Discusses how to manage your life and not let it manage you.

    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.

    Arriving in minutes, I find the family imploding with grief having just discovered their son hanging in the garage. In a moment of unshakable pain, he jumped off the ladder and into eternity. And I will never shake the look in their eyes when I asked why he hadn't called a church. "Why would he do that?" Across town, a pool of tears on my kitchen table as an out of town guest feels the weight of his infidelity, despairing that his famished soul finds no refuge and that he has to board a plane to feel fellowship. "Has your church tried to help you?" And the Christian leader confesses he hasn't been to church in years." Infighting, backbiting, heartbreaking, frustrating ... church. Though exceptions do exist, the reality is that church in America is failing one life at a time. Somewhere between pathetically predictable and shamefully entertaining, sadly sentimental and rarely authentic, church has become worst of all ... godless. "Vertical Church "points to a new day where God is the seeker, and we are the ones found. In "Vertical Church "God shows up, and that changes everything. If you want to experience God as you never have before and witness His hand at work, if you want to wake up to the first thought, "Thank God it's Sunday," if you're ready to feel your heart beat faster as you drive to your place of worship ... then devour and digest the lessons of "Vertical Church.

    That may be bad news for America, but it can be good news for the church. What's needed now, in shifting times, is neither a doubling-down on the status quo nor a pullback into isolation. Instead, we need a church that speaks to social and political issues with a bigger vision in mind: that of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Christianity seems increasingly strange, and even subversive, to our culture, we have the opportunity to reclaim the freakishness of the gospel, which is what gives it its power in the first place.   We seek the kingdom of God, before everything else. We connect that kingdom agenda to the culture around us, both by speaking it to the world and by showing it in our churches. As we do so, we remember our mission to oppose demons, not to demonize opponents. As we advocate for human dignity, for religious liberty, for family stability, let's do so as those with a prophetic word that turns everything upside down.   The signs of the times tell us we are in for days our parents and grandparents never knew. But that's no call for panic or surrender or outrage. Jesus is alive. Let's act like it. Let's follow him, onward to the future.

    Some are true--but many are false. James Bryan Smith believes those thoughts determine not only who we are, but how we live. In fact, Smith declares, the most important thing about a person is what they think about God. The path to spiritual transformation begins here. Turning to the Gospels, Smith invites you to put your ideas to the test to see if they match up with what Jesus himself reveals about God. Once you've discovered the truth in Scripture, Smith leads you through a process of spiritual formation that includes specific activities aimed at making these new narratives real in your body and soul as well as your mind. At the end of each chapter you'll find an opportunity for soul training, engaging in spiritual practices that reinforce the biblical messages on your mind and heart. Because the best way to make a complete and lasting change is to go through the material in community, small group discussion questions also accompany each chapter. Those who are leading apprentice groups will also find additional help and opportunities to interact with other leaders at the Apprentice website, www.apprenticeofjesus.com. This deep, loving and transformative book will help you discover the narratives that Jesus lived by--to know the Lord he knew and the kingdom he proclaimed--and to practice spiritual exercises that will help you grow in the knowledge of our good and beautiful God.

    "A highly practical road map."--Mark Batterson, New York Times bestselling author and lead pastor of National Community ChurchDespite the overwhelming amount of resources for time management and work-life balance, the ability to cultivate the efficiency and equilibrium needed to manage all our worthy pursuits can often feel frustratingly out of reach. The reason for our struggle is that productivity and time-management systems focus on individual habits rather than more meaningful and lasting lifestyle changes. But as it turns out, there is a better way to reach our full potential.We don't need just another approach to changing our habits. What we need is an operating system that takes into account the full scope of our lives. In these pages, bestselling author Jordan Raynor presents this system, using seven powerful time- management principles drawn from the example of how Jesus lived:1. Start with the Word: Find meaningful connection with the author of time daily. 2. Let Your Yes Be Yes: Accept only the commitments you can fulfill. 3. Dissent from the Kingdom of Noise: Create room for silence, stillness, and reflection. 4. Prioritize Your Yeses: Confidently maintain your commitments. 5. Accept Your "Unipresence" Focus on one important thing at a time. 6. Embrace Productive Rest: Live the God-designed rhythms of rest which are productive for our goals and souls. 7. Eliminate All Hurry: Embrace productive busyness while ruthlessly eliminating hurry from our lives.With these principles, you'll see how Jesus managed his time on earth and how he responded to human constraints much like the ones you face today. More than that, you'll discover corresponding practices that will help you embrace the best, most Christlike version of yourself possible: purposeful, present, and wildly productive.

    or run?The time has come for evangelicals to reclaim the forgotten faith. And this means doing something many are reluctant to do. It means reflecting on the past to rethink the present and inform the future. It means thinking not just biblically and theologically, but also historically.RetroChristianity challenges us to think critically and constructively about those who have come before us and how that informs our current beliefs, values, and practices. This book will adjust our attitudes about evangelicalism, and will lead us along a time-tested path toward a brighter future.

    Dan DeHaan puts God the Father back into the Christian perspective of what it means to live this way of life called Christianity in The God You Can Know. Burdened by contemporary Christians' lack of understanding of the nature of Almighty God, he wrote this book to help readers become intimate with God by studying His characters and attributes.

    Whether intentionally or not, people take important verses out of context, and pastor and Bible scholar Eric J. Bargerhuff has seen the effects: confusion, faulty decisions, sin being dismissed, and more. With a deft touch, he helps readers understand and apply sound principles of interpretation and application of twenty familiar verses. This concise high-interest approach appeals to the curious as well as readers concerned about incorrect theology.

    Be fruitful like a tree, not efficient like a machine.In this book, Douglas Wilson both considers the theology behind technology, work, and mission and advice on how to be productive—and to think about productivity—in the digital age. We should not rush to buy each and every new iPhone or fancy new gadget, but neither neither should we reject the new technology out of nostalgia for the good ol' days when people worked with their hands or starved. Instead, we are called to see modern technology as wealth and tools that we can use, whether for good or for ill. The key is wisdom and the ability to create the right habits and the regular discipline to use what we have been given. Ploductivity: n, 1) the practice of plodding away at a pile of work, instead of frantically trying to sprint through it all2) being stable and graceful, like a buffalo upon the plains, not frantic, like a prairie dog or roadrunner

    What does this look like for us today? How can we be the kind of church member who makes a real difference?This engaging book by Tony Merida explores what church is, why being part of it is exciting, and why it's worthy of our love and commitment. He sets out eight privileges and responsibilities of a church member: to belong, to welcome, to gather, to care, to serve, to honor, to witness and to send.As we see how wonderful it is to belong to God's family and be a part of his amazing witness to both the earthly and the heavenly realms, we'll grow in our love for and commitment to our local church.This is a great book for every churchgoer to read, whether they're new or have been attending for some time but need re-energizing with God's vision for the local church.With discussion guides at the end of each chapter and video introductions, Love Your Church is also a great resource for small groups.

    As believers, we find the original script for living woven throughout the Bible. Yet while the Christian message is simple, it can become complicated by our environment, our culture, and our religious ideas and traditions. For this reason, we are all in constant need of revising the scripts by which we live.Author Frank Viola believes we need to revisit and revise what it means to live the Christian life. Drawing from his rich background in ministry, Viola examines ten key areas that impact every believer and explores fresh ways to revise them. Conversational, insightful, and practical, Revise Us Again encourages us to examine those religious habits that we unconsciously pick up from others and rescript them with new habits that line up with our new nature in Christ.

    All of those will begin to blur together into a singular memory called life. What will give someone solace or haunt them until their final breath is what they could have done but did not, who they could have been but never became, the life they could have lived that never came to life. This book is a call and much needed push towards that "most courageous life." By examining the account of Elisha and the King of Israel, McManus demonstrates why it is best to follow God into battle with an empty quiver. He shows the reader why leaving everything on the battle field feels risky but yields the deepest sense of fulfillment.

    The freedom from the burden of our sin, the need to be “good enough”, anger, jealousy, and envy.Even though we are believers we would be ashamed to say that we don’t always experience peace, contentment, and joy in our life. We are looking for the grace that God has so graciously given to us to be real in our life…Breaking Pride is an eBook based on one simple truth:In order to walk in God’s grace we need to tear down the the walls of pride.A lot of believers, even though saved by God’s grace, are still walking in pride rather than walking in His grace. Knowing what pride is and learning to identify pride in your life is the first step to overcoming a life filled with pride.Pride is rooted in fear and leads to anger, jealousy, and envy.Sin isn’t keeping us from having a relationship with the Lord, it’s our pride.So many of us long to have an authentic and REAL relationship with the Lord, and we long to have the fruit of the spirit filled in our heart. Our desire is to achieve these fruits through will power. But we do not even realize that the pride that lives within our heart is what is blocking the fruit of the spirit from living within us.In Breaking Pride you will learn to identify different areas of pride in your life. Filled with encouragement, Breaking Pride will take you through a practical reading of what pride may look like in your life…Let’s stop building walls of pride and start building the foundation of grace within our lives…

    Why does sharing the good news with a stranger often feel less frightening than telling those you love most?For the vast majority of Christians, evangelism does not come naturally. We find ourselves sounding like someone we're not or beating ourselves up for not being bold enough, smart enough, or quick enough.Randy Newman understands the complexity and consequences of this all-important task. As a messianic Jew who has led several family members to Christ, he gives insights from the Scriptures, stories of others who have learned some lessons along the way, and specific steps you can take to make progress in engaging with others.Bringing the Gospel Home will help any Christian seeking to guide loved ones into the family of God.