Pastoral Helps
Showing 201–300 of 1822 resultsSorted by latest
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1 Small Step Participants Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$9.99Can ordinary people make a lasting impression on the world around them? Matthew Barnett’s answer is an emphatic Yes! With inspiring stories and biblical takeaways, Barnett calls readers to set aside their fears and boldly embrace the life-changing adventure of being the heart, hands, and feet of Jesus to the broken people right outside their front doors.
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Recovering From Biblical Manhood And Womanhood
$18.99While evangelicalism dukes it out about who can be church leaders, the rest of the 98% of us need to be well equipped to see where we fit in God’s household and why that matters. Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is a resource to help church leaders improve the culture of their church and disciple men and women in their flock to read, understand, and apply Scripture to our lives in the church. Until both men and women grow in their understanding of their relationship to Scripture, there will continue to be tension between the sexes in the church. Church leaders need to be engaged in thoughtful critique of the biblical manhood and womanhood movement and the effects it has on their congregation.
Do men and women benefit equally from God’s word? Are they equally responsible in sharpening one another in the faith and passing it down to the next generation? While radical feminists claim that the Bible is a hopelessly patriarchal construction by powerful men that oppresses women, evangelical churches simply reinforce this teaching when we constantly separate men and women, customizing women’s resources and studies according to a culturally based understanding of roles. Do we need men’s Bibles and women’s Bibles, or can the one, holy Bible guide us all? Is the Bible, God’s word, so male-centered and authored that women need to create their own resources to relate to it? No! And in it, we also learn from women. Women play an active role as witnesses to the faith, passing it on to the new generations.
This book explores the feminine voice in Scripture as synergistic with the dominant male voice. Through the women, we often get the story behind the story–take Ruth for example, or the birth of Christ through the perspective of Mary and Elizabeth in Luke. Aimee fortifies churches in a biblical understanding of brotherhood and sisterhood in God’s household and the necessity of learning from one another in studying God’s word.
The troubling teaching under the rubric of “biblical manhood and womanhood” has thrived with the help of popular Biblicist interpretive methods. And Biblicist interpretive methods ironically flourish in our individualistic culture that works against the “traditional values” of family and community that the biblical manhood and womanhood movement is trying to uphold. This book helps to correct Biblicist trends in the church today, affirming that we do not read God’s word alone, we read it within our interpretive covenant com
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That The Two May Become One
$19.93What is the difference between a wedding and a marriage, and how can a happy couple prepare for it?
These questions are a common theme in Rev. Dr. John R. Nagle’s That The Two May Become One: The Good News Of God’s Love Shared With The Happy Couple, where he often draws the distinction between the happy day itself and the lifetime of union through times both shining and dim that follows.
Beginning from illustrations encompassing the bride and groom, the gathered friends and family, the circumstances of the day and the world around them, these sermons smoothly transition to connect to scripture, often chosen by the bride and groom in question. Though the chosen readings are sometimes the same, the application of the verses and the resulting messages are not.
Throughout all the sermons the love of God is shared, biblically-based guidance is given, and the importance of Christ’s role in marriage is emphasized.
That The Two May Become One collects and presents Rev. Dr. Nagle’s wedding sermons in the hope that both new husbands and wives and couples celebrating years together might find them good counsel. In all cases, this collection encourages couples to take a moment to reflect on how they can live out their lives and marriages in the love of God.
Some sermon titles include:
*What It Means to Be Tied Up (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)
*The Bridal Couple’s Emergency Kit (Colossians 3:12-17)
*Here’s How You Keep In Touch (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)
*Go For The High Notes! (Psalm 98:1-9)
*More Than A Pile Of Rocks (Matthew 7:24-27)Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
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Becoming A King Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$18.99God’s original intention for humankind was to empower and entrust them with ruling over his creation (see Genesis 2:19-20). However, the story of most men is that being entrusted with power has led to them bringing harm to themselves and those under their care. When we look at the source of the problem, we find the issue is within our souls-we are in need of excavation and reconstruction. Jesus offers to meet us in the heart of our need and promises a way forward into fullness of life. Yet so often we are unsure about the way in. We see the invitation but have lost the map.
In Becoming a King, Morgan Snyder describes how as a young man serving alongside John Eldredge, he relentlessly engaged these deep questions of how to use power and grow as a leader. Over the course of two years, he sought counsel from the most respected men that he could find in the organization’s growing network of influence. As he distilled these men’s counsel, the outline of the path he was seeking emerged . . . an ancient path that generations of saints throughout human history have traveled before.
As Morgan explains, this is a map for the journey of inner transformation. It is an invitation into a radical reconstruction of much of what we have come to believe about God, ourselves, and the meaning of life. Traveling the path isn’t cheap, easy, or quick. Few find it. Even fewer choose to stay the course, fight the good fight, win the race, and keep the faith. But it is this heroic journey that leads to life-real life.
Since the publishing of Wild at Heart nearly two decades ago, there has been a slow and steady groundswell of masculine restoration. This study represents both the fruit of that work and the next steps to take men deeper into the more that is being offered . . . walking them through what it is to live deeply rooted and to be powerful God’s way.Designed for use with the Becoming a King Video Study (sold separately).
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30 Days To Understanding The Bible Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$13.99In this six-session video Bible study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), bestselling author, pastor, and theologian Max Anders guides participants through the entire Bible, providing them with an understanding of all the major biblical characters, the major events, and the major points of geography they need to know to get a solid grasp of the story of the Old and New Testaments. By spending just 15 minutes a day in personal study for five days each session, participants will come to understand not only the facts and history of the Bible but also its teachings that have become such an important foundation of Western civilization.
Participants will learn about the Ten Great Subjects of the Bible (the Bible, God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, angels, man, sin, salvation, Church, and future things) and some of the more puzzling points of Scripture, such as why there are four Gospels, how to understand Jesus’ parables, the importance of miracles, the importance of the Resurrection, and much more.
The Bible is an enormous book covering much information and many subjects, and while it is not possible to learn everything about it in 30 days, they will gain a beginning knowledge-an overview-they can use to build a more complete understanding in the years ahead. In just fifteen minutes a day for thirty days, group members can gain a foundational grasp of the most important book ever written.
Designed for use with the 30 Days to Understanding the Bible Video Study (sold separately).
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Way Of Worship
$29.99The Way of Worship is a practical, hands-on guide for college or seminary students, worship leaders, pastors, and youth pastors seeking to better equip themselves as worshipers. Teachers and professors can use it as a teaching resource for the classroom, while pastors will discover a long-needed tool for providing interpretation and clarification of biblical principles for worship in an ever-changing culture. Students will find a consistent tool to use in communicating Biblical principles for worship to their friends.
Concise, well written, and thoroughly researched, The Way of Worship provides a biblical theology of worship, as well as a practical manual for practicing private and public worship as a way of life. In addition, it includes individual and group discussion questions and activities that enable readers to immediately apply what they are learning. And it serves as a helpful reference for teachers of worship, combining biblical teaching with pedagogical application of worship principles. It is uniquely designed to “lend a helping hand” to those realizing and answering the calling of God on their lives to lead worship.
Worshiping the one true God is essential to the life and vitality of the churc
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Bridging Theory And Practice In Childrens Spirituality
$22.99Bridging Theory and Practice in Children’s Spirituality explores the different contexts, methods, and situations that influence and foster a child’s spirituality and faith development. Through a blend of theoretical understanding held in tension with practical application, it equips those who are in, or being prepared for, the varied contexts where children are spiritually formed.
It represents a broad range of Christian expression writing from a Christ-centered perspective that furthers the conversation about the next steps in children’s spirituality and faith development. Moving beyond the basics of faith nurture and what makes for effective ministry, this resource deepens our understanding of the practices in children’s by bringing together the best of theory and practice and includes contributions from:
*Dr. Scottie May (Wheaton College)
*Dr. Kevin Lawson (Biola University)
*Dr. Erik Carter (Vanderbilt University)
*John Roberto (Vibrant Faith)
*Dr. Dana Kennamer Pemberton (Abilene Christian University)
*Dr. Shirley Morganthaler (Concordia University – Chicago)
*Dr. Holly Catterton Allen (Lipscomb University)
*Dr. Robert Keeley (Calvin College and Calvin Seminary)
*Dr. Mimi Larson (Wheaton College)
*Lacy Finn Borgo ( Renovare Institute) and others.Pastors, professors, seminary students and children’s ministry leaders and practitioners all believe that nurturing a child’s spiritual development is important. Yet often they are unsure about which current trends should be embraced. This book will help equip these people with the grounding needed to evaluate trends and with specific suggestions for moving forward. With short, accessibly written chapters it helps pastors and leaders stay up to date with current trends and is an excellent resource for teaching in college and seminary classrooms.
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Way Of Worship Student Workbook (Workbook)
$12.99The Way of Worship Student Workbook is a practical guide that accompanies The Way of Worship, providing questions for discussion and reflection, as well as hands-on activities to better prepare you for a lifestyle of worship. It is a resource to encourage those who are answering the calling of God on their lives to lead worship.
The Way of Worship (available separately) provides a biblical theology of worship, as well as a practical manual for practicing private and public worship as a way of life. This accompanying workbook serves as a journal and guidebook, allowing those who read and study The Way of Worship to further explore the concepts, internalizing and applying them to life.
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Your Time Starved Marriage Workbook For Women (Workbook)
$12.99Reclaim your time. Reconnect your marriage. Do you feel overscheduled and underconnected? Do you wish there was a surefire way to create more meaningful time together each day? Reclaim your time together and all the relational benefits that go with it. Your Time-Starved Marriage isn’t about being more productive-it’s about being more connected.
Six sessions include:
1. Is Your Marriage Slipping into the Future?
2. Busyness-the Archenemy of Marriage
3. Time Styles-Uncovering your Unique Approach to Time
4. Prioritizing Primetime-Maximizing your Moments
5. Time Bandits-Catching Your Time-Stealers Redhanded
6. Time Mines-Where You’re Sure to Strike GoldAdd to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
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Your Time Starved Marriage Workbook For Men (Workbook)
$12.99Connect your time styles–and your hearts.
The way you spend your time not only defines you as a man, it also defines your marriage and reveals the value of your relationship. Your Time-Starved Marriage Workbook for Men helps you find more time with your wife–and enjoy it more together.
Here are the hands-on, practical tools you need to dramatically reclaim the times you’ve been missing together and make every moment with your loved one count. Designed to be used either on your own or in a small group, this workbook helps you work with your wife to incorporate the new lessons you’ve both learned while reading Your Time-Starved Marriage. This workbook includes exercises for each chapter in the book, plus a small-group discussion guide designed to be used with Your Time-Starved Marriage DVD.
You’ll take five or ten minutes on your own to do each exercise and then compare the results with your wife. These exercises are designed to help you deepen your relationship with each other as you apply proven principles that help you manage your time as a couple. Your Time-Starved Marriage Workbooks can help you be more connected to each other, leading to a deeper level of contentment, satisfaction, and commitment in your marriage.
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Healing The Christian Church
$14.95Are you looking to improve the relevance, life, and health of your church? In Healing the Christian Church, author Al Pomeroy offers a fresh, unique, and sustainable approach that will consistently produce good ground. Addressing church leadership, he provides practical advice and a resource for those wanting to see their church succeed beyond the status quo, and he discusses how to prevent the church from dealing with unnecessary problems. It requires more than reading the Bible, attending services, and listening to sermons. Leaders must let go of fear, bitterness, envy, and more to build the spirits of those involved. Pomeroy provides opportunities for personal reflection, inspires action, and motivates a response, helping one assess whether their actions are helping or harming the church. Healing the Christian Church conducts an open and honest discussion on how easily a lack of knowledge and apathy has resulted in shattered lives, ineffective leaders, and paralyzed churches. Delivering a fresh approach supported by scripture, it presents several ways to address current and potential problems.
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Connections Year A Volume 3 Season After Pentecost
$45.00Designed to empower preachers as they lead congregations to connect their lives to Scripture, Connections features a broad set of interpretive tools that provide commentary and worship aids on the Revised Common Lectionary.
This nine-volume series offers creative commentary on each reading in the three-year lectionary cycle by viewing that reading through the lens of its connections to the rest of Scripture and then seeing the reading through the lenses of culture, film, fiction, ethics, and other aspects of contemporary life. Commentaries on the Psalms make connections to the other readings and to the congregation’s experience of worship.
Connections is published in partnership with Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
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Our Witness To The World
$12.99Concise Wisdom from a Seasoned Pastoral Veteran
The Kingdom Pastor’s Library is a new series of books that brings you a succinct, complete pastoral philosophy and training from Tony Evans.
Our Witness to the World teaches you how to equip every member of your church to go out into their neighborhoods and do effective outreach. It also demonstrates how important social impact is for the spreading of the gospel.
Faithful. Powerful. Practical. Become a Kingdom Pastor Today.
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Get Your Life Back Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99We live in soul-scorching times. The 24-7 onslaught of contemporary life–with its never-ending feed of global tragedies, demands for our attention, and pressures of work, family, and friends–has left us feeling ragged, wrung-out, and emptied. But if we have no margin in our lives, how do we find room to change anything?
In this life-changing video Bible study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), John Eldredge distills a lifetime of wisdom into five practical and ready-to-implement practices for putting your life back together. These practices include: (1) the one-minute pause, (2) benevolent detachment, (3) practicing kindness, (4) getting outside, and (5) stepping back from technology. These practices, ready for the taking, will enable you to begin recovery, focus on what matters most, disengage from the tragedies of this broken world, and discover the restorative power of beauty.
You don’t need to abandon your life to get it back. You can restore it here and now. And you will never be the same.
Designed for use with Get Your Life Back Video Study (sold separately).
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Kingdom Stewardship Group Video Experience (DVD)
$29.99In Kingdom Stewardship, Dr. Tony Evans inspires you to broaden your perspective of Christian stewardship. This encouraging and challenging DVD Group Video Experience is designed to be used in a group, together with the participant’s guide and the book. You will learn that stewardship includes how you manage all that God has given you-your time, your talents, and your treasures-to advance God’s kingdom and bring Him glory. While many stewardship books focus on managing financial resources, Tony Evans says that your finances are one small part of a much bigger calling. He teaches that God owns all things, and you are the manager of His assets. When you bring your entire life into alignment under God, you will be blessed with purpose and the abundant life that comes from living by God’s eternal principles.
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Kingdom Stewardship Group Video Experience Participants Guide
$9.99In Kingdom Stewardship, Dr. Tony Evans inspires you to broaden your perspective of Christian stewardship. This encouraging and challenging participant’s guide is designed to be used in a group, together with the DVD Group Video Experience and the book. You will learn that stewardship includes how you manage all that God has given you-your time, your talents, and your treasures-to advance God’s kingdom and bring Him glory. While many stewardship books focus on managing financial resources, Tony Evans says that your finances are one small part of a much bigger calling. He teaches that God owns all things, and you are the manager of His assets. When you bring your entire life into alignment under God, you will be blessed with purpose and the abundant life that comes from living by God’s eternal principles.
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Collected Sermons Of David Bartlett
$46.00This collection of fifty-two sermons shows beloved New Testament scholar David Bartlett at his best. Bartlett, who died in 2017, spent his career teaching and mentoring preachers at The University of Chicago Divinity School, Yale Divinity School, Union Presbyterian Seminary, and Columbia Theological Seminary, as well as serving as a pastor in American Baptist churches. Thus, he has generations of friends and former students who knew him for his quick wit, passion for justice, and deep knowledge of the Bible.
Those traits show through in these sermons. As Nora Tisdale says in the foreword: “All of the sermons in this volume give witness to David’s passion for preaching that is solidly grounded in the biblical text. Most of them actually begin, as Karl Barth urged preachers to begin, with the biblical text. If they don’t begin there, they always get there fairly quickly. And David’s interpretations of texts often surprise the reader with their freshness and clarity.”
In addition to individual sermons, several multiweek sermon series, including a series on Who Is Jesus? and Great Words of the Faith, are included.
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Know What Youre FOR Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99What do you want to be know FOR? This is a great question for any leader of an organization to ask, whether it is a church, a business, or a nonprofit. After all, when an organization is able to close the gap between what they are known for and what they want to be known for, it results in unprecedented growth.
However, as Jeff Henderson reveals in the Know What You’re FOR small-group study (DVD/video downloads sold separately), this is also a great question for believers in Christ to ask themselves. All too often today, people in the world know more about what those in the church are AGAINST than what they are FOR. Instead of perceiving believers as being people of grace, love, and acceptance, they see them as angry, pessimistic, and intolerant. Certainly, as believers in Christ, we are called to state the truth about the condition of the world and its problem with sin . . . but the Bible is clear we are also to love others, extend grace, and get along as much as possible.
Back in the days of the early church, the believers also struggled with how to “draw the line” when it came to accepting the sinner but not the sin. The Christians even held a council in Jerusalem to discuss the issue and whether Gentiles were required to following Jewish practices to follow Jesus. It was the ruling of James, the brother of Christ and leader of the church, “that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God” (Acts 15:19). The early church decided to be FOR bringing people into the family of God instead of putting up unnecessary barriers that would keep them out.
Today, we are called to do the same . . . in our work lives, our relationships, our community, and our world. In this hypercritical and cynical world, we are called to be a group for who and what we’re FOR. It’s a powerful strategy for business . . . but more importantly, it is a revolutionary way to live.
Designed for use with Know What You’re FOR Video Study (sold separately).
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Jesus Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99In this six-session video Bible study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), bestselling author Max Lucado explores the life and character of Jesus, helping participants become more familiar with the man at the center of the greatest story ever told. As Max explains in this study, for thirty-three years Jesus felt everything that we have ever felt: weakness, weariness, rejections. He got colds. His feelings got hurt. His feet grew tired. His head ached.
To think of Jesus in such terms almost seems irreverent. It is much easier to keep the humanity out of the incarnation. Clean up the manure from around the manger. Wipe the sweat out of his eyes. Pretend he never snored or hit his thumb with a hammer. There is something about keeping Jesus divine that keeps him distant, packaged, and predictable.
But we have to remember that by Jesus becoming human, God made it possible for us to see him and hear his voice. If we want to know what matters to God, all we need to do is look in the Bible to see what matters to Jesus. If we want to know what God is doing in our world, we need only ponder the words of Jesus. By learning more about the person Jesus was and is, we come to understand more clearly the people we were created to be.
Jesus will inspire group members to spend time at the foot of the cross and search the heart of the one who would rather die for them than live without them.
Designed for use with the Jesus Video Study (sold separately).
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Gods Ambassadors : A History Of The Christian Clergy In America
$36.99In God’s Ambassadors E. Brooks Holifield masterfully traces the history of America’s Christian clergy from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century, analyzing the changes in practice and authority that have transformed the clerical profession.
Challenging one-sided depictions of decline in clerical authority, Holifield locates the complex story of the clergy within the context not only of changing theologies but also of transitions in American culture and society. The result is a thorough social history of the profession that also takes seriously the theological presuppositions that have informed clerical activity. With alternating chapters on Protestant and Catholic clergy, the book permits sustained comparisons between the two dominant Christian traditions in American history.
At the same time, God’s Ambassadors depicts a vocation that has remained deeply ambivalent regarding the professional status marking the other traditional learned callings in the American workplace. Changing expectations about clerical education, as well as enduring theological questions, have engendered a debate about the professional ideal that has distinguished the clerical vocation from such fields as law and medicine.
The American clergy from the past four centuries constitute a colorful, diverse cast of characters who have, in ways both obvious and obscure, helped to shape the tone of American culture. For a well-rounded narrative of their story told by a master historian, God’s Ambassadors is the book to read.
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Growing A Healthy Church (Student/Study Guide)
$14.9919 Chapters
Additional Info
Sheep Swapping. Shuffling of the Saints. Whatever you call it, many churches are growing only because Christians transfer from one church to another. What’s more, many churches aren’t growing at all.The problem, according to authors Dann Spader and Gary Mayes, is that too many church calendars are filled with out-dated, mediocre programs that have become more of a burden than a blessing. That, coupled with the fact that these programs minister almost exclusively to Christians, leaves little for the non-Christian ‘seeker’ to get excited about.
Growing a Healthy Church is not a list of trendy new programs for your church agenda. It is a journey of rediscovery. Dann Spader and Gary Mayes look closely at the four stages of spiritual growth in relation to outreach. Using the innovative “M-level” system, these gifted men show how a church can minister to all individuals regardless of their levels of maturity in potential service. This helps eliminate the mistakes of forcing new Christians into service that may overwhelm them or may leave the mature Christian unchallenged.
Proven successful through SonLife and churches who have used this system, this resource will help you focus on the simplicity of Christ’s ministry, enabling you to build an effective discipline strategy for your church.
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How To Lead In A World Of Distraction Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99In this six-session video study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), pastor Clay Scroggins builds on the principles he established in his bestselling How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge and shows participants how to take the next step in their leadership growth by developing emotional awareness. As Clay notes, we are all surrounded by “white noise”–a soul-masking tool that keeps us from hearing the voices in our lives that we really need to hear. Our busy lives, the numbing nature of entertainment, and the urgency of ministry all work together to create a toxic cocktail of emotional distraction. And while many leaders have learned to tune out this “white noise,” in the process they have become “deaf” to the inner issues to which they need to attend.
Emotional healing begins with emotional awareness–our ability to identify and understand our feelings. Developing such emotional awareness comes from engaging in spiritual practices such as fasting, meditation, Sabbath keeping, prayer, and hospitality. As Clay states, such practices today are often viewed as “countercultural,” but they are solidly biblical and instrumental for helping us identify our emotions.
Through the practices described in this guide, leaders will unmask unpleasant emotions–robbing them of their stronghold–and learn how to pay close attention to the desires within. The result is that business, church, and ministry leaders will be empowered to replace the chaos in their increasingly busy lives with an emotional competence that leads to a calmer, less stressed, and more fulfilling life than ever before.
Designed for use with How to Lead in a World of Distraction Video Study (sold separately).
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Connections Year A Volume 2 Lent Through Pentecost
$45.00Designed to empower preachers as they lead their congregations to connect their lives to Scripture, Connections features a broad set of interpretive tools that provide commentary and worship aids on the Revised Common Lectionary.
For each worship day within the three-year lectionary cycle, the commentaries in Connections link the individual lection reading with Scripture as a whole as well as to the larger world. In addition, Connections places each Psalm reading in conversation with the other lections for the day to highlight the themes of the liturgical season. Finally, sidebars offer additional connections to Scripture for each Sunday or worship day.
This nine-volume series is a practical, constructive, and valuable resource for preachers who seek to help congregations connect more closely with Scripture.
This volume covers Year A for Lent through Pentecost.
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Who Needs Christmas Study Guide
$10.99The details of the Christmas story are amazing . . . and can seem a bit unbelievable. There is the angelic announcement to Mary that she will give birth to the Messiah. The dream from God that convinces Joseph to take Jesus as his own son. The story of Zechariah, who lost his ability to speak for many months for doubting God’s word. The angelic host who announces Jesus’ birth to the shepherds. The wise men who visit Jesus and bring gifts. The madness of a king who tried to put an end to Jesus’ life.
The narrative of Jesus’ birth is both miraculous and incredible. But as pastor Andy Stanley explores in this four-session video study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), when you look at all the events in the Old Testament leading up to this point in time, the unbelievable story of Christmas becomes quite remarkable. For the story does not begin with angels announcing Jesus’ birth in the Gospels but with God making a promise to a man named Abraham in the book of Genesis–a promise that all peoples in the world would be blessed through him.
It was only “when the set time had fully come” that God sent Jesus into the world “that we might receive adoption to sonship” (Galatians 4:4-5). God sent Jesus to do what laws and regulations, judges and prophets, and exile and punishment could not accomplish. He sent Jesus so that individual people could have a relationship with him. He sent Jesus, the author of life, to document his great love for his rebel race. He sent Jesus not merely to deliver us from the penalty and consequences of our sin, but to actually break the power of the enemy and free us from our slavery to sin.
Through Christmas, we are reminded God is active even when it seems like he is not. We are reminded that even when it seems God is silent, he is always working. And we are reminded that God sent Jesus not simply to be the Savior of the world but to be the Savior in our world. Through Christmas, we are reminded that God always keeps his promises to us.
Sessions include:
1. The Story Behind the Story (Genesis 12:3)
2. The Author of Life (Acts 3:15)
3. The Message of Christmas (Matthew 1:21)
4. Ready or Not . . . He Is Coming (Luke 1:37)Designed for use with the Who Needs Christmas/Why Easter Matters Video Study (sold separately).
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Healing Together : A Guide To Supporting Sexual Abuse Survivors
$12.99Sex is such an intimate topic historically wrapped in shame and when someone shares they were sexually abused, we may not know how to respond.
With recent #MeToo and #ChurchToo movements, we are learning just how many men, women, boys, and girls have suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a trusted person, often family members or leaders in the church. Sexual abuse is rampant in modern society and now–sometimes many years later–sexual abuse survivors are sharing their stories.
Anne Marie Miller is a survivor of childhood clergy sexual abuse and has shared her journey toward healing with audiences all over the world. After speaking with thousands of survivors and their loved ones, she saw the need for a fundamental and practical guide for helping supporters of sexual abuse survivors understand the basics of abuse, trauma, healing, and hope. Drawing from her own experience as a survivor and evidence-based research, Anne addresses these questions and more in Healing Together.
*What is sexual abuse?
*How can I help survivors?
*Who are predators and how do they groom victims?
*How does trauma affect survivors?
*What happens when someone doesn’t remember the details of their abuse?
*How does abuse wound the physical, emotional, and spiritual health of people who have been abused?
*When and how should authorities be contacted?
*How do you talk to your children about sexual abuse?
*What are the warning signs of abuse?
*Is healing possible?Whether you are a spouse, a family member, a friend, or a church leader looking for easy-to-navigate resources to understand and support sexual abuse survivors, you’ll find answers and hope in these pages.
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Why Easter Matters Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$10.99As believers in Christ, we all would like to say that we trust in God. We would all like to claim that we believe God has our best interests in mind and that obedience to him is the best pathway to finding joy, peace, contentment, and fulfillment in life. But the truth is that we often find ourselves actively resisting the very God in whom we say we trust. Our hearts and our consciences tell us what is right–and what we need to be doing–but for some reason we tend to find ourselves going the other way.
This was true of people even back in the days of first-century Israel when Jesus walked the earth. In this four-session study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), pastor Andy Stanley explores the lives of some of these individuals and reveals how the story of Easter became real to them when they found themselves caught up in the events of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. These characters include figures in the Gospels such as:
*Joseph Caiaphas, the powerful Jewish religious leader, who refused to embrace Jesus as the Messiah because it would have put an end to his influence and control.
*Judas Iscariot, who was more interested in his own personal gain than in truly following after God–and betrayed Jesus to the Jewish authorities as a result of his greed.
*The two criminals on the crosses next to Jesus, who found themselves in their last hours of life just twelve feet away from God-in-the-flesh.
*The disciples and other followers of Jesus, who found their world turned upside down when the one they believed to be the Messiah was first put to death . . . and then rose again.The stories of these men and women who were present in the greatest story ever known–the story of Easter–give us great insights into our own relationship toward God. They reveal the attitudes of our hearts and compel us to truly consider why Easter matters and the effect it has on our lives.
Sessions include:
1. The High Cost of Following Christ (John 12:25)
2. The Risk of Surrendering to God (Matthew 19:27)
3. The God Who Can Be Trusted (Luke 23:39-41)
4. The Foundation of Our Faith (Acts 1:8)Designed for use with the double disc Who Needs Christmas/Why Easter Matters Video Study (sold separately).
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Lectionary Reflections Cycle A
$37.43With Lectionary Reflections, Cycle A, readers will delight in the process of preparing to preach from the lectionary. While it is academically informed and theologically sound, this volume is notable in how it engenders a sense of playful, holy curiosity.
Readers will get insightful commentary, ideas for a variety of ways to preach and teach the texts, and weekly questions and suggestions to get conversations going.
Duffield’s wit and palpable love for the Body of Christ will invigorate any pastor’s sermon writing process. If you’re preaching or teaching from the lectionary, this will be a go-to resource week after week.
Jill Duffield holds an M.Div. degree from Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia and a D.Min. degree from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Texas. She has pastored congregations in North Carolina and South Carolina. Jill won the James Solheim Award for Editorial Courage and the Award of Merit in Bible Reference for “Looking Into the Lectionary.” She is the current editor and publisher of The Presbyterian Outlook and is married to Grant. They are the parents of three children.
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Everything You Need Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99Many Christians today feel unprepared and uncertain when it comes to living each day as followers of Christ. We often know what we are supposed to do, and even why we are supposed to do it. Yet when we lack confidence in ourselves and our spiritual development, we fail to live boldly as difference makers in our world.
As one of the world’s leading Bible teachers, Dr. David Jeremiah wants readers to know that this lack of confidence is both unnecessary and unhelpful. In fact, the Bible makes it clear that–in the same way skilled hikers pack all the necessary supplies before a journey–God Himself equips all believers with everything they need to walk and work with confidence as members of His kingdom.
Everything You Need continues Dr. Jeremiah’s focus on helping the church strive for spiritual victory through Christ. Using his signature depth, wisdom, and compassion, Dr. Jeremiah explores 2 Peter 1:5-10 to highlight seven critical tools God provides each of His people: virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. When we use the equipment God provides, we can live confidently in the knowledge that we will never stumble.
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Connections Year A Volume 1 Advent Through Epiphany
$45.00Designed to empower preachers as they lead congregations to connect their lives to Scripture, Connections features a broad set of interpretive tools that provide commentary and worship aids on the Revised Common Lectionary.
This nine-volume series offers creative commentary on each reading in the three-year lectionary cycle by viewing that reading through the lens of its connections to the rest of Scripture and then seeing the reading through the lenses of culture, film, fiction, ethics, and other aspects of contemporary life. Commentaries on the Psalms make connections to the other readings and to the congregation’s experience of worship.
Connections is published in partnership with Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
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What Then Would You Be Cycle A
$23.68The season of Lent prepares us to be disciples by leading us in a disciplined spiritual life. The season of Easter and the message of the Resurrection inform us as to the meaning of Christianity. The season of Eastertide guides us in the daily living of a Christian life. Ron Love’s latest book, What, Then, Would You Be? Second Lesson Sermons for Lent and Easter, Cycle A covers the seasons of Lent, Easter, and Eastertide, actually tracing what it means to be a Christian. This series of sermons is based on the Lectionary readings from the Epistles. The Epistles stand as the most informative biblical passages on being a Christian. The first sermon asks the question “What, then, would you be?” with the remaining sermons wrestling with the answer.
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How Happiness Happens Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99In this six-session video Bible study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), bestselling author Max Lucado looks at several “one another” statements in the Bible that reveal how the happiest people on earth aren’t those who have the most but those who are willing to give the most away. While everyone craves happiness, and everyone benefits from it, the sad reality is that fewer people today are finding it. We have more possessions than ever before, better access to education, and greater advancements in technology and medicine. Yet the majority of us can’t find an adequate reason to check the “yes” box on a happiness questionnaire.
Our culture tries to convince us there is one way to happiness: aspire, acquire, desire, retire. Happiness depends on what we hang in our closet, park in our garage, and deposit in our bank account. It’s a path that always fails to deliver. Instead, Jesus provides a better way: “It is better to give than receive” (Acts 22:35 nkjv). Intentional, altruistic acts of service are the most reliable sources of well-being. It is a principle Jesus lived out in his own life. While he was accused of much, he was never described as being grumpy or perpetually somber. Rather, he said, “I came to give life with joy and abundance” (John 10:10 vce).God wants to bring joy to the people of this generation, and in his Word, he has given us practical and applicable ways to quarry that joy by giving it away. In this study, group members will look at several key “one another” statements given in the New Testament and discover how to make happiness happen in their lives. They will discover that while the world can be a lonely and disappointing place, they can be God’s representatives to bring about a cascade of kindness. While we cannot solve every problem, we can bring a few smiles to a few faces. In this way, we might even initiate a quiet revolution of joy.
This study guide is designed for use with the How Happiness Happens Video Study (sold separately).
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Preachers Guide To Lectionary Sermon Series Volume 2
$47.00Both lectionary preachers and topical preachers will enjoy the best of both worlds with this second volume of sermon series ideas designed to frame consecutive weeks of lectionary texts into seasonal and short-term series. With contributors from seven denominations, this comprehensive resource offers new perspectives and fresh ideas for diving deep into biblical themes in ways that make congregants eager to come back for the next sermon and to invite others as well. Twenty-eight series plans include thematic overviews, sermon starters, and ideas for worship and outreach, honoring holy days and seasons and addressing typical patterns of church attendance to maximize visitor retention and member engagement.
Contributors include: Amy K. Butler, Kyle E. Brooks, Carol Cavin-Dillon, Magrey R. deVega, Brian Erickson, Mihee Kim-Kort, Jasper Peters, Tuhina Verma Rasche, Bruce Reyes-Chow, Brandan J. Robertson, Martha K. Spong, and Anthony J. Tang.
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Preachers Bible Handbook
$47.00When it comes to understanding a passage in the Bible, context is everything. What historical events surround a book’s composition? What larger literary unit is a given passage part of? What central themes explored by the book touch on the verses in question? If we don’t know the answer to questions like these, we are ill-prepared to speak to-and especially preach about-a passage’s meaning. The Preacher’s Bible Handbook aims to meet this need for extra help in preparing the sermon. Essays on each of the biblical books introduce the most relevant historical, literary, and theological facts about the book. Each is designed to aid the preacher in setting the stage for a sermon on any passage in the Bible.
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Story Of Reality Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99Biblical Christianity is more than just another private religious view. It’s more than just a personal relationship with God or a source of moral teaching.
Christianity is a picture of reality. It explains why the world is the way it is. When the pieces of this puzzle are properly assembled, we see the big picture clearly. Christianity is a true story of how the world began, why the world is the way it is, what role humans play in the drama, and how all the plotlines of the story are resolved in the end.
In The Story of Reality Study Guide, together with the accompanying Story of Reality and Story of Reality Video Study, bestselling author and host of Stand to Reason Gregory Koukl explains the words that form the narrative backbone of the Christian story. Each session identifies the most important things that happen in the story in the order they take place, beginning with an examination of reality, and God, and moving though man, Jesus, the cross, and resurrection.
If you are already a Christian, do you know and understand the biblical story? For those still seeking answers to the questions of life, this is an invitation to join a story that explains the world in a way nothing else will. Be a part of the story that can change your life forever.
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Traveling Home : Tracking Your Way Through The Spiritual Wilderness
$22.95Offers readers a way to find their place in God’s story
A creative invitation to those who are on the margins of the church Recent research in the sociology of religion indicates that around one in five Americans are religiously “liminal,” that is, they are on the fence about affiliating with a faith or a congregation. Traveling Home is an invitation to those people who are standing on the edges or just coming into the Church. It makes a case for why Christianity can make a difference by taking the reader on a spiritual journey through the story and ancient wisdom of the Bible. It shows the reader how to find a place within this great cosmic adventure. Why Christianity at all? How do we understand where we fit into a bigger picture? Anyone asking these questions, including people exploring other liturgical traditions, will find this book of interest. It is also a tool for clergy teaching newcomer/inquirer classes.
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Kingdom Single Group Video Experience Participants Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$9.99This participant’s guide for the video-based group study explores the message in the book Kingdom Single. It encourages singles to see themselves as complete in Christ and free to serve Him, and empowers them to live as Kingdom men and women in a morally corrupt culture.
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How To Pioneer Single Copy
$7.50A Church House Publishing Title
This five-part group study booklet is designed to encourage and equip local church communities who are contemplating setting up a pioneering church community, but are unsure how to get going or what will be involved.
It opens up the wise insights and practical know-how of Dave Male’s book ‘How to Pioneer’ to the wider church, introducing the basics of pioneer ministry to PCCs and congregations while encouraging their supportive participation. The booklet consists of five group sessions based on chapters of the original book:
1. You can do this
2. Focusing on your mission
3. Adapting to your context
4. Creating Jesus-centred communities
5. Enabling disciples of JesusAll pioneer enterprises depend on the active support of the home church team. This booklet will help generate essential backing for local mission projects.
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Who Cares About HIV
$18.99This timely book gives a voice to those living with HIV who are too often ignored or misunderstood by the Church and other religious institutions – including those in positions of care who may have thought they were helping but have ended up doing more harm than good. The book exposes and challenges attitudes of institutional blindness and abuse and suggests some positive means of remedy, all of which have been formed and tested with the help of clients at the London HIV Chaplaincy. With its powerful combination of moving personal testimony and honest pastoral reflection, this book will encourage a more informed, sensitive and effective interaction with many who, for whatever reason, feel marginalized by our society and alienated by those who most want to help. As Rowan Williams says in his foreword, ‘This book is a proclaiming of the gospel as well as a call to judgement. It is necessary material for the self-examination and self-awareness of any Christian minister or community, if the Church’s claim to be what it is supposed to be is not to go on being so hollow for so many who need to hear that their agency and dignity are understood and honored.’
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Creative Ideas For The Family Eucharist
$40.00Find everything you need to lead a Family Eucharist in this comprehensive and versatile all-age resource. Building on the new Eucharistic Prayers for use in services with children, it balances formality and informality to help you create engaging worship for all. Easily adaptable for large and small all-age congregations, it offers ready-to-use worship ideas and service outlines for themed occasions throughout the year. Imaginatively-planned and well-structured Family Eucharists are a key part of growing churches, and this resource will give you both the structure and the confidence to lead all-age worship well.
It includes:
-advice on recruiting and training leaders
-ways of getting children involved
-a guide to creating a basic structure
-suggestions for using music and props creatively
-themed services for different seasons
-imaginative service outlines for a variety of occasions, including a baptism in the context of a Eucharist
-downloadable scripts and illustrations for use throughout the yearAdd to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
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Bridgebuilding : Making Peace With Conflict In The Church
$27.00There is a prevailing culture of ‘niceness’ within churches which can lead to conflict avoidance, suppression and denial. Consequently, ministers and church leaders often struggle to handle tensions, difference and competing demands within their congregations.
Drawing on practical theology, conflict theory, family systems theory and experience, Bridgebuilding will help church ministers and church members find more fruitful ways of engaging with tensions and conflicts in the life of the Church. It offers numerous practical tools for transforming conflict into opportunities for personal and corporate growth.
It complements the ‘Growing Bridgebuilders’ training course developed by Bridge Builders with CPAS.
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Power Of Jesus Names (DVD)
$19.99Get to Know Jesus Even More
In his insightful follow-up to the bestselling book, The Power of God’s Names, Dr. Tony Evans introduces you to Jesus in a new light. In this insightful DVD series based on the book The Power of Jesus’ Names, Dr. Evans uncovers what the different names of Jesus reveal about His character.
With the help of in-depth scriptural studies and relatable storytelling, you will go one-by-one through the names of Jesus–and get to know Him wholly and completely just as He is.
As you better know the one whose names you call upon, you will gain a more intimate understanding of who He is and what He came to do for–and in–your life.
Complete your DVD experience with The Power of Jesus’ Names Interactive Workbook.
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Power Of Jesus Names Interactive Workbook (Workbook)
$9.99What’s in a Name?
His name holds the power to heal and lift up. It comforts the brokenhearted. Jesus is a powerful name, but it’s not the only one the Son of God is known by.
This companion to Dr. Tony Evan’s The Power of Jesus’ Names DVD introduces you to many new facets of Jesus and His nature that are revealed by each of His names. Full of in-depth scriptural research and enriched by Dr. Evan’s relatable storytelling and practical application, you’ll find valuable insights through…
*questions that promote reflection and conversation
*relevant Scripture passages for reflection and discussion
*activities for further personal study and growthWhether in a group or on your own, you will come to a more intimate understanding of who Jesus is and what He came to do for you as you journey through The Power of Jesus’ Names.
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Budgeting For A Healthy Church
$18.99Many pastors conceive of the church budget as primarily a financial tool, but in fact it is primarily a pastoral tool. A church’s philosophy of ministry is locked into its budget, and so the budget will either stifle or accelerate any attempts to move a congregation toward a biblical model of church health. As such, the church budget is a far more potent pastoral tool than many church leaders realize. Budgeting for a Healthy Church examines each section of the budget in light of Biblical principles to show how a church budget can lock in healthy approaches to ministry. Whereas most books on church budgeting are “how” books, explaining how the budgeting process should work, this is a “what” book, helping church leaders determine the pastoral implications of what they choose to fund in their budgets.
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Contemplation And Counseling
$25.99Can contemplative prayer be integrated into therapeutic work? Building an alliance between science, theology, and Christian contemplative thought, Gregg Blanton presents a new paradigm for integrating contemplative prayer with counseling practice. This practical resource offers eleven fundamental interventions to fit the needs of clients and a practical four-stage process for helping clients change.
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Raising Giant Killers Leaders Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$17.00With honesty, humor, and keen biblical insight, bestselling authors Bill and Beni Johnson help you discover the keys to successful parenting in God’s kingdom. “Parents, we rule for the purpose of protection, but we also serve with the purpose of empowering,” they write. “We want to release our children into their destiny–that’s the privilege of parenting.”
In these pages you will gain the wisdom, kingdom concepts, and practical tools you need to help raise your children to their best.
You’ll discover how to parent to their uniqueness, gifts, and strengths, as well as how you can demonstrate and reveal who God is to your kids. The authors also address pressing issues parents face today, including how to:
*be fully engaged in hearing what the Lord is saying over each child
*maintain relationship and discipline
*develop character
*train your children for worship
*fan the flame of what God has put in their hearts
*and moreNo matter what age your kids are, you have an incredible opportunity to shape their hearts, minds, and values. Here is everything you need to help your children walk into the destiny of their lives and see them become the awesome people they were created to be.
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Raising Giant Killers Participants Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$18.99With honesty, humor, and keen biblical insight, bestselling authors Bill and Beni Johnson help you discover the keys to successful parenting in God’s kingdom. “Parents, we rule for the purpose of protection, but we also serve with the purpose of empowering,” they write. “We want to release our children into their destiny–that’s the privilege of parenting.”
In these pages you will gain the wisdom, kingdom concepts, and practical tools you need to help raise your children to their best.
You’ll discover how to parent to their uniqueness, gifts, and strengths, as well as how you can demonstrate and reveal who God is to your kids. The authors also address pressing issues parents face today, including how to:
*be fully engaged in hearing what the Lord is saying over each child
*maintain relationship and discipline
*develop character
*train your children for worship
*fan the flame of what God has put in their hearts
*and moreNo matter what age your kids are, you have an incredible opportunity to shape their hearts, minds, and values. Here is everything you need to help your children walk into the destiny of their lives and see them become the awesome people they were created to be.
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Connections Year C Volume 3 Season After Pentecost
$45.00Designed to empower preachers as they lead their congregations to connect their lives to Scripture, Connections features a broad set of interpretive tools that provide commentary and worship aids on the Revised Common Lectionary.
For each worship day within the three-year lectionary cycle, the commentaries in Connections link the individual lection reading with Scripture as a whole as well as to the larger world. In addition, Connections places each Psalm reading in conversation with the other lections for the day to highlight the themes of the liturgical season. Finally, sidebars offer additional connections to Scripture for each Sunday or worship day.
This nine-volume series is a practical, constructive, and valuable resource for preachers who seek to help congregations connect more closely with Scripture.
This volume covers Year C for the season after Pentecost.
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Assessment For Counseling In Christian Perspective
$54.99Assessment in counseling?like its biblical counterpart, discernment?is an ongoing and dynamic routine to encourage movement in a productive direction toward what is truly best. In Assessment for Counseling in Christian Perspective, Stephen P. Greggo equips counselors to put assessment techniques into practical use, particularly with clients who are looking to grow in their identity with Jesus Christ. As a Christian perspective on assessment, this book is designed to supplement standard resources and help counselors navigate challenges at the intersection of psychotherapy and Christian ministry. Greggo charts a course for care that brings best practices of the profession together with practices of Christian discipleship. Key topics include:
Does a Christian worldview offer distinguishing parameters for assessment practice?
Can clinical proficiency in assessment bring glory to God?
How can the crucial psychometric construct of validity be translated into our Christian faith?
In what ways can the inclusion of objective procedures be transformed into a message of hospitality and affirmation?
How can counselors maximize the benefits of a therapeutic alliance to attend to immediate concerns and foster spiritual formation?
How can formal personality measures add depth and substance to the counseling experience?
How can assessment contribute to client retention, treatment completion, and aftercare planning?With Assessment for Counseling in Christian Perspective, clinical and pastoral counselors can bring the best of assessment into counseling that reflects the essence of the Christian faith.
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Wonder Of The Word
$12.99Everything you need to know about Scripture
The Wonder of the Word gives you a complete survey of the Bible and shows you how Scripture produces power in someone’s life. It is the second book in the Kingdom Pastor’s Library from Tony Evans and will reinvigorate your love for Scripture. Dr. Evans explores the nature and benefits of God’s Word, as well as how to sow and grow the seed. It will also cover important topic such as:
*The revelation of Scripture
*The inspiration of Scripture
*The illumination of Scripture
*The interpretation of Scripture
*The canonicity of ScriptureLearn the essentials of Scripture from the gifted, veteran pastor, Tony Evans.
The Kingdom Pastor’s Library is a series of books that brings you a concise, complete pastoral philosophy and training from Tony Evans.
Faithful. Powerful. Practical. Become a Kingdom Pastor today.
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Free Of Me Participants Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$9.99Our me-centered culture affects every area of our lives–our friendships, our marriages, even our faith. The self-focused life robs our joy, shrinks our souls, and is the reason we never quite break free of insecurity.
Now churches and small groups can together heed the call to a bigger, Jesus-centered vision of life–one that restores our freedom and inspires us to live for more. Free of Me helps participants:
*identify the secret source of insecurity
*understand how self-focus sabotages seven areas of our lives
*learn four practical steps for focusing on God and others
*experience freedom from the burden of self-focusAnyone yearning for a purpose bigger than “project me” will cherish this paradigm-shifting message of true fulfillment.
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New Testament You Never Knew Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99The New Testament You Never Knew Study Guide by N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird is the definitive introduction to the New Testament.
In this 8-session video-based study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), leading New Testament scholars, N.T. Wright and Michael Bird, hope to take you on a tour of the New Testament Story, from Galilee to Golgotha, from Jerusalem to Rome. They will look at who Jesus is, the real meaning of his death and resurrection, the expansion of the church in the Greco-Roman world, examine the debates and setbacks that they had along the way, and show how Christians can live out the story of New Testament in their own lives today.
Sessions include:
*The Story of the New Testament
*The World of Jesus
*Life and Death of Jesus
*The Resurrection of Jesus
*The Apostle Paul
*The Early Christians
*The Mission of the Church
*How the NT Came to BeDesigned for use with The New Testament You Never Knew Video Study (sold separately).
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Power Of Preaching
$14.99The No-Nonsense Preaching Manual Every Pastor Needs
The first book in the Kingdom Pastor’s Library from Tony Evans, The Power of Preaching will help you be faithful to the Word of God and preach with power and conviction. From the practice of preparation to learning to choose subjects wisely, this book offers brings you a preaching education from one of the most trusted and effective voices in ministry. It also includes important lessons on:
*Bible study methods & expository preaching
*The development and use of illustrations
*The cadence of deliveryLearn the essentials of preaching a powerful message from the gifted, veteran pastor, Tony Evans.
The Kingdom Pastor’s Library is a series of books that brings you a concise, complete pastoral philosophy and training from Tony Evans.
Faithful. Powerful. Practical. Become a Kingdom Pastor today.
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Holy Roar Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$18.73In this four-session video Bible study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), Chris Tomlin and Darren Whitehead share a fresh perspective from the worship practices of the ancient world to show what it really means to praise God. They explain that in the Jewish culture, something extraordinary happened when God’s people gathered to worship him. It was more than just singing-it was a declaration, a proclamation, and a time for the people to fully embody praise to God for who he is and what he has done.
In the book of Psalms, the writers used seven distinct words that are translated into English as praise. However, as Chris and Darren point out in this study, each of these Hebrew words actually represents a different aspect of what it means to truly worship God:
*Yadah: to revere or worship with extended hands
*Halal: to boast, celebrate, and be clamorously foolish
*Zamar: to celebrate in song and in music
*Towdah: to give thanksgiving for things not yet received
*Barak: to kneel before God and bless him
*Tehillah: to sing a spontaneous song to God
*Shabach: to commend, glory, and triumphHoly Roar will provide insights and encouragement for group members to deepen their practice of praise and they learn about the deeper meanings of these words and put them into practice.
Sessions include:
1. The Shout of Praise
2. The Posture of Praise
3. The Music of Praise
4. The Expectation of PraiseAdd to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
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Irresistible Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99Once upon a time there existed a version of our faith worth living and dying for, something the world found irresistible. Men and women pursued it at the risk of persecution, job loss, and eviction from their homes, temples, and society.
What if we actually followed their lead? Perhaps it would change how we read the Bible? Perhaps it would help us understand our own faith and what we believe? Perhaps we would change the world again?
In this six-session video study (DVD/video downloads sold separately), pastor and author Andy Stanley shows how Jesus’ arrival signaled that the Old Testament was fulfilled and its laws reduced to a single verb–love–to be applied to God, neighbor, and enemy. So, what is required if we want to follow Jesus’s example and radically love the people around us? We almost always know the answer. The hard part is actually doing what love requires.
Rather than working harder to make Christianity more interesting, we need to recover what once made faith in Jesus irresistible to the world.
Sessions include:
*Simply Resistible
*Brand New Agreement
*The Bible According to Jesus
*The Irresistible Ethic
*What Love Requires of Me
*A New ApproachDesigned for use with the Irresistible Video Study (9780310100515), sold separately.
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Neighborhood Church : Transforming Your Congregation Into A Powerhouse For
$22.00How can we embody the values of love, grace, and justice? As faith communities, how can our collective embodiment of these values shine even brighter? The answers to these questions must always unfold right here, right now, exactly where God has planted us. Neighborhood Churchacts as a resource to inspire churches to become a vibrant and engaging community partner with the families and neighborhoods living around them. The need for transformation is acute. Congregational decline continues across all mainline denominations. The abandonment of the church by the millennial generation is ubiquitous; no denomination is escaping it. This is, in part, a consequence of disconnection from our communities. Van Tatenhove and Mueller believe that, parish by parish, we can reverse this trend. They dare to have an audacious hope for local congregations not only as signs of God’s kingdom but as life-giving institutions that anchor their neighborhoods. Drawing on their combined sixty years of parish experience, wisdom from Asset-Based Community Development, and compelling case stories, Van Tatenhove and Mueller do more than just call us to incarnational ministry. They give practical, essential tools that lead to communal conversion, develop the DNA of listening, spur fruitful partnerships, promote integrated space, and sustain long-term visions. They believe these tools will spark true revival and unleash the power of incarnational ministry.
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Connections Year C Volume 2 Lent Through Pentecost
$45.00Designed to empower preachers as they lead their congregations to connect their lives to Scripture, Connections features a broad set of interpretive tools that provide commentary and worship aids on the Revised Common Lectionary.
For each worship day within the three-year lectionary cycle, the commentaries in Connections link the individual lection reading with Scripture as a whole as well as to the larger world. In addition, Connections places each Psalm reading in conversation with the other lections for the day to highlight the themes of the liturgical season. Finally, sidebars offer additional connections to Scripture for each Sunday or worship day.
This nine-volume series is a practical, constructive, and valuable resource for preachers who seek to help congregations connect more closely with Scripture.
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Equipping Grandparents : Helping Your Church Reach And Disciple The Next Ge
$15.29Many powerful voices are influencing our grandchildren, from those at home and in their schools to those in the world of entertainment and media. What can you as a grandparent do to speak wisdom and godliness into their lives?
Grandparenting gives you a biblical foundation for investing spiritually in your grandkids, walking you through the principles of influencing them for Christ–from sharing with unbelieving grandkids to discipling them into a mature faith. This book is perfect for individual use, small groups, or Sunday school classes. A Grandparenting DVD is available that features eight family ministry experts with over six hours of video content.
Two other resources are also available:
Biblical Grandparenting is a full-length leadership book that places grandparenting
ministry on a firm scriptural foundation. It is ideal for pastors and church leaders as
well as for use in the classroom at seminaries.Equipping Grandparents is a brief book to teach pastors how to begin a grandparenting ministry in their church.
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Homiletics And Hermeneutics
$29.41Scott Gibson and Matthew Kim, both experienced preachers and teachers, have brought together four preaching experts–Bryan Chapell, Kenneth Langley, Abraham Kuruvilla, and Paul Scott Wilson–to present and defend their approach to homiletics. Reflecting current streams of thought in homiletics, the book offers a robust discussion of theological and hermeneutical approaches to preaching and encourages pastors and ministry students to learn about preaching from other theological traditions. It also includes discussion questions for direct application to one’s preaching.
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Biblical Grandparenting : Exploring Gods Design For Disciple Making And Pas
$22.35Many powerful voices are influencing our grandchildren, from those at home and in their schools to those in the world of entertainment and media. What can you as a grandparent do to speak wisdom and godliness into their lives?
Grandparenting gives you a biblical foundation for investing spiritually in your grandkids, walking you through the principles of influencing them for Christ–from sharing with unbelieving grandkids to discipling them into a mature faith. This book is perfect for individual use, small groups, or Sunday school classes. A Grandparenting DVD is available that features eight family ministry experts with over six hours of video content.
Two other resources are also available:
Biblical Grandparenting is a full-length leadership book that places grandparenting
ministry on a firm scriptural foundation. It is ideal for pastors and church leaders as
well as for use in the classroom at seminaries.Equipping Grandparents is a brief book to teach pastors how to begin a grandparenting ministry in their church.
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Grandparenting : Strengthening Your Family And Passing On Your Faith
$22.35Many powerful voices are influencing our grandchildren, from those at home and in their schools to those in the world of entertainment and media. What can you as a grandparent do to speak wisdom and godliness into their lives? Grandparenting gives you a biblical foundation for investing spiritually in your grandkids, walking you through the principles of influencing them for Christ–from sharing with unbelieving grandkids to discipling them into a mature faith. This book is perfect for individual use, small groups, or Sunday school classes. A Grandparenting DVD is available that features eight family ministry experts with over six hours of video content.
Two other resources are also available:
Biblical Grandparenting is a full-length leadership book that places grandparenting ministry on a firm scriptural foundation. It is ideal for pastors and church leaders as well as for use in the classroom at seminaries.Equipping Grandparents is a brief book to teach pastors how to begin a grandparenting ministry in their church.
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Your Church At Its Best
$14.99Broken into four parts, Your Church at Its Best examines sixteen crucial components of a healthy church, along with best practices for keeping a ministry running smoothly. This comprehensive and practical resource helps leaders see that we are not victims of the past, of location, or of present conditions.
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Peacemaking Church : 8 Biblical Keys To Resolve Conflict And Preserve Unity
$15.99When human beings are involved in any endeavor, conflict is inevitable. But the best fight is the one a church never has to have because its members have been intentionally cultivating practices that lead to peace and preserve unity. Whether they are dealing with conflict right now or hoping to avoid it later, church members, pastors, and ministry leaders will benefit from the proactive approach to peacemaking found in The Peacemaking Church, which will equip them with the knowledge and practices they need to instill in their church leadership and membership. Foreword by Ken Sande.
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Case For Christmas Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99In his bestselling book The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel retraced his spiritual journey from atheism to faith by showing how the evidence he obtained from experts in the field of history, archaeology, and ancient manuscripts led him to the verdict that Jesus truly was the Son of God. Now, in this four-week study for Christmas (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), Lee investigates the story surrounding the birth of Jesus-and how we can know that it is true.
In each session, he will explore the following aspects of the Christmas story:
*What the Gospel accounts actually say, what other stories about Jesus’ birth emerged in the first through third centuries, and how we can know the biblical accounts are accurate
*The Bible’s claim that Jesus was born of a virgin and whether that idea-and other aspects of the Christmas story-developed from the pagan religions of the day
*Some aspects of the Christmas story that don’t seem to match with the historical or archaeological record, such as the census, the existence of Nazareth, and the slaughter of the innocents
*The great mystery of the incarnation-how Jesus could be both fully God and fully human at the same time-and how we can know he is truly the promised MessiahThe Case for Christmas invites participants to examine the evidence for themselves and consider why Christmas matters in the first place. It will point them to the inescapable conclusion that Jesus truly was who he said he was: the divine Son of God.
Designed for use with The Case for Christmas Video Study/The Case for Easter Video Study (sold separately).
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Making A Scene In The Pulpit
$30.00How can preachers ensure that their sermons continue to engage listeners in a world defined by visual media and the short, segmented delivery of information? Alyce McKenzie harnesses the element of drama and the human fascination with scenes to offer ministers a modern means of sermon development and delivery.
McKenzie’s core strategy is to invite listeners into scenes-whether from Scripture or contemporary life-and, once they are there, to point them toward the larger story of God’s relationship with humankind. Creating such scenes unifies the whole process of preaching, she says, from the preacher’s daily life observations to interpretation of scenes from Scripture, to sermon shaping, sequencing, and delivery. The process culminates in a specific understanding of the purpose of the sermon: to send listeners out into the scenes they’ll play in their lives for the next week, equipped to act out their parts in ways that are kinder, more just, and more courageous than last week.
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New Elders Handbook
$18.75Pastors and church leaders are in need of mature, godly elders to ensure church health, but the training of elders is often entirely missing or badly neglected. What if there were a process to proactively call and train elders? The New Elder’s Handbook is designed to equip elders with the knowledge, character, and skills the office calls for. It takes church leaders through the development of a vision for ministry, recruitment of elders to carry out that vision, and specific, biblical training, providing a way to be intentional about developing elders.
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Case For Easter Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$10.99In his bestselling book The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel retraced his spiritual journey from atheism to faith by showing how the evidence he obtained from experts in the field of history, archaeology, and ancient manuscripts led him to the verdict that Jesus truly was the Son of God. Now, in this four-week study for Easter (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), Lee investigates the story surrounding the resurrection of Jesus-and how we can know that it is true.
In each session, he will explore the following aspects of the Easter story:
*What the Gospel accounts actually say about Jesus’ death and resurrection, how we can reconcile the discrepancies between the accounts, and how we can know the biblical accounts are accurate
*How we can use a technique known as “five minimal facts”-facts on which even skeptical scholars agree are true-and medical evidence to build a strong case for Jesus’ resurrection
*What the evidence in the Gospels reveals about the Jesus’ tomb being empty, why the Gospel writers are credible when they make this claim, and what this evidence leads us to conclude
*Who the Bible states witnessed Jesus being alive after the crucifixion, how early creeds emerged that stated Jesus was alive, and how it’s clear the early church carried on this teachingThe Case for Easter invites participants to examine the evidence for themselves and consider whether the story of Jesus’ resurrection makes sense. It will point them to the inescapable conclusion that led Lee from atheism to Christianity: Jesus was the Son of God who conquered the grave.
Designed for use with The Case for Christmas Video Study/The Case for Easter Video Study (sold separately). This DVD is a set of two videos to accompany The Case for Christmas Study Guide and The Case for Easter Study Guide (each guide sold separately).
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99 Prayers Your Church Needs But Doesnt Know It Yet
$9.99When the unexpected comes and you can’t find the words to pray, 99 Prayers Your Church Needs (But Doesn’t Know It Yet) will provide the starting point that will help lead you to the prayer your congregation or pastor needs. From prayers for a family who has lost a loved one to addiction, to a prayer for the new pastor in a new congregation, these 99 prayers will help you respond to a multitude of unexpected prayer requests? whether celebratory or grieving, or somewhere in between?in the course of your congregation’s life.
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Lords Prayer
$55.00C. Clifton Black provides a thorough analysis of the most famous prayer in the Christian church, the Lord’s Prayer. He begins with an impressionist painting of how the ancients prayed during Jesus’ time in order to set the context for understanding the prayer he taught his disciples. Throughout the book, Black systematically interprets the rich meanings of each part of the Lord’s prayer. Additionally, he includes an overview of Christian thought on the Lord’s Prayer from early church mothers and fathers like Tertullian and Teresa of Avila to modern theologians like Karl Barth. Uniquely, this book is an academic study of the Lord’s Prayer with a focus on the rhetorical culture from which it developed as well as the theological, literary, and historical meanings of the prayer itself.
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I Declare War Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99In the New Testament, some the most common analogies used to describe following Jesus are that of a soldier engaged in a good fight and an athlete running to win a prize. In our world today, athletes and soldiers know they must have a mental edge to successfully deal with everything they encounter. They know victory will never occur unless they’ve first won their internal battles.
In I Declare War, author and pastor Levi Lusko shows how the same is true for Christians. God has called each of us to an important assignment-to win the battle and claim the prize-but to fulfill that calling we first have to win the war within. Levi draws from the Bible to show four ways to fight this internal battle:
*Key #1: Discover Your Calling
*Key #2: Prepare for the Trial
*Key #3: Learn Self-Control
*Key #4: Rely on God’s PowerLevi draws on stories from his own life to show how God can help us wage war against issues that rob us of joy such as depression, fear, anxiety, addiction, negative thoughts, pride, jealousy, resentment, anger, self-doubt, and codependent relationships. While Levi does not offer a quick fix or promise the “perfect life” if participants follow all the steps, he does point toward the hope that God provides as we commit to fight the good fight through all the pain, sweat, and tears that each day brings.
Designed for use with the I Declare War Video Study (sold separately).
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Luke Alive Volume 2
$19.93“Do you feel as though God favors you? That He is on your side? That He is always with you?”
These are the questions Robert Blair asks in the 13 sermons in Luke Alive, Volume 1e Alive, Volume 1. They cut straight to the Christian heart. They address our greatest fear: that we might not be good enough for God. That we might not enjoy his favor.
Blair does not stop short at dismissing our fears with a casual overview of grace. He addresses where they come from, a natural drive to earn favor, to work toward something we can never fully attain ourselves. The Gospel of Luke shows us what we can “earn” with our actions and what we can’t.
In the sinful woman who cries at Jesus’ feet and cleans them, we see the image of genuine gratitude for forgiveness. In the healing of the crippled woman, we discern that it’s always time to do good for other people.
Luke Alivee Alive guides ministers through our deepest of Christian fears and desires, and offers satisfying answers based firmly in scripture. It is a must-have volume for pastors seeking to answer direct questions with plain language, whether from the pulpit or the living room couch.
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Luke Alive Volume 1
$19.93“Do you feel as though God favors you? That He is on your side? That He is always with you?”
These are the questions Robert Blair asks in the first of 13 sermons in Luke Alive, Volume 1. They cut straight to the Christian heart. They address our greatest fear: that we might not be good enough for God.That we might not enjoy his favor.
Blair does not stop short at dismissing our fears with a casual overview of grace. He addresses where they come from, a natural drive to earn favor, to work toward something we can never fully attain ourselves. The Gospel of Luke shows us what we can “earn” with our actions and what we can’t.
In Mary, the Mother of Jesus we have an image of what it means to be chosen, to be given the Lord’s favor. In Jesus’ proclamation of the year of the Lord’s favor at Nazareth we see that, favored as we may be, there is a kind of favor we can earn when we seize the opportunity. In the story of Jesus and his disciples picking grain on the Sabbath we learn that we do not earn favor by following rules.
That’s when it gets really exciting.
Luke Alive guides ministers through our deepest of Christian fears and desires, and offers satisfying answers based firmly in scripture. It is a must-have volume for pastors seeking to answer direct questions with plain language, whether from the pulpit or the living room couch.
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Watch This Cycle C
$19.93It is often challenging to discuss with new believers – or even seasoned believers – the meatiest parts of Christian theology. You can’t exactly answer these questions in the course of an elevator ride.
“What is the Holy Spirit? How does it work?”
“What does it mean for God to be in three persons?”
“Are demons really in the world? What are Christians supposed to do about demon possession?”
Dave Zuchelli draws from the Gospels of Luke and John to give you tools to wrestle with these questions. Whether from the pulpit, in a small group or personal conversation, the sermons inWatch This!remind us to enter into discussion with humility. To sit with our guests at the last seat at the table.
The Lord will meet you there.
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Adoptive Church : Creating An Environment Where Emerging Generations Belong
$25.00Teens and emerging adults don’t feel at home in the church because they are not fully included in the church body. How can congregations nurture young adults, welcome them as siblings into God’s household, and empower them to become fully embedded contributors within and to their faith community?
Integrating the latest research on adolescent faith and young adult ministry for the local church, this book presents a new way of thinking about youth ministry. Chap Clark makes the principles found in Sticky Faith, Growing Young, and Hurt 2.0 highly practical for today’s youth leaders, showing how they can implement a sustainable youth ministry program in a local church akin to Purpose-Driven Youth Ministry. Clark presents the adoptive youth ministry model as a way to help congregations see youth ministry as a bridge to inclusion, participation, and contribution in the body of Christ. His comprehensive plan for designing and implementing youth ministry shows churches how to intentionally welcome young people and create an environment where they belong.
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Last Days Cycle C
$19.93Do you serve people who feel like underdogs?
The story of Jesus’ last days on Earth, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke, provide some of the New Testament’s most powerful inspiration for the “underdogs” among us.
Richard A. Hasler draws from a deep well of modern-era stories to illustrate Jesus’ words of comfort and hope to people who seemed foolish, destined to lose in life.
Learn how Albert Schweitzer “wasted” his gifts to become a missionary to equatorial Africa; how Feodor Dostoevsky depended on the grace of God to create beautiful work out of a broken life; how one young believer ministered to a woman living with a family of Satanists in an unlikely place; and more.
These 12 sermons included in The Last Days reminds us we have the strength to serve, persevere and trust in Jesus Christ, even when doing so looks foolish, because we follow the king of underdogs … until the last days and forevermore.
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Find Your Fit (Revised)
$18.00God made you unique and valuable, and he invites you into an incredible future. But it can be hard to think through what that means and what it should look like. How can you figure it all out in the middle of your responsibilities, expectations, and pressures?
Find Your Fit is an incredible resource to help you discover who you are. It assesses your interests, abilities, spiritual gifts, values, and personality so you can understand what makes you tick and how you can become all God designed you to be. But it’s not just a powerful tool–it’s also fun to understand yourself better than you ever have before.
The Find Your Fit Discovery Workbook is also available, and it includes self-assessments, questions for digging deeper, and group exercises. Set yourself free to dream big dreams about what your life can be. God loves you so much and wants you to join him to change the world!
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Overcomer Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99In this six-session Bible study, bestselling author Dr. David Jeremiah turns his insights to one of the most quoted but least understood passages of the Bible: the apostle Paul’s admonition in Ephesians 6:10-18 to take up the whole armor of God. With his signature depth, wisdom, and compassion, Dr. Jeremiah explores the powerful relevance of spiritual armor as a critical tool in our daily living as we confront the challenges in our lives and of our time. He reveals how God has given us, his followers, the tools we need to live a life defined not by our trials but by our victories.
This study will serve as a practical guide for how we can live each day in the strength that God provides as we equip each piece of spiritual armor. Although we all live in a time of deep uncertainty, the Bible promises we can live the life of freedom that God intended-even in times when the world seems filled with darkness. We were created to be overcomers, conquering the greatest obstacles in our lives.It is time to find renewed strength and claim the promises of God’s Word to overcome life’s greatest threats. It is time to claim our victory in Christ an be an overcomer.
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Taste And See Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99Food has always been something that joins us to one another as we procure, prepare, and share meals. We gather around tables and enter the hallowed belonging and sacred union of fellowship. In this place, we reconnect with our true selves as reconciles and healers of the world who dine with justice and mercy, practice divine hospitality, and restore our bodies with God’s gift of provision. Scripture likens Jesus to bread, an edible and necessary source of life. The Holy Spirit is likened to oil and anointing. The process of produce growth and pruning and harvesting is all through God’s word.
This six-session Bible study (DVD/downloads sold separately) explores those metaphors focusing on a few select, but pointed examples that take us full-circle in the experience of harvesting a relationship with Christ.
Sessions include:
*Come to the Table
*Bread of Life
*Pressed and Anointed
*First Fruit Offerings
*Sacrifice
*Invite and ServeDesigned for use with the Taste and See Video Study (sold separately).
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Connections Year C Volume 1
$45.00Designed to empower preachers as they lead their congregations to connect their lives to Scripture, Connections features a broad set of interpretive tools that provide commentary and worship aids on the Revised Common Lectionary.
For each worship day within the three-year lectionary cycle, the commentaries in Connections link the individual lection reading with Scripture as a whole as well as to the larger world. In addition, Connections places each Psalm reading in conversation with the other lections for the day to highlight the themes of the liturgical season. Finally, sidebars offer additional connections to Scripture for each Sunday or worship day.
This nine-volume series is a practical, constructive, and valuable resource for preachers who seek to help congregations connect more closely with Scripture.
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Meeting God At The Mall Cycle C
$19.93Americans are mired in idolatry. This is perhaps at no time more evident than during the Christmas season.
What idols do we worship? We often point out the consumerism that eclipses the meaning of the holiday, but as Mary Austin points out, there are others that might escape our notice. Perfectionism, that belief that if we can host the perfect holiday party or keep a perfect house, for example;thesefalse gods, we often believe will offer us wholeness. Busy-ness, too, can give us a false sense of worth.
These sermons use the words and actions of Paul to call out these false gods, to reveal our idolatry and its cause: our longing for the true source of peace. Once we have determined the cause of our love/hate relationship with the Christmas season, we can begin to pursue the counter-cultural cure.
Meeting God at the Mallting God at the Mall shows us there is no obstacle too great to prevent us from finding our way back to the peace we can find only in our loving Savior.
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True Inclusion : Creating Communities Of Radical Embrace
$14.99Discover how to move your church beyond mere welcome to radical embrace.
So your church website says you’re welcoming, a rainbow flag flies out front, worship uses gender-inclusive language, and you make sure you greet the stranger next to you on Sunday mornings. But is all of that really enough? And what if those welcoming gestures actually keep visitors from returning and exclude dozens of other groups or people in your community?
In True Inclusion, public theologian and pastor Brandan Robertson shares how to move your church from mere welcome to radical embrace. Pointing to a clear biblical imperative for radical inclusivity in the sanctuary and in the public square, Robertson presents a paradigm-shifting vision of community, “where nothing is simple, nothing is easy, but everything is beautiful.” Learn practical, step-by-step approaches to becoming deeply, robustly, and richly inclusive of all people regardless of race, gender identity, sexual orientation, political affiliation, and socioeconomic status.
Written for people and communities at every stage of the journey, True Inclusion will challenge and inspire you to embody a gospel of radical embrace for all.
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Surrendering My Ordination
$20.00In May 2017, after sixty years as an ordained United Methodist minister, Rev. J. Philip Wogaman surrendered his ordination, choosing to exit a community of clergy who will not allow an openly gay person to join. By surrendering his ordination, he chose to join the group of devoted Christians outside the clergy who welcomed gay and lesbian individuals.
Beginning with an examination of ordination and what is means theologically, ethically, and pastorally, Wogaman then describes the action itself and its aftermath. Surrendering My Ordination also explores how The United Methodist Church can move forward, beyond the polarized present situation found in many contemporary Christian churches.
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Women Of The Bible
$16.99Based on the bestselling book coauthored with Ann Spangler, Women of the Bible, this study edition includes an introduction to each woman, major Scripture passages, study materials, and cultural backgrounds. There are fifty-two studies, one for each week of the year. Newly gathered study aids include helpful charts as well as a complete listing of all women of the Bible, with pertinent Scripture references. Space is included to record your thoughts and insights.
Each timeless biblical story mirrors the challenges and changes today’s women face. Through understanding these women’s lives, this easy-to-use study resource will help you discover the God behind their stories-and yours.
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Love First : A Childrens Ministry For The Whole Church
$33.26* A sought-after model and guide to a new paradigm for children’s ministries * Creative program based on research and personal experience Struggling to offer a children’s program that resonates with young families? Finding it difficult to recruit teachers and volunteers for your children’s program? Want a children’s ministry that is grounded in Christ’s foundational teachings and relevant to the experiences of children today? This must-have guide to rethinking your children’s ministry is informed and intelligent, with the lighthearted humor so helpful to working with children. Through storytelling, testimonials, and research-based creativity, you’ll be inspired and energized to use your church’s gifts, your children’s interests, and your families’ needs to develop a children’s ministry that fits your church and the people in it. An appendix includes sample lesson plans, suggested Bible stories and book, and sermons. Colette Potts offers a successful model for a congregation to turn around their children’s ministry program to engage the whole congregation in worship, learning, and service while partnering with parents for bridging the formation gap between Sunday morning at church and the rest of the week at home and beyond.
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Gods Plan For Christian Living (Workbook)
$29.95Every ESL Ministry Needs This Book!
God’s Plan for Christian Living, Book 2 in the ESL Ministry Series, is a practical, time-tested workbook with step-by-step activities that help ESL students move easily from learning English or reading more fluently to considering what it means to live as a disciple of Christ.
This ESL workbook is part of a series that is:
*Deliberately simple in design and vocabulary.
*Easy to follow with engaging and effective exercises.
*Suitable as a stand-alone resource or as a supplement to existing ESL courses.
*Designed to share the basic principles of Christian living in clear, concise lessons.
*Perfect for ESL teachers and ministries to use and adapt to a variety of contexts.God’s Plan for Christian Living is ideal for:
*People with limited English ability.
*Individuals with little or no previous Bible knowledge.
*People who may be reluctant to interact with the Bible because of its perceived complexity.For those looking to introduce the Good News of Christ into their ESL program, the first book in this ESL Ministry Series–God’s Plan of Love (ISBN: 978-1-61314-401-5)–is also available. Together, these easy-to-use materials will provide the tools to bridge the gap between ESL language teaching and sharing Christ and important biblical truths.
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Focus On Jesus Cycle C
$21.18Every time Rev. Derl G. Keefer preaches a Christmas sermon, he asks himself the same question. Why did Jesus come to earth?
It’s the question that Jesus’ earthly parents, Mary and Joseph, must have asked themselves over and over. They struggled to understand why, when he was 12 years old, he would leave their care to join the scholars of the temple.
His answer served to refocus his own parents on who he really was.”Did you not know,” he asked them, “that I must be about my Father’s business?”
The 15 sermons contained in Focus on Jesus will provide four answers to the question of why he came by revealing the nature of the Father’s business as described in the Gospel of Luke:
*Jesus came to be the fulfillment of prophecy.
*Jesus came to be our Messiah.
*Jesus came to be our Savior.
*Jesus came to be the human face of God.This Advent season, utilize Keefer’s clear, simple teaching style in Focus on Jesus to help those seeking Jesus understand who he is, and to reignite the passion that first brought members of your congregation into his arms.
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Shouting Joy To The Storm Cycle C
$19.93How are we to respond when the violent storm of change rolls into our lives?
Should we hide from the storm? Hide in the status quo?
As this volume of sermons reminds us, that is not the way of the Christ.Followers of Jesus are called to believe that our greatest treasure ought not be found in the comfort of worldly life as we make it. The Lord calls us instead to step outside and face the coming storm, as he did.
When we do, we face all manner of fears in a world that does not like its order challenged. Mockery when we follow God; poverty when we stop worshipping money; grief when we are vulnerable enough to love the oppressed.
Shouting Joy to the Storm reminds us that, just as the Father partnered with the Son to bring him through the storm of Calvary, so he will bring us through our storms. We are not in this for a mere lifetime. We are in it for the long haul.
“They shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them. They shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid (Ezekiel 34:28, ESV).”
Sermons include:
*Long View – The Long Haul(Luke 13:31-35)
*What Is Truth? (John 18:1-19, 42)
*Death Shall Be No More (John 13:31-35, Revelation 21:1-6)Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
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Unshakable Hope Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99The Unshakable Hope group Bible study provides groups of all sizes the opportunity to discuss and apply what they experience during the twelve-week Unshakable Hope church campaign.
In this 12-week study, bestselling author and pastor Max Lucado reveals how the heroes in the Bible came from all walks of life. They were rulers, servants, teachers, doctors. They were male, female, single, married. Yet one common denominator united them: they all put their faith in God’s promises. Because of God’s promises, Noah built an ark on dry land, Abraham went to a distant land, Joshua claimed the Promised Land, David became king, Peter preached the first sermon, and John caught a glimpse of the future.The stories of the men and women in Scripture were different, but the theme was the same: they were people of the Promise. Since the beginning of time, God’s relationship to humankind has been shaped by specific requirements and promises. These covenants were unchangeable decrees that defined the outflow of history. Some of the promises were positive, the assurance of blessings. Some of them were negative, the guarantee of consequence. But all the promises were binding.
This world has a tremble to it. There are things that seem unsteady in this life. But when we belong to God, it allows us to filter our problems through the promises of God. When crises arise, we can simply mutter, “But God said…” When struggles threaten, we can be seen flipping through the Bible, saying, “I know that God said something about this.” When we choose to be people of the promise, we choose to build our lives on promises of God not the circumstances of life.
It is through the great and precious promises that we participate in the divine nature of God. They sit like golden stones in the pathway to God’s world. They are strong boulders that form the bridge over which we walk from our sin to salvation. They aren’t just great, they are “very great”; and they aren’t just valuable, they are “precious.” To bind them around our neck is to adorn ourselves with the finest jewels of the universe. As Dwight Moody put it, “If you would spend a month feeding on the precious promises of God-you wouldn’t be going about complaining how poor you are. You would lift up your head and proclaim the riches of His Grace, because you couldn’t help doing it.”
Sessions include:
1. You Are Stamped with God’s Image
2. God Will Win the Victory
3. You Are an Heir of God
4. Your Prayers Have Power
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Miracles : Gods Presence And Power In Creation
$50.00Miracles are not confined to the stories of Scripture; these signs of God’s presence and power in creation are experienced throughout our daily existence. Yet cultural challenges and modernity’s skepticism have marginalized belief in them as unreasonable and irrational, says Luke Timothy Johnson.
In this excellent resource for church professionals, Johnson reclaims Christian belief in miracles as integral to recovering a proper and strong sense of creation, recognizing the validity of personal experience and narrative and asserting the truth-telling quality of myth. His analysis includes:
a description of the competing symbolic worldviews that have framed the discussion on miracles, including secular debates and theological imagination;
interpretation of miracles consonant with the biblical construction of reality in the Old and New Testaments;
suggestions for four areas in the church’s life-teaching, preaching, prayer, and pastoral care-that can work together to shape a symbolic world, within which believers can expect, perceive, and celebrate the miracles in everyday life.Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
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Loving And Leaving A Church
$26.00Barbara Melosh’s story was a common one. A second-career seminarian, she arrived at her first pastorate brimming with enthusiasm and high hopes. The blue-collar congregation to which she’d been called had a glorious past but an uncertain future. Certain that she could turn around its slow yet undeniable slide into decline, Melosh inaugurated a number of church growth and outreach programs. Most of these efforts had little effect, and the ones that did seem to work soon suffered reverse outcomes and eventual demise. In the end, Melosh had to conclude that the members of the congregation liked their church the way it was and that she could not drag them into a future they did not want.
Yet while the congregation failed to change itself, Melosh notes, it succeeded in changing her. Simply put, it made her a pastor. At times heartbreaking and hilarious, Loving and Leaving a Church offers a glimpse into the challenges and opportunities of ministry in a mainline church.
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Glimpsing Resurrection : Cancer Trauma And Ministry
$28.00In Glimpsing Resurrection, Deanna A. Thompson combines recent trauma research with compelling first-person narrative to provide insight into the traumatic dimensions of living with a serious illness. Her aim is to help those who are ill and those who care for and minister to them deepen their understanding of how best to offer support.
“The tendency for Christians to move almost immediately from death to proclamations of new life risks alienating those for whom healing and new life seem out of reach,” says Thompson. Glimpsing Resurrection focuses less on the “why” to help readers instead come to terms with the “how” of living with a serious disease. In particular, Thompson provides a framework and concrete suggestions for how to be a church where those who are undone by illness can be undone, as well as a place that can love and support them to hope.
“Finding space within the psalms, the story of Job, Jesus’ cry of God-forsakenness on the cross, and even Christ’s descent into hell helps us imagine how Christian communities can be spacious enough to acknowledge and hold those who are undone by illness,” Thompson says. “Only then does it become possible to identify the hope that can emerge from our not-yet-resurrection reality to imagine more in life today as well as in the life to come.”
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Guardrails Study Guide Updated Edition (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99Ever wonder what it would be like to have guardrails in other areas of your life-areas where culture baits you to the edge of disaster and then chastises you when you step across the line? Your friendships. Your finances. Your marriage. Maybe your greatest regret could have been avoided if you had established guardrails.
In this five-session video-based small group Bible study (video sold separately), Andy Stanley challenges us to stop flirting with disaster and establish some personal guardrails.
Sessions include:
*Direct and Protect
*Proximity
*Forever Yours
*Money Matters
*The Heart of the MatterDesigned for use with the Guardrails Video Study (9780310095910), sold separately.
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Cultures In Conflict Discovery Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99How do you live in a culture where the worldview conflicts with Christianity? Learn from Paul as he settled among the Greco-Romans of Corinth, who valued wealth and class, worship of multiple gods, and decadent pleasure seeking above all else. In this sixteenth volume of That The World May Know , discover how to live in your own Corinth-a dechristianized Western world-in a way that glorifies God.
Designed for use with the Cultures in Conflict Video Study (9780310085928), sold separately.
Video sessions, filmed on location in Israel and Greece, include:
Engaging the Mind-Paul in the Stoa of Athens (Athens)
Engaging the Heart (Athens)Turning Weakness into Strength (Timnah, Corinth)
The Lord’s Supper-Discerning the Body (Corinth, Delos)
Transforming the Chaos (Corinth)THAT THE WORLD MAY KNOW Join renowned teacher and historian Ray Vander Laan as he guides you through the land of the Bible. In each lesson, Vander Laan illuminates the historical, geographical, and cultural context of the sacred Scriptures. Filmed on location in the Middle East and elsewhere, the That the World May Know film series will transform your understanding of God and challenge you to be a true follower of Jesus.
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Making Your Case For Christ Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99In his bestselling book The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel retraced his spiritual journey from atheism to faith by showing how the evidence he obtained from experts in the field of history, archaeology, and ancient manuscripts led him to the verdict that Jesus truly was the Son of God.
Now, in this new six-week training course, Lee and co-author Mark Mittelberg equip believers with practical tools to equip them articulate this same message to their unsaved friends and present evidence that backs up Jesus’ claims and credentials. As participants go through the course, they will discover how to . . .
*Help their unsaved friends and family members open up to consider the case for Christ
*Describe their own personal journey with Christ and how it has impacted them
*Share with confidence about the biblical record of Christ-that Jesus was real
*Present the evidence for the resurrection of Christ-that Jesus died and was raised to life
*Explain the central message of Christ in an authentic and compelling way
*Help their unsaved friends and family members respond to the truth of JesusMaking Your Case for Christ is designed to help Christians, both young and old, understand and articulate the message of Christ along with evidence that backs up his claims and credentials. The training course will combine high points of the historical apologetics presented in The Case for Christ book and movie with specific evangelistic training related to this information. Each session will feature a teaching from Lee and Mark and, as part of a special deal with PureFlix, will include a relevant clip (or set of clips) from The Case for Christ movie. A comprehensive leader’s guide will also be included to help course facilitators use the teaching and movie clips to guide the discussion times.
Sessions include:
*Helping Friends Consider the Case for Christ
*Describing Your Own Journey with Christ
*Backing Up the Biblical Record of Christ
*Presenting Evidence for the Resurrection of Christ
*Explaining the Central Message of Christ
*Encouraging Friends to Follow ChristDesigned for use with the Making Your Case for Christ Video Study (9780310095156), sold separately.
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