Housewives and corporate executives. Young professionals and those who are retired. No matter their professions or responsibilities, women of all ages and all walks of life often struggle with an all-consuming issue-self-image. We as Americans are continually obsessed with the grass-is-greener, anything-else-is-better-than-what -we-have philosophy. And that is never truer for women than when it comes to our bodies and our self-images. The media and the world around us tell us that we should be perfect in every way. But this kind of scrutiny and obsession with perfection leaves women feeling unloved, unattractive, frustrated, and even depressed.In The Real Me, contemporary Christian singer and songwriter Natalie Grant is on a mission to especially help young women deal with this struggle and to find acceptance in how God created them. And this struggle is something that Natalie understands fully-she gives the reader an inside look at her own struggle with image issues that led her on the path to bulimia. In acknowledging her pain and sharing her struggle, she offers practical help and hope to women of all ages.

    Because not everyone lives in a geographic region that experiences tornadoes and hurricanes, picture books are a great way for children to learn about these events. A well illustrated picture book can help students understand how tornadoes and hurricanes are formed, and can help them overcome their fear of these extreme weather situations. When students who have been impacted firsthand by a major storm are able to see the explanation in a neutral, scientific way, it may provide a way for them to heal from their traumatic experiences.

    We continue to watch consistent church attendance shrink, and our desire to reach the lost is infected with a need for self-validation by growing our numbers at any cost. If we believe that God wants his church to grow, where do we go from here? What is the future of the church?Drawing from his 20 years and 15,000 hours of consulting, author Will Mancini shares with pastors and ministry leaders the single most important insight he has learned about church growth. With plenty of salient stories and based solidly on the disciple-making methods found in Scripture, Future Church exposes the church's greatest challenge today, and offers 7 transforming laws of real church growth so that we can faithfully and joyfully fulfill Jesus's Great Commission.

    

    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.

    A behind the scenes view of the murder trial that gripped the nation.

     Through seven deployments commanding sailors in the complex and dangerous world of nuclear submarine warfare, Jon Rennie experienced a deep form of leadership. On a sub, there is no escape. No “after work.” No home to commute to. You live and lead side-by-side with the crew, every day. What Rennie didn’t realize was how much his time underwater prepared him to lead global industrial businesses and startups across multiple industries. Becoming a leader worth following begins—and ends—with people. “This book cuts to the heart of the matter of leadership: it’s all about people.” Says Joshua D. Cotton, PhD, Founder and CEO, VetStoreUSA With a special foreword by John Brubaker, Author of Seeds of Success, Rennie lays out a case for becoming a people-centered leader. Leaders have the watch. They are not only accountable for the results of the organization, but they are also responsible for the people who work for them. Leadership is a people business. The actions of a leader will have a deep impact on the lives and careers of the people they are responsible for. Natasha Goldstein, Founder and CEO, The Accountkeepers says, “As the founder of a fast-growing, people-based business, I could not put this book down. Unlike any other book on leadership I’ve read, Jon boils it down to what really matters: how you treat people.” Great leaders know that employees who are respected, appreciated, and are given the chance to grow will go the extra mile for your organization. This book provides real-world leadership wisdom written from a hands-on perspective. If you want to be a more effective leader, this is the one book you should read this year. “Start becoming a better leader today by reading this book.” Says Heather Eason, Founder and CEO, SELECT Power Systems

    "Victory in Jesus: The Bright Hope of Postmillennialism" offers a sober and faithful examination of Scripture while clearly demonstrating that Christians have every reason to expect the victory of Jesus and the triumph of the gospel as the Great Commission is fulfilled on earth.

    Those roots are lodged in the Universal Church's and local church's Christ-imaging roles as a prophetic witness, a priestly witness, and a kingly witness. The authors, both PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) ordained pastors and long-time campus ministers, Brian Habig and Les Newsom, assert that when the Church, and local churches, again major on its primary roles, health will be restored and a shine will go froth that is impossible to ignore. Nothing is more important to Christ than his Bride, pure and spotless! This book is devoted to that end.The Authors:Brian Habig, Vanderbilt University. A graduate of Covenant Theological Seminary (Master of Divinity) and Mississippi State University, Brian Habig has served as an ordained minister of the PCA and a campus minister for Reformed University Fellowship for six year. He is a regular conference speaker in addition to this primary pastoral role as campus minister at Vanderbilt University. Habig is currently completing a Master of Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary.Les Newsom, University of Mississippi. A native of Memphis, Les Newsom received his Master of Divinity degree from Reformed Theological Seminary. He has served as an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America for seven years. The first five years were spent as the campus minister for RUF at The University of Memphis. He now serves at The University of Mississippi. A regular conference speaker, Les has taught philosophy of ministry classes at Reformed Theological Seminary."The Enduring Community succinctly shows that Christians with a church-optional mindset are as vulerable as a chorister without a choir."Marvin OlaskyEditor, World magazineSenior Fellow, Acton Institute

    Provides an approach that brings expository and narrative preaching together to help seminary students, ministry leaders, and pastors connect with a young church audience.

    When First Presbyterian Church in Altadena, California, was asked to provide a mission study report for its pastor nominating committee, the congregation was afraid they would find themselves engaging in busy work and producing a report that would wind up in a file gathering dust. They then asked professor Mark Lau Branson to consult with them on writing this report. He invited them to join in a process of Appreciative Inquiry--a transformational organization change process--which resulted in a major shift in congregational conversations and a new sense of hope. Memories, Hopes, and Conversations recounts the experience of First Presbyterian and outlines a process that any congregation can utilize to harness the energies of the congregation at all levels of its common life. Branson first leads readers through the foundations of Appreciative Inquiry and bracingly explores biblical texts for understanding the practice in a faith context. He then outlines and illustrates a four-step process--Initiate, Inquire, Imagine, Innovate--that creatively employs constructive conversations and questions to evoke storytelling and spur imaginations. Branson persuasively demonstrates how concentrating on needs and problems can mire a congregation in discouragement and distract it from noticing innate strengths. By focusing on memories of the congregation at its best, members are able to construct "provocative proposals" to help shape the church's future. Grounded in solid theory and real-life practice, Memories, Hopes, and Conversations is a groundbreaking work of narrative leadership and the first book to apply the principles of Appreciative Inquiry to the lives of congregations.

    The crisis of existence can't be answered with pat Sunday school formulas or a few Bible verses, let alone another relay race.The questions our youth have are often the same ones that perplexed the great theologians, driving them to search for God in the places God didn't appear to be--places of brokenness, suffering and confusion. What if we let these questions drive our search for God too?Andrew Root and Kenda Creasy Dean invite you to envision youth ministries full of practical theologians, addressing the deep questions of life with a wonderfully adolescent mix of idealism, cynicism and prophetic intolerance for hypocrisy. Follow them into reflection on your own practice of theology, and learn how to share that theology through rich, compassionate conversation and purposeful experience.

    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.

    He was depressed, overweight, and struggling to handle his responsibilities as a husband and father. After undergoing a sleep study, Volk was diagnosed with sleep apnea, a medical condition that afflicts tens of millions, though roughly 80 percent go undiagnosed. For people with sleep apnea — a sleep disorder in which breathing is interrupted during sleep, depriving the brain and body of oxygen — the effects are serious, even deadly.Volk’s doctor explained the grave danger he was in — so oxygen deprived that he could die any night. Unable to secure a life insurance policy because of his condition, and facing a full-fledged break down, Volk determined to do something about it.In Breathless, the acclaimed author of Fringe-ology brings readers along on his quest save his family — and his life. When a radical new surgery offers a cure, Volk must decide whether the chance for a better life outweighs the risks and the strain such a procedure could have on the people he cares about most. Harrowing, intimate, and illuminating, Breathless offers an unprecedented look at one man's desperate journey to overcome a once-chronic diagnosis.Steve Volk is a journalist, author and TV personality, with a book Fringe-ology: How I Tried to Explain Away the Unexplainable—But Couldn't, and an upcoming History Channel show, “The Dark Files.” Volk is a contributing editor at Discover magazine, and lives in the Philadelphia area with his wife and twin sons.

    It’s also one of the hardest. It requires initiative, leadership, strategy, systems, and a lot of prayer. In this second edition of  Planting Missional Churches, not only will you find a completely redesigned book with new content in every single chapter, but you will also find several new chapters on topics such as church multiplication, residencies, multi-ethnic ministry, multisite, denominations and networks, and spiritual leadership. So if you’re planting a church, be prepared. Use this book as a guide to build the needed ministry areas so that you can multiply over and over again. For additional resources visit www.newchurches.com/PMC.