Heather Zempel oversees the community life at a multisite church in Washington, D.C., a challenging population with one of the highest relocation rates in the United States. And yet under her leadership, National Community Church has become a model for creative, dynamic, deep small group ministry. Drawing from her background as an environmental engineer (including such bizarre experiences as monitoring a pig lagoon and the unintended slaughter of a hundred innocent fish), Heather Zempel assesses the perils and possibilities inherent in small groups and other environments for Christian community. The book helps leaders begin to see the inherent "mess" of such gatherings as raw material for arriving at something beautiful. Read this book and discover fresh insights into how we can support one another's unique paths to maturity in Christ while maintaining cohesion as a community and blessing the world around us.

What signals are you sending when you share the gospel? The importance of signs for communicating truth has been recognized throughout the ages. Crystal L. Downing traces this awareness from biblical texts, through figures from church history like John Wycliffe and William Tyndale, to more recent writers Samuel Taylor Coleridge and C. S. Lewis. In the nineteenth century, this legacy of interest in the activity of signs brought about a new field of academic study. In this book, Downing puts the discipline of semiotics within reach for beginners through analysis of the movement's key theorists, Ferdinand de Saussure, Charles Sanders Peirce, Mikhail Bakhtin and others. She then draws out the implications for effective communication of the gospel of Jesus Christ within our shifting cultural landscape. Her fundamental thesis is that "Failure to understand how signs work--as effects of the cultures we seek to affect--inevitably undermines not just our political and moral agendas but, worse, the gospel of Jesus Christ." Writing with humor, clarity and flare, Downing lucidly explains the sophisticated thinking of leaders in semiotics for nonexperts. Of value to all those interested in communication in any context, this work will be of special interest to students majoring in communications or English or to students in evangelism and preaching courses at the undergraduate and graduate level.

Along with globalization migration poses unprecedented challenges to the Christian churches in the fields of constructive theology, ethics, spirituality, mission, ministry, interreligious dialogue, and theological education. How can the Christian churches successfully meet these challenges posed by global migratory movements? In suggesting ways that help the churches fulfill this task, the essays in this volume draw from a variety of streams of thought, including liberationist, postmodern, and postcolonial theologies, and from a wide range of contexts, such as the U.S., Latin America, and Asia. They probe new ways of interpreting the Bible, the contributions of migrants to Christianity, the function of the city in religious developments, ways of being Christian, Christian mission, theological method, and theological education. The result is a theology of migration that is appropriate for the emerging World Christianity, as its approach is interdisciplinary, interdenominational, interreligious, and intercontinental.

To seek and find God is everything.
In his forty-three years of seeking after God, Francis Frangipane has learned one simple (yet essential) truth...
It is in seeking God, that we actually find Him.
The deliberate movement of our hearts toward God leads us into far more than a simple answer to our need--it leads us straight to Him. We discover God to be an ally whose wisdom is all encompassing and whose power can transform all things with just one look.
In "I Will Be Found by You" he shares a collection of some of his best writings on the topic, both old and new, to reveal the key to seeking God and possessing a heart after God--the key that unlocks everything important.

2012 Midwest Publishing Association Crystal Book Award honorable mention Margot Starbuck is back with as much passion and energy as ever. In thirty brief chapters, she invites you to choose the adventure that fits who you are in authentically loving those around you. Yes, she knows: just the thought of adding something more to your life sounds exhausting. But here's the fantastic truth she's discovered in her own journey: "We don't have to add lots more overwhelming activity to what we've already got going. The regular stuff of our lives--the commute to work and the potlucks and home improvement projects and errands and play dates--are the exact places in which we express and experience God's love for a world in need." With a list of resources, a study guide and a six-week "Adventure Challenge," as well as plenty of stories and hilarity from Margot's own life, Small Things with Great Love will open your eyes to the people around you and the huge impact you can have on them through small acts of love. "Small things happen when I learn the name of my daughter's school bus driver," Margot writes. "Small things happen when I listen to the dreams of a woman who lives in a group home on my block. Small things happen when I risk crossing a language barrier even though I look really stupid doing it." And small things add up to big adventures and surprises, for you and others. The biggest surprise of all might be how powerfully God can use you, right in the midst of your walking-the-dog, paying-the-bills, doing-laundry life, when you're living out his love. Do the first small thing by opening these pages--and let the adventure begin

Some people allow circumstances and organizational structures to hold them back from achieving their identity through successful accomplishment. This book shows you how to overcome organizational barriers and make a positive mark and as a result experience a feeling of satisfaction. Success feeds success. Dr. Covington gives numerous examples of people who have made individual contributions working within their social systems.

Named One of Fifteen Important Theology Books of 2022, Englewood Review of Books This book demonstrates how two overlooked ministry models--base ecclesial communities of the Global South in the late twentieth century and hush harbors of the US antebellum South--offer proven strategies for the twenty-first-century church and contemporary social movements. These ministry models provide insight into the creation and sustenance of vital Christian community, particularly for those seeking indigenous culturally-rooted models, and show how to integrate vibrant Christ-centered faith and mission with world-changing social justice and political action. The book includes on-the-ground stories from multiethnic communities, a foreword by Robert Chao Romero, and an afterword by Willie James Jennings.

Holiness and hedonism. Lonesomeness and community. Tradition and progress. Highly regarded commentator on Christianity and popular culture Rodney Clapp argues that these great tensions form the bedrock of American history and our current culture. Utilizing the life and music of Johnny Cash to illustrate these and other American contradictions, he probes these phenomena with sharp theological questions--seeking the language and knowledge that will enable us to reach across political and cultural divides and encourage a more graceful and constructive negotiation of current contradictions.

Seamon explores the historical, theological, and societal dynamics of religious intermarriage as a way to introduce scholars to the myriad of factors that have contributed and will continue to contribute to the complete transformation of religion and Christianity in the twenty-first century.

2012 Christianity Today Book Award winner 2011 Leadership Journal Top Book of the Year Copastors Kent Carlson and Mike Lueken tell the story of how God took their thriving, consumer-oriented church and transformed it into a modest congregation of unformed believers committed to the growth of the spirit--even when it meant a decline in numbers. As Kent and Mike found out, a decade of major change is not easy on a church. Oak Hills Church, from the pastoral staff to the congregation, had to confront addiction to personal ambition, resist consumerism and reorient their lives around the teachings of Jesus. Their renewed focus on spiritual formation over numerical growth triggered major changes in the content of their sermons, the tenor of their worship services, and the reason for their outreach. They lost members. But the health and spiritual depth of their church today is a testimony of God's transforming work and enduring faithfulness to the people he loves. Honest and humble, this is Kent and Mike's story of a church they love, written to inspire and challenge other churches to let God rewrite their stories as well. Read it for the church you love.