Reggie McNeal's bestseller The Present Future is the definitive work on the "missional movement," i.e., the widespread movement among Protestant churches to be less inwardly focused and more oriented toward the culture and community around them. In that book he asked the tough questions that churches needed to entertain to begin to think about who they are and what they are doing; in Missional Renaissance, he shows them the three significant shifts in their thinking and behavior that they need to make that will allow leaders to chart a course toward being missional: (1) from an internal to an external focus, ending the church as exclusive social club model; (2) from running programs and ministries to developing people as its core activity; and (3) from professional leadership to leadership that is shared by everyone in the community. With in-depth discussions of the "what" and the "how" of transitioning to being a missional church, readers will be equipped to move into what McNeal sees as the most viable future for Christianity. For all those thousands of churches who are asking about what to do next after reading The Present Future, Missional Renaissance will provide the answer.

"Christian Heroes: Then & Now have set a new standard of quality in Christian biography. These thrilling true adventures are the best-written biographies for ages 10 and up! William Carey, "the father of modern missions," displayed a single-minded determination to bring the gospel to the people of India (1761-1834).

12th Annual Outreach Resource of the Year (Cross-Cultural) How can we build bridges with Muslims? Muslims are our coworkers, neighbors and friends. But Christians don't always know how to build relationships with Muslims. Fouad Masri provides practical ways for Christians to initiate conversations and develop relationships with Muslims. He offers insights into Muslim culture and helps Christians understand and relate their Muslim friends. Masri addresses seven common questions that Muslims ask about Jesus and the Christian faith, providing sensitive answers that winsomely guide Muslims to Jesus without arguing or awkward debating. With real-life stories of fruitful conversations and genuine relationships, Masri helps readers see Muslims as Jesus sees them, without fear, with love, hope and expectation. You don't need a Ph.D. in Islam to share your faith with a Muslim. You just need the heart of an ambassador. Discover how.

Advance Praise for Organic Church

"This book is profound, practical, and a pleasure to read. It stretches our thinking and brings us to a place where we can see the Kingdom of God spread across the world in our generation. This book has come at the right time."
--John C. Maxwell, founder, INJOY, INJOY Stewardship Services and EQUIP

"My life is about seeing hundredfold results. Neil Cole's approach helps get those kinds of results for churches by planting many new expressions of the Kingdom that reach thousands of people. One of the great joys of my life for the past six years has been to watch the dramatic growth of Awakening Chapels and the organic churches described in this work. Cole's new book tells not only the inspiring story but also describes the principles, so you can apply these ideas."
--Bob Buford, founder and chairman, Leadership Network; author, Halftime and Finishing Well

"I always listen when Neil Cole speaks. His breadth of understanding and practice of what he preaches is right on. Everyone should know or be aware of this guy that God is using in a powerful way."
--Bob Roberts, senior pastor, NorthWood Church, Keller, Texas

"Neil Cole is one of the foremost thinkers and practitioners of organic forms of church. His vision of the church is as new as it is ancient. Cole's story as well as the philosophy of Church Multiplication Associates is paradigmatic for the church as it seeks to negotiate its way faithfully into the twenty-first century."
--Alan Hirsch, director, Forge Mission Training Network, church planter; author, The Shaping of Things to Come

Crafted to be an easy-to-carry large print Bible with cross references and striking verse imprinted on the cover allows this Bible to be an ideal choice to take with you wherever you go. This edition is published in large KJV Comfort Print type, which was designed exclusively for Thomas Nelson to be the most readable at any size. The KJV Personal Size Reference Bible is a feature-rich edition with easy-to-read large Comfort Print type. Including features like words of Christ in red, book introductions, end-of-page references, and a concordance, this Bible offers the tools to dive deeply into God's Word. As part of the Verse Art Cover Collection, this edition is in an easy-to carry format with an inspiring cover designed to encourage readers to spend more time in God's Word regardless of where they are. Features include: Presentation page to personalize this special gift by recording a memory or a note Extensive end-of-page cross-references allow you to find related passages quickly and easily Book introductions provide an overview of background and historical context Miracles and parables of Jesus call out important events during Jesus' earthly ministry Concordance for looking up a word's occurrences throughout the Bible Full color maps show the layout of Israel and other biblical locations for better context Words of Christ in red help you quickly identify Jesus' teachings and statements One-year reading plan which guides you through the entire Bible Two double-faced satin ribbons make it easy navigate and keep track of where you were reading Easy-to-read 10-point KJV Comfort Print

The year 1734 marked the beginning of one of the greatest revivals in the history of North America. Sparked by the preaching of Jonathan Edwards, the flames of revival spread throughout New England. Other great awakenings followed across the new nation as God sent spiritual revival through the ministries of George Whitefield, Charles Finney, Dwight L. Moody, Billy Graham, and many others. Today, America is in need of a fresh awakening from God. May the captivating stories of what God did in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries inspire you to pray for a new season of great revival.

Exploring how Christianity became a world religion, this brief history examines Christian missions and their relationship to the current globalization of Christianity.* A short and enlightening history of Christian missions: a phenomenon that many say reflects the single most important intercultural movement over a sustained period of human history* Offers a thematic overview that takes into account the political, cultural, social, and theological issues* Discusses the significance of missions to the globalization of Christianity, and broadens our understanding of Christianity as a multicultural world religion* Helps Western audiences understand the meaning of mission as a historical process* Contains several new maps that illustrate demographic shifts in world Christianity

The church has been called to participate in God's mission in the world. But without a robust, biblical sense of the Spirit's action, how can we be sure we're fulfilling that call? Gary Tyra employs a biblical theology of the Holy Spirit to deepen and inform our understanding of life as the church, the people of God. Since the church's mission to and into the world is both evangelistic and prophetic, the task calls for the working of the Spirit in our preaching, proclamation and service. Tyra brings together both charismatic and evangelical emphases resulting in a theological and practical synthesis that is richer than when either is taken separately.

A pastor's frank advice for Christians who want to bring the gospel to their neighbors. Gold Medal Winner, 2016 Illumination Book Award in ministry/mission, Independent Publishers How can Christians represent the love of Christ to their neighbors (let alone people in foreign countries) in an age when Christianity has earned a bad name from centuries of intolerance and cultural imperialism? Is it enough to love and serve them? Can you win their trust without becoming one of them? Can you be a missional Christian without a church? This provocative book, based on a recently uncovered collection of 100-year-old letters from a famous pastor to his nephew, a missionary in China, will upend pretty much everyone's assumptions about what it means to give witness to Christ. Blumhardt challenges us to find something of God in every person, to befriend people and lead them to faith without expecting them to become like us, and to discover where Christ is already at work in the world. This is truly good news: No one on the planet is outside the love of God. At a time when Christian mission has too often been reduced to social work or proselytism, this book invites us to reclaim the heart of Jesus' great commission, quietly but confidently incarnating the love of Christ and trusting him to do the rest.

Behind the scenes at a creationist theme park with a mission to convert visitors through entertainment Opened to the public in July 2016, Ark Encounter is a creationist theme park in Kentucky. The park features an all-timber re-creation of Noah's ark, built full scale to creationist specifications drawn from the text of Genesis, as well as exhibits that imagine the Bible's account of life before the flood. More than merely religious spectacle, Ark Encounter offers important insights about the relationship between religion and entertainment, religious publicity and creativity, and fundamentalist Christian claims to the public sphere. James S. Bielo examines these themes, drawing on his unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to the Ark Encounter creative team during the initial design of the park. This unique anthropological perspective shows creationists outside church contexts, and reveals their extraordinary effort to materialize a controversial worldview for the general public. Taking readers from inside the park's planning rooms to other fundamentalist projects and diverse Christian tourist attractions, Bielo illuminates how creationist cultural producers seek to reach both their constituents and the larger culture. The "making of" this creationist theme park, Bielo argues, allows us to understand how fundamentalist culture is produced, and how entertainment and creative labor are used to legitimize creationism. Through intriguing and surprising observations, Ark Encounter challenges readers to engage with the power of entertainment and to seriously grapple with creationist ambitions for authority. For believers and non-believers alike, this book is an invaluable glimpse into the complicated web of religious entertainment and cultural production.

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aA thorough ethnography that sweeps the reader into the world of Marian visionary Estela Ruiz, her family and followers, and the evangelizing ministries they have created in South Phoenix. . . . Fascinating.a
--Timothy Matovina, Director, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, University of Notre Dame

"This wonderfully written study, one of the most comprehensive and insightful books about modern Marian apparitions in North America, takes the story from the Virgin's first appearance to a feminist professional woman distressed by family burdens, through the widening sphere of the apparitions' impact on family and community, to the cult's ultimate role as a national and international vehicle for Catholic evangelizing, especially among Hispanics."
--"CHOICE," highly recommended

"This book stands as an intimate portrait of the visionary; 'a woman torn between the individualism she enjoyed in the 'Anglo world' and her familial commitments in her Mexican-American home.'"
--"Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion"

"This is a respectful, sensitive, clearly written book in which the author seeks to resolve the alien ethnographer's dilemma by 'writing like a relative.' The reader's reward is a rich sense of the circumstances and struggles of at least some Mexican Americans in South Phoenix to make a good life in the contemporary United States that balances faith and family with education, material strivings, professional growth, discrimination, and personal suffering in ways that begin to bridge the conceptual divide between offical and popular religion."
--"American Ethnologist"

aA compellingaccount of Marian devotion as alived religionaa
--"Sociology of Religion"

In 1998, a Mexican American woman named Estela Ruiz began seeing visions of the Virgin Mary in south Phoenix. The apparitions and messages spurred the creation of Maryas Ministries, a Catholic evangelizing group, and its sister organization, ESPIRITU, which focuses on community-based initiatives and social justice for Latinos/as.

Based on ten years of participant observation and in-depth interviews, The Virgin of El Barrio traces the spiritual transformation of Ruiz, the development of the community that has sprung up around her, and the international expansion of their message. Their organizations blend popular and official Catholicism as well as evangelical Protestant styles of praise and worship, shedding light on Catholic responses to the tensions between popular and official piety and the needs of Mexican Americans.

It used to be that providing clear evidence for the resurrection of Jesus or the reliability of the Bible was a pretty effective way to reach people with the Good News. But today, many folks think all truth is relative, even our historical and scientific data about Christianity. So how can we reach them? We need new ways of telling people the old, old story. We need to look again at our usual mental habits if we want to reach people who have a brand new mindset of their own. We need to get outside the box of ideas and practices that are sacred to us but are not sacred to God. That's what Rick Richardson's book is all about. Here are fresh perspectives on relying on the Holy Spirit, awakening spiritual interest in others, appealing to what they value (instead of what we think they should value) and leading them into a transforming experience with God. Also included is Richardson's Circles of Belonging, a new, straightforward presentation of the message of Jesus (yes, it can even be sketched out on a napkin ) that is true to Scripture and true to the new way people live and think. As an experienced evangelist and leader of evangelism programs, Richardson offers in this helpful book the principles and practices that will help us all grow in love for--and communicate effectively with--people who need Jesus.

Focusing on the interaction between teachers and scholars, this book provides an intimate account of "ragged schools" that challenges existing scholarship on evangelical child-saving movements and Victorian philanthropy. With Lord Shaftesbury as their figurehead, these institutions provided a free education to impoverished children. The primary purpose of the schools, however, was the salvation of children's souls. Using promotional literature and local school documents, this book contrasts the public portrayal of children and teachers with that found in practice. It draws upon evidence from schools in Scotland and England, giving insight into the achievements and challenges of individual institutions. An intimate account is constructed using the journals maintained by Martin Ware, the superintendent of a North London school, alongside a cache of letters that children sent him. This combination of personal and national perspectives adds nuance to the narratives often imposed upon historic philanthropic movements. Investigating how children responded to the evangelistic messages and educational opportunities ragged schools offered, this book will be of keen interest to historians of education, emigration, religion, as well as of the nineteenth century more broadly.