This academic portfolio of Jeffrey A Brady's selected works show a good cross-section of his mind and heart. With everything from theology work to sermon manuscripts to personal prayers and other essays, there is a little bit of everything here. Completed at the conclusion of his Master of Divinity program at Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University, this could be used as a ministry resource, enjoyable spare-time reading, or even just as a beautiful placeholder on your bookshelf. No matter how you enjoy this book, thank you for purchasing it. May you enjoy Mr. Brady's seminary journey as much as he did.

During the Tang dynasty (618-907), changes in political policies, the religious landscape, and gender relations opened the possibility for Daoist women to play an unprecedented role in religious and public life. Women, from imperial princesses to the daughters of commoner families, could be ordained as Daoist priestesses and become religious leaders, teachers, and practitioners in their own right. Some achieved remarkable accomplishments: one wrote and transmitted texts on meditation and inner cultivation; another, a physician, authored a treatise on therapeutic methods, medical theory, and longevity techniques. Priestess-poets composed major works, and talented priestess-artists produced stunning calligraphy. In Gender, Power, and Talent, Jinhua Jia draws on a wealth of previously untapped sources to explain how Daoist priestesses distinguished themselves as a distinct gendered religious and social group. She describes the life journey of priestesses from palace women to abbesses and ordinary practitioners, touching on their varied reasons for entering the Daoist orders, the role of social and religious institutions, forms of spiritual experience, and the relationships between gendered identities and cultural representations. Jia takes the reader inside convents and cloisters, demonstrating how they functioned both as a female space for self-determination and as a public platform for both religious and social spheres. The first comprehensive study of the lives and roles of Daoist priestesses in Tang China, Gender, Power, and Talent restores women to the landscape of Chinese religion and literature and proposes new methodologies for the growing field of gender and religion.

The Second Vatican Council (1963-65) asked Catholic sisters to adapt their rules to the needs of modern culture. But how could they know what to keep and what to discard, if they did not understand the origins and functions of their rules? To answer these questions, Sister Ewens studied church laws of the past and their influence on the present, and analyzed sisters' roles in nineteenth-century American society. She wanted to help religious communities, including her own Dominican congregation, (of Sinsinwa, WI) to understand their rules and roles, so as to better discern future directions. Along the way she discovered that many rules dated back to medieval times. She chronicles sisters' struggles to live those obsolete rules in pioneer settings; their contributions to education, nursing and social services; their encounters with bigotry; how they transformed the public perception of Catholicism; the dangers of wearing the habit in public; and much, much more. Vatican officials who question American sisters' roles today could learn from this book why sisters' lives had to evolve in response to the call of the Council.

Within these pages Dr. Tull shares the poignant stories and rich insights that shaped his life and enriched his ministry. These "life lessons" did more than simply improve his ministerial effectiveness; they were often the difference between bitterness and forgiveness, isolation and community, burnout and renewal. Many of these insights came with an ample share of negative fallout. The author's intent in sharing his unique take on ministerial life is that readers might claim these "lessons" as their own-and do so earlier in their journey and without all the personal struggle. The author's hope for those who answer the call to ministry is not that they merely survive all the pressures, distractions, and struggles that come with the job, but that they are able to sustain, in the very midst of ministry, a sense of meaning, purpose, and passion.

Ministry Mess Management is directed principally at Christian ministry leaders and presumes that Christian ministry leaders subscribe to biblically based principles and Christ-centered management. It is our humble attempt to examine ministry failures and malperformance rooted in breeches of one or more of those biblical principles. We will demonstrate the close link between biblical principles and wise management, indeed a linkage based in God's reality. They go hand in hand. Necessary management decisions, including gritty and distasteful ones such as terminations, should be as much grounded in biblical principles as good management principles, not simply pragmatism or financial need. Furthermore, we invite you to think, and to frame, organizational behavior (and failure) within these values and wisdom. We wish to encourage, even urge, Christ-centered boards and managers to discerningly understand, detect and courageously be able to expeditiously act, yet with grace, out of a sense of biblical necessity in an organizational context when danger signs based both in biblical and sound management principles are flashing warnings. Governing and executive leadership are sobering responsibilities with, we believe, transcendent effects.

Embrace A New Dimension Of Leadership

As a Kingdom Driven Entrepreneur you are called to be a leader in the marketplace, truly impacting lives and advancing the Kingdom of God through your business.

In this book, author David A. Burrus reveals 7 key principles that will transform your life in every area of leadership that God has called you to. Filled with memorable stories from Burrus' personal life as well as from the Word of God, you will be inspired, challenged, and compelled to action to flow in the fullness of your God-given potential and capability.

About The Author

David A. Burrus is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, philanthropist, and Kingdom Driven Entrepreneur. He addresses thousands of people each year on personal and professional development. His vision as an extraordinary leader is to get people from where they are to where they never have been.

Pastor's Publishing Guidebook: A Clergy Church Publishing Guide For Publishing Sermons, Articles, Writings, Blog Posts and Newsletter Articles Into a Best Selling Book. +Have you ever wondered what to do with all your preached messages? +Have you ever wished there was a way for your members who missed your sermon last week to benefit from it or receive it again? +Have you ever written a really good newsletter article and wondered if there was another way to get it out for people to read? Now there is a sure and easy to follow system for you to take all your inspired writings and publish them for your Church members and others across the community and even around the world to receive and read. Publisher and Author, The Reverend William R. McBride has compiled sure and easy tips for guiding you through the entire process of writing and publishing your words. It is far easier than you might think to publish. Reverend McBride and Julie Wood have combined their skills and talents to create and offer to you all the tools, tips, and help you will need so you can become a published author. This ministers handbook, in an easy to read, step by step manner shows you how you can finally reach your dream of church publishing. You can publish your book without going into debt or filling your garage or office with unsold boxes of books. Outlined in this guidebook are the necessary and important steps you must embark on today in order to take all those sermons, articles, blog posts, newsletter pieces and writings and get them organized and in print. The skills and tools of Rev. McBride and Julie Wood are detailed in several affordable publishing packages completely outlined and explained in this guidebook. No longer do you need to go the traditional publishing route and give away your hard earned money with no solid hope of ever making a dime or reaching your people and other hungry spiritual readers. Self Publishing by following the process outlined and offered by Rev. McBride and Julie Wood in this Pastor's Publishing Guidebook will get you published in 30 days or less. Rev. Bill and Julie have as of this date published over 31 successful books on Amazon for Kindle and Create Space for print on demand. They know what they are doing in the publishing world, having a #1 Best Seller in the Amazon Kindle Store and many other of their books residing in the top 100 best seller's list on Amazon. Today, by investing in this guidebook, you can begin to see the daylight for your publishing dreams and know that very soon you will be able to say, "I am a published author."