In a world with ever-increasing access to knowledge, we can still fall short of understanding the basics. If we lack the ability to create lasting relationships or to leave some things in our past, we can find ourselves struggling to live lives of satisfaction. If we aren't content within ourselves, how can we fully contribute to anyone else? The question we must ask ourselves is, "What's holding us back?" The answers are found not in ourselves, but in our Creator.

In "Building the Body of Christ," author LaDell Farrar shows us how to take charge of our life's most common components. You can learn to create relationships that will encourage meaningful and unbreakable love. Farrar helps you understand how communication and prayer can give you the power to heal your mind of past hurts and failures, allowing you to seek your life's purpose. Through Farrar's biblically based lessons, you may gain a greater understanding and appreciation of how Christ's death was meant to bring all of these topics together to gain peace through understanding and acceptance.

Relationships are about connecting, associating, and being involved with others. "Building the Body of Christ" seeks to help you develop the characteristics necessary for an effective and successful relationship and a better life.

Since it was published in 1983, the first edition of the original Twelve Keys to an Effective Church has benefited thousands of congregations around the world. The thoroughly revised and updated Twelve Keys Leaders' Guide, designed to accompany Twelve Keys to an Effective Church, offers leaders an indispensable, step-by-step resource for creating and implementing their long-range plans. It clearly shows how to examine a church's strengths and move the congregation toward action, accomplishment, and achievement. This valuable guide thoroughly explains the basic principles of the planning process and gives helpful insights into the dynamics of memory, change, conflict, and hope in congregations. You will discover possibilities to build the momentum, deepen the resources, and advance the strengths of your congregation. This important resource can also be used to help build an effective, successful business, develop a strong, healthy non-profit grouping, advance an effective, healthy college or university, and create a strong, healthy family.

Fighting crime by helping criminals and their families. Read five true stories of criminals who are Heart and Soul Survivors. The best way to fight crime is to improve the community. The quality of a community is seen in how it treats its marginalized people. Statistics show that the percentage of marginalized adults in custody is considerably higher than the percentage of their representation in the overall population. Marginalized people include the poor, the mentally ill, the learning disabled, and drug addicts. Warehousing these people is a community's shame. This book is urging a ministry involving volunteers working with criminals and their families. It will provide you with the tools necessary to help some people and thereby reduce crime. Chaplain Elsey writes from his experience and the knowledge gained working with hundreds of these families. Review This book provides the reader with an insightful look into the lives and challenges of criminals, the impact on both themselves and society, and the need for change within our current judicial system. Written from a theological perspective, Dr. Elsey offers the reader a proactive approach in ways to support either themselves, or others, in achieving change and improving outcomes. From heartfelt and moving true life stories, to individual support plans and an inventory for change, Dr. Elsey shares astute observations and insights, encouraging us all to find our own heart and soul Truly engaging and thought provoking and a must read for those interested in understanding and impacting the human condition. By P. Tanner B.Ed. This book as well as Dr Elsey's first book, Angels from Hell, may be purchased from his website -criminalsfamilies.com

Bring the 'passion' narrative alive with 'Parish Passion Play', which is suitable for production by anyone with little or no acting experience. Ideally suited for use in a parish church, the play is based upon the chronology presented by Professor Colin J. Humphreys in his book 'The Mystery of the Last Supper'.

An honest look at grief and fears, faith and hope. Combining personal narrative, sound theology, and beautiful writing, this is a book for anyone who has loved and lost. On November 3, 2020, Tim and Aileen Challies received the shocking news that their son Nick had died. A twenty-year-old student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, he had been participating in a school activity with his fiancee, sister, and friends, when he fell unconscious and collapsed to the ground. Neither students nor a passing doctor nor paramedics were able to revive him. His parents received the news at their home in Toronto and immediately departed for Louisville to be together as a family. While on the plane, Tim, an author and blogger, began to process his loss through writing. In Seasons of Sorrow, Tim shares real-time reflections from the first year of grief-through the seasons from fall to summer-introducing readers to what he describes as the "ministry of sorrow." Seasons of Sorrow will benefit both those that are working through sorrow or those comforting others: * See how God is sovereign over loss and that he is good in loss * Discover how you can pass through times of grief while keeping your faith * Learn how biblical doctrine can work itself out even in life's most difficult situations * Understand how it is possible to love God more after loss than you loved him before

Is God a delusion? Are science and Christian faith incompatible? Ten scientists tell their stories. There is a popular myth at large in both modern society and in many churches. According to this myth science and Christianity have been engaged in a long battle over the centuries. For many secularists this means that we must embrace science and reject religion, whilst for some Christians it means the exact opposite. But are science and Christian faith really in a conflict? In this book ten respected scientists share their life stories and their reflections on science and faith. What led them to become scientists? Why did they embrace Christianity? And how do they relate their religious beliefs to the science that they do in the lab? The stories that they tell help us to see that when it comes to answering some of 'life's big questions' we do well to listen for the insights from both science and faith. Contributors include: Dr Francis Collins, Professor Alister McGrath, Dr Ard Louis, Dr Jennifer Wiseman, Professor Bill Newsome, Rev Dr John Polkinghorn, Rev Dr Alasdair Coles, Dr Deborah B. Haarsma, Professor Rosalind Picard, Professor John Bryant. 'The level of human insight matching scientific expertise in these chapters is high, and they have left me feeling that here are folk with whom, as a mere theologian, I would love to spend some time. I hope other readers will enjoy this set of testimonies as much as I have done.' - Professor J. I. Packer, Regent College, Vancouver, Canada 'Just the book to give to anyone who thinks science disproves religion. Powerful testimonies from ten distinguished scientists reveal why their faith in God enhances their research. A very worthwhile read!' - Professor Gordon Wenham, Trinity College, Bristol, UK 'These short, readable accounts by ten scientists are a pleasure to read and an inspiration to anyone who seeks to integrate Christian belief and science. Each one is a specialist in a different scientific discipline, and they tell very different life stories, yet they all affirm the Christian privilege of scientific discovery and understanding.' - Professor Keith Fox, School of Biological Sciences, University of Southampton, and Chair of Christians in Science 'Brilliantly demonstrates that science and Christianity are not enemies but perfectly compatible.' - Dr Krish Kandiah, Evangelical Alliance

In Faith Formation in a Secular Age, the first book in his Ministry in a Secular Age trilogy, Andrew Root offered an alternative take on the issue of youth drifting away from the church and articulated how faith can be formed in our secular age. In The Pastor in a Secular Age, Root explores how this secular age has impacted the identity and practice of the pastor, obscuring his or her core vocation: to call and assist others into the experience of ministry. Using examples of pastors throughout history--from Augustine and Jonathan Edwards to Martin Luther King Jr. and Nadia Bolz-Weber--Root shows how pastors have both perpetuated and responded to our secular age. Root turns to Old Testament texts and to the theology of Robert Jenson to explain how pastors can regain the important role of attending to people's experiences of divine action, offering a new vision for pastoral ministry today.

From 1824 to 1843 Newman was an active clergyman of the Church of England; during this time, he entered the pulpit about 1,270 times. Newman published 217 of the sermons which he wrote during these years; a further 246 sermons survive in manuscript in the Archives of the Birmingham Oratory, some only as fragments but the majority as full texts. These sermons will be published in a series of five volumes, the aim being to transcribe them accurately, with sufficient editorial apparatus for the theological development within them to be understood, and their historical situation to be clear. The forty-three sermons contained in Volume I reveal Newman's attitude to his pastoral charge, his theology of liturgy based on the Book of Common Prayer; his gradual acceptance of the doctrine of baptismal regeneration as a substitute for his earlier belief in conversion as understood by the Evangelicals; the eventual supremacy of the Eucharist in his own spiritual life; his growing reserve about preaching on the Atonement; his faith in the divinity of Christ the Mediator; and finally, his understanding of the Church as the remedial and mediatorial kingdom of Christ on earth.