It would be reasonable to estimate that multiple hundreds of thousands of people have become followers of Jesus Christ as a result of the modern church-planting movement. One characteristic of the literature of this movement has been an almost singular focus on the individual who is sent out to lead the new congregation, rather than on the vital role of the sending or sponsoring church.

Practically all the books are written with one target in mind: this individual leader, the pioneer pastor, usually referred to as the "church planter." "The Mother Church" is not written for pioneer pastors; it is written for the leaders of potential mother churches. It is designed to help leaders assess whether and when the birthing of a new church is a good idea for their congregation and to provide them with tools to birth and nurture healthy, thriving, life-giving new churches.

"Church leaders who desire to see their mission efforts survive and thrive need to give special attention to the hardwon insights of John Bangs' "The Mother Church." Bangs is not only a mission planter and pastor, but he brings the broader view of a church-planting leader ..."
-Charles J. Scalise, Ph.D., Professor of Church History, Fuller Theological Seminary

"The Mother Church will revolutionize the way we view and do birthing of mission churches."
-Kent J. Ingle, D.Min., Dean, College of Ministry, Northwest University

DAVID H. HIGGINS, M.A. (Cambridge), was Head of the Department of Italian Studies at the University of Bristol until retirement in 1995. His main professional field was the cultural and political history of Italy from Late Antiquity, through medieval to the Renaissance, together with comparative philology and linguistics. This was accompanied by an interdisciplinary professional interest in comparative early medieval British and Italian archaeology and history. His major publications include the critical apparatus of Dante's Divine Comedy in the World Classics series, Oxford University Press (1981, 2nd edition 1993, reprinted 2008), and many articles and reviews in journals such as Dante Studies, The Modern Language Review, The Journal of Ecclesiastical History and archaeological serials including the Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, The Council for British Archaeology - South West, Bristol and Avon Archaeology and short works for the Bristol branch of the Historical Association.

Today's seminary and religious-education instructors are expected to design and redesign their courses more nimbly than in the past. We have to adapt our courses to novel learning environments, for more diverse learners, toward more diverse vocations. At the same time, institutional rewards for time invested in course design are fewer than ever. Understanding Bible by Design introduces the reader to UbD: an approach to course design that is proven time-efficient and grounded in the instructor's most closely-held convictions about her subject matter's "big ideas and essential questions." This book's contributors (one in Old Testament, one in New Testament, and one in Jewish Studies) demonstrate the value of UbD for the Biblical Studies instructor, whether at seminary or university, face-to-face or online, from the intimate seminar to the massive MOOC. Lester's synopsis of course design and suggested action is followed by a collaborative dialogue with Jane S. Webster and Christopher M. Jones. Webster and Jones provide practical commentary regarding the successful implementation of Lester's proposed approaches.

For at least the past two decades, international Anglicanism has been gripped by a crisis of identity: what is to be the dynamic between autonomy and interdependence? Where is authority to be located? How might the local relate to the international? How are the variously diverse national churches to be held together 'in communion'? "A Still More Excellent Way" presents a comprehensive account of the development and nature of metropolitical authority and the place of the 'province' within Anglican polity, with an emphasis on the contemporary question of how international Anglicanism is to be imagined and take shape. The first comprehensive historical examination of the development of metropolitical authority and provincial polity within international Anglicanism, the book offers hope to those wearied by the deadlock and frustration around questions of authority which have dogged Anglicanism.

The ground of higher education is shifting, but learning ecosystems around the world have much more space than MOOCs and trendy online platforms can fill, and Loewen shows how professors have an indisputable pedagogical edge that gives them a crucial role to play in higher education. By adopting the collaborative pedagogical process in this book, professors can create effective social learning experiences that connect students to peers and professional colleagues in real-time. Loewen moves beyond surface questions about technology in the classroom to a problem best addressed by educators in bricks-and-mortar institutions: if students are social learners, how do we teach in a way that promotes actual dialogue for learning? Designing learning experiences that develop intercultural competencies puts the test to students' social inclinations, and engagement with course material increases when it's used to dig deeper into the specificities of their identity and social location. Loewen's approach to inter-institutional collaborative teaching will be explored with examples and working templates for collaborative design of effective social learning experiences.