Pastoral Helps
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Lords Prayer
$55.00Add to cartC. Clifton Black provides a thorough analysis of the most famous prayer in the Christian church, the Lord’s Prayer. He begins with an impressionist painting of how the ancients prayed during Jesus’ time in order to set the context for understanding the prayer he taught his disciples. Throughout the book, Black systematically interprets the rich meanings of each part of the Lord’s prayer. Additionally, he includes an overview of Christian thought on the Lord’s Prayer from early church mothers and fathers like Tertullian and Teresa of Avila to modern theologians like Karl Barth. Uniquely, this book is an academic study of the Lord’s Prayer with a focus on the rhetorical culture from which it developed as well as the theological, literary, and historical meanings of the prayer itself.
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Reciprocal Church : Becoming A Community Where Faith Flourishes Beyond High
$20.99Add to cartIntroduction: Reciprocal Church
Part 1: A Theological Vision For The Reciprocal Church
1. Eating Melon On Tuesdays: Young People And Faith
2. Galloping Mares: The Gospel Without Christ’s Church
3. A Vital Identity: God Gathers A People
4. A Vital Purpose: Christ Is Reconciling Relationships
5. A Vital Avenue: The Spirit Transforms You, Me, And UsPart 2: Values And Practices For Flourishing Communities
6. Tetherballs And Floodlights: Valuing Memory
7. The Oxpecker’s Gift: Valuing Mutuality
8. Seeing Beyond The Epidemic: Recognizing Potential
9. Moving Beyond The Epidemic: Valuing Contribution
10. Windmills Of Hope: Valuing MaturityEpilogue: Faith Flourishes With Practice
Acknowledgments
Discussion Questions
NotesAdditional Info
The church faces an unprecedented loss of rising generations. Young adults who were active and engaged in the local church are leaving the community behind after high school. What can we do? Responding to these concerning statistics, Sharon Galgay Ketcham reflects theologically on the church community and its role in forming faith. She exposes problems in the way leaders conceive of and teach about the relationship between individual faith and the local church, and offers fresh solutions in the form of values and practices that can shape a community into a place where faith will flourish in those both young and old. -
Cold Case Christianity Video Series With Facilitators Guide (DVD)
$26.99Add to cartIn this eight-session DVD viewers will learn how to employ ten important detective skills as they watch Detective Wallace test the accuracy and reliability of the New Testament Gospel accounts. They’ll follow along as he investigates the historical evidence and “questions” the witnesses, teaching viewers how to become good Christian case makers.
Designed to accompany the original book and all-new participant’s guide, and facilitator’s guide, these videos are perfect for small groups and leaders. This series will help small groups grow in their confidence as they investigate the accuracy and reliability of the Gospel accounts and learn how to defend the truth.
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Lectionary Stories For Preaching And Teaching Series 3 Cycle C
$24.95Add to cartStorytellers who excel at their craft can draw readers or listeners into the worlds they create, using characters and situations to entertain and enlighten us. Jesus, the Master Storyteller, often spoke using parables — short stories that conveyed spiritual truths. By drawing his listeners into his stories, he unlocked their minds and hearts to hear the truth he was relating to them.
Asked about his style and direction when authoring this book, Keith Hewitt said, “I thought it would be interesting to look at the Biblical passages from a slightly different angle than we might normally see them. Some of the stories are set in the time and place of the passage, others are set in different periods, using different characters–but in all of them I try to humanize the events so that the reader can sense that they’re happening to real people. I think this can help them to connect to the meaning of the story.”
Some of the stories can easily be adapted as vignettes or monologues, to be performed during worship. Depending upon the age of the students, other stories could be used in Sunday School as alternative texts to get students thinking about a particular passage in different ways.
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Luke Alive Volume 2
$15.95Add to cart“Do you feel as though God favors you? That He is on your side? That He is always with you?”
These are the questions Robert Blair asks in the 13 sermons in Luke Alive, Volume 1e Alive, Volume 1. They cut straight to the Christian heart. They address our greatest fear: that we might not be good enough for God. That we might not enjoy his favor.
Blair does not stop short at dismissing our fears with a casual overview of grace. He addresses where they come from, a natural drive to earn favor, to work toward something we can never fully attain ourselves. The Gospel of Luke shows us what we can “earn” with our actions and what we can’t.
In the sinful woman who cries at Jesus’ feet and cleans them, we see the image of genuine gratitude for forgiveness. In the healing of the crippled woman, we discern that it’s always time to do good for other people.
Luke Alivee Alive guides ministers through our deepest of Christian fears and desires, and offers satisfying answers based firmly in scripture. It is a must-have volume for pastors seeking to answer direct questions with plain language, whether from the pulpit or the living room couch.
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Luke Alive Volume 1
$15.95Add to cart“Do you feel as though God favors you? That He is on your side? That He is always with you?”
These are the questions Robert Blair asks in the first of 13 sermons in Luke Alive, Volume 1. They cut straight to the Christian heart. They address our greatest fear: that we might not be good enough for God.That we might not enjoy his favor.
Blair does not stop short at dismissing our fears with a casual overview of grace. He addresses where they come from, a natural drive to earn favor, to work toward something we can never fully attain ourselves. The Gospel of Luke shows us what we can “earn” with our actions and what we can’t.
In Mary, the Mother of Jesus we have an image of what it means to be chosen, to be given the Lord’s favor. In Jesus’ proclamation of the year of the Lord’s favor at Nazareth we see that, favored as we may be, there is a kind of favor we can earn when we seize the opportunity. In the story of Jesus and his disciples picking grain on the Sabbath we learn that we do not earn favor by following rules.
That’s when it gets really exciting.
Luke Alive guides ministers through our deepest of Christian fears and desires, and offers satisfying answers based firmly in scripture. It is a must-have volume for pastors seeking to answer direct questions with plain language, whether from the pulpit or the living room couch.
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Watch This Cycle C
$15.95Add to cartIt is often challenging to discuss with new believers – or even seasoned believers – the meatiest parts of Christian theology. You can’t exactly answer these questions in the course of an elevator ride.
“What is the Holy Spirit? How does it work?”
“What does it mean for God to be in three persons?”
“Are demons really in the world? What are Christians supposed to do about demon possession?”
Dave Zuchelli draws from the Gospels of Luke and John to give you tools to wrestle with these questions. Whether from the pulpit, in a small group or personal conversation, the sermons inWatch This!remind us to enter into discussion with humility. To sit with our guests at the last seat at the table.
The Lord will meet you there.
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Inside The Transformative World Of Childrens Ministry
$14.99Add to cartDoes your church need a shared language to talk about children?
Sometimes children’s ministry leaders and other staff members struggle to relate to one another. Yet all would agree that children are important–not just to the future of the church but to the church now. Inside the Transformative World of Children’s Ministry seeks to provide a shared perspective, offering an inside look at the unique challenges of children’s ministry. Safety procedures, volunteer development, ministry philosophy from kids in diapers to kids in puberty–practitioner Kyle Tyler gets inside the mind, heart, and world of ministry to kids.
This book is for lead pastors.
This book is for church boards.
This book is for children’s leaders.Inside the Transformative World of Children’s Ministry will help you understand, empower, and energize your church staff in their ministry to children.
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Rebooted : Reclaiming Youth Ministry For The Long Haul A Biblical Framework
$15.99Add to cartMost youth ministry is simply too small. Or too time- or fad-bound. Or based on a model of some sort but without solid biblical foundations. The author is passionate about growing youth ministry that can outlive the youth worker. He deplores particularly the call for ‘something’ for youth. Something just won’t do.Tim Gough seeks to redress the balance. He takes us on an expositional journey through the Bible as he sees it relating to youth work, pulling out purposeful themes through key stories and passages. He offers guidelines which can be used by any leader as he casts this strong, healthy biblical vision to inspire us.Here is youth leadership training for the long haul.Introduction – Methods and goals1 Passing it on – Youth work through the Pentateuch (Gen-Deut)2 Walking beside them – Youth work through the history books3 Staying relevant – Youth work through wisdom literature4 Cultivating community – Youth work through the Psalms5 Getting involved – Youth work through the Prophets6 Growing up – Youth work through the Gospels7 Going out – Youth work through the Acts8 Displaying devotion – Youth work through the EpistlesConclusion – Bringing it all together as a facilitator model of youth work
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Rebellious Faith Cycle C
$17.95Add to cart“Go against the grain.”
This is what Mark Ellingsen wants your church to hear in A Rebellious Faith. It isn’t merely odd or contradictory in the eyes of the world to live a Christian life. It is offensive.
To go against the grain – by discounting our accomplishments, carrying no shame in the light of grace, considering no one outside of God’s love – is to sometimes make people who worship hard work, the quest for perfection and exceptionalism deeply uncomfortable.
And that is a very good thing.
Ellingsen begins with the irrevocable truth that the ashes we put on our living bodies at the beginning of the Lenten season represent the death we all deserve. From there, he leads your congregation through the brazenly offensive, un-American ideas presented in the New Testament.
Confession does not shame and isolate us, it liberates us. Bearing the cross of our sin is not a burden, but a blessing in the knowledge the Lord has paid the ultimate price for our sin. The Resurrection does not make anyone exceptional. It unites us all whether or not we are ready to enter Heaven together.
A Rebellious Faith reminds us thatthe war is already won, and we are to live as brave sinners whose Savior cannot be overcome.
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Short Term Missions Workbook (Workbook)
$18.99Add to cartIntroduction
1. The God Of Mission
2. Learning To Delight In Differences
3. Embracing Change
4. Maximizing Personal Growth
5. Working Together As A Team
6. Communicating Clearly
7. Staying Spiritually Fresh
8. Preparing For Risks
9. Anticipating The Return Home
10. Making The Most Of Your Trip Once You’re Home
Acknowledgments
Appendix 1: Leader’s Guide
Appendix 2: Recommended Reading And Additional Resources
Appendix 3: Language Acquisition Phrases And Cultural Research Questions
Appendix 4: A Quick Guide To A Christian Theology Of Suffering
Appendix 5: Bookmark And Journal Insert
Appendix 6: Debriefing Prayer Of Examen
NotesAdditional Info
Going on a short-term missions trip can be a life- and faith-transforming experience. It can enrich the way you view the world. It can cause you to rely on God more fully. It is an opportunity to develop deep relationships with your team and the people you serve.A short-term missions experience can also involve weeks of physical and spiritual challenges. An unprepared team can wreak havoc on each other and the people they intend to serve.
To get the most out of a missions trip, you need to go prepared. Whether you are going on your own or with a team, the keys to preparation are here in this workbook. In this ten-week course, which includes questions for individual reflection and group discussion, you will find
-a concise summary of crosscultural principles
-help in facing spiritual warfare
-tips on avoiding a tourist mentality
-spiritual preparation through individual or group Bible studyThis revised and expanded edition includes updated content throughout and new chapters on facing risks, fears, and suffering, and making the most of the trip after returning home.
If you are planning to go on a short-term missions trip, don’t leave home without working through this book!
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Preaching As Resistance
$19.99Add to cart30 new sermons to empower your prophetic voice for solidarity and justice. As nationalism, patriarchy, and alt-right fear-mongering threaten our troubled nation, the pulpit has again become a subversive space of sacred resistance. In this provocative and powerful collection of sermons from diverse pastors across America, hear the brave and urgent voice of Christians calling for radical change rooted in love, solidarity, and justice. Preaching as Resistance resists, confronts, and troubles the dangerous structures of authoritarianism and oppression crashing in from all sides – and proclaims the transformation, possibility, and hope stirring in the gospel of Christ. From big-steeple churches in big cities to rural congregations in red states, preaching as resistance is practiced in a wide variety of social contexts and preaching styles, inspiring and equipping listeners to respond to the call of justice. Ideal for pastors and church leaders, Preaching as Resistance also provides the opportunity to experience hopeful, welcoming Christian voices rooted in the gospel values of love, solidarity, and justice. In these challenging times when Christianity is so often misrepresented, misunderstood, and misused for unjust agendas, take heart and find your own voice in this collection of resistance sermons from everyday pastors across the country. Contributors: Emily Bowen-Marler, Amy Butler, Jeff Chu, Aric Clark, Wil Gafney, Sarah Tron Garriott, Richard Gehring, Molly Housh Gordon, Cassandra Gould, Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, Anna Holloway, Jesse Jackson, Sandhya Jha, Jin S. Kim, Kenji Kuramitsu, Jose F. Morales, Gary Peluso-Verdend, Alton B. Pollard III, Micki Pulleyking, Susan Russell, Leah D. Schade, Darryl Schafer, Austin Shelley, David Swinton, Laura Jean Truman, Richard Voelz, Alexis James Waggoner, Lori Walke, Michael W. Waters, Erin Wathen, Layton E. Williams, Brian Zahnd
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I Declare War Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99Add to cartIn the New Testament, some the most common analogies used to describe following Jesus are that of a soldier engaged in a good fight and an athlete running to win a prize. In our world today, athletes and soldiers know they must have a mental edge to successfully deal with everything they encounter. They know victory will never occur unless they’ve first won their internal battles.
In I Declare War, author and pastor Levi Lusko shows how the same is true for Christians. God has called each of us to an important assignment-to win the battle and claim the prize-but to fulfill that calling we first have to win the war within. Levi draws from the Bible to show four ways to fight this internal battle:
*Key #1: Discover Your Calling
*Key #2: Prepare for the Trial
*Key #3: Learn Self-Control
*Key #4: Rely on God’s PowerLevi draws on stories from his own life to show how God can help us wage war against issues that rob us of joy such as depression, fear, anxiety, addiction, negative thoughts, pride, jealousy, resentment, anger, self-doubt, and codependent relationships. While Levi does not offer a quick fix or promise the “perfect life” if participants follow all the steps, he does point toward the hope that God provides as we commit to fight the good fight through all the pain, sweat, and tears that each day brings.
Designed for use with the I Declare War Video Study (sold separately).
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Adoptive Church : Creating An Environment Where Emerging Generations Belong
$22.00Add to cartTeens and emerging adults don’t feel at home in the church because they are not fully included in the church body. How can congregations nurture young adults, welcome them as siblings into God’s household, and empower them to become fully embedded contributors within and to their faith community?
Integrating the latest research on adolescent faith and young adult ministry for the local church, this book presents a new way of thinking about youth ministry. Chap Clark makes the principles found in Sticky Faith, Growing Young, and Hurt 2.0 highly practical for today’s youth leaders, showing how they can implement a sustainable youth ministry program in a local church akin to Purpose-Driven Youth Ministry. Clark presents the adoptive youth ministry model as a way to help congregations see youth ministry as a bridge to inclusion, participation, and contribution in the body of Christ. His comprehensive plan for designing and implementing youth ministry shows churches how to intentionally welcome young people and create an environment where they belong.
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Ultimate Reliance : Breakthrough Prayer Practices For Leaders
$18.99Add to cartAdding a Breakthrough Prayer Initiative to the teamwork of your church or ministry’s leadership will change everything-and transform what may have become routine administrative work, into riding the exciting rapids of a God-led spiritual adventure together! Author Sue Nilson Kibbey’s classic church leadership book, Ultimately Responsible, and her most recent release Flood Gates: Holy Momentum for a Fearless Church, are followed by this new resource that will strengthen the “flood gate” of your breakthrough prayer practices both collectively and individually. Each chapter includes discussion questions, application ideas, a breakthrough prayer practice for the week or month-plus a short inspirational video story of a leader like you whose breakthrough prayer practice made all the difference. (Downloadable video stories package sold separately). Ideal for use with your church council, board, leadership team, class, small group or entire congregation-whoever longs to build prayer practices for breakthroughs and new God possibilities as the ultimate foundation for everything else.
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8 Virtues Of Rapidly Growing Churches
$17.99Add to cartLeaders who are interested in planting or revitalizing congregations often feel discouraged and defeated after leadership conferences, or after reading about the ‘heroes’ of church planting and church growth. “They are amazing,” they say. “I can’t be that amazing.” But Jesus’ load is easy and his burden is light. When we examine the practices and characteristics of those ‘heroes’, we see striking trends and commonalities. Aspiring church leaders can learn the practices and develop the characteristics that will lead to successful churches. Instead of feeling defeated, new leaders should have a hope-filled sense of what new thing they can do. Authors Matt Miofsky and Jason Byasse carefully researched, interviewed, and profiled successful church-growers across the U.S., and identified 8 characteristics these leaders and their congregations have in common. These pastors are still learning, still figuring out how to do this work and how to faithfully live into God’s call. But for now, how are they doing what they do? What mistakes have they made & learned from? Where have they paid the stupid tax that others should avoid? Each of these ‘heroes’ is painfully ordinary and up front about their flaws. And each can see slightly farther than the rest of us. What do they see that we can learn from? Discover the 8 characteristics, and learn how to adapt them for your own congregation and calling.
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Hacia Una Mentalidad Misionera – (Spanish)
$17.00Add to cartDouglas Ruffle writes Towards a Missionary Mentality using the timeless principles of E. Stanley Jones and transfers them for their use today. Ruffle teaches us to approach the mission field as if we were from a different country and to learn a new culture, a new form of communication and a new way of connecting people with the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Curating Church : Strategies For Innovative Worship
$31.99Add to cartIf we are willing to shift our approach to church, we will better connect with increasingly heterogeneous cultures. This shifting requires curation. Church leaders must learn to be curators! Churches in modernity were set up to facilitate a particular kind of experience with God. Church was its own (protected) culture. In the wake of postmodernity, facilitated by new forms of (digital) communication, we are entering a new epoch in the history of the church. Curators manage the tasks of connection, preservation, and transformation, in their care for cultural artifacts and communities. When someone serves as a curator, they make connections between different elements in the culture, preserving the best of cultural traditions, and promoting fresh ways of thinking and being in the world. What might this work of curation mean for us? In Curating Church, readers learn how curation can reorient and sharpen the ways and work of the church. Curation can inform how we connect with cultures beyond the church, preserve what is best in the rich history of Christian thought and expression, and nurture spaces where contemporary persons may be transformed by the gospel. This book helps readers to understand with new richness the church and the world, and it equips them to become active in making those connections-as curators-with and for others.
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12 Disciples : Bible Study
$11.99Add to cartJesus called twelve ordinary men–and turned their weaknesses into strengths, their faults into testimonies, and their doubts into faith. Who were these men who walked with Jesus? What can we learn from their lives? Find out with The Twelve Disciples Visual Bible Study.
From John and Peter to Matthew and Mark, enjoy digging deeper into the lives of each of Jesus’ twelve disciples and learn more about:
*Their personalities
*Why Jesus called each of them
*How they served
*The lessons that we can learn from their mishaps and strengths
*And more!All-Inclusive Ready-to-Use Bible Study on the Twelve Disciples Can Be Led By Anyone!
This highly visual and informative introduction to the twelve disciples shows how Jesus called the Twelve individually–and uniquely–for life with him. See how Jesus entrusted them with authority despite all their mishaps and failures. Discover how these men’s lives were radically changed in the midst of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection; and celebrate the global effect they had for generations to come. Features include:
*6-session flexible Bible study
*Optional reading plan for people with more time who want to go deeper
*Leader’s guide is contained within each study guide, so no extra book purchase is required
*Discussion questions for each session and lots of space for writingMost Bible studies on the twelve disciples don’t include visuals. Imagine having one that does!
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Megachurch Christianity Reconsidered
$30.99Add to cartBuilding from a behind-the-scenes case study of Kenya’s Nairobi Chapel and its “daughter” Mavuno Church, Wanjiru M. Gitau expands their story into a narrative that offers analysis of the rise, growth, and place of megachurches worldwide in the new millennium. In contexts experienced as deeply volatile, and in Africa reeling from the structural incoherence imposed by colonial times, megachurches provide a map of reality to navigate by, with the gospel as their primary compass. Gitau shows that recognizing the psychological, spiritual, and social destabilization of modernizing societies is the first step to valuing the place of megachurches in contemporary Christianity.
Through analysis of social demography, theology, philosophy of ministry, leadership development, and strategy, Megachurch Christianity Reconsidered makes integral sense of the historical and social forces that give megachurches their growth opportunity in ministry, and reclaims them as a subject of serious theological conversation.
This lively, engaging account centers on the role of millennials in responding to the need for “a home for new generations” amid the dislocating transitions of globalization and postmodernity in postcolonial Africa and around the world. Gitau gleans practical wisdom for postdenominational churches everywhere (mega- and otherwise) from the lessons learned in Kenya’s remarkable urban, evangelical renewal movement.
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Will Willimons Lectionary Sermon Resource Year C 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 C 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. 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
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Last Days Cycle C
$15.95Add to cartDo you serve people who feel like underdogs?
The story of Jesus’ last days on Earth, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke, provide some of the New Testament’s most powerful inspiration for the “underdogs” among us.
Richard A. Hasler draws from a deep well of modern-era stories to illustrate Jesus’ words of comfort and hope to people who seemed foolish, destined to lose in life.
Learn how Albert Schweitzer “wasted” his gifts to become a missionary to equatorial Africa; how Feodor Dostoevsky depended on the grace of God to create beautiful work out of a broken life; how one young believer ministered to a woman living with a family of Satanists in an unlikely place; and more.
These 12 sermons included in The Last Days reminds us we have the strength to serve, persevere and trust in Jesus Christ, even when doing so looks foolish, because we follow the king of underdogs … until the last days and forevermore.
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Find Your Fit (Revised)
$18.00Add to cartGod made you unique and valuable, and he invites you into an incredible future. But it can be hard to think through what that means and what it should look like. How can you figure it all out in the middle of your responsibilities, expectations, and pressures?
Find Your Fit is an incredible resource to help you discover who you are. It assesses your interests, abilities, spiritual gifts, values, and personality so you can understand what makes you tick and how you can become all God designed you to be. But it’s not just a powerful tool–it’s also fun to understand yourself better than you ever have before.
The Find Your Fit Discovery Workbook is also available, and it includes self-assessments, questions for digging deeper, and group exercises. Set yourself free to dream big dreams about what your life can be. God loves you so much and wants you to join him to change the world!
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Overcomer Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99Add to cartIn this six-session Bible study, bestselling author Dr. David Jeremiah turns his insights to one of the most quoted but least understood passages of the Bible: the apostle Paul’s admonition in Ephesians 6:10-18 to take up the whole armor of God. With his signature depth, wisdom, and compassion, Dr. Jeremiah explores the powerful relevance of spiritual armor as a critical tool in our daily living as we confront the challenges in our lives and of our time. He reveals how God has given us, his followers, the tools we need to live a life defined not by our trials but by our victories.
This study will serve as a practical guide for how we can live each day in the strength that God provides as we equip each piece of spiritual armor. Although we all live in a time of deep uncertainty, the Bible promises we can live the life of freedom that God intended-even in times when the world seems filled with darkness. We were created to be overcomers, conquering the greatest obstacles in our lives.It is time to find renewed strength and claim the promises of God’s Word to overcome life’s greatest threats. It is time to claim our victory in Christ an be an overcomer.
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Taste And See Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99Add to cartFood has always been something that joins us to one another as we procure, prepare, and share meals. We gather around tables and enter the hallowed belonging and sacred union of fellowship. In this place, we reconnect with our true selves as reconciles and healers of the world who dine with justice and mercy, practice divine hospitality, and restore our bodies with God’s gift of provision. Scripture likens Jesus to bread, an edible and necessary source of life. The Holy Spirit is likened to oil and anointing. The process of produce growth and pruning and harvesting is all through God’s word.
This six-session Bible study (DVD/downloads sold separately) explores those metaphors focusing on a few select, but pointed examples that take us full-circle in the experience of harvesting a relationship with Christ.
Sessions include:
*Come to the Table
*Bread of Life
*Pressed and Anointed
*First Fruit Offerings
*Sacrifice
*Invite and ServeDesigned for use with the Taste and See Video Study (sold separately).
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Faithful Bible Study Book
$18.95Add to cartBorrowing from best-selling studies by Beth Moore, Priscilla Shirer, Lisa Harper, Kelly Minter, and Jennifer Rothschild, this 5-session study explores crucial moments in the lives of five Old Testament figures-Esther, Gideon, Malachi, Nehemiah, and Hosea. Through their stories, discover how God uses the lives of ordinary people for His glory and the good of His people. Strengthen your faith as you walk alongside these larger-than-life figures who all chose to obey God no matter the circumstances.
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Unwanted : How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way To Healing
$17.99Add to cartUnwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing is a ground-breaking resource that explores the “why” behind self-destructive sexual choices. The book is based on research from over 3,800 men and women seeking freedom from unwanted sexual behavior, be that the use of pornography, an affair, or buying sex.
Jay Stringer’s (M.Div, MA, LMHC) original research found that unwanted sexual behavior can be both shaped by and predicted based on the parts of our story–past and present–that remain unaddressed. When we pay attention to our unwanted sexual desires and identify the unique reasons that trigger them, the path of healing is revealed.
Although many of us feel ashamed and unwanted after years of sexual brokenness, the book invites the reader to see that behavior as the very location God can most powerfully work in their lives. Counselors, pastors, and accountability partners of those who experience sexual shame will also find in this book the deep spiritual and psychological guidance they need to effectively minister to the sexually broken around them.
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Meeting God At The Mall Cycle C
$15.95Add to cartAmericans are mired in idolatry. This is perhaps at no time more evident than during the Christmas season.
What idols do we worship? We often point out the consumerism that eclipses the meaning of the holiday, but as Mary Austin points out, there are others that might escape our notice. Perfectionism, that belief that if we can host the perfect holiday party or keep a perfect house, for example;thesefalse gods, we often believe will offer us wholeness. Busy-ness, too, can give us a false sense of worth.
These sermons use the words and actions of Paul to call out these false gods, to reveal our idolatry and its cause: our longing for the true source of peace. Once we have determined the cause of our love/hate relationship with the Christmas season, we can begin to pursue the counter-cultural cure.
Meeting God at the Mallting God at the Mall shows us there is no obstacle too great to prevent us from finding our way back to the peace we can find only in our loving Savior.
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Church Creation And The Common Good
$14.95Add to cart* A youth and adult study * Engages participants in how we should now live into this time of climate change crisis It is hard to be hopeful in the face of climate crisis. The problem is on a scale difficult for us to understand. Actions needed to address the crisis require a radical change in way of life. Does the Church have anything unique to offer? Is there something in our life of community, worship, and prayer that suggests a different way through this time? Church, Creation, and the Common Good is a program resource offering a hopeful answer to these challenges. Through scripture, tradition, and Christian practice, it guides church communities into deeper understanding of their role as the Church in the world and how they might be communities for the common good in this time. This curricular resource is sure to foster rich conversations and provide a path toward love of all creation and our particular places as we face the climate crisis together.
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Christianity And World Religions Leader Guide (Revised)
$14.99Add to cartPastor and best-selling author Adam Hamilton returns to one of his most popular topics, Christianity and world religions. This new, fully updated book and Bible study explores four major world religions-Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism-and compares the beliefs of each with those of Christianity.
He deals openly and honestly with questions people ask about other religions, such as: Why are there so many different religions?
How should Christians view other religions?
How is God at work in other religions?
What is the fate of those who earnestly pursue God through other religions?
In examining these major world religions and the beliefs of their followers, Hamilton urges us as Christians to build bridges with others so that we might grow in our faith, seek peace in our world, love our neighbors, and find positive ways to share the gospel. 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. -
Christianity And World Religions (Revised)
$17.99Add to cartPastor and best-selling author Adam Hamilton returns to one of his most popular topics, Christianity and world religions. This new, fully updated book explores four major world religions-Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism-and compares the beliefs of each with those of Christianity.
He deals openly and honestly with questions people ask about other religions, such as: Why are there so many different religions?
How should Christians view other religions?
How is God at work in other religions?
What is the fate of those who earnestly pursue God through other religions?
In examining these major world religions and the beliefs of their followers, Hamilton urges us as Christians to build bridges with others so that we might grow in our faith, seek peace in our world, love our neighbors, and find positive ways to share the gospel. Additional components for a six-week study include a new Leader Guide to help facilitate each weekly session and a DVD featuring Hamilton in new 10-15 minute segments, each including an interview with followers from that tradition. -
Your Companion After Sexual Assault
$5.99Add to cartThe Out of the Depths series addresses common pastoral crises in a faithful, encouraging, and factual manner that provides support to parishioners in crisis beyond the initial pastoral conversation. These inexpensive booklets can be given out to parishioners when they bring their recent diagnosis, crisis, or trauma to the pastor as a way to continue to provide care throughout the difficult season. Each booklet begins with a thoughtful consideration of the topic at hand, which is followed up by 30 brief devotions. These devotions are designed to be manageable in an overwhelming time, encouraging, and honest. This Sexual Assault edition features devotions from Emily Flemming, United Methodist clergywoman. The Out of the Depths booklets are essential care resources to be given out by pastors, Stephen Ministers, and congregational care teams.
Key Features:
Written by metal health professionals and pastors to help the reader process their trauma both psychologically and theologically.
Includes accessible material describing the dynamics of the crisis situation and typical reactions, which provides the reader with a sense of grounding and direction through increased knowledge.
The thirty short devotions creates a sense of companionship and hope in a difficult and lonely time.
Knowing they are sharing a resource written by mental health professionals and pastors with personal experience provides pastors a trustworthy source of information.
Easy for pastors/churches to keep in stock and distribute as needed, serves as a tangible reminder of the faith community’s care. -
End Of Preaching
$16.99Add to cartThe End of Preaching is equal parts instruction and inspiration, offering practical help for every preacher and seminarian, and providing a new way of thinking about the purpose and craft of preaching. Tom Troeger explores the end–or purpose–of preaching as prayer. He gently reveals layer after layer of meaning for the preacher and the practice of preaching, giving deep insight into the preacher’s approach, the task of preaching itself, and the impact of preaching on the hearers. This is a book to be studied and savored, a wonderful gift for one’s self or any preacher friend. Thomas Troeger delivered the 2016 Beecher Lectures, the nation’s most prestigious and influential series of lectures on the topic of preaching. The series was established at Yale University in 1871.
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4 Pages Of The Sermon (Revised)
$37.99Add to cartDoing justice to the complexity of the preaching task and the questions that underlie it, author Paul Scott Wilson organizes both the preparation and the content of the sermon around its “four pages.” Each “page” addresses a different theological and creative component of what happens in any sermon. Page One presents the trouble or conflict that takes place in or that underscores the biblical text itself. Page Two looks at similar conflict–sin or brokenness–in our own time. Page Three returns to the Bible to identify where God is at work in or behind the text–in other words, to discover the good news. Page Four points to God at work in our world, particularly in relation to the situations described in Page Two. This approach is about preaching the gospel in nearly any sermonic form. Wilson teaches the ‘what’, ‘why’, and ‘how’ of sermon construction, all rooted in a theology of the Word. This completely revised edition guides readers through the sermon process step by step, with the aim of composing sermons that challenge and provide hope, by focusing on God more closely than on humans. It has been largely rewritten to include an assessment of where preaching is today in light of propositional preaching, the New Homiletic, African American preaching, the effect of the internet, and use of technology. A chapter on exegesis has been added, plus new focus on the importance of preaching to a felt need, the need for proclamation in addition to teaching, and developing tools to ensure sermon excellence. New sermon examples have been added along with a section that responds to critics and looks to the future.
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Promise Of The Future Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$14.99Add to cartThe story of Jesus doesn’t begin in a manger in Bethlehem. Instead, it first begins hundreds of years before, when God’s prophets begin to preach about the coming of the Messiah who would redeem all of humanity. In this study, we will unpack that message of hope and anticipation as it’s found in the prophets of Isaiah and Micah and the redeeming story of Ruth A Deep Dive into the Story of God Fathom is a Bible study for teens that covers the Old and New Testaments in 18 4-session studies. The lessons are a blend of narrative and traditional theological approaches to understanding the Bible story. Each lesson will focus on one passage that will launch into the larger context of God’s story being studied,and how that story is meant to be theirs. Fathom is suitable for groups with middle schoolers, high schoolers, and any combination of the two. But unlike many other resources, it acknowledges the differences between older and younger youth and the way they learn. It provides activities specific to each age group, as well as activities for mixed groups in which older youth have leadership opportunities. Fathom gives leaders the option to let youth take ownership of their learning through teaching and leading alongside adults. Fathom creates space and tension for teens to wrestle with how to interpret and experience the Bible. Through youthministrypartners.com, leaders will have access to planning and teaching tools, customizable content, and other supplemental content to support their use of Fathom as well as their youth ministries in general.
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Promise Of The Future Student Journal (Student/Study Guide)
$9.99Add to cartThe story of Jesus doesn’t begin in a manger in Bethlehem. Instead, it first begins hundreds of years before, when God’s prophets begin to preach about the coming of the Messiah who would redeem all of humanity. In this study, we will unpack that message of hope and anticipation as it’s found in the prophets of Isaiah and Micah and the redeeming story of Ruth A Deep Dive into the Story of God Fathom is a Bible study for teens that covers the Old and New Testaments in 18 4-session studies. The lessons are a blend of narrative and traditional theological approaches to understanding the Bible story. Each lesson will focus on one passage that will launch into the larger context of God’s story being studied,and how that story is meant to be theirs. Fathom is suitable for groups with middle schoolers, high schoolers, and any combination of the two. But unlike many other resources, it acknowledges the differences between older and younger youth and the way they learn. It provides activities specific to each age group, as well as activities for mixed groups in which older youth have leadership opportunities. Fathom gives leaders the option to let youth take ownership of their learning through teaching and leading alongside adults. Fathom creates space and tension for teens to wrestle with how to interpret and experience the Bible. Through youthministrypartners.com, leaders will have access to planning and teaching tools, customizable content, and other supplemental content to support their use of Fathom as well as their youth ministries in general.
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Exile And Return Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$14.99Add to cartThis study turns its focus to the prophetic proclamations offered to the people of Israel while they were in exile in foreign lands. These four lessons based on passages found in Hosea, Esther, Ezra and more will explore what it means to be in exile, and how our lives are changed when we follow a God that reminds us that we are not alone and not forgotten and who promises to restore us. A Deep Dive into the Story of God Fathom is a Bible study for teens that covers the Old and New Testaments in 18 4-session studies. The lessons are a blend of narrative and traditional theological approaches to understanding the Bible story. Each lesson will focus on one passage that will launch into the larger context of God’s story being studied,and how that story is meant to be theirs. Fathom is suitable for groups with middle schoolers, high schoolers, and any combination of the two. But unlike many other resources, it acknowledges the differences between older and younger youth and the way they learn. It provides activities specific to each age group, as well as activities for mixed groups in which older youth have leadership opportunities. Fathom gives leaders the option to let youth take ownership of their learning through teaching and leading alongside adults. Fathom creates space and tension for teens to wrestle with how to interpret and experience the Bible. Through youthministrypartners.com, leaders will have access to planning and teaching tools, customizable content, and other supplemental content to support their use of Fathom as well as their youth ministries in general.
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Exile And Return Student Journal (Student/Study Guide)
$9.99Add to cartThis study turns its focus to the prophetic proclamations offered to the people of Israel while they were in exile in foreign lands. These four lessons based on passages found in Hosea, Esther, Ezra and more will explore what it means to be in exile, and how our lives are changed when we follow a God that reminds us that we are not alone and not forgotten and who promises to restore us. A Deep Dive into the Story of God Fathom is a Bible study for teens that covers the Old and New Testaments in 18 4-session studies. The lessons are a blend of narrative and traditional theological approaches to understanding the Bible story. Each lesson will focus on one passage that will launch into the larger context of God’s story being studied,and how that story is meant to be theirs. Fathom is suitable for groups with middle schoolers, high schoolers, and any combination of the two. But unlike many other resources, it acknowledges the differences between older and younger youth and the way they learn. It provides activities specific to each age group, as well as activities for mixed groups in which older youth have leadership opportunities. Fathom gives leaders the option to let youth take ownership of their learning through teaching and leading alongside adults. Fathom creates space and tension for teens to wrestle with how to interpret and experience the Bible. Through youthministrypartners.com, leaders will have access to planning and teaching tools, customizable content, and other supplemental content to support their use of Fathom as well as their youth ministries in general.
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Your Companion After Addiction
$5.99Add to cartThe Out of the Depths series addresses common pastoral crises in a faithful, encouraging, and factual manner that provides support to parishioners in crisis beyond the initial pastoral conversation. These inexpensive booklets can be given out to parishioners when they bring their recent diagnosis, crisis, or trauma to the pastor as a way to continue to provide care throughout the difficult season. Each booklet begins with a thoughtful consideration of the topic at hand, which is followed up by 30 brief devotions. These devotions are designed to be manageable in an overwhelming time, encouraging, and honest. This Addiction edition, co-authored by Jim Hightower and Peter Ferguson, is appropriate for both individuals experiencing addiction and their family and friends. The Out of the Depths booklets are essential care resources to be given out by pastors, Stephen Ministers, and congregational care teams.
Key Features:
Written by metal health professionals and pastors to help the reader process their trauma both psychologically and theologically.
Includes accessible material describing the dynamics of the crisis situation and typical reactions, which provides the reader with a sense of grounding and direction through increased knowledge.
The thirty short devotions creates a sense of companionship and hope in a difficult and lonely time.
Knowing they are sharing a resource written by mental health professionals and pastors with personal experience provides pastors a trustworthy source of information.
Easy for pastors/churches to keep in stock and distribute as needed, serves as a tangible reminder of the faith community’s care. -
True Inclusion : Creating Communities Of Radical Embrace
$14.99Add to cartDiscover how to move your church beyond mere welcome to radical embrace.
So your church website says you’re welcoming, a rainbow flag flies out front, worship uses gender-inclusive language, and you make sure you greet the stranger next to you on Sunday mornings. But is all of that really enough? And what if those welcoming gestures actually keep visitors from returning and exclude dozens of other groups or people in your community?
In True Inclusion, public theologian and pastor Brandan Robertson shares how to move your church from mere welcome to radical embrace. Pointing to a clear biblical imperative for radical inclusivity in the sanctuary and in the public square, Robertson presents a paradigm-shifting vision of community, “where nothing is simple, nothing is easy, but everything is beautiful.” Learn practical, step-by-step approaches to becoming deeply, robustly, and richly inclusive of all people regardless of race, gender identity, sexual orientation, political affiliation, and socioeconomic status.
Written for people and communities at every stage of the journey, True Inclusion will challenge and inspire you to embody a gospel of radical embrace for all.
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Return Of Jesus Student Journal (Student/Study Guide)
$9.99Add to cartThe second coming of Jesus has been a topic of fascination for both scholars and lay people for centuries. The accounts of Jesus’ return found throughout the Bible, especially in Revelation, are put forth with a cinematic quality that is both enrapturing and unnerving. In this study, we’ll explore apocalyptic literature throughout the Bible along with what it does and doesn’t tell us about Jesus’ return, and the key takeaways that these scriptures have for our faith. A Deep Dive into the Story of God Fathom is a Bible study for teens that covers the Old and New Testaments in 18 4-session studies. The lessons are a blend of narrative and traditional theological approaches to understanding the Bible story. Each lesson will focus on one passage that will launch into the larger context of God’s story being studied,and how that story is meant to be theirs. Fathom is suitable for groups with middle schoolers, high schoolers, and any combination of the two. But unlike many other resources, it acknowledges the differences between older and younger youth and the way they learn. It provides activities specific to each age group, as well as activities for mixed groups in which older youth have leadership opportunities. Fathom gives leaders the option to let youth take ownership of their learning through teaching and leading alongside adults. Fathom creates space and tension for teens to wrestle with how to interpret and experience the Bible. Through youthministrypartners.com, leaders will have access to planning and teaching tools, customizable content, and other supplemental content to support their use of Fathom as well as their youth ministries in general.
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Connections Year C Volume 1
$55.00Add to cartDesigned to empower preachers as they lead their congregations to connect their lives to Scripture, Connections features a broad set of interpretive tools that provide commentary and worship aids on the Revised Common Lectionary.
For each worship day within the three-year lectionary cycle, the commentaries in Connections link the individual lection reading with Scripture as a whole as well as to the larger world. In addition, Connections places each Psalm reading in conversation with the other lections for the day to highlight the themes of the liturgical season. Finally, sidebars offer additional connections to Scripture for each Sunday or worship day.
This nine-volume series is a practical, constructive, and valuable resource for preachers who seek to help congregations connect more closely with Scripture.
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Introduction To The New Testament
$70.00Add to cartThis New Testament introduction is different.Many introductions zero in on the historical contexts in which the New Testament literature was written. This introduction goes farther-to give particular attention to the social, cultural, and rhetorical contexts of the New Testament authors and their writings.Few introductions to the New Testament integrate instruction in exegetical and interpretive strategies with the customary considerations of authorship, dating, audience, and message. This introduction capitalizes on the opportunity, introducing students to a relevant facet of interpretation with each portion of New Testament literature.Rarely do introductions to the New Testament approach their task mindful of students preparing for ministry. This introduction is explicit in doing so, recognizing as it does that the New Testament itself-in its parts and as a whole-is a pastoral resource. Each chapter on the New Testament literature closes with a discussion of implications for ministry formation.These integrative features alone would distinguish this introduction from others. But in addition, its pages brim with maps, photos, points of interest, and aids to learning. Separate chapters explore the historical and cultural environment of the New Testament era, the nature of the Gospels and the quest for the historical Jesus, and the life of Paul.First published in 2004, David A. deSilva’s comprehensive and carefully crafted introduction to the New Testament has been long established as an authoritative textbook and resource for students. This beautiful, full-color second edition has been updated throughout with new scholarship and numerous images. It is the first choice for those convinced that a New Testament introduction should integrate scholarship and ministry.
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Your Companion Through Chronic Illness
$5.99Add to cartThe Out of the Depths series addresses common pastoral crises in a faithful, encouraging, and factual manner that provides support to parishioners in crisis beyond the initial pastoral conversation. These inexpensive booklets can be given out to parishioners when they bring their recent diagnosis, crisis, or trauma to the pastor as a way to continue to provide care throughout the difficult season. Each booklet begins with a thoughtful consideration of the topic at hand, which is followed up by 30 brief devotions. These devotions are designed to be manageable in an overwhelming time, encouraging, and honest. This Chronic Illnessedition is authored by Lauren Dunkle Dancey, a United Methodist chaplain and pastor who lives with chronic illness. The Out of the Depths booklets are essential care resources to be given out by pastors, Stephen Ministers, and congregational care teams. Key Features:
Written by metal health professionals and pastors to help the reader process their trauma both psychologically and theologically.
Includes accessible material describing the dynamics of the crisis situation and typical reactions, which provides the reader with a sense of grounding and direction through increased knowledge.
The thirty short devotions creates a sense of companionship and hope in a difficult and lonely time.
Knowing they are sharing a resource written by mental health professionals and pastors with personal experience provides pastors a trustworthy source of information.
Easy for pastors/churches to keep in stock and distribute as needed, serves as a tangible reminder of the faith community’s care. -
Your Companion Through Depression And Anxiety
$5.99Add to cartThe Out of the Depths series addresses common pastoral crises in a faithful, encouraging, and factual manner that provides support to parishioners in crisis beyond the initial pastoral conversation. These inexpensive booklets can be given out to parishioners when they bring their recent diagnosis, crisis, or trauma to the pastor as a way to continue to provide care throughout the difficult season. Each booklet begins with a thoughtful consideration of the topic at hand, which is followed up by 30 brief devotions. These devotions are designed to be manageable in an overwhelming time, encouraging, and honest. This Depression and Anxiety edition is authored by Jim Hightower and features insightful devotions by Harriet Bryan. The Out of the Depths booklets are essential care resources to be given out by pastors, Stephen Ministers, and congregational care teams. Key Features: Written by metal health professionals and pastors to help the reader process their trauma both psychologically and theologically. Includes accessible material describing the dynamics of the crisis situation and typical reactions, which provides the reader with a sense of grounding and direction through increased knowledge. The thirty short devotions creates a sense of companionship and hope in a difficult and lonely time. Knowing they are sharing a resource written by mental health professionals and pastors with personal experience provides pastors a trustworthy source of information. Easy for pastors/churches to keep in stock and distribute as needed, serves as a tangible reminder of the faith community’s care.
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Return Of Jesus Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$14.99Add to cartThe second coming of Jesus has been a topic of fascination for both scholars and lay people for centuries. The accounts of Jesus’ return found throughout the Bible, especially in Revelation, are put forth with a cinematic quality that is both enrapturing and unnerving. In this study, we’ll explore apocalyptic literature throughout the Bible along with what it does and doesn’t tell us about Jesus’ return, and the key takeaways that these scriptures have for our faith. A Deep Dive into the Story of God Fathom is a Bible study for teens that covers the Old and New Testaments in 18 4-session studies. The lessons are a blend of narrative and traditional theological approaches to understanding the Bible story. Each lesson will focus on one passage that will launch into the larger context of God’s story being studied,and how that story is meant to be theirs. Fathom is suitable for groups with middle schoolers, high schoolers, and any combination of the two. But unlike many other resources, it acknowledges the differences between older and younger youth and the way they learn. It provides activities specific to each age group, as well as activities for mixed groups in which older youth have leadership opportunities. Fathom gives leaders the option to let youth take ownership of their learning through teaching and leading alongside adults. Fathom creates space and tension for teens to wrestle with how to interpret and experience the Bible. Through youthministrypartners.com, leaders will have access to planning and teaching tools, customizable content, and other supplemental content to support their use of Fathom as well as their youth ministries in general.
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Surrendering My Ordination
$20.00Add to cartIn May 2017, after sixty years as an ordained United Methodist minister, Rev. J. Philip Wogaman surrendered his ordination, choosing to exit a community of clergy who will not allow an openly gay person to join. By surrendering his ordination, he chose to join the group of devoted Christians outside the clergy who welcomed gay and lesbian individuals.
Beginning with an examination of ordination and what is means theologically, ethically, and pastorally, Wogaman then describes the action itself and its aftermath. Surrendering My Ordination also explores how The United Methodist Church can move forward, beyond the polarized present situation found in many contemporary Christian churches.
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Names Of God (Workbook)
$16.99Add to cartDrawn from the books, Praying the Names of God and Praying the Names of Jesus, this Bible study includes additional questions designed to help individuals and groups explore the most important of God’s names and titles as they are revealed in the Bible. Exploring his names and titles in both the Old and New Testaments allows study participants to begin to realize how utterly great, loving, and powerful God is. By studying such rich and varied names as Adonai, Yahweh, Abba, Yeshua, Lamb of God, and Prince of Peace, we understand more about who God is and how he loves us. Each week’s study provides background information to help readers understand the name, a key Scripture in which the name was either first or most significantly revealed, a series of questions for individual or group study, and a brief list of passages for further study.
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Women Of The Bible
$16.99Add to cartBased on the bestselling book coauthored with Ann Spangler, Women of the Bible, this study edition includes an introduction to each woman, major Scripture passages, study materials, and cultural backgrounds. There are fifty-two studies, one for each week of the year. Newly gathered study aids include helpful charts as well as a complete listing of all women of the Bible, with pertinent Scripture references. Space is included to record your thoughts and insights.
Each timeless biblical story mirrors the challenges and changes today’s women face. Through understanding these women’s lives, this easy-to-use study resource will help you discover the God behind their stories-and yours.
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Preaching With Empathy
$21.99Add to cartPreachers can find help from many resources to get the text right, the structure right, and the delivery right. Preaching with Empathy aims to help preachers and homiletics students learn to deeply understand and love their listeners, in order to get preaching right. Preachers who profess a love for God, Scripture, and preaching, but who lack loving empathy for the listener, betray their three professed loves and limit their fruitfulness in ministry. This book teaches how to practice preaching in new ways, incorporating a heightened awareness and empathy for the people in the preacher’s community. Author Lenny Luchetti provides immediately useful tools, all based on the foundations of scripture, theology, history, and social awareness. Readers will learn to embody Christ for their congregations, as they empathically love God and humanity. This book is part of the successful Artistry in Preaching series, edited by Paul Scott Wilson. Other books in the series include Preaching as Poetry: Beauty, Goodness and Truth in Every Sermon, by Paul Scott Wilson; Actuality: Real Life Stories for Sermons that Matter, by Scott Hoezee; and Preaching in Pictures: Using Images for Sermons that Connect, by Peter Jonker.
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Love First : A Childrens Ministry For The Whole Church
$23.95Add to cart* A sought-after model and guide to a new paradigm for children’s ministries * Creative program based on research and personal experience Struggling to offer a children’s program that resonates with young families? Finding it difficult to recruit teachers and volunteers for your children’s program? Want a children’s ministry that is grounded in Christ’s foundational teachings and relevant to the experiences of children today? This must-have guide to rethinking your children’s ministry is informed and intelligent, with the lighthearted humor so helpful to working with children. Through storytelling, testimonials, and research-based creativity, you’ll be inspired and energized to use your church’s gifts, your children’s interests, and your families’ needs to develop a children’s ministry that fits your church and the people in it. An appendix includes sample lesson plans, suggested Bible stories and book, and sermons. Colette Potts offers a successful model for a congregation to turn around their children’s ministry program to engage the whole congregation in worship, learning, and service while partnering with parents for bridging the formation gap between Sunday morning at church and the rest of the week at home and beyond.
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Faith And Science In The 21st Century
$16.95Add to cart* Eight noted theologians, each speaking on a topic of science * Builds on popular videos from the Day 1 radio program Science or faith? The battle rages, from millennials and GenXers questioning the relevance of religion to older adults who doubt the validity of science (and vice versa), but these two are not mutually exclusive. They can, in fact, be mutually enriching and complimentary, once their proper domains are understood and respected. The Episcopal Church, with its tradition of the “via media,” offers an ideal setting for conversations seeking to bridge the often antagonistic perspectives on both sides. Faith and Science in the 21st Century presents a way to start that conversation. Built on existing videos produced by the popular Day 1 program with assistance from a John Templeton Foundation grant, this series features notable faith leaders across the denominational spectrum in 3 to 5 minute video presentations on scientific topics in which they are experts. Intended for use in a variety of settings, including congregations, schools, and campus ministries, it can be presented as an eight-session series of studies, but each session can also stand on its own for a one-time formation offering. A single video download will offer all video presentations. This Leader Guide enables facilitators to foster fruitful discussions of each session topic. It includes an introduction about the program and how it can be used, and eight detailed session plans to utilize with a downloadable video sold separately on the Day 1 website.
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Honest Worship : From False Self To True Praise
$17.99Add to cartIntroduction: Falling On My Face
Part I: Worship On The Cutting Edge
1. Smoke Machines And Laser Lights
2. Golden Dreams, Golden Calves
3. The Consumer-Driven Life
4. The Culture Of NarcissismPart II: Pride And Humility
5. Pride On The Platform
6. The Nature Of Identity
7. Worship From The True Self
8. Soul WorshipPart III: Rediscovering Worship
9. The Church Gathered
10. The Rhythm Of Worship
11. The Other Six Days Of The Week
12. Compassion And Justice
13. The Deep End Of The PoolEpilogue: Still Falling
Acknowledgments
Discussion Guide
NotesAdditional Info
When asked by his son why some churches have smoke machines, worship pastor Manuel Luz found himself responding, “Well, technically, you need smoke machines to see the lasers.” But when you take down the smoke screen, what do you have left? Where do we encounter the Holy in the midst of all this? Where can we worship with our full selves-heart, soul, mind, and body-in Spirit and truth?Drawing from his own experience leading worship in a large congregation and feeling the pull of performance, Manuel Luz guides us on a journey through worship that takes us far beyond style and deep into our own souls. He calls us back to an honest worship that moves past facades and pulls us inward toward the true self that God is forming within each of us. Each chapter ends with a spiritual practice designed to help us set aside pretense and enter into the very presence of God. -
Pastores Para El Siglo 21st – (Spanish)
$14.99Add to cartEste libro ayudara a los pastores a adaptarse a los nuevos desafios de la sociedad, sin renunciar a las exigencias de la palabra eterna de Dios, que nunca cambia.
La sociedad actual es mas compleja que nunca. Determinados baluartes culturales han caido, hay nuevos paradigmas sociales, y los pastores necesitan adaptar la pastoral a estos nuevos desafios. A la vez estan obligados a no renunciar a las exigencias de la palabra de Dios y a sus principios permanentes que no cambian.
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Gods Plan For Christian Living (Workbook)
$29.95Add to cartEvery ESL Ministry Needs This Book!
God’s Plan for Christian Living, Book 2 in the ESL Ministry Series, is a practical, time-tested workbook with step-by-step activities that help ESL students move easily from learning English or reading more fluently to considering what it means to live as a disciple of Christ.
This ESL workbook is part of a series that is:
*Deliberately simple in design and vocabulary.
*Easy to follow with engaging and effective exercises.
*Suitable as a stand-alone resource or as a supplement to existing ESL courses.
*Designed to share the basic principles of Christian living in clear, concise lessons.
*Perfect for ESL teachers and ministries to use and adapt to a variety of contexts.God’s Plan for Christian Living is ideal for:
*People with limited English ability.
*Individuals with little or no previous Bible knowledge.
*People who may be reluctant to interact with the Bible because of its perceived complexity.For those looking to introduce the Good News of Christ into their ESL program, the first book in this ESL Ministry Series–God’s Plan of Love (ISBN: 978-1-61314-401-5)–is also available. Together, these easy-to-use materials will provide the tools to bridge the gap between ESL language teaching and sharing Christ and important biblical truths.
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Seeing Gray In A World Of Black And White Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$14.99Add to cartEveryone agrees that America is polarized, with ever-hardening positions held by people less and less willing to listen to one another. No one agrees on what to do about it. One solution that hasn’t yet been tried, says Adam Hamilton, is for thinking persons of faith to model for the rest of the country a richer, more thoughtful conversation on the political, moral, and religious issues that divide us. The Leader Guide includes session plans, discussion questions, and multiple format options.
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Affirm Student Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$13.99Add to cartAffirm is a 6 week discipleship refresh from confirmation. With an emphasis on following Jesus and spiritual practices Affirm is great for a youth group series, a small group study, or for a weekend retreat. Providing leaders with the tools to enlist the support of their church and parents to help students grow stronger and go deeper with their relationship with Christ.
The Affirm student guide is a devotional resource designed to support the ownership of your teens faith journey. We know teens are social. The devotional material is woven into the rest of the student material so their growth gets worked out with their peers, and is shareable. This connection with their small group will lead to better faith/life integration.
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Focus On Jesus Cycle C
$16.95Add to cartEvery time Rev. Derl G. Keefer preaches a Christmas sermon, he asks himself the same question. Why did Jesus come to earth?
It’s the question that Jesus’ earthly parents, Mary and Joseph, must have asked themselves over and over. They struggled to understand why, when he was 12 years old, he would leave their care to join the scholars of the temple.
His answer served to refocus his own parents on who he really was.”Did you not know,” he asked them, “that I must be about my Father’s business?”
The 15 sermons contained in Focus on Jesus will provide four answers to the question of why he came by revealing the nature of the Father’s business as described in the Gospel of Luke:
*Jesus came to be the fulfillment of prophecy.
*Jesus came to be our Messiah.
*Jesus came to be our Savior.
*Jesus came to be the human face of God.This Advent season, utilize Keefer’s clear, simple teaching style in Focus on Jesus to help those seeking Jesus understand who he is, and to reignite the passion that first brought members of your congregation into his arms.
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Healing Our Broken Humanity
$24.99Add to cartForeword By Willie James Jennings
Introduction: Nine Practices That Heal Our Broken Humanity
1. Reimagine Church
2. Renew Lament
3. Repent Together
4. Relinquish Power
5. Restore Justice
6. Reactivate Hospitality
7. Reinforce Agency
8. Reconcile Relationships
9. Recover Life Together
Epilogue: A Benediction And Prayer
Acknowledgments
Appendix One: Questions For Discussion And Engagement
Appendix Two: The Nine Transforming Practices Accountability Form
Appendix Three: Resources For Healing Our Broken Humanity
Notes
IndexAdditional Info
We live in conflicted times. Our newsfeeds are filled with inequality, division, and fear. We want to make a difference and see justice restored because Jesus calls us to be a peacemaking and reconciling people. But how do we do this?Based on their work with diverse churches, colleges, and other organizations, Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Graham Hill offer Christian practices that can bring healing and hope to a broken world. They provide ten ways to transform society, from lament and repentance to relinquishing power, reinforcing agency, and more. Embodying these practices enables us to be the new humanity in Jesus Christ, so the church and world can experience reconciliation, justice, unity, peace, and love.
With small group activities, discussion questions, and exercises in each chapter, this book is ideal to read together in community. Discover here how to bring real change to a dehumanized world.
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Shouting Joy To The Storm Cycle C
$15.95Add to cartHow are we to respond when the violent storm of change rolls into our lives?
Should we hide from the storm? Hide in the status quo?
As this volume of sermons reminds us, that is not the way of the Christ.Followers of Jesus are called to believe that our greatest treasure ought not be found in the comfort of worldly life as we make it. The Lord calls us instead to step outside and face the coming storm, as he did.
When we do, we face all manner of fears in a world that does not like its order challenged. Mockery when we follow God; poverty when we stop worshipping money; grief when we are vulnerable enough to love the oppressed.
Shouting Joy to the Storm reminds us that, just as the Father partnered with the Son to bring him through the storm of Calvary, so he will bring us through our storms. We are not in this for a mere lifetime. We are in it for the long haul.
“They shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them. They shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid (Ezekiel 34:28, ESV).”
Sermons include:
*Long View – The Long Haul(Luke 13:31-35)
*What Is Truth? (John 18:1-19, 42)
*Death Shall Be No More (John 13:31-35, Revelation 21:1-6) -
Unshakable Hope Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99Add to cartThe Unshakable Hope group Bible study provides groups of all sizes the opportunity to discuss and apply what they experience during the twelve-week Unshakable Hope church campaign.
In this 12-week study, bestselling author and pastor Max Lucado reveals how the heroes in the Bible came from all walks of life. They were rulers, servants, teachers, doctors. They were male, female, single, married. Yet one common denominator united them: they all put their faith in God’s promises. Because of God’s promises, Noah built an ark on dry land, Abraham went to a distant land, Joshua claimed the Promised Land, David became king, Peter preached the first sermon, and John caught a glimpse of the future.The stories of the men and women in Scripture were different, but the theme was the same: they were people of the Promise. Since the beginning of time, God’s relationship to humankind has been shaped by specific requirements and promises. These covenants were unchangeable decrees that defined the outflow of history. Some of the promises were positive, the assurance of blessings. Some of them were negative, the guarantee of consequence. But all the promises were binding.
This world has a tremble to it. There are things that seem unsteady in this life. But when we belong to God, it allows us to filter our problems through the promises of God. When crises arise, we can simply mutter, “But God said…” When struggles threaten, we can be seen flipping through the Bible, saying, “I know that God said something about this.” When we choose to be people of the promise, we choose to build our lives on promises of God not the circumstances of life.
It is through the great and precious promises that we participate in the divine nature of God. They sit like golden stones in the pathway to God’s world. They are strong boulders that form the bridge over which we walk from our sin to salvation. They aren’t just great, they are “very great”; and they aren’t just valuable, they are “precious.” To bind them around our neck is to adorn ourselves with the finest jewels of the universe. As Dwight Moody put it, “If you would spend a month feeding on the precious promises of God-you wouldn’t be going about complaining how poor you are. You would lift up your head and proclaim the riches of His Grace, because you couldn’t help doing it.”
Sessions include:
1. You Are Stamped with God’s Image
2. God Will Win the Victory
3. You Are an Heir of God
4. Your Prayers Have Power
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Unexpected Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$16.99Add to cartIn Unexpected, a five-session video Bible study (DVD/digital video sold separately), bestselling author Christine Caine shows that while most of us have been trained to fear the unexpected and want everything to be “under control,” God wants us to anticipate the unexpected with a faith-filled perspective rooted in trust. He has never been taken by surprise with the unexpected, and he wants us to move from a life filled fear, control, worry, anxiety, panic, and feeling stuck to one full of hope, walking in faith, and trusting in him. We can step into the destiny and adventure that God has for us by dealing with pain barriers, managing disappointment, strengthening our hearts, building our faith, and expanding our lives.
Life is an unpredictable journey full of unexpected twists and turns, mountaintops and valleys, joys and sorrows. The good news is that while we do not always know what is going to happen, we can always trust that God uses everything in our lives as an invitation to rely on him more deeply and completely. We can walk forward in faith and not fear because our God is good, does good, and works all things together for his glory. Unexpected will show that in an age of political, social, moral, ethical, environmental, and economic upheaval, we can still expect our God to be good and do good.
Sessions include:
*Move into the Unexpected
*Strengthen Your Heart
*Choose Your Destiny
*Press Through to Breakthrough
*Expect the UnexpectedDesigned for use with the Unexpected Video Study (sold separately).
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Family Ministry And The Church
$26.99Add to cart“Chris Shirley provides a guide to establish a theological and practical framework for family ministry both inside and outside the church. Ministry leaders will discover the role of the church and its leaders to strengthen families and equip them to make disciples in the home, the church, and throughout the world. This work illustrates how healthy family ministry depends on effective disciple making that brings people to a close relationship with Christ both in the church and the home. The author also delivers an excellent resource for college and seminary training in the field of family ministry”–
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Disabling Mission Enabling Witness
$24.99Add to cartIn recent decades churches have accommodated disabled people in various ways. Through access ramps and elevators and sign language, disabled persons are invited in to worship. But are they actually enfolded into the church’s mission? Have the able-bodied come to recognize and appreciate the potential contributions of people with disabilities in the ministry and witness of the church?Benjamin Conner wants to stimulate a new conversation between disability studies and Christian theology and missiology. How can we shape a new vision of the entire body of Christ sharing in the witness of the church? How would it look if we “disabled” Christian theology, discipleship, and theological education? Conner argues that it would in fact enable congregational witness. He has seen it happen and he shows us how.Imagine a church that fully incorporates persons with disabilities into its mission and witness. In this vision, people with disabilities contribute to the church’s pluriform witness, and the congregation embodies a robust hermeneutic of the gospel. Picture the entire body of Christ functioning beyond distinctions of dis/ability, promoting mutual flourishing and growing into fullness. Here is an enlargement of the church’s witness as a sign, agent, and foretaste of the kingdom of God.Here is a fresh and inspiring look at the mission of the church when it enfolds people with disabilities as full members.
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Loving And Leaving A Church
$26.00Add to cartBarbara Melosh’s story was a common one. A second-career seminarian, she arrived at her first pastorate brimming with enthusiasm and high hopes. The blue-collar congregation to which she’d been called had a glorious past but an uncertain future. Certain that she could turn around its slow yet undeniable slide into decline, Melosh inaugurated a number of church growth and outreach programs. Most of these efforts had little effect, and the ones that did seem to work soon suffered reverse outcomes and eventual demise. In the end, Melosh had to conclude that the members of the congregation liked their church the way it was and that she could not drag them into a future they did not want.
Yet while the congregation failed to change itself, Melosh notes, it succeeded in changing her. Simply put, it made her a pastor. At times heartbreaking and hilarious, Loving and Leaving a Church offers a glimpse into the challenges and opportunities of ministry in a mainline church.
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Glimpsing Resurrection : Cancer Trauma And Ministry
$28.00Add to cartIn Glimpsing Resurrection, Deanna A. Thompson combines recent trauma research with compelling first-person narrative to provide insight into the traumatic dimensions of living with a serious illness. Her aim is to help those who are ill and those who care for and minister to them deepen their understanding of how best to offer support.
“The tendency for Christians to move almost immediately from death to proclamations of new life risks alienating those for whom healing and new life seem out of reach,” says Thompson. Glimpsing Resurrection focuses less on the “why” to help readers instead come to terms with the “how” of living with a serious disease. In particular, Thompson provides a framework and concrete suggestions for how to be a church where those who are undone by illness can be undone, as well as a place that can love and support them to hope.
“Finding space within the psalms, the story of Job, Jesus’ cry of God-forsakenness on the cross, and even Christ’s descent into hell helps us imagine how Christian communities can be spacious enough to acknowledge and hold those who are undone by illness,” Thompson says. “Only then does it become possible to identify the hope that can emerge from our not-yet-resurrection reality to imagine more in life today as well as in the life to come.”
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After The Trip
$15.99Add to cart1. What Now?
2. Coming Home With Gifts
3. Mining For Gold
4. Treasures On The Journey
5. Keeping The Lines Open
6. Make Your Next Trip Your Best Trip
7. The Key To A Life-Changing Journey
Afterword: The Trip Is Just The Beginning
Questions For Reflection And Discussion
Appendix: Eight Great Questions
NotesAdditional Info
Can a one-time crosscultural experience truly be life-changing?Veteran trip leader and intercultural guide Cory Trenda says yes-if we let the trip launch a journey of integrating the experience into our ongoing life.
In After the Trip Trenda provides a unique guide for individuals and teams to make the most of a crosscultural trip after returning home. Readers will find help with navigating the crucial reentry process, remembering and sharing key stories, interweaving new insights into everyday life, and engaging in continuing learning and service. Combining practical tips, reflections, and stories from Trenda’s own decades of crosscultural travel, this is an essential resource for organizations, churches, schools, and all travelers who want crosscultural trips to be a catalyst for lasting good.
The trip itself is just the beginning; real life change happens after the trip.
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Miracles : Gods Presence And Power In Creation
$50.00Add to cartMiracles are not confined to the stories of Scripture; these signs of God’s presence and power in creation are experienced throughout our daily existence. Yet cultural challenges and modernity’s skepticism have marginalized belief in them as unreasonable and irrational, says Luke Timothy Johnson.
In this excellent resource for church professionals, Johnson reclaims Christian belief in miracles as integral to recovering a proper and strong sense of creation, recognizing the validity of personal experience and narrative and asserting the truth-telling quality of myth. His analysis includes:
a description of the competing symbolic worldviews that have framed the discussion on miracles, including secular debates and theological imagination;
interpretation of miracles consonant with the biblical construction of reality in the Old and New Testaments;
suggestions for four areas in the church’s life-teaching, preaching, prayer, and pastoral care-that can work together to shape a symbolic world, within which believers can expect, perceive, and celebrate the miracles in everyday life. -
Guardrails Study Guide Updated Edition (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99Add to cartEver wonder what it would be like to have guardrails in other areas of your life-areas where culture baits you to the edge of disaster and then chastises you when you step across the line? Your friendships. Your finances. Your marriage. Maybe your greatest regret could have been avoided if you had established guardrails.
In this five-session video-based small group Bible study (video sold separately), Andy Stanley challenges us to stop flirting with disaster and establish some personal guardrails.
Sessions include:
*Direct and Protect
*Proximity
*Forever Yours
*Money Matters
*The Heart of the MatterDesigned for use with the Guardrails Video Study (9780310095910), sold separately.
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Leaders Of The Church Student Journal (Student/Study Guide)
$9.99Add to cartIn The Leaders of the Church, students will be introduced to some of the lesser-known, but still vitally important leaders of the early church. These four lessons will profile four leaders and help students understand what it means to be a leader while following God and working towards the kingdom of Heaven. These studies will come from the Gospels, Acts, and the New Testament Letters. A Deep Dive into the Story of God Fathom is a Bible study for teens that covers the Old and New Testaments in 18-4 session studies. The lessons are a blend of narrative and traditional theological approaches to understanding the bible story. Each lesson will focus on one passage that will launch into the larger context of God’s story being studied,and how that story is meant to be theirs. Fathom is suitable for groups with middle schoolers, high schoolers, and any combination of the two. But unlike many other resources, it acknowledges the differences between older and younger youth and the way they learn. It provides activities specific to each age group, as well as activities for mixed groups in which older youth have leadership opportunities. Fathom gives leaders the option to let youth take ownership of their learning through teaching and leading alongside adults. Fathom creates space and tension for teens to wrestle with how to interpret and experience the bible. Through youthministrypartners.com, leaders will have access to planning and teaching tools, customizable content, and other supplemental content to support their use of Fathom as well as their youth ministries in general.
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Broken Kingdom Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$14.99Add to cartIn The Broken Kingdom, you and your teens will experience the story of Israel’s fall and eventual exile. Throughout these four lessons, your group will learn about the consequences of failing to trust in God as well as the redemption offered by God in even the worst of circumstances. This study covers the history of Israel and Judah in 1 & 2 Kings and the prophets. A Deep Dive into the Story of God Fathom is a Bible study for teens that covers the Old and New Testaments in 18-4 session studies. The lessons are a blend of narrative and traditional theological approaches to understanding the bible story. Each lesson will focus on one passage that will launch into the larger context of God’s story being studied,and how that story is meant to be theirs. Fathom is suitable for groups with middle schoolers, high schoolers, and any combination of the two. But unlike many other resources, it acknowledges the differences between older and younger youth and the way they learn. It provides activities specific to each age group, as well as activities for mixed groups in which older youth have leadership opportunities. Fathom gives leaders the option to let youth take ownership of their learning through teaching and leading alongside adults. Fathom creates space and tension for teens to wrestle with how to interpret and experience the bible. Through youthministrypartners.com, leaders will have access to planning and teaching tools, customizable content, and other supplemental content to support their use of Fathom as well as their youth ministries in general.
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Broken Kingdom Student Journal (Student/Study Guide)
$9.99Add to cartIn The Broken Kingdom, you and your teens will experience the story of Israel’s fall and eventual exile. Throughout these four lessons, your group will learn about the consequences of failing to trust in God as well as the redemption offered by God in even the worst of circumstances. This study covers the history of Israel and Judah in 1 & 2 Kings and the prophets. A Deep Dive into the Story of God Fathom is a Bible study for teens that covers the Old and New Testaments in 18-4 session studies. The lessons are a blend of narrative and traditional theological approaches to understanding the bible story. Each lesson will focus on one passage that will launch into the larger context of God’s story being studied,and how that story is meant to be theirs. Fathom is suitable for groups with middle schoolers, high schoolers, and any combination of the two. But unlike many other resources, it acknowledges the differences between older and younger youth and the way they learn. It provides activities specific to each age group, as well as activities for mixed groups in which older youth have leadership opportunities. Fathom gives leaders the option to let youth take ownership of their learning through teaching and leading alongside adults. Fathom creates space and tension for teens to wrestle with how to interpret and experience the bible. Through youthministrypartners.com, leaders will have access to planning and teaching tools, customizable content, and other supplemental content to support their use of Fathom as well as their youth ministries in general.
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Making Disciples Confirmands Journal
$14.99Add to cartMaking Disciples is a 13-session mentor-based confirmation program that pairs confirmands with adult mentors and guides them through a variety of learning experiences that will strengthen the student’s understanding of the faith while connecting him or her with the community of believers in a personal way. It can be used as a stand-alone program, or in conjunction with your current curriculum as a special experiential unit. This is a confirmation program that is more like a process and less like a reading assignment, more engaging and congruent with the nature of the Christian faith than existing programs. Using an “apprenticeship” approach to confirmation Will Willimon produced a series of learning experiences where adult mentors and confirmands are both teachers and learners at the same time. This time-tested approach has been extensively revised and updated for usage in today’s churches that take seriously Christ’s command to be engaged in disciple making. The Confirmand’s Journal is a place where an individual can write down highlights, memories, and details of their confirmation journey. This journal is a guided journal. Which means the confirmand will be given directions on things to do, and questions to reflect on, which will help them get started in their writing. Topics explore the basics of Christian faith: -God -Jesus -the Holy Spirit -worship -the Bible -gifts -ministry -baptism -spiritual life -death and resurrection -the church
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Making Disciples Mentor Guide
$17.99Add to cartMaking Disciples is a 13-session mentor-based confirmation program that pairs confirmands with adult mentors and guides them through a variety of learning experiences that will strengthen the student’s understanding of the faith while connecting him or her with the community of believers in a personal way. It can be used as a stand-alone program, or in conjunction with your current curriculum as a special experiential unit. This is a confirmation program that is more like a process and less like a reading assignment, more engaging and congruent with the nature of the Christian faith than existing programs. Using an “apprenticeship” approach to confirmation Will Willimon produced a series of learning experiences where adult mentors and confirmands are both teachers and learners at the same time. This time-tested approach has been extensively revised and updated for usage in today’s churches that take seriously Christ’s command to be engaged in disciple making. The bulk of the Mentor Guide is exactly the same as the Confirmand’s Journal. You are encouraged to work through the activities right along with the confirmands and to complete the activities and writing assignments just as he or she does. By working along with your confirmand you will demonstrate the need to keep learning and growing. Topics explore the basics of Christian faith: -God -Jesus -the Holy Spirit -worship -the Bible -gifts -ministry -baptism -spiritual life -death and resurrection -the church
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Making Disciples Coordinators Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$18.99Add to cartMaking Disciples is a 13-session mentor-based confirmation program that pairs confirmands with adult mentors and guides them through a variety of learning experiences that will strengthen the student’s understanding of the faith while connecting him or her with the community of believers in a personal way. It can be used as a stand-alone program, or in conjunction with your current curriculum as a special experiential unit. This is a confirmation program that is more like a process and less like a reading assignment, more engaging and congruent with the nature of the Christian faith than existing programs. Using an “apprenticeship” approach to confirmation Will Willimon produced a series of learning experiences where adult mentors and confirmands are both teachers and learners at the same time. This time-tested approach has been extensively revised and updated for usage in today’s churches that take seriously Christ’s command to be engaged in disciple making. The Confirmand’s Journal is a place where an individual can write down highlights, memories, and details of their confirmation journey. This journal is a guided journal. Which means the confirmand will be given directions on things to do, and questions to reflect on, which will help them get started in their writing. Topics explore the basics of Christian faith: -God -Jesus -the Holy Spirit -worship -the Bible -gifts -ministry -baptism -spiritual life -death and resurrection -the church
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Disciples Path Leader Guide With Download (Teacher’s Guide)
$27.99Add to cartA Disciple’s Path is an engaging approach to discipleship from a distinctly Wesleyan perspective that is perfect for a new member class or other small group. The six-week program guides individuals to take the next step in discipleship and become dynamic followers of Jesus Christ and engaged, vital members of the local church. The study combines a Wesleyan understanding of our growth in God’s love and grace with the time-tested practices of spiritual discipline expressed in the membership vows to uphold the church with our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Participants will develop spiritual practices, discover their unique gifts, and become engaged in ministry that brings transformation in their own lives, the lives of others, and the world. This Leader Guide provides group facilitators with helpful tips for leading a group, material for leading an introductory session or pastor’s coffee, and six ready-to-use session guides. Also included is a link to downloadable resources, along with previews of these online tools, including sample e-mails handouts, including customizable templates that can be modified for any congregation,and PowerPoint presentations.
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Leaders Of The Church Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$14.99Add to cartIn The Leaders of the Church, students will be introduced to some of the lesser-known, but still vitally important leaders of the early church. These four lessons will profile four leaders and help students understand what it means to be a leader while following God and working towards the kingdom of Heaven. These studies will come from the Gospels, Acts, and the New Testament Letters. A Deep Dive into the Story of God Fathom is a Bible study for teens that covers the Old and New Testaments in 18-4 session studies. The lessons are a blend of narrative and traditional theological approaches to understanding the bible story. Each lesson will focus on one passage that will launch into the larger context of God’s story being studied,and how that story is meant to be theirs. Fathom is suitable for groups with middle schoolers, high schoolers, and any combination of the two. But unlike many other resources, it acknowledges the differences between older and younger youth and the way they learn. It provides activities specific to each age group, as well as activities for mixed groups in which older youth have leadership opportunities. Fathom gives leaders the option to let youth take ownership of their learning through teaching and leading alongside adults. Fathom creates space and tension for teens to wrestle with how to interpret and experience the bible. Through youthministrypartners.com, leaders will have access to planning and teaching tools, customizable content, and other supplemental content to support their use of Fathom as well as their youth ministries in general.
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Quit Church : Because Your Life Would Be Better If You Did (Reprinted)
$18.00Add to cartBased on research among congregations across the country, seasoned church coach and pastor Chris Sonksen reveals habits we need to simply let go, along with spiritual practices we need to relearn in order to thrive as individuals and produce growth in our churches.
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Disciples Path Daily Workbook (Workbook)
$15.99Add to cartA Disciple’s Path is an engaging approach to discipleship from a distinctly Wesleyan perspective that is perfect for a new member class or other small group. The six-week program guides individuals to take the next step in discipleship and become dynamic followers of Jesus Christ and engaged, vital members of the local church. The study combines a Wesleyan understanding of our growth in God’s love and grace with the time-tested practices of spiritual discipline expressed in the membership vows to uphold the church with our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Participants will develop spiritual practices, discover their unique gifts, and become engaged in ministry that brings transformation in their own lives, the lives of others, and the world. This Daily Workbook contains six weeks of daily readings (five per week) that guide participants in learning and practicing seven essential spiritual disciplines: Prayer Scripture Corporate Worship Small-group Community Financial Generosity Gifts-based Service Invitational Evangelism Each day’s reading includes a Scripture, a message for the day, questions and prompts for personal reflection (with space provided for recording responses), and prayer. A special introductory section includes material on the history, beliefs, and structure of the church and answers to frequently asked questions. Whether you’re just setting out or are further along the path of discipleship, this excellent resource will help you to take the next step. – Roger Scholtz, Senior Pastor, Manning Road Methodist Church, Durban, South Africa A Disciple’s Path has the potential to revolutionize the way we view our participation in the church. Following this ‘path’ can transform us from wanderers into pilgrims. – Dr. Steve Harper, Professor of Spiritual Formation, Asbury Theological Seminary
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Life In The Church 2 Leader Guide (Teacher’s Guide)
$14.99Add to cartIn this study, your students will learn about what it was like to be a part of the early church in the first century. In addition to unpacking selected teachings in Hebrews, James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1, 2 & 3 John and Jude, teens will also gain an understanding of the historical context and local church situations that led to the writing of these letters. A Deep Dive into the Story of God Fathom is a Bible study for teens that covers the Old and New Testaments in 18-4 session studies. The lessons are a blend of narrative and traditional theological approaches to understanding the bible story. Each lesson will focus on one passage that will launch into the larger context of God’s story being studied,and how that story is meant to be theirs. Fathom is suitable for groups with middle schoolers, high schoolers, and any combination of the two. But unlike many other resources, it acknowledges the differences between older and younger youth and the way they learn. It provides activities specific to each age group, as well as activities for mixed groups in which older youth have leadership opportunities. Fathom gives leaders the option to let youth take ownership of their learning through teaching and leading alongside adults. Fathom creates space and tension for teens to wrestle with how to interpret and experience the bible. Through youthministrypartners.com, leaders will have access to planning and teaching tools, customizable content, and other supplemental content to support their use of Fathom as well as their youth ministries in general.
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Life In The Church 2 Student Journal (Student/Study Guide)
$9.99Add to cartIn this study, your students will learn about what it was like to be a part of the early church in the first century. In addition to unpacking selected teachings in Hebrews, James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1, 2 & 3 John and Jude, teens will also gain an understanding of the historical context and local church situations that led to the writing of these letters. A Deep Dive into the Story of God Fathom is a Bible study for teens that covers the Old and New Testaments in 18-4 session studies. The lessons are a blend of narrative and traditional theological approaches to understanding the bible story. Each lesson will focus on one passage that will launch into the larger context of God’s story being studied,and how that story is meant to be theirs. Fathom is suitable for groups with middle schoolers, high schoolers, and any combination of the two. But unlike many other resources, it acknowledges the differences between older and younger youth and the way they learn. It provides activities specific to each age group, as well as activities for mixed groups in which older youth have leadership opportunities. Fathom gives leaders the option to let youth take ownership of their learning through teaching and leading alongside adults. Fathom creates space and tension for teens to wrestle with how to interpret and experience the bible. Through youthministrypartners.com, leaders will have access to planning and teaching tools, customizable content, and other supplemental content to support their use of Fathom as well as their youth ministries in general.
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Cultures In Conflict Discovery Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99Add to cartHow do you live in a culture where the worldview conflicts with Christianity? Learn from Paul as he settled among the Greco-Romans of Corinth, who valued wealth and class, worship of multiple gods, and decadent pleasure seeking above all else. In this sixteenth volume of That The World May Know , discover how to live in your own Corinth-a dechristianized Western world-in a way that glorifies God.
Designed for use with the Cultures in Conflict Video Study (9780310085928), sold separately.
Video sessions, filmed on location in Israel and Greece, include:
Engaging the Mind-Paul in the Stoa of Athens (Athens)
Engaging the Heart (Athens)Turning Weakness into Strength (Timnah, Corinth)
The Lord’s Supper-Discerning the Body (Corinth, Delos)
Transforming the Chaos (Corinth)THAT THE WORLD MAY KNOW Join renowned teacher and historian Ray Vander Laan as he guides you through the land of the Bible. In each lesson, Vander Laan illuminates the historical, geographical, and cultural context of the sacred Scriptures. Filmed on location in the Middle East and elsewhere, the That the World May Know film series will transform your understanding of God and challenge you to be a true follower of Jesus.
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Your Comeback Interactive Workbook (Workbook)
$9.99Add to cartYou May Be Down, but You’re Not Out!
Your future can include an amazing comeback story! This companion to Dr. Tony Evans’s Your Comeback DVD is perfect for individual or group study.
Find inspiration from biblical underdogs and modern-day sports heroes, and see how God has used those who are less than perfect to accomplish incredible feats. This workbook provides…
*brief passages from Tony’s book Your Comeback
*key points and quotes from the DVD
*questions to promote reflection and conversation
*relevant Scripture passages to read and discuss
*activities for further personal studyLearn to release your feelings of inadequacy and embrace the victory found in hope and redemption. Use this resource to find your purpose and begin your comeback today!
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Organic Outreach For Churches (Expanded)
$16.99Add to cartNearly all churches and ministries consider themselves dedicated to evangelism, and many explicitly include outreach in their mission statements. But few are actually bearing fruit. Kevin Harney diagnoses this problem and offers guidance for multiplying the outreach impact of churches. Organic Outreach for Churches provides direction for local congregations to weave evangelism into the fabric of the church. Commitment to the Great Commission is not simply about sending money and prayers to missions or holding occasional events to reach out (although these things are good). Organic outreach happens when evangelistic vision and action become the domain of every ministry and the commitment of every person in the congregation. This will not happen accidentally. There is huge spiritual and practical resistance to such changes. But the only way evangelism will become an organic part of a church is when every leader and each member is gripped by a commitment to proclaiming the gospel. This book is a roadmap for pastors and leaders who wish to infuse evangelistic passion into every aspect of their church’s life.
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Sacred Privilege : Your Life And Ministry As A Pastor’s Wife
$17.00Add to cartLife as a pastor’s wife offers meaningful opportunities to play a significant part in God’s work, to witness and participate in the beauty of changed lives. Yet it also carries the potential for deep wounds and great conflict that can drain the joy out of service. Is it worth it? Oh, yes, says Kay Warren, wife of Pastor Rick Warren and cofounder of Saddleback Church. It is more than worth the risk–it’s a sacred privilege.
Drawing on more than forty years in ministry in every possible size church, Kay provides encouraging principles and life lessons, along with intimate personal stories, that will give readers the confidence needed to lead and live well. Pastor’s wives learn to- accept who they are- adapt to change- help their children survive and thrive- protect their private lives- deal with criticism- live with integrity- develop an eternal perspectiveWhether she is excited, struggling, or feeling broken and tired, every pastor’s wife will find hope and encouragement for their calling in Kay’s warm and wise words.
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Learning Biblical Hebrew
$39.99Add to cartWhat’s the best way to learn a new language? By approaching it not as a series of facts to memorize but as something alive, with a personality you can get to know and tendencies you can sometimes predict.
Designed for long-term retention, Learning Biblical Hebrew focuses on helping students understand how the Hebrew language works and providing a solid grounding in Hebrew through extensive reading in the biblical text.
Introduces advanced concepts in a form accessible to beginning students. Focuses on historic patterns and changes that minimize memorization. Focuses on how the language works for long-term retention. Encourages mastery of paradigms from a handful of representative forms. Includes extensive translation from the third week of class. Prepares students for translation of unedited biblical texts by the end of first semester. Emphasizes reading comprehension rather than decoding. Promotes a strong oral component to enhance language competence.Written for first-year and second-year Hebrew students, grammar is laid out to present comprehensive concepts to first-year students and then to aid in review and deeper understanding for second-year students.
Though written for Hebrew competency, Learning Biblical Hebrew is also well-suited for students with different learning styles and objectives.
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Preaching Jesus Christ Today
$26.00Add to cartThis book approaches preaching as a theological practice and a spiritual discipline in a way that is engaging, straightforward, and highly usable for busy preachers. Bringing to bear almost three decades of practical experience in the pulpit and the classroom, Annette Brownlee explores six questions to help preachers listen to Scripture, focus on what God does in the event of the sermon, and move from interpretation to text as they prepare weekly sermons. Each chapter contains theological reflections, guidelines for sermon preparation, and numerous examples and illustrations. Sample sermons are also included.
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Lifesaving Church : Faith Communities And Suicide Prevention
$14.99Add to cartIn The Lifesaving Church: Faith Communities and Suicide Prevention, pastor Rachael Keefe shatters the deadly silence around suicide by sharing her own painful story of life-long depression and suicidality — and how the church responded for better and for worse — to help equip other communities become lifesaving churches.
Equal parts memoir, theological reflection, clinical response, and action guide, The Lifesaving Church is critical reading for faith communities seeking abundant life for all of its members. With specific appendices for clergy and church leaders, suicide loss survivors, and those considering suicide — as well as provocative discussion questions at the end of each chapter — The Lifesaving Church is rich with resources for all to help break the silence and begin saving lives.
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Age Of Opportunity
$18.00Add to cartA companion to the author’s earlier book Designing an Older Adult Ministry (Discipleship Resources, 1999), this book will provide new information and outline ways to develop and strengthen ministries by, with, and for older adults that can, and will, enhance the spiritual growth and well-being of people of all ages. The church is beginning to recognize that there are vast numbers of older people in its membership. It is becoming aware of its indebtedness to them for the leadership, support, service, and faith that has made the church of today possible. The church is uniquely positioned to help older adults respond to the challenges of aging; to see the tremendous potentialities in the lives of older adult for making the church and community better; and to assist older people as they experience new meaning and purpose in their later lives. Chapters include “Why Older-Adult Ministries?”; “Understanding the Aging Process”; “Aging and the Spiritual Journey”; “The New Seniors: Boomers?”; “Intentional Ministry by, with, and for Older Adults”; “Organizing for Intentional Ministry in the Local Church”; “Organizing for Intentional Ministry in the Conference”; “Congregational Care Ministry”; “Additional Ideas for Intentional Ministry”; and “Trends in Aging.” Appendixes include a “Facts about Aging” quiz, information on creating and using older adult surveys, and suggested resources for further reading and study.
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Fellowship Of The Suffering
$18.99Add to cartPreface
Part 1: Welcome To The Fellowship
1. Suffering Comes With The Territory
2. The Worst Suffering: Paul’s Story
3. Learning To Trust Anyway: Dave And Erin’s StoryPart 2: Fellowship With Christ
4. The Sun Comes From The Dark: Prayer Through Suffering
5. Becoming The Kind Of People The World Needs: Transformation Through Suffering
6. Not What I Expected: Joy Through SufferingPart 3: Fellowship With Others
7. It’s Our Family: Solidarity Through Suffering
8. Pain As Common Ground: Neighboring Through SufferingPart 4: Fellowship With The World
9. The Seed Must Die To Multiply: Mission Through Suffering
10. Are You Really Passionate? Calling Through SufferingEpilogue
Acknowledgments
Recommended Reading
NotesAdditional Info
“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings.” Philippians 3:10 (ASV)If we follow Jesus, we will experience pain. It comes with the territory. We might face hardship because of our Christian commitment, or we may have challenges just from living in a fallen world. Either way, Christians follow in the footsteps of our suffering Savior and participate in his suffering.
But that’s not the whole story. Missionary Paul Borthwick and pastor Dave Ripper show how transformation through our personal pain enables us to minister faithfully to a hurting world. They candidly share about their own struggles and how they have seen God’s kingdom advance through hardship and suffering. Though we naturally avoid suffering, Christians throughout church history have become powerful witnesses to Christ as a result of their brokenness.
Life is painful, but pain need not have dominion over us. Instead, it can propel us in missional solidarity with our suffering world. Come find comfort and renewed purpose in the fellowship of the suffering.
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Who Is Jesus Study Guide (Student/Study Guide)
$14.99Add to cartWho is Jesus? Some people say he was a good man, a prophet, or a wise teacher. Some think he was a lunatic with delusions of divinity-if he even existed at all. Some say he was a liar bent on deceiving the world. Still others say he was the Son of God, the Lord. History, culture, and the Bible all agree that all of life centers on our answer to this question: Who is Jesus?
In this five-session video Bible study (DVD/downloads sold separately), Pastor Louie Giglio invites group members to meet God both in their intellect and their hearts by uncovering what history and Scripture have to say about Jesus. He encourages believers in Christ to ask the tough questions as to whether Jesus is truly God, truly a friend who loves us, and truly the King of kings. He encourages believers to explore whether Jesus is really the only way to God-as many people in our post-modern world doubt today-and whether his sacrifice on the cross truly provides the means for us to reconcile with God and experience eternal life.
This study is for everyone who has ever wondered whether Jesus is truly everything he said he was in the Bible. It will not only help new believers in Christ understand their faith, but also help those who have known Jesus for many years to have a better understanding of what they believe. And it will also help followers of Christ know how to better share the truth they have found with others.
Sessions include:
*Good or God?
*Friend or Foe?
*King or Pawn?
*A Way or the Way?
*The Lion or the Lamb?Designed for use with the Who Is Jesus? Video Study (sold separately).
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Drawing On Holy Currencies (Workbook)
$14.99Add to cartDreading another yawn-inducing stewardship season? Reanimate your congregation by Drawing on Holy Currencies-an altogether awesome (and fun!) new tool for exploring your gifts and purpose in the world! Created by Eric Law and his artist-nephew Dave, this interactive graphic workbook is filled with 52 weeks’ worth of creative activities and exercises to empower your year-round stewardship movement. Drawings, doodles, questions, invitations, songs, meditations, and more spirited exercises will help you explore the amazing ways you give and receive in life. Who knows-Drawing on Holy Currencies might just lead to more amazing and animated ways of living in God’s creation!
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Faithful Celebrations 2
$22.95Add to cartMany of our experiences in life happen when several generations are together–at church, at home, in our communities. Holidays and family events are times for celebration, learning, rituals, food, and fun. For each edition of Faithful Celebrations, you will discover plenty of activities to learn more about the season, holiday, or special day for church settings, at home, camp, or anywhere in between. This abundance of ideas allows you to create meaningful celebrations within a faith context throughout the year. Each event to be celebrated includes key ideas, a cluster of activities to experience the key ideas, materials needed, full instructions for implementation, background history and information, music, art, recipes, and prayer resources to use in a small, intimate or large multi-generational group. Making Time for God in Autumn includes Back to School, Labor Day, St. Francis International Day of Peace, Halloween, All Saints, and Thanksgiving.
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Concerning Sin Righteousness And Judgment
$13.00Add to cartPart 1 Concerning Sin…
Chapter 1 Salvation
The Creator God And Man
The Wall Of Sin Between God And Man
The True Meaning Of Salvation
The Method Of Salvation
The Providence Of Salvation Through Jesus ChristChapter 2 The Father, Son, And Holy Spirit
Who Is The Father God?
Father God – The Supreme Director Of Human Cultivation
Who Is The Son, Jesus Christ?
Jesus Christ The Savior
Who Is The Holy Spirit, The Helper?
The Work Of The Holy Spirit, The Helper
God The Trinity Fulfills The Providence Of SalvationChapter 3 Works Of The Flesh
Things Of The Flesh And Works Of The Flesh
Works Of The Flesh That Keep Man From Inheriting The Kingdom Of God
Evident Works Of The FleshChapter 4 “Therefore Bear Fruit In Keeping With Repentance”
Bear Fruit In Keeping With Repentance
Do Not Suppose Abraham Is Your Father
“Every Tree That Does Not Bear Good Fruit Is Cut Down And Thrown Into The Fire”
The Fruit In Keeping With Repentance
People Who Bore The Fruits In Keeping With RepentanceChapter 5 “Abhor What Is Evil; Cling To What Is Good.”
How Evil Is Displayed As Sin
To Cast Out Evil And Become A Person Of Goodness
An Evil And Adulterous Generation That Craves A Sign
The Forms Of Evil We Should AbhorGlossary 1
Part 2 Concerning Righteousness…
Chapter 6 Righteousness That Leads To Life
Righteousness In God’s Sight
The One Act Of Righteousness Which Saves All Of Mankind
The Beginning Of Righteousness Is Believing In God
The Righteousness Of Jesus Christ Which We Must Emulate
The Way Of Becoming A Righteous Person
The Blessings For The RighteousChapter 7 The Righteous Shall Live By Faith
To Become A Truly Righteous Person
Why Do We Need To Become Righteous?
The Righteous Shall Live By Faith
How To Possess Spiritual Faith
Ways To Live By FaithChapter 8 To The Obedience Of Christ
Fleshly Thoughts Which Are Hostile Toward God
“Self-Righteousness” – One Of The Prime Fleshly Thoughts
Apostle Paul Broke Down His Fleshly Thoughts
The Righteousness Which Comes From God
Saul Disobeyed God With Fleshly Thoughts
The Way To Fulfill God’s Righteousness Through FaithChapter 9 He Whom The Lord Commends
He Whom The Lord Commends
To Be Approved By God
Nail Your Passions And Desires On The Cross
The Patriarchs Who Were Righteous Before GodChapter 10 Blessing
Abraham, The Father Of Faith
God Considers Faith As Righteousness And Gives His Blessings
God Makes QualityAdditional Info
Today, there are many people who go on with their lives not even knowing what sin is, what righteousness is, and what judgment is all about. Even those who go to church don’t have assurance of salvation, and they live secular lives–just like everyone else in the world. Furthermore, they do not lead Christian lives that are righteous according to God, but righteous according to what they think is righteous. So Concerning Sin, Righteousness, and Judgment is the first book of the Holiness and Power sermon series which deals with how we can lead a successful Christian life by receiving forgiveness for our sins and by accomplishing the righteousness of God in our lives.To confirm this teaching with evidence of His power, in the first session of the first day of our revival in 1993, God promised the blessing of conception for dozens of couples who were married for 5-6 years, and even as long as10 years without conceiving a child. By the end of the revival, almost all of these couples conceived and began raising families.
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