But few are actually bearing fruit. Kevin Harney diagnoses this problem and offers guidance for multiplying the outreach impact of churches.Organic Outreach for Churches provides direction for local congregations to weave evangelism into the fabric of the church. Commitment to the Great Commission is not simply about sending money and prayers to missions or holding occasional events to reach out (although these things are good). Organic outreach happens when evangelistic vision and action become the domain of every ministry and the commitment of every person in the congregation.This will not happen accidentally. There is huge spiritual and practical resistance to such changes. But the only way evangelism will become an organic part of a church is when every leader and each member is gripped by a commitment to proclaiming the gospel. This book is a roadmap for pastors and leaders who wish to infuse evangelistic passion into every aspect of their church’s life.

    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.

    His life was turning into a flashbang ? something that makes a lot of noise but leaves no permanent indentation. In this hilarious memoir, Steele gives autobiographical accounts of enduring 40 days of facial paralysis, suffering public embarrassment at a Presidential Inauguration, receiving treatments of shock therapy from a first-timer and giving blood in a Mexican hospital. Each story brings Steele closer to the realization that being a Christian is more than just saying you are. In the end, he reveals his secret to living a more meaningful life?how he got over himself.

    Stress, disappointment, heartache, hurt–all are part of the human condition. But while pain is unavoidable, misery is optional! The freeing message of You Gotta Keep Dancin’ is that, no matter what your circumstances, you can choose to be joyful. Tim Hansel speaks as one who knows. For the past ten years he has lived with continual physical pain, the result of a climbing mishap in the Sierras. But You Gotta Keep Dancin’ is not just another story of a Christian who had an accident. It is a powerful account of God’s working in one man’s physical and emotional suffering, helping him discover the real meaning of joy. Tim doesn’t treat lightly the difficulties of anyone’s life. In his words, “this book is in no way meant to diminish the awfulness of pain, tragedy, and affliction. I don’t want to ‘celebrate pain,’ but more deeply understand the dignity of what can happen in it, through it, and because of it.” Tim Hansel is the founder of Summit Expedition, a wilderness survival school for individuals seeking deeper experiences with themselves, others, and God. In great demand as a speaker and seminar leader, Tim is also the author of the best-selling When I Relax I Feel Guilty and What Kids Need Most in a Dad. He makes his home in San Dimas, California, with his wife. You have changed my sadness into a joyful dance. Psalm 30:11

    Foster carer Mia Marconi was thrilled when he first arrived – a boy the same age as her son.It can be so bewildering for foster children when they arrive. The older ones are usually withdrawn and sullen. The younger ones will be screaming, spitting at you, making themselves sick and throwing themselves on the floor.For Mia, it’s normally her boisterous, happy children who provide the comfort at the beginning, because why should they trust another adult. Children always feel safe and secure when there are other children about. Mia believes it’s through making relationships with other children that they begin to trust adults again. But little did she know that six-year-old Brody was actually taking his anger and frustration out on her son. She quickly begins to realise the heavy price her family has had to pay. (Amazon.com)

    Using the simple device of telling the Christmas story backwards, Stephen Cottrell helps us encounter it as if for the first time.

    Tim Hudson was determined to demonstrate his recovery from a recurring injury. Barry Zito had to show the world that after a ho-hum 2003, his 2002 Cy Young Award was not a fluke. Mark Mulder missed the 203 playoffs entirely with a stress fracture, but the way he saw it, he simply needed to be himself-the natural-born pitcher.Given unprecedented access to the Big Three , Mychael Urban recreates their tumultuous season through their eyes. he explores the nuts and bolts of major league pitching, examining each player's unique approach to this craft while revealing how three very different personalities cope with the demands, rewards, and challenges of sports stardom.Now with a new afterword on the 2005 seasonUrban traces the fortunes of the Big Three after Hudson was sent to Atlanta and Mulder to St. Louis, trades which held the dramatic promise of them being reunited again-as opponents-in the playoffs."Written with great color, style, humor, and grace, Aces takes readers on a captivating ride." - Mike Silver, Sports Illustrated"Mychael Urban's book is a fabulous read... This is hardly just a baseball book. It's about life, and he tremendous burden each pitcher carried while trying to lead the Oakland A's to the playoffs. I absolutely loved it." - Bob Nightengale, Senor Writer/Columnist, USA Today Sports Weekly"From the southern fried heat of Tim Hudson to Mark Mulder's cool aloofness to Barry Zito's cerebral wanderings, Urban captures the engine of Oakland's Little Engine That Could of a team with grace and aplomb." - Scott Miller, National Baseball Columnist, CBS.SportsLine.com

    Thinking of quitting the ministry, Navajo doesn't know where toturn until he begins meeting with a seasoned man of the cloth--his "oldpastor"--who, through successive Monday visits, offers a legacy of wisdomin the form of 15 unique principles.In lyrical prose, Navajoshares the personal anecdotes, fables, and deep spiritual insights offered bythe old pastor and his wife. By turns funny, heartbreaking, and thoughtprovoking, Mondays with My Old Pastor is a comfort to anyone whostruggles in his or her walk with God. As readers follow Navajo's journeyfrom desperation to rejuvenation, they will find themselves similarlytransformed and inspired. This moving, beautifully written account is sure toreignite every soul's longing for renewal.

    All four of these good things are guaranteed to happen if you but promise to go onto your porch tomorrow with your pad or other device, light your pipe, and Tolle Lege.

     Pastor Charles R. Parsons describes an hour’s interview with George Müller toward the close of his life: A warm summer day found me slowly walking up the shady groves of Ashley Hill, Bristol. At the top there met my gaze the immense buildings which shelter over two thousand orphans, built by a man who has given to the world the most striking object lesson in faith it has ever seen. The first house was on the right, and there among his own people, in plain, unpretentious apartments, lived the saintly patriarch, George Müller. Passing the lodge gate, I paused a moment to look at House No. 3, one of the five erected at a cost of $600,000. The bell was answered by an orphan who conducted me up a lofty stone staircase and into one of the private rooms of the venerable founder of that great institution. Mr. Müller had attained the remarkable age of ninety-one. As I stood in his presence, veneration filled my mind. “Thou shalt rise up before the...

    Maya Angelou, she is a poet, writer of memoirs, novelist, educator, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker and human rights activists.

    As Salomon journeys through his experiences in indie rock bands playing churches and events, he exposes why he dropped the label of "Christian" in order to truly minister. He challenges pervading mindsets and shows that an authentic Christian life reaches beyond the traditions of religion.

    The Practice and Presence of God is one of the most beautiful and touching stories of Christian devotion ever written. Brother Lawrence was a Carmelite Brother known for his profound peace and deep relationship with God; many came to seek spiritual guidance from him. The wisdom that he passed on to them, in conversations and in letters, would later become the basis for the book. These two translations will help the reader find a more complete understanding of this wonderful and enduring story. The Spiritual Maxims of Brother Lawrence are beautifully spiritual teachings that can help anyone have a closer relationship with God. And the short biography that closes out the books offers a fascinating glimpse into the life of Brother Lawrence.

    His family didn’t always have it good. His father, a criminal lawyer, succumbed to a celebral stroke when Virat was very young, depriving him of someone he calls his ‘biggest support’ both on and off the field. The son paid his tribute to Prem Kohli in a way the older man himself would have applauded: Virat Kohli returned to the field to continue an innings a few hours after he lost him. ‘He was the one who drove me to practice every day, ’ the captain of the Indian cricket team recalls with his characteristic humility and grace. Widely read sports journalist Vijay Lokapally goes on to record happier times on the journey of Virat’s rapid rise to international stardom, an account punctuated by little-known stories by his fellow players, coaches and intimates. At 28, he has already been the recipient of countless accolades — not the least of them being the Arjuna Award and the title of BCCI’s ‘International Cricketer of the Year’ for the 2011-12 and 2014-15 seasons. He was the ICC’s ‘ODI Player of the Year’ as early as in 2012. On a more commercial note, British journal SportsPro pronounced him the ‘second-most marketable athlete in the world’ just two years later. But for the Run Machine, it’s not about the money or fame or the roar of the crowds or that women of all ages vie for the wide-eyed attention of his extraordinary gaze. Few incidences have been reported of his open hearted altruism, his numerous charities for under-privileged children and his sheer pluck when the odds are against him. But what has not escaped the public eye is how this wizard of the willow and wicket wears his heavy mantle with such insouciant ease.

    She wants help and healing. She wants to hear and be heard, to see and be seen. She wants things set right.   She wants to know what is true—not partly true, or sometimes true, or almost true. She wants to see Truth itself, face-to-face. But here, now, these things are all cloudy. Hope is tinged with hurt. Faith is shaded by doubt. Lesser, broken things masquerade as love.   How does she find something permanent when the world around her is always changing, when not even she can stay the same? And if she finds it, how does she hold on?    She Reads Truth tells the stories of two women who discovered, through very different lives and circumstances, that only God and His Word remain unchanged as the world around them shifted and slipped away. Infused with biblical application and Scripture, this book is not just about two characters in two stories, but about one Hero and one Story. Every image points to the bigger picture—that God and His Word are true. Not because of anything we do, but because of who He is. Not once, not occasionally, but right now and all the time.   Sometimes it takes everything moving to notice the thing that doesn’t move. Sometimes it takes telling two very different stories to notice how the Truth was exactly the same in both of them. For anyone searching for a solid foundation to cling to, She Reads Truth is a rich and honest Bible-filled journey to finally find permanent in a world that’s passing away.