Baby Giraffe Premium Gift Bag
Church Life
Showing 51–100 of 642 resultsSorted by latest
-
Together For The City
$22.99We need a bigger vision for the city.
It’s not enough to plant individual churches in isolation from each other. The spiritual need and opportunity of our cities is too big for any one church to meet alone. Pastors Neil Powell and John James contend that to truly transform a city, the gospel compels us to create localized, collaborative church planting movements. They share lessons learned and principles discovered from their experiences leading a successful citywide movement. The more willing we are to collaborate across denominations and networks, the more effectively we will reach our communities–whatever their size–for Jesus. Come discover what God can do in our cities when we work together.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Honest Guide To Church Planting
$17.99Church planting has become a cottage industry. National conferences, hip planting organizations, and all-in-one resource kits celebrate the thrill of pioneering a church and inspire visions of glorious victories. Yet few who respond to the call are warned what they’ll actually encounter: the relentless opposition they’ll endure; the eventual scattering of their entire core group; the failure of their tried-and-true, field-tested system.Here’s the dirty little secret of church planting: the roadside is strewn with casualties. Many have closed their churches. Some left ministry permanently. Others abandoned the faith altogether.Church planting is at once the greatest and most grueling ministry work on earth. This book is for those toiling in the trenches, those about to bail out, and those considering jumping in. It’s for the church planters laboring and struggling, seeing little movement, and wondering what they’re doing wrong or why God is failing them. It’s also for mother churches, planting organizations, and denominations, as a challenge to rethink and re-calibrate the way they approach and measure planting endeavors.The Honest Guide to Church Planting is a fresh and candid conversation about the challenges and joys of planting new churches. Tom Bennardo speaks the truth so that those involved in church planting can embrace a more accurate and realistic picture of what planting a church is really like; one that not only enables them to survive, but to thrive in this difficult work.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Rooting For Rivals
$16.99Faith-based organizations are sometimes known for what we’re against–and all too often that includes being against each other. But amid growing distrust of religious institutions, Christ-centered nonprofits have a unique opportunity to link arms and collectively pursue a calling higher than any one organization’s agenda.
Rooting for Rivals reveals how your ministry can multiply its impact by cooperating, rather than competing. Peter Greer and Chris Horst explore case studies illustrating the power of collaborative ministry. They also vulnerably share their own failures and successes in pursuing a kingdom mind-set. Discover the power of openhanded leadership to make a greater impact on the world
Add to cart2 in stock
-
Bridgebuilding : Making Peace With Conflict In The Church
$27.00There is a prevailing culture of ‘niceness’ within churches which can lead to conflict avoidance, suppression and denial. Consequently, ministers and church leaders often struggle to handle tensions, difference and competing demands within their congregations.
Drawing on practical theology, conflict theory, family systems theory and experience, Bridgebuilding will help church ministers and church members find more fruitful ways of engaging with tensions and conflicts in the life of the Church. It offers numerous practical tools for transforming conflict into opportunities for personal and corporate growth.
It complements the ‘Growing Bridgebuilders’ training course developed by Bridge Builders with CPAS.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Myth Of The Dying Church
$25.00False news is not limited to politics. There is a pervasive myth circulating that says the church is dying. GLENN STANTON rebuts that fake news and paints a truly positive picture of America’s churches.Much has been made of the so-called “nones” – those who claim no spiritual affiliation. Media has spun the nones into a chicken-little the sky is falling narrative. The nones are an infamously difficult subsection to understand and there is a lot of false information on them. Glenn Stanton believes the nones story has become overblown and has become “a thing” due to curiosity and repetition of their supposed irreligiosity. THE MYTH OF THE DYING CHURCH digs deeply into the research concerning spirituality in America and reveals the hope and truth about the vitality and future of the church.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
How The Body Of Christ Talks
$23.75In today’s highly-charged social and political environment, we often don’t know how to talk well with others–especially people whose backgrounds differ from our own C. Christopher Smith, coauthor of the critically acclaimed and influential Slow Church, addresses why conversation has become such a challenge in the 21st century and argues that it is perhaps the most needed spiritual practice of our individualistic age.
Smith likens practicing conversation to the working of the human body. Bodies are wondrous symphonies of diverse, intricate parts striving for our health, and our health suffers when these parts fail to converse effectively. Likewise, we must learn to converse effectively with those who differ from us in the body of Christ so we can embody Christ together in the world. In community, we learn what it means to belong to others and to a story that is bigger than ourselves.
Smith shows how church communities can be training hubs where we learn to talk and listen to each other with kindness and compassion. The book explores how churches can initiate and sustain conversation, including working through seasons of conflict; suggests the contours of a spirituality that can foster conversation; and features stories from a diverse range of congregations that are learning to practice conversation.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Letters To The Church
$22.99Millions are satisfied to sit through hour-long, weekly religious services. Millions more have left the church, brokenhearted and cynical. But God is waking up His people–people who will risk everything and sacrifice anything to become the dynamic, powerful Church seen in Scripture.
We Are Church calls Christ-followers, young and old, to hold fast to their biblical roots while seeking radical change. Scripture promises an exuberant and unstoppable Church. That wondrous early church of Acts can be our reality today–but not until we devote ourselves to her original priorities.
Read this book and be challenged, guided, and encouraged to passionately pursue God’s magnificent and beautiful vision for His Church. Come and claim your part in this body of believers that is not just possible–it’s promised.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Church And Foster Care
$16.99With roughly 500,000 children and growing in America’s foster care system, the new mission field for the church is clear. The Church & Foster Care shows how to simply engage in life-giving ministry to an underserved community. From real-life situations, foster care parent, educator, and advocate Dr. John DeGarmo lays out why God is calling the church to become involved. Sharing from the decades of support he received from his local church, this book is filled with practical and manageable suggestions on how to meet practical needs while planting seeds of faith.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Becoming A Just Church
$19.99Foreword By Dennis Edwards
Introduction
Part 1: An Ecclesiology For Justice
1. Justice Isn’t An Outreach Strategy: A Way Of Life For The People Of God
2. Exiles In The Promised Land: The Church As Prophetic Alternative
3. Demonstrating Maana: The Church As A Parable Of God’s Intent
4. Gardeners Of Shalom: The Church For Flourishing And Transformation
Part 2: Justice In Our Congregational Life
5. Low Ground Church: Discerning Vision In A High Ground World
6. Recovering Kinship: Hospitality As Resistance
7. Discipling People Into Shalom Community
8. Worship: Questions That Drive How We Gather
Part 3: What’s Next?
9. Power: A Conversation With Juliet Liu And Brandon Green About The Lynchpin Of Justice
Epilogue: Commence Justice
Acknowledgments
NotesAdditional Info
Stop outsourcing justice!Many local churches don’t know what to do about justice. We tend to compartmentalize it as merely a strategy for outreach, and we often outsource it to parachurch justice ministries. While these organizations do good work, individual congregations are left disconnected from God’s just purposes in the world.
Adam Gustine calls the local church to be just and do justice. He provides a theological vision for our identity as a just people, where God’s character and the pursuit of shalom infuses every aspect of our congregational DNA. As we grow in becoming just, the church becomes a prophetic alternative to the broken systems of the world and a parable of God’s intentions for human flourishing and societal transformation. This renewed vision for the church leads us into cultivating a just life together-in community, discipleship, worship, and more-extending justice out into the world in concrete ways.
Let’s hold being and doing together, so we can become just, compassionate communities that restore shalom and bring hope to the world.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Healing Racial Divides
$19.99Can the church help America emerge from its racist shadows empowered to heal racial divides? Church pastor and former police officer Terrell Carter says yes.
While our faith inarguably calls Christians to unity, the hard fact remains: we’re still tragically divided when it comes to race, even – and especially, many say — in our churches. Racism pervades our faith, our relationships, and our institutions in deep, often imperceptible ways. In Healing Racial Divides, Terrell Carter, a pastor, professor and former police officer takes us on a revelatory journey into the abyss of the racial divide and shows us how we’ve arrived at this divisive place. Understanding racism’s roots – and our place in it – we surface more committed and empowered to defeat racism once and for all.
Drawing from the Bible, scholarly research, and personal experience as a both a former police officer and a black pastor serving white congregations, Carter unpacks the deep roots of racism in America, how it continues to be perpetuated today, and practical strategies for racial reconciliation. Looking forward, he shapes a bold and faithful vision for healing racial division through multicultural communities focused on relationship, listening, and learning from each other.
With a pastor’s heart and an academic’s head, Carter invites us to look at where we’ve been-and where God calls us as spiritually mature Christians, seeking healing and true unity on earth.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Neighborhood Church : Transforming Your Congregation Into A Powerhouse For
$22.00How can we embody the values of love, grace, and justice? As faith communities, how can our collective embodiment of these values shine even brighter? The answers to these questions must always unfold right here, right now, exactly where God has planted us. Neighborhood Churchacts as a resource to inspire churches to become a vibrant and engaging community partner with the families and neighborhoods living around them. The need for transformation is acute. Congregational decline continues across all mainline denominations. The abandonment of the church by the millennial generation is ubiquitous; no denomination is escaping it. This is, in part, a consequence of disconnection from our communities. Van Tatenhove and Mueller believe that, parish by parish, we can reverse this trend. They dare to have an audacious hope for local congregations not only as signs of God’s kingdom but as life-giving institutions that anchor their neighborhoods. Drawing on their combined sixty years of parish experience, wisdom from Asset-Based Community Development, and compelling case stories, Van Tatenhove and Mueller do more than just call us to incarnational ministry. They give practical, essential tools that lead to communal conversion, develop the DNA of listening, spur fruitful partnerships, promote integrated space, and sustain long-term visions. They believe these tools will spark true revival and unleash the power of incarnational ministry.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Glad Obedience : Why And What We Sing
$22.00The Christian practice of hymn singing, says renowned biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann, is a countercultural act. It marks the Christian community as different from an unforgiving and often ungrateful culture. It is also, he adds, an “absurd enterprise” in the midst of the hyper-busy, market-driven society that surrounds us. In this helpful and engaging volume, Brueggemann discusses both why we sing and what we sing. The first part of the book examines the Psalms and what they can teach us about the reasons that corporate song is a part of the Christian tradition. The second part looks at fifteen popular hymns, including classic and contemporary ones such as “Blest Be the Ties That Binds,” “God’s Eye Is on the Sparrow,” “Once to Every Man and Nation,” “Someone Asked the Question,” and “We Are Marching in the Light of God,” and the reasons why they have caught our imagination.
“To know why we sing,” Brueggemann writes, “may bring us to a deeper delight in our singing and a strengthened resolve to sing without calculation before the God ‘who is enthroned on the praises of Israel’ (Ps. 22:3).
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Humilitas : A Lost Key To Life Love And Leadership
$24.99Humility, or holding power loosely for the sake of others, is sorely lacking in today’s world. Without it, many people fail to develop their true leadership potential and miss out on genuine fulfillment in their lives and their relationships. Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership shows how the virtue of humility can turn your strengths into true greatness in all areas of life. Through the lessons of history, business, and the social sciences, author John Dickson shows that humility is not low self-esteem, groveling, or losing our distinct gifts. Instead, humility both recognizes our inherent worth and seeks to use whatever power we have at our disposal on behalf of others. Some of the world’s most inspiring and influential players have been people of immense humility. The more we learn about humility, the more we understand how essential it is to a satisfying career and personal life. By embracing this virtue, we will transform for good the unique contributions we each make to the world.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Community Rules : An Episcopal Manual
$18.95* Practical guide to church community life Taking the approach of Michael Pollan’s Food Rules, Community Rules seeks to distill the basics of “good church” into a set of memorable rules. Working with three sections, the authors draw on their years of combined experience in academic and church administration to identify the basic Christian principles that underpin Episcopal community and then apply them to actions and relationships. The book seeks to explicate the best personnel practices, as well as good governance and communal life together, alongside a framing within the Christian worldview. The goal is to provide a text that can serve as a guide for any and all members of a parish, most especially those who serve on vestries or as volunteers.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Church Forsaken : Practicing Presence In Neglected Neighborhoods
$24.99“There are no God-forsaken places, just church-forsaken places.” -Jon Fuller, OMF International
Jonathan Brooks was raised in the Englewood neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. As soon as he was able, he left the community and moved as far away as he could. But through a remarkable turn of events, he reluctantly returned and found himself not only back in Englewood but also serving as a pastor (“Pastah J”) and community leader.
In Church Forsaken, Brooks challenges local churches to rediscover that loving our neighbors means loving our neighborhoods. Unpacking the themes of Jeremiah 29, he shows how Christians can be fully present in local communities, building homes and planting gardens for the common good. His holistic vision and practical work offers good news for forgotten people and places. And community stakeholders and civic leaders will rediscover that churches are viable partners in community transformation in ways that they may never have considered.
God has always been at work in neglected neighborhoods. Join Pastah J on this journey and discover new hope for your community.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Reciprocal Church : Becoming A Community Where Faith Flourishes Beyond High
$22.99Introduction: 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.Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Welcoming Justice : Gods Movement Toward Beloved Community (Expanded)
$18.99We have seen progress in recent decades toward Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of beloved community. But this is not only because of the activism and sacrifice of a generation of civil rights leaders. It happened because God was on the move.
Historian and theologian Charles Marsh partners with veteran activist John Perkins to chronicle God’s vision for a more equitable and just world. Perkins reflects on his long ministry and identifies key themes and lessons he has learned, and Marsh highlights the legacy of Perkins’s work in American society. Together they show how abandoned places are being restored, divisions are being reconciled, and what individuals and communities are now doing to welcome peace and justice.
Now updated with a new preface to reflect on current social realities, this book reveals ongoing lessons for the continuing struggle for a just society. Come, discover your part in the beloved community. There is unfinished work still to do.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
99 Prayers Your Church Needs But Doesnt Know It Yet
$9.99When the unexpected comes and you can’t find the words to pray, 99 Prayers Your Church Needs (But Doesn’t Know It Yet) will provide the starting point that will help lead you to the prayer your congregation or pastor needs. From prayers for a family who has lost a loved one to addiction, to a prayer for the new pastor in a new congregation, these 99 prayers will help you respond to a multitude of unexpected prayer requests? whether celebratory or grieving, or somewhere in between?in the course of your congregation’s life.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Book Of The Elders
$49.95In the early part of the fourth century, a few Christians, mostly men and some women, began to withdraw from “the world” to retreat into the desert, there to practice their new religion more seriously. The person who aspired to “renounce the world” first had to find an “elder,” a person who would accept him as a disciple and apprentice. To his elder (whom he would address as abba–father) the neophyte owed complete obedience; from his abba, he would receive provisions (as it were) for the road to virtue. In addition to the abba’s own example of living, there was the verbal teaching of the elders in sayings and tales, setting out the theory and practice of the eremitic life.
In due course, these sayings (or apophthegmata) were written down and, later, collected and codified. The earliest attempts to codify tales and sayings are now lost. As the collection grew, they were first organized alphabetically, according to the name of the abba who spoke them, in a major collection known as the Apophthegmata Patrum Alphabetica. A supplementary collection, the Anonymous Apophthegmata, followed. Later, both collections were combined and arranged systematically rather than alphabetically. This collection was created sometime between 500 and 575 and later went through a couple of major revisions, the second of which appeared sometime before 970.
This second revision was published in an excellent new critical edition, with a French translation, in 1993. Now, in The Book of the Elders, John Wortley offers an English translation of this collection, based entirely on the Greek of that text.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Placemaking And The Arts
$33.99We are, each one of us, situated in a particular place.As embodied creatures, as members of local communities and churches, as people who live in a specific location in the world, we all experience the importance of place. But what role does place play in the Christian life and how might our theology of place be cultivated?In this Studies in Theology and the Arts volume, Jennifer Allen Craft argues that the arts are a significant form of placemaking in the Christian life. The arts, she contends, place us in time, space, and community in ways that encourage us to be fully and imaginatively present in a variety of contexts: the natural world, our homes, our worshiping communities, and society. In so doing, the arts call us to pay attention to the world around us and invite us to engage in responsible practices in those places.Through this practical theology of the arts, Craft shows how the arts can help us by cultivating our theological imagination, giving shape to the Christian life, and forming us more and more into the image of Christ.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Seeing Jesus In East Harlem
$21.99Introduction
Part 1: Show Up
1. El Testimonio: Go And Show Yourself
2. The “Here I Ams” Of Life: Calling And Holy Disorientation
3. Incarnational: Tracing Our Presence Through Christ’s Body
4. Naming Whiteness: Discerning Space As Disciple MakingPart 2: Staying Put
5. Staying Public: Welcoming Home The Prophets
6. Remaining At Work: Becoming God’s Crowdsource In The Barrio
7. Staying Together: When Hope Became A HouseholdPart 3: See
8. Look Again: Generous Seeing As A Measure Of Discipleship
9. Curating Heaven: Dance And Dirge At Christ’s Table
10. El Culto: Marking Life’s Moments, Rescripting Trauma
11. Apocalypse: Church From A Different Vantage PointAcknowledgments
NotesAdditional Info
We are all located in different places. Some of us move from neighborhood to neighborhood or even state to state. And the way we grow as disciples and lead others in spiritual growth depends on our contexts. Pastor Jose Humphreys recognizes how deeply our faith is tied to our particular stories in our particular places. Grounded in his own deep faith and wisdom, he writes out of his experiences as a Puerto Rican pastor who has planted a multiethnic church in East Harlem. In this book, he offers a framework to help church leaders take discipleship seriously in their places, calling them to show up, stay put, and see what God is doing in their midst. Combining spiritual formation with activism, vivid narrative with exhortation, and realism with hopefulness, Humphreys offers pastors and church planters a thoughtful look at discipleship in a complex world.Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Everyday Life At La Trappe Under Armand Jean De Rance
$29.95This is an annotated translation of the classic Description de l’abbaye de La Trappe, the most important eye-witness account of life at the abbey of La Trappe under Armand-Jean de Rance. The work includes a map showing the physical layout of the abbey and detailed discussions of the monks’ daily life and practice. It was written by Andre Felibien des Avaux for Jeanne de Schomberg, duchess of Liancourt, in 1671, with a new and enlarged edition being published in 1689. That is the edition translated here, with copious notes to help the reader appreciate Felibien’s account.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
True Inclusion : Creating Communities Of Radical Embrace
$14.99Discover how to move your church beyond mere welcome to radical embrace.
So your church website says you’re welcoming, a rainbow flag flies out front, worship uses gender-inclusive language, and you make sure you greet the stranger next to you on Sunday mornings. But is all of that really enough? And what if those welcoming gestures actually keep visitors from returning and exclude dozens of other groups or people in your community?
In True Inclusion, public theologian and pastor Brandan Robertson shares how to move your church from mere welcome to radical embrace. Pointing to a clear biblical imperative for radical inclusivity in the sanctuary and in the public square, Robertson presents a paradigm-shifting vision of community, “where nothing is simple, nothing is easy, but everything is beautiful.” Learn practical, step-by-step approaches to becoming deeply, robustly, and richly inclusive of all people regardless of race, gender identity, sexual orientation, political affiliation, and socioeconomic status.
Written for people and communities at every stage of the journey, True Inclusion will challenge and inspire you to embody a gospel of radical embrace for all.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Letters To The Church
$16.99Letters to the Church reminds readers how powerful the Church can be and calls this generation to passionately pursue God’s vision for His beloved Bride.
God’s Church started as a radical, spiritually intimate gathering of believers that ultimately changed history. Yet millions today are content to be mere observers at church. Many more have left, brokenhearted and cynical. But God is waking up His people-people who will risk anything and sacrifice everything to be the dynamic, world-changing Church of Scripture.
In Letters to the Church, Francis Chan invites readers to wrestle with the fact that many churches have drifted from God’s desire for them. He challenges Christians to ask, “What does God want for His Church? When Jesus returns, will He find us caring for His Bride-even more than for our own lives?”
Speaking out of deep love for the Church, Chan guides Christ followers to live out God’s magnificent and beautiful vision for His Church-a vision we may have lost but God has never forgotten.
Add to cart2 in stock
-
What Does It Mean To Be Welcoming
$19.99“Welcoming?” (An Introduction)
Part One: The Complexity
1. Meanings, Motives, Regrets, And Hopes
2. A Difficult, Knotty, Potentially Thorny Conversation
Testimonial: My Son
Testimonial: Our Daughter
3. The Terrifying Beauty Of A Diverse Church Or DenominationPart Two: The Topic
4. The Affirming Position
Testimonial: A Lesbian Christian
5. The Traditional Position
6. What Does The Bible Say?Part Three: The Way Forward
7. What Options Does A Same-Sex Attracted Christian Have?
8. We Can’t Just Sing Kumbaya Forever
9. Welcoming But Not Affirming And Mutually Transforming
Testimonial: Called To Stay
Testimonial: Why We Left
10. What Can We Do?Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Appendix A: A Process
Appendix B: A Statement On Sexuality
Discussion Guide
Notes
For Further ReadingAdditional Info
Is your church wrestling with LGBT questions from membership to marriage? Travis Collins has been there. A pastor who has walked congregations through the complex issues surrounding gay Christians, he knows firsthand the confusion and hurt that often follow. He has also seen churches have these conversations with grace and understanding. In this practical resource, readers will gain insight into relevant biblical passages and hear from interpreters on both sides of the debate. They will consider the implications of their convictions for ministry practice, relationships, church policy, and more. They will hear testimonies from gay friends and family members about their experiences in the church. Collins calls readers to both grace and truth, with humility.What Does It Mean to Be Welcoming? considers how we might welcome everyone into the church while calling for all to be transformed.Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Prayer : How Praying Together Shapes The Church
$14.99Prayer is as necessary to the Christian as breathing is to the human body-but it often doesn’t come quite as naturally. In fact, prayer in the church often gets subtly pushed to the side in favor of pragmatic practices that promise tangible results. Rather than being a hallmark of churches, dependence on prayer is usually emphasized only in times of major crisis-if at all. The latest book in the 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches series focuses on the necessity of regular prayer as a central practice in the local church. Examining what Jesus taught about prayer, how the first Christians approached prayer in the early church, and what steps can be taken to prioritize prayer in churches, this book is intended to awaken readers to the need and blessing of prayer in their personal lives and in the life of their local church.
Add to cart4 in stock
-
Disruptive Witness : Speaking Truth In A Distracted Age
$18.99Introduction
Part One: A Distracted, Secular Age
1. The Barrier Of Endless Distraction
2. The Barrier Of The Buffered Self
3. Searching For Visions Of FullnessPart Two: Bearing A Disruptive Witness
4. Disruptive Personal Habits
5. Disruptive Church Practices
6. Disruptive Cultural Participation
Conclusion: Large And Startling Figures
NotesAdditional Info
We live in a distracted, secular age.These two trends define life in Western society today. We are increasingly addicted to habits-and devices-that distract and “buffer” us from substantive reflection and deep engagement with the world. And we live in what Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor calls “a secular age”-an age in which all beliefs are equally viable and real transcendence is less and less plausible. Drawing on Taylor’s work, Alan Noble describes how these realities shape our thinking and affect our daily lives. Too often Christians have acquiesced to these trends, and the result has been a church that struggles to disrupt the ingrained patterns of people’s lives. But the gospel of Jesus is inherently disruptive: like a plow, it breaks up the hardened surface to expose the fertile earth below. In this book Noble lays out individual, ecclesial, and cultural practices that disrupt our society’s deep-rooted assumptions and point beyond them to the transcendent grace and beauty of Jesus.Disruptive Witness casts a new vision for the evangelical imagination, calling us away from abstraction and cliche to a more faithful embodiment of the gospel for our day.Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Come Back Effect (Reprinted)
$18.82Highly sought-after speakers and consultants provide church leaders valuable insights and practical ideas on how to create a ministry driven by hospitality and an experience that makes first-time guests keep coming back.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Loving And Leaving A Church
$26.00Barbara Melosh’s story was a common one. A second-career seminarian, she arrived at her first pastorate brimming with enthusiasm and high hopes. The blue-collar congregation to which she’d been called had a glorious past but an uncertain future. Certain that she could turn around its slow yet undeniable slide into decline, Melosh inaugurated a number of church growth and outreach programs. Most of these efforts had little effect, and the ones that did seem to work soon suffered reverse outcomes and eventual demise. In the end, Melosh had to conclude that the members of the congregation liked their church the way it was and that she could not drag them into a future they did not want.
Yet while the congregation failed to change itself, Melosh notes, it succeeded in changing her. Simply put, it made her a pastor. At times heartbreaking and hilarious, Loving and Leaving a Church offers a glimpse into the challenges and opportunities of ministry in a mainline church.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
New Apostolic Reformation
$19.99This critique provides a framework for understanding and interpreting the widespread but little-known New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement. As the authors state in the preface: “We write this book with two major goals in mind. First, to give people an idea of the sheer size and reach of the NAR movement. And second, to systematize its key teachings and practices and evaluate them on the basis of Scripture and careful reasoning – . In our judgment, the NAR perspective crosses these boundaries [that is, certain broad parameters, revealed in Scripture and practiced in the historical orthodox church], and it does so in part because of flawed theology rooted in a flawed understanding of Scripture. We wish to warn readers about a possible confusion: Some critics have linked the NAR movement with mainstream Pentecostalism and charismatics. We do not do this. In fact, it is our contention that the NAR movement deviates from classical Pentecostal and charismatic teachings. This movement has emerged out of independent charismatic churches and, thus, has gained a foothold in many of those churches in varying degrees.”
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Free At Last
$10.99Gods Life Publishing
What is one of the most stubborn problems permeating America churches today? Racism! It divides Christian’s brothers and sisters and hinders the spreading of the gospel. Free at Last! Is a concise, in-depth study that reveals the malignancy hampering the Body and gives a biblical antidote to address this spiritual hindrance.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Serving God In A Migrant Crisis
$21.99“God has used migration for millennia to achieve his purposes for his people,” writes Patrick Johnstone. “He is doing so again in our time.”
Millions are on the move, driven by war, drought, terrorism, poverty, failed states, environmental catastrophes, disease, revolutions, and the desire for a better life. Christians have a unique perspective on the migrant crisis: after all, Jesus was a refugee. So were Abraham, Joseph, and Moses.
Today, some turn their backs on refugees. In Serving God in a Migrant Crisis, Patrick Johnstone and Dean Merrill help us understand what’s causing today’s refugee crisis, explore Christian theology and tradition on migration, and show us how Christian workers around the globe are opening their hearts to embrace these modern outcasts.
“The world has literally come to our doorstep,” they write. “Will we open the door?”
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Quit Church : Because Your Life Would Be Better If You Did (Reprinted)
$22.50Based 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.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Who Is My Neighbour
$15.99Following Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, and with increasing division, xenophobia, and confusion over future national and international relationships, this thought- and action-provoking book considers the crucial question: Who is my neighbor?
What does the Christian injunction to “love your neighbor as yourself” actually mean in practice today? Contributions by renowned theologians and practitioners reflect on this subject in relation to issues of poverty, ecology, immigration, fear, and discrimination, and the recent political upheavals both in Europe and the United States.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Organic Outreach For Churches (Expanded)
$16.99Nearly 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.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Life Tastes Better
$3.99It’s easy to think that following Jesus would make life less fun and more limited. Drawing on his decades of introducing the real Jesus to people, founder of NewFrontiers Terry Virgo reveals the surprising truth that the Jesus who turned water into wine is ready to make every life taste better, both now and eternally. Easy-to-read, short, clear, faithful and conversational, this is a perfect book to give to an interested friend.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Divine Symphony : An Exordium To The Theology Of The Catholic Mass
$17.58Saint Dominics Media Inc
This work consists of four very accessible and easy-to-read movements that narrate, explore, and explain the meaning, mystery, theology, history, symbolism, and continuity of the Catholic Mass.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
House United : How The Church Can Save The World
$34.98Introduction
1 The Divided States Of America
2 A Tale Of Two Prayers
3 Righteous Minds
4 The Perils Of Echo Chambers
5 The Dividends Of Difference
6 Meeting Through Mission
7 Christian Mingle
8 Courageous Conversations
9 Mission 4.0: How The Church Can Save The WorldAdditional Info
By entering the culture wars, churchgoers in the United States have ushered the Left and the Right to even greater extremes. Battles over moral issues like abortion rights and homosexuality have now widened to include taxation and size of government, so that specific church affiliation has become an accurate predictor of political party affiliation. The extremists in American politics rely on Christians to be the engine that pushes the culture farther right or left.Allen Hilton believes that religion isn’t inherently divisive, and he suggests a new role for Christianity. Jesus prayed that his disciples might all be one, and this book imagines a proper answer to that prayer in the context of American polarization.
Rather than asking people to leave their political and theological beliefs at the church door, Hilton promotes a Christianity that brings people together with their differences. Through God’s transforming work, he writes, we can create a house united that will help our nation come back together.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Building Credibility In Leadership
$19.99Today there is a lack of trust in leaders, notably those leading the church, potentially leading to a lack of trust in God Himself – the Leader. As secondary leaders we must help to build credibility in leadership by remembering that our service is “unto the Lord.” This book giving sound instructions on how to become the type of leader God has destined you to be.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Melodies Of A New Monasticism
$68.00The New Monastic Movement is a vibrant source of renewal for the church’s life and mission. Many involved in this movement have quoted Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s conviction that the church must recover ancient spiritual disciplines if it is to effectively engage “”the powers that be.”” Melodies of a New Monasticism adopts a musical metaphor of polyphony (the combination of two or more lines of music) to articulate the way that these early Christian virtues can be woven together in community. Creatively using this imagery, this book draws on the theological vision of Bonhoeffer and the contemporary witness of George MacLeod and the Iona Community to explore the interplay between discipleship, doctrine, and ethics. A recurring theme is the idea of Christ as the cantus firmus (the fixed song) around which people perform the diverse harmonies of God in church and world, including worship, ecumenism, healing, peace, justice, and ecology.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
From Jerusalem To Timbuktu
$23.99Christianity started in Jerusalem. For many centuries it was concentrated in the West, in Europe and North America. But in the past century the church expanded rapidly across Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Thus Christianity’s geographic center of density is now in the West African country of Mali-in Timbuktu.
What led to the church’s vibrant growth throughout the Global South? Brian Stiller identifies five key factors that have shaped the church, from a renewed openness to the move of the Holy Spirit to the empowerment of indigenous leadership. While in some areas Christianity is embattled and threatened, in many places it is flourishing as never before.
Discover the surprising story of the global advance of the gospel. And be encouraged that Jesus’ witness continues to the ends of the earth.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
7 Dangers Facing Your Church
$16.99Our culture is changing, and the church seems to be under increasing pressure. But these dangers are not new, and God’s word shows us how to meet them head on. Discover how Jesus’ messages to seven first-century churches in Revelation 2 3 is his message to your church today too. Together, you can live as Christ’s faithful, hope-filled people in a changing culture.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
We Want You Here
$12.99The message is basic but profound. We want guests to know they are welcome to the church. This book is a gift to guests to communicate that very message.
Bestselling author Thom Rainer (I Am a Church Member, Autopsy of a Deceased Church) has created a tool for churches to become more hospitable through a brief, welcoming book that introduces the ministry of the local church to guests. We Want You Here is a clear and instructive message to be given to church guests. Rainer facilitates the follow up conversation that every pastor would have, if they had the opportunity. By giving away the book to guests, they are encouraged, in a non-intrusive manner, to continue to reflect on the decision to visit their church.
Those churches who share We Want You Here will be able to tell their guests:
* We Really Want You Here
* This is Not a Place for Perfect People
* We Would Like to Get to Know You
* This is Where Families Grow Strong
* We Will Getting to Know the One Who Made Us
* Come Make a Difference with Us
* Thank You for Being HereAdd to cart20 in stock
-
People Are The Mission
$17.99When it comes to interacting with guests, churches typically gravitate towards one of two camps: over-the-top, shock-and-awe, let-us-entertain-you or oh-man,-some-people-just-showed-up, underwhelming experience. Each extreme has drawbacks: on one end, people become the center of the universe. On the other, hospitality is effectively ignored in deference to the “serious business” of worship.
People Are the Mission proposes a healthy middle, one where guests are esteemed but the gospel is the goal. Danny Franks, Connections Pastor at Summit Church, shows churches how to take a more balanced approach – a “third way” that is both guest-friendly and gospel-centric. He shows why honoring the stranger doesn’t stand in opposition to honoring the Savior. People are the mission that Christ has called us to, and if we focus on people we can better assist people to focus on the gospel.
Add to cart2 in stock (additional units can be purchased)
-
Dangers Of American Christianity
$15.99The message of the gospel should be the lens through which our world view is formed.
The author believes that instead our culture has made us water down the true message to fit contemporary American Culture.The dangers he identifies include:
-Getting too mixed up in our culture
-Isolating ourselves too much from contemporary culture
-Safe and easy believism without proper life changing repentance
-Making it all about what God can do for me
-Entitlement
-The prosperity gospel
-Not being busy with the things of GodThe Church needs to rediscover what made it the powerful force it is supposed to be in a culture that wants to adapt the Church to fit its own values.
We cannot water down or dilute the gospel message in any way and remain effective in a world of secular humanistic values.
The Church has to get back to biblical values and not compromise with the world’s values and culture.Each chapter has questions for reflection, if you’re reading on your own, or discussion in groups.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
Small Church Checkup
$16.00Many small membership churches today are faced with the sobering reality of attendance loss and overall decline. This resource provides a guide to help you find hope, alternatives, and the possibility of a new beginning. Included are tools to help you measure your church’s vitality, evaluate the results, and diagnose your church’s condition, along with several options for treatment plans as you seek to faithfully serve your community. Remember that we can choose our story. If we believe in our hearts there is another possibility, we can be faithful in choosing intentional pathways forward that honor God, the church founders, and generations to come. Follow the steps outlined in these pages to evaluate where you are and what the next steps on your journey need to be as you seek to be a “not yet big church,” “a stable, small church,” or a church that chooses to close and be repurposed for unexpected new life.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
-
New Copernicans : Understanding The Millennial Contribution To The Church
$16.99In The New Copernicans: Understanding the Millennial Contribution to the Church, author John Seel, PhD, provides a road map to this new millennial landscape, and an antidote to being drawn off course.
The millennial generation is steering the church in a new direction and is providing a missional opportunity for the church. The church will either follow their lead, or meander in a direction leading them further away from the ultimate path of making disciples.
Millennials are the carriers of a profound shift in the culture narrative, one that will reshape our understanding of human society in the coming years. Rather than being a problem for the church to lament, this shift represents an occasion to celebrate. Yet it demands being able to understand this direction to a more accurate assessment of human nature and reality.
In The New Copernicans: Understanding the Millennial Contribution to the Church, author John Seel, PhD, provides a road map to this new millennial landscape, and an antidote to being drawn off course. Rather than give the reader a formula for their local church, Recalculating will provide a lens though which to see the world in the light of the millennial frame. It addresses the “why” questions, empowering the reader to assess their own situation and apply the appropriate direction. It will not advocate “cookie cutter” programs, rather provide a refreshed vision with which to interact along side this important generation.
Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
