Pastors and church leaders are in need of mature, godly elders to ensure church health, but the training of elders is often entirely missing or badly neglected. What if there were a process to proactively call and train elders? The New Elder's Handbook is designed to equip elders with the knowledge, character, and skills the office calls for. It takes church leaders through the development of a vision for ministry, recruitment of elders to carry out that vision, and specific, biblical training, providing a way to be intentional about developing elders.

Are you letting your lack of authority paralyze you? One of the greatest myths of leadership is that you must be in charge in order to lead. Great leaders don't buy it. Great leaders lead with or without the authority and learn to unleash their influence wherever they are. Clay Scroggins knows all about this. His former boss, Andy Stanley, explains: "Clay was making a difference at North Point Community Church long before he was in charge of anything significant. Everything he touched got bigger and better whether he was in charge of it or not. In this study, Clay shares everything he learned about leading beyond his title, position, and authority. It's amazing." ~ Andy Stanley In this study you will: Learn to leverage influence instead of authority Create a game plan for leading yourself well Change the energy of your team by choosing positivity Cultivate influence by thinking critically, not being critical Avoid the trap of passivity when you feel out of control Learn an effective way to challenge people in authority over you How to Lead When You're Not in Charge will free you to become the great leader you want to be so you can make a difference right where you are. Even when you're not in charge. Sessions include: The Oddity of Leadership Lead Yourself Choose Positivity Think Critically Reject Passivity Challenging Up Designed for use with the How to Lead When You're Not in Charge Video Study 9780310095934 (sold separately).

This book explores the endeavors and activities of one of the most prominent early modern Irishmen in exile, the Franciscan Luke Wadding. Born in Ireland, educated in the Iberian Peninsula, Wadding arrived in Rome in 1618, where he would die in 1657. In the "Eternal City," the Franciscan emerged as an outstanding theologian, a learned scholar, a diplomat, and a college founder. This innovative collection of chapters brings together a group of international scholars who provide a ground-breaking analysis of the many cultural, political, and religious facets of Wadding's life. They illustrate the challenges and changes faced by an Irishman who emerged as one of the most outstanding global figures of the Catholic Reformation. The volume will attract scholars of the early modern period, early modern Catholicism, and Irish emigration.

Malcolm Johnson has been an Anglican priest for fifty years working in the East End and in the City of London. Openly gay for most of this time, he has never been far from controversy. As rector of St Botolph Aldgate he was particularly involved with homelessness, HIV/AIDS and education. Because of his counselling and campaigning work for the LGBT community Rabbi Lionel Blue has described him as the Pink Bishop. Diary of a Gay Priest is full of anecdotes and amusing stories. His 44-year relationship with Robert has given him stability and security, but he considers the Church to still be a dangerous place for a gay priest. He remains in it by his eyelashes.

Pope Francis has thoroughly re-engaged the Catholic Church with the modern world, by tackling the difficult and urgent questions that we face as a civilization, in order to illuminate the path to change. French sociologist Dominique Wolton interviewed Pope Francis regularly over the course of a year, and their open, warm dialogue builds a detailed picture of how Pope Francis became the most popular leader the Catholic Church has ever seen.

The Pope's clarity, humility and humanity are brought to the fore by Dominique Wolton's engaging and relevant questions. As well as revealing fascinating insights into his early life, in The Path to Change Pope Francis freely addresses the major issues of our time: peace and war, politics and religion, globalization and cultural diversity, fundamentalism and secularism, Europe and migrants, ecology, family, time, trust and joy.

2019 World Magazine Book of the Year Short List 2019 The Gospel Coalition Book Award 2019 Send Institute's Top Ten Church Planting Related Books of 2019 Kevin DeYoung's Top 10 Books of 2019 Jesus loves small, insignificant places. In recent years, Christian ministries have increasingly prioritized urban areas. Big cities and suburbs are considered more strategic, more influential, and more desirable places to live and work. After all, they're the centers for culture, arts, and education. More and more people are leaving small places and moving to big ones. As a ministry strategy, focusing on big places makes sense. But the gospel of Jesus is often unstrategic. In this book, pastor Stephen Witmer lays out an integrated theological vision for small-place ministry. Filled with helpful information about small places and with stories and practical advice from his own ministry, Witmer's book offers a compelling, comprehensive vision for small-place ministry today. Jesus loves small places, and when we care deeply about them and invest in them over time, our ministry becomes a unique picture of the gospel-one that the world badly needs to see.

The moment Jesus kneels with a towel and bowl to wash his disciples' feet. The point where he looks Peter in the eye and predicts betrayal. That intimate, urgent prayer to the Father for the disciples. That resolute strength before the Sanhedrin, before Pilate, before the crowd. The cross. The talk with Mary in the Garden. The walk with Peter at Galilee. The later chapters of the Gospel of John form what is for many the deepest and most moving accounts of all Scripture. They also form a detailed description of Jesus' final days and hours on earth, Jesus final instructions to his team as he prepares to hand on his ministry. Karl Martin mines this incredibly rich vein of Scripture to draw lessons for leadership, leadership in Jesus' way. Leadership in the way of Jesus is about humility, about investing your life in your team, about facing betrayal, about dying to self, about handing on, about succession. Ultimately, true leadership is not about seeing others serve your dream - it is about seeing others released into the dreams, the gifting and calling that the Lord has placed on their lives. It is about something beyond you. This deceptively profound, honest and practical book gives great insight for leaders - challenge for younger leaders, encouragement for mid-life leaders, and refreshment for the mature leaders - and what may be some of the most significant lessons of their leadership life.

Christianity Today Book Award What does it take to be a church planter or other ministry entrepreneur? Most leaders start out with passion, a sense of calling, and a focus on building ministry skills. Such things might get some results, but they are not enough to sustain a healthy ministry-or a healthy life. Beyond the vocational capacities every church planter needs, there's a range of capabilities more difficult to measure but even more essential: what veteran church planter Tim Morey calls spiritual competencies. Morey provides here a practical guide to spiritual formation geared to the unique needs of church planters. He helps readers answer the questions, What are the spiritual capabilities that I as a church planter need to develop? How might I lean into the work Jesus is doing in these vital areas? Spiritual competencies have to do not just with behaviors but also with the motivations, agendas, and scripts that drive behaviors. Morey explores how church planters can become people who invest in their own physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual health accept limits and share responsibilities can be trusted with power are able to stay resilient and grow through difficulties can minister without being noticed find a sustainable pace that helps them avoid burnout The health of a church or any ministry organization is directly linked to the health of its leaders. Church planters may be used to improvising, but when it comes to their spiritual lives, they can't afford to just wing it. Featuring real-life stories from leaders, suggested practices, and discussion questions in each chapter, this book will equip individuals and teams (and those who coach them) to commit to an intentional plan for spiritual formation-for the good of their churches, their relationships, and their own lives as disciples of Jesus.

Provides evidence-based, up-to-date commentary on key topics, written by experts in the field

Have you ever wrestled with how to respond to a boss or leader when you disagree?

Do you ever wonder why you should listen to them in the first place?

In this newly revised and updated edition, bestselling author John Bevere reemphasizes for a new generation the protective boundaries God provides through authority figures. John reveals how the enemy tricks us into believing our true destinies can be found away from divine leadership by distorting our ability to recognize God's inherent authority and His delegated authority. By teaching us how to properly relate to leadership, John shows why living under authority provides a place where there is provision, protection, and hope for the future.

Under Cover will also help you discover: how to avoid being entirely right yet somehow wrong the biblical way to respond to and overcome unfair treatment Complete with a brand-new chapter, discussion questions, and highlighted themes, Under Cover is a practical, life-transforming book that reveals the importance of submission to God's authority and how to respond to the leaders in our lives.

Lively record of 14c ecclesiastical life in the north of England. John Kirkby's episcopate was an eventful one. It coincided with a period of Anglo-Scottish warfare in which the bishop participated with gusto, but even domestically his tenure of the see of Carlisle was stormy: the bishop was involved in feuding among the local gentry, and quarrelled with his archdeacon and with the dean and chapter of York during the vacancy of 1340-42. This second volume of Kirkby's register includes a rental of episcopal manors, an appendix of transcripts of documents, and the index, adding to the calendar contained in the first volume and providing a lively record of life in a remote part of the country. R.L. STOREYis Emeritus Professor of Medieval History, Nottingham University. He is the author of several standard books on late-Medieval England.

From the author of the acclaimed biography Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet, new perspectives on how Luther and others crafted his larger-than-life image Martin Luther was a controversial figure during his lifetime, eliciting strong emotions in friends and enemies alike, and his outsized persona has left an indelible mark on the world today. Living I Was Your Plague explores how Luther carefully crafted his own image and how he has been portrayed in his own times and ours, painting a unique portrait of the man who set in motion a revolution that sundered Western Christendom. Renowned Luther biographer Lyndal Roper examines how the painter Lucas Cranach produced images that made the reformer an instantly recognizable character whose biography became part of Lutheran devotional culture. She reveals what Luther's dreams have to say about his relationships and discusses how his masculinity was on the line in his devastatingly crude and often funny polemical attacks. Roper shows how Luther's hostility to the papacy was unshaken to the day he died, how his deep-rooted anti-Semitism infused his theology, and how his memorialization has given rise to a remarkable flood of kitsch, from "Here I Stand" socks to Playmobil Luther. Lavishly illustrated, Living I Was Your Plague is a splendid work of cultural history that sheds new light on the complex and enduring legacy of Luther and his image.

Are churches looking for the wrong kind of leaders? The last decade has witnessed a rising number of churches wrecked by spiritual abuse--harsh, heavy-handed, domineering behavior from those in a position of spiritual authority. And high-profile cases are only a small portion of this widespread problem. Behind the scenes are many more cases of spiritual abuse that we will never hear about. Victims suffer in silence, not knowing where to turn. Of course, most pastors and leaders are godly, wonderful people who don't abuse their sheep. They shepherd their flocks gently and patiently. But we can't ignore the growing number who do not. We have tolerated and even celebrated the kind of leaders Jesus warned us against. We need gentle shepherds now more than ever, and in Bully Pulpit, seminary president and biblical scholar Michael J. Kruger offers a unique perspective for both church leaders and church members on the problem of spiritual abuse, how to spot it, and how to handle it in the church. "Every Christian from pulpit to pew needs to read this wise and timely work." - Karen Swallow Prior "Both urgent and timely." - Sam Storms "Thoughtful, wise, and biblical." - Mark Vroegop

What are the distinctive characteristics of Christian leaders? Too many churches and parachurch groups are blindly operating under secular leadership principles and strategies. Concerned to counter this drift, leadership expert Aubrey Malphurs 1) articulates a working definition of a Christian leader and leadership based on Scripture and his own extensive research, and 2) challenges you to define and develop leadership in your ministry. Malphurs then describes in detail the specific characteristics of leaders, such as commitment to Christ, caring, trustworthiness, a servant attitude, and having followers. Each chapter ends with helpful questions for reflection and discussion. Included in the appendices are several inventories that will help you assess your strengths and weaknesses in leadership as well as your leadership style, ideal ministry circumstances, and much more. Aubrey Malphurs is professor of pastoral ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary. A nationally recognized expert on leadership issues, he is the author of a dozen books and the president of The Malphurs Group (www.malphursgroup.com), a training and consulting organization.

Jeronimo Nadal (1507-1580) und der "verschriftlichte" Ignatius provides an account of the life and reflection process of Nadal. Using the fully translated Chronicon Natalis as hermeneutical lens, Ignacio Ramos unveils a substantial source of the so called "Ignatian" Spirituality. In Jeronimo Nadal (1507-1580) und der "verschriftlichte" Ignatius bringt Ignacio Ramos anhand des (ubersetzten) Chronicon Natalis das Leben und Denken Nadals mit der Entstehung der sogenannten "ignatianischen" Spiritualitat hermeneutisch in Verbindung.

Are distractions holding you back from living abundantly? Our world is filled with distractions. They take a toll on our work, our parenting, our marriages, and our souls. Constant tugs on our attention have us spinning our wheels, unable to gain momentum to move forward. Much like white noise, these distractions tune out what matters most within, and we're all susceptible. As distractions grow louder, we become deaf to the issues that most need our attention. In this six-session video Bible study (DVD/digital videos sold separately), pastor Clay Scroggins shows you how to take the next step in your personal growth by limiting the distractions in your life. Through the practices described in this guide, you will be empowered to replace the chaos in your increasingly busy schedule with emotional competence that leads to a calmer and more fulfilling life. This study guide contains a session overview, a video teaching summary, group discussion questions, and personal study tools. Sessions include: The Danger of Distraction Turning Down the White Noise Finding Simplicity Speaking to Yourself Getting Quiet Pressing Pause Designed for use with the How to Lead in a World of Distraction Video Study available on DVD or streaming video, sold separately.

Create a small, strong congregation that is dedicated to advancing God's mission The twenty-first century is the century of small, strong congregations. More people will be drawn to small, strong congregations than any other kind of congregation. Yes, there are mega-congregations; Their number is increasing greatly. Nevertheless, across the planet, the vast majority of congregations will be small and strong, and the vast majority of people will be in these congregations. With uncommon wisdom Kennon L. Callahan--today's most noted church consultant--moves ahead of conventional thinking and in Small, Strong Congregations offers his unique vision of the church of the future. This important book chronicles the emergence of a vast number of congregations that are questioning the bigger-is-better notion in church membership. These congregations are deliberately small, active, and happy in their dedication to creating strong church communities that advance God's mission. Step by step, Kennon Callahan shows pastors and other church leaders how they can develop the values and specific qualities helpful to shape and strengthen their own small congregations.Written to be a hands-on guide, Small, Strong Congregations offers practical suggestions for creating mission and service, compassion and shepherding, community and belonging, self-reliance and self-sufficiency, worship and hope, teams and leaders, space and facilities, and giving and generosity. This wise resource is filled with illustrative examples that show clearly how myriad small churches have created solid, vigorous congregations.