To the world around us, this kind of unconditional love makes little sense. The world is really good at loving some people, sometimes. Most of us are. But what about loving people who don't talk like us, think like us, vote like us, or see the world like we do?In this five-session video Bible study (DVD/streaming video sold separately), Bob points the way to embodying love by doing the unexpected, the intimidating, the seemingly impossible--to love everybody the way Jesus loved them--without fear, insecurity, or reservations...Love everybody: Begin by loving people right where you are through serving and helping the neighbors God has placed in your world.  Love always: Love people when they mess up, and help them move past the place of shame to acceptance.  Love God: Be courageous and follow where God leads one step at a time--even if you feel like you're flying blind.  Love now: Don't just agree with Jesus, but actually step out and do what Jesus said. Each session explores a different aspect of unconditional love:Love People Where You Are  Catch People on the Bounce  Don’t Play It Safe  Look at What’s in Your Bucket  Love Even the Difficult PeopleFollowing Christ means more than just putting a toe in the water when it comes to loving others. It means grabbing your knees and doing a cannonball! And, as Jesus revealed, it means loving the difficult ones. The Everybody, Always Study Guide provides practical steps to help you take that journey.Includes video discussion questions, Bible exploration, personal study and reflection materials for in-between sessions, and a leader's guide.Designed for use with the Everybody, Always Video Study (9780310095361), sold separately.

    Bringing together some of the most beloved Christian authors and songwriters of today, Faithful guides readers through the pages of Scripture to increase understanding of how God has always valued the integral role of females and how that shapes the lives of women today.   The Faithful project is a collaboration between three major ministry partners: David C Cook, Integrity Music, and Compassion International. The accompanying album and a 2021 tour of live events celebrates the contributions of women while recognizing their empowerment through the faithfulness of God.   This beautiful, creative book will invite readers to return again and again for reflection and inspiration through guided scripture reading and writing prompts.

    The first is taking up a calling that isn’t yours. The second is neglecting one that is. Discerning Your Call to Ministry will help you know the difference. A tool for seminary students, pastors-in-training, and even current pastors, it serves to confirm or prompt deep thought about the calling to ministry through 10 probing questions, including:Do you desire the ministry?Does your church affirm your calling?Do you love the people of God?Are you willing to surrender?Pastoral dropout rates are high, and seminary admission rates are declining—signs that many of us don’t quite know what we’re signing ourselves up for. Author Jason Allen, a former pastor and the president of North America’s fastest growing seminary, gives readers a better picture of the calling. Presenting a series of diagnostic questions informed by Scripture, church history, and his own experience, he helps those seeking ordination or ministry positions make confident decisions about their service to God, one way or the other.

    Simple Evangelism offers practical ways to connect people to God's amazing love. With three decades of outreach leadership, Kevin Harney provides tools that free you to set fear aside and walk boldly into the adventure of evangelism.

    She vowed her life in ministry would be different.Yet, years later, as a church leader, she was hospitalized because stress began wreaking havoc on her body. After being released from the hospital, an associate pastor asked her, 'Does working at this church interfere with your communion with Christ?' The question was paramount in turning her life around.Thinking she wasn't alone, Anne developed a website that allowed church leaders to share their struggles. Within a few days, she was flooded with over a thousand responses from people pouring out their stories of burnout. Using anecdotal parallels between Mad Cow Disease and leadership trends in the church, she writes not only to help us realize what church leaders are facing, but also to provide practical and positive treatment plans.Mad Church Disease is a lively, informative, and potentially life-saving resource for anyone in ministry---vocational or volunteer---who would like to understand, prevent, or treat the epidemic of burnout in church culture.

    But grace can.You already know because you’ve tried: repeated attempts to earn God’s love and approval get you nowhere and leave you exhausted. When performance taints our relationship with him, the Christian life can turn into an unholy hustle. It was never meant to be like this.In Saving the Saved, Pastor Bryan Loritts reveals the astonishing truth that God doesn’t want your spiritual scorekeeping. He simply wants your surrender. The punchline of the gospel of Matthew is just that—a message of grace and performance-free love to do-good, try-harder Jews who thought they had to earn their way into God’s favor. It’s an ancient message, yet it can be a lifeline to us today as we live in a world of performance metrics. Just as Matthew wrote to the Jews in his gospel, we were never meant to flounder under the pressures and anxieties of show Christianity. Make no mistake: we are called to live in obedience, but Jesus wants us to save us from the illusion that our actions can ever earn God’s acceptance of us.In Pastor Bryan’s relevant, uncompromising style, Saving the Saved proclaims the good news that once the pressure is off to perform, we are free to abide. Beyond the man-made rules and the red tape, there is a God who knows you by name. Come and meet him as you’ve never known him before.

    They have condensed their vast experiences down to ten points that account for the great majority of failures among church planters. For each point, the authors provide examples of the particular mistake and ways to avoid it. They speak in special sections to coaches and supervisors, showing them how to work with church planters to avoid the mistakes. The ten mistakes point in most cases to plans made on the basis of past experiences or unrealistic models that do not fit either the particular church planter or the mission field where the church is planned. The church planter must take the initiative to do God's work as directed by the Holy Spirit, not copy a religious superstar's methods or approach the works as defined by outside sources.

    This approach to pastoral counseling focuses on solutions rather than problems and is typically short-term, requiring only one to four or five sessions.

    In Babylon, the Son of Perdition devised the Shinar Directive: the enslaving of humanity and the war against the God of Heaven. God's intervention at the Tower of Babel only delayed his hellish plans. The Luciferian Elite now control three key circles of influence in the world: financial, political, and religious. However, controlling these three systems was not enough. The laborers of Mystery Babylon have been quietly planning and waiting for thousands of years for the releasing of the Watchers of Genesis 6.Now armed with developing Watcher technologies, the Elite will use transhumanism and mind control to build the Joel chapter 2 army: the army of the Antichrist. We are beginning to realize that the mark of the Beast and the image of the Beast are much more than we could have ever imagined; beyond an implant and beyond a physical mark, they will affect DNA and who we are at a molecular level!As the powers of Mystery Babylon gather to create the new Tower of Babel and prepare for the Son of Perdition's return, Heaven is issuing a clarion call to the Remnant: Know the strategies of the enemy, untangle yourself from it, and become the victorious Church! Heaven's Jewish Apostle of Love, John, reveals the coming conflict in his book of Revelation and provides the ancient Hebraic wisdom encoded in 1 John to equip the bondservants of Messiah with the tools of the kingdom to overcome the Shinar Directive!

    When the storms of life blow-as they most certainly will-are you going to stand strong, bend, or break? Popular author Erwin Raphael McManus suggests that you discover how to rise above the normal reaction and learn to stand against the wind.Through thought-provoking chapters, McManus takes readers on a journey of transformation through the landscape of their character-from where they start out "Running Free," through "Rising Out of the Ashes," developing "Divine Imagination," and finally, reaching the "Greatness of Servanthood."Readers, ages 18-35, will appreciate this international consultant's expertise on culture, change, leadership, and creativity.

    Though many people today like Jesus, they are growing tired of traditional religious institutions. Even those who follow Jesus aren't so sure they always like what Christianity and the church represent.For many years, Dan Kimball would have agreed, until an encounter with a small group of Jesus followers started him on a journey that challenged him to rethink everything he had ever assumed about the church.andamp;nbsp; In Adventures in Churchland, Dan invites you to join him as he uncovers what the Bible really says about the church and reminds us that it's more than just buildings and institutions, it's a beautiful mess of broken people learning to follow Jesus together. As you journey with Dan, you'll begin to see the church as Jesus intended it to be: a community of forgiven misfits coming together to serve the world around them with passion, creativity, innovation, and grace. 'If you don't like the church, or if you're thinking about leaving, please read this book first. Dan's stories will make you laugh, make you think, and make you appreciate the church like never before.' -- Mark Batterson, author of The Circle Maker 'As a non-Christian, I was inspired and moved, and have been enthusiastically recommending it to my friends. This is a book for everybody.' -- Mark Frauenfelder, editor-in-chief of MAKE, founder of boingboing.net 'Dan encourages us to break through the tension and messiness that church communities inevitably encounter to experience the beauty of being in community and sharing God's infinite love with others.' -- Zach Lind, drummer, Jimmy Eat World'I am so glad that my friend Dan has written this book, because there is a lot of confusion out there about Jesus and the church.' -- Wanda Jackson, Queen of Rockabilly and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

    She thinks she’s ready for this homecoming. She’s spent years escaping her perpetual shyness and being Katie Michaels’ tag-along friend, but being back in her hometown brings back a lot of old memories, especially when she is faced with the cowboy she never forgot—Katie’s older brother, Maddox. Twelve years ago, Maddox Michaels was supposed to be somebody. He had everything. A football scholarship. A Division I team scouting him. Maybe even a chance at the pros. Now, he’s a burned-out cowboy working day and night to stay ahead of his brother’s medical bills and keep their family farm from going bankrupt. And trying to be a father-figure for his niece, Olivia. When Haley and Olivia start spending time together, Maddox can’t help remembering those dreams that died alongside his sister. Will being with Haley open his heart to new dreams? USA Today bestselling author Cheryl Wyatt introduces a new series, Haven Bay Heroes, with this contemporary romance novella: Coast Guard fire chief Scotty Cohen learned his lesson when one careless moment on the job cost his best friend his life. So he heads for Haven Bay, Florida, ready to start again. And this time? No distractions allowed. Enter conservationist Lilah McLaughlin—that woman is one major distraction. How is he supposed to ignore her when the marine wildlife rescue center is right next door to the Coast Guard facility—and when she proceeds to break down every wall he’s put up? Then the unthinkable happens, and Scotty must decide: give up Lilah or give up his calling. Whatever choice he makes means he’ll get burned all over again…

    Years of listening to other people's stories of going through tough times, hoping to overcome difficult odds, or trying to find a way to make a difference in the world brought Edward Grinnan to the undersanding that personal change is vital to achieving success. In each chaper of this book, he weaves the tales of other people with his own story to reveal how each of us can learn about the keys to powerful personal change. He shows these principles at work in his own personal struggle with alcoholism, and how he has learned through his own missteps to accept change and become the person he was meant to be.

    Fun is still allowed, by all means, but the ultimate emphasis on maturing faith is simply essential.The anecdotal comparisons are current and on-target (Starbucks’ well-publicized decision to retrain baristas in coffee making introduces the idea that youth leaders might also be wise to revisit the gospel essence of their ministry). And case study data gleaned from small to mega churches and parachurch ministries will give every youth leader a relatable reference point from which to begin the successful metamorphosis to Simple.

    Identifying what makes a Christian organization different from other clamoring for attention can get ones message heard.