Church Life
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Becoming A Makeover Congregation
$21.18“There can be no resurrection without a death.”
This quote from H. George Anderson, former presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), speaks to the makeover approach to ministry that evolved during the course of more than nine years at a small, struggling congregation in Janesville, Iowa called Messiah Lutheran Church.
When Pastor Beth Olson arrived, members told her they weren’t sure from week to week if they would see each other in worship or if the church would even be open the following Sunday.
How did that same congregation, then, end up building the first new church and education unit in the Northwest Iowa Synod? How did it come to host an ELCA Division for Outreach regional workshop on ministry in action? How did this congregation, which had looked death in the eye, experience a resurrection few might have expected?
The answers are in Becoming a Makeover Congregation, a story that shows how things as diverse as glow sticks for Christmas Eve worship, jumper cables as an image for transformational ministry and a makeover scene from the Disney movie The Princess Diaries can bring about resurrection and renewal. Pastor Olson’s story will equip you to assemble your own makeover for mission and ministry toolkit so you too can celebrate the power of resurrection in your church.
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Moral Reflections On The Book Of Job Volume 5 Books 23-27
$39.95Gregory the Great was pope from 590 to 604, a time of great turmoil in Italy and in the western Roman Empire generally because of the barbarian invasions. Gregory’s experience as prefect of the city of Rome and as apocrisarius of Pope Pelagius fitted him admirably for the new challenges of the papacy. The Moral Reflections on the Book of Job were first given to the monks who accompanied Gregory to the embassy in Constantinople.
This fifth volume, containing books 23 through 27, provides commentary on six chapters of Job, from 32:1 through 37:24. The present volume covers the chapters of Job devoted to Elihu, the young man who derides the three friends who couldn’t find an answer to Job. In the main Gregory confines himself, with a few exceptions, to the allegorical moral exegesis, making Elihu a symbol of the arrogant person (sometimes the heretic, and sometimes the unworthy member of the church), and Job a type either of the church herself or of the holy preachers of sound doctrine.
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Becoming A Just Church
$19.99Foreword By Dennis Edwards
Introduction
Part 1: An Ecclesiology For Justice
1. Justice Isn’t An Outreach Strategy: A Way Of Life For The People Of God
2. Exiles In The Promised Land: The Church As Prophetic Alternative
3. Demonstrating Maana: The Church As A Parable Of God’s Intent
4. Gardeners Of Shalom: The Church For Flourishing And Transformation
Part 2: Justice In Our Congregational Life
5. Low Ground Church: Discerning Vision In A High Ground World
6. Recovering Kinship: Hospitality As Resistance
7. Discipling People Into Shalom Community
8. Worship: Questions That Drive How We Gather
Part 3: What’s Next?
9. Power: A Conversation With Juliet Liu And Brandon Green About The Lynchpin Of Justice
Epilogue: Commence Justice
Acknowledgments
NotesAdditional Info
Stop outsourcing justice!Many local churches don’t know what to do about justice. We tend to compartmentalize it as merely a strategy for outreach, and we often outsource it to parachurch justice ministries. While these organizations do good work, individual congregations are left disconnected from God’s just purposes in the world.
Adam Gustine calls the local church to be just and do justice. He provides a theological vision for our identity as a just people, where God’s character and the pursuit of shalom infuses every aspect of our congregational DNA. As we grow in becoming just, the church becomes a prophetic alternative to the broken systems of the world and a parable of God’s intentions for human flourishing and societal transformation. This renewed vision for the church leads us into cultivating a just life together-in community, discipleship, worship, and more-extending justice out into the world in concrete ways.
Let’s hold being and doing together, so we can become just, compassionate communities that restore shalom and bring hope to the world.
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Letters To The Church
$22.99Millions are satisfied to sit through hour-long, weekly religious services. Millions more have left the church, brokenhearted and cynical. But God is waking up His people–people who will risk everything and sacrifice anything to become the dynamic, powerful Church seen in Scripture.
We Are Church calls Christ-followers, young and old, to hold fast to their biblical roots while seeking radical change. Scripture promises an exuberant and unstoppable Church. That wondrous early church of Acts can be our reality today–but not until we devote ourselves to her original priorities.
Read this book and be challenged, guided, and encouraged to passionately pursue God’s magnificent and beautiful vision for His Church. Come and claim your part in this body of believers that is not just possible–it’s promised.
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Awesome Glory : Resurrection In Scripture, Liturgy, And Theology
$19.95In Awesome Glory, Abbot Jeremy Driscoll offers readers a deep dive into the mystery of the Resurrection of Jesus. Starting from the conviction that the liturgy is meant to be for Christians an immediate and effective contact with the Resurrection, this profound book draws out the riches of each celebration from the Paschal Triduum through Pentecost. Abbot Jeremy focuses particularly on the Scripture texts of Mass, but also on important rituals like the washing of feet, the lucernarium, and the baptism of catechumens.
Loaded with new insights and approaches, this book will be a welcome resource for homilists, pastors, liturgy directors, catechists, faith formation leaders, scholars, and any Christian adult who wants to better understand, teach, and live the startlingly good news of Christ’s Resurrection.
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Healing Racial Divides
$19.99Can the church help America emerge from its racist shadows empowered to heal racial divides? Church pastor and former police officer Terrell Carter says yes.
While our faith inarguably calls Christians to unity, the hard fact remains: we’re still tragically divided when it comes to race, even – and especially, many say — in our churches. Racism pervades our faith, our relationships, and our institutions in deep, often imperceptible ways. In Healing Racial Divides, Terrell Carter, a pastor, professor and former police officer takes us on a revelatory journey into the abyss of the racial divide and shows us how we’ve arrived at this divisive place. Understanding racism’s roots – and our place in it – we surface more committed and empowered to defeat racism once and for all.
Drawing from the Bible, scholarly research, and personal experience as a both a former police officer and a black pastor serving white congregations, Carter unpacks the deep roots of racism in America, how it continues to be perpetuated today, and practical strategies for racial reconciliation. Looking forward, he shapes a bold and faithful vision for healing racial division through multicultural communities focused on relationship, listening, and learning from each other.
With a pastor’s heart and an academic’s head, Carter invites us to look at where we’ve been-and where God calls us as spiritually mature Christians, seeking healing and true unity on earth.
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Neighborhood Church : Transforming Your Congregation Into A Powerhouse For
$22.00How can we embody the values of love, grace, and justice? As faith communities, how can our collective embodiment of these values shine even brighter? The answers to these questions must always unfold right here, right now, exactly where God has planted us. Neighborhood Churchacts as a resource to inspire churches to become a vibrant and engaging community partner with the families and neighborhoods living around them. The need for transformation is acute. Congregational decline continues across all mainline denominations. The abandonment of the church by the millennial generation is ubiquitous; no denomination is escaping it. This is, in part, a consequence of disconnection from our communities. Van Tatenhove and Mueller believe that, parish by parish, we can reverse this trend. They dare to have an audacious hope for local congregations not only as signs of God’s kingdom but as life-giving institutions that anchor their neighborhoods. Drawing on their combined sixty years of parish experience, wisdom from Asset-Based Community Development, and compelling case stories, Van Tatenhove and Mueller do more than just call us to incarnational ministry. They give practical, essential tools that lead to communal conversion, develop the DNA of listening, spur fruitful partnerships, promote integrated space, and sustain long-term visions. They believe these tools will spark true revival and unleash the power of incarnational ministry.
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Glad Obedience : Why And What We Sing
$22.00The Christian practice of hymn singing, says renowned biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann, is a countercultural act. It marks the Christian community as different from an unforgiving and often ungrateful culture. It is also, he adds, an “absurd enterprise” in the midst of the hyper-busy, market-driven society that surrounds us. In this helpful and engaging volume, Brueggemann discusses both why we sing and what we sing. The first part of the book examines the Psalms and what they can teach us about the reasons that corporate song is a part of the Christian tradition. The second part looks at fifteen popular hymns, including classic and contemporary ones such as “Blest Be the Ties That Binds,” “God’s Eye Is on the Sparrow,” “Once to Every Man and Nation,” “Someone Asked the Question,” and “We Are Marching in the Light of God,” and the reasons why they have caught our imagination.
“To know why we sing,” Brueggemann writes, “may bring us to a deeper delight in our singing and a strengthened resolve to sing without calculation before the God ‘who is enthroned on the praises of Israel’ (Ps. 22:3).
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Humilitas : A Lost Key To Life Love And Leadership
$24.99Humility, or holding power loosely for the sake of others, is sorely lacking in today’s world. Without it, many people fail to develop their true leadership potential and miss out on genuine fulfillment in their lives and their relationships. Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership shows how the virtue of humility can turn your strengths into true greatness in all areas of life. Through the lessons of history, business, and the social sciences, author John Dickson shows that humility is not low self-esteem, groveling, or losing our distinct gifts. Instead, humility both recognizes our inherent worth and seeks to use whatever power we have at our disposal on behalf of others. Some of the world’s most inspiring and influential players have been people of immense humility. The more we learn about humility, the more we understand how essential it is to a satisfying career and personal life. By embracing this virtue, we will transform for good the unique contributions we each make to the world.
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Church Forsaken : Practicing Presence In Neglected Neighborhoods
$24.99“There are no God-forsaken places, just church-forsaken places.” -Jon Fuller, OMF International
Jonathan Brooks was raised in the Englewood neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. As soon as he was able, he left the community and moved as far away as he could. But through a remarkable turn of events, he reluctantly returned and found himself not only back in Englewood but also serving as a pastor (“Pastah J”) and community leader.
In Church Forsaken, Brooks challenges local churches to rediscover that loving our neighbors means loving our neighborhoods. Unpacking the themes of Jeremiah 29, he shows how Christians can be fully present in local communities, building homes and planting gardens for the common good. His holistic vision and practical work offers good news for forgotten people and places. And community stakeholders and civic leaders will rediscover that churches are viable partners in community transformation in ways that they may never have considered.
God has always been at work in neglected neighborhoods. Join Pastah J on this journey and discover new hope for your community.
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Reciprocal Church : Becoming A Community Where Faith Flourishes Beyond High
$22.99Introduction: Reciprocal Church
Part 1: A Theological Vision For The Reciprocal Church
1. Eating Melon On Tuesdays: Young People And Faith
2. Galloping Mares: The Gospel Without Christ’s Church
3. A Vital Identity: God Gathers A People
4. A Vital Purpose: Christ Is Reconciling Relationships
5. A Vital Avenue: The Spirit Transforms You, Me, And UsPart 2: Values And Practices For Flourishing Communities
6. Tetherballs And Floodlights: Valuing Memory
7. The Oxpecker’s Gift: Valuing Mutuality
8. Seeing Beyond The Epidemic: Recognizing Potential
9. Moving Beyond The Epidemic: Valuing Contribution
10. Windmills Of Hope: Valuing MaturityEpilogue: Faith Flourishes With Practice
Acknowledgments
Discussion Questions
NotesAdditional Info
The church faces an unprecedented loss of rising generations. Young adults who were active and engaged in the local church are leaving the community behind after high school. What can we do? Responding to these concerning statistics, Sharon Galgay Ketcham reflects theologically on the church community and its role in forming faith. She exposes problems in the way leaders conceive of and teach about the relationship between individual faith and the local church, and offers fresh solutions in the form of values and practices that can shape a community into a place where faith will flourish in those both young and old.Add to cartin stock within 3-5 days of online purchase
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Welcoming Justice : Gods Movement Toward Beloved Community (Expanded)
$18.99We have seen progress in recent decades toward Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of beloved community. But this is not only because of the activism and sacrifice of a generation of civil rights leaders. It happened because God was on the move.
Historian and theologian Charles Marsh partners with veteran activist John Perkins to chronicle God’s vision for a more equitable and just world. Perkins reflects on his long ministry and identifies key themes and lessons he has learned, and Marsh highlights the legacy of Perkins’s work in American society. Together they show how abandoned places are being restored, divisions are being reconciled, and what individuals and communities are now doing to welcome peace and justice.
Now updated with a new preface to reflect on current social realities, this book reveals ongoing lessons for the continuing struggle for a just society. Come, discover your part in the beloved community. There is unfinished work still to do.
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