Pastoral Helps
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Users Guide To Bible Translations
$30.99Add to cartInterVarsity Press Publication
A User’s Guide to Bible Translations escorts you through the history of Bible versions in English from Wycliffe and Tyndale to the English Standard Version and Today’s New International Version, with explanatory glances at the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, and translation theories along the way. In straightforward language, David Dewey explains how we ended up with so many versions of the Bible, shedding light on the difference between word-for-word and meaning-for-meaning translations, the controversy over gender accuracy, and issues of theological bias.
Dewey also reminds us that it’s not enough to ask, “Which Bible is best?” We also must question what purpose the translation will serve, whether for personal study or for reading aloud, as well as what audience the translation will best communicate to, whether for inquirers/seekers or for those who may struggle with the English language. Filled with charts comparing versions and diagrams showing translation difficulties, A User’s Guide provides an easy-to-use handbook for digging through the mountain of translation options until you find the right Bible for the right purpose.
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Culture Shift : Transforming Your Church From The Inside Out
$27.00Add to cartAbout Leadership Network.
Foreword (Erwin Raphael McManus).Preface.
PART ONE: Awakening To Culture.
1. Why Culture Matters.
2. Your Destiny In Seed Form.
3. What You Think Is What You See.
PART TWO: Birthing The Culture.
4. Totems: Identifying Your Church’s Culture.
5. How To Shift Your Church’s Culture.
6. Divine Partnership.
PART THREE: Growing The Culture At New Hope O’ahu.
7. Identifying New Hope’s Totems.
8. Culture Setters.
9. Plug-and-Play Subculture Vs. Authentic Culture.
10. Creating And Re-Creating Culture.
PART FOUR: Growing The Culture At Fellowship Bible Church.
11. Identifying Fellowship Bible’s Totems.
12. The Power Of A Disciplined Vision.
13. Learning To Spot Opportunity.
14. Courageous Adjustments To Safeguard The Values.
PART FIVE: Advancing The Culture.
15. Irresistible Culture.
Notes.
Appendix One: Involvement And Satisfaction Survey.
Appendix Two: Sample Pages From A Life Journal.
Bibliography.
Acknowledgments.
About The Authors.
Index.
Additional Info
Culture Shift, written for church leaders, ministers, pastors, ministry teams, and lay leaders, leads you through the process of identifying your church’s distinctive culture, gives you practical tools to change it from the inside-out, and provides steps to keep your new culture aligned with your church’s mission. Real transformation is not about working harder at what you’re already doing or even copying another church’s approach but about changing church culture at a foundational level. -
Holy Donuts : Impacting Schools For Christ
$12.49Add to cartHoly Donuts is a practical, legal way of getting into the schools and building rapport with the kids! If we want to see members of this younger generation experience a meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ and become productive and influential members of society with a biblical worldview, we must go to them! A session of Holy Donuts begins when each of the kids comes in, grabs a donut, and takes a seat. By using visual object lessons, the kids are able to grasp and apply the principles of the Gospel. Discussion follows, and ways they can use their faith are stressed. Sessions are short, allowing time for more than one group to participate on a given day. The concept is applicable to all grade levels. Holy Donuts: Impacting Schools for Christ gives you all the information you need to start your own outreach.
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Ministers Life Of Obedience
$16.49Add to cart“I am writing to give my recommendation of the book The Minister’s Life of Obedience by Rev. Phil Richards. I have been in the ministry for over 20 years and was blessed by the content of this book. Anyone who reads this book-from a novice to a seasoned minister-will find it beneficial. The book provides life lessons and principles for any stage of a minister’s calling.” -PASTOR JOHN NUZZO Victory Christian Fellowship Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania A call to the ministry is always a call to preparation first. In this book, Dr. Richards explores the side of the ministry that is seldom examined: total obedience to the call of God from the earth to the throne. Dr. Richards explains, “Obedience to the Lord must be a daily affair, beginning with obedience to the call and completed obedience to the will of the Lord on the earth.” To walk in the call of God as a minister is to walk in obedience to your destiny.Whether you are called to the full-time ministry or you are a layman, an understanding of obedience is essential if we are to please the Lord. The Minister’s Life of Obedience will both challenge and inspire you with a greater determination to prepare your heart to obey the Lord in every area of your life.
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When God Speaks Through Change
$30.00Add to cartAnyone who has preached at a wedding and a funeral in the same week can attest to the power of the occasion to impact the preaching event. At times, a congregational transition looms so large in a sermon that it becomes the lens through which scripture is interpreted, the congregation is addressed, the preacher is heard, and God is experienced.
Homiletics professor and parish pastor Craig Satterlee reflects in this accessible, provocative volume on how to integrate such significant events in a congregation’s life into the preaching ministry of the church. Rather than offering a blueprint for preaching, however, he walks alongside pastors, seminarians, and other congregational leaders who want to make sure the gospel, not an agenda, is preached.
Issues considered include: (1) the benefits and risks of using preaching to address the transition, (2) how preaching collaborates with other congregational processes involved in the transition, (3) how scripture and the transition interpret one another, (4) how to incorporate the transition into the form, content, and delivery of the sermon so that the gospel and not a program or agenda is proclaimed and heard, and (5) how the transition affects the preacher’s ability to proclaim and the congregation’s ability to receive the message.
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Designing Worship Together
$29.00Add to cartThis book draws on more than two decades of collaborative worship planning by pastor Howard Vanderwell and musician Norma deWaal Malefyt of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, offering thoughtful, field-tested processes and tools for planning, implementing, and evaluating life-enriching weekly worship.
The authors enter into the trenches of weekly congregational life with this book, offering helpful insights into the process of how worship services are planned and led. DeWaal Malefyt and Vanderwell’s approach to worship arises from the biblical narrative, using the language of the Christian tradition and emphasizing that worship tells the story of God’s efforts through history to show us the path to union with God.
Designing Worship Together is also deeply connected to the experience of local congregations. DeWaal Malefyt and Vanderwell understand that the way in which God’s saving deeds are proclaimed will differ from church to church, from place to place, and from culture to culture and they present a process for designing worship services that is equally applicable in a wide diversity of congregations.
Foreword writer Robert Webber writes of Designing Worship Together, “In a day when worship, born out of an antihistorical attitude focuses on the self-what I need, what I want, what I do-it is refreshing to find a book that focuses on God yet is deeply concerned about the people engaged in worship.”
While many books are available about the theology of worship, worship styles, and issues of music, there are few resources on the value of careful worship planning. DeWaal Malefyt and Vanderwell offer the practical nuts-and-bolts that worship planners need, but this book is far more than a how-to for worship planners. In addition to describing best practices for worship planners, they clarify the role of vital worship in the life of a healthy congregation; identify the biblical assumptions underlying Christian worship; highlight the importance of team work in worship planning; name the issues and barriers worship planners must overcome; and suggest a variety of models for worship planning and evaluation.
This invaluable resource also features more than a dozen field-tested tools and a selected bibliography for worship planners to use as they continue to develop their ministries.
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Postindustrial Promise : Vital Religious Community In The 21st Century
$30.00Add to cartTales of demise and decline have come to characterize news on the state of religion and congregations in America. In The Postindustrial Promise, author Anthony Healy finds that the changes in religious life and among congregations are being misunderstood. Instead of seeing the changes as the result of the presumed aspects of postmodern life-individualism, the collapse of social groups, and the scrapping of tradition-Healy sees what has occurred as a postindustrial transformation, in which an economy based on manufacturing has been replaced by one based on corporate and consumer services. This transformation has changed what we value and how we live, as well as how we work. It has also changed congregations and religious life, but not necessarily in the way that many people think.
Contrary to the stories of decline, Healy finds that in this time of postindustrial dislocation people are again putting down religious roots. Congregations are making it possible for people to reconnect with the stories and traditions of previous generations and have become the places in society where the reembodying of religious and cultural narratives is taking place. Different from the postmodern script, this postindustrial explanation leads us to fresh insights into the change that has occurred among religious bodies, their congregants, and their communities.
This book provides pastors, lay leaders, teachers, scholars, and seminarians with a solid grounding in the basic aspects of the postindustrial transformation and offers direction to help religious leaders develop responsive and viable places of ministry, mission, and program in this time of change
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Solving The Missing Member Puzzle
$16.95Add to cartSomething is wrong. People are going missing, right in front of your eyes! One minute they are staring back at you from their favorite pew, the next Sunday you are looking at an empty spot in that pew. Is there a way to determine ahead of time which members are the likely “religious dropouts”? Often the clues are clearly visible – but can you recognize them? What’s more, do you know what you can do now to keep your “missing members” from drifting away? The secret lies in knowing and understanding the attitudes and belief systems that people hold, because certain sets of attitudes are linked to inactivity.
A detailed examination of this distressingly common experience, Solving The Missing Member Puzzle can help you spot potential dropouts in advance, learn the reasons why they become inactive, and counteract the process with a proactive strategy for reaching them while they are still within your grasp. Based on “blind” interviews with individuals from ten different congregations, it reveals the underlying attitudes and belief systems that encourage or discourage dropping out of church.
Solving The Missing Member Puzzle is a valuable tool for leaders of any church or organization – it shows how you can develop more faithful members, and assists in their growth, participation, and retention. Don’t wait until people drop out before you take action. Learn ways to anticipate which members of your congregation might become inactive and the preventive measures that you can take to help keep them in the pews.
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Where Once We Feared Enemies
$16.95Add to cartWhether we are conscious of it or not, we fear difference. That often unwarranted fear leads us to create enemies in our hearts and minds – and fear was no stranger to Oakhurst Presbyterian Church, as confessed by Pastor Nibs Stroupe: “We have listened to one another’s stories here, and we have discovered that the people we feared, those monsters we thought would destroy us – because of different skin colors, different genders, different sexual orientations, different economic categories – they are really our sisters and brothers, the folks for whom our hearts long.”
In the 1960s the Oakhurst congregation was 900 members strong, but by the time Nibs Stroupe arrived in 1983, “white flight” had left less than 100 on the church’s dwindling membership rolls. Since then, Oakhurst has undergone an extraordinary transformation, re-inventing itself as a growing community that welcomes everyone. The congregation has attracted national attention for its radically inclusive and egalitarian diversity, which extends beyond racial integration to class, gender, sexual orientation, and theological perspective. How have people from such dissimilar backgrounds come together to create a harmonious and thriving whole? In what biblical vision is it rooted and shaped? By what theological resources is it fed and sustained? The heart of the answer to these questions lies in the exceptional sermons of Nibs Stroupe.
Growing out of the experience of a multi-cultural congregation in which diversity is both valued and feared, these messages offer an uncompromising prophetic vision of the American church’s identity and mission. Stroupe firmly grounds a liberal social viewpoint within the biblical and theological traditions of the church, and he calls us to hear God’s claim on us in our place and in our time. Underlying his powerful sermons is the fundamental conviction that the barriers which separate us from our neighbors have been brought down in Jesus Christ. Where Once We Feared Enemies will be an indispensable addition to any pastor’s library. It is also inspiring and enlightening reading for anyone interested in the future of the American church, as well as its role in the continuing stories of race relations, civil rights, and peace and justice issues.
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More Alive Than Ever
$12.95Add to cartThe Gospel of John has a unique function – unlike the synoptic Gospels, which provide chronological accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry, John weaves the story and words of Jesus around seven miracles that he calls “signs.” These signs are the visible evidence that Jesus is the source of true life. Through his spoken words and healing power, Jesus’ inspiring life force flows outwardly to all who believe in him.
This in-depth exploration of the miracle stories in John’s Gospel helps you discover how to tap in to this powerful life force and become more alive than ever. Each chapter studies the scripture text of a miracle to identify the quality associated with it, then offers numerous illustrative examples demonstrating how this “sign” or trait can positively influence daily living.
With thought-provoking discussion questions included, More Alive Than Ever is an excellent resource for small group Bible study or adult Sunday school classes. Its convenient illustration index also makes this a rich source of meaningful metaphors and stories for preaching. But even more, it’s stimulating reading for anyone who wants greater insight into these marvelous accounts of God’s power at work.
Chapters include:
? Joy Is Like The Rain
John 2:1-12? Trust Is An Umbrella
John 4:46-54? Hope Can Be Moving
John 5:1-9? Bread Is Always Needed
John 6:1-14? Peace Is Like A Flowing River
John 6:16-21? Seeing Is Getting The Mud Out Of Your Eyes
John 9:1-41? New Life Is Like A Grain Of Wheat
John 11:1-44 -
Retelling The Story
$12.95Add to cartIs the typical didactic sermon still an adequate vehicle for communicating essential biblical truth? In this provocative and enlightening volume, Larry Lange contends that story sermons are a far more effective way to proclaim the Good News in a modern world that largely communicates through narrative-driven multimedia spectacle.
The powerful stories in the Bible don’t need to be turned into morals or ideas to convey the gospel. But because they were composed in a radically different cultural context, they may require additional explanation or interpretation to make them relevant for contemporary audiences. So how can a preacher add narrative elements to these stories without diminishing their dramatic impact or changing their meaning?
Retelling The Story outlines an innovative process for retelling biblical stories that utilizes fictional elements and contexts yet remains faithful to the scriptural text. Several creative and homiletical issues are comprehensively examined, and six sample sermons are included to illustrate various aspects of this process at work. Inject exciting new life into the old, old story with this primer for developing dramatic sermons that touch hearts and minds and souls.
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Silent Words Loudly Spoken
$12.95Add to cartLike a miniature billboard, the church sign offers an unparalleled opportunity to promote God’s kingdom beyond the walls of the congregation. Thousands of cars pass each day with potential readers of its content, so the church sign has the potential to be a powerful pulpit from which silent words are loudly spoken, communicating brief but significant messages of God’s love to a spiritually thirsty world.
Silent Words Loudly Spoken provides a wealth of fresh and inspiring messages that will maximize the impact of your church sign. With more than 700 uplifting, thought-provoking statements conveniently formatted to easily fit most church signs, it contains enough material to last several years. A humorous but pithy “Ten Commandments for a Good Church Sign” offers plenty of specific nuts-and-bolts advice for making the most of this powerful but sometimes overlooked ministry tool:
* Phrases should be short enough and letters large enough for effortless drive-by reading.
* Messages should be changed regularly, especially date-specific ones.
* “In-house” announcements better suited for the church bulletin should not be wasted on a disinterested public.
* Give the gift of a positive, inspirational message; negative statements turn off those the church wants to attract.
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Lions And Cows Dining Together
$22.95Add to cartStimulate your creativity with 112 imaginative “sermon starters” in this companion volume to Shaking Wolves Out Of Cherry Trees… Each idea consists of a clever title that’s sure to pique the interest of the people in the pews, along with a purpose statement and a brief discussion of the subject (including outline points and scripture references). Full of striking imagery, Lions And Cows Dining Together provides plenty of seeds for developing riveting, thought-provoking messages on a wide variety of critical topics. This homiletic “do-it-yourself” kit will be a treasured addition to any pastor’s library – combined with the material in its companion volume, there are over five years’ worth of pump-priming ideas for weekly sermons that apply Jesus’ teachings to contemporary living. But Lions And Cows Dining Together isn’t just for preachers – it’s also an excellent source of meditations for men’s, women’s, or youth groups as well as inspiring devotional reading.
Here’s a sample of some of the inventive entries:
* God Always Wins At Hide And Seek
* Worship Is More Than Just Staying Awake
* Can Pagan Objects Be Sanitized?
* You Can Learn To Like Spinach, Liver, And Theology
* Hell: But It’s A Dry Heat
* Will Reverend Tortoise Ever Catch Doctor Hare?
* Pearly Gates Entrance Exam
* Pilgrim Or Tourist? -
Studying Local Churches
$44.99Add to cartThis practical handbook – aimed at final year undergraduates, Masters-level students, student ministers, church leaders and policy makers interested in local faith communities – guides readers through the various tools, methods of analysis and research skills needed for studying local churches. This resource takes full account of the UK context and is an ideal basis for students undertaking research projects and dissertations. After an historical overview, the handbook identifies theoretical foundations for the study of local churches, drawing on the 4 disciplines of theology, anthropology, sociology and organisational studies. Guidance is provided on both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Research processes covered include such issues as selecting a church, gaining access, selecting methods, analysing data, maintaining confidentiality, research reflexivity, and completing the final report. There is also critical review of existing literature, as well as case studies and worked examples, demonstrating how key concepts from the 4 disciplines apply to actual local churches. The handbook contains a wide range of contributors with extensive theoretical and practical experience of studying local churches.
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Preaching As Pastoral Caring
$24.95Add to cartPreaching as Pastoral Caring is the thirteenth in a series of books devoted to presenting examples of preaching excellence from parishes throughout the Episcopal Church. This volume addresses the difficult and essential area of pastoral preaching as a kind of spiritual leadership in which compassionate healing and courageous confrontation are experienced not as polar opposites, but as inseparable.
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Help Im A Pastor
$30.00Add to cartRichard Armstrong and Kirk Morledge present this practical guide for pastoral ministry, offering counsel about a wide range of topics related to a pastor’s professional ministry and personal life. Topics include beginning a new ministry, balancing one’s personal life and ministry, wrestling with conflict, worrying about church finances, and preaching. This introduction to ministry can function as a textbook as well as an invaluable handbook or desk reference for pastors in the midst of congregational ministry.
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Homiletic Of All Believers
$32.00Add to cartPreaching, says professor and author O. Wesley Allen Jr., should be considered as a form of conversation. The church, after all, is a community of conversation that exists in part to interpret God’s purposes for the world and to participate in those purposes. The idea of the sermon as a conversation, then, is not simply a style or form of preaching but an integral expression of the nature and purpose of the church. Allen proposes that the sermon should take on the character of a conversation with the congregation. The preacher does this by incorporating an exploration of a text, doctrine, or situation with the give-and-take among different voices that marks genuine conversation. Through attentive listening to multiple voices in the Bible, Christian tradition, congregation, and beyond, the preacher seeks to help the congregation come to the most adequate interpretation of God’s presence and purposes. Allen also proposes that sermons themselves, over weeks and months, can and should be in conversation with each other, thereby having a cumulative effect over time. Allen not only proposes this new concept of preaching but also carefully demonstrates its practical application. This helpful book for clergy and seminary students includes sample sermons.
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Lament : Reclaiming Practices In Pulpit Pew And Public Square
$34.00Add to cartPart 1: Reclaiming Lament In Christian Prayer And Proclamation
Part 2: Loss And Lament, Human And Divine
Part 3: Reclaiming The Public Voice Of LamentAdditional Info
Lament, so prominent in the Christian canon, is neglected in the public worship and witness of most North American congregations. These essays by Princeton Theological Seminary faculty attest to the diverse ways in which lament is understood and practiced, and they invite their recovery in all elements of the church’s ministry. -
To Dream As God Dreams
$21.95Add to cartPorter Taylor, known for his wonderful preaching, always has something unusual and thoughtful to say. “Forgive us our weeds as we forgive the weediness of others,” he writes in one sermon on the parable of the wheat and the weeds. In another he reflects on why the book of Ecclesiastes shouldn’t be read by anyone who isn’t at least 35. “At their best,” Taylor writes, “sermons are about things that matter.” To Dream as God Dreams is about those things that matter: finding our home in a storm, the roots and wings we need as people of faith, contagious love, and more. These sermons about the importance of community, the need for conversion, and the power of hopefulness make wonderful devotional reading, and are an inspirational source for others who preach.
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Daughters Of Imani Bible Studies (Student/Study Guide)
$9.99Add to cartDaughters of Imani: Christian Rites of Passage for African American Young Women by Rev. Richelle White, the creator of a comprehensive mentoring program for African American girls ages 8-18 that ran for nine years at a prominent African American church. This Planning Guide will provide step-by-step guidelines for setting up a mentoring and rites of passage program for your church. The curriculum in the Planning Guide will help you bolster self-esteem; encourage peer, family, and community interactions; explore career development; and address topics that impact the survival of the 21st century African American female. Eight multiple-session Bible lessons that focus on life concerns and feature female biblical characters are also available in Daughters of Imani Bible Study for Young Women by Rev. Richelle White and Rev. Tamara Lewis. Additionally, Daughters of Imani: Celebration of Women by Rev. Tamara Lewis lifts up the lives and contributions of eighteen historical and contemporary women. This complete package will give you everything you need to build up the faith of your church’s young women!
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Awakened To A Calling
$13.99Add to cart“For anyone responding to a call to the ministry, this book will be an excellent guide.” –Jimmy Carter, Thirty-ninth President of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize Winner
The Fund for Theological Education (FTE) annually invites our nation’s premier preachers to address a group of young adults who are considering a vocation in pastoral ministry. As part of the FTE’s honoring of their outgoing president, Dr. James Waits, for his remarkable service, they have collected these superb sermons. These eight sermons on vocation offer an important resource for high school and college students making vocational decisions, for older adults considering vocational changes, and for all who teach and mentor in the area of vocational discernment and who help others sort out a commitment to professional ministry.
The purpose of the Ministry Conference, and the sermons delivered at the event, intersects well with Abingdon’s mission to help form pastors who will serve the church faithfully and effectively. The preachers are highly recognizable and respected individuals who will serve as trusted and wise guides for discerning a ministry vocation. They include Fred Craddock, Walter Brueggemann, Tom Long, Barbara Brown Taylor, and Brad Braxton.
The volume includes an annotated bibliography of publications on ministry as a vocation, and a foreword by Dr. James T. Laney, former Ambassador to South Korea, President of Emory University, and Dean of Candler School of Theology. He is currently a faculty member of Emory’s Center for Ethics. He chairs the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, is a trustee of the Henry Luce Foundation, and chairs (with Andrew Young) The Faith and The City Program in Atlanta.
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Questions You Cant Ask Mama Sex
$9.99Add to cartNot the birds and the bees, guys’ plumbing vs. girls’ plumbing, how-it-all-works talk. Let’s talk about sexuality; your sexuality and the sexuality of others. Let’s talk about what is and isn’t okay to look at, do, and think about.
Questions You Can’t Ask Your Mama About Sex is exactly that – questions too uncomfortable to talk about with your parents. This collection of discussions is drawn from real questions asked of the folks at XXXchurch.com. No topic is off limits – masturbation, pre-marital sex, technical virginity, pornography, homosexuality, sex toys, sex addiction.Not for the squeamish, these issues focus on the culture and commerce of sex to tell you what God has to say about keeping your clothes on. If you have questions about “doin’ it” that are burning a hole in the back of your head (or somewhere else on your body), look no further than this book.
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Narrative Pastoral Counseling
$14.99Add to cartThe unique contribution of this book is the practical approach to counseling through the use of the stories of counselees. It integrates the revolutionary techniques developed by pioneers in the field of narrative therapy and solution-focused counseling with a Christian perspective on counseling. The conversational style of writing helps the reader understand both the theory and practice of narrative counseling. The stories in the book paint word pictures of the process and effects of story-telling, story-listening, and storycreation in counseling. Special attention is given to the art of asking good, timely questions while hosting the stories of counselees in a manner that expands the bits and pieces and helps create hope for the future. Grief issues, faith conversations, and the importance of integrity in counseling are also addressed in this book.
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Mentoring
$18.99Add to cartAre you looking for a mentor? Do you want to become a mentor? Are you confused about exactly what mentoring is?
Walter Wright is a firm believer in relational leadership. In this book, he shares his experiences both as a mentor and a mentoree. He provides useful analogies and stories about a mentoring relationship and points out some potential pitfalls.
Choosing a mentor is an important decision, as is choosing to be a mentor. This book guides you through that choice, to forming a relationship and developing that relationship over the years. It shows you how the relationship can be mutually beneficial, with both mentor and mentoree growing in maturity and knowledge. Wright identifies some qualities that make a good mentor, what you should be looking for in a potential mentor, and what a mentor should be looking to develop in themselves.
Reflecting on the character, heart, and hope of relational leadership, this book is useful for anyone considering becoming a mentor, whether in a church environment or in a business environment. It identifies some key questions that a mentor should ask of their mentoree and guides you through developing the mentoring relationship.
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Gospel Driven Church
$29.99Add to cartCharismatic renewal has at the core of its ideology an aspiration for revival. This is a laudable aspiration, but in recent years, in the absence of a largescale evangelistic impact, it has encouraged a faddist mentality among church leaders.
The Gospel-Driven Church documents this development and the numerous theological and pastoral distortions that take place when genuine revival fervor transmutes into revivalism. Moreover, Stackhouse aims to show how a retrieval of some of the core practices of the church, such as preaching, sacraments, the laying on of hands, and prayer is essential at this crucial stage in the trajectory of the renewal movement in the United Kingdom. He commends to church leaders a recovery of these means of grace – including Spirit baptism – as a way of keeping the church centered on the gospel rather than mere pragmatic concerns about size and numbers.
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Career Defining Crises In Mission
$17.99Add to cart12 Chapters
Additional Info
Career-Defining Crises in Mission is written to help missionaries evaluate their ministry approaches and to pursue those that place relationships over programs. Each of the 12 chapters takes a well-known missiological principle and, instead of focusing on the theory behind it, uses Bible studies, illustrations, true stories, and practical suggestions to encourage missionaries to make decisions that cultivate relationships with people as they choose mission methods. -
Its All About The Children
$12.99Add to cartIt’s All About the Children is a book filled with Bible-based messages for children ages seven to eleven. This book also contains age-appropriate questions pertaining to the Word of God. The questions may be used in the form of Bible trivia with girls and boys on opposing teams, or simple question-and-answer type activities. There are also neat word searches pertaining to people, places, and things in the Bible. The decoding challenges are fun learning activities where children discover various scriptures from the Bible. A pause for poetry is included as well. This book is guaranteed to be a useful learning tool for teachers, parents, or anyone interested in sharing biblical teaching with children in a unique way.
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Living Between The Advents
$12.95Add to cartAs we prepare each year to celebrate the Incarnation, the Advent season reminds us that we live in an interim period between the First and Second Comings of Jesus Christ. In this book of twelve riveting sermons on a variety of Advent themes (all based on texts from Cycle B of the Revised Common Lectionary), Michael Ruffin explores the challenges of Christian living in this time between the First and Second Advents — particularly the tension between the modes of patience and action. Though we await Jesus’ return with hopeful anticipation, Advent waiting is active waiting. Ruffin’s messages invite readers to share in the richly rewarding life of faith, while providing abundant comfort and inspiration for those who endeavor to live as disciples of Jesus in the modern world.
Preachers looking for an imaginative illustration or observation to stimulate their sermons will find ample material in this book. But this is much more than just a reference for ministers preparing to preach during Advent — it’s also an excellent resource for spiritual reflections reminding us that the good news in these days between the Advents is that Jesus Christ is Immanuel, God with us.
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Partners In Healing
$12.95Add to cartHealing is a gift and not a right. The prayer of faith is powerful, but the most faithful prayer of power was that of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, on the eve of his great ordeal: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Anointing cannot guarantee healing. If it could it would border on magic, and would imply that we in some way control God’s actions. God is in control of history and healing. It is God who invites us to join into a community of prayer through the ordinance of anointing.
(excerpt from Partners In Healing)Though there are countless instances of anointing in the Bible, it is seldom practiced in many Christian traditions today. But this essential rite reminds us that God is the true source of restoration and healing — and that he is at work in all aspects of our lives. Anointing affirms and symbolizes our partnership with God, and it invites God to be part of the healing process for anyone who is sick physically, emotionally, or spiritually.
Partners In Healing is a complete guide with all the resources you need to revive this ancient practice as part of a comprehensive ministry of healing. In addition to exploring the biblical and historical background for anointing, you’ll find a wealth of practical, easy-to-use material. There’s an extensive range of services and prayers, as well as sermons you can use to introduce this ministry to congregations unfamiliar with it. Discussion questions and activities are also included, making this an excellent resource for small group study.
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Planting Seeds
$12.95Add to cartSeeing our thoughts and feelings acted out onstage can be a very powerful experience. Because we readily identify with the characters we watch — their hopes and dreams as well as their frustrations and failures — dramatic presentations hold up a mirror that lets us see things about ourselves we often overlook.
With this compelling anthology of 24 sketches, you can open the eyes of worshipers to God’s truth and grace while planting dynamic seeds of change. Each scene is about five minutes in length and serves not only as a potent visual illustration but also helps congregations receive and retain major themes presented in the sermon. Appropriate for any denomination and audience, these easy-to-stage pieces utilize small casts and can be performed in any setting with minimal costumes and a few simple props, making them accessible to church drama groups of all sizes. In addition to sermon starter sketches, there are dramas appropriate for women’s and men’s retreats plus several monologues.
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Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit Series 4 Cycle B
$15.95Add to cartJesus was a master storyteller, and his preaching was filled with parables because he knew his listeners would relate to them — and therefore connect with his message. Likewise, insightful and well-told stories are an essential element of the contemporary preacher’s toolbox; they are invariably what people remember long after the sermon is over. If you’re looking for a collection of fresh, imaginative, and inspirational stories that’s sure to help you create dynamic sermons, Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit is just the resource for you. Gregory Tolle sheds new light on Cycle B lectionary texts with modern parables that take you right to the heart of the scriptural witness. His thought-provoking reflections remind us that God’s grace is always present, especially in places and events we least expect to find it. Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit is a wonderful source for memorable preaching illustrations and “”sermon starters”” — and it’s also uplifting devotional reading that powerfully demonstrates how the Lord works in our daily lives.
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Building Sunday School By The Owners Design
$14.95Add to cartA strong Sunday school program is a key component of any flourishing church — and Building Sunday School By The Owner’s Design provides a comprehensive toolbox jam-packed with 100 ideas for improving every aspect of your religious education program. Building on the framework of his book Built By The Owner’s Design, Danny Von Kanel demonstrates how God’s Word offers a proven blueprint for effective outreach and growth — and he offers you a wide array of practical approaches for making Sunday school the vital centerpiece of a spiritually thriving ministry. Von Kanel discusses the strengths and shortcomings of both traditional and contemporary “church growth movement” approaches to Sunday school, then points out how following God’s design offers a better method for igniting exciting growth. Grounded in Von Kanel’s own experience in several growing ministries and a careful analysis of research in churches from a variety of denominations, these tools can be used by any congregation (most have little or no financial expense). Convenient “Tool Time” and “Tool Resource” sections offer specific steps for implementing these ideas in your church. Building Sunday School By The Owner’s Design is an essential resource for pastors, teachers, and other religious professionals — it offers everything you need to develop a life-changing Sunday school program that produces enthusiastic, deeply committed followers of Christ.
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Celebrating Holy Week In A Post Holocaust World
$28.00Add to cartAn ongoing issue for clergy as well as Christians in general is how to approach New Testament narratives about the crucifixion of Jesus in relation to Jews, Judaism, and the horrific events of the Holocaust. The popular movie “The Passion of the Christ” has brought one aspect of this problem into widespread public attention. The events of Holy Week pose particular challenges for clergy and congregations. In this book Henry Knight helps us deal with Holy Week texts in light of our post-Holocaust world and provides practical examples of prayers, liturgies, and resource material to help pastors prepare for and lead worship and teach during this important time in the life of a congregation.
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Small Group Strategies
$19.99Add to cartWith Small Group Strategies, you can effectively guide students in your small group toward the most important relationship they will ever have -a lifelong relationship with Christ. Respected authors Laurie Polich and Charley Scandlyn offer 30-plus years of collective youth ministry experience to these proven ideas, which offer: a strategic approach to small group ministry, hundreds of ideas to reach students at every level, and practical applications that foster spiritual growth. Meet your students where they are in life. You have the heart, you have the vision. Here are the ideas you need to make it happen.
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Living Together : A Guide To Counseling Unmarried Couples
$20.99Add to cartOffers a biblical perspective on the explosive and growing social phenomena of couples moving in together instead of marrying-a common trend even among Christian couples. Biblical, practical, and competent help for those who counsel and minister to unwed couples.
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Sermons On The Second Readings Series 2 Cycle B
$41.95Add to cartThe New Testament epistles are a marvelous guidebook full of practical wisdom on living the Christian faith. Providing much more than just a glimpse of the specific issues facing the early church, the pastoral letters contain a multitude of timeless lessons for contemporary spiritual pilgrims who seek to grow in their daily walk with the Lord. In this extensive anthology of outstanding sermons based on the Second Readings from Cycle B of the Revised Common Lectionary, five distinguished preachers from diverse denominations apply the epistles’ nourishing teachings to today’s complex challenges. With messages for every Sunday and major celebration throughout the entire church year, there’s a wealth of creative ideas and illustrations helpful for preaching, teaching, and meditation. These biblically grounded sermons shine the light of Christ on our often confusing world and proclaim the richness of God’s truth, offering readers comfort and hope while challenging them to a more intense faith relationship with the Almighty.
This essential resource is useful for:
? Fresh homiletical approaches to the lectionary texts
? Preaching illustrations
? Understanding scripture passages
? Adult study and discussion groups
? Personal devotions and Bible study -
Preaching The Parables Series 3 Cycle B
$18.95Add to cartesus used his parables to teach ordinary people with common problems; yet because these simple stories contain universal truths that transcend time and culture, they still strike a powerful chord and provide us with important lessons about God’s kingdom. Preaching The Parables offers a gold mine of informative background material on each of the seven parables appearing in Cycle B of the Revised Common Lectionary. Dallas Brauninger probes these familiar texts with a fresh, imaginative viewpoint, revealing what they tell us about God and inviting further reflection on what they mean for modern living.
Preaching The Parables is much more than just a sermon preparation resource — it’s also an excellent bible study tool, exploring questions like:
? What dimension of the soul that needs tending does the parable address?
? What is the parable’s surprise?
? What moves us into hope?
? How does its point become obvious?
? How do its characters relate to us today?
Brauninger identifies points of action, examines significant terms, and engages in imaginary exchanges with a variety of characters. The complete text of each parable is also included, along with an analysis highlighting similarities and differences in parallel passages. And there’s a convenient “word study” index for locating key concepts from parables in all three lectionary cycles.
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Preaching Parables To Postmoderns
$20.00Add to cartPreface
1.Postmodernity
The Nature Of Change
The Premodern And Modern Ages
The Postmodern Experiment
Characteristics Of Postmodernity
2.Parables: A Window Of Truth For Postmoderns
Definition Of Parable
Relationship Of Jesus’ Parables To The Hebrew Tradition
The Purpose Of The Parable
Characteristics Of The Parables Of Jesus
Interpreting The Parables For Preaching
Steps In Developing The Homiletical Text
Preaching Parables To A Postmodern Age
3.A Study Of Parables For Sermon Preparation
Parable One: The Sower (Matthew 13:1-23)
Parable Two: The Unforgiving Servant (Matthew 18:21-35)
Parable Three: Laborers In The Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16)
Parable Four: Talents (Matthew 25:14-30)
Parable Five: The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)
Parable Six: The Friend At Midnight (Luke 11:1-13)
Parable Seven: The Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-14)
Parable Eight: The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:1-32)
Parable Nine: The Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1-8)
Parable Ten: The Pharisee And The Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14)
Conclusion
4.Four Sermons
Sermon One: The Unforgiving Servant (Matthew 18:21-35)
Sermon Two: Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) Sermon Three: The Good Samritan (Luke 10:25-37)
Sermon Four: The Prodigal Son (Luke 15-11-32)Notes
Bibliography
IndexAdditional Info
Stiller argues that Jesus’ parables, through their narrative, personal, and oral dimensions and reversal of expectations, provide unique access to Christianity for those whose experience and hopes we label “postmodern.”Aligning contemporary scholarship with today’s cultural assumptions, Stiller offers preachers a working knowledge of postmodern sensibilities, an understanding of the parable genre, an analysis of ten parables, and a sample of how one might preach them effectively.
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Pause Before The Pulpit Cycle B
$23.95Add to cartToday’s busy pastors must cope with a diverse range of physically and emotionally draining tasks. Yet as they balance the many competing demands on their time, the essential element for maintaining a vital and successful ministry is carving out time for their own spiritual regeneration. Before pastors can effectively proclaim the Good News to the people in the pews, they must attend to their ongoing relationship with the God whom they serve.
Based on each Sunday’s epistle and gospel texts from Cycle B of the Revised Common Lectionary, this collection of prayerful reflections specifically addresses the spiritual needs of the clergy. Rather than a primer on how to preach the text, these devotions explore what the scripture passages have to say about the personal lives of pastors and their public ministry. It’s an ideal resource to begin weekly sermon preparation with, as each thoughtful contemplation prepares the heart for faithful preaching of God’s Word. But Pause Before The Pulpit isn’t just for pastors — these devotions will also strengthen and spiritually encourage anyone actively involved in lay ministry.
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Lectionary Preaching Workbook Series 8 Cycle B
$49.95Add to cartThe challenge of creating a fresh, incisive sermon every Sunday can sometimes seem overwhelming — but if you have the all-new edition of CSS’ acclaimed Lectionary Preaching Workbook at your fingertips, you’ll never feel that way again! With penetrating reflections on Cycle B lectionary passages and a thorough discussion of preaching themes plus a treasure trove of supporting illustrations, this comprehensive volume is the perfect starting point for your weekly homiletic research. Carlos Wilton combines a scholar’s deep insight into the biblical texts with a pastor’s practical understanding of how to make them come alive for the people in your pews, and his astute commentary is sure to stimulate your thought process and provide plenty of seeds for developing messages with maximum impact. A handy, easy-to-use sermon planning template is also included to facilitate the process of building your sermon. The Lectionary Preaching Workbook is an indispensable tool that helps you to powerfully proclaim God’s Word while getting the most out of your limited preparation time.
Each Sunday’s material includes:
? a listing of applicable Revised Common, Roman Catholic, and Episcopal lectionary texts
? a theme for the day
? commentary on the Old Testament, New Testament, and Gospel lessons
? possible preaching approaches
? a pastoral prayer
? numerous illustrations to flesh out the message
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Hey Joseph
$12.95Add to cartCreate stimulating, family-oriented Lenten worship that captivates the imagination with this engaging “dramily” series. Six humorous sketches, interwoven with brief homilies highlighting key points, update the familiar Old Testament story of Joseph and his brothers for contemporary audiences ? providing an instructive and entertaining resource for midweek programs. Additional messages and dramas for Holy Week and Easter Sunday shift the focus to Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection.
By touching on such universal experiences as family squabbles, sibling rivalry, parental favoritism, jealousy, hatred, false accusations, reconciliation, trust, and healing, Hey Joseph! is certain to resonate with the people in the pews. It offers pastors, worship leaders, and drama groups a thematically unified total package that’s flexible and easy to adapt for any size church. A complete list of simple props is included, along with helpful illustrations for constructing “Joseph’s Granary,” which may be stocked with food donations for local pantries. -
Church Safety And Security
$14.95Add to cart(with John M. Edie, Dennis K. Lewis, Edward L. Spain & Donna M. Washburn)
The church has always been regarded as a safe haven – a spiritual sanctuary where people can come to worship God free from worries about violence or unethical behavior by those involved in church ministry. But our culture is changing, and church leaders can no longer assume that “it won’t happen in my church.” Like the rest of society, churches need to ensure the safety and security of their facility, staff, and worshipers.
This book provides a wealth of practical information on preparing for and responding to the challenges of a dangerous world. Robert Cirtin draws on more than two decades of law enforcement and investigative experience, and with his team of professionals outlines a “how-to” approach full of specific proactive steps churches can take to protect themselves and reduce the risk of costly lawsuits. Church Safety And Security is a must-have resource for anyone participating in or preparing for church leadership.
Topics covered include:
? Utilizing background screening to protect your congregation
? Safety and security issues for church-run preschool and day care programs
? Preparing for and responding to medical emergencies
? How to deal with issues pertaining to child abuse
? Legally mandated responsibilities of church staff members
? How to utilize security/surveillance cameras in the church facility
? Organizing a church security officer program
? Effectively coping with intruders
? Responding to violent acts when they occur
? How to conduct a thorough investigation -
More Would You Rather
$19.99Add to cartYou loved Would You Rather…? and asked for more. In the tradition of the Quick Questions line, this book offers another 465 provocative questions that will get your students laughing, debating, and thinking (and they’ll learn a ton about each other in the process). It’s amazing what can happen when you ask a silly question. Most of the time, a student’s answer has a story behind it. Explore the answers as you learn about students’ values, fears, and faith. And the book’s convenient size makes it easy to stick in your pocket, your backpack, or you car’s glove compartment. Whether you’re a veteran youth worker or new to the field, a paid professional or a volunteer, you’ll find this book an indispensable part of your ministry resource library.
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Guarding The Local Church
$14.99Add to cartWe are living in a day and age when the church is under attack. Dick Iverson speaks to us from his own experience about the dangers that face overseers of the church. He shares stories from his own life, and chronicles some of the failures and successes of his early years of ministry. He also details how to discern between ministers who truly love the church and those who are ministering for their own gain.
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Can We Do That
$14.99Add to cartAndy Stanley and Ed Young–two of America’s most innovative church leaders–put their minds and hearts together to deliver one of the most dynamic tools for ministry this year. In this book you will find twenty-four exciting practices to help your church communicate Christ to the world–without compromising who and what God has called you to be. In this practical book you’ll learn things like how to partner with current church attenders to reach the unchurched, how to create a place where kids can take their parents to learn, how to provide real community through small groups, and much more.
Not only will this book tell you what has worked in North Point Community and Fellowship Church, but will inspire you to identify and create the best practices for your own ministry as you reach out to those in your community and church who are searching for solid answers to the most important questions of life. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. -
Do They Run When They See You Coming
$22.99Add to cartAcknowledgements
Foreword By Chap Clark
Chapter 1: Youth Ministry In One Word
Chapter 2: I Thought I Already Had Compassion
Looking At “the Unchurched” Through Diff Erent Eyes
Chapter 3: In The Minds Of Unchurched Students
Why They Think What They Think
Chapter 4: A Rude Awakening
How I Fi Nally Realized That “sharing My Faith” Starts With MY Faith
Chapter 5: Do They Run When They See You Coming?
How To NEVER Reach Students
Chapter 6: Reaching…Not Repelling
Developing A Relational Approach
Chapter 7: Finding Frames
Communicating In A Language They Understand
Chapter 8: Building Bridges
Moving Beyond Everyday Conversations To Sharing The Gospel
Chapter 9: Door-Opening Questions
Nothing Sparks Interest Better Than Well-placed Questions
Chapter 10: Focus On Christ (It’s More Than A Tract)
Sharing Jesus’ Story Simply, Clearly, And Memorably
Chapter 11: The Key To Follow-Up
Getting Them Plugged In
Chapter 12: Outreach In Action: What It Looks Like
Additional Info
Reaching Out to Unchurched TeenagersFive facts about the unchurched:1. They believe all religions have value.2. They are spiritual, not religious.3. They don’t know what Christianity really is.4. They don’t know what they believe.5. They are looking for something that works.If you want to make an impact on this generation, these are five basic rules you must understand. Author Jonathan McKee writes that by taking the time to learn students’ unique situations you show you care about them as people, not as mission projects.Informative and full of real-life examples, Do They Run When They See You Coming? provides vital information you need to better understand students outside your youth group. Yet this book isn’t a sociological or marketing survey; the tangible guidelines and methods inside help you get into the mind of unchurched students–so you can get to know their hearts. Because, as every youth worker knows, real ministry is always about getting to the heart. -
Fitting End : Making The Most Of A Funeral
$24.99Add to cartThis very practical resource offers a well-informed guide to an aspect of ministry that every single priest or minister will encounter. It is one of the most difficult tasks, yet many embark on it with very little theological or practical training. They will encounter a wide range of beliefs about death and the afterlife in today’s secular society, such as can be seen in the death notices of local newspapers – grandma goes to sleep, is reunited with grandpa, becomes an angel or a star in heaven. They need a resource that equips them to deal sensitively and wisely with the variety of demands that will be made of them in the planning and conduct of funerals and in helping the bereaved to understand that resurrection is God’s response to death’s terrible finality.
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Preaching Paul
$23.99Add to cartHelpful and insightful strategies for preaching from the writings of Paul.
Few biblical figures are more compelling to preachers than the apostle Paul. The story of his dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus is a favorite example of the way that God turns lives around. His writings contain the earliest witness we have to the Christian gospel. His message of God’s offer of grace in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is deeply appealing. So why is it that when it comes time to choose a text for this Sunday’s sermon, preachers so often choose something other than Paul? When Brad Braxton asked himself that question, he realized that preachers are often daunted by the size and complexity of the Pauline corpus.
Drawing on his expertise as a New Testament scholar and homiletics professor, as well as on his experience as a pastor, Braxton offers the reader tools with which to wrestle more effectively with the complex, yet essential, message of Paul. Eschewing either a solely historical approach or a completely spiritual one, the author brings the two together to explore the meaning of Paul’s message in its original context, as well as its contemporary application. Written with imagination and depth of understanding, this book is for anyone who wishes to know Paul better and to preach from his letters more effectively.
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More Profound Alleluia
$23.99Add to cartTwo questions lie at the heart of this rich, suggestive book: What are the theological implications of worship? and What are the liturgical implications of theology? Convinced that worship and theology are integrally related, the authors of A More Profound Alleluia show in practical terms how liturgy and doctrine fruitfully illuminate each other.
Each chapter pairs an element of the worship service with related Christian teachings, clearly demonstrating how the great doctrines of the faith find their natural expression in the drama of worship and how the liturgy in turn finds its corollary in doctrine. The interrelation of theology and worship is illustrated with anecdotes from congregational life, resources drawn from church history, and themes from novels and films. Each chapter also includes two hymn texts that exemplify orthodox doctrine communicated through song.
A More Profound Alleluia will be a valuable text for courses in theology or worship, will help worship leaders to plan services with greater theological depth, and will enhance worship for Christian believers generally.
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Becoming A Healthier Pastor
$24.00Add to cartIn this sequel to Creating a Healthier Church, Richardson employs the same methodology to address the roots of personal issues that may hinder pastors’ ability to function effectively as leaders within their congregations, and may in fact cause them deep difficulties. He especially addresses pastors’ own families of origin, a major but often hidden component in how they function emotionally in their congregations. When anxiety arises, unresolved familial issues and old family patterns return, often unhelpfully. Richardson explores these patterns, how they operate in church situations, and how pastors can do their own family-of-origin assessment. His volume will become a standard tool for analysis of patterns in ministerial behavior and developing strong personal effectiveness.
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Church Conflict : From Contention To Collaboration
$22.99Add to cartYou love your work. You love the people–most of the time. They respect you, most of the time. You work together with colleagues, staff, and laity, with energy and enthusiasm, most of the time. But then something goes wrong: a word spoken in anger, a misunderstanding, and things turn sour. What do you do? How do you deal with conflict, whether it be long or short-term, low or high intensity?
Conflict is a part of the human predicament, yet it need not define or control your ministry. This book is designed to help the reader ask certain key questions about the nature and scope of the conflict they are experiencing and, based on the answers to those questions, move beyond conflict. The author lays out the variety of responses to conflict, running the gamut from avoidance to accommodation to compromise to collaboration.
Written with the real needs of congregations in mind, this book will serve as a reliable guide to all who wish to move through conflict into a more effective and authentic fulfillment of their calling.
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101 Things Every Pastor Should Know
$17.99Add to cartIt’s one thing to pastor, but quite another thing to know how to pastor effectively! In addressing this issue, 101 Things Every Pastor Should Know yields a wealth of ideas and practical application gleaned from the author’s fifty years of ministry experience. Practically every question a pastor could ask is discussed-from how to prepare sermons to how to deal with offenses to how to avoid burnout. Relevant, timely, and practical, this little book will instill confidence that you can fulfill the call of God on your life to take care of His sheep. The lessons extracted will not only make you a better pastor but will also encourage you to share with other pastors the “101 things every pastor should know.”
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Siblings By Choice
$34.99Add to cartHow is it possible for women, men, and children from different cultural and spiritual backgrounds to come together and struggle against common forms of oppression? How can we create relationships and make connections as teachers and practitioners of pastoral care and counseling while we acknowledge and find value in differences? Archie Smith Jr. and Ursula Riedel-Pfaefflin turn to Mark 3:33, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” and Mark 3:35, “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother,” to propose a vision for living creatively within the realities of an intercultural world.
Exploring the historical, social, political, economic, and ecological dynamics that shape who we are and how we relate to one another, Smith and Riedel-Pfaefflin uncover the many layers and complexities of race, gender, class, and violence that make change difficult to achieve and sustain, and discuss the significance of an intercultural sibling metaphor for the teaching and training of pastoral care and counseling. They incorporate art, myth, history, social sciences, and scripture to demonstrate how the concepts of intercultural realities, systemic thinking, and narrative agency help us to understand historical processes that still have an influence on today’s problems of violence between cultures, races, gender, and religions. Smith and Riedel-Pfaefflin offer their own life experiences, enlightenment from theological giants, teaching tools, group exercises, and case studies to build more culturally competent counseling and teaching and to enhance personal and social transformation. -
Comunion Y Comunidad Introducc – (Spanish)
$22.99Add to cart“La vida en comunidad es lo mas esencial de la espiritualidad cristiana, y es la esencia misma del reino de Dios… La espiritualidad cristiana consiste en un nuevo modo de relacionarnos en amor, pues es precisamente esto lo que claramente distingue a la comunidad creyente de cualquier otra comunidad humana”. Al definir asi la espiritualidad cristiana, el Dr. Cassese derriba el obsoleto paradigma que intentaba buscar la perfecta relacion con Dios a traves del aislamiento, de la pura relacion personal e individual con Dios. En particular porque en realidad es en la comunidad donde la espiritualidad se realiza, se prueba, se evalua, crece y se perfecciona. Este libro, por lo tanto, nos ayudara a comprender y vivir la espiritualidad desde la vida cotidiana en comunidad, desde la inter-relacion e inter-accion con nuestros hermanos y hermanas, desde la inmersion profunda en la vida misma.
ENDOSO AL LIBRO COMUNION Y COMUNIDAD
Por Roberto Amparo Rivera, PhD
La iglesia como institucion tradicionalmente ha reflejado en la practica las tendencias y valores de la sociedad en que se desenvuelven. Por eso no es de maravillarse encontrar hoy dia creyentes individualistas y congregaciones que son mas grupos de individuos que comunidades integradas. A pesar de que el amor de Dios, que supuestamente distingue la comunidad, “no busca lo suyo”, los miembros de estas iglesias se preocupan mas de sus propios intereses que del bienestar comunitario. En este estado de cosas, el libro Comunion y comunidad, de Giacomo Cassese, es un grito de alerta y una invitacion a recobrar el sentido comunitario de la fe cristiana.
Hay una opinion generalizada de que la cultura occidental es cada vez mas espiritualista. En este contexto, la espiritualidad se mide en terminos de practicas esotericas de meditacion, ayuno, contemplacion de la naturaleza y lecturas de documentos misteriosos de religiones orientales. La contraparte cristiana percibe la espritualidad solo en su dimension vertical; “el alma en relacion con Dios”, mientras que el resto de la vida no hace ninguna aplicacion a las relaciones diarias con los semejantes.
En marcado contraste, Cassese define espiritualidad como un estilo de relacionarse y de vivir en comunidad. Para los cristianos, afirma el autor, espiritualidad conlleva vivir la vida en su plenitud y con proposito. Solo en la comunion con Cristo nos entendemos como personas de comunidad. Y es a partir de la persona de Crist
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Whats A Pastor To Do
$9.99Add to cartIt’s been said that pastors should be on the “endangered species” list.
As a pastor, you expected a life of sacrifice when you obeyed your call. But did you expect that staying mentally, physically, and spiritually healthy would ve such a challenge?
Ministry mixes the joy of serving with the frustration of leading.
In What’s a Pastor to Do?: The Good and Difficult Work of Ministry, Jeren Rowell addresses both the enjoyable and the disagreeable aspects of pasturing. Sections such as Pastoral Identity, Pastoral Health, and the Pastor as Priest will inspire you to renew your commitment and offer you spiritual refreshment and comfort.
The short chapters are perfect for daily devotions that uplift and instruct as you go about the good and difficult work of ministry.
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Leadership From The Heart Participant Workbook (Student/Study Guide)
$13.99Add to cartA 10-session small-group program that explores gifts and skills needed to be a leader in the church community. Each class session is built around head, heart, and hands – background content, group sharing, and action steps. Issues include: servant leadership, spiritual disciplines, maturity, spiritual gifts, calling, God’s purpose for one’s life, transformation of individuals and community, team building, and team leading. Sessions are designed for 90 minutes, but are adaptable.
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Peter And The Children
$17.95Add to cartEffectively communicating with young people is vitally important — we are constantly challenged to share the story of God’s love in a way that really connects with them. Using puppets is an increasingly popular method for establishing a rapport with children and capturing their attention. Puppets are much more than just another gimmick — because children (and adults, too!) carefully listen to and absorb the messages presented, they can be a very useful teaching tool.
If you are interested in trying this captivating approach in your congregation, then Peter And The Children is just the resource for you. H. Burnham Kirkland has created 66 short pieces perfect for “children’s time” in worship services or Sunday school classrooms. Employing witty dialogue between a presenter and a hand-held puppet named Peter, the frequently humorous and always instructive scenes can be used as written or to help generate ideas for your own presentations. Kirkland writes in a direct style that’s easy for young people to understand, and makes the Christian faith relevant to their lives.
Some of the presentations include:
* Will Roast Pig Bring Us Luck?
* A Direct Line To Jesus
* I’m Allergic To That Word “School”
* Weather Or Not
* How Do You Catch The Christmas Spirit? -
Many Servants : An Introduction To Deacons (Revised)
$17.95Add to cartIn this newly updated and revised introduction to the permanent diaconate, Plater includes a history of deacons in the early church, a survey of deacons from the Reformation to the present, stories of modern diaconal ministries, including first-hand accounts, and a discussion of the formation, training, and deployment of deacons. A basic, essential text for discernment committees and commissions on ministry, and a comprehensive look at a vital ministry in the church today.
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My Way Or Thy Way
$12.95Add to cartEver overhear a pre-teen or early teen conversation? It can be pretty dramatic — in fact, young people and drama go together like … God and the Bible! If you’re looking for quality material that draws middle school/junior high age young people into the scriptures, here’s an invaluable resource. My Way Or Thy Way is a collection of 12 brief plays that bring familiar Bible stories to life in contemporary conversation that’s easy to understand.
By focusing on the choices made by the main characters — and their consequences — the scenes help young people make better choices in their own lives. “I want to do it my way, not thy way” was the struggle of these biblical personages, and many of us face similar issues today. Each skit lets participants “walk in the sandals” of ordinary people who faced extraordinary choices.
Designed for versatility, these scenes can be given full dramatic performances with props, scenery, and costumes, or presented in readers’ theater format for use as dynamic classroom discussion starters. Each drama is accompanied by questions and a variety of related activities. My Way Or Thy Way is an excellent supplement to a Sunday school, Bible school, or Bible study curriculum, and is especially useful for youth groups.
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Beginning Again : Benedictine Wisdom For Living With Illness
$21.95Add to cartA practical resource for those who know little about St. Benedict and his Rule of Life, with exercises to help readers discover how to live with God at the center of their lives and illnesses. Useful for those living with illness, and for the clergy, counselors, and spiritual directors who care for them.
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Seeds Of Heaven
$22.00Add to cartThis wonderful collection of sermons by renowned preacher, author, and speaker Barbara Brown Taylor is based on the Gospel of Matthew. Each of the fifteen sermons, three of them appearing here for the first time in print, is based on a reading from Matthew, including Exceeding Righteousness (Matthew 5:17-20), The Problem with Miracles (14:13-21), Family Fights (18:15-20), Once More from the Heart (18:21-35), Beginning at the End (20:1-16), and On the Clouds of Heaven (24:29-44).
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Without A Net
$16.95Add to cartDoes the idea of speaking without a manuscript in the pulpit make you feel like a trapeze artist trying to negotiate a high wire without a net? There you are, balancing delicately in the stratosphere and holding on for dear life with nothing but you and your ballet shoes, wondering “Why, oh why, didn’t I bring even a sliver of paper up here to catch me when I fall?”
For many pastors, preaching without notes is a terrifying prospect — yet reading verbatim from a manuscript prevents a sermon from being natural and spontaneous. This book shows how you can learn to preach freely without needing the net of written reminders, while still retaining full control over your material. It presents a concise and workable method for creating memorable sermons that connect with listeners. By focusing on delivery, Shepherd casts the entire sermon preparation process, including both study and composition, in a completely new light. Using this approach will make it easy to preach sermons without notes, because they were meant to be preached in the paperless pulpit.
Featuring a user-friendly design, Without A Net is a convenient, instructive text for both beginning and experienced preachers. In addition to a complete system for constructing and delivering a sermon from start to finish, there’s a brief outline of the entire process that allows you to quickly locate more details on specific topics. A concise “nutshell” summarizes each chapter’s highlights, and there are plenty of pithy “hints and tips” to help you with the essential steps. Several sample sermons are also included so you can see how this approach actually works.
Preaching without a net may seem like magic to congregations. But there’s no real secret; the answer is right here in this book. With a little practice, one day they’ll be asking you too, “How do you do that?”
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Sermons On The First Readings Series 1 Cycle A
$36.95Add to cartBring the Old Testament to life with this inspiring and thought-provoking collection of sermons for each Sunday and major celebration in the Church year. Based on the First Readings from Cycle A of the Revised Common Lectionary, these powerful messages by five exceptional preachers from diverse denominations explore the meaning of the Hebrew scriptures for today’s Christian living. Abundant insights into vital current issues are woven together with powerful proclamation of timeless themes of justice and righteousness — and these imaginative homilies are full of compelling examples of how a loving God uses us to further his divine plan.
This essential resource is useful for:
* Fresh homiletical approaches to the lectionary texts
* Preaching illustrations
* Understanding scripture passages
* Adult study and discussion groups
* Personal devotions and Bible study -
Big Influence Of Small Things
$21.95Add to cartAnyone who has done children’s sermons will sooner or later hear from someone that “I learn more from the children’s sermon than I do from the real sermon.” And indeed, the truths of scripture are so simple that even a child can understand them. So it’s no accident that children’s sermons have become a central part of the worship service in many churches.
Brett Blair and Tim Carpenter offer a year’s worth of object lessons that engage children and impart profound lessons for all ages. Two sermons are provided for each Sunday in Cycle A of the Revised Common Lectionary, one based on the Second Lesson and one based on the Gospel. The messages are structured in two parts: the “lesson” uses an object to draw out active responses from children, then the “application” connects that object to the assigned scripture reading. Each message includes a clear statement of its exegetical aim.
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Transform Your Church With Ministry Teams
$23.99Add to cartThe concept of “ministry teams” is rapidly taking hold in churches, but what are they and how do they work? This book outlines what effective ministry teams look like, describes what they have to offer local congregations, and gives concrete advice for making them happen. According to Stanley Ott, the power of ministry teams lies in their unique capacity to generate genuine Christian fellowship, grow disciples, develop leaders, and mobilize people for ministry. Where traditional church leadership organizations concentrate almost exclusively on task, policy, and program, ministry teams are designed to enhance faith development and, therefore, ministry effectiveness. Transform Your Church with Ministry Teams offers clear guidance for building the leadership of a mission or church into a true ministry team. The book enables readers to form ministry teams and, through them, to transform the life of their church or Christian organization.
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Reconstructing Pastoral Theology
$42.00Add to cartIn Pastoral Care in the Classical Tradition, Andrew Purves argued that pastoral care and theology has long ignored Scripture and Christian doctrine, and pastoral practice has become secularized in both method and goal, the fiefdom of psychology and the social sciences. He builds further on this idea here, presenting a christological basis for ministry and pastoral theology.
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This Way To Youth Ministry Companion Guide
$24.99Add to cart“Duffy Robbins’s book This Way to Youth Ministry is a foundational Introduction to youth ministry. This companion text, Embarking on the Grace Adventure, is filled with supplemental material, primarily case studies, but other resources as well. It is written by Dr Leonard Kageler, professor at Nyack College in New York, with Duffy Robbins. This companion booklet gives Robbins’s main book “legs’ and is a resource that professors and students can use to implement concepts and applications. It will assist youth ministry professors in teaching from the Robbins text and to help students engage with the text’s contents in ways that are experiential, participatory, image based, and connective. Many youth ministry professors lack contemporary and relevant youth ministry illustrations. Many have not been youth workers themselves, or, in some cases, are decades past in-the-trenches experience. Embarking on the Grace Adventure is a vital resource for educators who don’t have the time or opportunity to be practicing youth workers. Embarking on the Grace Adventure supplies case studies, discussion questions, simulations, websites, applications, relational activities and “homework assignments” in order to facilitate student involvement and engagement. At the end of every chapter, several options for processing the material are offered–a modular, user-friendly menu of choices for the instructor. The best use of Embarking on the Grace Adventure will be every student to have, and use, his/her own copies, and therefore the design includes spaces in the text to note their own responses for later sharing in class, to take note of instructors’ points, and to process discussion items. Embarking on the Grace Adventure includes a preface by Duffy Robbins; an Introduction by Len Kageler including a word to professors about how to use the book and to students about maximizing their use of it; and 10-12 pages of material for each of the 12 chapters in the Robbins text. And in each instance 8-10 pages of case studies/short examples, and 2-4 pages of discussion questions, activities, simulations, reflection exercises, etc. Embarking on the Grace Adventure “closees the circle” and form a perfect companion-piece for the foundational This Way to Youth Ministry. “
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Practicing Congregation : Imagining A New Old Church
$29.00Add to cartDiana Butler Bass’ groundbreaking project to explore encouraging signs of vitality among mainline Protestant churches is now gaining the momentum of a movement. The author’s cover story in Sojourners magazine offers a compelling overview of what characterizes these healthy, vital, and inspiring congregations. The Practicing Congregation is a central text on the road to envisioning a new way of being a church. From Nomads to Pilgrims, its follow-up companion book, contains reflections on practices by the pastors of some of the vibrant congregations that were studied in the writing of The Practicing Congregation.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The conventional wisdom about mainline Protestantism maintains that it is a dying tradition, irrelevant to a postmodern society, unresponsive to change, and increasingly disconnected from its core faith tenets. In her provocative new book, historian and researcher Diana Butler Bass argues that there are signs that mainline Protestant churches are indeed changing, finding a new vitality intentionally grounded in Christian practices and laying the groundwork for a new type of congregation.
The Practicing Congregation tracks these changes by looking at the overall history of American congregations, noting the cultural trends that have sparked change, and providing evidence of how mainline churches are reappropriating traditional Christian practices. The signs of life that Butler Bass identifies lead the reader beyond the crumbling “liberal vs. conservative” dualities to a more nuanced and fluid understanding of the shape of contemporary ecclesiology and faithfulness. In so doing, she helps readers understand tradition in new ways and creates an alternative path through the culture wars that today arrest the energies of most denominations.
Invigorated by stories from Bass’s own experience, The Practicing Congregation provides a hopeful and exciting vision of “the once and future church” that Alban founder Loren Mead first named over 10 years ago. The imaginative “retraditioning” the author identifies and celebrates will guide pastors and other leaders on this “pilgrimage of creating church,” and convincingly counter the naysayers that long ago gave up on the viability of the mainline church.
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Playing With Fire
$16.95Add to cartThe discipline of homiletics can be undertaken via many approaches. In Playing with Fire, David J. Schlafer offers an invitation to the art of preaching by way of metaphor. Metaphors are perhaps the best teaching techniques at our disposal, and two–fire and play–dance together across the pages of this book. Fire is multisensory and mysterious, life nurturing and life threatening, and the history of preaching is a story of sacred fire sharing. How can those called to proclaim the Gospel tend and transmit this fire? Perhaps by playing with it, by participating in God’s own sacred play.
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Informed By Faith
$15.95Add to cartAll of us educate, teach, and form others; as Christians, the place in which this formation takes place is our community. Every waking moment offers opportunities for education, and the home especially is a place for ongoing Christian formation. At home, we equip the family to know that God is a mystery and a God of life and love, and our families can be much-needed examples of how best to struggle with what it means to know God in everyday life experiences of love, suffering, and death.
In Informed by Faith, Mark Francisco Bozzuti-Jones creates a dialogue between religious educators and parents that is designed to lead to meditation, prayer, reflection, and a new perspective on the ministry of teaching. Through examination of the history of education, education as life, and the meaning of being a Christian, Bozzuti-Jones offers those who teach a sense of refreshment in soul, mind, and body, leading to a new commitment to teaching and proclaiming God’s life and love.
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Hidden Lives Of Congregations
$30.00Add to cartFaced with crisis, lack of direction, or just plain “stuckness,” many congregations and their leaders are content to deal only with surface issues and symptoms-only to discover that the same problems keep recurring, often in different, and more serious, ways. In The Hidden Lives of Congregations, Christian educator and consultant Israel Galindo takes leaders below the surface of congregational life to provide a comprehensive, holistic look at the corporate nature of church relationships and the invisible dynamics at play.
Informed by family systems theory and grounded in a wide-ranging ecclesiological understanding, Galindo unpacks clearly the factors of congregational lifespan, size, spirituality, and identity and shows how these work together to form the congregation’s hidden life. He provides useful tools for diagnosing and understanding how one’s congregation fits into the various categories he names and suggests what leadership skills are necessary to get beyond the impasse of surface issues and help the congregation achieve its mission.
The Hidden Lives of Congregations provides one of the most far-reaching looks into the invisible nature of faith communities written in recent years. For seminaries and divinity schools, it provides a standard text for getting a solid start in congregational practices; for experienced pastors, it provides support for renewing ministry; for lay leaders and committees, it offers insight to deepening mutual ministry. Israel Galindo has written an indispensable manual that leaders will return to repeatedly for new wisdom and guidance on the unseen mechanisms that drive congregational life.
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Becoming Barnabas : The Ministry Of Encouragement
$28.00Add to cartWestern culture has made a cult of success, and the church has accepted the larger culture’s definition, focusing on success as growth in membership and budget, rather growth in faithfulness as disciples of Jesus. When we do not measure up, we become discouraged, disillusioned, and perhaps even envious.
Paul Moots offers a welcome antidote: a vision for the ministry of encouragement. Based on his study of the book of Acts, Moots has identified five incidents from the ministry of Barnabas, an easily overlooked character, that provide a starting point to explore encouragement and how it can work in a congregation. Moots then examines five components of this ministry: partnership, hospitality, courage, reconciliation, and authenticity.
Moots details numerous examples to show how the ministry of encouragement offers a workable, effective pattern for church leadership. “I am convinced,” he writes, “that accepting Barnabas as my model has changed my ministry for the better and that Barnabas’s example can benefit any pastor and congregation who take his lessons seriously.”
Barnabas and his ministry of encouragement offer us a focus for the vital, messy, and exhilarating work required of us as faith communities. Foreword by Robert Reber
“At last! Here is a leadership book that provides practical help for congregations of every size and setting and pastors with a variety of gifts. Drawing from his own experience as a pastor, Moots shares a model of faithful ministry that is within the reach of every pastor, layperson, and congregation.”-Rueben P. Job
“In an age when so many pastors and leaders are discouraged, no work of the Spirit is more needed or more welcome than encouragement. Moots’s book moves beyond diagnosis and actually shows readers how to ‘become Barnabas’ in ministries of partnership, hospitality, courage, and reconciliation.”-Donna Duensing
Paul Moots has served as pastor in a variety of settings in his 22 years of ministry: associate pastor, campus ministry, pastor of an urban congregation, and his current position in the village church of First United Methodist in Mount Sterling, Ohio.
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When Better Isnt Enough
$28.00Add to cartMany sociologists and a growing number of church scholars have noted that we live in a time of transition-from the modern era to the postmodern. Whenever a shift of this magnitude occurs, it leaves all of life, including the church, in flux. We instinctively strive to stabilize the situation by re-establishing what has worked in the past. Increasingly, however, congregations are finding that the same old things done harder or better don’t seem to make a difference.
Author Jill Hudson argues, “We must identify new criteria for success, and perhaps even for faithfulness, and hold ourselves accountable to them.” Approaching the postmodern era as a tremendous opportunity, Hudson identifies 12 characteristics by which we can measure effective ministry for the early 21st century.
Based on those 12 criteria, Hudson has created evaluation tools, “an early measuring stick” to help congregations evaluate their work in this new era. Not everything of the past is ineffective and best discarded, she says, nor will everything we try in the future be successful. But by faithfully listening for God’s guidance and carefully evaluating progress using Hudson’s tools, looking at the ministry of the whole people of God as well as that of the professional staff, congregations can improve their ministry, help members and staff grow in effectiveness, deepen a sense of partnership, and add new richness to the dialogue about the congregation’s future.
Jill Hudson makes us face the hard reality that the world has changed, but the church hasn’t. This gap can create a problem when assessing the effectiveness of church leadership. Practical and easy to read and understand, this book will prove an effective new tool in assisting pastors to lead today.-Mike Regele
Our kicking and screaming aside, the postmodern church beckons, and Jill Hudson provides guidance and information to equip us for this enormous ministry challenge.-The Rev. Christine Shiber
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Jazz Of Preaching
$20.99Add to cartWhat if preachers were as contagiously joyful in their preaching as Louis Armstrong was in his playing and singing? As rich in their sermonic renderings as Sarah Vaughan was in her musical vocals? As honest about heartache as Billie Holiday was every time she sang about the blues of life? As alluringly clear as the angelic voice of Ella Fitzgerald? As tenaciously uninhibited in the action of creating as Duke Ellington?
Of course, this is too much to ask of people, even those called by God. However, it is not too much to ask this question: Can preaching be enhanced through the metaphor of jazz? Can an understanding of the inner dynamics of jazz–its particular forms, rules, and styles–inform one’s practice of preaching as well? Can jazz’s simultaneous structure and spontaneity help preachers better understand their own art? The answer to these questions, says Jones, is an unqualified yes. He explains how one can dramatically improve one’s preaching through understanding and applying key elements of the musical art form known as jazz. No musical background is necessary; all examples are well explained and tied in with preaching.
The key elements include innovation (what one commentator refers to as “the experimental disposition of jazz”), improvisation, rhythm, call and response, honesty about heartaches, and delight. After discussing the reality and role of each of these elements in jazz, and how they can be important for preaching as well, each chapter concludes with five exercises for applying the jazz element to preaching preparation and performance.
Drawing on a deep love of jazz and enlivening the discussion with insights drawn from the realities of African American preaching, Jones introduces readers to rich and rewarding possibilities for constructing and delivering the sermon.
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Creative Bible Lessons In 1-2 Timothy And Titus (Student/Study Guide)
$16.99Add to cartThis newest installment of the bestselling Creative Bible Lessons series provides practical faith-sustaining principles for Christian teenagers from every walk of life. These “pastoral epistles,” written by the Apostle Paul at the end of his life, give sound instruction on how to lead the young church in a world of oppression, danger, and difficulty. In twelve chapters this book covers leadership, worship, getting in shape, walking the talk, knowing your enemy, money, overcoming opposition, and the Bible.
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Teaching That Makes A Difference
$34.99Add to cartThis comprehensive, research-informed textbook reviews all aspects of traditional and contemporary theories and experience in youth ministry, but also points to the future by analyzing youth culture and charting innovative paradigms in the art and craft of teaching. The book is fueled by the urgent need in youth ministry to better reach students, to inform them about God’s will for their lives, and to encourage change in their lives beyond the youth group setting. Features include: * Website dedicated to the book, including chats hosted by the author * Scriptural instruction on reaching the minds, hearts, and souls of students * Cultural analysis of adolescents in ministry contexts and in the larger community * Explanation of learning styles: auditory, visual, tactile, kinesthetic * Explanation of multiple intelligences: imaginative, analytic, common sense, dynamic * Tips on creativity: where to find ideas, list of teaching methods
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Prayer (Student/Study Guide)
$9.99Add to cartThis book will explore and define biblical and contemporary images of prayer. All the sessions exploring prayer will be based upon God’s relationship with humans as the ground of all prayer and the essential human need to reach toward God that leads to prayer. Readers will explore definitions of prayer, a variety of scriptures that show Jesus’ teachings and practices related to prayer, methods of prayer, aids to prayer, the varieties of individual and communal words, needs, and emotions that form the content of prayer, ways people interpret answered or unanswered prayer, and the unity between prayer and human action. The book will invite readers to reflect upon questions like: Why do we pray? What is God’s role in prayer? the human role? How is God’s grace involved in prayer? What is prayer? What did Jesus teach about prayer? How do we pray? What do we pray? What is an attitude of prayer? How does God answer prayer? What difference does prayer make in our lives? Have I been praying all along? What happens in the quiet times of my week? in the busy times?
Is prayer possible in both quiet and busy times? Why do I feel like I don’t have
time to pray? Do I need to make time for prayer? How? The book will affirm
persons and groups who struggle with an understanding of prayer or with
a style of prayer. It will provide opportunities for transforming encounters with
God. -
Lifetime Of Blessing
$20.99Add to cartIn the same successful formula as ‘World of Blessing’, Geoffrey Duncan has compiled blessings from a great variety of resources to commemorate every conceivable stage of life from planning and praying for a child to bidding loved ones farewell. aaIn between there are a wide range of thanksgiving and blessing prayers for pregnancy, the birth of a baby, adoption and fostering, christening or naming ceremonies,godparents, growing up, starting school, birthdays, confirmation or church membership,friendship, love, work, leaving home, engagement, marriage, moving house, anniversaries, the big’O’s(!)and all important occasions in life-joyful or sad. aaA unique pastoral and personal resource that will be used over and over again.
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Postmodern Childrens Ministry
$19.99Add to cartThis practical, thought-provoking book presents a new paradigm for children’s ministry in the emerging 21st century and explores how churches are currently putting that vision into practice. Advocating the need to regard children as full participants in their faith communities, the book provides strategies for building intergenerational community where children feel they belong and have the opportunity to serve.
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Divine Distinction : The Ministry Of The Apostle The Office Of The Bishop
$10.99Add to cartIt’s very important that we use utmost sensitivity as we embrace the significant subject of apostles and bishops in the New Testament and attempt to present a biblically sound position statement. Approaching this kind of discussion with preconceived notions and closed minds could put at risk those who trust our input for divine direction. Correct interpretation of the Scriptures, not history, must be what we trust as the order of God. Church history has not always demonstrated the will of God. Where it does, it can be used as a divine pattern; where it does not, it must be replaced with the truth of God, even if it presents the challenge of accepting something different from our traditions.
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Keys To Becoming An Effective Associate Minister And Church Leader
$14.95Add to cartJoshua Ministry Title
Hopewell shares the truths that he has discovered in his journey that will strengthen the relationship between the pastor and associate minister, and create an atmosphere that allows both to work together as a team, fulfilling God’s purpose.
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Pastoral Protocol : A Guide To Ministerial Ethics
$15.49Add to cartEvery profession and vocation has rules that govern its operation and dictates the behaviour and conduct of its professors, so also is the church world. The ministry has ethics of behaviour different from all other professions. In this book, the minister’s relation with his church, community, opposite sex and colleagues are all spelt out. Dealing with finances, the family and denomination amongst others have also been dealt with by Dr. Agyin-Asare. Pastoral Protocol emphasises the fact that people’s opinion about God and Christianity and your own church are shaped by the ethical standards the minister maintains. Ministers of the gospel, ministers in training, aspiring Church leaders, lay church workers and in fact every individual believer who sees himself herself as part of the “universal priesthood of the believer” would benefit by this book to prevent spiritual disaster and ministry suicide. Apostle Dr. Michael Ntumy M.Th President of the Ghanna Pentecostal Council, Chairman of the Church of Pentecost I thorougly enjoyed this book “Pastoral Protocol”. It is one of the best I have ever read on this subject. Every minister should read it. Bishop Paul E. Paino D.D., Th.D, D.Lt. Carol Road Christian Fellowship Fort Wayne, Indiana
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Postmodern Life Cycle
$24.99Add to cart“Friedrich Schweitzer is knowledgeable of both European and American cultural shifts into postmodernity. This well-written account of the impacts of media saturation, the relativization of religious authority, and the rapid global emergence of varieties of spiritual orientations and practices, is the first of its kind. Schweitzer’s knowledge of practices of faith and his mastery of the available research literature on posmodern conditions make this work indispensable for religious leaders, students of postmodernity, and a broad reading public. A great achievement!”
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Moderatism Pietism And Awakening
$58.99Add to cartThe Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church is a multivolume study by Hughes Oliphant Old that explores the history of preaching from the words of Moses at Mount Sinai through modern times. In Volume 5, Moderatism, Pietism, and Awakening, Old brings the story of preaching up through the eighteenth century, showing how, after the tumultuous age of the Reformation, preaching in the eighteenth century was driven in several very different directions. The book’s first chapter considers moderatism, an inevitable reaction against the high tensions of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. In the second chapter Old discusses pietism, examining the contributions of Philipp Jakob Spener, Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen, John Wesley, George Whitefield, Samuel Davies, and other preachers. The remaining seven chapters delve into a variety of national or denominational schools of preaching.
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Word Made Plain
$27.00Add to cartPreaching mediates the word of God into a cultural matrix. And no American preaching has done so more effectively and powerfully than African American preaching, claims noted homiletician James Harris. Known for its rhetorical strength, social-justice orientation, and dead-on connection to the community’s lived experience, black preaching is here analyzed and proposed as a model for all preaching.
Harris grounds black preaching in the self-understanding of the historic black church and its most prominent preachers, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Samuel Proctor. Harris also explores the hermeneutical and aesthetic dimensions of preaching, especially at the intersection of sacred text and the broader culture. He then lays out the specific distinguishing characteristics of black preaching, including verbal cadence and rhythm, use of gestures, and, most thoroughly, the narrative model of the sermon. His last chapter, “Preaching Plainly,” provides specific instructions on how to put the sermon together employing this model. -
Raising Up Young Heroes
$22.99Add to cartYouth ministry is about much more than Sunday night Bible study and lock-ins. It’s about changing the lives of youth and empowering young heroes to change their world. Here is a model for holistic ministry that addresses all the needs of students–body, soul and spirit. Powerful stories from the author’s urban, multiethnic context shape the context of this book, while the principles within are designed to serve the whole body of Christ.
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Experiential Youth Ministry Handbook
$24.99Add to cartThis handbook offers more than eighty activities youth workers can use to help students connect. It also offers twenty-one examples of specific program sequences that show how these activities can be used intentionally to become more than just games. Additionally, seven templates for specific contexts common in youth ministry enable youth workers to adapt the activities into an infinite number of program combinations.
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Growth By Accident Death By Planning
$21.99Add to cartA congregation that had been growing in numbers and spiritual vitality reaches a plateau, and then begins to decline. What has happened? Whitesel explains where churches go wrong planning for growth and how they can correct themselves by looking at three related phenomena: the factors that cause initial growth; the erroneous decisions that lead to getting stuck on the plateau; and corrective steps they can take to regain growth and vitality.
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Ducking Spears Dancing Madly
$19.99Add to cartLeadership among God’s people is not a matter of easy answers or simple solutions. There is no foolproof list of character traits that one can acquire and develop in order to be a successful leader. Authentic leadership is a complex interaction of the leader’s gifts and calling, the people’s needs and response, the particular situation of the moment, and, above all, the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Birch and Parks believe if we wish to understand the intricate and messy character of leadership in the church, the obvious place to start is Scripture. The Bible portrays leaders not as heroes placed on a pedestal, but rather as flawed and fallen human beings who nonetheless work with the people around them and with the situation at hand to move toward accomplishing the will of God.
Ducking Spears, Dancing Madly is a penetrating look at church leadership through the stories of Saul, David, and other central Old Testament figures. The authors demonstrate that those who have a clear and honest understanding of the triumphs and flaws of the individuals who lead God’s people in Scripture will be better prepared to lead God’s people today. In order to provide that understanding, they engage in a dialogue with the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, texts that portray the people of Israel in frequent social and political transition, and hence in need of effective leadership.
