Acts of caring and compassion can make all the difference in a grieving child's life. Adults can often worry about saying and doing the right thing, too often giving children quick answers instead of the support they really need.Widely-recognized grief specialist Harold Ivan Smith explains that quick answers are not what children need when they are grieving. They need support, and most of all they need to be allowed to grieve-for as long as it takes.With an ABC-like approach, Smith offers insights and activities for the parent, teacher, or friend-anyone that loves a child and wants to offer his or her support. This new and revised edition of When a Child You Love is Grieving will help ensure that the child is receiving the healthy and necessary outlets during the loss of a loved one.

While praying for his community on the Island of Iona, the Celtic monk St. Columba described his experience as a thin place- a location where heaven and earth seemed only thinly separated.In the same way, God's kingdom is being realized here on earth with stories of restoration and redemption. Our God moved into the neighborhood, seeking to invite us into his story of reconciliation, and commission us to missionally engage our neighborhoods with the good news of the kingdom.Joining the concepts of monasticism and mission, author Jon Huckins will walk you through six postures of missional formation: listening, submerging, inviting, contending, imagining, and entrusting. As you begin to employ these postures, become apprentices of Jesus who are committed to living in and experiencing the thin places.Through Thin Places, create a fertile soil to commune with God, live in deep community with others, and extend the good news of the kingdom in your local contexts.

Homosexuality, social drinking, and politics . . .Why is it so hard to talk about these topics and others like them in the church? What keeps us from having open and honest conversations about complex and controversial issues? The silence in the pews about these matters can be deafening. Often members say little, fearing disagreement and rebuttal, others strongly assert half-truths and biases. Nothing gets truly discussed, and many, especially the youth, become discouraged and leave.A Charitable Discourse insightfully explores why this happens, looking closely at the ways people avoid and prevent authentic dialog, from labeling and grandstanding to religious abuse. Seven controversial issues are discussed with understanding, sincerity, and compassion.

Everyone has gifts and talents, but do you know what

gift is the foundation of your God-given purpose

in life?

In Know Your Ministry: Spiritual Gifts for Every

Believer, renowned Bible teacher Marilyn Hickey presents

an enlightening overview of the seven foundational gifts

of the Holy Spirit from Romans 12 and shows you how to

discover your specific foundational gift.

Through Marilyn's personal and ministry examples,

biblical illustrations, and practical application, you will

discover the one gift that you identify with most closely

and through which you will obtain the most success.

That gift whether it is prophecy, serving, teaching,

exhortation, giving, organization, or mercy is your

foundational gift.

Once you have identified your core gift, you will see how

it relates to your other abilities and how it flows throughout

all your spiritual activity in the body of Christ.

Pastor's wife, Kirstie Donovan, lives life in a fishbowl, so when she hops on the back of a bright pink motorcycle, tongues start to wag at the conservative, century-old First Independent Christian Community Church of Eels Falls. Kirstie loves roaring down a road less traveled by most women over forty, but she's not just riding her bike for the fun of it. Kirstie has a ministry. However, certain church members have secrets to hide, and when God uses Kirstie's ministry to fill the pews with leather-clad, tattooed bikers, those secrets could be exposed...and some will stop at nothing to hide the truth. Join Kirstie and her motorcycle "gang" - two church matrons and a mouthy, gum-smacking non-church member - as they discover that road-toughened bikers are quite capable of ministering to others, and faith is fortified in the most unexpected ways.