But are those a Christian’s only options? The Voting Booth presents a third path for a new generation of Christians seeking to love both God and their neighbor. Written as a fictional dialogue between Christian, a confused voter, and three spirits of cultural engagement—Exodus, Exile, and Incarnation—The Voting Booth addresses many of the questions being asked by those struggling to follow Christ in our post-Christian age like: -How do I respond to those who view Christian faith as oppressive? -Why has Christianity become so political? -What role does fear have in Christian cultural engagement? -How should I interact with neighbors of other faiths? -Have Christians lost the “Culture War”? -How should I think about voting as a Christian? -What is the role of the Church in the culture? With engaging writing and surprising twists, The Voting Booth will challenge your assumptions and leave you with a new way of imagining your place in the culture. What others are saying about "The Voting Booth" "As an immigrant-turned-citizen facing only my second chance to vote in a presidential election, I am troubled by the options presented. Opinions from Christians abound, complete with blogs and Bible verses, but no clear path emerges. Skye’s allegory tale succinctly— if also slightly simplistically— represents the two dominant paradigms of Christian response: the call to escape, and the call to engage. He then offers a third perspective rooted in the incarnation. While the tale stops short of instruction, it is abounding in wisdom. This is an accessible read that provides a thoughtful way to name and evaluate the subconscious grids that undergird our approach to political engagement or disengagement. Best of all, it offers us a way to reflect on our perspective, posture, and purpose in a Christ-shaped way." -Glenn Packiam, Pastor at New Life Downtown "Skye Jethani is one of the most clear-headed, sober voices writing on faith and culture today. The Voting Booth raises questions many Christians wrestle with and provides answers that challenge and delight. In a time of political unrest and cultural upheaval, we can't afford to ignore what this book has to say." - Jonathan Merritt, author of Jesus is Better Than You Imagined; contributing writer for The Atlantic “In a creative and compelling way, Skye Jethani has written yet another book that pushes the American church in the right direction. His uncanny ability to put his finger up to the wind and chart the right direction forward is a huge help to our community as we navigate the increasingly treacherous waters of the secular west.” - John Mark Comer, pastor for teaching and vision at Bridgetown Church and author of Loveology. "In The Voting Booth, Skye Jethani beautifully crafts a dialogue between ‘Christian' and three personified postures we can take toward our culture. Eye-opening and thought provoking, Skye clearly illuminates the dominant but destructive attitudes that have dominated the American church for the last 100 years, and then shines a light on a better way. Highly recommended!” - Phil Vischer, creator of VeggieTales, What’s In The Bible, and The Phil Vischer Podcast.

    

    The solutions presented are inspiring and highly practical. Best of all, the keys to fruitfulness shared are universal principles that work in the “real world.” These principles will help you multiply generations of disciples, wherever you find yourself!BECOME A REPRODUCER: • Don’t just make disciples. Learn to reproduce disciple-makers! • Gain an overview of the discipling process and how to move new believers to maturity and reproduction. • Grasp the keys to successful evangelism and multiplication in the context of a disciple-making team.

    Increasing numbers of us don't believe in God anymore. We don't expect miracles. We've grown up and left those fairytales behind, culturally and personally.Yet five hundred years ago the world was very much enchanted. It was a world where God existed and the devil was real. It was a world full of angels and demons. It was a world of holy wells and magical eels. But since the Protestant Reformation and the beginning of the Enlightenment, the world, in the West at least, has become increasingly disenchanted.While this might be taken as evidence of a crisis of belief, Richard Beck argues it's actually a crisis of attention. God hasn't gone anywhere, but we've lost our capacity to see God.The rising tide of disenchantment has profoundly changed our religious imaginations and led to a loss of the holy expectation that we can be interrupted by the sacred and divine. But it doesn't have to be this way. With attention and an intentional and cultivated capacity to experience God as a living, vital presence in our lives, Hunting Magic Eels, shows us, we can cultivate an enchanted faith in a skeptical age.

    But for those who know that Christ is coming to establish a new and perfect order, ours is not just a world to endure but a world to invade. Believers have not been stationed here on earth merely to subsist but to actively subvert the enemy’s attempts at blinding people in unbelief and burying them under heartbreaking loads of human need.The kingdom of God changes all that.Ed Stetzer’s Subversive Kingdom is a personal call for Christians to reorient their thinking and lifestyle to match what Jesus described of His people in Scripture, while teaming up with other believers through their churches to bring light into a dying and darkening culture. Stetzer uses the parables of Christ to unlock the “kingdom secrets” that bring this mysterious concept within understandable reach, while urging Christians to turn this knowledge into practical, everyday, ongoing missions designed to set people free from lives headed for hopelessness.

    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.

    

    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.

    But it's not cheap—true grace compels us to change. That’s where holiness comes in.Beloved writer, speaker, and bestselling coauthor of Wild and Free Jess Connolly will be the first to admit that not long ago, like many women, she grasped grace but she had forgotten holiness. Dance, Stand, Run charts her discovery that holiness was never meant to be a shaming reminder of what we “should” be doing, but rather a profound privilege of becoming more like Christ. That’s when we start to change the world, rather than being changed by it.Dance, Stand, Run is an invitation to the daughters of God to step into the movements of abundant life: dancing in grace, standing firm in holiness, and running on mission. Through story and study, Jess casts a fresh vision for how to live into your identity as a holy daughter of God, how to break free of cheap grace and empty rule-keeping, and finally, how to live out your holy influence with confidence before a watching world. Spoiler alert: it’s a beautiful thing.For anyone longing to take their place in what God is doing in the world, Dance, Stand, Run will rally your strength, refresh your purpose, and energize your faith in a God who calls us to be like Him.

    Where the world stresses the importance of success, Bird invites readers to embrace nine specific failures in the areas of our personal lives, our relationships, and the church. Why? Because what human wisdom deems indispensable is so often an impediment to our spiritual growth, and what it deems insignificant is so often essential to it.With compelling examples from the Bible and today, Bird paints an enticing picture of the counterintuitive, countercultural life that God wants for us. He helps readers delight in all of the ways that Jesus turned the world upside-down, allowing us to experience true freedom, not from our weaknesses but in the midst of them.

    This book helps readers match who they are--their unique spiritual gifts, passions, temperament, talents, and leadership style--with the ministry area for which God designed them. A practical guide, it takes dedicated Christians step by step through the process of reaching their full potential for Christ's kingdom. This new edition of Maximizing Your Effectiveness puts multiple tools, inventories, and worksheets in the hands of readers to empower them to minister according to God's unique design and purpose for their lives.

    Conference Theme: No Greater Love. Dr. Willard explains the importance of the Apostle Paul's teaching on love: "It is Paul who really helps us to understand the love of which Jesus and the New Testament speak. There is, needless to say, much confusion about love, and what Paul says about it, as well as his practice, can help us to get agape love—and therewith all the other 'loves' of the Greek and other languages—right." This paper is being sold on Kindle in order to fund ongoing work of the Dallas Willard family to continue his legacy through publishing his unpublished works and making his ideas accessible to the broadest possible audience.

    In eight stirring meditations, Darrell Johnson shows how the Lord's Prayer sums up the essence of Christian faith and, when prayed in faith, draws us into draws us into the Triune God's work of transforming the world. Darrell W. Johnson is Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A popular conference and retreat speaker, he has also served as the preaching pastor for a number of congregations in North America and the Philippines and Adjunct Professor of Preaching for the Doctor of Ministry program at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. His other books include Experiencing the Trinity and Discipleship on the Edge: An Expository Journey through the Book of Revelation.

    But how about a Christian worldlife? Got one of those? Leonard Sweet wants to show you the ins and outs of living an old-fashioned faith in these newfangled times. In his engaging, symphonic, thought-bytes style, Sweet invites you to . . . Mezuzah your inverse * Do dirt and do the dishes * Cycle to church Give history a shove * Cheer rivals from the bench * Dance the salsa SoulSalsa unpacks biblical faith in ways that can change how you live in the real world. You can be a man or woman who walks the ancient path of a disciple in the world of the future. Because the NEW future is NOW--and now is the time to practice the "17 Lifestyle Requirements for Membership in the Postmodern Body of Christ." It’s no longer enough to say "Say Amen, Somebody." It’s time to "Dance the Salsa, Everybody!"--in a culture that desperately needs to see your moves.

    According to a recent study by Ranier Research, 70 percent of youth leave church by the time they are 22 years old. Barna Group estimates that 80 percent of those reared in the church will be “disengaged” by the time they are 29 years old. Unlike earlier generations of church dropouts, these “leavers” are unlikely to seek out alternative forms of Christian community such as home churches and small groups. When they leave church, many leave the faith as well.Drawing on recent research and in-depth interviews with young leavers, Generation Ex-Christian will shine a light on this crisis and propose effective responses that go beyond slick services or edgy outreach. But it won’t be easy. Christianity is regarded with suspicion by the younger generation. Those who leave the faith are often downright cynical. To make matters worse, parents generally react poorly when their children go astray. Many sink into a defensive crouch or go on the attack, delivering homespun fire-and-brimstone sermons that further distance their grown children. Others give up completely or take up the spiritual-sounding “all we can do is pray” mantra without truly exploring creative ways to engage their children on matters of faith. Some turn to their churches for help, only to find that they frequently lack adequate resources to guide them. This is where Generation Ex-Christian will lend a hand. It will equip and inspire parents, church leaders, and everyday Christians to reawaken the prodigal's desire for God and set him or her back on the road to a dynamic faith. The heart of the book will be the raw profiles of real-world, young ex-Christians. No two leavers are identical, but upon close observation some categories emerge. The book will identify seven different kinds of leavers (the postmodern skeptic, the drifter, the neopagan, etc.) and offer practical advice for how to connect with each type. Shrewd tips will also intersperse the chapters alerting readers to opportunities for engagement, and to hidden landmines they must sidestep to effectively reach leavers.