I don't much like going. So, what now?"What's happening to the Church? Why are so many people who for decades have been faithful, steady churchgoers (and others who want to start going to church but can't seem to find one that meets their needs) losing interest in even attending church, let alone getting involved? What is fundamentally wrong with the "types" of churches (Seeker, Bible, Emergent, Liberal, Evangelical) that dot the religious landscape? Larry Crabb believes it is time to rethink the entire foundation and focus of what we know today as church -- everything we're doing and are wanting to see happen. In his most honest and vulnerable book to date, the author reveals his own struggles in this area and then offers a compelling vision of why God designed us to live in community with Him and others, and what the church he wants to be a part of looks like."

    This book helps readers match who they are--their unique spiritual gifts, passions, temperament, talents, and leadership style--with the ministry area for which God designed them. A practical guide, it takes dedicated Christians step by step through the process of reaching their full potential for Christ's kingdom. This new edition of Maximizing Your Effectiveness puts multiple tools, inventories, and worksheets in the hands of readers to empower them to minister according to God's unique design and purpose for their lives.

    This learning experience is designed for Bible studies, discussion groups, elder teams, pastoral staff, or any other small group of Christians who desire to engage questions of faith, sexuality and gender with both grace and truth. Grace/Truth 1.0 contains many questions designed to facilitate small group discussions where Christians can engage the material in thoughtful ways. It's also accompanied with a documentary about Christians who have wrestled with their faith, sexuality or gender identity, along with several short teaching videos for each chapter that help the group to engage the topics discussed in this book (The Grace/Truth 1.0 videos/DVDs must be purchased separately.) Those who want to go deeper can listen to podcasts and read pastoral papers that go deeper into the subjects discussed in Grace/Truth 1.0. The additional resources mentioned can be found online here: https://www.centerforfaith.com/resour...

    Some struggle to redefine these categories and some seek to reclaim them, while others reject them outright, with or without providing new terms to guide us forward.But words and their meaning matter; our confusion has a cost. Competing priorities pressure us to stretch our mission definitions as wide as they can go, releasing our people to creatively engage in service of every description. Some churches turn away from traditional mission efforts all together, giving preference to local service and evangelism while outsourcing any cross-cultural effort to those who surely must be more effective than we would be.As an unfortunate result of these tendencies, many of our churches lack a coherent, compelling sense of what we're all about as we engage with the world. And if we lose our scriptural moorings, how far will our missions efforts drift?Matthew Ellison and Denny Spitters call us to refocus our gaze on the gospel and the Great Commission. They assert that thinking must come before doing and shape our world mission practices and priorities. When Everything Is Missions is for church and ministry leaders and all who look to clarify their own answers to questions like these:What is the mission of God? What is the mission of the Church? Is every Christian a missionary?

    When adopted, these habits will transform your leadership too. The habits include: Dreaming Prayer Invitations Contact Preparation Mentoring Fellowship Growth When your leaders adopt and practice these habits, your groups will move from once-a-week meetings to an exciting lifestyle of ministry to one another and the lost! Each habit is discussed in detail, providing "how-to" steps with an implementation guide at the end of each chapter. This resource will also be a valuable teaching tool for training your leaders and guiding your coaches as they mentor your group leaders. Help your leaders discover how to make each habit a part of their life . . . and watch them become more effective!"

    Many of the stories included are taken from Dr. Bill's ministry and add that hands on practicality that is quickly making this book a best-seller.

    Into that cultureour culturePeter speaks of hope and offers joy as he points believers home to heaven. Juan Sanchez brings his experience of ministry in the US and Latin America, and his pastoral wisdom and insight, to this wonderful epistlean epistle that every Christian needs to treasure today.

    

    Glenn Packiam wants to empower readers to find great joy, purpose, and passion in their daily living. While bread may be one of the most common items on our dinner tables, Jesus chose to take it at the Last Supper and invest deep, wonderful, and transcendent meaning in it. Like the bread that was blessed, broken, and given; readers will see how God uses ordinary experiences to cultivate their mission and their brokenness to bring healing to the world. The ordinary is not the enemy; it is the means by which God accomplishes the miraculous. Through clear biblical teaching and practical steps, Packiam leads the reader into a more purposeful, directed, hopeful future.

    Pretending Jesus is less than He is resulted in someone I wasn't compelled to worship. So I began a journey to discover the whole Jesus--including the seemingly rough and wild parts--revealed in the Bible. And I found Him to be bigger and better than I ever dreamed.--Lisa HarperThrough a powerful blend of storytelling and biblical insights, Lisa Harper invites you to engage with the Jesus of the gospels, a person so provocative that no one left an encounter with Him unchanged. Pharisees fumed, paralytics turned cartwheels, and pariahs found love and acceptance.Come meet the Jesus who is both safe and strong--and learn how this radical Redeemer can liberate you to live and love with abandon.Includes questions for group discussion or personal reflection.

    Today the church is awakening to the truth that ministry is not just the domain of clergy, but belongs to the entire body of Christ. God is moving her to complete her unfinished business of placing the ministry back in the hands of the people. Unfinished Business has played a pivotal part in helping the church reclaim ministry at the grassroots level. First published in 1990 as The New Reformation, it has become a classic resource for church life. Expanding on and updating the original material with fresh examples and references to eight key important movements, this new edition lays foundations for the church to move from: · Passive to active · Maintenance to mission · Clergy to people of God · Teacher/caregiver to equipping enabler Pointing us back to the church as an organism, not an institution, author Greg Ogden shows how each of us is called to help finish the Reformation’s unfinished business: expressing the priesthood of every believer practically in the church, the world, and all avenues of life.

    Benjamin L. Merkle grounds this study about church elders in the Word of God as he clearly and succinctly informs laypeople of the scriptural qualifications and responsibilities of elders and deacons. Then he implores lay men and women to vote wisely concerning church leadership. Why Elders?assumes the voice of the curious church member who reads the Bible with an eye focused on the early church's organizational structure and asks, "Why did they do it the way they did?" and "How can we follow Scripture's prescription for leadership?"

    the way Jesus did. Discover the God-given evangelistic tools that will enable you t

    An in-depth look at the history of one of the Vineyard, one of the fastest growing church movements in the last twenty years.

    It is not, however, out of reach. The ability to identify the main themes of any passage is a skill you can learn, even as you seek to apply its truth to your own life. Covenant and Kingdom: The DNA of the Bible guides you on a Scriptural quest for knowledge and understanding. Stories and verse from the Old and New Testaments are woven together and cross-referenced, until the connections are clear and indisputable, like DNA from the Bible. Although the great Biblical themes of Covenant and Kingdom find their fullest expression in Jesus, Covenant goes all the way back to the beginning, when the only thing required was to maintain the "oneness" that God had created. After the Fall, the way was blocked; yet, God built a bridge, in Covenant, back to us. In Jesus, that Covenant was fulfilled, as on the cross, he offered himself as the ultimate blood sacrifice. The Bible is about God, our Father, inviting us to know him in a very real and personal way.Covenant and Kingdom: The DNA of the Bible provides guidance to the path of understanding that it will take to develop, to the fullest, your own individual relationship with God.