-given purpose.
This study features an introduction from Jeremy Affeldt and stories from well-known speakers on the topics of calling, redemption, spiritual adoption, restoration, and purpose.
Designed for use with Redeemed Video Study (sold separately).
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Preaching And The 30 Second Commercial
$29.00Add to cartAt first glance, preaching and advertising seem worlds apart from one another. One tries to proclaim love of God and neighbor; the other tries to sell you something that you may or may not need. Yet both must compete with other ways we receive and process information in an increasingly distracted world. While most of the time preaching simply tries to muddle through this situation, advertising knows that it must continually relearn how to reclaim its audience’s attention-and keep it.
Believing that preaching can benefit from advertising’s laser focus on how to make its message stick, O. Wesley Allen, Jr. (a preaching professor) and Carrie La Ferle (a professor of advertising) have written this first-of-its-kind book on what preachers can learn from advertising.
Examples of these lessons include:
– Sharpening one’s analysis to understand the congregation better
– Encoding a message so that listeners can decode it for their individual lives
– Understanding how the form of the sermon leads to greater or lesser effectiveness
– Building the sermon around imagery and narrative
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Worship For The Whole People Of God Second Edition
$50.00Add to cartThis revised edition of the popular textbook on worship by renowned hymn writer and professor Ruth C. Duck provides theological foundations for worship and explores the ways Christians have adapted worship to various cultures to help them live faithfully and to communicate the gospel to others. The author celebrates the many languages and cultural settings in which the gospel has been, and is, preached, sung, and prayed. The goal of this volume is to support good pastoral and congregational reflection on what worship is and does. Consequently, Duck discusses many different forms of worship from several cultures (African American, Asian, Euro-American) and offers advice on how to read a congregation and define its culture in order to plan culturally appropriate worship. She includes many practical suggestions for preparing and leading worship, including diverse ministries of music, movement, and visual arts that are becoming more popular today.
From worship’s theological underpinnings, the book turns to worship leadership, forms of prayer, preaching, the sacraments, ordination, and various other liturgies. Because of its emphasis on vital and Spirit-led worship, this comprehensive book on Christian worship will be used in years to come, not only as a core textbook for seminarians and ministry students from a variety of cultures and traditions but also as a resource for local church pastors and laity who are dedicated to the enlivening of Christian worship.
In this new edition, Duck updates and expands the recommended resources, updates the section on worship trends, enhances the section on multicultural worship, and revises marriage information based on cultural and denominational changes.
Highlights include stories of four churches that are developing creative ways to grow and meet the possibilities and challenges of these times, especially in seeking justice, serving people in their neighborhood, and building bridges among cultures and religious groups. In addition, a new appendix by David Gambrell addresses the theological and practical questions surrounding online worship in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.
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Healing The Wounds Of Trauma Facilitators Guide 2021 Edition Print On Deman (Tea
$11.99Add to cartThis handbook is for certified facilitators who care for hurting people using Healing the Wounds of Trauma: How the Church Can Help, the book which is the foundation of the Bible-based trauma healing ministry of the Trauma Healing Institute. This guide contains the timetables, instructions, and logistical details that facilitators need to lead healing groups.
This edition contains stories that can be effectively used in North American and global city contexts.
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Come Back Participant Book (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99Add to cartWe all experience setbacks. Loss, failure, and even tragedy are part of life. But when these start to define us, it’s time to regroup. Roger Ross teaches the essentials for rising up and out of bad circumstances in Come Back: Returning to the Life You Were Made For. This engaging book tells turnaround stories from sports, history, and everyday life, tracing Jesus’s parable of the prodigal son to reveal five crucial stages for every comeback. Each stage is paired with an ancient spiritual practice designed to help everyday people turn some part of their life around.
This Participant Guide is your personal study tool and workbook. It’s designed to help you process the lessons of Come Back: Returning to the Life You Were Made For. The study leads you to analyze your own situation more deeply, and shows you how to incorporate the spiritual practices into your daily life. The study is particularly effective in a group setting. Participants need both this Guide and the main book.
It’s not too late. It’s time for your comeback.
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How Women Transform Preaching
$30.99Add to cartWomen preachers are everywhere. The pulpit, once a bastion of male presence and power, has become, in many denominations, a place where women regularly exercise their gifts, leading congregations and proclaiming God’s word each week. The number of women scholars who are publishing and teaching in the field of preaching has also expanded dramatically.
Leonora Tubbs Tisdale explores how the presence of women preachers and scholars of preaching has transformed the practice of homiletics this country-from the reclamation of women’s “herstory” in preaching, to the topics addressed in preaching and scholarship, to the way in which Biblical hermeneutics and theologizing are undertaken in preaching, to the imagery, illustrations, shape and embodiment of the sermons themselves.
How Women Transform Preaching begins with a fascinating survey, including statistical information and historical analysis. Interviewing 16 women preachers/homileticians, Tisdale shares ‘untold stories’ of women preachers throughout history who are largely unknown but who serve as examples of both the struggle and power of women’s preaching. She then tells the stories of contemporary women preachers. Throughout, Tisdale draws practical lessons for the reader, showing what students, homileticians, and preachers can learn from extraordinary women preachers.
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Building A City On A Hill Student Workbook (Student/Study Guide)
$7.74Add to cartBuilding A City On A Hill: African American Communities of Purpose Student Workbook explores how we can shine for Jesus by demonstrating Christian character wherever God has placed us. Each chapter reminds us that God calls us to be Christians at home, at work, and in the community. This call enables us to change lives and foster economic development, which causes families and communities to flourish. A revisit of historic Black towns showcases the self-sufficient businesses and enterprises that African Americans built after emancipation. Vocational excellence, unselfish service, and an awareness that God is at work in each life are key to this curriculum.
Building A City On A Hill is suitable for Adult Vacation Bible School, small groups, and individual Bible study. The lives of ten Bible characters serve as examples of good works and moral excellence while being the light in their particular situations. By learning about these characters, you will be inspired and equipped to be the light of the world.
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Lectures To My Students Volume 3 Practical And Spiritual Guidance For Preac
$19.99Add to cart“The solemn work of Christian ministry demands a man’s all, and that all should be at its best. To engage in ministry halfheartedly is an insult to God and man. Sleep must leave our eyelids before men are allowed to perish. Yet we are all prone to sleep, and students, among the rest, are apt to act the part of the foolish virgins. Therefore, I have sought to speak out my whole soul in the hope that I might not create or foster any dullness in others, and to this end, my lectures are colloquial, familiar, full of anecdote, and often humorous. May He, in whose hand are the churches and their pastors, bless these words to younger brethren in the ministry, and if so, I will count it more than a full reward and will gratefully praise the Lord.”
– Charles H. Spurgeon -
Disability And The Church
$18.99Add to cartPastor Lamar Hardwick was thirty-six years old when he found out he was on the autism spectrum. This revelation prompted him to reconsider the church’s responsibilities to the disabled community. Insisting that the good news of Jesus affirms God’s image in all people, Hardwick offers practical steps and strategies to build stronger, truly inclusive communities of faith.
Lamar Hardwick was thirty-six years old when he found out he was on the autism spectrum. While this revelation helped him understand and process his own experience, it also prompted a difficult re-evaluation of who he was as a person. And as a pastor, it started him on a new path of considering the way disabled people are treated in the church. Disability and the Church is a practical and theological reconsideration of the church’s responsibilities to the disabled community. Too often disabled persons are pushed away from the church or made to feel unwelcome in any number of ways. As Hardwick writes, “This should not be.” He insists that the good news of Jesus affirms God’s image in all people, and he offers practical steps and strategies to build stronger, truly inclusive communities of faith.
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Elijah Bible Study Book (Student/Study Guide)
$16.99Add to cartOld Testament heroes are best known for their most celebrated, highlight moments: Moses dividing the Red Sea; David slaying Goliath; Gideon routing an insurmountable army; Joshua marching around the defiant walls of Jericho.
And Elijah-calling down fire on Mount Carmel.
Blinded by the remarkable narratives of our biblical heroes, we can forget they each had a backstory-months and years of development, even difficulty, which fortified their spiritual muscle and prepared them for the tasks that made their lives unforgettable.
This 7-session Bible study, on one of the premier ancient prophets, is your invitation to surrender to that process.
Every serious believer longs to summon up the kind of boldness and faith that can stand firm on Mount Carmel and pray down heaven into impossible situations. Yet few are willing to go through the process required to get them there. Strength of faith, character, and boldness can only be shaped in the hidden fires of silence, sameness, solitude, and adversity. Those who patiently wait on God in the darkness emerge with their holy loyalty cemented, their courage emblazoned, and their confident belief in Him set afire.
Join author and Bible teacher Priscilla Shirer on a journey through the life and times of Elijah. Discover how the fire on Mount Carmel was forged in the valley of famine. And how the emboldened, fiery faith you desire is being fashioned by God in your life right now.
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Problem Of Jesus Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99Add to cartJesus has never been more popular. Some love him, applauding him as a good teacher, a political revolutionary, or a prophetic voice speaking out against the rich and powerful. Others find him bigoted, old-fashioned, and narrow minded, even as they are forced to admit that his words and teachings are utterly unique. His presence infuses our political discussions and our dinner table debates, making him impossible to ignore.
Yet sadly, in many churches today, the Jesus we meet is nothing more than a kindly man with children on his lap and a smile on his face. He is presented as a good person, a positive influence–a mixture of Mr. Rogers and Tony Robbins. The Jesus of American Christianity is meek, gentle, safe, and fun, always ready to be your best friend.
When we dig more deeply into the Bible, we discover a very different picture. Wherever Jesus went in his life, from the day he was born until the day he died, scandal and controversy followed him. Be warned. If you investigate Jesus beyond the superficial glance most give him today you will be challenged and confronted. Jesus creates in each person who encounters him a crisis of faith, forcing us to a point of decision.
When used together with The Problem of Jesus, A Video Study, this study guide helps you look beyond the superficial understandings of Jesus to examine his hard-hitting claims and teachings, including:
*The reliable evidence that Jesus was a real, historical figure
*The oft-unexamined cost of following Jesus
*His claim to be God, the Creator of all, worthy of worship
*His teachings and stories, which have always offended religious people
*His miracles and actions, what they meant in the ancient world–and today
*The claims of Jesus to be the only, exclusive path to GodThe Problem of Jesus Study Guide confronts you with the real Jesus of history, asking you to wrestle with the teachings, claims, and actions of the man who has forever altered the course of human history. Every person must make their own decision about Jesus, choosing how they will live in light of the answers they discover about this amazing man.
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Complete Guide To Godly Play Volume 6 (Expanded)
$34.95Add to cartSupport, challenge, nourish, and guide children on their spiritual quest.
Godly Play(R) is an imaginative approach to working with children, based on Montessori principles. It is more akin to spiritual direction and guidance than what we generally consider as religious education.
Revised and expanded, The Complete Guide to Godly Play, Volume 6 offers new concepts and terminology, completely new illustrations, and a new structure that stems from more than ten years of using Godly Play with children across the world. More than 30 percent of the text is new or revised, including two new lessons, a revised Introduction, and a full Appendix.
