Simply put, we have more needs than we have leaders to meet those needs. So, how do we train better leaders faster? The truth is, very few churches really have a well-thought-out leadership development plan. Growth requires continually adding healthy new leaders, who carry the church culture forward and embody its core values. Everyone knows it, but how do we achieve it?In Empowering Leadership author and leadership consultant Michael Fletcher says leaders like this can't simply be bought, nor can they be hired from someone else's leadership assembly line. Developing leaders at every level, to create an environment that attracts potential leaders, and to build better leaders faster, an organization needs more than a pipeline. It needs a culture that develops leaders organically.Finding the right kind of leaders to guide your church on a path of continual growth comes out of keeping the right focus, and that focus is not just on the leaders. In fact, as Fletcher says, It isn't about the leader. It never was about the leader. It will never be about the leader. It will always and only be about Jesus and his people. It's about the people. True leadership development includes the often messy, but necessary, interaction of life upon life. So hiring pastors and key staff roles from within the church is the very best policy--people who breathe the culture of the church and who have helped create the culture you want to maintain.If your church or organization needs a good leadership development structure, then you're holding the right book. Empowering Leadership details Michael's greatest insights on how to build better leaders faster by creating a leadership development culture in your church or organization--naturally, organically, continually. Empower your church or organization through great leadership. This book will show you how!

    Lewis can be a little difficult and confusing at times. Not so with The Screwtape Letters Study Guide! This comprehensive Bible study workbook breaks down each of the thirty one letters into easy-to-understand segments helping you understand and be able to confidently share with others.The Screwtape Letters is a brilliant and satirical look at spiritual warfare and the dynamics of temptation. Screwtape, a senior demon in the bureaucracy of Hell, writes letters to his incompetent nephew Wormwood, a junior devil. The younger demon's assignment is to corrupt a young man living in London during the tumultuous days of World War II.Using Scripture references, discussion questions, and related commentary, The Screwtape Letters Study Guide examines each letter through a Christian lens of morality, temptation, and good and evil. This complete Bible study experience is perfect for book clubs, church groups, and independent study.Detailed character sketches and an easy-to-read book summary provide deep insights into each character and letter of the book. To help with those more difficult discussion questions, a complete Answer Guide and Scripture Reference Guide is available for free online. The Screwtape Letters Study Guide includes: Twelve sessions of study with multi-week options included Comprehensive Bible study workbook with studies for each week Complete character sketches and summaries to go deeper Bible study questions that are ideal for group discussion Answer Guide for all questions and Scripture Reference Guide available for free online Perfect for book clubs, small groups, or individual Bible study Available in print or e-book formats Explore every shocking and amusing detail of this iconic classic to better understand Christianity and the foolish war raging against it. There's no better tool for making that happen than with The Screwtape Letters Study Guide! Frequently Asked Questions: Do I also need the actual book The Screwtape Letters to do the study? Yes. The study guide includes discussion questions, character sketches, commentary, and more, but you will need the book to read corresponding chapters that go with each weekly lesson. How long is the study? The study is twelve weeks covering two-three chapters per week. However, the study can easily be formatted to an eight or ten week study based on your schedule. Does each person in the study need their own study guide? Yes. It’s most helpful for learning purposes if each person has their own study guide to answer questions and to make notes. However, couples might find it convenient to share the C.S. Lewis book for reading purposes. Can anyone lead the study? Absolutely! The study is created in a discussion based format allowing any leader to simply guide participants through each study question at weekly meetings. Can I get access to the answers for each discussion question? Yes. The answers for each discussion question are available for free online! In addition, we provide a Scripture Reference sheet for each Bible passage to save valuable class time.

    When I told him why I was there, he dropped it to the floor...Bill:I keep things simple with the women I meet. Charm her, enjoy her, discard her, and repeat. Once she hears my family name her focus is on the size of my wallet and she can't be trusted.Until Lauren shows up at my doorstep one night and I am suddenly in charge of the family company. I need to save the family legacy and ten thousand jobs. I can't do it without her. She's beautiful, sassy, brilliant, and brutally honest.She can't stand me.I need her. In my bed, in my life, as my wife. Everything's going according to plan . . . Until, she disappears.Lauren:I fell for him as soon as I saw him last week, all of him, the full package.Until, he sent me back to his condo to get rid of the girl--the naked one in his bed. He didn't even know her name.Today he's the new CEO, and he's screwing up. Royally. I told him what I thought of him.Again.Now, he won't take no for an answer. When he makes a fairy tale proposal in front of hundreds, I can't say no. Together we have a plan to save the company.But he's keeping secrets, and I uncover the worst one.THE YOUNGEST BILLIONAIRELawyers ruined her life once before. Now, his law firm is blocking justice for her family. Will love bridge the gap or will rules destroy them both?Steven is determined to fulfill his promise to his father and become a rarity, an honest lawyer. Tired of taking orders from his older brothers, he has avoided joining the family business to make a career of helping the little guy. Just out of law school, his family's money can't buy him the one thing he needs now, a recommendation to the Bar from his witch of a boss.Finding her family's stolen painting has been Emma's years-long mission. Working at the local museum, art is her whole world. Her quest to find the missing painting is nearly complete when she runs into a final legal barrier. Lawyers destroyed her life once before, and they are the problem again. She agrees with Shakespeare: first, we kill all the lawyers.When Steven rescues Emma from her worst blind date yet, avoiding him becomes impossible. Resisting him becomes futile. Then, she learns he works for the law firm preventing her from recovering the priceless painting. When his boss discovers their connection, will she seal both their fates?He doesn't suspect that pursuing her could ruin his career. She doesn't realize what trusting him could cost her.THE SECRET BILLIONAIREHe whispered in my ear. Three simple words halted all rational thought...Patrick:Women naturally circle the flame of wealth and power, and mine is brighter than most. Does she love me, does she not? There's no way to know. They're all faking something.When I stopped to help her, Liz mistook me for a carpenter. Maybe this time I'll know.She resisted me, but it was pointless. I was determined to make her mine.Everything was perfect.Until the day she left.Elizabeth:He helped me rescue the dog. Simple right? But, nothing about Pat was simple.

    A senior pastor pleads with his colleagues to abandon the secularization of the pastorate and return to the primitive call of the Bible for radical ministry.

    Breene and now Shayne Silvers has been added to my favorite Urban Fantasy Authors list." – Michael Anderle, Amazon Top 25 Bestselling Author Who is Callie Penrose? They say she’s been kissed by Heaven—whatever the Hell that means. Because Callie was orphaned on the steps of a church in Kansas City, and doesn’t know her parents. She starts out as a rookie wizard who hunts monsters for the Vatican. Except…ironically, she’s never been a churchy kind of girl, and she quickly learns that monsters can reside anywhere.Even among the most devout.Get ready for Callie to take you on a gripping adventure into a new kind of Sunday School. Be on your best behavior, because she won’t crack a ruler over your knuckles to teach you a lesson—more like whips of fire and brimstone to your face.Hell hath no fury like Callie Penrose. And that’s before she discovers her strange childhood ties to a jerk named Nate Temple in St. Louis… If you like Jim Butcher, Sarah J. Maas, Kevin Hearne, Steve McHugh, Michael Anderle, Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs, Shannon Mayer, or K.F. Breene, you won't be able to put down the highly addictive Feathers and Fire Series. More than 1m copies downloaded and thousands of five-star reviews. Available in digital, print, and audiobook formats. What Amazon readers are saying: ★★★★★ ‘His foul-mouthed unicorn murders rainbows!’★★★★★ ‘Move over Dresden!’★★★★★ ‘The Temple Verse HAS to be picked up by Netflix soon.’★★★★★ ‘Silvers could write a grocery list on a dirty napkin and make it an international bestseller.’★★★★★ ‘I went from crying my eyes out to laughing uncontrollably, repeatedly.’★★★★★ ‘It’s like the characters walked off the page, joined me at the bar, and bought me a drink.’★★★★★ ‘I am astounded as to how the author keeps the story fresh and exciting.’★★★★★ ‘I usually see plot twists a mile away. Shayne has proven me wrong. Every time.’★★★★★ ‘Best books I’ve read in thirty years.’★★★★★ ‘His intense actions scenes let you see the fangs and claws, hear the gunshots, feel the magic, and smell the fear.’★★★★★ ‘Everything you thought you knew about vampires, shifters, dragons, wizards, fairies and gods is flat wrong.’★★★★★ ‘Publishers who didn’t snap up this series are missing out on a gold mine.’ ★★Dragon Award Finalist 2017-2018—Best Fantasy of the Year. ★★ ★★Silvers has pleasured over one million readers with the Temple Verse. Now it's your turn for a little pleasuring... ★★

    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.

    The book of Isaiah is an enormous collection of prophecies described as “The Vision.” It is not simply a teaching or a historical record; it is the overarching vision of the heart of God revealed to His seer-prophet. This vision spans the ages and touches every nation on earth, becoming a collective overview of all that God has planned. The prophecies are vast and their grand themes are unrivaled in all of Scripture. With panoramic insight, Isaiah preaches about the virgin birth of Christ, the Bride of Christ, and the New Jerusalem. These prophecies also present a description of the cataclysmic judgments, the survival of a holy remnant emerging in Zion, and the canopy of glory that is coming to earth. The poetic message of Isaiah is one of victory, hope, comfort, and restoration of all things. Explore the vision of a man who saw the glory of God and spoke with burning lips, for true prophetic ministry flows from this “vision” until it grows into a burden.

    Ben Merrick and his fiancé, Rachel Gardner, can’t get her divorced parents to stay in the same room, much less attend their wedding together. He is already looking over his shoulder expecting more trouble from a very senior surgeon who has shown he is still smarting from a previous dust-up, but Ben doesn’t know if a series of mishaps and accidents are caused by a disgruntled patient’s relatives or represent more from the older surgeon. Complicating it all is the question of whether Rachel’s father is back doing drugs. Then, when people start dying, Ben and Rachel wonder if they can escape unscathed…and alive.

    Praying consistently seems almost impossible. Too often and too easily, prayer becomes a burden: one more item on an already overcrowded to-do list. Failing to pray becomes a source of guilt and stress as we must once again admit our inconstancy and procrastination to our father confessor. Yet, our Lord said, “Come to me, all of you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. My burden is easy and my yoke is light” (Matt. 11:30). The purpose of this book, then, is not to add to the burden, but to ease it by distilling the advice and experience of those who pray.

    It's a bold declaration for us to make too. What does it mean to say 'It is finished' when so much is unfinished? It means we are people who live hope in two directions, both backward and forward. We long for the kingdom to come in fullness, even as it has already come. And we trust that the One who has begun the good work in us and for us will indeed complete it." In this sequel to Shades of Light, Katherine Rhodes, the beloved director of the New Hope Retreat Center, finds her own grief tapped by Wren Crawford's struggles with depression and loss. Through a series of letters to Wren, Katherine reflects on the meaning of Christ's suffering and shares her own story of finding hope. How does one begin to live again under the crushing weight of grief? And how can healing come when there's so much left unresolved? With Katherine as a companion in sorrow, Wren moves forward in her commitment to paint the stations of the cross for a prayer journey at New Hope, discovering along the way a deeper communion with the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief. Readers are invited into a similar journey of reflection through Katherine's words and Wren's paintings. At the back of the book, a devotional guide with Scripture readings, prayer prompts, and full-color art provides the opportunity to ponder the depths of God's love by meditating on Jesus' journey to the cross

    More than 1,100 pages of epic space opera action and adventure with unique heroes and twists that you won’t see coming. Over 1.5 Million Page Reads and counting! From book one: No-one comes in peace. Every being in the galaxy wants something, and is willing to take it by force. The Hedalt were no different. They came from the distant reaches of the galaxy to wage war. Their fleet wanted to take Earth for its prize, but we were ready. We were stronger. For years, we fought them, ship-to-ship, until we scattered their forces and drove them back. Pursuing the Hedalt fleet to their home world, we delivered the decisive blow. We nuked their planet and wiped them out for good. Or so we thought. For decades, Earth Fleet sent out Deep Space Recon missions to scour the galaxy and clean up the remnants of the Hedalt Empire. Eventually, we found only ghosts – empty outposts and long-dead colonies. But, close to the edge of known space, I – Captain Taylor Ray – and my crew are about to make a discovery that will change everything. The war isn’t over. The war has yet to begin. The series includes: The Contingency The Way Station Gambit Rise of Nimrod Fleet Earth’s Last War

    So when Melrose Stephens sweeps her off her feet with a whirlwind marriage proposal, she feels like she has finally found happiness. But life has more pain in store for Sarah, and again she is left alone. With no hope in her heart, she accepts an offer to travel west as a mail order bride. But when she arrives at the home of her intended, she finds herself rejected again. Jed Jackson lives on a sprawling farm with his five brothers and elderly aunt. He needs a wife to help tend to house and its needs, but he did not expect Sarah—or rather, he did not expect her to be scarred. Jed is unwilling to accept Sarah’s disfigurement, but Sarah is ready for a new life. She has given up on love, and she convinces the family to let her stay on and assist the aunt in running the house. Soon, Sarah finds herself growing closer to her new family. And as one door closes, she discovers that another one has opened.

    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.

    Few, if any, address for a contemporary audience the biblical foundations of the government of the church. But this should be a priority for us, because God emphasizes the government of his church throughout Scripture. Why should we be church members? How do church officers reflect Jesus' reign over us? Where do the church's responsibilities begin and end? Where do ours? These, and other important questions, are answered in Guy Prentiss Water's vital examination of How Jesus Runs the Church. At a time when church authority is treated with contempt, it's important that we honor God in our churches more than ever.

    Healthy living, working his Pennsylvania farm, and mentoring troubled boys have brought him back from grief and illness into a whole new life. Emily Stern has recovered from losing her husband too young, and she can’t wait to get started on her dream: creating a rural retreat for struggling midlife women. The farm she’s inherited is the perfect place, so much so that she’s willing to move across the country to make it happen. But when Emily arrives at the Covenant Farm, she’s shocked to find her long-ago love, John Moretti, living there… and contemplating very different plans for the place. Forced to compromise by staying at the farm together, they quickly realize there’s still a spark between them. But only John knows what else stands between them: a secret that could break Emily’s heart. Jump into the final novella of the Sacred Bond series… a touching love story about sowing, reaping, and gathering in the harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. John 4:36