Church Life
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Dear Unity : Overdue Love Letters To Heal A Divided Church
$18.99It began with the breaking of the bread and became a Movement. These are the love letters that tell the story.
During the global Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in January 2024, Australian entrepreneur Philip Ryall and his wife Jennie invited more than sixty church leaders from various Christian backgrounds and denominations into their home for what they hope will be the first of many Unity Meals around the world.
Like yeast leavening a loaf of bread, out of that meal grew the impetus for the book Dear Unity, a collection of thoughts from over thirty prominent Christian leaders around the world. This powerful compilation of personal reflections, teachings, back stories, and cross-denominational letters brings a whole new perspective on the way we view our fellow believers. What they all share in common is a desire to see the rich diversity of the church become one body in Christ, as Jesus so wanted us to be.
Dear Unity is both a book and a movement centered on building a culture of honor between brothers and sisters in Christ through shared experiences and overdue expressions of love. Starting with influential figures within the global church, it’s designed to involve everyone from the leaders to the layperson, to move beyond any past walls of division to embrace what unites us at our core.
Among the authors are Randy Clark, president of Global Awakening; Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, capuchin friar and preacher to the papal household; Darlene Zschech, singer-songwriter and lead pastor of Hope Unlimited Church; Francis Chan, founder of Crazy Love Ministries; Nicky Gumbel, pioneer of Alpha; Heidi Baker, Mozambique missionary and CEO of Iris Global; Bo Sanchez, founder of Light of Jesus Family; Dr Jerry Pillay, general secretary of the World Council of Churches; and Bill Johnson, senior pastor of Bethel Church in California.
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They Like Jesus But Not The Church
$19.99Many people today, especially among emerging generations, don’t resonate with the church and organized Christianity. Some are leaving the church and others were never part of the church in the first place. Sometimes it’s because of misperceptions about the church. Yet often they are still spiritually open and fascinated with Jesus. This is a ministry resource book exploring six of the most common objects and misunderstandings emerging generations have about the church and Christianity. The objections come from conversations and interviews the church has had with unchurched twenty and thirty-somethings at coffee houses. Each chapter raises the objection using a conversational approach, provides the biblical answers to that objection, gives examples of how churches are addressing this objection, and concludes with follow-through projection suggestions, discussion questions, and resource listings.
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Multigenerational Church Crisis
$24.99Harness the strengths of every generation to create a church that endures
– open the lines of communication
– appreciate the experiences that shaped each generation in your church
– unite in one mission to impact your community and the worldIt may seem hard for younger Christians to believe that people over 50 were raised during an era when 90 percent of Americans identified as Christian. These older believers were once part of a majority group that understood the mission of the church was to take control of our culture to halt its evils. At the same time, Christians under 50 have lived their entire lives perceiving themselves as a minority that needs to make credible their faith to a secular, pluralistic culture.
These distinct experiences and perceptions have a profound impact on the priorities different generations have for church ministry. It’s no wonder that younger and older believers don’t always see eye to eye! But imagine what could be accomplished in the name of Christ if we could better understand each other and turn that understanding into shared purpose and aligned priorities?
Backed by thorough research, this eminently practical and hopeful book from pastor and scholar Bryan Chapell shows you how to open the lines of communication, appreciate the experiences that shaped each generation in your church, and unite in one mission to impact your community and the world.
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Gospel Driven Church
$24.99Many evangelical churches face the problem of the open “back door”–even as new people arrive, older members are leaving, looking for something else. Combined with this problem is the discipleship deficit, the difficult truth that most evangelicals are not reaching the unchurched at the rates they think they are. In fact, many of the metrics that we often “count” in the church to highlight success really don’t tell us the full story of a church’s spiritual state. Things like attendance, decisions, dollars, and experiences can tell us something about a church, but not everything.
To cultivate a spiritually healthy church we need a shift in our metrics–a “grace-shift” that prioritizes the work of God in the lives of people over numbers and dollars. Are people growing in their esteem for Jesus? Is there a dogged devotion to the Bible as the ultimate authority for life? Is there a growing interest in theology and doctrine? A discernible spirit of repentance? And perhaps most importantly, is there evident love for God and for our neighbors in the congregation?
Leading a church culture to shift from numerical success to the metrics of grace can be costly, but leaders who have conviction, courage, and commitment can lead while avoiding some of the landmines that often destroy churches. Wilson includes diagnostic questions that will help leaders measure–and lead team transparency in measuring as a group–the relative spiritual health of their church, as well as a practical prescriptive plan for implementing this metric-measuring strategy without becoming legalistic.
Most attractional church models can lean heavily on making changes to the weekend worship gatherings. And while some of these changes can be good, thriving grace-focused churches are driven by a commitment to the gospel, allowing the gospel to inform and shape the worship service and the various ministries of the church.
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Reason For Church
$22.99Rediscover the goodness and beauty of the Body of Christ.
The evangelical church is hemorrhaging. Over 40 million Americans have dechurched in the last 25 years alone, and multiple generations have been raised to believe the most spiritual thing they can do is follow God by following their heart – right out of the church. Yet, this shift is happening right as society is hitting record levels of loneliness, stress, and anxiety. In The Reason for Church, pastor Brad Edwards connects the dots of our current church crisis and provides compelling reasons to come back.
In part 1, Edwards shows how individualistic beliefs make church implausible and compromise our spiritual formation:
*Marketplace logic and consumeristic approaches to discipleship
*Intuitional spirituality and therapy speak
*Social media’s distortion of what is true, good, and beautiful
*Performative politics and culture wars
*Virtuous victimhood, the decline of trust, and the rise of powerThese chapters show why individualism won’t satisfy and can’t provide the refuge it promises.
In part 2, Edwards uses personal examples, church history, non-Western expressions of faith, and Scripture to show how the church is our existentially satisfying alternative to individualism. Equipped with an institutionally robust vision, we will rediscover the church as God’s spiritual greenhouse where soul-tired sojourners and lonely exiles are restored and repurposed for life in the world.
The Reason for Church offers an honest-yet-hopeful vision for church as a necessary institution. With radical individualism tearing us apart, we need compelling reasons to fall back in love with Christ’s bride, now more than ever.
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Care : Loving Your Church By Walking Through Life Together
$16.99Jesus commands his disciples to love one another and promises that “by this everyone will know that you are my disciples” (John 13:35). But what does genuine care for those in our church family look like?
This warm, practical book by Dwayne Bond goes beyond specific pastoral-care roles and responsibilities, and explores how all church members can love and care for one another in the rhythms of ordinary life.
In response to Jesus’ great love for us and the example he set, readers will explore how to honor one another, serve one another and bear each other’s burdens, as they seek to walk together as a family in the midst of a divided culture. They will see that following Jesus’ command to love one another deeply and practically will bring great joy as well as commending the gospel to those around them, as people see lives changed from the inside out.
This wonderful resource is not only a useful tool for church care teams but for every church member as each is encouraged to play his or her part in making people feel cared for and connected to the church family.
There are discussion questions with action steps at the end of every chapter, making this book ideal to read as a small group or even as a whole church. Bulk deals and free downloadable worksheets are available.
This is one of the books in the new Love Your Church series, which is being written by a collection of Bible teachers from Acts29. It is designed to inspire every church member to love their church in practical ways by casting a biblical vision of what it means to be a local community of God’s family. The series will explore what it means to belong, to welcome, to gather, to care, to serve and to honor one another, and to witness and send people out to spread the gospel. Choose the resources that cover the areas most helpful to your particular church-family needs.
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Worship Old And New (Revised)
$22.99A reexamination of the actual practice of worship that goes beyond the merely academic to provide a practical perspective through the eyes of the worship leader and the congregation.
The most effective approach to worship is one that blends historical and traditional practices with contemporary elements. Worship Old and New is a scholarly, up-to-date, and thought-provoking resource for anyone serious about exploring worship and how to bring about a worship renewal in the church.
Now reformatted and updated for an easier, more logical approach to worship theology, this revised edition is divided into four major sections, addressing:
*The biblical foundation of worship–found in the Old and New Testaments as well as the early Christian movement.
*The biblical theology of worship–how worship is an enactment of the Gospel.
*A brief history of worship–from ancient and medieval, to twentieth-century renewal.
*An overview of how worship is practiced–from content and structure, to the role of music and art.
New information is incorporated into each section to give you a better grasp of the biblical themes of worship, a deeper understanding of Old Testament customs, and a solid grounding in modern-day renewal movements.
This book is ideal for ministerial, classroom, and congregational settings.
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Building Belonging : The Church’s Call To Build Community And House Our Nei
$25.00Join the church movement reshaping our neighborhoods-embracing love and creating community to house our neighbors and recognize our shared humanity.
In many neighborhoods, soaring housing costs have created an alarming wave of instability, leaving congregations situated at the heart of communities grappling with housing insecurity. Simultaneously, societal divisions across ideologies, racial lines, class disparities, and diverse perspectives have eroded the fabric of these communities, leaving a void in shared connections.
Churches, amid declining membership and dwindling engagement, have an opportunity to provide a key role in these changing landscapes. In Building Belonging, John Cleghorn, a pastor from Charlotte, North Carolina-a city where prosperity and poverty uncomfortably coexist-shows how numerous congregations across the United States are leading the charge, embracing innovative approaches to ministry that leverage their resources to become havens of both welcome and shelter.
By examining the theological and sociological dimensions propelling congregations toward a radical transformation of their material and relational landscapes, this book weaves together narratives, insights, and experiences from diverse congregations at the forefront of this movement. Readers will be inspired to look at the unfolding narrative of unaffordable housing in a new way and be inspired to shape their ministry to harness all available resources to foster access and justice by housing neighbors. Written from the heart of a pastor who is deeply engaged in a church’s yearslong housing journey, this book does not stop at simply showing these challenges. Cleghorn also provides a roadmap for communities to initiate transformative processes, leveraging their unique abilities and resources to tackle significant local issues.
Proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to Easter’s Home at Caldwell Presbyterian Church.
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Becoming A Future Ready Church
$22.99Are Church Leaders Missing the Generational Handoff? There’s Still Hope.
*Are we building institutions that will meaningfully serve the next generation of believers and their leaders?
*How does a church thrive in a culture where we have to earn credibility?
*How do we create a sense of belonging to the body of Christ and a strong sense of identity for the next generation?
Becoming a Future-Ready Church is a blueprint to guide you through eight critical shifts to help lead your church into the future with wisdom and hope. It describes several major converging trends that will greatly impact the church in America over the next few decades: the Great Resignation of Boomer leaders from churches, the shrinking percentage of Christians in America, and the change in felt needs among rising generations shaped heavily by anxiety, skepticism, and fragmentation.
Missiologist and pastor Daniel Yang, religion journalist Adelle Banks, and church researcher Warren Bird have come together in Becoming a Future-Ready Church to help church leaders evaluate whether their ministries are entrenched in strategies that worked well in the past but need to be adapted for the future. By helping us ask better questions about the issues and needs facing the church, they reveal practical ways in which the next generation of church leaders can gain a sturdier foothold as they navigate into the future.
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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
$16.99Your 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
$16.99A 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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