Why did we have to shut our doors after only three years? I was at my breaking point. Then I got the news that our nine-year-old daughter had leukemia. I would have quit ministry forever, but I had no other employable skills. False accusations were made against me and my family, wrecking our reputation permanently and forcing us to leave not only the church, but move out of the area. I've served my church for the past 27 years and I've grown that church from 150 to 24 people. What do we do when we've failed? Some ministries are shipwrecked by moral failures like affairs or embezzlement. But for most of us, the sense of failure is more ordinary: disillusionment, inadequacy, declining budgets, poor decisions, opposition, depression, burnout. Many pastors are deeply broken and wounded, and we come to doubt that God has any use for us. J.R. Briggs, founder of the Epic Fail Pastors Conference, knows what failure feels like. He has listened to pastors who were busted in a prostitution sting or found themselves homeless when ejected from ministry. With candid vulnerability, Briggs explores the landscape of failure, how it devastates us and how it transforms us. Without offering pat answers or quick fixes, he challenges our cultural expectations of success and gives us permission to grieve our losses. Somehow, in the midst of our pain, we are better positioned to receive the grace of healing and restoration.

    Should preachers ask for a public response in evangelistic meetings?

    . . . This is when we’ll truly come alive and experience life to its fullest.”—John Bevere Do you ever feel like a spectator in God’s kingdom? Perhaps you know there’s something you should be doing, but you just can’t pinpoint it. Most of us want to make a big impact with our lives, but struggle with questions like:• How can I be sure I’m not missing God’s will for me? • What role do my unique gifts play in building God’s kingdom? • How do I make sure I live up to my God-given potential? • Is my calling less significant if I’m not in “ministry”? • How do I balance resting in God’s grace with meaningful actions for His kingdom? • How do I break fear and move forward even when it feels uncertain and risky? In this profound book, best-selling author John Bevere relies on a careful exploration of Scripture and uses powerful stories to help you think differently about your calling and why it’s so important to God. As you turn these pages, you’ll be empowered to multiply your God-given gifts and step into your potential. If you’re ready to trade inaction for greater purpose, your journey begins here.

    Originally published: Nashville, TN: Howard Books, 2015.

    These questions open the door to spiritual transformation. They help us unpack where we are stuck, where we are in pain, where we are afraid, and much more. They also reveal the path to joy and to the heart of God. Spiritual inventories and exercises will guide you, along with stories from Gem and Alan's lives and their ministry together through Unhurried Living. Embarking on a journey of transformation involves remaining awake to a deeper level of reality that is always present, write the Fadlings. Remaining on this journey requires a simpler, God focus. These eight questions about transformation can help us cultivate this kind of deeper awareness and soul focus. These paths help keep us on the journey of transformation. They keep us in the presence of the transforming One. This practical, personal book offers a path to understanding what God wants to reveal in your soul.

    God never intended for us to act like "little girls," says Jan Silvious. His goal is for each of us to live as "big girls"-mature Christian women-who are capable of enjoying the richness of life He has planned.In Big Girls Don't Whine, Jan helps women:Move beyond the past and on to healthy relationships, Choose to be proactive rather than let life just "happen,"Discover their full potential,And become everything He made them to be.So how can we tell if we're living life as an immature 'little girl" or a confident "big girl?"A little girl…Is insecureBecomes the victim of circumstancesSays "I can't"ManipulatesA big girl…Is secureRests in God's sovereigntySays, "I can"CommunicatesIn Big Girls Don't Whine, Jan Silvious calls us to be real women in a real world, free to experience a life of full of potential and vision. This book is the how-to manual for making it happen.

    However, when the Bible calls Christians to be hospitable, it's calling them to much more. In this book, Rosaria Butterfield invites readers into her home and shows from her own life and experience how "radically ordinary hospitality" can be a bridge for bringing the gospel to lost friends and neighbors—something that she experienced herself on her journey to Christ. Such hospitality welcomes those who look, think, believe, and act differently than us into our own everyday, sometimes messy lives. Christians will be inspired and equipped to use their homes and tables as a way of showing a skeptical, unbelieving world what love and authentic faith really look like.Table of ContentsPreface: Radically Ordinary Hospitality1. Priceless: The Merit of Hospitality2. The Jesus Paradox: The Vitality of Hospitality3. Our Post Christian World: The Kindness of Hospitality4. God Never Gets the Address Wrong: The Providence of Hospitality5. The Gospel Comes with a House Key: The Seal of Hospitality 6. Judas In the Church: The Borderland of Hospitality7. Giving Up the Ghosts: The Lamentation of Hospitality8. The Daily Grind: The Basics of Hospitality9. Blessed are the Merciful: The Hope of Hospitality 10. Walking the Emmaus Road: The Future of Hospitality Conclusion: Feeding the 5000: The Nuts and Bolts and Beans and Rice

    They will help you reflect on Jesus in the run-up to Easter. Ideal to start at the beginning of Lent.

    Some choose to ignore them. God's power and love have no limits. So why do Christians put limits on their relationship with Him? We could be pursuing greater knowledge, experiencing deeper intimacy, and abiding in freer joy... and yet we routinely settle for mediocrity in our spiritual lives. But if you are ready to explode your self-imposed limits, Dr. Richard Blackaby can guide you through powerful and passionate insights revealed in this new book. By contrasting mediocrity with the spirituality of the great "heroes of the faith," Dr. Blackaby shows you that you need not settle for less than God intends for you. God can do extraordinary things through ordinary people like you...but only when you allow Him to enlarge your spiritual capacity and overcome your self-imposed limits. "I hope this book inspires you to aim for a new level of walking with God. I want you to reach heights in your spiritual life that you never dreamed were possible, to experience God working through your life in a powerful new dimension, to hear words from God that will dramatically change your life and your world. I want to help you blow past any limitations you have set for yourself in your Christian life." --Dr. Richard Blackaby

    The track is treacherous. There are so many ways to mangle the exchange zones, to overshoot, to be knocked off the track, to drop the baton, to stop running. The church needs champion runners who never give up, who persevere no matter what they encounter, who run to win, unstoppable, no matter the cost.If we pass the baton of faith fluidly in the exchange zone from person to person, from generation to generation, we speed unstoppable toward the finish line. But if we fumble the exchange, the whole team, the whole church, suffers. Some runners even stop running and walk right out of the race.Discover just how important it is to get the “exchange zone” right, to ensure that no runners stop running and walk off the field, but that every runner becomes unstoppable in their dedication to carry their baton of faith to the next runner.

    A true underdog story. Journey with these young leaders as they do church their way. A diner, driving school and an odd jobs company are just some of the ways this group used to build a thriving church. In "How to Knock Over a 7-Eleven and Other Ministry Training," author and senior pastor Michael Cheshire brings real-life stories to out of the box church work. His humor is unmatched and the insights you get will cut to the core as you journey with him and his team as they build a church from scratch. This book takes you behind the scenes of a radically different way to build a church. It's a valuable resource for those planning to launch a new ministry or for leaders wanting to be more innovative in their community. This is not a story of the traditional church. Michael and his team sacrifice more than a few sacred cows in their pursuit of God's calling. If you're determined to pursue a calling in any type of ministry, this book will only make your fire grow.

    Filled with humorous insights and challenging ideas, The God Who Smokes imagines a twenty-first-century church where hope hangs with holiness, passion sits next to purity, and compassion can relate to character.

    In this study tool, Joyce Meyer takes a deep dive into those beloved verses, identifying key truths and incorporating room for personal reflection. Joyce's new series provides key Biblical commentary that will help you develop a stronger relationship with God. If you take the time to study His word, you'll see how much He loves you and who you are in His image. Change will come, and your life will bear the good fruit that God intends!

    Old & New Testament

    Scott Wilson is one of those few.God gave Wilson a vision and a plan for his staff team and volunteers. It wasn't a quick fix. The strategy took three years, and it had plenty of bumps in the road. At the end, though, the leaders of his church were more INSPIRED, CHALLENGED and EQUIPPED than ever before. Their lives, their church and their community will never be the same.