But this renewed interest in poverty alleviation is doomed to fail if it is not rooted in the local church--God's established means of drawing downtrodden people into a transformative relationship with himself. Emphasizing the priority of the gospel, Mez McConnell and Mike McKinley, both pastors with fruitful ministries among the poor, offer biblical guidelines and practical strategies for planting, revitalizing, and growing faithful churches in hard places--in our own communities and around the world.

    God’s word to Joseph was to prepare Pharaoh and Egypt NOW for seven years of famine. God’s word to Jeremiah was to prepare the Jews NOW for seventy years of exile into Babylon. The key word in these historical examples was NOW! What does God’s Word say for us to prepare for NOW? What are the tough decisions we need to make? The NOW Prophecies book identifies the biblical prophecies that were written centuries ago for THIS GENERATION! These ancient inscriptions predict powerful events that will profoundly affect everyone. This book makes it easy to understand how to get ready NOW for what to expect in the near future! Bill Salus is a media personality that has appeared on major Christian TV networks like, TBN, CBN, Daystar and more. Additionally, he is a conference speaker and the bestselling author of Psalm 83, The Missing Prophecy Revealed, How Israel Becomes the Next Mideast Superpower. Visit Bill’s website at www.prophecydepot.com

    It's a clear and compelling call to consider what it means to be the people of God in the midst of a severely broken and battered world." — Matt Chandler, lead pastor, The Village ChurchDoug Logan pastors in Camden, NJ, a city of great need where God is doing great things. Amid drug abuse, gang violence, and extreme poverty, God is using Doug and Epiphany Fellowship to rewrite broken stories and bring life to the block.With teachings from Scripture and powerful stories from his urban context, Doug will help you change the story on your own block, wherever that may be. If you are a pastor trying to mobilize your church, or a Christian trying to live with purpose, this theology of missions will help. It will inspire you to do what matters, take steps of faith, and watch God work. Read On the Block, then go and make a difference.On the Block covers topics like:God’s heart for missionsBarriers to living missionally (especially in the urban context)Biblical reasons for urgencyThe essential nature of gospel engagementKey strategies for the harvest

    These men, women, and children are not foreigners who need pity or missionaries too far away to reach. They are our brothers and sisters—who have great hope and wisdom to share. This powerful 90-day devotional invites you into the lives of these Christ followers through a brief story and a guide to prayer. Each devotional also includes personal application to strengthen your faith and equip you with boldness to love those in your own community.

    The bestselling first edition ignited a conversation about how to harness the power of movements for the future growth of the church. In this major update, Hirsch shares significant insights gained along the way, provides fresh new examples of growing churches, and reflects on the last ten years of the missional movement. The new edition has been thoroughly updated and revised throughout and includes charts, diagrams, an expanded glossary of terms, new appendices, an index, a new foreword by Ed Stetzer, and a new afterword by Jeff Vanderstelt.Known for his innovative approach to mission, Hirsch is widely acknowledged as a thought leader and mission strategist for churches across the Western world. He considers The Forgotten Ways the guiding work to all of his other writings. The book explores the factors that come together to generate high-impact, exponentially explosive, spiritually vibrant Jesus movements in any time and context. This extensive update to Hirsch's influential work offers a system of six vital keys to movements that will continue shape the future of the missional movement for years to come.

    Inviting others to faith requires leaning in to your own story, overcoming fear, and stepping out. But the good news is for everyone, always. And you can help keep it going.Using Scripture and story, Steve Carter casts a vision for non-threatening conversations that point people to Christ. Most significantly, Steve shows that only through risking it all will we discover what God is truly like.

    Once we repent and believe in Jesus, God’s Spirit helps us recover and pursue His design. God is the one who created the world and every human being in it. Authors Jimmy Scroggins and Steve Wright outline a reproducible method of sharing the gospel that has been tested in the real world. Turning Everyday Conversations Into Gospel Conversations is a simple strategy to train new and seasoned believers to join God in His reconciliation work. Turning Everyday Conversations Into Gospel Conversations equips believers to use the innovative "3 Circles," a user-friendly evangelistic tool for a new generation. Scroggins and Wright train readers to incorporate the biblical metanarrative, as well as our own personal stories, to tell the good news that Jesus has made a way out of the broken places we find ourselves. Churches around the world are training people to share the gospel using this method. It has proven appeal across generations and cultures. They've heard stories about an 8-year-old boy leading his 26-year-old cousin to repent and believe in Jesus and a 70-plus-year-old church member, who had never before shared his faith, leading his Spanish-speaking neighbor to Christ. It’s been used to train the Mixtec in Mexico, Maasai Warriors in Kenya, and prisoners in America. It’s been presented on napkins, in concrete, in the sand, and using tortillas. The 3 Circles work, and this book will train you and your church members to use it. It doesn’t matter if you have been a Christian for decades or days, you can learn to do what God asks us to do—to make His appeal to others through us (2 Cor. 5:20). This short training manual will empower and inspire millions of Christians to turn hundreds of millions of everyday conversations into gospel conversations.

    Whether we realize it or not, we all participate daily in culture-building of one form or another. The gospel of the kingdom is the good news that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords, and that he is at work to redeem this fallen world, remaking it in accordance with his good purposes. To speak of gospel culture, then, is to speak of a total meaning for the cosmos, a design plan. The gospel has something to say about the way we go about all our cultural activities. God's Word is a total structuration of life and thought. If we would see Jesus Christ honoured and worshipped, if we would see our Lord's will done on earth as it is in heaven, then we must faithfully consider the scriptural view of the gospel and its implications for culture."Dr. Joseph Boot...is a rigorous thinker, uncompromisingly committed to biblical truth and unafraid to articulate it in the boldest way. He is a cultural theologian of the highest order."--P. Andrew Sandlin, Founder and President, Center for Cultural Leadership, Coulterville, California, U.S.A.

    Regardless of your particular cultural or geographical context, you will need to consider the city when forming a theological vision that engages the people you are trying to reach.In Loving the City, bestselling author and pastor Timothy Keller looks at the biblical foundations for contextualizing the gospel as we communicate to the culture in a way that is both respectful and challenging. He articulates the key characteristics of a city vision, showing how the city develops as a theme throughout Scripture, from its anti-God origins, to its strategic importance for mission, to its culmination and redemption in glory.Finally, he examines the need for thoughtful cultural engagement, unpacking four models for engaging culture, showing the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and emphasizing a blended approach that balances the key insights of each. Loving the City will help you to minister to your cultural context in a way that is biblically faithful and fruitful.This new edition contains the second section of Center Church in an easy-to-read format with new reflections and additional essays from Timothy Keller and several other contributors.

    Jesus is still in the business of turning ordinary men and women into history makers by inviting them into His daily life. As the ultimate "agent of change", it is Jesus' example we need to follow. This book examines five key areas in the life of Jesus that allowed Him to intentionally invest into the lives of a few fishermen: Identity, Invitation, Intentionality, Intercession, and Intimacy. By looking at the life of Jesus along with stories of His disciples today, Culture of the Few creates a call to action that invites readers to follow Jesus in everyday ways, transforming the culture around them. The results of this kind of lifestyle are often small intentional actions that lead to unimaginable kingdom impact.

    This book is written to encourage and inspire you. Even though pastor and author Greg Laurie is a “gospel-presenting professional,” in this book he tells stories of his own failure and success. The most important things you will find here are biblical principles that you can apply yourself. Taken from the life and witness of Jesus, and tested over Greg’s forty years of ministry, in both one-on-one experiences and large-scale evangelistic arena and stadium events, these ideas are intended to mobilize every person in the church to “Tell Someone” about Jesus Christ.

    R.C. Sproul produced for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Quest for GloryThe quest for glory is highly motivating. How often we will try harder or run farther when glory seems within reach. We are even willing to sacrifice personal comfort for a chance at glory. Repeating “No pain, no gain!”, we will fight to push further. We want our lives to count. We want to be celebrated for pursuing something worthwhile.There is a reason we experience this deep thirst for glory. In God’s Word we discover that we were created for glory. He formed our bodies and breathed life into us so that we might know the greatness of His holiness and stand in awe of it. Our hearts and minds were meant to be so impressed with God’s goodness, that we would readily worship and obey Him. In this way, we would reflect the amazing glory of God.Yet, look around you. The world doesn’t shine with the glory of holiness, does it? Perhaps you have noticed how evil has deformed our world. There is suffering, bitterness, deceit and death. If we were created to know the glory of God, what went wrong?The answer provided by God’s Word points to our own hearts. We were created to rely on God and give Him glory. But we insist on seeking our own glory instead. We have substituted God’s will for our own desires, and set out to make a name for ourselves. This is what the Bible calls ‘sin’ and it is the disobedience of God’s purpose for us. Sin tempts us to find satisfaction in our own frailty instead of God’s greatness. Mistakenly, we try to find enduring glory in our identity, our work or our dreams. But again and again we find ourselves both empty and unsatisfied. We also find ourselves condemned for our sin does not go unnoticed by God. He is a righteous Judge. We stand guilty of forsaking His truth while attempting to establish our own. The penalty of this sin is described quite clearly: death and eternal distance from God.But the message of the Gospel is gloriously good news! “God so loved the world”, the Bible says, “that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life”. Jesus Christ, the perfect son of God, took the form of man but without the sin of man. He lived among men yet without participating in their disobedience. He did not waver from pursuing God’s will and glorifying God’s name. He perfectly reflected God’s glory.The Bible says that Jesus Christ was “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross”. His obedience led Him to die on a cross. Why is this?Here is the answer: Jesus Christ took our condemnation upon Himself. He died our death so that we may live. He suffered the penalty we should have suffered. He took on our sins so that we might know forgiveness. He gave His life so that we might be accepted before God. He died for us so that we might confess our sins and find redemption in Him. This is marvellous, glorious news! Three days after His death, Jesus Christ rose again. He rose victorious over condemnation, death and sin!The Bible phrases the good news like this: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” In Jesus, we are gifted with forgiveness, hope, peace and satisfaction. In Jesus, we are readily accepted before God’s presence and discover anew the beauty of His love and holiness. This is salvation. This is truly glorious. This is the Gospel.Dear friend, have you confessed your sins and believed in Jesus Christ? Are you willing to trust in His death and resurrection as being the means by which we are saved? You may be saved today. He will forgive you.Our prayer is that you would believe in Him and discover that His glory truly satisfies.

    The church is God’s plan for evangelism, discipleship, and the Great Commission. This connection between the Great Commission and the church dramatically impacts how both leaders and members should think about their work of making disciples. We do it together.

    In Gospel Evidences of Saving Faith, John Owen recognizes that faith is the root on which all genuine comforts grow, and these comforts are ordinarily shared by believers in proportion to the evidences of true faith in their lives. Owen investigates the proper operations of faith that demonstrate its genuineness, encouraging us to cling fast to Christ, pursue holiness, commune with God through worship, and bring our souls into a special state of repentance. Do you wish to glorify God more and have greater enjoyment in the comforts of Christ? Find inspiration in this pastoral consideration of the evidences of saving faith.Table of Contents:First Evidence: Choosing, Embracing, and Approving God's Way of Saving Sinners through the Work of Christ AloneSecond Evidence: Habitually Approving of the Holiness and Obedience God Requires as Revealed in ScriptureThird Evidence: Consistently Endeavoring to Keep All Grace in Exercise in All Ordinances of Divine WorshipFourth Evidence: Bringing the Soul into a Special State of Repentance

    Paul Street Evangelization, an international apostolate that has grown to hundreds of teams in seven countries in just a few years.Also included are other moving stories of conversion and witness. The authors are ordinary Catholics who have come to love Christ so much that they now talk about Him with total strangers in public places—street corners, parks, and shopping areas. They aren't theologians, nor are they highly trained apologists with Ambrosian rhetorical skills or Dale Carnegie slickness, yet their simple missionary efforts have yielded amazing results.The book's style is readable, accessible, and conversational. It illustrates the missionary calling of all baptized Christians, including Catholics. It reveals the joy and fulfillment that come to those who humbly yet boldly share the good news of God's mercy with others.

    The question goes like this: "Look, I've read your book, and it expresses what I have always thought about Christian ministry. But as I kept reading, I had this sinking feeling that what actually happens in our church is still a long way from the kind of disciple-making ministry vision you outline and that I believe in. So my question is this: What can we do about it? How can we shape the whole culture of our church around disciple-making?" In "The Vine Project", Marshall and Payne provide a roadmap and resources for this sort of church-wide culture change. The book guides your ministry leadership team through a five-phase process for growth and change, with biblical input, practical ideas, resources, case studies, exercises and projects along the way. You will be helped to: • clarify and sharpen your convictions (Phase 1) • reform your own personal life to express these convictions (Phase 2) • honestly evaluate every aspect of your current church (or ministry) culture (Phase 3) • devise some key plans for change and put them into effect (Phase 4) • keep the momentum going and overcome obstacles (Phase 5). "The Trellis and the Vine" proposed a "ministry mind-shift that changes everything". "The Vine Project" shows how that mind-shift can and must shape every aspect of what you are doing as a congregation of Christ's people to make disciples of all nations. For more information and help in working through 'The Vine Project', as well as additional resources, templates, videos, case studies, the PDF of the Team Manual, and much more, visit thevineproject.com (a website is run by Colin Marshall and the team at Vinegrowers.)

    With stories from his own city of Houston, Texas, author Marty Troyer introduces a theology of place that empowers us to truly see the work of God where we live, work, and play. The Gospel Next Door unpacks the gospel through the lenses of following Jesus, making peace, and overcoming injustice. Those seeking to connect more deeply with the world that God so loved will find compelling stories and practical ideas for healing brokenness and imagining new life. Start living out the kingdom of God here and now.

    There was a time when our neighborhoods were our closest communities.No more. Neighborhoods have become the place where nobody knows your name. Into this neighborhood crisis the words of Jesus still ring true: Second only to the command to love God is the command to "love your neighbor as yourself."In "Next Door as It Is in Heaven, " Lance Ford and Brad Brisco offer first principles and best practices to make our neighborhoods into places where compassion and care are once again part of the culture, where good news is once again more than words, and where the love of God can be once again rooted and established.

    We’re told we should do it, we might know that we should be doing it, but the reality is often too scary. Paul Williams is realistic about our fear and guilt, but with gentleness he shows us that the key to banishing our fear isn’t complex and clever answers, but rather to take our friends to the person of Jesus. He gives practical examples of how we can naturally and thoughtfully share how Jesus answers, and is the answer to commonly asked questions. Paul also shares how this simple model has led to greater confidence and joy in his own evangelism. This can be our joy too!

    And yet there are many points of contact, and much common ground. This short book is designed to help both Christians and whole churches understand more about the variety of Jewish people we might work with, meet or know, and to reach out to them with the good news of the gospel. Written at a level that everyone can understand, this book emphasizes the importance of forming loving, honest and open relationships as part of the way we engage with our Jewish friends.

    Knowing myself personally about his ministry of open air preaching, I am genuinely thankful for Tony--and others like him--who stand boldly on the front lines of the world's hostile unbelief, and yet who remain, as Christian preachers, steadfastly unafraid to lovingly proclaim salvation by faith alone in Christ. Would to God that there were many more like Tony who risk inevitable ridicule for their faith (and soon perhaps even strong persecution for their very public testimony). They simply do this in the hopes of seeing sinners bow their knees in humble adoration to God the Father for the gift of His Son! I therefore encourage you, if indeed you are already a Christian, to scrutinize this volume and see for yourself how important and vital evangelism truly is to our decadent and dying culture. If you are not a Christian however, I nevertheless implore you to embark upon a careful reading of this book's many personal experiences of Tony's witnessing to others, and I earnestly pray that you may stake your own eternal destiny solely on the Lord Jesus Christ, personally encountering His glorious cross." - Lance Quinn, Senior Pastor, Thousand Oaks Bible Church, Thousand Oaks, California

    Yet most of us struggle to share this good news with the people closest to us. Becky Pippert has spent years talking to people about Jesus and her experience shines through on each page of these seven Bible studies in John.Discovering the Real Jesus has been designed to make it easy for any Christian to share their faith with friends and family. The expertly crafted questions are designed to open up conversations as you look at seven encounters with Jesus from the Gospel of John.This flexible resource allows you to share your faith with one or more of your friends wherever they're at spiritually and wherever you happen to meet up. All you need is a coffee and a copy of Discovering the Real Jesus for everyone. Even the Bible passages are included inside.

    Steve Elliott convincingly shows how that has always been true, both in Scripture and throughout church history. He also offers practical ways local churches can let that shape their evangelistic strategy.

    In other words, the Gospel will not be heard until our front doors open, our tables are set, and we practice the art of hospitality, celebration, and party.Why has this ancient art of party been lost?Because the church has defined holiness as 'exclusion' from the world, abstinence from food and drink, and separation from real people. In Jesus, we get to be holy as He was holy. Our inward commitments to Him remain in tact while at the same time we are deeply entrenched in the life and customs of those around us.Part is sacrament and we must relearn and re-orient our lives around friends, food, and celebration if we are going to have any influence upon the culture right next door.In Happy Hour Hugh will unpack the theology of party as well as give you practical etiquette and ideas for making merriment a way of life and a way of mission.

    The end result is that the disciple becomes the kind of person who naturally does what Jesus did.How the church understands salvation and the gospel is the key to recovering a biblical theology of discipleship. Our doctrines of grace and salvation, in some cases, actually prevent us from creating an expectation that we are to be disciples of Jesus. A person can profess to be a Christian and yet still live under the impression that they don’t need to actually follow Jesus. Being a follower is seen as an optional add-on, not a requirement. It is a choice, not a demand. Being a Christian today has no connection with the biblical idea that we are formed into the image of Christ.In this ground-breaking new book, pastor and author Bill Hull shows why our existing models of evangelism and discipleship fail to actually produce followers of Jesus. He looks at the importance of recovering a robust view of the gospel and taking seriously the connection between conversion—answering the call to follow Jesus—and discipleship—living like the one we claim to follow.

    Christianity Explored gives people time and space to discover the best news they've ever heard. Over seven interactive sessions, as they explore Mark's Gospel, people find out who Jesus is, what he achieved, and what it means for us today. The course is very flexible. You can use it one-to-one, or in larger groups, in churches, or in homes. This Leader's Handbook contains everything you need to lead a course and works alongside the new-look Handbook and DVD. It features training material and advice and includes questions from the Handbook, complete with answers!

    David Cashin learned how to ask good questions and listen well through ministry experience in Bangladesh, Sweden, and Muslim contexts. As a professor of Intercultural and Muslim Studies at Columbia International University, Dr. Cashin has used this experience to equip students for professional ministry. Now, he wants to do the same for you, but teaching you these seven questions designed to help Christians share their faith in a natural, relevant, and respectful way. The Seven Essential Questions of Life teaches you skills to do evangelism in a way that encourages both the evangelist and the seeker. This is an invaluable book to help you open the door to sharing your faith.

    You might think that someone who makes disciples has to be a teacher, a missionary, or someone who is seminary trained. Would it surprise you to know that disciple-making is just a lifestyle in which you offer people love, comfort, and encouragement where they live, work, and play?Despite our weaknesses and fears, Jesus invites us to participate in the Great Commission by helping people live for Christ in the here and now. All you have to do is live intentionally, love God, and journey alongside others—life to life.This ten-week Bible study with discussion questions spells out the “how” of making disciples through an alongsider approach to life. Discover and apply the practices of an alongsider, such as reading the Bible with others, asking questions, telling stories, encouraging application, and living on mission.The Ways of the Alongsider can be used with small groups, in a class setting, or in a one-to-one discipling relationship.