While many pastors and ministry leaders desire to increase their congregation's participation in missions, many lack the knowledge or management tools to do it effectively. This book will expand your vision and help give you the confidence to fully participate in Kingdom work. You will be equipped to: Make better ministry decisions with clarity and objectivity. Develop and define ministry vision, purpose, goals and results. Create standards of excellence that reflect God's high ideals. Discover God's special purpose for your church or missions program. Increase awareness, inspire enthusiasm and encourage volunteer commitment. Foster a team environment of mutual respect, responsibility and accountability. Because this book: Provides simple, yet proven and effective examples of ministry guidelines. Shows missions teams how to flexibly respond to changes on the missions field. Outlines techniques to improve communication between church ministries. Provides specific examples of how to increase missions funding & involvement. Instructs churches and teams how to make plans, set goals and define success. By combining the gifts God has given you with proven tools and methods, you will become a more effective leader and your ministry teams will be more successful, enabling you to be both faithful and fruitful.

To Jews, the first five books of the Old Testament - The Torah - is 'the law, God's direct communication to Moses about the origins of the world, man's place in it, and how we should live. Non-Jews may not recognize the name Torah, but as the basis of both the Christian Bible and of Judeo-Christian culture, the stories, scenarios and commandments of Torah have a profound archetypal influence on the worldview and daily experience of most westerners. The thesis of Torah Mora makes Torah the 'emotional DNA God provided for our use and benefit. Just as DNA instructs the body on its proper functioning, Torah instructs us on how to function emotionally within ourselves, our relationships and society - and gives us a deep view into how the universe functions as well. For example the Hebrew word for love: ohev (alef he bet) is very similar to the word for father (alef bet) and to enemy (alef youd bet). If we assume a logical pattern behind Torah's words and letters we can deduce that love is simply a parental energy with the letter he added, and that an enemy is a parental energy with the letter youd added. function, we find that he often signifies the larger universe outside the self, while youd denotes the individual's inner consciousness. Hence, love is a fatherly energy that is supported and upheld by the outer universe, while an enemy is a paternalizing person whose dominance is upheld only by his own inner drive.

"Weapons of Mass Distraction" is a compilation of sermons that challenge us to think and act responsibly on current social issues that promise to have a huge impact on the planet's well-being in the coming century.

Globalization, the attack on democracy, the mistreatment of women, and the growing AIDS pandemic are but a few of the topics taken on by these courageous sermons that dare to challenge the prevailing mindset that labels democratic protest as unpatriotic.

This collection of hope-inspiring messages, accessible to persons of all faiths, is anything but anti-American. In fact, they speak to the very core values held high by this country for so long.

"Weapons of Mass Distraction" is a welcomed theological dialogue with the great social issues of our generation, coming from the perspective of the "silenced majority" those who's protest cries against wars of aggression did not make the evening news; and who's votes in the 2000 presidential election were ignored to the detriment of millions.

Finally, "Weapons of Mass Distraction" is a call to action; a call to all those who "see the trouble we are in" and have the courage enough to do the work of rebuilding the walls.

So Ya' Wanna' Be A Teacher tells the whole amazing true story of what really goes on in the typical American public school. The author was an English teacher for thirty-four years in a middle, junior-high and high school and knows all about the problem student, problem classes, crazy' problem parents, student fighting, cheating, the Educational Aristocracy, nutty field trips, administrivia and bizarre assembly programs. The teacher in his career had taught over four thousand students, broken up over two-hundred and fifty fist fights, participated in over seven hundred fire drills and listened to loud school bells ring over a hundred and fifty thousand times.

The Bible is filled with many familiar stories of mystical experiences -- Moses and the burning bush, Samuel in the temple, the angel's visit to Mary, and Paul's Damascus road experience are just a few examples -- and many modern Christians have equally powerful experiences of the Lord's life-changing power and presence.

In this follow-up volume to Vision Stories, 84 contributors share their authentic, intensely personal accounts of encountering the divine, including visions, healing miracles, and answers to prayer. Each vignette manifests the indescribable joy, comfort, and peace we experience in God's presence. And because each personal story also illustrates a scripture passage, Sharing Visions is a valuable preaching resource. But even more, this is inspiring reading for personal devotion and spiritual growth.

By its very nature, the ideals of religion entail sin and failure. Judaism has its own language and framework for sin that expresses themselves both legally and philosophically. Both legal questions - circumstances where sin is permissible or mandated, the role of intention and action - as well as philosophical questions - why sin occurs and how does Judaism react to religious crisis - are considered within this volume. This book will present the concepts of sin and failure in Jewish thought, weaving together biblical and rabbinic studies to reveal a holistic portrait of the notion of sin and failure within Jewish thought.

This collection of 52 children's sermons is designed to captivate and educate young children. Busy clergy are constantly searching for ready- to-use, interactive children's sermons that will stimulate the thinking and capture the interest of both youngsters and adults in the congregation. These messages are presented to challenge, nurture, teach, and enlighten children as they take their first steps of faith. They cover a wide variety of topics. Some are object lessons while others are story lessons, but all are lessons that will leave an impression on those who hear them.
Imagine the curious anticipation of the children and the congregation as the pastor/leader reaches into a plastic garbage bag and distributes empty pizza boxes, old newspapers, and soft drink cans to introduce "God, the Recycler," the one who can make everything new. Watch them readily grasp the concept as they observe a game of tug-of-war in which all the participants are on the same team, demonstrating how in the church we all pull together for a common purpose and no one struggles to pull anyone into the mud. These brief sketches are representative of the many well-loved children's sermons created, collected, and delivered during the years of this staff pastor's ministry.
Teresa L. Major is an ordained Baptist minister currently serving as Associate Pastor of Skipwith Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia. She holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, a Master of Arts in Christian Education degree from the Presbyterian School of Christian Education, and a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary, Richmond.

Invites us to engage in the creative process, live creative, authentic, playful lives. Berryman invites the reader into a creative process that explores what it means to be spiritually mature, starting with Jesus' injunction to "become like a child." What does this mean at the literal level? the figurative level? the mystical level? the ethical level? The structure of the process parallels the book's organization and the structure of Christian worship, as well as the arc of life itself. The steps on this journey begin when we enter, and the world of childlike maturity opens to us as we respond with inarticulate wonder and gratitude. Berryman includes stories and examples from his long career working with children, which adds warmth and appeal to the book. He has described this volume as his "summary, theological statement."

This collection of essays constitute an extended argument for an anthropocentric, human-focused, study of religious practices. The basic premise of the argument, offered in the opening section, is that there is nothing special or extraordinary about human behaviors and constructs that are claimed to have uniquely religious status and authority. Instead, they are fundamentally human and so the scholar of religion is engaged in nothing more or less than studying humans across time and place and all their complex existence-that includes creating more-than-human beings and realities. As an extended and detailed example of such an approach, the second part of the book contains essays that address practices, rhetoric and other data in early Christianities within Greco-Roman cultures and religions. The underlying aim is to insert studies of the New Testament and non-canonical texts, most often presented as "biblical studies," into the anthropocentric study of religion proposed in the opening section. For a general reading of modern biblical scholarship makes clear the assumption that the Christian bible is a "sacred text" whose principal raison d'etre is to stand, fetish-like, as the foundational and highest authority in matters moral, ritual or theological; how might we instead approach the study of these texts if they are nothing more or less than human documents deriving from situations that were themselves all too human? Braun's Jesus and Addiction to Origins seeks to answer just that question-doing so in a way that readers working outside Christian origins will undoubtedly find useful applications for the people, places, and historical periods that they study.

New England pastor Jonathan Edwards encourages Christians struggling through the imperfections of life here on earth to experience the perfect love of God in communion with the Holy Spirit.