When families experience bereavement and loss, it can be hard for the wider church community to know how best to support them. In this book, four experienced authors and practitioners offer intergenerational approaches for engaging with questions of death and life in a safe and supportive setting. The material guides church communities who are dealing with the death of loved ones and other situations of loss in talking together as a church family, in applying the Christian message of the resurrection in challenging situations, and in listening to each other and developing their own insights. The opening chapters offer an easy-to-read overview of issues of death and dying, and why this is such an important topic for churches. Part 2 consists of a series of five short theological reflections, exploring traditional images and the language that Christians have always used when talking about death. The five Messy Church sessions in Part 3 continue these themes, each offering material for a two-hour all-age Messy Church service followed by a meal together.

An easy-to-learn, easy-to-use tool for in-depth Bible study With a patented reference system beloved and acclaimed for more than five generations, the Thompson (R) Chain-Reference (R) Bible is unparalleled in its ability to enrich personal devotions, topical study, and sermon preparation. This easy-to-learn, easy-to-use system enables you to see the breadth of Scripture's teachings on thousands of topics. With over 100,000 references listed in the Bible's margins, covering over 8,000 topics, the chain-reference system is an ideal tool for comprehensive topical study. You can also expand your Bible study with even more tools, including biographical sketches, an archeological supplement, and outlines of each book of the Bible. The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible allows Scripture to interpret itself without commentaries. Features: Full text of the New King James Version (NKJV) Easy to understand Chain-Reference System with over 100,000 references in the margins References cover over 8,000 topics, each with its own pilot number for exhaustive topical study Complete alphabetical and numerical indices listing all 8,000 topics with corresponding pilot numbers and Bible references for comprehensive topical study Bible study aids such as biographical sketches of the most prominent people in the Bible, an archeological supplement, glossary, concordance, Bible harmonies, and outlines of each book of the Bible Key Verses and Key Thoughts provide basic information you can use to develop your own study Verse Analysis shows the topics and themes of every verse and provides easy reference to other verses with the same topics or themes 16-page full-color map section Words of Christ in red Satin ribbon marker Presentation page for gift-giving Cover lies flat when open Thumb indexed tabs to help you find each book of the Bible 8.3-point type size

There are many things that make up a great leader. The ability to motivate, to see the big picture, to delegate. But perhaps just as important, if not more so, is the leader's emotional intelligence (EQ). How we feel impacts how we lead, and how those we lead feel about themselves when they're around us affects how well they follow our leadership. It follows then that if we want to be the most effective leaders, we must be emotionally mature.

In this practical book, church leadership expert Aubrey Malphurs shows church and ministry leaders how to assess, understand, and improve both their own EQ and that of their followers, so that they can inspire the very best in their churches and organizations.

Only you can do what He sent you to do. Throughout the Bible, God sent people like Joseph, Deborah, David, Jesus and Paul to accomplish His purposes on the earth. You, too, were born with a divine and distinct assignment to make a difference. Yet most of us have trouble recognizing what that actually is--let alone living it out day-to-day. Filled with practical insights and tangible takeaways, this book will help you discern how the Lord has uniquely equipped you--and for what purpose. You'll also learn how to master and maximize your gifts and discover how to joyfully carry out His call on your life each and every day. You were created to become a force of change in the lives of others--to reform, transform, ignite hope, solve problems, and bring healing and deliverance. It's time to find and fulfill the reason you are here. "A masterpiece of a book. LaJun and Valora will teach, train and equip you to hear from heaven and do the will of God for your life. This is a must-read."--JOE JOE DAWSON, ROAR Apostolic Network "The insight and strategies you will receive in this book are tools that will change your life."--ANDREW TOWE, author, The Triple Threat Anointing

This book outlines digital discipleship principles for building an online community and provides practical instruction for how to do it no matter how big or small a local church may be. There are more than 2.3 billion professing Christians in the world and more and more new churches launching globally, yet statistics show that in-person church attendance is declining or plateauing in every nation. Although social technology has been around for more than two decades, church leaders have long bristled at the idea of church online, ranking it as the last concern on their minds in Barna's 2020 state of the church report published February 3, 2020. And then, three weeks later, COVID-19 closed the doors of every church on earth and suddenly forced them entirely online. Nona Jones, a globally acclaimed thought leader on leveraging technology for ministry, had been leading a movement and sounding the alarm for several years to make digital discipleship a central part of every church's ministry approach. In From Social Media to Social Ministry, she outlines her digital discipleship principles and provides practical instruction for how to do it no matter how big or small a local church may be. There are plenty of books to help churches build a social media strategy, but this is the first book of its kind that goes beyond digital marketing to digital ministry. Readers will leave this book with: Clarity on what discipleship truly is The data that underscores the urgency for digital discipleship Understanding of the resources required to do it well A step-by-step guide on how to implement digital discipleship into ministry plans Knowledge of the differences among and purposes of the most popular social platforms, as well as the tools best positioned for digital ministry

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.

A major and continuing problem for theological education and the practice of Christian ministry is how to best achieve a genuine integration between theory and practice, theology and experience. The key claim of this book is that theological reflection, beginning with experience, is a method of integration and that pastoral supervision is a vehicle for theological reflection. In establishing this claim, John Paver demonstrates that the model and method have potential to be a catalyst for reform within theological colleges and seminaries. Three different theological reflection models are developed and critiqued in this book, and their capacity to be developed in particular contexts is explored. This book does not stop at ministry, cultural and personal integration, but is bold enough to make recommendations for structural integration within the theological institution.

"Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor" represents Leonardo Boff's most systematic effort to date to link the spirit of liberation theology with the urgent challenge of ecology. Focusing on the threatened Amazon of his native Brazil, Boff traces the ties that bind the fate of the rain forests with the fate of the Indians and the poor of the land. In this book, readers will find the keys to a new, liberating faith.

Learn to apply the lessons found in the Bible to the struggles of day-to-day life Pastoral Care from the Pulpit connects the head, heart, and soul issues of everyday life, presenting a pastoral care approach to preaching and teaching practical Christianity. This powerful, progressive book gives hope to anyone struggling to survive and thrive as a spiritual person in difficult times. The author, a practicing psychotherapist who is also an ordained minister, explores Biblical stories and passages to find practical motivations for living as a Christian, offering encouragement to those suffering from a lack of purpose, identity, or acceptance. Pastoral Care from the Pulpit makes creative use of counseling and pastoral care principles to serve as a handbook for spiritual survival against life's everyday challenges. The book is an outgrowth of sermons delivered by the author at First Christian Church in Rome, Georgia, creative explorations of the Bible that blend theology with preaching to remain relevant to real life. It can be read a chapter at a time for daily affirmation, or taught one chapter a week as a class study; questions are provided at the end of each chapter to encourage reflection. Pastoral Care from the Pulpit provides positive principles for living and powerful encouragements for transformation during life's journey. The book includes: The Transforming Power of Touch (Matthew 8:40-48) Seeing Possibilities and Potentialities in Your Identity (Mark 10:46-52) Does God Put You to the Test or Take the Test for You? (Genesis 22:1-18) A Not-So-Modest Proposal: Follow Jesus (Matthew 4:18-23) Wandering into Far Countries: With Whom Are You Traveling? (Luke 15:11-31) Finding Freedom from False Assumptions (John 14:25-27) Saying YES to the Way of Jesus (John 10:10) Drinking Out of a Glass with a Hole in the Bottom (Jeremiah 2:1-13) and much more! Pastoral Care from the Pulpit is an invaluable aid for ministers, chaplains, and pastoral counselors working with mainstream Christian denominations.

Christianity Today Book Award-Marriage and Family Half of Christian high school students walk away from their faith after graduation. But parental involvement is the most influential predictor of a child's spirituality throughout their lives. How do we parent our kids in ways that lead to lasting faith? Sarah Cowan Johnson unpacks how parents can have an active discipleship role in forming their children's faith, with age-appropriate insights and strategies for different developmental stages. She shows how we can identify God moments, facilitate spiritual encounters, clarify emerging beliefs, and encourage new faith habits in our children. Filled with exercises and activities for families to do together, this handbook is an essential resource for discipling children with confidence and creativity.

In this hardcover edition, long-time author and teacher John Piper draws from the preaching ministry of Jonathan Edwards to encourage pastors and leaders to gladly preach the cross, for the glory of God, to a people hungry for God and his word. Includes four extra chapters not included in the original edition.

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

Learn to balance the professional demands of your ministry with your personal needs No amount of research, study, or planning can prepare pastoral care givers for the stress placed on their personal lives by the demands of their ministries. But Grief, Loss, and Death: The Shadow Side of Ministry can help anyone involved in pastoral counseling close the gap between their professional and personal needs, encouraging them to use the stress, loss, and grief that accompanies pastoral care giving as opportunities to humanize their ministries and reaffirm their faith. This unique book offers comfort and solace to those in the chaplaincy who are torn between professional obligations and the limits and boundaries of the shadow side of their ministrythe human side. The shadow side of ministry shoots a bullet through the brain that does not kill or prevent thinking or feeling. But the bullet creates a hole, a long, hollow, empty wound that thinking and feeling must somehow bypass. The wounded minister does not recover the previous self, cannot remember what the old self thought or felt. Like a veteran of a secret war, there may be a new life after the shameful wound, but no public way to heal. But there is a public way of speaking about it and this may help relieve some of the shame and some of the self-blaming. Author Halbert Weidner Grief, Loss, and Death: The Shadow Side of Ministry can help in your search for the answers to questions you may have already found yourself asking, including: Do I prefer co-workers or friends? How did I lose focus of my original goals? How did I become isolated? How can I share authority without giving up responsibility? How do I cope when family issues arise? The book also addresses issues of illness, death and suicide, funerals, the confrontation between joy and sorrow, and how life's stages are often like the Stations of the Cross. Grief, Loss, and Death: The Shadow Side of Ministry is help against despair. Newcomers to the profession can use the book as a guide to the difficulties that lie ahead, and experienced pastoral care givers can employ it as a catalogue to be consulted when all hope seems lost.

An easy-to-learn, easy-to-use tool for in-depth Bible study

With a patented reference system beloved and acclaimed for more than five generations, the Thompson® Chain-Reference® Bible is unparalleled in its ability to enrich personal devotions, topical study, and sermon preparation. This easy-to-learn, easy-to-use system enables you to see the breadth of Scripture’s teachings on thousands of topics. With over 100,000 references listed in the Bible’s margins, covering over 8,000 topics, the chain-reference system is an ideal tool for comprehensive topical study. You can also expand your Bible study with even more tools, including biographical sketches, an archeological supplement, and outlines of each book of the Bible. The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible allows Scripture to interpret itself without commentaries.

Features:

• Full text of the English Standard Version (ESV)
• Easy to understand Chain-Reference System with over 100,000 references in the margins
• References cover over 8,000 topics, each with its own pilot number for exhaustive topical study
• Complete alphabetical and numerical indices listing all 8,000 topics with corresponding pilot numbers and Bible references for comprehensive topical study
• Bible study aids such as biographical sketches of the most prominent people in the Bible, an archeological supplement, glossary, concordance, Bible harmonies, and outlines of each book of the Bible
• Key Verses and Key Thoughts provide basic information you can use to develop your own study
• Verse Analysis shows the topics and themes of every verse and provides easy reference to other verses with the same topics or themes
• 16-page full-color map section
• Words of Christ in red
• Presentation page for gift-giving
• Satin ribbon marker
• 8.3-point type size

This challenging book sets out what is involved in being a Christian minister - its joys and difficulties, its responsibilities and privilege. It discusses the call to and the work of ministry; the breadth and nature of the task. How to Be a Church Minister will prove to be immensely useful across a wide spectrum of church traditions, both to those already in ministry and to those contemplating the vocation.

Window on the World is your ticket to travel around the world! If you appreciate Operation World as an adult, your kids will love this invaluable and age-appropriate prayer resource that develops cultural, political, and geographical awareness through a Christian lens. Find out how God is changing the lives of families everywhere through prayer--from the frozen Arctic to the hottest desert, on the highest mountains and in crowded cities. Window on the World brings alive the culture, history, and traditions of all sorts of different people. With "Fact Files" and "Do You Know?" features, each section brings you information, true stories, maps, and easy-to-use prayer points that take you into homes around the world. See how children live, what they like to do, where they go to school, what they eat and wear, and what they hope and dream. This revised edition includes new entries for more countries and people groups, with updated information and prayer points from the team at Operation World. It will draw a new generation into learning about the world, reaching out to people, and praying for those who have never heard about Jesus. Through Window on the World, young people and adults alike can discover and pray for the peoples of the world.

By 2030, 20% of the people living in the United States will be age 65 or older, with unique spiritual needs that can affect their physical and mental well-being. This book answers the critical need for a ministry that doesn't center primarily on youth and families in its outreach, instead presenting a step-by-step guide to developing a ministry for the aged that is focused on the needs and resources of each congregation. This program has been used effectively with nearly 50 congregations, both large and small, to create a focused older adult ministry. No two congregations are alike. The resources, perspectives, and skills of each congregation are different, as are the needs of its members. This book provides a framework for use by planning groups within communities of any religious tradition. The book presents a process that includes essential questions that allow planning groups to develop answers that fit the needs, cultural, history, and structure of their individual congregations. The book is divided into three sections: "The Fundamentals"-defining your audience, your mission, and the skills and existing programs that can be brought to the planning process "Programming Possibilities"-spiritual needs based on the aging process, continued learning for older adults, opportunities to serve and be served, providing quality pastoral care, and community building "Putting it All Together"-deciding on a direction, using desired outcomes for evaluation, establishing target dates, and ongoing evaluation This book also includes forms and charts to help in the planning process. The book is an invaluable resource for clergy, ministry committees and planning groups, and staff persons responsible for older adult ministries.

Understand the basic practical aspects of pastoral careand make your visit to the sick meaningful for both of you! Training Guide for Visiting the Sick: More Than a Social Call is a useful handbook from a Christian perspective that provides the common sense and not-so-common answers to your questions on how best to minister to the sick. Drawing on his three decades of experience as a bedside hospital chaplain, the author explains appropriate and inappropriate behaviors and suggests things to say (or not to say) to truly make your next visit fruitful for you and the patient. More than simply an educational tool, this guidebook provides clergy and Christian laypeople with spiritual explanations and straightforward strategies to not only comfort the patient but also foster the sense of joy and accomplishment in oneself. Training Guide for Visiting the Sick: More Than a Social Call teaches you to glean a positive experience from a difficult task, the visit to the sick. The author shares his insights learned in his lengthy and distinguished career in this instructional guidebook. Honest and compassionate in its portrayal of the sick and dying, the book prepares the reader spiritually, emotionally, and even physically for the challenge of the visit while focusing on the distress and the needs of the patient. At times stating practical common sense, other times shining an insightful light on the less physical aspects of the visit, this educational handbook is invaluable for all who minister, or wish to minister, to the sick. Training Guide for Visiting the Sick: More Than a Social Call discusses: Jesus' Eleventh CommandmentTo Love One Another how to prepare yourself spiritually and emotionally for the visit the hospital patient's world explanations of patients' possible emotional, financial, family, and spiritual distress do's and don'ts to note before and during a visit to the patient's room the special needs of shut-ins ministering to the dying ministering to difficult patients ministering to Alzheimer's or comatose patients Training Guide for Visiting the Sick: More Than a Social Call is a practical educational guide for pastors, supervisors in clinical pastoral education programs, CPE students, college and seminary students in courses in ministry to the sick, police and fire department chaplains, and family and friends of hospitalized, nursing home, and assisted living patients/residents.

Understand the basic practical aspects of pastoral careand make your visit to the sick meaningful for both of you! Training Guide for Visiting the Sick: More Than a Social Call is a useful handbook from a Christian perspective that provides the common sense and not-so-common answers to your questions on how best to minister to the sick. Drawing on his three decades of experience as a bedside hospital chaplain, the author explains appropriate and inappropriate behaviors and suggests things to say (or not to say) to truly make your next visit fruitful for you and the patient. More than simply an educational tool, this guidebook provides clergy and Christian laypeople with spiritual explanations and straightforward strategies to not only comfort the patient but also foster the sense of joy and accomplishment in oneself. Training Guide for Visiting the Sick: More Than a Social Call teaches you to glean a positive experience from a difficult task, the visit to the sick. The author shares his insights learned in his lengthy and distinguished career in this instructional guidebook. Honest and compassionate in its portrayal of the sick and dying, the book prepares the reader spiritually, emotionally, and even physically for the challenge of the visit while focusing on the distress and the needs of the patient. At times stating practical common sense, other times shining an insightful light on the less physical aspects of the visit, this educational handbook is invaluable for all who minister, or wish to minister, to the sick. Training Guide for Visiting the Sick: More Than a Social Call discusses: Jesus' Eleventh CommandmentTo Love One Another how to prepare yourself spiritually and emotionally for the visit the hospital patient's world explanations of patients' possible emotional, financial, family, and spiritual distress do's and don'ts to note before and during a visit to the patient's room the special needs of shut-ins ministering to the dying ministering to difficult patients ministering to Alzheimer's or comatose patients Training Guide for Visiting the Sick: More Than a Social Call is a practical educational guide for pastors, supervisors in clinical pastoral education programs, CPE students, college and seminary students in courses in ministry to the sick, police and fire department chaplains, and family and friends of hospitalized, nursing home, and assisted living patients/residents.