Category: Church Life
Showing 1–12 of 44 resultsSorted by latest
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One Body One Spirit
$19.99Add to cartThere is a massive deficit in our churches, parishes, and fellowships; an entire category of people is missing
According to the CDC, one in four people in the United States lives with a disability, yet many of our churches don’t resemble this reality. Attempts to welcome those with a disability are often implemented by well-meaning but ill-informed people. The results can lead to those with disabilities feeling excluded and isolated from the family of God.
One Body, One Spirit gives eyes to the able-bodied to see the challenges experienced by those with disabilities:
Physical barriers to places of worship, classrooms, and small group settings leave people outside the gathered family of God.Emotional barriers, like fear and prejudice, preclude them from using their spiritual gifts.
How can church communities, both on the congregational and individual level, address these issues? Paul Pettit and Jason Epps provide a roadmap by looking at a biblically informed solution. They survey disability in the Old and New Testaments, provide a vision for full integration, outline how to conduct a disability audit, and offer a five-step plan for how to change the culture of your church.
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Soul Winning Church
$16.99Add to cartYour church’s sermons often include a call to evangelize. You’ve held evangelism training events. You give out invites to your Christmas and Easter services. So… where are all the new Christians? Is your church actually reaching the lost with the gospel?
For many of us, despite having the best intentions, our churches struggle to reach out with the gospel effectively. J.A. Medders and Dr. Doug Logan, Jr. have decades of experience in leading churches and mentoring pastors, and here they outline six principles for cultivating a genuine evangelistic culture throughout your church.
Includes case studies from a variety of different cultures and contexts to give you practical ideas for implementing these six principles.
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Honor : Loving Your Church By Building One Another Up
$16.99Add to cartA right understanding of honor is vital to healthy churches. It’s a word that’s mentioned hundreds of times throughout the Bible. But what does honor really look like for us in everyday church life? Who should we honor and how?
Adam Ramsey brings a fresh understanding of true honor in our churches. He paints a vision of an honoring church that captivates your mind and heart–a church that shines brightly in the community because of the way its members value and respect each other and their leaders and, above all else, bring honor to God.
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Serve : Loving Your Church With Your Heart, Time And Gifts
$16.99Add to cartThis book looks at the gospel of Jesus and the example of Jesus to motivate us to serve our church family sacrificially with our energy, time and gifts.
This is a great book for Christians who have grown weary over time, those who need help in identifying their gifts and gaining the confidence to offer them, and church members who are lacking the motivation to get started.
As we look to the example of Jesus, who “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45), we will be excited and equipped to use what God has given us to serve others with a renewed sense of purpose and joy. We will also see that we do not need to have any particularly impressive gifts or emulate anyone else in order to answer Jesus’ call to love one another.
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Pivot : The Priorities, Practices, And Powers That Can Transform Your Churc
$22.99Add to cartA practical guide to help you build a culture in your church or organization that resists abuse and cultivates goodness.
After the release of their groundbreaking book, A Church Called Tov, which recorded the stories of abuse and toxic church cultures at some of the most prominent churches in the United States, New Testament scholar and blogger for Christianity Today Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer heard from a flood of people who had experienced similar instances of abuse. After all they’ve seen and heard, they still believe it’s possible for church cultures to be transformed from toxic to tov-from oppressive to good.
In Pivot, Scot and Laura help churches to implement practices,establish priorities, and cultivate the Kingdom Gospel-centered qualities that form goodness cultures. Readers will find answers to the four most common questions people have about culture transformation:
How can I transform the culture in my church or organization to make it tov?
I believe my workplace has unhealthy values. How do I initiate change?
How do I unleash a culture of goodness in my ministry?
I’m not in a position of church leadership. What are some red flags that indicate a toxic culture, and what can I do if I see them?
Pivot also includes the following practical features:
*The “Tov tool,” a survey to help you discern your organization’s culture and to promote spiritual conversations
*A “getting to work” section at the end of each chapter with questions and next steps for application
Transformation is never easy. But for the sake of the next generation, we must do it.
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Welcome : Loving Your Church By Making Space For Everyone
$16.99Add to cartWalking into church can be intimidating, whether for the first time or after a period of absence, whether you are a non-believer or a believer. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your church was a place where everyone received a warm welcome? A place where newcomers can quickly feel at home and where non-believers receive the welcome of God’s people alongside the welcome of Jesus?
This warm, practical book by Jen Oshman explores what the Bible says to help readers discover how to make space for others, however different they are to them, in their church and in their lives. She also gives practical advice, drawing on good practice from churches around the world in a range of situations. In a world of division, individualism and isolation, readers will see that their church can witness to Christ by being a place of welcome, community and connection.
Chapters include how Jesus welcomes us, the impact of welcoming in the early church, the effect of being siblings in Christ, how to welcome beyond Sunday, helpful systems and strategies, how our joy in Christ causes us to be outward-looking, and mirroring the glorious vision set out in Revelation.
Whether you’re a pastor looking to encourage your congregation to welcome others or a church member wanting to see unbelievers come to faith and help everyone feel part of the family, this book is for you.
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Gather : Loving Your Church As You Celebrate Christ Together
$16.99Add to cartWhy do we meet on Sundays?
Now that technology allows us to access services remotely, many see little need to meet face to face every week. Others think that because we have a personal relationship with Jesus as Christians, church is an optional add-on. For some, they know deep down that there is a reason why gathering on Sundays is important, but they are weary and don’t feel excited about it. So what is the purpose of corporate worship, and what is our role in it?
In this book, Tony Merida highlights how in-person Sunday gatherings are central to God’s plans and to our faith and joy. He reminds believers of their privileges as citizens of heaven, members of God’s family and stones in God’s temple.
Readers will see how each part of a church service (preaching, praying, singing, baptism, Lord’s Supper and building each other up in conversations) are ways to enjoy and share God’s grace, and are therefore essential for spiritual endurance. You’ll also be reminded that your presence in corporate worship matters because you have a part to play in encouraging your brothers and sisters and spurring them to love and good deeds:
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)
Read this book to renew your understanding and enjoyment of going to church and to be excited by the ways in which your presence can encourage others.
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Belong : Loving Your Church By Reflecting Christ To One Another
$16.99Add to cartAuthor Barnabas Piper states in the first chapter of his book:
“We are looking for something personal, something deeply meaningful, something with which we can identify. And this book is an invitation to find that in the church, because God wants us to …Part of God’s perfect strategy is offering hurting, tired, worn out, needy sinners like you and me a place to belong in … A place in which to encounter the profound, transformative, healing, restoring grace of Jesus Christ.”
This book explores how you can help to create a church where everybody feels at home: a place where fellow believers build genuine, honest, meaningful Christian relationships and enjoy deep fellowship as a community of believers.
You may be a new believer and wonder what it means to belong to a church; you may be reluctant to commit to your church because of past experiences; you may have recently relocated and want to find a church where you feel at home; or you may love your church and desire to commit to it more deeply and serve it more fully. Whatever the case, this book will help you to see that belonging to a church is a good gift from God, the outworking of our identity as brothers and sisters in Christ, and worth your time, love and commitment.
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Gods Vision For The Church
$14.99Add to cartIn this compelling look at God’s vision and design for the body of Christ, internationally renowned Bible teacher Derek Prince describes the original blueprint for the church: loved, redeemed, transformed, and called. Discover deeper meaning through the pictures of God’s church from Ephesians, including the assembly, the body of Christ, the workmanship, the family, the temple, the bride, and the army. Explore the daily lifestyle of the local church as well as the future of all God’s people. Highlights include:
*The powerful, productive New Testament life
*God’s program of transformation
*Our place in God’s exciting community
*True fellowship among believers
*Our role in fulfilling the Great CommissionWe can be infused with a new sense of power and expectation as we learn what it means to be a vital member of the body of Christ. And we can help fulfill God’s vision for the church by becoming dynamic ambassadors of His message to a lost world.
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Post Quarantine Church
$12.99Add to cartA trustworthy and respected guide for pastors and church leadership in the post-quarantine world, providing hope and vision for the future of your congregation.
From thousands of surveys of church leaders and in-person consultations, Thom Rainer and his Church Answers team have gathered the essential wisdom you will need to face the challenges and opportunities that the quarantine crisis creates for the local church, including:
New and better ways to lead the gathered churchA wide-open door for growing the digital churchA moment to rethink the facilitiesNew strategies for church growth . . . and much more!
This book is, in effect, your personal church consultant, helping you plan and prepare for the future. In the midst of heartbreak, tragedy, and struggle due to Covid-19, here’s hope, wisdom, encouragement and vision.
This book is valuable for those looking for local church and pastor resources to enhance church leadership, grow your church, and serve digital and online church communities in the post-quarantine world.
As a former pastor and founder of Church Answers, Thom S. Rainer is intimately familiar with the ever-present demands that pastors face. He has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of the local church.
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Our Fathers House
$14.99Add to cartMost people visit a church for the first time either by invitation or reputation. Many books have been written on the subject of personal evangelism and the importance of being a bringer. This book however, explores the power of reputation specifically, God’s reputation as upheld and reflected in a church’s culture. Based on the story of the Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon and how her initial encounter with his kingdom left her breathless and astounded, this book explores the profound effect a church’s culture can have on the heart of a seeker as they pursue rumors of King Jesus and His Kingdom. It warns that Kingdom-culture doesn’t happen by chance, but only as every member of the King’s household lays down their own comfortable and familiar culture to surrender instead to the common culture of Heaven. This book has been written to inspire every Christian to vigilantly uphold Heaven’s culture when living, loving and serving in the Father’s House their local church. It implores us all not to waste another minute in engaging our God-given gifts and talents to create Heaven on Earth so that the Kingdom of God might be revealed in all of its glory to a world that is in desperate need of its wisdom, power and atmosphere. Only then, having tasted Heaven, will lost people truly desire to seek out this Kingdom s magnificent King!
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New Apostolic Reformation
$19.99Add to cartThis critique provides a framework for understanding and interpreting the widespread but little-known New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement. As the authors state in the preface: “We write this book with two major goals in mind. First, to give people an idea of the sheer size and reach of the NAR movement. And second, to systematize its key teachings and practices and evaluate them on the basis of Scripture and careful reasoning – . In our judgment, the NAR perspective crosses these boundaries [that is, certain broad parameters, revealed in Scripture and practiced in the historical orthodox church], and it does so in part because of flawed theology rooted in a flawed understanding of Scripture. We wish to warn readers about a possible confusion: Some critics have linked the NAR movement with mainstream Pentecostalism and charismatics. We do not do this. In fact, it is our contention that the NAR movement deviates from classical Pentecostal and charismatic teachings. This movement has emerged out of independent charismatic churches and, thus, has gained a foothold in many of those churches in varying degrees.”