Pastors face two temptations when they consider church leadership: one, common in more culturally conservative churches, is simply to preach faithfully and assume that that alone is adequate Christian leadership; the other, common in more culturally contemporary churches, is to apply secular business wisdom, but uncritically. The books published mirror the two camps. Both drive a wedge between the Bible and leadership. What if the gift of leadership was a clear outworking of biblical teaching? What if there is in the Bible a consistent pattern of human communities flourishing under the good rule of God's Word. Drawing on years of teaching and ministry, Chris Green shows us how, as Mike Ovey put it, Christian leaders can be God's best possible gift to flourishing communities.

Victoria J. Barnett served from 2004-2014 as one of the general editors of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, the English translation series of Bonhoeffer's complete works published by Fortress Press. Since 2004 she has directed the Programs on Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

This is the sixth of eight volumes containing the record of the institutions performed in the archdeaconry of Lincoln by Oliver Sutton, bishop of Lincoln from 1280 to 1299. As a scholar he appears to have been competent rather than distinguished; but he was a thoroughly good man, a trained canonist who was determined to uphold the law, and an administrator at once efficient and humane. For nearly twenty years he devoted himself almost completely to his diocese, ruling it with unending patience and a determined sense of justice. Among other fascinating details, his register describes incidents in the course of which clerks were maltreated and sometimes killed, rights of sanctuary violated and churches desecrated by bloodshed.

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.

The pastoral office has always been a difficult calling. Today, the pastor is often asked to fulfill multiple roles: preacher, teacher, therapist, administrator, CEO. How can pastors thrive amid such demands? What is needed is a contemporary pastoral rule: a pattern for ministry that both encourages pastors and enables them to focus on what is most important in their pastoral task. This book, coauthored by three experts with decades of practical experience, explains how relying on a pastoral rule has benefited communities throughout the church's history and how such rules have functioned in the lives and work of figures such as Augustine, Calvin, Wesley, and Bonhoeffer. It also provides concrete advice on how pastors can develop and keep a rule that will help both them and their congregations to flourish.

The book is designed to provide practical help to those involved in filling a vacancy, showing how to make it a good process and end with a good appointment. At the same time, it is useful to clergy seeking appointments, and senior clergy actually making the appointments.

Planting and leading churches is a difficult calling. It can put strain on your mental and physical health, on your relationships with others, and even your relationship with God. Sifted offers practical guidance and hope for anyone going through a tough time in ministry or pastoral work. Founding pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in Honolulu, Hawaii Wayne Cordeiro speaks the truth in love, offering wisdom and insight to walk alongside leaders as they face the challenges and hardships of planting and leading churches, while providing encouragement and inspiration for the journey. A seasoned church leader, Wayne shares the things he wishes he'd known when he was starting a new church. With additional stories from Francis Chan and Larry Osborne, each chapter includes a thought-provoking challenge question to develop a heart that is surrendered to God, focused on "being and becoming" versus "doing and accomplishing." Wayne will walk you through how to develop a healthy balance of personal care and spiritual leadership. But instead of a "how to" book on models and methods from men who have it all figured out, Sifted will help you process your journey in a way that: Challenges leaders' common scorecards of success. Encourages leaders to realize that they are not alone in what they are experiencing. Provides wisdom for the long haul to position younger leaders for a life of ministry. You many find yourself in a season of sifting. If you respond correctly, this season can be every bit as important as the time of harvest. Sifting builds the muscle of faith, giving us what we need for what lies just around the corner.

When Jesus calls someone to be his disciple, he's calling them to turn from their sin and love him. In this addition to the Church Questions series, Garrett Kell helps Christians seek out one-on-one discipleship opportunities.

This truly wonderful book introduces you anew to the person of Francis--the 'truly catholic' and always contemporary saint. There will be no Christianity as usual for those who read this book." --Richard Rohr, O.F.M. "We atSojourners heartily welcom this fresh look at the Poverello and his gentle challenge to the non-poor. Our dear friends who authored this work offer profound insights to all who find their faith and lifestyle questioned by the widening chasm between have's and have-not's." --Jim Wallis Retelling the most significant events in the life of St. Francis along with social and theological reflections for today, the authors--Catholic and Protestant--present a new picture of the ever-popular saint. Francis' way speaks most loudly to those who long to do something about inequality and poverty, about consumerism and spiritual emptiness. His spirituality combines the mystical and the earthly, liberation and faithfulness, literal poverty as well as the blessed poverty of the spirit. For everyone who has been touched by St. Francis, this book will deepen that understanding and provide a new perspective on his enduring legacy.

The Middle Space model is a whole new approach to youth work in which the location becomes a metaphor for the work itself. It is a profoundly different way of doing youth ministry and is much more than simply utilising the so-called "third spaces" that lie between the Church and the young people it serves. Seeking to transcend both invitational and detached models of youthwork, this book is the first of its kind in describing and reflecting upon emerging Middle Space models. Its mix of cutting-edge theory and real-life examples will enable anyone working with young people to bring the transformational news of the Gospel to the communities they serve.

Women and men are designed to work together in fulfilling God's mission on earth. Yet God's original intent for equal partnership has been so distorted that churches and organizations continually struggle to foster healthy mixed-gender ministry collaboration. Is it even possible to return to the Genesis ideal of co-laborers in today's contexts? Longtime ministry leader Rob Dixon knows it's possible-though it takes intentionality, courage, and wisdom. Based on qualitative field research among ministry practitioners, Together in Ministry offers a prophetic roadmap for individuals and communities as they seek to develop flourishing ministry partnerships for women and men. Organized around the key domains of inner life, community culture, and intentional practices, this model identifies ten key attributes of partnerships that are both personally satisfying and missionally effective. For each attribute Dixon presents research findings and biblical examples, along with benefits, barriers, and practical next steps. With plenty of real-life stories from ministry leaders and reflection questions in each chapter, Together in Ministry casts a compelling-and encouraging-vision for flourishing partnerships and equips teams and individuals with next steps for making that vision a reality.

No other pope of this century has aroused so much interest and universal affection throughout the world as has Pope John XXIII. Journal of a Soul is an inspiring reading experience that records this pope's thoughts and traces his spiritual development from adolescence to the seminary to a career as a priest, a European papal diplomat, Patriarch of Venice, and finally Pope John XXIII.

This Image Books edition features a biographical portrait of Pope John by his personal secretary, Monsignor Loris Capovilla. It also includes several of his most moving prayers, sixty brief thoughts and aphorisms, his "Rules for the Ascetic Life," many of his letters, even his last will and testament. Christians everywhere will welcome the reissue of "one of the most original, interesting, and inspiring revelations of intimate personal experiences ever written," which "ranks well with the classic spiritual autobiographies" (Critic).

Journal of a Soul, the first ever such work from a Roman pontiff, opens new windows onto the soul of the man himself.

Impressive...a significant contribution to the ecclesiastical history of Exeter and the English thirteenth century. CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW Third and final volume of early Exeter episcopal register; Introduction in Vol. I. The earliest of the Exeter episcopal registers to survive, Bronescombe's is a general register with a single chronological sequence of letters and memoranda on many aspects of diocesan administration. It also contains copies of charters by, among others, king Henry III and his brother Richard, King of the Romans, in his capacity as Earl of Cornwall. Volume one of this edition (which supersedes the unsatisfactory one of 1889) contains a substantial introduction and a full transcription of the Latin text of folios 2-26, with a modern translation on the facing pages; it will therefore be of value to students of medieval Latin as well as ecclesiastical and legal historians. O.F. ROBINSON is Douglas Professor of Roman Law at the University of Glasgow.

This short and accessible booklet helps aspiring pastors and leaders to focus on cultivating a godly desire for ministry, encouraging them to commit to a local church, inform the leaders of their desire for ministry, engage in acts of service, and patiently wait on the Lord.

Once upon a time there existed a version of our faith worth living and dying for, something the world found irresistible. Men and women pursued it at the risk of persecution, job loss, and eviction from their homes, temples, and society. What if we actually followed their lead? Perhaps it would change how we read the Bible? Perhaps it would help us understand our own faith and what we believe? Perhaps we would change the world again? In Irresistible, pastor and author Andy Stanley shows how distortions of the gospel have left us with an anemic version of Christianity that undermines our credibility and our evangelistic effectiveness. He takes readers on a fascinating journey back in time to recover a faith so rich, so dynamic, so disruptive, that it could not be ignored, marginalized, or eradicated. Rather than working harder to make Christianity more interesting, we need to recover what once made faith in Jesus irresistible to the world.

In February 2013, Benedict XVI became the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign. In doing so, Joseph Ratzinger, the man who became Benedict, also relinquished a controversial religious career in which he was largely responsible for the Catholic Church's prodigious troubles: his scorched-earth assault on modernity and the world of ideas destroyed any hope of progress in the Church while leaving a trail of shattered lives in its wake. Daniel Gawthrop argues that Ratzinger must not be allowed diplomatic immunity from the abuse scandals.

In spite of the centrality of the threefold orders of bishop, priest and deacon to Anglicanism, deacons have been virtually invisible in the contemporary Church of England. 'Inferior Office?' is the first complete history of this neglected portion of the clergy, tracing the church's changing theology of the diaconate from the Ordinal of 1550 to the present day. Francis Young skilfully overturns the widely held belief that before the twentieth century, the diaconate was merely a brief and nominal period of probation for priests, revealing how it became an integral part of the Elizabethan defence of conformity and exploring the diverse range of ministries assumed by lifelong deacons in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Lifelong deacons often belonged to a marginalised 'lower class' of the clergy that has since been forgotten, an oversight of considerable importance to the wider social history of the clergy that is corrected in this volume. 'Inferior Office?' tells the story of persistent calls for the revival of a distinctive diaconate within the Victorian Church of England and situates the institution of deaconesses and later revival of the distinctive diaconate for women, as well as subsequent developments, within their wider historical context. Set against this backdrop, Young presents a balanced case both for and against the further development of a distinctive diaconate today, offering much to further discussion and debate amongst clergy of the Church of England and all those with an interest in the rich tapestry of its history.

Paint[s] a dramatic picture of the impact of the Black Death. Appendices cover diocesan administrators and the religious houses and hospitals of Norfolk and Suffolk, This volume completes the Bateman register, the first of the Norwich registers to be published. Containing the later half of the calendar of institutions, it is unusual for the organisation, clarity and state of completeness of its records, which paint a dramatic picture of the impact of the Black Death on East Anglia. Scholars and students will also welcome the appendices dealing with diocesan administrators and the religious houses and hospitals of Norfolk and Suffolk, as well as indices for both volumes. PHYLLIS E. POBST is Assistant Professor of History at Arkansas State University.

This edition of the Bede roll of this London fraternity has been published in two volumes: the first volume contains the text of the roll and the second volume provides an index to the nearly 7000 names of those who were members of the fraternity between 1449 and 1521. These included not only the clerks themselves and their wives, but also members of the nobility and high-ranking clergy. The bulk of the membership consisted of middle-ranking Londoners whodecided the extra prayers and funeral ceremony which the parish clerks could provide. The editors have also supplied an account of the immensely popular Parish Clerks fraternity and of the ways in which it was governed and administered.

Marco Politi takes us deep inside the power struggle roiling the Roman Curia and the Catholic Church worldwide, beginning with Benedict XVI, the pope who famously resigned in 2013, and intensifying with the contested and unexpected election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, now known as Pope Francis. Politi's account balances the perspectives of Pope Francis's supporters, Benedict's sympathizers, and those disappointed members of the Catholic laity who feel alienated by the institution's secrecy, financial corruption, and refusal to modernize. Politi dramatically recounts the sexual scandals that have rocked the church and the accusations of money laundering and other financial misdeeds swirling around the Vatican and the Italian Catholic establishment. Pope Francis has tried to shine a light on these crimes, but his work has been met with resistance from entrenched factions. Politi writes of the decline in church attendance and vocations to the priesthood throughout the world as the church continues to prohibit divorced and remarried Catholics from receiving the communion wafer. He visits European parishes where women now perform the functions of missing male priests-and where the remaining parishioners would welcome the admission of women to the priesthood, if the church would allow it. Pope Francis's emphasis on pastoral compassion for all who struggle with the burden of family life has also provoked the ire of traditionalists in the Roman Curia and elsewhere. He knows from personal experience what life is like for the poor in Buenos Aires and other metropolises of the globalized world, and highlights the contrast between the vital, vibrant faith of these parishioners and the disillusionment of European Catholics. Pope Francis and his supporters are locked in a battle with the defenders of the traditional hard line and with ecclesiastical corruption. In this conflict, the future of Catholicism is at stake-and it is far from certain Francis will succeed in saving the institution from decline.

These essays examine papal teaching authority from Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century to the Dominican School of Salamanca in sixteenth century Spain. Fr. Ulrich Horst, O.P., an internationally renowned authority in historical theology, describes the various debates between the Dominicans and other orders over papal teaching authority, especially whether there should be limits placed on papal authority and, if so, what they might be. Horst reviews in a brief and masterful fashion the teaching of medieval and Catholic Reformation Dominican theologians about the teaching authority of the pope. He succinctly shows the differences within the order on the topic and makes clear how Dominicans tended to differ on the matter from theologians of other orders such as the Franciscans and, later, the Jesuits, whose views would eventually lead to the proclamation at Vatican I. In the first chapter, Horst discusses the canonization of St. Thomas, the lecture on the gospel of St. Matthew, and Summa Theologiae II-II 1, 10. Horst then examines the road to conflict under Pope John XXII and the position of a number of the Dominican theologians such Hervaeus Natalis, John of Naples, and Guido Terreni. In the last chapter, Horst brings to light the contributions of Francisco de Vitoria, Dominicus Sots, Melchior Cano, and Juan de la Pena, among others. Despite his distinguished career as a medievalist, little of Horst's imposing scholarly corpus has been translated into English. These lectures, then, mark an introduction of this formidable scholar to a wider audience.

This biography offers an in-depth look at R. C. Sproul's life and ministry, detailing his contributions to the trajectory of the Reformed tradition and his influence on American evangelicalism.

"Many white Christians across America are waking up to the fact that something is seriously wrong-but often this is where we get stuck." Confronted by the deep-rooted racial injustice in our society, many white Christians instinctively scramble to add diversity to their churches and ministries. But is diversity really the answer to the widespread racial dysfunction we see in the church? In this simple but powerful book, Pastor David Swanson contends that discipleship, not diversity, lies at the heart of our white churches' racial brokenness. Before white churches can pursue diversity, he argues, we must first take steps to address the faulty discipleship that has led to our segregation in the first place. Drawing on the work of philosopher James K. A. Smith and others, Swanson proposes that we rethink our churches' habits, or liturgies, and imagine together holistic, communal discipleship practices that can reform us as members of Christ's diverse body.