As the world around us is changing, our methods also need to adapt in order to fulfill the unchanging vision of reaching the lost. Innovations in Missions provides outstanding opportunities to solve the great challenges of ministry in this new Century. This book is not an all-or-nothing approach to being innovative in ministry. It offers what has worked in other areas and lets the reader choose what might be a possibility for their church or ministry. It will provide insight, encouragement and hope to those who are critically looking at the world and considering the problems that must be addressed. Missionaries, mission executives, mission pastors and mission committees wanting to adapt effective strategies in order to stay current with global changes will benefit greatly from this book.

God is at work in the city. And he invites his people to join him. But the city is not merely a mission field for Christians to target. The city is also the environment where Christians are discipled and lives are forged into the image of Jesus. Urban ministry veteran Randy White shows how God transforms you when you answer God's call to the city. Urban life peels away your sin and self-deception and challenges your unexamined assumptions about privilege, race, class and power. Experiential discipleship moves you from abstract theory to hands-on learning and on-the-ground action, revolutionizing your perspective and making a difference in local neighborhoods and beyond. Passionate and practical, White's vivid narratives of experiencing God in the city show you how your spiritual health is intertwined with the health of the metropolis. Seek the welfare of the city, and both you and the city will be transformed.

ABOUT THE BOOK: The Tommie Scott Story is a true story-a true love story-but not of the usual variety. This is a story of a gangbanger, drug dealer, and "hit man" who worked his way through the juvenile reform system and into a California state prison by age twenty. It's the story of an angry young criminal with no remorse and no hope. And it's here-in the depths of hopeless darkness-that this story begins again. It begins again with a humble, gray-haired man who was not ashamed to be a servant and to share the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes. It begins again with a new birth-a spiritual rebirth into God's family through Jesus Christ. And it continues today with a repentant and joyful servant-a dedicated soldier for Christ-whose true story affirms God's Word that says, ..". neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38 NIV). "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10 NIV). **** ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tommie Scott is former gang member and now born-again believer in Jesus Christ. He is an author, advocate for at-risk youth, a chaplain for the Las Vegas Community Gang Task Force, and a dedicated witness and soldier for Christ. Tommie is a native of Southern California. He grew up in poverty and was introduced to drugs, alcohol, and gangs as a pre-teen. The juvenile justice system, and later the California Department of Corrections, became his home. By God's grace, Tommie was introduced to Jesus Christ through a faithful Christian prison ministry. Just like Paul's dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus, God changed Tommie's heart and life forever during a prison Bible study. Tommie is now living and doing good works in Christ in Las Vegas, Nevada, with his wife, Rache't, and their five children.

Who gets to narrate the world? The late Robert Webber believed this question to be the most pressing issue of our time. Christianity in America, he preached, will not survive if Christians are not rooted in and informed by the uniquely Christian story that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the burden of Webber's final book, Who Gets to Narrate the World?: Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals. Convinced that American evangelicals are facing the demise of their entire way of life and faith, Webber challenges his readers to rise up and engage both the external and internal challenges confronting them today. This means that Christians must repent of their cultural accommodation and reclaim the unique story--the Christian story--that God has given them both to proclaim and to live.

In her inspiring true story of her walk of faith, Eileen shares a candid glimpse into a God guided journey as she and Alan, her husband, transformed by a powerful conversion, left everything behind and travelled to India with their young family as missionaries. Here you enter the miraculous faith venture of two passionate people, prepared to do whatever the Lord says. Led to witness modern day miracles of healing, and incredible answers to prayer, Eileen and Alan embarked upon an unforgettable path of supernatural provision, as they only made their needs known to God. This book teaches life-changing lessons that will make you useful to God. The story is told with purpose; weaving together lessons of faith learnt as they took small steps everyday to grow in faith and in the joy of the Holy Spirit. You will be challenged to get up and live your faith.

"Faith Works" offers the compelling testimony of a couples' salvation and missionary years in India that seeks to challenge others to learn what it takes to be useful to God.

Mechanistic dehumanization occurs when human beings are objectified and exploited as a means to an end, comparable to expendable components of a machine. This misconstruction of human value is a source and sustainer of overproduction, an excess of consumption, and the pursuit of unrestrained economic growth, damaging both people and the planet.The notion of mission as accompaniment promotes solidarity among church companions that embodies interdependence and mutuality. Grounded in the New Testament expression of koinonia, Mission as Accompaniment is affirmed in this study as a suitable foundation to counteract mechanistic dehumanization.Through this research with the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) Theology and Development program, Brian E. Konkol incorporates economics, ecology, anthropology, and postcolonial missiology. He maintains that two particular elements-the African concept of Ubuntu, and an Olive Agenda-when integrated into mission as accompaniment, will equip the ELCA Global Mission with an advocacy-driven trajectory in response to mechanistic dehumanization.

EVANGELISM MANUAL

This manual exemplifies the most effective methods of evangelism. It also provides many strategic plans and guidelines for effective evangelism. All believers, particularly those who aspire to be in leadership or are currently in ministry should own this evangelism manual. This manual is a much-needed resource in the field of evangelistic outreach. It seeks to give practical training and equipping to those who wish to fulfill the call of the Great Commission. The manual is useful for teaching, training, witnessing, follow-up discipleship, launching your own ministry, and even for acquiring personal knowledge of evangelism.

We are all aware of problems in this world. Everyone knows what it is to be weary, to be disappointed, and to struggle. And we have a feeling that we were not meant for this. We are all searching for some solution to the problems of life. The question is, why are you unhappy? Why do things go wrong? Why is there illness and sickness? Why should there be death? Those are the questions with which the Bible deals. The Bible talks to you about your unhappiness. Some insist that the Bible, far from being practical, is really very remote from life. But nothing in the world is as practical as the teaching of the Bible. In order to answer questions about you, the Bible starts in the most extraordinary way: "In the beginning God..." It starts with God. Before I begin to ask any questions about myself and my problems, I ought to ask questions like this: Where did the world come from? Where have I come from? What is life itself? You come to me and say, "I'm unhappy. I'm in a crisis. What's the matter with me?" And the Bible says, "In the beginning God . . ." as if it has forgotten all about you. But it has not! The only way to understand yourself or your life is to start with God. And right at the very beginning, the Bible takes us there. The Bible also tells us that the world came into being because the eternal God made it. It tells us that God is the Creator, that he made everything out of nothing, by his own power, and he made it perfect. What's more, according to the Bible, man is a special creation of God. The Bible tells us, "God created man in his own image" (Genesis 1:27). It does not say that about anything else, only about human beings. Man was made by God, for God. He spoke to God, walked with God, and enjoyed God. And his life was one of perfect bliss. But into this perfect world made by God there entered another power, another force. Something came that was opposed to God and opposed to man, and it was bent upon one thing only-- wrecking God's perfect work. The Bible tells us that the Devil entered into this world, and by tempting the man and the woman, whom God had made, brought to pass everything bad that you and I know. Why are there jealousy and envy and misunderstanding? Why lust and passion? Why are homes and marriages broken? Why do little children suffer? Why all the agony and the pain of life? It is because there is this other power in the world that has dragged man down. That is the biblical explanation. You will find it in the Bible from beginning to end. And if that is true, how hopelessly and utterly inadequate are all the remedies that are being offered apart from the Bible. What's more, the Bible tells us that as the result of that original sin, all of us are in the grip of this evil power. Man, as the result of all this, is quite helpless; he has brought a curse upon himself and cannot escape it. He would like to, but he cannot. Man has been trying to get back into Eden ever since he went out of it. That is the whole history of civilization. That is the whole meaning of philosophy and all political thought and all the blueprints of utopias at all times and in all places--man trying to get back into paradise. But it is worse than merely not being in paradise. Man is under the judgment of God. He thought that he could forget God and that there would be no risk involved. He did not realize that the law of God is absolute. Both man as an individual and the whole world, according to the Bible, are under the judgment of God. You see, in the garden Adam and Eve thought they could eat the forbidden fruit and all would be well. Then they heard the voice of the Lord God, and they cowered and were frightened. Judgment had come, and they were thrust out. But, thank God, he intervenes! God, even at the moment of rebellion, tells man that he has a way to rescue him and to redeem him: "It [the seed of the woman] shall bruise thy [the serpent's] head" (Genesis 3:15). The serpent can only be mastered by one, and he has come--the seed of the woman, Jesus of Nazareth. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." JOHN 3:16 Christ, the Son of God, came into this world, took on our human nature, entered into our very situation, and defeated our enemy. He received judgment for us on the cross. God dealt with him there and pardons us, and our enemy is conquered. So the way to paradise is open, and it is open for you. All your problems, all your needs, arise from the fact of sin. That is the cause of all ill. And there is but one solution to the problem, the solution that God himself has provided in the person of his Son. ". . . that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And that life begins here and now--a knowledge of God, assurance that you are right with God, that he will take you through death and announce in the judgment that you are already pardoned and forgiven. My dear friend, that is your problem, and that is the answer to your problem. Believe it. Accept it here and now. Go to that great God. Acknowledge your sinning against him, and thank him for his eternal love in sending his Son to rescue you and to redeem you by dying for you, and ask him to give you new life. And he will. I say that on the authority of Jesus who stated, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" ( John 6:37).

A thankless task or a waste of time. Two ways people use to describe the Christian training of children. You don t have to feel that way! In this book you will find encouragement, practical help and Biblical principles. King David is used as an example to follow David said Come ye children, harken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord Spurgeon says You are not ashamed to tread in the footsteps of David, are you Thus Spurgeon encourages the reader to imitate our Biblical fathers. You will also go away with a new vision of the importance of the work in which you are involved. C. H. Spurgeon shows us that telling young people about Jesus is the most important task given to anyone, be they parent, teacher or youth leader.

God is up to something And his plans are far greater than you might imagine. Christianity is not merely about isolated individuals going to heaven. It's about God transforming the entire world and making things right. Sicknesses will be healed, sins will be forgiven, injustice will be eradicated, and all creation will be redeemed. But this is not merely a distant future. It's happening now through what Jesus came to establish--the kingdom of God. Allen Wakabayashi reawakens you to the world-changing reality of the kingdom of God. With clear, biblical insight, he unpacks what Jesus proclaimed about the good news of the kingdom and spells out the implications for you today. Focusing on the kingdom of God will revolutionize how you live out your faith, how you think about your world and how you explain the good news about Jesus. Ultimately, understanding yourself as a citizen of the kingdom will empower you to be one of God's change agents in the world. God is at work to restore everything to be the way he intended it to be, and you can be a part of what he is doing Get a glimpse of the kingdom coming, and experience his will being done--on earth as it is in heaven.