'A brilliant introduction to prayer' Richard Rohr, Author of Everything Belongs One of America's most beloved spiritual leaders and the New York Times bestselling author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything and Jesus: A Pilgrimage teaches anyone to converse with God in this comprehensive guide to prayer. 'What do we need to learn? That prayer changes us-and so changes the world we live in; that God is always there before us; that it's God's action that makes the difference. Practical, comprehensive, and above all God-centered, this book is a deeply valuable companion for growing in faith.' Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury In The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, Father James Martin included a chapter on communicating with God. Now, he expands those thoughts in this profound and practical handbook. Learning to Pray explains what prayer is, what to expect from praying, how to do it, and how it can transform us when we make it a regular practice in our lives. A trusted guide walking beside us as we navigate our unique spiritual paths, Martin lays out the different styles and traditions of prayer throughout Christian history and invites us to experiment and discover which works best to feed our soul and build intimacy with our Creator. Father Martin makes clear there is not one secret formula for praying. But like any relationship, each person can discover the best style for building an intimate relationship with God, regardless of religion or denomination. Prayer, he teaches us, is open and accessible to anyone willing to open their heart.

Join bestselling author and pastor Timothy Keller in an eight-week video Bible study on the gospel and how to live it out in all aspects of life--from your community to the world at large. The Gospel in Life study (DVD sold separately) begins with the city, your home now, the world that is. The final week closes with the theme of the eternal city, your heavenly home, the world that is to come. Throughout this eight-week ascent--from earthly work to the final revelation of grace--you'll learn how the gospel can change your heart, your community, and how you can live as a disciple of Jesus Christ in this world, right now, even as you look forward to the promise we have in him. Including discussion questions, reflections on Scripture, and commitment prayers, The Gospel in Life study guide is designed to help you and your group engage with and discuss the topics presented on the Gospel in Life DVD. Sessions Include: City - The World That Is Heart - Three Ways to Live Idolatry - The Sin Beneath Community - The Context for Change Witness - An Alternate City Work - Cultivating the Garden Justice - A People for Others Eternity - The World That Is To Come Discover how grace really does change everything. Designed for use with the Gospel in Life Video Study (sold separately).

Fill the Gap! contains 120 easy-to-play Bible-based games with little or no preparation needed - perfect for picking straight off the shelf! The ideas are designed to help local churches fill up those awkward gaps of time in Sunday schools, midweek clubs, holiday clubs, after school clubs and children's camps. The games are divided equally across the Old Testament and the New Testament and offer a fun-filled way to reinforce a teaching point or help children unfamiliar with Bible stories. There are two games for each story, one aimed at 4-7s and the other at 7-11s, but many of the games can be modified slightly to make them appropriate for older or younger children to take part. Most of the games are suitable for both smaller and larger groups of children and many can be easily adapted to fit different Bible stories, allowing favourite games to be used again with a different emphasis.

Using Josef Pieper's Leisure as a point of departure, the contributors to this volume share a mutual concern for the diminishing role of the liberal arts in Catholic higher education. The overwhelming impression they share is that U.S. Catholic universities, with notable exceptions, have forgotten the very goal of university education, and especially Catholic university education: to aid in forming young men and women to pursue the truth and helping them to become freer persons.

This revised edition of the best-selling 2006 title now includes end-of-chapter questions for the readers as well as updated material sprinkled throughout to reflect what has occurred in the past 10-years in the church and world. The Five Marks of Mission and what it means to be a disciple of Christ will be a focus of this new version, which also models student-centered learning as opposed to teacher-driven instruction. For teen study and confirmation preparation, this book can serve as a curriculum for helping teens discover Scripture, church history, sacraments, the meaning and practice of prayer, and what ministry means in the lives of real teens today. A framework for small-group gatherings for each chapter is included as a new section in the back of the book. Bestseller revision to release in time for Confirmation season and in advance of the 2015 General Convention of the Episcopal Church Includes study guide questions, plus a new companion Leader's Guide Foreword by Dr. Lisa Kimball, Virginia Theological Seminary

Ask almost any priest what his or her biggest headache is and the answer is likely to be 'coming up with ideas for including children in worship'. Here is the answer to those prayers - a whole year's worth of activities and ideas complete with artwork and visual aids. These sixty outlines have been developed and used in an Anglican parish church over the last eight years by a professional educationalist, artist and experienced children's church leader. The worship outlines include simple children's liturgies and a complete lesson or story plan that harmonizes with what the adults are doing in church on the same day. Through fun ideas, children encounter a real aspect of the Christian faith focused on a theme to be found in the Gospel of the day. Each outline includes a variety of options which make them workable with small and large groups of children or single groups of mixed ages.Illustrated throughout, the text and artwork appears on the accompanying CD Rom in full colour for downloading and printing or copying.

This volume brings together the work of a wide range of scholars to explore the long and complex history of the relationships between churches and education. Christianity has always been involved in education, from the very earliest teaching of those about to be baptised, to present-day churches' involvement in schools and higher education. Christianity has a core theological concern for teaching, discipleship and formation, but the dissemination of Christian ideas and positions has not necessarily been an explicitly didactic process. Educational projects have served not only to support but also to question and even reconfigure particular versions of the Christian message, and the recipients of education have also both received and subverted the teaching offered. Under the editorship of Morwenna Ludlow, this volume explores the ways in which churches have sought to educate, catechise and instruct the clergy and laity, adults and children, men and women, boys and girls.

This hand sized NKJV edition is the perfect travel companion for readers who like to take their Bibles with them throughout the day. Though it fits easily into backpacks and purses, you won't have to sacrifice readability or study resources. The exclusive Thomas Nelson NKJV Comfort Print (R) typeface was designed to be easy to read at any size, so you can experience deeper engagement in God's Word. This edition also includes over 73,000 cross-references, a concordance, and full-color maps so you have everything you need for serious study at your fingertips. Features include: Presentation page Red letter words of Christ 73,000+ cross-references trace the connections in Scripture Concordance Full-color maps Clear and readable 7-point NKJV Comfort Print Commissioned in 1975 by Thomas Nelson, 130 international and multi-denominational Bible scholars, church leaders, and lay Christians worked for seven years to create a completely new, modern translation of Scripture that retained the purity and stylistic beauty of the King James Version. The New King James Version is faithful to the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic text, and provides transparency to the recent research in archaeology, linguistics, and textual studies in the footnotes. The result is a Bible translation that is both beautiful and uncompromising-perfect for serious study, devotional use, and reading aloud.

You pray it. But do you understand it? The Lord's Prayer has become so familiar to us that we don't think about what we're praying. It's a portrait of Jesus' heart. And in it Christians from different times, places, and traditions have been united. We pray it, but do we actually believe it? When Jesus taught his followers how to pray, he emphasized how uncomplicated it should be. There's no need for pretense or theatrics. Instead, simply ask for what you need as though you were speaking with your earthly father. This opens a window into Jesus' prayer life and presents us with a portrait of his heart for his followers. Wesley Hill re-introduces the Lord's Prayer. He shows us a God who is delighted to hear prayer. Petition by petition, in conversation with the Christian tradition, he draws out the significance of Jesus' words for prayer today.