In recent years researchers in human personality have come to a rarely achieved near unanimous conclusion: human personality is structured around a very few major traits, probably five in number. These factors, sometimes called the Big Five and represented by the acronym OCEAN, are Openness to experience Conscientiousness Extroversion Agreeableness Neuroticism How does this Five-Factor Model fit with a Christian understanding of human nature? How does it compare or contrast with the way Jesus lived, taught and counseled? James Beck looks at prominent themes in the teaching and ministry of Jesus and how they relate to the five personality factors. Here is a study of the Christian implications of the new model--a study that will offer fresh insights for students, pastors and therapists alike.

Celebrate the 25th Anniversary of The Lion Storyteller Bible with this special edition. The Lion Storyteller Bible broke new ground in its presentation - both verbal and visual - of Bible stories and has been treasured by children of all ages. It has been immensely popular, with sales in the UK exceeding 130,000 copies and editions printed in more than 11 languages. Since The Lion Storyteller Bible was first published, Bob Hartman has established an international reputation as a storyteller and writer. This Bible integrates more than 70 Bible story retellings from the Old and New Testaments and also includes a useful appendix of Bob Hartman's hints and tips for storytelling. In 2008, newly commissioned illustrations throughout captured as much warmth and appeal as those in the first edition in 1995.

The general decline of American mainline Protestant churches today is well documented. Church redevelopment imagining and actualizing new life for dying churches is a productive and vital response to congregational decline, but it can be daunting. Here is guidebook for church leaders, to help them reinvigorate their churches with both practical advice and tested theory. A comprehensive case study of Beneficent Congregational Church, which successfully turned the tide and quadrupled its worship attendance, provides inspiration as well as concrete strategies for church redevelopment. The study indicates that successful and faithful church redevelopment involves a shift from a modern-patronage ministry model to a postmodern-plural ministry model. Building on current church redevelopment literature by bringing selected Biblical and theological texts into conversation with leadership concepts, systems theory, social sciences, and congregational studies, this book creates a multidisciplinary transformative conversation. The result is both strategic proposals for growing your church and a model for doing practical theology in your own ministry context. Dedicated, trained leadership in cooperation with the power of the Spirit can create the possibility of new life in dying congregations."

This vital revised and expanded update to How to Thrive in Associate Staff Ministry (Alban, 2000) provides guidance to the growing population of staff members employed by churches. Churches are expanding their staffs, but the turnover rate remains high, often due to stress, isolation, and conflict on the job. Lawson and Boersma address what it takes to thrive personally, professionally, and relationally within associate staff ministry. Based on updated research and interviews with over 600 veteran associate staff members from many different denominations, Lawson and Boersma describe the priorities, attitudes, and practices that can help associate staff members thrive in their ministry roles. They present, explain, and illustrate a four-part Model for Thriving in Associate Staff Ministry, a concrete framework that readers can use to help achieve satisfaction and balance in their own lives. In addition to addressing those in associate staff roles, the book also includes chapters to help supervising pastors and church boards support their associate staff members. Each chapter includes questions for personal reflection or discussion with others to help readers engage with the material and determine what steps they might take to improve their own experience in associate staff ministry."

Go to the right school. Become a doctor or a lawyer. Marry a nice Asian. These are some of the hopes of our Asian parents. Knowing that our parents have sacrificed for us, we want to honor their wishes. But we also want to serve Jesus, and sometimes that can seem to conflict with family expectations. Discovering our Asian identity in the midst of Western culture means learning to bridge these and other conflicting values. We need wise counsel on our parents' ways of loving us vocations that show respect for our parents and allow us to serve God the "model minority" myth and performance pressures marriage, singleness, and being male and female racial reconciliation spirituality and church experiences unique gifts Asians bring to Western culture This book, written by a team of Asian American student ministry workers who have been there, can serve as our guide on a difficult journey. The authors represent a variety of perspectives, including the immigrant experience of a Korean man, a third-generation Japanese-American's understanding of his parents' experience in the internment camps during World War II, and a Chinese American woman's struggle to communicate with her parents. Their accounts of humorous, frusrating and heartbreaking personal experiences (as well as stories from other Asian American students and adults) offer support and encouragement. And their ideas for living out the Christian faith between two cultures show us the way to wholeness.

A critical assessment of church planting strategies and practices, offering a biblical, theological and historical foundation for this component of mission. Attention is given to the postmodern and post-Christendom context for contemporary church planting. This is really a book on ecclesiology and mission from an Anabaptist perspective, using church planting as a way in to a range of issues.

In this book, Michael Reeves calls believers to see God as the object of their fear-a fear marked not by anxiety but by reverence and awe.

The essays in this volume stress the legitimacy and importance of the role of administering comfort and reassurance to the terminally ill. This book is a practical guide for caring for the dying and those they leave behind, written especially for the clergy. The book is divided into three sections: an overview of the pastoral role; death and dying; and loss and grief. Among the topics covered are community resources, interdisciplinary care skills; education and research; working with health care professionals; loss as an experience in living; family issues in coping with change and loss resulting from surgery and chronic illness; and issues and strategies in managing anticipatory grief and bereavement.

When you get involved with city ministry, you're in for some adventures--and you see God at work Randy and Tina White, with their two young sons, left suburbia to join believers living in a disadvantaged area of Fresno, California. Through their family's story you will learn more about God's heart for the city, meet some of the people who live there, and discover ways you might make a difference too. Discussion questions, twelve Bible studies on God and the city, and a list of "21 Things You Can Do to Love the City" will help you dig even further into the topic. And they makeJourney to the Center of the City an ideal book for small group discussion and action

Therapeutic counseling in a Christian context can be highly effective when it maintains narrowly focused goals in a time-limited setting. The details of this proven model of pastoral counseling are described in this practical guide.
This second edition of Strategic Pastoral Counseling has been thoroughly revised and includes two new chapters. Benner includes helpful case studies, a new appendix on contemporary ethical issues, and updated chapter bibliographies. His study will continue to serve clergy and students well as a valued practical handbook on pastoral care and counseling.