Instead, God wants His church to function as a family—a group of real people who love each other and care for one another’s needs, no matter how messy.   Our culture is dying for the kind of community that only the church can provide—if we are living as God intended: as a family, protecting one another, extending grace, and loving unconditionally.   We are not called to be consumers who ask what the church can offer us. We are called to love deeply, fight fairly, and bring hope to a generation of people starving to belong to something greater than themselves. Welcome to the family. You belong here.

    The question is: what is discipling us?    The majority of Christians today are being discipled by popular media, flashy events, and folk theology because churches have neglected their responsibility to make disciples. But the church is not a secondary platform in the mission of God; it is the primary platform God uses to grow people into the image of Jesus. Therefore, as church leaders, it is our primary responsibility to establish environments and relationships where people can be trained, grow, and be sent as disciples.    There are three indispensable elements of discipleship:Learning to participate in the biblical story (the Bible)Growing in our confession of who God is and who we are (theology)Regularly participating in private and corporate intentional action (spiritual disciplines)Deep Discipleship equips churches to reclaim the responsibility of discipling people at any point on their journey.

    Today the church is awakening to the truth that ministry is not just the domain of clergy, but belongs to the entire body of Christ. God is moving her to complete her unfinished business of placing the ministry back in the hands of the people. Unfinished Business has played a pivotal part in helping the church reclaim ministry at the grassroots level. First published in 1990 as The New Reformation, it has become a classic resource for church life. Expanding on and updating the original material with fresh examples and references to eight key important movements, this new edition lays foundations for the church to move from: · Passive to active · Maintenance to mission · Clergy to people of God · Teacher/caregiver to equipping enabler Pointing us back to the church as an organism, not an institution, author Greg Ogden shows how each of us is called to help finish the Reformation’s unfinished business: expressing the priesthood of every believer practically in the church, the world, and all avenues of life.

    Respected author and theologian Scot McKnight and former Willow Creek member Laura Barringer wrote this book to paint a pathway forward for the church.We need a better way. The sad truth is that churches of all shapes and sizes are susceptible to abuses of power, sexual abuse, and spiritual abuse. Abuses occur most frequently when Christians neglect to create a culture that resists abuse and promotes healing, safety, and spiritual growth.How do we keep these devastating events from repeating themselves? We need a map to get us from where we are today to where we ought to be as the body of Christ. That map is in a mysterious and beautiful little Hebrew word in Scripture that we translate "good," the word tov.In this book, McKnight and Barringer explore the concept of tov--unpacking its richness and how it can help Christians and churches rise up to fulfill their true calling as imitators of Jesus.

    In many churches, the primary objective of the church discipleship of people into mature followers of Jesus has been outsourced to programs and large-scale efforts to train and teach. But is that happening? Are people growing in spiritual depth and missional determination?Twenty-five years ago, the leaders of Randy Pope s rapidly growing church took serious stock of their own spiritual development and realized all of them had benefitted from a personal discipleship relationship that had helped them grow in their faith and discover where God was calling them to service. As a church, they decided to make personal discipleship their do-or-die aim: applying one person s real life to another s to accomplish something far bigger than that single life. Perimeter calls their approach life-on-life missional discipleship and Insourcing tells their story.Randy Pope writes for church leaders who recognize the value of discipleship and need practical ideas for reorienting church ministries around personal discipleship. Readers will be encouraged that a wide scale personal discipleship program is attainable for any church."

    One of the best known classics on the work of the Christian ministry.

    We continue to watch consistent church attendance shrink, and our desire to reach the lost is infected with a need for self-validation by growing our numbers at any cost. If we believe that God wants his church to grow, where do we go from here? What is the future of the church?Drawing from his 20 years and 15,000 hours of consulting, author Will Mancini shares with pastors and ministry leaders the single most important insight he has learned about church growth. With plenty of salient stories and based solidly on the disciple-making methods found in Scripture, Future Church exposes the church's greatest challenge today, and offers 7 transforming laws of real church growth so that we can faithfully and joyfully fulfill Jesus's Great Commission.

    The Pastor’s Kid Dad may be following God’s call, but the Pastor’s kids (PKs) are just following mom and dad. Often to devastating results. Barnabas Piper – son of Pastor and bestselling author John Piper – has experienced the challenges of being a PK first-hand. With empathy, humor, and personal stories, he addresses the pervasive assumptions, identity issues and accelerated scrutiny PKs face.  But more than just stating the problems – he shares the one thing a PK needs above all else (as do their pastor/father and church) is to live in true freedom and wholeness.

    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.

    At any given time there are thousands of churches seeking a lead pastor.  While a great resume, a friendly smile and a memorable sermon will convince many, what should local congregations focus on to find a new shepherd?  Chris Brauns believes to find a great preacher the search must focus on God's Word and how the candidate relates to it and preaches from it. This book is a must have resource for search committees and church leaders addressing the needs of churches in the transition of pastoral leadership.  It assists by approaching their responsibilities in a biblical way and providing critical help in key practical matters.  From the initial formation of a search committee to the final terms of agreement with the new pastor, Brauns shows you how to "major on the majors" and away from subjective approaches of evaluating candidates and their sermons.  Great also for pastors or pastoral students to know how to prepare, the book includes such practical tools as interview questions for candidates and the top mistakes search committees make.

    Andy writes,            “Our goal is to create weekend experiences so compelling and helpful that     even the most skeptical individuals in our community would walk away with      every intention of returning the following week…with a friend!”Later he says,            “I want people to fall in love with the Author of Scripture. And while we can’t            make anyone fall in love, we can certainly arrange a date.”  For the first time, Andy explains his strategy for preaching and programming to “dual audiences”: mature believers and cynical unbelievers. He argues that preaching to dual audiences doesn’t require communicators to “dumb down” the content. According to Stanley, it’s all in the approach.You’ll be introduced to North Point's spiritual formation model: The Five Faith Catalysts. Leaders responsible for ministry programing and production will no doubt love Andy’s discussion of the three essential ingredients for creating irresistible environments.  For pastors willing to tackle the challenge of transitioning a local congregation, Andy includes a section entitled: Becoming Deep and Wide.If your team is more concerned with who you are reaching than who you are keeping, Deep & Wide will be more than a book you read; it will be a resource you come back to over and over!“Couldn't be prouder of my son, Andy. And I couldn't be more excited about the content of this book. I wish a resource like this existed when I was starting out in ministry.”-          Dr. Charles Stanley, Founder, In Touch Ministries“Deep and Wide pulls back the curtain for all of us to see what is required behind the scenes to build a prevailing church.  I was both challenged and inspired by this book.”-          Bill Hybels, author of Just Walk Across the Room“The most common question I get from pastors is, ‘How do I get the people in my church to be open to change?’ From now on my answer will be, ‘Read Deep and Wide by Andy Stanley’.  Thanks Andy.  Great book!”-          Craig Groeschel, Pastor, LifeChurch.TV, author, It: How Churches and Leaders Can Get It and Keep It“No one has given me more practical handles for establishing a focused vision than Andy Stanley. Deep and Wide is a rich resource to help all of us stay intentional about the main thing - building a church that reaches people who are far from God.”-          Steven Furtick, Lead Pastor, Elevation Church

    Biblical Church Revitalization calls us to an intentional commitment to church revitalization in the face of dying and divided churches.

    And yet, there is a surprising lack of resources written specifically for youth workers focused on viewing all aspects of youth ministry through a gospel-focused lens. Featuring contributions from a host of experienced youth workers from a wide variety of churches, this how-to manual offers guidance related to every facet of youth ministry, from planning short-term mission trips to working with parents. Theologically rooted yet eminently practical, this handbook will equip youth leaders to effectively shepherd the young people under their care--training them to live faithfully in their homes, churches, and schools.

    What a gift!”—John Ortberg, bestselling author Every church is driven by something. Tradition, finances, programs, personalities, events, seekers, and even buildings can each be the controlling force in a church. But Rick Warren believes that in order for a church to be healthy it must become a purpose-driven church, built around the five New Testament purposes given to the church by Jesus. “The issue is church health, not church growth!” declares Warren. “If your church is healthy, growth will occur naturally. Healthy, consistent growth is the result of balancing the five biblical purposes of the church.” Rick Warren shares a proven five-part strategy that will enable your church to grow • warmer through fellowship • deeper through discipleship • stronger through worship • broader through ministry • larger through evangelism The Purpose Driven® Church shifts the focus away from church building programs to emphasizing a people-building process. Warren says, “If you will concentrate on building people, God will build the church.”

    It doesn’t matter whether a church is alive and growing or barely surviving on life support. God has a plan for it. It doesn’t matter whether a church is facing financial challenges, internal divisions, or strife among its leaders. God has a plan for it. God is able to deal with any problem a church will ever face--as long as his people earnestly seek him. As the pastor of The Brooklyn Tabernacle, Cymbala knows that God’s blessing and grace is available to us today just as much as it was in the early church, when thousands of people became believers despite the fact that the church lacked everything we consider vital: church buildings, seminaries, printed materials, sound systems, choirs, and money. None of these things mattered. What mattered was that God’s hand was on the church, working through his people to build the kingdom. Then, as now, God chose the church to manifest his presence to the world. In this companion book to The Life God Blesses, Cymbala describes the kind of church God wants to bless and use. Based on the Word of God and personal experience, The Church God Blesses describes the key elements found in a vitally alive church and offers church leaders and individual Christians a fresh and invigorating look at what God intends the church to be. The church God blesses is not necessarily the largest, newest, or loudest church in town. Instead, it’s a place where believers: * Receive solid spiritual nourishment *Can trust in God’s protection *Engage in vital praise and worship *Become effective in ministry *Learn that confession of sin is the channel to God’s power