Pastoral Helps
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Gratitude On The Prairie Cycle B
$14.95Add to cart“But faith in Christ calls us out of solitary pursuits. Faith in Christ calls us to proclaim Christ where the hurt is the worst, where despair is the deepest, where hope has never been born. We can’t sit under our telescope or at our desk and respond fully to Christ. We have to feel the brokenness around us. We have to be touched, even wounded by it” (page 15). Thomas Willadsen challenges his readers to look at Christ’s sacrifice for us in a new way, to feel the brokenness and challenges that Jesus suffered for us. The challenge of being a Christian is that it is not always easy to spread the good news of God’s love for us.
However, Willadsen points out that this call to spread Christianity has its rewards, even if we do not realize them at first. “You may discover that you have interests and abilities you didn’t realize. You will make new friends and deepen existing friendships. You will learn–I insist on that! –and you will be given opportunities to respond to Christ’s call, to Christ’s sacrifice” (21). No matter the place you are in your life or your destination, Willadsen encourages us as Christians to love others, and to be as Christ for everyone we interact with. Though this might not be easy, Jesus’ ministry wasn’t simple either. Become like Christ through your actions. Love like Christ through your words. Suffer like Christ when people reject you. But overall, remember that you are loved by Christ.
Sermon titles include:
*”It’s Lonely at the Top” (Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22, Psalm 124, Mark 9:38-50, Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29)
*”Seeing with the Eyes of Faith” (Psalm 34: 1-8, 19-22, Jeremiah 31:7-9, Psalm 126, Mark 10:46-52)
*”Steadfast Change” (1 Samuel 1:4-20, 2:1-10, Hebrews 10:11-25, Mark 13:1-8)
Fourteen sermons based on the Gospel lessons from the Revised Common Lectionary (Cycle B) for the second half of the season after Pentecost are included in this single volume. The reader will find these messages inspiring, thought-provoking and comforting. The content of this book will be useful for sermon preparation, study groups and for personal devotions.
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Funeral Sermons That Proclaim And Celebrate
$12.95Add to cart“So today we gather to share our love and our stories with one another. We come to hear the voice of the Good Shepard reflected in the voice of family and friends. We cry together and we laugh together and we know that in both we are embraced in the arms of our loving God.”
Taken from one of George Reed’s many funeral sermons that make up Funeral Seermons that Proclaim and Celebrate, Reed teaches that the passing of a loved one should not be seen as the end of a life, but rather the beginning of a new chapter in which the deceased has been reborn with God in heaven. Throughout his book, he encourages his audience to remember their late relatives and friends through their memories, of all the good times spent together. He reminds us of how the deceased’s actions display God’s presence in the world. Their life, though beautiful like a rainbow, similarly cannot last forever, but the memories of that rainbow lives on in our memories long after its passing. “We will miss the physical presence of NAME but we know that the joy of this rainbow will continue in the presence of God for all eternity and that someday we will again enjoy the fullness of that blessing.”
No matter who your loved one is, or how you want them to be remembered, Reed has offered the guidelines on how to honor them perfectly, using sermons such as:
– “Comfort My People” (Isiah 40:1-8)
– “Many Rooms” (John 14:1-4, 18-19, 25-27)
– “God’s Fullness Within Us” (Ephesians 3:14-21)Throughout this time of grief and mourning, Reed encourages us to remember peaceful memories of our loved ones with whom we will be reunited in heaven.
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Reformed Pastor
$12.00Add to cartRichard Baxter was vicar of Kidderminster from 1647 to 1661. In an introduction to this reprint, Dr. J.I. Packer describes him as ‘the most outstanding pastor, evangelist and writer on practical and devotional themes that Puritanism produced’. His ministry transformed the people of Kidderminster from ‘an ignorant, rude and revelling people’ to a godly, worshipping community. These pages, first prepared for a Worcestershire association of ministers in 1656, deal with the means by which such changes are ever to be accomplished. In his fervent plea for the discharge of the spiritual obligations of the ministry, Baxter, in the words of his contemporary, Thomas Manton, ‘came nearer the apostolic writings than any man in the age’. A century later Philip Doddridge wrote, ‘The Reformed Pastor is a most extraordinary book…many good men are but shadows of what (by the blessing of God) they might be, if the maxims and measures laid down in that incomparable Treatise were strenuously pursued’.
Today, Baxter’s principles, drawn from Scripture, and reapplied in terms of modern circumstances, will provide both ministers and other Christians with challenge, direction and help.
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Dream Big Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$13.99Add to cartAt some point, we resign ourselves to living by the scripts and rhythms established by other people. Perhaps it’s a parent. Maybe it’s a pastor or a boss or a teacher. Maybe it’s a mortgage or wedding date or that next pay raise. Wherever the source, today there is an ocean full of people living on the life rafts of what they were expected to do. If we look at the mirror, we might see ourselves on that life raft as well.
In this five-session video study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), bestselling author Bob Goff dares to ask the questions: What would you do if opinion, reason, or probability were no objects? What do you deeply desire to do even if it scares you to the marrow of your bones? What were you meant to do even if no other person thinks you should? He shares stories from the Bible that show how God called certain individuals to follow him-regardless of their lack of “qualifications”-and how those people changed the world when they dared to follow God’s dreams for their lives. In the same way, God is calling us to step into the version of our lives that he intended for us before others told us it was impossible and once again dream big.
If anyone knows how to live life to the fullest, it is Bob Goff. He has already dazzled readers and audiences with his crazy, audacious, live-out-loud approach and stories told in Love Does and Everybody, Always. Yet as unique as Bob might seem, he had to make his own choice to dream big. In this study, he will take participants on this journey he has already traveled and help them to rediscover the dreams God has for them and turn them into reality. Dream Big will help group members understand that God has a plan for their lives and provide a step-by-step road map to breaking through the barriers that are holding them back.
Designed for use with the Dream Big Video Study (sold separately).
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Victory Over The Darkness Study Guide (Revised)
$16.99Add to cart“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32 niv).
It’s Jesus’s promise to you–the promise that you will live triumphantly. But what keeps you from really walking in the joy of the Lord? The powers of darkness attack us daily. But, as Dr. Neil Anderson shows in Victory Over the Darkness, you can have the power to conquer them by knowing who you are in Christ. In this book, you will learn how to:
* realize the power of your identity in Christ
* find freedom from the burdens of your past
* stand against the spiritual forces of this world
* win the battle for your mind
* become the victorious person you want to be
* discover the truth about God’s view of youVictory Over the Darkness spells out practical ways to experience Christian growth based on Christ’s promise. Learn to apply the truths of Scripture as a base from which to renew your mind and become the person Christ empowers you to be.
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3 Mile Walk Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$13.99Add to cartIn this five-session video Bible study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), pastor and author Banning Liebscher draws on the story of Jonathan and his armor-bearer (told in 1 Samuel 14) to show how their three-mile journey carries a profound metaphor for believers today. Although the men were embroiled in a seemingly losing battle with the Philistines, they had the courage to take the fight to their enemy and believe God would back them up. To do so, they had to traverse a treacherous three-mile canyon between the two army camps before they could step into the battle and see God bring about the victory that had seemed impossible.
Like the army of Israel, many believers in the church today are “camped out” and not engaging the call of God on their lives. However, God is awakening dreamers like Jonathan and his armor-bearer-men and women who are discontented with the idea of staying passive about the problems they see or disconnected from the desires stirring in their hearts. The courage of these dreamers reminds us that God calls us to be like Jesus-to overcome evil with good, do the impossible, and see His kingdom come in the earth. The question before us is whether we will open our hearts to dream with God, become possessed with the same divine discontentment, and engage in pursuing our call with a true “yes”-a “yes” that says, “I take full ownership of this calling, and I refuse to settle for anything less than fulfilling it.”
Once we decide to engage our calling, we have a journey ahead of us. The three miles of Jonathan’s journey to the enemy’s camp represent the three key areas of character transformation that are required to fulfill our calling: holiness, courage, and faith. In this study, Banning brings both fresh and timeless insight and practical instruction for growing in each of these areas.
Designed for use with The Three-Mile Walk Video Study (sold separately).
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Act Like Jesus Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$13.99Add to cartIn this eight-session video Bible study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), pastor and author Randy Frazee explains there is a difference between simply believing something in our heads and allowing those beliefs to shape our actions and behaviors. It is not enough to think like Jesus . . . we must also act like Jesus. For this reason, once we understand what we believe, we need to yield to the direction of the Holy Spirit and allow him to lead us to those biblical practices that will bring about spiritual transformation in our lives. As we do this, the Holy Spirit will lead us to make these resolutions:
*I will worship God for who he is and for what he has done for me.
*I will pray to God to know him, find direction for my life, and to lay my requests before him.
*I will study the Bible to know God and his truth and find direction for my daily life.
*I will dedicate my life to God’s purposes.
*I will fellowship with Christians to accomplish God’s purposes in my life and in the world.
*I will seek to understand my spiritual gifts so I can use them to fulfill God’s purposes.
*I will give my resources to fulfill God’s purposes.
*I will share my faith with others to fulfill God’s purposes.Grounded in carefully selected scripture, Act Like Jesus is a churchwide discipleship program that will take you on a journey to become more like Jesus in your behaviors. This revised study, adapted from Part 2 of the Believe churchwide study, includes an updated video study and new content and questions adapted from the existing Believe Study Guide and Think, Act, Be Like Jesus by Randy Frazee.
SESSIONS:
1. Worship
2. Prayer
3. Bible Study
4. Total Surrender
5. Biblical Community
6. Spiritual Gifts
7. Giving My Resources
8. Sharing My FaithDesigned for use with the Act Like Jesus Video Study (sold separately).
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Be Like Jesus Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$13.99Add to cartIn this eight-session video Bible study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately), pastor and author Randy Frazee explains that our spiritual transformation involves not only thinking and acting like Jesus but also allowing those thoughts and behaviors to shape our attitudes. As we do this, we experience a new way of looking at the world and discover an inner strength that allows us to remain steadfast, secure, and solid in the face of any circumstance. We also discover a new desire to serve others . . . which, in turn, draws them to the love of Christ. We know we are becoming like Jesus when we possess these attributes:
*I have a deep love for God and for the other people in my life.
*I have inner contentment in spite of my circumstances and understand my purpose in life.
*I have freedom from anxiety because I am at peace with God, others, and myself.
*I have experienced the power, through Christ, to control my thoughts and behaviors.
*I have patience in the unavoidable pressures of life and am slow to anger.
*I have the desire to be kind and good in my relationships with others.
*I have established a good name with God and others based on my loyalty to those relationships.
*I have become thoughtful, considerate, and calm in my dealings with others.Grounded in carefully selected scripture, Be Like Jesus is a churchwide discipleship program that will take you on a journey to become more like Jesus in your behaviors. This revised study, adapted from Part 3 of the Believe churchwide study, includes an updated video study and new content and questions adapted from the existing Believe Study Guide and Think, Act, Be Like Jesus by Randy Frazee.
SESSIONS
*Love
*Joy
*Peace
*Self-Control
*Patience
*Kindness / Goodness
*Faithfulness
*GentlenessDesigned for use with the Be Like Jesus Video Study (sold separately).
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Think Like Jesus Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$13.99Add to cartIn this eight-session video Bible study (DVD and digital downloads sold separately), pastor and author Randy Frazee explains that when Jesus saves us and ushers us into his kingdom, he begins a process of transformation within us that starts with our thoughts. As God begins to transform our minds, we begin to think like Jesus and believe like Jesus. For this reason, it is important for us to understand the eight key beliefs of the Christian faith that-when embraced in our hearts and minds-create true change in our lives, in the church, and in the world:
*I believe the God of the Bible is the one true God-Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
*I believe God is involved in and cares about my daily life.
*I believe we come into a right relationship with God, by his grace, through faith in Jesus.
*I believe the Bible is the Word of God and has the right to command my beliefs and actions.
*I believe I am significant because of my position as a child of God.
*I believe the church is God’s primary way to accomplish his purposes on earth today.
*I believe all people are loved by God and need Jesus Christ as their Savior.
*I believe that Jesus will return to judge all people and establish his eternal kingdom.Grounded in carefully selected scripture, Think Like Jesus is a churchwide discipleship program that will take you on a journey to become more like Jesus in your beliefs. This revised study, adapted from Part 1 of the Believe churchwide study, includes an updated video study and new content and questions adapted from the existing Believe Study Guide and Think, Act, Be Like Jesus by Randy Frazee.
SESSIONS
*God
*Personal God
*Salvation
*The Bible
*Identity in Christ
*Church
*Humanity
*EternityDesigned for use with the Think Like Jesus Video Study (sold separately).
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City : Urban Churches In The Wesleyan-Holiness Tradition
$15.99Add to cartJesus commissioned his followers to make disciples of all nations, and John Wesley claimed that all the world was his parish. The church belongs in every part of the world, whether urban, suburban, or rural–but it originated in the city. Cities drive economic, cultural, and social change. Cities are the refuge of the poor and marginalized. Cities are mission fields ready to be sown and harvested.Yet many churches have left the city to pursue other ministry opportunities. In his seminal work, The City, David Busic traces the Wesleyan-Holiness history of ministry to, in, and from the urban core, and calls church leaders to remember and honor ancient visions for ministry by returning our faith communities to the city.
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1 Small Step Participants Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$9.99Add to cartCan 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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Becoming A King Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$18.99Add to cartGod’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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Biblical Counseling : A Guide For The Church And Community
$21.95Add to cartBiblical Counseling presents a model for groups setting up a counseling practice based on Scripture. Clark presents the research that is the basis for this work as well as the experience gained through years of work in various venues. In addition to the step-by-step guides and templates of useful forms, there is a wealth of guidance in many aspects to be considered.
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Diary Of A Pastors Soul
$21.00Add to cartDiary of a Pastor’s Soul tells the story of a fictionalized pastor, embarking on his final year before retirement, who reflects on the experiences and relationships that have formed his vocation and shaped his soul over a lifetime of pastoral ministry.
Drawing on his own experiences, seasoned pastor Craig Barnes invites readers to embrace the life lessons of a pastor who has been formed by his failures and his fleeting moments of glory, but most of all by discovering the holy in the routine but often quirky duties of being a parish pastor.
Through 52 weekly thematic entries, Barnes presents spirituality in narrative form through a collection of interwoven stories about learning to love others with curiosity, amazement, vulnerability, and most of all gratitude for the grace found in flawed lives.
Barnes’s fictionalized diary approach creatively shows how the pastoral vocation forms mind, heart, and soul, helping pastors make sense of their own calling. With unvarnished honesty, this book eloquently illustrates a lifetime of ministry, revealing how “the Holy haunts the landscape of life.”
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Becoming Real : And Thriving In Ministry
$22.95Add to cartFollow the REAL rubric for success in starting new ministries If congregations were to look outside their doors, they may find that the people who need the good news don’t look like them and that the way to engage them is by having ministries that are REAL. REAL ministry is respectful relationships, excellence, authenticity, and love. This easy-to-understand perspective on relationships can be implemented in any setting with any group. To continue the mandate, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” we have to have relationships with those whom God has put in our neighborhoods. Each chapter contains a study guide with Bible verses and reflection questions. The author also offers real anecdotes and examples of what to do–and what not to do–so that when using the REAL rubric with any group of people, you can emulate Jesus and bring the good news to them. Church leaders wanting to be more inclusive or trying to grow in their changing neighborhood will find this book a welcome resource.
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Como Preparar Y Predicar Mejor – (Spanish)
$13.99Add to cartTras analizar muchos sermones ajenos y propios, el autor, descubre que hay una epidemia que ha estado matando la predicacion de la iglesia durante decadas: la frialdad, la abstraccion, la entretencion, el espectaculo y el academicismo desabrido. Como descubrir, entonces, el secreto para transformar sermones comunes y aburridos en sermones extraordinarios? Como elaborarlos? El Reverendo Galvez, despues de servir muchos aos en el Ministerio de La Palabra, consigue elaborar y predicar sermones destacados. Procurando construir un buen titulo en cada sermon, una acertada introduccion, divisiones solidas, cuerpo y formas de contornos definidos, con unidad coherente en las diferentes partes del sermon, destacando las verdades esenciales, trasladandolas de manera sencilla, interesante, entendible, creible, con pasion, conviccion, dependiendo del auxilio del Espiritu Santo.
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Heirs Together
$16.99Add to cartA church where everyone–adults, young people and children–has one vision and moves together. It almost sounds too good to be true. The vision which has inspired Daphne Kirk for over thirty years, and which she has actively sought to pass on to others, is of a church which includes all ages (children, young people and adults) in every aspect of its life. This is the vision of the intergenerational Church. Kirk writes with great energy and passion, presenting a radical picture of intergenerational cell life without glossing over the difficulties of initiating and sustaining that life.
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Pastoral Care : A Practical Guide
$29.99Add to cartAt the heart of the local church is the Christ-like care it manifests to its own members and those in the community. Increasingly, with fewer full-time ministers, this role is falling to the laity, often without formal training. This book will help ordained and lay members of the church to be more confident and better equipped in pastoral skills. Included are sections on understanding pastoral ministry, how to minister safely, developing appropriate skills for use in church and in the wider community and how to minister to oneself. A practical, hands-on book that all in pastoral ministry should read, and one that will help new pastors to survive and thrive in a long-term ministry in the church.
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Living Hope : A Practical Theology Of Hope For The Dying
$22.99Add to cartLiving Hope explores the meaning of Christian hope, its theology and psychology. It reflects on the sources of hope and wrestles with the concern for a hope that is not just a set of cliches, but which is engaging and realistic, suggesting practical ways of nurturing hope in those we care for. Russell Herbert argues that resurrection is central to Christian hope, drawing on the insights of psychology, nursing science and Jurgen Moltmann’s theology of hope. The book integrates theological reflection with a number of case studies and practical suggestions for clergy and pastoral carers.
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Intergenerational Cell Resources
$24.99Add to cartIntergenerational Cell Resources is intended to supplement Heirs Together. The four Ws of Welcome, Worship, Word and Witness are clearly explained and laid out, with guidelines and useful suggestions for the prayer night and the social outreach event which form an integral part of each meeting series. The meeting outlines in this book provide you with all the practical help you need to run your cell meeting, including photocopiable handouts and forms for delegating the various components.
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All Age Everything
$18.99Add to cartThere are many differing opinions on children and their ability to worship. Some churches aim for frequent, all-age services as their way of encouraging children to encounter God, while others rely on the groups that children are sent to during the service. Like all areas of ministry with children, all-age worship is not easy–there are barriers to face, mistakes to make and lessons to learn. This revised edition of All-Age Everything is full of ideas and suggestions to make all-age worship a true intergenerational worship experience. It looks at every part of an all-age service, from how to go about the initial planning, followed by tips for welcomes and beginnings, to endings and blessings. The ideas can be adapted to suit your own church setting, but, most of all, they make meeting God fun for the entire church family, however young or old.
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30 Days To Understanding The Bible Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$13.99Add to cartIn 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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Heavens Morning Breaks
$22.99Add to cartAt the heart of this book is the importance of balancing the Christian gospel with the hopes and wishes of a grieving family, even if these wishes do not entirely fit with the minister’s personal theology. Brooks examines the changes in funeral practice over the last 20 years before looking at issues such as cremation versus burial, life after death and difficult funeral services–where suicide or the death of a child may be a factor, or where mourners are few.
With a chapter on pastoral care for the bereaved as well as resource sections containing suggested orders of service, hymns, songs, prayers and readings, this is a helpful addition to literature on funerals for those involved in ministry.
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Embody : Five Keys To Leading With Integrity
$18.99Add to cartPastors and other leaders feel trapped in systems and institutions where actions and decisions often seem to have little to do with the scripture they read or the theology they profess. They are swept into leadership norms that resemble business models more than mission. They see in others and (sometimes) recognize in themselves the disconnect between their own theology and their leadership. They feel unable to fully integrate their beliefs with their behavior.
Many leaders–younger ones, especially–are frustrated and disillusioned by this disconnect. They see hypocrisy all around them, and in themselves. They see that our culture is at a critical juncture, which gives ministry a greater sense of urgency. But they want to do things differently, to be what they believe. They want to embody their Christian beliefs in every decision, every act of ministry leadership.
The functional authority of scripture must be evident in the way church leaders lead, both within the congregation and in the public square. The way we church leaders lead proves the bible does–or does not–matter. In Embody, Karoline Lewis shows how to frame leadership in the church and public square theologically, and from the perspective of incarnation. She shows how leadership can be a direct line between what you believe and what you do. She incorporates examples of Jesus’ leadership and the Paraclete in the Gospel of John, showing how leadership was achieved by walking beside.
Embody offers practical things for the reader to consider and do, instruction and guidance for how to make the ‘integration steps’ necessary in order to become an embodied leader, and exploration of core components of embodied leadership.
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Rediscipling The White Church
$20.99Add to cart“Many white Christians across America are waking up to the fact that something is seriously wrong–but often this is where we get stuck.”
Confronted by the deep-rooted racial injustice in our society, many white Christians instinctively scramble to add diversity to their churches and ministries. But is diversity really the answer to the widespread racial dysfunction we see in the church? In this simple but powerful book, Pastor David Swanson contends that discipleship, not diversity, lies at the heart of our white churches’ racial brokenness. Before white churches can pursue diversity, he argues, we must first take steps to address the faulty discipleship that has led to our segregation in the first place. Drawing on the work of philosopher James K. A. Smith and others, Swanson proposes that we rethink our churches’ habits, or liturgies, and imagine together holistic, communal discipleship practices that can reform us as members of Christ’s diverse body.
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Semi Final Musings
$26.99Add to cartThe target audience for this volume is ministry leaders, Pastors, elders and deacons, as well as those individuals who would like to grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ. The audience will be of necessity: men and women who are either in College or Seminary and/or in ministries working in churches.
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Recovering From Biblical Manhood And Womanhood
$18.99Add to cartWhile 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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Beyond The Childrens Corner
$27.50Add to cartBeyond the Children’s Corner is a practical handbook to help churches become more welcoming to children and families in worship. It encourages PCCs and ministry teams to reflect on the spiritual needs of children, the pastoral needs of families, and how to remove barriers and manage change effectively.
Based on multiple training sessions and extensive casework, informed by research by the Church of England’s Life Events team and the Methodist Church, it explores:
? The changing needs of modern families;
? What tells you it’s time for change;
? ‘Quick wins’ to make the worship space more welcoming and spiritually imaginative;
? Engaging children in spiritually nourishing worship;
? Children and contemplative worship – what to do about noise;
? Building and sustaining relationships with families and children.Many books on All-Age Worship focus the service itself. Beyond the Children’s Corner explores how children and adults can be truly integrated as the church community, covering parents’ perspectives, the church building and the challenge of change as well as what happens in worship.
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Adept Church : Navigating Between A Rock And A Hard Place
$15.99Add to cartA theologically grounded, yet practical, user-friendly guide for church leaders seeking to save their churches. A methodical, logical approach for strategic development and decision-making. A clear process for showing congregations how to define their reality, and a map showing the way to move forward.
Offers a clear process to help congregations understand their situation by taking an honest “look in the mirror.”
Helps congregations build a realistic roadmap for moving forward.
Illustrates how the status quo (institutionalism) is rewarded and that seeking transformation goes against institutionalism.
Outlines what it means to be an adept church, a church that can navigate between a rock and a hard place because it makes decisions based upon where it needs to go and not where it is currently.
Provides practical, first step for congregations to move forward.
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For His Glory Leader Guide
$15.99Add to cartDiscover Your True Worth in Christ.
What comes to mind when you hear the word masterpiece? Perhaps you think of a beautiful painting, a spectacular home renovation, or a captivating sunset. But few of us would describe ourselves with that word. We tend to listen instead to the lies that define us as rejected, unwanted, less than, ugly, stupid, or a failure. Sometimes we can feel more like worthless junk than a valuable masterpiece. Yet that is exactly what God’s Word says that we are!
In For His Glory, Marian Jordan Ellis leads us in an in-depth study of Ephesians to help us dismantle the lies we’ve believed about ourselves and replace them with a new identity built on God’s Word. The truths in this beloved epistle speak to the core beliefs we carry about ourselves, revealing to us our part in God’s magnificent design to redeem a people for Himself who reflect His glory to the world. Drawing on her own journey of transformation and her passion to equip women to overcome shame, insecurity, inferiority, and condemnation, Marian invites us on a journey to discover our true worth in Christ, our status as beloved children of God, and our glorious calling as His masterpiece.
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Holding Up Half The Sky
$21.00Add to cartWomen have played significant roles in ministry and leadership throughout the history of the church and the pages of the Bible. Today, women make up more than half the church, and do much of the mission, ministry, and discipleship in the life of the church. But women have often been held back from ministry roles. Graham Joseph Hill outlines the biblical vision for women in ministry and leadership. He offers a biblical and passionate call for women to be released to teach, to lead, to preach, to serve, to pastor, and to minister in every area of the church. The Bible paints a radical vision of women, empowered and emboldened for full ministry participation in Christ’s church. The biblical vision for women and for their role as teachers, witnesses, disciplers, and leaders transforms not only personal lives, but also the church and the world. This book offers a biblical case for women teaching and leading in the church. Hill then explores practical ways that we can empower and release more female leaders in the church, and ways that we can amplify the voices and honor the gifts of women in the way Jesus intended. Together women and men can revitalize the church and renew the world.
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Delighted : What Teenagers Are Teaching The Church About Joy
$22.99Add to cartWhat would youth ministry look like if it were based on a pursuit of authentic Christian joy?
Joy is not often a word young people associate with church–but it should be. By reimagining three common practices in youth ministry through the theological lens of joy, veteran youth workers Kenda Creasy Dean, Wesley Ellis, Justin Forbes, and Abigail Visco Rusert demonstrate how to shift this association and become more honest about what youth ministry can, and can’t, do to support young people and their faith. Grounding youth ministry in joy rather than in fear also models a way forward for the church. It reminds us that youth ministry is not a tool for anxious congregations to use to ensure their survival. Rather, youth ministry–like all ministry–is a way to help people name and experience God’s delight, free from fear and anxiety about their futures.
Delighted is the first book to emerge from the Yale Center for Faith and Culture’s Adolescent Faith and Flourishing project, offering a sustained reflection on joy’s practical importance for youth ministry. With reflection questions offered at the end of each chapter, Delighted is easy for youth ministers, volunteers, and pastors to pick up and use immediately–tapping into young people’s instinctive desire for joy for the entire church, as well as for ministry with teenagers.
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Sundays Sermon For Mondays World
$25.99Add to cartWhat can preachers do to help congregants navigate everyday life with the courage, imagination, and savvy it takes to testify in action and word to God’s mercy and justice?
Christianity’s witness depends on credible Christian lives carried out in ordinary settings of everyday life. Sunday’s Sermon for Monday’s World helps preachers design sermons that equip believers to act with improvisational, creative courage in the ordinary settings of their Monday-to-Saturday lives.
How can we who preach inspire the “ordinary prophets” of our time–those who, in Christ’s name, will act in great or small ways as agents of redemptive interruption? Sally A. Brown, with her extensive experience both in parish ministry and training others for ministry, shares preaching strategies that equip these ordinary prophets to take daring action.
Brown begins by reconsidering the power and limits of the missional model of Christian witness and argues that Christian witness today must be adaptive, and therefore imaginative and improvisational. She then turns to the connection between the sermons our listeners hear on Sunday and their capacity to timely, inventive action in everyday situations.
Sunday’s Sermon for Monday’s World will inspire both preachers and those who listen to them to move from sanctuary to street, week after week, eager to discern and participate in the ongoing, redemptive work of God already under way amid the ordinary scenes and settings of their Monday-to-Saturday lives.
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Surrendered Participant Workbook (Workbook)
$17.99Add to cartLearn How to Surrender Like Jesus.
Are you facing a problem in life that you just can’t fix, no matter what you do? Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase “Let go and let God.” But it’s easier said than done. Is it possible that giving up on what you can’t change is God’s path to peace for your life? In this six-week Bible study of Jesus in the wilderness, Barb explores Jesus’ time of testing and contrasts it with the Israelites’ failures in the wilderness.
As you learn from Jesus’ example, you’ll discover six principles that will equip you to let God lead you to victory despite your circumstances as you deal with the problems and pain you are facing:
1. Recognize You Can’t Handle It
2. Stop Following Your Feelings
3. Give Up Control and Reach for God
4. Embrace God’s Better Blessing
5. Let Go of Fear
6. Experience the Blessings of a Surrendered LifeIf you’re tired of following your feelings or being disappointed by unchanging circumstances, learn how to surrender like Jesus and experience God’s power and peace in your life as never before.
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For His Glory Participant Workbook (Student/Study Guide)
$17.99Add to cartDiscover Your True Worth in Christ.
What comes to mind when you hear the word masterpiece? Perhaps you think of a beautiful painting, a spectacular home renovation, or a captivating sunset. But few of us would describe ourselves with that word. We tend to listen instead to the lies that define us as rejected, unwanted, less than, ugly, stupid, or a failure. Sometimes we can feel more like worthless junk than a valuable masterpiece. Yet that is exactly what God’s Word says that we are!
In For His Glory, Marian Jordan Ellis leads us in an in-depth study of Ephesians to help us dismantle the lies we’ve believed about ourselves and replace them with a new identity built on God’s Word. The truths in this beloved epistle speak to the core beliefs we carry about ourselves, revealing to us our part in God’s magnificent design to redeem a people for Himself who reflect His glory to the world. Drawing on her own journey of transformation and her passion to equip women to overcome shame, insecurity, inferiority, and condemnation, Marian invites us on a journey to discover our true worth in Christ, our status as beloved children of God, and our glorious calling as His masterpiece.
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Marriage Course Study Journal
$14.99Add to cartToday we are facing a global crisis when it comes to families. Marriages are under more pressure than ever. Many children are growing up without experiencing the security of their parents’ love and commitment to each other-and consequently are finding it harder to receive God’s unconditional love. There is an urgent need to invest in marriage and family life, for strong societies are built on strong families, and strong families are built on strong marriages.
The Marriage Course, developed by Nicky and Sila Lee of Alpha, has been revised and updated to provide practical tools to help couples at every stage of their relationship. This update includes talks from experts including Dr. Gray Chapman, Dr. Henry Cloud, and Dr. Sue Johnson on topics such as money, sex, love languages, healthy boundaries, and building connections. The course will also cover how couples can:
*Better understand each other’s needs
*Communicate more effectively
*Grow closer by learning methods to resolve conflicts
*Recover from the way they may have hurt each other
*Recognize how their upbringing has affected their relationship
*Improve relationships with parents and in-lawsThe Marriage Course is based on a Christian understanding of love and serves to strengthen marriages within the church while being accessible for all couples from any cultural background, with or without a background in the Christian faith.
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Birth : The Mystery Of Being Born
$26.00Add to cartThis volume explores the connections between our own birth, the experience of having children, and the new birth of the Christian life. Seasoned pastor James Howell offers theological perspectives on a variety of themes associated with birth, such as who we are in light of having once lived in utero, why people might have children, infertility, adoption, baptism, and how to make sense of it all in light of God coming to us first in Mary’s womb and then as an infant. The book includes artwork, photos, and drawings.
About the Series
Pastors are called to help people navigate the profound mysteries of being human, from birth to death and everything in between. This series, edited by leading pastoral theologian Jason Byassee, provides pastors and pastors-in-training with rich theological reflection on the various seasons that make up a human life, helping them minister with greater wisdom and joy. Future volumes will cover addiction, disability, friendship, illness, parenting, and technology. -
Connections Year A 3 Volume Set
$155.00Add to cartDesigned 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.
This set contains all three volumes for Year A.
Connections is published in partnership with Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
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Bridging Theory And Practice In Childrens Spirituality
$22.99Add to cartBridging 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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Surviving A Dangerous Sermon
$18.99Add to cartPreachers increasingly see the need to deliver sermons that are “dangerous” in a variety of ways: the way they challenge hearers’ comfort levels and challenge established powers and hierarchies. Author Frank Thomas helps readers understand those dangers–especially the forces of power and hierarchy that are so intrinsic in our everyday lives and in society as a whole. He teaches how to anticipate and navigate those forces, to open opportunities for dangerous preaching, and to mitigate negative impact on congregants, the preacher, and the preacher-congregation relationships.
Surviving a Dangerous Sermon is a logical follow-up to Thomas’s previous book, How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon. It equips preachers to say what must be said, in a way that it is heard, so that the sermon has a chance to do its work on human hearts, without negative consequences.
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Way Of Worship Student Workbook (Workbook)
$12.99Add to cartThe 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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End Of Youth Ministry
$22.99Add to cartWhat is youth ministry actually for? And does it have a future? Andrew Root, a leading scholar in youth ministry and practical theology, went on a one-year journey to answer these questions. In this book, Root weaves together an innovative first-person fictional narrative to diagnose the challenges facing the church today and to offer a new vision for youth ministry in the 21st century.
Informed by interviews that Root conducted with parents, this book explores how parents’ perspectives of what constitutes a good life are affecting youth ministry. In today’s culture, youth ministry can’t compete with sports, test prep, and the myriad other activities in which young people participate. Through a unique parable-style story, Root offers a new way to think about the purpose of youth ministry: not happiness, but joy. Joy is a sense of experiencing the good. For youth ministry to be about joy, it must move beyond the youth group model and rework the assumptions of how identity and happiness are imagined by parents in American society.
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Prophetic Preaching : The Hope Or The Curse Of The Church
$24.95Add to cartA theological yet practical study of preaching and politics – Diverse contributors offer a variety of perspectives This book is the first collection of essays to explore the question: is there room for politics from the pulpit? In response to an increasingly polarized society, preachers grapple with the call to witness a unifying Truth in a world where truth appears subjective. While many congregations respond positively to social and political themes in sermons, others do not. Episcopalians in the conservative minority are often very uncomfortable with political-themed preaching, while liberal Episcopalians demand a political message from the pulpit. What is a preacher to do when the Episcopal Church is no more immune to the temptation of polarization than the secular world? Contributors to this volume serve in a variety of contexts and bring with them their own distinct styles and visions. Anyone with an interest in the practical implications addressing the current political climate from the pulpit will find these essays provocative, inspiring, and thoughtful.
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Journey Into The Divided Heart
$15.99Add to cartPerhaps you’ve been to counseling for years; or maybe you’ve never sought outside help. Either way, you know there are fears, insecurities, emotional blockages that have kept you from living truly free. You’re tired of it and want more.
Congratulations! You hold in your hands a guide to help you on your path to true freedom, a path that can lead you safely into true emotional wholeness. You experience unresolved pain and multiple layers of self-protection called defense mechanisms, that lead to addictions, anxiety, depression, and relationship difficulties (yes-even with God) with which we all struggle. This book will give you the tools you need from both a clinical and spiritual perspective to become truly free. The resulting peace, love, joy, reconciled marriages and relationships, and sense of positive Christ centered identity, is the fruit of your journey and will come as you lay these protections down that have become your prison.
This book is a must read for anyone looking for true lasting change, as well as a role-defining text for counselors and pastors who are looking to integrate cutting-edge clinical counseling with an unwavering faith-based, non-religious approach to working with the brokenhearted.
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Top 50 Creative Bible Lessons Fun Activities For Preschoolers Ages 2-5
$24.99Add to cartTop 50 Creative Bible Lessons for Preschoolers has everything you need to teach children ages two to five for a whole year! It’s filled with great Bible stories; step-by-step, easy-to-use instructions; fun activities; and TONS of reproducible pages. These lessons have everything you need to reach young children with the good news of God’s amazing love.
Each Bible Lesson for Preschoolers Includes:
*Bible story plus visual
*Memory verse and discussion questions
*Take-home sheets (and coloring pages)
*Step-by-step instructions and tips for kids Sunday school teachers
*2-3 flexible Bible activity options, including Bible puzzles, Bible crafts, games, snack ideas (AND MORE!)Imagine having a full year of fun and age-appropriate lessons that include teacher-friendly activities. All materials are easy-to-find, making prep a snap! Easily adapt these flexible lessons to Sunday school, children’s church, midweek Bible study, Christian school classroom, or your family home. Packed with puzzles, games, crafts, and awesome Bible stories, these kids’ Bible lessons will keep your preschoolers actively involved in creative learning.
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Welcoming The Future Church
$17.99Add to cartIf you’re not reaching the future of the church, your church has no future. As much sting as that statement has, it’s hard to argue with. Yet many churches have no idea how to attract and retain younger generations.
If you want to understand how to reach, teach, and empower young adults in your church, Jonathan “JP” Pokluda is ready to show you how. Sharing stories of successes and failures during his years of ministering to Millennials, JP offers you transferable principles that will help you mobilize the next generation toward Jesus. He encourages and equips you to:
– be real
– teach the whole truth
– hold traditions loosely
– find young leaders
– give the ministry away
– and so much moreTomorrow’s church is out there, waiting for you to care, to reach out, to understand their struggles, and to show them why today’s church needs, wants, and cherishes them.
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Psicologia De La Virtud – (Spanish)
$17.99Add to cartLa Psicologia de la Virtud de Mark R. McMinn es, en esencia, la psicologia positiva examina como las personas comunes y corrientes pueden volverse mas felices y mas satisfechas. Mark McMinn aclara como la psicologia positiva puede complementar la fe cristiana y promover la felicidad y el florecimiento personal. Ademas, muestra como la iglesia puede ayudar a fortalecer la psicologia positiva. McMinn lleva la experiencia y la sabiduria de la iglesia sobre seis virtudes (humildad, perdon, gratitud, gracia, esperanza y sabiduria) a la conversacion con hallazgos cientificos interesantes de la psicologia positiva. Cada capitulo incluye una seccion dirigida a los consejeros cristianos que buscan promover la felicidad y la realizacion en los demas.
The Science of Virtue
The Science of Virtue by Mark R. McMinn essentially examines how ordinary people can become happier and more satisfied through positive psychology. It also brings the experience and wisdom of the church regarding six virtues (humility, forgiveness, gratitude, grace, hope and wisdom) to the conversation with interesting scientific findings from positive psychology. Each chapter includes a section addressing Christian counselors who seek to promote happiness and fulfillment in others.
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Acts Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$15.99Add to cartThe Acts of the Apostles is a unique and crucial book that chronicles the story of God’s grace flooding out to the world through the lives of the apostles in the decades immediately following Christ’s ascension into heaven.
In Acts: Catching up with the Spirit, author and biblical scholar Matthew Skinner provides a broad yet theologically attuned introduction to this important book and its message of fulfilling the Great Commission.
Skinner explores six key themes that illustrate the ways in which reading Acts is capable of igniting our imagination about the character of the Christian gospel, the work of God’s people (the church), and the challenges of living faithfully in a complex and changing world. The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the six-week study including session plans, activities, and discussion questions, as well as multiple format options.
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5 Loaves Two Fish 12 Volunteers
$14.99Add to cartSixty-two percent of food pantries and meal programs in the United States are faith-based. Most of these ministries are transactional; people needing food interact with church volunteers to earn access to direct service.
Elizabeth Magill advocates relational ministry as a better model for food ministry. People donating food or money eat with the people who need food and get to know them as they serve alongside them. Those needing food share all aspects of the ministry, including planning, setting up, leading, serving, and cleaning. As volunteers become better acquainted, they can form deep, meaningful relationships, creating a new way to be the church.
Five Loaves, Two Fish, Twelve Volunteers tells the stories of 8 churches that share food ministry with people who need their services. Full of practical advice, this book emphasizes that building relationships and offering radical welcome is more important work for churches than efficiency or order.
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Restoring The Shattered Self
$32.99Add to cartNearly every professional counselor will encounter clients with a history of complex trauma.
Yet many counselors are not adequately prepared to help those suffering from complex posttraumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD), including survivors of child abuse, religious cult abuse, and domestic violence. A lack of consistent terminology in the field makes finding resources difficult, but without reliable training counselors risk inadvertently retraumatizing those they are trying to help. In this second edition of Restoring the Shattered Self, Heather Davediuk Gingrich provides an essential resource for Christian counselors to help fill the gap between their training and the realities of trauma-related work. Drawing on over thirty years of experience with complex trauma survivors in the United States, Canada, and the Philippines, she ably integrates the established research on trauma therapy with insights from her own experience and an intimate understanding of the special concerns related to Christian counseling. In addition to presenting a three-phase treatment model for C-PTSD based on Judith Herman’s classic work, Gingrich addresses how to treat dissociative identity disorder clients, respond to survivors’ spiritual issues, build resilience as a counselor in this taxing work, and empower churches to help in the healing process. This new edition is updated throughout to match the DSM-5 and includes new content on how the body responds to trauma, techniques for helping clients stay within the optimal zone of nervous system arousal, and additional summary sidebars. With this thoughtful guide, counselors and pastors will be equipped to provide the long-term help that complex trauma survivors need to live more abundantly. -
When Narcissism Comes To Church
$24.99Add to cartWhy does narcissism seem to thrive in our churches?
We’ve seen the news stories and heard the rumors. Maybe we ourselves have been hurt by a narcissistic church leader. It’s easy to throw the term around and diagnose others from afar. But what is narcissism, really? And how does it infiltrate the church? Chuck DeGroat has been counseling pastors with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, as well as those wounded by narcissistic leaders and systems, for over twenty years. He knows firsthand the devastation narcissism leaves in its wake and how insidious and painful it is. In When Narcissism Comes to Church, DeGroat takes a close look at narcissism, not only in ministry leaders but also in church systems. He offers compassion and hope for those affected by its destructive power and imparts wise counsel for churches looking to heal from its systemic effects. DeGroat also offers hope for narcissists themselves–not by any shortcut, but by the long, slow road of genuine recovery, possible only through repentance and trust in the humble gospel of Jesus.
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Analog Church : Why We Need Real People, Places, And Things In The Digital
$20.99Add to cartWhat does it mean to be an analog church in a digital age?
In recent decades the digital world has taken over our society at nearly every level, and the church has increasingly followed suit–often in ways we’re not fully aware of. But as even the culture at large begins to reckon with the limits of a digital world, it’s time for the church to take stock. Are online churches, video venues, and brighter lights truly the future? What about the digital age’s effect on discipleship, community, and the Bible? As a pastor in Silicon Valley, Jay Kim has experienced the digital church in all its splendor. In Analog Church, he grapples with the ramifications of a digital church, from our worship and experience of Christian community to the way we engage Scripture and sacrament. Could it be that in our efforts to stay relevant in our digital age, we’ve begun to give away the very thing that our age most desperately needs: transcendence? Could it be that the best way to reach new generations is in fact found in a more timeless path? Could it be that at its heart, the church has really been analog all along?
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Your Time Starved Marriage Workbook For Women (Workbook)
$12.99Add to cartReclaim 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 Gold -
Your Time Starved Marriage Workbook For Men (Workbook)
$12.99Add to cartConnect 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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Intentional Churches : How Implementing An Operating System Clarifies Visio
$18.99Add to cartIn spite of many church leaders and Christian researchers doubt about the local church’s relevancy and ability to grow, there are many churches growing and making disciples. They are implementing a revolutionary new Intentional Growth Planning operating system.
Pastors and church leaders are frequently frustrated and overworked, not knowing how to create systems and structures to support church growth and the making of more and better disciples. Just as laptops and smart phones have an operating system, the church needs a biblically-based operating system which its various programs and activities can effectively plug in to. In Intentional Churches, church growth leaders Doug Parks and Bart Rendel unveil a proven and practical operational system that will help leaders clarify their unique vision, filter trends and new idea through their mission, improve implementation abilities, and maintain unity and alignment to what matters most. It is a repeatable and transferable process any church can learn!
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Embodying Integration : A Fresh Look At Christianity In The Therapy Room
$30.99Add to cartDiscussing spirituality and religion in the therapy room is increasingly accepted, some even forgetting that integration of psychology and Christianity was once a rare thing.
Yet even as the decades-long integration movement has been so effective, the counselor’s lived context in which integration happens grows increasingly complex, and the movement has reached a new turning point. Christian practitioners need a fresh look at integration in a postmodern world. In Embodying Integration, Megan Anna Neff and Mark McMinn provide an essential guide to becoming integrators today. Representing two generations of counselor education and practice, they model how to engage hard questions and consider how different theological views, gendered perspectives, and cultures integrate with psychology and counseling. “Many students,” they write, “don’t want models and views that tend to simplify complexity into categories. They are looking for conversation that helps them dive into the complexity, to ponder the nuances and messiness of integration.” More than focusing on resolving issues, Neff and McMinn help situate wisdom through personally engaging, diverse views and narratives. Arising from conversations between an up-and-coming practitioner and her veteran integrator father, this book considers practical implications for the day-to-day realities of counseling and psychotherapy. Personal stories, dialogues between the coauthors, and discussion questions throughout help students, teachers, mental health professionals, and anyone interested in psychology and faith to enter–and continue–the conversation.
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Persona Pastor Y Martir – (Spanish)
$15.99Add to cartEsta estructurado en tres partes. La primera aborda el ministerio pastoral desde la perspectiva mas personal, considerando aspectos como la propia naturaleza humana de quien desempea el pastorado, su condicion de padre de familia, etc. asi como sus relaciones interpersonales, tanto con la iglesia como con el resto del mundo. En segundo lugar, se trata el propio ministerio de pastor en sus aspectos fundamentales como son el llamamiento, la autoridad ministerial, el liderazgo, etc. sin rehuir los desafios actuales como pueden ser la atmosfera espiritual circundante, el ritmo de vida acelerado, la secularizacion o la falta de compromiso personal de los propios creyentes. No se obvian los peligros inherentes al ministerio o, incluso, su propia financiacion. La tercera parte introduce al lector en esa faceta del titulo que puede haberle sorprendido desde el principio, pero que queda aclarada en la introduccion del libro: la de martir, como testigo de Jesus en su doble vertiente de proclamador de su mensaje y como pagador del precio que tal testimonio conlleva. La trayectoria vital del apostol Pablo sirve de guia y modelo a lo largo de todo el libro, segun el relato del Libro de los Hechos y sus propios escritos, las distintas epistolas paulinas contenidas en el Nuevo Testamento. Este trabajo esta dedicado especialmente a la multitud de pastores practicamente anonimos y a sus familias, que hacen que la obra de Dios avance y prospere a lo largo y ancho de nuestro mundo.
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Healing The Christian Church
$14.95Add to cartAre 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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Wesleyan Journey Pastor Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$13.99Add to cartThe transforming work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer was a central theme of John Wesley’s life and work.
In The Wesleyan Journey: A Workbook on Salvation, beloved pastor and author Maxie Dunnam invites readers to spend time every day exploring Wesley’s understanding of salvation through prayer, study, and reflection.
Based on John Wesley’s theology and the Bible’s teaching on what it means to be saved, this workbook will help readers consider anew God’s ever-present grace, the experience of acceptance, pardon, and forgiveness, and the lifelong journey to become more Christ-like.
The Pastor Guide offers guidance and tips for pastors on how to use, promote, and share this study, with ideas for how to incorporate it into worship and invite people into the journey. It also contains short session guides and leader helps to facilitate group discussion through an eight-week study.
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Connections Year A Volume 3 Season After Pentecost
$55.00Add to cartDesigned 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
$12.99Add to cartConcise 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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Extraordinary Ministry In Ordinary Time
$12.99Add to cartWhat energizes someone in pastoral ministry for the long haul? Holy days like Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost are the exception. Ordinary Time, the longest season of the Christian year, is where pastors spend most of their ministry.
James Harnish invites pastors and other ministers to see Ordinary Time as a metaphor for the ordinary days of ministry. “Whether we thrive or merely survive depends on what we do with the ordinary days,” he writes.
Harnish encourages ministers to develop spiritual disciplines and personal relationships to nourish their souls for long-term ministry. He highlights the importance of reflection on scripture, spiritual reading, journaling, prayer, and spiritual conversation with trusted friends.
This 6-week study focuses on themes Harnish found crucial in over four decades of ministry: Power, People, Places, Proclamation, Perseverance, and Promise. Daily readings help readers develop their own spiritual formation practices to sustain their life and ministry.
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Better Together Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99Add to cartIn a time when societal disruptions are rampant-have you wanted to cut and run?
Have you considered your own gender versus the opposite in a defensive way?
If we are honest, we all have. And that truth is where we begin to be set free. We are only as strong as our understanding of our differences-and they are many and varied and begin with each our fingerprint. But we were not created alone, or separately. We were in fact created of and from and in the image of the same God. Until God created man AND woman, he called everything he created ‘good.’ When he saw us together, he declared, “It is VERY good” Gen 1:1-31.
So how then, in a current state of division at every intersection of life, do we return to the flourishing of men and women together as originally intended?
In this six-session study (DVD/downloads sold separately), author, activist, and headlining international speaker Danielle Strickland will guide us through our differences and mutuality with a biblical lens and foundation. She will teach and inspire us to face the core challenge that drives all division-FEAR-and to change the story of our culture. We will transform and become examples of equality and equity as in the Garden of Eden where we were made better, together.
Designed for use with Better Together Video Study (sold separately).
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Bible And Moral Injury
$36.99Add to cartThe Bible and Moral Injury offers an exploration (with case studies) of the interpretation of biblical texts, especially war-related narratives and ritual descriptions from the Old Testament, in conversation with research on the emerging notion of moral injury within psychology, military studies, philosophy, and ethics. This book explores two questions simultaneously:
*What happens when we read biblical texts, especially biblical stories of war and violence, in light of emerging research on moral injury?, and
*What does the study of biblical texts and their interpretation contribute to the emerging work on moral injury among other fields and with veterans, chaplains, and other practitioners?The book begins by explaining the concept of moral injury as it has developed within psychology, military studies, chaplaincy, and moral philosophy, especially through work with veterans of the U.S. military’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. A major part of this work has been the attempt to identify means of healing, recovery, and repair for those morally injured by their experiences in combat or in similar situations.
A key element for the book is that one feature of work on moral injury has been the appeal by psychologists and others to ancient texts and cultures for models of both the articulation of moral injury and possible means of prevention and healing. These appeals have, at times, referenced Old Testament texts that describe war-related rituals, practices, and experiences (e.g., Numbers 31). Additionally, work on moral injury within other fields has used ancient texts in another way–namely, as a means to offer creative re-readings of ancient literary characters as exemplars of warriors and experiences related to moral injury. For example, scholars have re-read the tales of Achilles and Odysseus in The Iliad and The Odyssey in dialogue with the experiences of American veterans of the Vietnam war and the moral struggles of combat and homecoming.
Alongside these trends, consideration of moral injury has increasingly made its way into works on pastoral theology, Christian chaplaincy, and moral theology and ethics. These initial interpretive moves suggest a need for an extended and full-orbed examination of the interpretation of biblical texts in dialogue with the emerging formulation and practices of moral injury and recovery. This book will not simply be an effort to interpret various biblical texts through the lens of moral injury. It also seeks to e
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Study
$14.99Add to cart“While physical training has some value, training in holy living is useful for everything. It has promise for this life now and the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:8
Christians crave a deeper, more intimate relationship with God. Spiritual disciplines are activities and practices that guide you in your daily walk through life bringing you closer to Christ. They also help you to make a difference in our world. Practicing these spiritual disciplines opens you to God’s transforming love and help you experience Holy Living.
This is one of series of eight books. Each book in this series introduces a spiritual practice, suggests way of living the practice daily, and provides opportunities to grow personally and in a faith community with others who engage with the practice. Each book consists of an introduction and four chapters and includes questions for personal reflection and group discussion.
This is one of series of eight books. Each book in this series introduces a spiritual practice, suggests way of living the practice daily, and provides opportunities to grow personally and in a faith community with others who engage with the practice. Each book consists of an introduction and four chapters and includes questions for personal reflection and group discussion.
Other disciplines studied: Celebration, Confession, Discernment, Neighboring, Simplicity, and Worship.
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Multiplication Effect : Building A Leadership Pipeline That Solves Your Lea
$19.99Add to cartMost pastors say that the need to identify and develop leaders is critical to the health and growth of their church. Yet, most churches do not have an intentional plan for doing this. In this book, Mac Lake reveals a practical strategy for addressing this problem.
How do you develop leaders in a church setting–good leaders, qualified leaders, leaders who are committed, who possess the DNA of the church, and leaders who produce results? The majority of churches have tried everything, but is what they are doing working? Unfortunately, in most cases, no. The Multiplication Effect is a proven, tested program, designed using unique training modules to help identify potential leaders, equip and disciple them at every level of their leadership journey, and empower them to multiply themselves by developing other leaders. Churches who use this plan will become “cultures” of leader development built into the structure and mission statement of the church and thus solve their leadership shortage.
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Simplicity : Spiritual Practices For Building A Life Of Faith
$14.99Add to cart“While physical training has some value, training in holy living is useful for everything. It has promise for this life now and the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:8
Christians crave a deeper, more intimate relationship with God. Spiritual disciplines are activities and practices that guide you in your daily walk through life bringing you closer to Christ. They also help you to make a difference in our world. Practicing these spiritual disciplines opens you to God’s transforming love and help you experience Holy Living.
At its core, the spiritual practice of simplicity enables us to eliminate from our lives all the things–both material possessions and thoughts, habits, and attitudes–that distract us from God so that God has complete freedom to work in and through us. Simplicity brings freedom, balance, and perspective to our lives and enables us to align our priorities with the priorities of God. It reorients us and allows us to be open to the present moment. Developing the spiritual practice of simplicity is key to a healthy, vibrant relationship with God and others. This book helps us know how to begin and implement this practice.
This is one of series of eight books. Each book in this series introduces a spiritual practice, suggests way of living the practice daily, and provides opportunities to grow personally and in a faith community with others who engage with the practice. Each book consists of an introduction and four chapters and includes questions for personal reflection and group discussion.
Other disciplines studied: Celebration, Confession, Discernment, Neighboring, Study, and Worship.
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Renewing Communication : Spirit-Shaped Approaches For Children Youth And Fa
$29.99Add to cartHow can we as Christian leaders make the most of our communication to help others become more like Christ? Colleen Derr draws on decades of experience in education and church ministry to offer a holistic strategy for transformational communication, showing that communication powered by the Spirit needn’t be limited to the pulpit or classroom, but can include everyday interactions and relationships.
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Holy Moments : Activities For Teaching Children About Worship
$19.99Add to cartHoly Moments: Activities for Teaching Children About Worship is a library of activities created to help children fully understand how and why we worship together as a community of faith.
These simple activities cover each of the elements of a typical traditional or contemporary worship service, and are perfect for adding holy moments to your children’s church, worship service, Sunday school, or children’s event.
Parent letters and reproducibles are included to help the children and their families experience holy moments at home and connect them to what they have experienced at church.
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Get Your Life Back Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99Add to cartWe 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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Pursuit Of Holiness A 12 Week Small Group Curriculum
$17.99Add to cartHoliness. The Christian’s Joint Venture with God.
“Be holy, for I am holy,” commands God to His people. But holiness is something that is often missed in the Christian’s daily life. According to Jerry Bridges, Christians are often confused about their role in bringing about holiness. In this classic, Bridges helps us see clearly just what we should rely on God to do–and where we need to accept responsibility.
Whether you are just beginning your pursuit of holiness or continuing your journey, these timeless principles and guidelines will challenge you to joyfully obey God’s command.
This small-group edition includes:
*12 sessions
*the full text of The Pursuit of Holiness
*discussion questions for each session
*wide margins for taking notes
*a leader’s guide -
Long Long Road Back To Love
$19.95Add to cartArley Fadness has taken a fresh look at the age-old biblical allegory of Jesus of the Prodigal Son. Created to involve the whole congregation, this resource will save time and eff ort for the pastor and the participants. People will look forward to the next weekly installment of their Lenten journey.This resource includes:
– Homilies
– Children’s sermons
– Dramatic dialogues -
Kingdom Stewardship Group Video Experience (DVD)
$29.99Add to cartIn 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
$9.99Add to cartIn 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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Forgiveness : A Practical And Pastoral Companion
$27.00Add to cartEvery day we hear stories of people caught up in conflict, violence, trauma and abuse, which can affect anyone in any walk of life. Each of us needs to offer forgiveness as well as receive it, but how?
Designed to accompany everyone on a personal or communal journey of forgiveness, this companion also offers an important resource for all engaged in listening, reconciliation and pastoral care, including clergy, counsellors and spiritual directors. It explores:
-Why forgiveness is important;
-What forgiveness is;
-Who can forgive;
-Offering forgiveness;
-Receiving forgiveness;
-How communities respond to tragedy;
-God’s forgiveness. -
Get Out Of Your Head Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$16.99Add to cartHave you ever wanted to be an entirely new version of you? Like a character re-do or makeover?
Have you ever felt like who you are now isn’t all that you were meant to be?
You’re on to something if you answered yes, and you’re going to be surprised if you aren’t so sure!
Sometimes we are content being good, and yet our insides are in complete disarray-but because no one knows it, we assume we are okay. This work we are going to do through our study of the book of Philippians might be the most important thing we’ve ever done. But we don’t do it merely as another self-improvement project.
The Bible knows nothing of a connected regenerate person, filled with the Spirit, whose goal is to just survive.
Our faith journey here on Earth is not meant to be summed up to a behavior modification. Our journey should be a radical departure from the world and how it thinks. Our journey should represent a supernatural intervention remaking us into whom God built us to be.
We want to be women who set our minds on Christ, better yet realizing we have already been given the mind of Christ and therefore, we are deeply and intrinsically motivated and moved by an entirely different source. Not only do we make Jesus happy, but we find our complete happiness in Him. These are truths that if we could only believe, would change everything. It is possible to waste our lives because we never learn to take our thoughts captive.
This six-session Bible study (DVD/digital downloads sold separately) dives head first into Paul’s letter to the Philippians, imploring and encouraging them to become entirely new kinds of humans whose minds are set solely on Christ. Bestselling author and Bible teacher, Jennie Allen steps through the book of Philippians with purpose and intention, unpacking the simple, but difficult truth of allowing ourselves and our minds to be transformed in the name of Christ. Jennie confronts our current cultural struggles while relating valid and trusted answers in Scripture that inspire real change from the inside out.
Each session will include video teaching, group discussion, and personal study time of digging deeper, reflection, consideration, response, imagination, and Scripture memory.
Designed for use with the Get Out of Your Head Video Study (sold separately).
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Last Pastor : Faithfully Steering A Closing Church
$32.00Add to cartGail Cafferata was heartbroken when the church she pastored voted to close its doors. It may have been the right decision, but it led to a million questions in her mind about her call, leadership, and future. She began to think that other pastors who close churches perhaps go through this same experience. This led her to obtain a grant from the Louisville Institute to conduct a sociological study of over 130 pastors in five historically established denominations (Episcopal, Lutheran, United Methodist, Presbyterian, and United Church of Christ) who were called to serve churches that closed. This book tells the results of that study, which consisted of many interviews, and the hard-won lessons learned by these courageous pastors.
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What Is Jesus Doing
$40.99Add to cartHow do we understand Jesus’ present activity in a challenging, post-Christian context? Leading thinkers in pastoral theology, homiletics, liturgical theology, and missiology consider how to recognize the divine presence and join in what God is already doing in all areas of church ministry. With deep theological reflection, personal stories, and practical suggestions, this is a compelling interdisciplinary conversation.
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Loving Your Community
$20.00Add to cartAre you and your church making a difference in your community? Are you meeting needs in a positive, proactive, and loving way? Too often when churches are presented with a need outside their walls, they operate on the principle of “Say no unless you have to say yes.”
Don’t want that to be your church’s legacy in your community? Drawing on more than 30 years of service to the community surrounding Faith Church in Indiana, pastor Stephen Viars shows you how to develop a dynamic, giving relationship with your community, one in which your natural response to needs is “Yes! How can we help?”
No matter the size, location, demographics, or issues in your community, the approach found in this practical book will help you improve people’s lives, draw them into productive conversation about the hope you have in Christ, and glorify God.
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Collected Sermons Of Walter Brueggemann Volume 3
$44.00Add to cartThis collection features sixty sermons by Walter Brueggemann, preached mostly in the last five years. For his final public appearances, he preached at various churches and the Festival of Homiletics, including his last address there in 2018. Most of these are based on lectionary texts, with numerous sermons on Advent-Christmas and Lent-Easter texts. Preachers will find inspiration in the handful of sermons covering special occasions or themes, including confirmation, evangelism, and funerals.
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Leaders Journey : Accepting The Call To Personal And Congregational Transfo
$27.99Add to cartThis book helps pastors and church leaders understand the role their personal transformation as Jesus’s disciples plays in effective congregational leadership. It shifts the focus of leadership from techniques and charisma to spiritual transformation and developing emotional maturity so leaders can effectively lead congregations to embrace change. End-of-chapter discussion questions are included. The first edition sold more than 20,000 copies and has been regularly used as a textbook over the past fifteen years. The second edition has been revised throughout and includes a greater emphasis on Bowen Family Systems Theory.
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Collected Sermons Of David Bartlett
$46.00Add to cartThis 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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Little Book For New Preachers
$14.99Add to cartOne of the central tasks of pastoral ministry is preaching the Word of God. Yet those who are called to ministry may feel unprepared, unable, or unwilling to step into this role. In this brief introduction to homiletics, seasoned preacher Matthew Kim provides proven insight and guidance about the importance and history of preaching, the characteristics of faithful preaching, and the personal habits of a faithful preacher.
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Pastor As Public Theologian
$25.00Add to cartMany pastors today see themselves primarily as counselors, leaders, and motivators. Yet this often comes at the expense of the fundamental reality of the pastorate as a theological office. The most important role is to be a theologian mediating God to the people. The church needs pastors who can contextualize biblical wisdom in Christian living to help their congregations think theologically about all aspects of their lives, such as work, end-of-life decisions, political involvement, and entertainment choices.
Drawing on the Bible, key figures from church history, and Christian theology, this book offers a clarion call for pastors to serve as public theologians in their congregations and communities. It is designed to be engaging reading for busy pastors and includes pastoral reflections on the theological task from twelve working pastors, including Kevin DeYoung and Cornelius Plantinga.
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Know What Youre FOR Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99Add to cartWhat 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)
$12.99Add to cartIn 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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Ministry With Persons With Mental Illness And Their Families Second Edition
$39.00Add to cartThose who are afflicted as well as those who are adversely affected by mental illness often live lives of “quiet desperation” without recourse to appropriate assistance. Most caregivers confronted with these illnesses in the work of ministry have had no training or accurate information about mental illnesses, so frequently they do nothing, resulting in further harm and damage. Others may operate out of a theological system that does not adequately account for the nature, severity, or treatment of these illnesses. In Ministry with Persons with Mental Illness and Their Families, Second Edition, psychiatrists and pastoral theologians come together in an interdisciplinary, collaborative effort to ensure accuracy of information concerning the medical dimensions of mental illness, interpret these illnesses from a faith perspective, and make suggestions relative to effective ministry. Readers will learn how science and a faith tradition can not only co-exist but work in tandem to alleviate the pain of the afflicted and affected.
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Growing A Healthy Church (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99Add to cart19 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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Sermones Actuales Sobre Pedro – (Spanish)
$13.99Add to cartEl Apostol Pedro, mas conocido como el apostol sanguineo, fue el primero de los discipulos en hacer una confesion mesianica del Seor Jesucristo, cuando le dijo: Tu eres el Cristo, el Hijo del Dios viviente (Mt. 16:16). En otras palabras, le expreso Tu eres el Mesias y eres Hijo del Dios que vive. Y Jesus lo tuvo que alabar: Bienaventurado eres, Simon hijo de Jonas, porque no te lo revelo carne ni sangre, sino mi Padre que esta en los cielos (Mt. 16:17).
Pedro se parece a muchos de nosotros. En el nos vemos identificados en nuestras ligerezas, nuestras fallas, nuestras oportunidades; y sobre todo en el deseo de querer agradar a nuestro Seor Jesucristo. !Es todo un personaje en el colegio apostolico! Uno con el cual reimos y tambien lloramos.
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Grace Of Les Miserables Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$14.99Add to cartVictor Hugo’s Les Miserables is a truly epic story. Whether you’ve tackled the 1,400-page 19thcentury novel, witnessed the Broadway musical (and memorized its soundtrack), or seen the several screen adaptations of it, you already know the power of its story.
In the six-week Lenten study The Grace of Les Miserables, author and pastor Matt Rawle dives into six ideals found in the story–grace, justice, poverty, revolution, love, and hope–each represented by a character in Hugo’s story. As these imperfect and relatable characters interact, we can see how these ideals work together (perhaps even in spite of each other) out in the world.
In keeping with his previous works, Matt Rawle brings us to the intersection of Church and Pop Culture by drawing parallels between the iconic story and musical and our Christian calling, inspiring us to both understand our faith and live it out in the world.
The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the six-week study including session plans, activities, and discussion questions, as well as multiple format options.
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Grace Of Les Miserables
$16.99Add to cartVictor Hugo’s Les Miserables is a truly epic story. Whether you’ve tackled the 1,400-page 19thcentury novel, witnessed the Broadway musical (and memorized its soundtrack), or seen the several screen adaptations of it, you already know the power of its story.
In the six-week Lenten study The Grace of Les Miserables, author and pastor Matt Rawle dives into six ideals found in the story–grace, justice, poverty, revolution, love, and hope–each represented by a character in Hugo’s story. As these imperfect and relatable characters interact, we can see how these ideals work together (perhaps even in spite of each other) out in the world.
In keeping with his previous works, Matt Rawle brings us to the intersection of Church and Pop Culture by drawing parallels between the iconic story and musical and our Christian calling, inspiring us to both understand our faith and live it out in the world.
A DVD, Leader Guide, youth resources, and Worship Resource Flash Drive are also available for a six-week study.
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Will Willimons Lectionary Sermon Resource Year A Part 2
$26.99Add to cartWill Willimon is widely acclaimed as one of the top ten preachers in the world. For each Sunday of the Christian year, Will provides just what you need to begin the journey toward a sermon. This guide will stoke, fund, and fuel your imagination while leaving plenty of room to insert your own illustrations, make connections within your congregational context, and speak the Word in your distinctive voice. Guidance from Will Willimon is like sitting down with a trusted clergy friend and asking, “What will you preach next Sunday?” Year A Part 2 is part of a six-volume set that includes years A, B, and C (2 volumes per year) in the Revised Common Lectionary. Part 1 includes the Pentecost through the end of the church year, Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday.
Each week of sermon resources includes:
1.Readings
2.Theme title
3.Introduction to the Readings
4.Encountering the Text
5.Proclaiming the Text
6.Relating the Text -
Grace For The Children
$20.99Add to cartThe church’s response to child and adolescent mental health disorders has too often been characterized by fear and misinformation rather than grace or wisdom. Psychologist Matthew Stanford educates Christians about a range of common mental health disorders–from both scientific and biblical perspectives–so that the church may offer young people hope, a holistic view of human nature, accessible care, and supportive community.
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How To Lead In A World Of Distraction Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99Add to cartIn 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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Cry Of The Blind
$10.99Add to cartA Gods Life Publishing Title
Today there is a cry rising to God from the Blind Bartimaecus’s all cross our nation. The church as a whole is deafened to their cry. The love of money has caused many leaders to be more focused on having things rather than carrying the great commission of obeying Christ by evangelizing the lost. The Cry Of The Blind will encourage the church to refocus to the hearing the cry of the blind, initiate a plan of action to rescue them and thus fulfill the Great Commission.
