Three complete sessions for Lent, Holy Week and Easter, together with a wealth of activities to extend the range of excitingly messy activities for your Messy Church - creative prayers, games, food crafts, and ideas for organising an Easter trail. Craft templates and a session planning grid are included. Messy Church is a way of being church, for families and others. It is Christ-centred, for all ages, and based on creativity, hospitality and celebration. It is primarily designed for people who don't already belong to another form of church - no matter how 'messy' they feel their lives are. Research has shown that 40% of Messy Church families have had little or no prior contact with church and 61% of Messy Church families wouldn't otherwise be at church. BRF supports a global network of around 4,000 Messy Churches in six continents.

The most popular modern-English Bible translation in a convenient, inexpensive edition for personal or ministry use featuring a military camo design.

The NIV Holy Bible, Compact is the perfect traveling companion for those serving in the military or anyone looking for a camo-print Bible. Its affordable price and compact size make it ideal for sharing God's Word with others. Expertly designed for the New International Version (NIV) text, Zondervan's exclusive NIV Comfort Print(R) typeface delivers a smooth reading experience.

Features:

• Full text of the accurate, readable, and clear New International Version (NIV)
• Military camo print popular on military uniforms and items
• Double-column format
• Exclusive Zondervan NIV Comfort Print(R) typeface
• 6.75-point print size

Religion today comes in many forms. The arrival of the twenty-first century brought with it a wave of religious tolerance and indifference unlike any before. As Christians struggle to unfold the truth tangled by modernity and postmodernity, many choose to radically and disrespectfully oppose other religions or passively accept their possible validity for the sake of tolerance. The effects of religious pluralism in our world today make it increasingly difficult for the life-giving message of Christ to reach the hearts of those who need to hear it. How should Christians attempt to tell the Gospel story in a world that believes no one religion is right? How should Christians live and speak in the crowded marketplace of world religions? With Cords of Love presents Christians with an introduction to religious pluralism and offers a sound, loving response drawn from the essential doctrinal features of the Wesleyan theological tradition. This thorough examination discusses the historical, philosophical, and cultural factors that have contributed to religious pluralism and explores the major responses currently embraced in some Christian circles. In addition to this historical overview, it also outlines ways the Church can bear a hopeful, effective, and intelligible witness for the message of Christ. Using Paul's response to the Athenians in the Book of Acts, With Cords of Love compels us to approach people from other religions with both respect and compassion, urging us to allow God to direct and guide our words and actions as we help to complete the work He's already begun in their hearts.

What are the theological foundations of Christian ministry? What should a vital Christian ministry look like in the world today? Teacher and veteran of urban ministry Bryan Stone addresses these important questions in an engaging and challenging book. Compassionate Ministry explores systematically the relationship between Christian doctrines of God, church, and human existence, and the focus and meaning of ministry today. It offers a solid introduction to the theology of ministry through an approach rooted in the compassion of God, which Stone shows is evident throughout the scriptures and made real in the incarnation and ministry of Jesus. Compassionate Ministry locates a primary focus in the experience of suffering and poverty which marks daily life for the majority of people today. Stone builds continually on this insight, drawing out the dimensions of a humanizing ministry that participates in restoring the "image of God" in which all have been created: an image of freedom, humanity, community. Understanding God as all-compassionate, and Jesus as the Compassion of God, this book provides a model of a compassionate church as a "liberating community: " people who, knowing what they believe, work and worship together in the service of humanizing praxis in their own community, and in the world at large. Finally, this ministry call for "compassionate evangelism" which proceeds itself from the community, as a more holistic and historical approach than current consensus might suggest.