It is a long time since I read anything so poignant. --J. I. Packer

    Leaving Texas with a Bible, a suitcase (and a surfboard), he took the gospel into cannibalistic areas to people who had never heard the name of Jesus. For thirty-four years God has used him to help train missionaries, spread the gospel and establish dozens of churches in remote regions. Through this book, experience the amazing things God did as David recklessly abandoned his will to the will of God.

    The Church in God's Program is a biblical study covering the entire scope of the church - its beginning, government, ministries, and the new covenant.

    Ellen Rosenberger grapples with the real problems, needs, and emotions that missionaries experience. She brings to light the struggles that are not talked about but are very real. She writes openly about depression and burnout, exploring the difficulties of transitions and overcoming conflict. Ellen addresses abuse, struggles with faith, and grief. By talking about these normally overlooked issues, Missionaries Are Real People aims to bring clarity and healing to silent hurts. Maybe you are a missionary who longs for someone to understand your struggles and name your issues. You think, I can’t let anyone know I am struggling with this, especially because I’m a missionary! Perhaps you feel debilitated by the stereotype that “missionaries are perfect” as you are living in the reality of your own brokenness and imperfection. You might feel as though you cannot express the under-the-surface issues that you are facing on the mission field. Having grown up on the mission field and having spent most of her adult life there, Ellen knows what it’s like to have struggled to live under the pressure to be perfect. She’s felt the pain of hidden struggles and masked-over issues. And she’s experienced freedom and healing in being vulnerable about her imperfections as a missionary. This book is not about methodology or theory, but about real life stories and experiences. It’s about the multi-faceted dynamics of missionary relationships with all their joys and struggles. Missionaries Are Real People unveils the unspoken realities of missionary life. Not for the sake of shaming but for the purpose of restoring. The time is now to break down stereotypes, to speak up for what is really going on, and to seek solutions. Let’s not delay another day. There might be a missionary’s life that depends on it.

    The book elaborates on the apostolic role rooted in the five-fold ministry from Ephesians 4 (apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teacher), and its significance for the missional movement. It explores how the apostolic ministry facilitates ongoing renewal in the life of the church and focuses on leadership in relation to missional innovation and entrepreneurship.The authors examine the nature of organization as reframed through the lens of apostolic ministry.Shows how to view the world through a biblical perspective and continue the permanent revolution that Jesus started Outlines the essential characteristics of apostolic movement and how to restructure the church and ministry to be more consistent with them Alan Hirsch is a leading voice in the missional movement of the Christian West This groundbreaking book integrates theology, sociology, and leadership to further define the apostolic movement.

     Although he was born in what was considered the backwaters of the Roman Empire, Saint Augustine of Hippo has long been renowned for his early religious and philosophical thought. He has been called a Doctor of the Church for his unrivaled ability of patching up even the most complex of theological questions. He tackled such things as the condition of the soul and the omnipotence of God. During the course of his tenure as bishop of the North-African city of Hippo, Augustine often gained as many critics as he did followers. Inside you will read about... ✓ The Son of a Pagan ✓ Augustine’s Love Child ✓ The Road that Led to Rome ✓ Looking toward Christianity ✓ The Priest of Hippo ✓ A Founding Father of the Church And much more! To say that this esteemed theologian was a complex man would be an understatement. Saint Augustine’s life held many contradictions from the very beginning. Born to a pagan father and a devoutly Christian mother, he seemed destined to be at a crossroads. In his life he was both a sinner and a saint, and his seminal works, such as the Confessions and the City of God, prove that somewhere at the intersection of tremendous faith and terrible human frailty you will find the greatness of Saint Augustine.

    In August 2014 State Security agents grabbed them, accusing them of espionage. In shock, they were unaware of a Chinese spy arrest in Canada, giving the US “some leverage over China to bring a stop to more than a decade of rampant cybertheft” or that they’d become “bargaining chips in China’s desperate countermove”. (Graff, Garrett M. “How the US Forced China to Quit Stealing—Using a China Spy”. Wired Magazine. October 11, 2018) This compelling story of a Canadian Christian couple who spent 30 years working and raising their family in China, involved in aid, education and social enterprise is a unique parallel journey. From the early days teaching English in a decade of ration coupons and collective work units, Kevin and Julia watched with admiration as China catapulted into the modern age with unprecedented speed. Well-loved in China, the Garratt’s had always been thanked for their work in education, social welfare, social enterprises and community service. In 2007, along with two of their children, they moved to the China/North Korea border, opened a popular coffee shop and provided aid and assistance for marginalized communities in Dandong, China and North Korea. Their sudden disappearance plunged them into a journey where survival took every breath. Through their harrowing ordeal and intense suffering comes life-changing insight. They find themselves part of new community of those who’ve tasted yet overcome the pain of injustice. Courage and kindness, friendship and faith, resonates through the ordeal with the heartbeat of a love journey. Artfully written, Two Tears in the Window combines Kevin’s gifted story-telling and humour with Julia’s ability to let you see through their eyes and draw readers into deeply painful yet profoundly life-changing experiences. For more information or to contact the authors, visit www.twotearsonthewindow.com

    Examine the life of this great evangelist, probing his strengths and weaknesses, virtues and faults, triumphs and struggles, to find a man after God's own heart.

    Hudson Taylor is known as a key influencer in modern missions – what is less known but more important is that his “methods” were to trust in the Lord utterly and completely. He chose to forgo financial support from his parents and other well-meaning individuals, but instead waited on the Lord in all things. He even went hungry rather than mentioning needs to those who would gladly have given, so strong was his faith in the Lord as the only true source of all provision. The Lord proved his faithfulness, providing in such a way as to show that the He indeed is good and wants to give good gifts to his children – even more than an earthly father. As a result of J. Hudson Taylor’s faith, countless others caught the vision, and the beginnings of a massive “missionary revival” was born. As you read this man’s recollections of his own life, you will be inspired to trust completely on the only One who is genuinely able to provide, and perchance you will catch a bit of the urgency for lost souls that caused this man to forsake all for the sake of others. "China is not to be won for Christ by quiet, ease-loving men and women … The stamp of men and women we need is such as will put Jesus, China, [and] souls first and foremost in everything and at every time—even life itself must be secondary." About the Author J. Hudson Taylor’s father was deeply stirred about the spiritual state of China, and though he was an earnest and successful evangelist at home, his circumstances prevented him from ever going to China. But he was led to pray that if God should give him a son, he might be called and privileged to labor in the vast, needy empire. That prayer was answered when at 21 years of age, J. Hudson Taylor boarded a ship to China. Today, he’s remembered as a pioneer to modern missions, and his initial mission is still going strong, more than 150 years after it began.

    Official website with supplements http://www.ReimaginingChurch.org

    It tells how they lived, what they believed, and how their faith affected the course of world history. Includes a timeline with a historical context for each individual, key quotes from or about each personality, and more than 60 photos.

     Writings from more than 150 mission scholars and practitioners (over 60 of them new to this edition) portray the history and anticipate the potential of the global Christian movement. Every one of the 170 articles and side bars offers practical wisdom enabling Christians to labor together in bold, biblical hope to finish the task of seeing that Christ is named and followed among all the peoples of the earth. The Fourth Edition contains over 60 articles and sidebars that are new to this edition. Many articles have been updated and revised.

    But why have efforts to change the world by Christians so often failed or gone tragically awry? And how might Christians in the 21st century live in ways that have integrity with their traditions and are more truly transformative? In To Change the World, James Davison Hunter offers persuasive—and provocative—answers to these questions.Hunter begins with a penetrating appraisal of the most popular models of world-changing among Christians today, highlighting the ways they are inherently flawed and therefore incapable of generating the change to which they aspire. Because change implies power, all Christian eventually embrace strategies of political engagement. Hunter offers a trenchant critique of the political theologies of the Christian Right and Left and the Neo-Anabaptists, taking on many respected leaders, from Charles Colson to Jim Wallis and Stanley Hauerwas. Hunter argues that all too often these political theologies worsen the very problems they are designed to solve. What is really needed is a different paradigm of Christian engagement with the world, one that Hunter calls "faithful presence"—an ideal of Christian practice that is not only individual but institutional; a model that plays out not only in all relationships but in our work and all spheres of social life. He offers real-life examples, large and small, of what can be accomplished through the practice of "faithful presence." Such practices will be more fruitful, Hunter argues, more exemplary, and more deeply transfiguring than any more overtly ambitious attempts can ever be.Written with keen insight, deep faith, and profound historical grasp, To Change the World will forever change the way Christians view and talk about their role in the modern world.

    Churches in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe are closing their doors at an accelerating rate.How will the church respond? In this short but sweeping manifesto, New York Times bestselling author and pastor Timothy Keller argues that this decline should prompt us to rethink evangelism from the ground up. Using the early church as our guide, churches and individual Christians must examine ourselves, our culture, and Scripture to work toward a new missionary encounter with Western culture that will make the gospel both attractive and credible to a new generation.

    This accessible biography chronicles Wilberforce's extraordinary role as a human rights activist, cultural reformer, and member of Parliament.At the center of this heroic life was a passionate twenty-year fight to abolish the British slave trade, a battle Wilberforce won in 1807, as well as efforts to abolish slavery itself in the British colonies, a victory achieved just three days before his death in 1833.Metaxas discovers in this unsung hero a man of whom it can truly be said: he changed the world. Before Wilberforce, few thought slavery was wrong. After Wilberforce, most societies in the world came to see it as a great moral wrong.To mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade, HarperSanFrancisco and Bristol Bay Productions have joined together to commemorate the life of William Wilberforce with the feature-length film Amazing Grace and this companion biography, which provides a fuller account of the amazing life of this great man than can be captured on film.This account of Wilberforce's life will help many become acquainted with an exceptional man who was a hero to Abraham Lincoln and an inspiration to the anti-slavery movement in America.