God has a plan for the rest of your life. Are they the same? You have expectations for how your life will play out, and you hope those plans will become realities. But what if God's plan for your life is far different from what you had in mind? Can you accept that? Will you surrender your goals for God's? Kay Warren had a plan. Together with her husband, Rick Warren, author of the megaseller The Purpose Driven Life, she planned that after her kids were grown, she'd travel the world, teaching and encouraging couples in ministry. It was a good plan. But it wasn't what God had in mind for her.In a startling wake-up call, Kay discovered the shocking realities of the AIDS pandemic in Africa while reading a magazine. I want to use you! she heard God say. That began the struggle first to avoid God's call and then to surrender herself to God.She cried out to God, Why are you bothering me with this? There's nothing I can do about it. I'm just an ordinary person. What could one person do about such a gigantic problem. But God had grabbed her attention and wouldn't let go.If you've ever struggled with knowing and doing God's will, this book is for you. With raw honesty, Kay goes straight to the heart of the matter: the bottom line is surrender. Will you trust God?Along the way she'll introduce you to others—people like you—who have said yes to God and have made a difference in the world. Using their skills, energy, faith, and a willingness to take risks, they became powerful instruments of change and tools in God's hands.Giving in to God isn't easy. It's not for cowards. It's the boldest, riskiest step you'll ever take. This dangerous surrender can bring both joy and pain, both heartache and ecstasy, but it enables you to know God in a far deeper way than ever before.I had to make a conscious decision. Would I retreat to my comfortable life and to my settled plans? Or would I surrender to God's call and let my heart engage with a cause such as AIDS that I was pretty sure would include buckets of pain and sorrow? I felt like I was standing on the edge of a giant precipice; I couldn't go back, and yet the way forward looked like stepping into a void.Kay Warren took that step, choosing to dangerously surrender to God. That decision transformed her life, marriage, and future. She invites you to do the same.

    These structures, meticulously planned, extravagantly furnished, and regularly frequented by the devout, were more than just places of worship and sacrifice. They were pictures of God's relationship with his chosen people and of the atoning work that would be done by the Messiah. To understand the tabernacle and the temple, then, is to understand how we are brought into God's family through the sacrifice of his only Son, Jesus.Visually stunning and theologically rich, this full-color resource brings together the latest scholarship and archeological discoveries to bring God's dwelling places alive for modern believers. It places these important structures in their historical and theological contexts, connects them with the overall biblical story, and shows how they bring meaning and depth to the faith of Christians today.

    Drawing on his experience as a pastor and church planter, Jeff Vanderstelt wants us to see that there's more--much more--to the normal Christian life than merely sitting in a pew and listening to a sermon once a week. Rather, God has called his people to something bigger: a view of the Christian life that encompasses the ordinary, the extraordinary, and everything in between.

    J. Swoboda has witnessed many young people wrestle with their core Christian beliefs. Too often, what begins as a set of critical and important questions turns to resentment and faith abandonment. Unfortunately, the church has largely ignored its task of serving people along their journey of questioning. The local church must walk alongside those who are deconstructing their faith and show them how to reconstruct it.Drawing on his own experience of deconstruction, Swoboda offers tools to help emerging adults navigate their faith in a hostile landscape. Doubt is a part of our natural spiritual journey, says Swoboda, and deconstruction is a legitimate space to encounter the living God.After Doubt offers a hopeful, practical vision of spiritual formation for those in the process of faith deconstruction and those who serve them. Foreword by pastor and author John Mark Comer.

    Helping readers navigate a wise path in the midst of a confused world, this book chronicles the journey of a wife, mom, and successful writer as she recounts her journey from "accidental feminism" to a biblical view of womanhood. Filled with wise insights related to relationships, body image, and women's roles in the home and the church, this thought-provoking book will help Christian women carefully consider these important issues.

    Brinely received his Ph.D. in family studies from Brigham Young University.style="mso-spacerun: yes">  He is an author or co-author of six books on marriage and family, including Between Husband and Wife: Gospel Perspectives on Marital Intimacy.  He is a professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University.  He and his wife, Geri Rosine Brinley, are the parents of six children and a foster daughter.style="mso-spacerun: yes">  The family resides in Provo, Utah.  <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> Daniel K. Judd received an M.S. degree in family science and a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Brigham Young University.  He is an associate professor and department chair of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University.  He and his wife, Kaye Seegmiller Judd, are the parents of four children and live in Orem, Utah.   Contributors to this Volume Elder Bruce C. Hafen, Douglas E. Brinley, Daniel K. Judd, Marlene Williams, Kent Brooks, Terrance Olsen, Brent A. Barlow, Kenneth Matheson, Charles. B. Beckert, Rory Reid, Sherrie Mills Johnson, Guy Dorius, and John Livingstone.

    A new expression of the church has been quietly growing. It's something of an experiment, but over the last ten years the church has been validating its ideas with sustained and growing results. At The Underground, being the church is not focused around a weekly gathering or church programs. It's about empowering individuals to respond to God's call to ministry and mission, especially to the poor and disadvantaged in our midst.While many churches talk about discerning calling and engaging in mission, very few are structured to make this their ministry focus. Underground Church is a new vision for the church rooted in its biblical mission to share the love of God and serve the poor. Sanders explores how to make structural changes, how to think about leadership, how to fund ministries, and how to truly engage people in God's mission. Filled with creative insights, he explains what it means to center the mission of the church around the callings of individuals to outward ministry - whether that involves leading Bible studies in the workplace, feeding the homeless, or working to free women and children from sex trafficking.This book will both tell the inspiring story of a church that is rethinking what church looks like while also outlining and uncovering the principles that transfer for every church and Christian community that hopes for more. It's the true story of a 10-year experiment that unpacks the possibilities of a church structured and streamlined for mission.

    Youth ministries adapted and responded to the first two shifts, but we’re missing the boat on the third. The result? Youth ministry isn’t addressing the realities and needs of today’s youth culture. After nearly three decades in youth ministry, Mark Oestreicher has lived through a lot of those shifts himself. In recent years, he’s found himself wondering what needs to change, especially since so much of what we’re doing in youth ministry today is not working. In Youth Ministry 3.0, youth workers will explore, along with Marko and the voices of other youth workers, why we need change in youth ministry, from a ministry moving away from a dependence on programs, to one that is focused on communion and mission. They’ll get a quick history of youth ministry over the last fifty years. And they’ll help dream about what changes need to take place in order to create the next phase of youth ministry — the future that needs to be created for effective ministry to students.

    Who is Jesus Christ? If he is not who he said he was and if he did not do what he said he had come to do the whole superstructure of Christianity crumbles in ruins to the ground Is it plausible that Jesus was truly divine? And what might this mean for us? John Stott presents his clear classic statement of the gospel

    It brings alive the people, dramatic events, and ideas that shaped the first fifteen centuries of Europe, such as the Spanish and Portuguese conquest of the New World. Historian Justo Gonzalez shows how various social, political, and economic movements affected Christianity's internal growth.Gonzalez skillfully weaves in relevant details from the lives of prominent figures from the apostles to John Wycliffe, tracing out core theological issues and developments as reflected in the lives and struggles of leading thinkers within the various traditions of the church. "The history of the church, while showing all the characteristics fo human history, is much more than the history of an institution or movement," Gonzalez stresses. "It is a history of the deeds of the spirit in and through the men and women who have gone before in the faith." The Story of Christianity demonstrates at each point what new challenges and opportunities faced the church, and how Christians struggled with the various options open to them, thereby shaping the future direction of the church.The Story of Christianity will serve as a fascinating introduction to the panoramic history of Christianity for students and teachers of church history, for pastors, and for general readers.

    M. Luhrmann, an anthropologist trained in psychology and the acclaimed author of Of Two Minds, explores the extraordinary process that leads some believers to a place where God is profoundly real and his voice can be heard amid the clutter of everyday thoughts.While attending services and various small group meetings at her local branch of the Vineyard, an evangelical church with hundreds of congregations across the country, Luhrmann sought to understand how some members were able to communicate with God, not just through one-sided prayers but with discernable feedback. Some saw visions, while others claimed to hear the voice of God himself. For these congregants and many other Christians, God was intensely alive. After holding a series of honest, personal interviews with Vineyard members who claimed to have had isolated or ongoing supernatural experiences with God, Luhrmann hypothesized that the practice of prayer could train a person to hear God’s voice—to use one’s mind differently and focus on God’s voice until it became clear. A subsequent experiment conducted between people who were and weren’t practiced in prayer further illuminated her conclusion. For those who have trained themselves to concentrate on their inner experiences, God is experienced in the brain as an actual social relationship: his voice was identified, and that identification was trusted and regarded as real and interactive. Astute, deeply intelligent, and sensitive, When God Talks Back is a remarkable approach to the intersection of religion, psychology, and science, and the effect it has on the daily practices of the faithful.

    The result? A society measurably less religious but decidedly more spiritual. Less influenced by authority than by experience. More attuned to images than to words. How does the church adapt to such a culture? Or should it, in fact, eschew adapting for maintaining a course it has followed these last two millennia? Or something in between? These are exactly the questions asked in The Church In Emerging Culture by five Christian thinker-speaker-writers, each who advocate unique stances regarding what the church’s message should be (and what methods should be used to present it) as it journeys through this evolving, postmodern era. The authors are: Andy Crouch–Re:Generation Quarterly editor-in-chief Michael Horton–professor and reformed theologian Frederica Mathewes-Green–author, commentator, and Orthodox Christian Brian D. McLaren–postmodernist, author, pastor, and Emergent senior fellow Erwin Raphael McManus–author and pastor of the innovative and interethnic L.A.-based church, Mosaic Most unique about their individual positions is that they’re presented not as singular essays but as lively discussions in which the other four authors freely (and frequently) comment, critique, and concur. That element, coupled with a unique photographic design that reinforces the depth of their at-once congenial and feisty conversation, gives you all-access entrée into this groundbreaking discourse. What’s more, general editor Leonard Sweet (author of SoulTsunami and AquaChurch, among several other acclaimed texts) frames the thought-provoking dialogue with a profoundly insightful, erudite introductory essay–practically a book within a book. The Church In Emerging Culture is foundational reading for leaders and serious students of all denominations and church styles.

    Drawing on the successful national recovery program GriefShare, grief experts offer practical direction and hope in the face of loss.

    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

    Over 750,000 people in 80 countries have been trained to make disciples through organizations he has led. Through studying the life of Christ and His disciple-making methods, Dann developed 4 Chair Discipling, a simple picture for others to follow. Jesus’ last words on earth had a few very specific instructions: Go, make disciples, baptize, and teach.But what does that mean for us today? Well, it’s not easy. But it is simple. Teacher and leader Dann Spader explains disciple-making as a process of moving people through four chairs, from someone seeking to know more about Christ to someone who makes disciples themselves.Chair 1: Come and See (John 1:39)Chair 2: Follow Me (John 1:43)Chair 3: Become a Fisher of Men (Matthew 4:19)Chair 4: Go and Bear Fruit (John 15:16)In the process of His four-year ministry, Jesus realized that different people are at different stages of growth and development, and He works to challenge each of them to the next level. In 4 Chair Discipling , you’ll get a clear and simple picture of how to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and do the same thing.