How much staff does the church need? How many workers are needed in the nursery this month? When is the right time to start a second worship service? How many people should we train for evangelism this year? How does seating and parking impact worship attendance? When church leaders have questions about planning, running, or growing their churches, they need answers fast!What Every Pastor Should Know offers pastors and leaders 101 valuable rules and "sacred" laws to help answer real-life ministry questions. From advertising to facilities to visitation, this valuable book offers the practical help that leaders need, just when they need it most. This comprehensive guide will become one of the most valuable books in a leader's library. Never again will they wonder if they based critical decisions on the right information. They'll get the answers they're looking for all in one place.

    But somehow he sees right through her.Social worker Alli Johnson has built her identity around helping foster kids navigate the system she grew up in. But when one of her clients is placed at a religious group home, she’s forced to face the trauma that robbed her of her sense of self. And a too-hot pastor who sees past her defenses.Delivered from years of pent-up rage, youth pastor David Porter wants to help others find the sense of peace God’s given him—especially the hurting seven-year-old and his spirited social worker. But he’s out of his depth with one, and dangerously attracted to the other.As Alli and David’s mutual concern for the boy’s well-being draws them together, their differences—in background, perspective, and faith—tear them apart. They’ve both been shaped by terrible pasts. When pain devours a soul, it takes a limitless love to heal the hollow places left behind.

    Readers will also find the results of exclusive research commissioned by Group magazine--thoughtfully explored by the editor of Group magazine. This research sheds light on how teenagers really feel about their faith...and how youth pastors really feel about their ministries.

    But ask anyone who's sought after it--from the founders and members of Scum of the Earth Church in Denver to the apostle Paul, from whose letters the church took its name--and they'll tell you it's worth it. In Pure Scum Mike Sares, pastor of Scum of the Earth, takes us along a faith journey, telling the story of how a pretty normal, middle-aged guy met and became friends with Reese Roper and other members of the band, Five Iron Frenzy, and got hoodwinked by FIF and the Holy Spirit into pastoring of a vibrant church full of artists and skater punks. For anyone--pastor, church leader or plain old Christian--who wants to share the amazing grace of God with the "left-out" and "the right-brained," Mike's story will show you what this kind of exhilaration looks like, and more importantly, what it costs. It's a tricky business, but it's worth every step and misstep.

    

    The 10th-anniversary edition of this popular book challenges you to take time to pray, to listen to God, to respond to what God is saying to you, and to overcome prayer barriers.

    Obviously. Matt Woodcock's frank, funny real-life diaries reveal what it was like for him to train as a vicar while struggling against all odds to become a father. In them he lays bare his joys and struggles as he attempts to reconcile his calling as a vicar with his life as a party-loving journalist, footie-freak and incorrigible extrovert. Becoming Reverend is a compelling and original account of how faith can work in the midst of a messy life, combining family, fertility, faith and friendship with the story of a divine - but unlikely - calling.

    One will learn communion's origin deepen his relationship with God and be challenged in discipleship.