Be Equipped to Prepare and Deliver Engaging, Biblical, and Effective Topical Sermons Sooner or later, every preacher will come upon a situation where they need to preach a topical sermon. Yet few are taught to preach topically. Even preachers who are gifted in expositing the Scriptures may struggle to deliver a topical sermon that is engaging, culturally relevant, and true to the biblical text. Worse, many pastors worry these messages undermine confidence in the Bible or its authority, leading to a human-centered rather than a God-focused sermon. But that doesn't have to be the case. In Topical Preaching in a Complex World, Sam Chan and Malcolm Gill answer these objections and chart a path for how preachers can deliver faithful and effective topical messages. First, they address the biblical, theological, and cultural reasons pastors should add topical sermons to their preaching repertoire. Then, they introduce a straightforward, four-fold approach for preaching a topical message and answer important questions like these: How do you approach a topic with the proper interpretative lens? How can you speak to two or more audiences with the same sermon? What should you consider theologically, culturally, and pastorally in your preparation? How do you trace the topic back to Christ? How can you better connect with your audience? Best of all, they help readers craft a message that says something people truly need (and want) to hear! Filled with wit, humor, and wisdom from decades of preaching, this book will equip preachers, pastors, ministry leaders, and students to preach relevant, biblical, and engaging topical sermons. Author Sam Chan says, "Just over a decade ago, I was asked by an organization to speak at their end-of-year dinner. They wanted me to address the topic of being a Christian single, but I had no idea how to prepare and deliver a topical talk. When the night arrived, I preached an old three-point expository sermon and merely changed the ending to include some application on singleness. At best, I got some polite comments afterwards. At worst, people's looks indicated that my biblical talk had little relevance for them. They could not have been less fooled by my disingenuous workaround. I went home vowing never to repeat that poor performance. I felt like the unfaithful servant who had not adequately used what talents had been given to him. As a result, I have dedicated the last decade of my preaching ministry to overcoming and mastering the art of topical preaching. This book is a product of that journey."

The first comprehensive textbook on effective church planting from a veteran church planter. The Apostle Paul was a veteran church planter who "laid a foundation like a wise and master builder" and there is much we can learn from his example. Paul indicated that there were basic skills and experiences required to successfully plant a church. Church Plantology examines the wide variety of church planting methods and ideologies in contemporary pastoral practice and outlines a biblical model based on the New Testament. During his time in prison, Paul spent much of his time writing to Titus, Timothy, and others who'd served alongside him in the trenches to complete their training as church plantings. We can continue to apply these time-tested, proven methods, following the pioneering example of the early church. Today, the casualty rate in is high. What if we could reduce the odds of failing? Church Plantology by Peyton Jones is a robust guide to planting that will help planters to provide the foundation necessary to survive beyond the initial first years so that they don't end up a walking statistic.

12th Annual Outreach Resource of the Year Recommendation (Leadership) Pastors and church leaders often fall into the trap of people-pleasing. Charles Stone?s research on thousands of pastors and ministry leaders demonstrates the dangers of approval-motivated leadership. Bringing together biblical insights and neuroscience findings, Stone shows why we fall into people-pleasing patterns and what we can do to overcome these tendencies. With practical tools for individuals and teams, Stone offers concrete resources to help you and your leadership minimize people-pleasing and have more effective ministry.

The World Is Desperate for What You Have As believers, we have received unimaginable grace from the Father. Unfortunately, we often separate our spiritual life from our everyday lives. We fail to value the grace given to us, and we miss the opportunity to bring heaven to earth. And then we wonder what light we can bring to a world in deep darkness. With depth and insight, Dr. John Jackson shows that grace distributed is the key to sweeping social change, hope and revival. Through biblical teaching and prophetic revelation, Dr. Jackson helps you partner with the Holy Spirit to step into the fullness of all God has called you to be--and to unleash the redemptive presence of Jesus in your home, workplace and community. God wants to use you right now, right where you are. It's time to become a heavenly ambassador that shares the grace you've been given with a world aching for transformation. "In this catalytic book lies an essential message for the Church today. I highly recommend it."--KRIS VALLOTTON "This Spirit-filled and deeply vulnerable book is a gift to us all. Don't miss it!"--MARGARET FEINBERG "Discover your God-given abilities and use them to usher the grace and love of Christ into the here and now."--SAMUEL RODRIGUEZ

Alan Hirsch's paradigm-shifting classic remains the definitive statement of the church as dynamic missional movement. The bestselling first edition ignited a conversation about how to harness the power of movements for the future growth of the church. In this major update, Hirsch shares significant insights gained along the way, provides fresh new examples of growing churches, and reflects on the last ten years of the missional movement. The new edition has been thoroughly updated and revised throughout and includes charts, diagrams, an expanded glossary of terms, new appendices, an index, a new foreword by Ed Stetzer, and a new afterword by Jeff Vanderstelt. Known for his innovative approach to mission, Hirsch is widely acknowledged as a thought leader and mission strategist for churches across the Western world. He considers The Forgotten Ways the guiding work to all of his other writings. The book explores the factors that come together to generate high-impact, exponentially explosive, spiritually vibrant Jesus movements in any time and context. This extensive update to Hirsch's influential work offers a system of six vital keys to movements that will continue shape the future of the missional movement for years to come.

In today's uncertain world, storms will arise that test your faith in a loving heavenly Father. At times, the winds and waves of the world's deceptions will roll in and seek to erode your confidence in God. Without a firm foundation in the truth of God's Word, you may be tempted to go off course and accept less than God's best for you. However, when you hear Jesus' words, receive them, and put them into practice, you will construct a life the torrents cannot shake, "because it was well built" (Luke 6:48).

The Purple Book will help you understand foundational truths that God wants you to hear on topics such as sin, salvation, spiritual gifts, prayer, worship, generosity, and evangelism. It will show you how the Bible is "God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). It will help you understand that the faith you hold has true power to change lives and transform nations. It will give you a solid foundation the enemy cannot dismantle—and a heart shaped by knowledge of God's Word.

2014 Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year (Church Health) Sometimes we get so caught up in the power of Jesus shouting from the cross, "It is finished " that we forget that Jesus started something. What Jesus started was a movement that began small, with intimate conversations designed to build disciples into apostles who would go out in the world and seed it with God's kingdom vision. That movement grew rapidly and spread wide as people recognized the truth in it and gave their lives to the power of it. That movement is still happening today, and we are called to play our part in it.

Church growth models have often been long on promises and short on disciple-making. We continue to watch consistent church attendance shrink, and our desire to reach the lost is infected with a need for self-validation by growing our numbers at any cost. If we believe that God wants his church to grow, where do we go from here? What is the future of the church? Drawing from his 20 years and 15,000 hours of consulting, author Will Mancini shares with pastors and ministry leaders the single most important insight he has learned about church growth. With plenty of salient stories and based solidly on the disciple-making methods found in Scripture, Future Church exposes the church's greatest challenge today, and offers 7 transforming laws of real church growth so that we can faithfully and joyfully fulfill Jesus's Great Commission.

When Christ calls people, he invites them on a journey--a journey taken together in community. We have reached a point in history, however, when we think of the church as a fixed place where isolated individuals show up, consume a Christian message, drink some coffee, and get on with their lives. The times demand, and the gospel proclaims, that we recover our identity as a church that is a people on a quest for the kingdom of heaven, formed intimately by a loving God and called onto a long journey for the sake of our neighbors and our world. InThe Missional Quest you?ll learn how to take your church on a long run, and how to sustain yourselves and one another along the way, through the power of God for the sake of the world.

Discipleship is the buzzword today. Many believers are contemplating in a fresh way what it means to take the Great Commission seriously. Rediscovering Discipleship takes the guesswork out of Christian maturity. Based on insights gained from a decade of personally making disciples, author and pastor Robby Gallaty tackles the two hindrances that keep believers from getting involved in making disciples: ignorance and uncertainty. Since many believers have never been personally disciple, they have no model to guide them in discipling others. Their ignorance of the process fuels their uncertainty, which leaves them crippled from the start. With simple principles that are easy to apply, Rediscovering Discipleship provides readers with the tools to follow the Great Commission-to go and actually make disciples who multiply and make disciples. Gallaty begins with a brief historical overview of the discipleship ministries of influential theologians, preachers, and pastors from years past, and then identifies roadblocks that hinder believers from becoming disciples before offering a step-by-step process for readers to immediately get started on the path to effective disciple making.

In today's climate of an ever-gathering darkness, no challenge is more vital than that of Jesus compelling His followers forward to take the gospel message into a lost and dying world. Such continues to be the burning passion and purpose of long-time professor and evangelist, Dr. Alvin L. Reid. This powerful festschrift, written in his honor, captures and explores topics related to Reid's personal ministry as a catalyst igniting within God's people the commitment to carry out Christ's Great Commission. In its pages, well-known Christian leaders and scholars address issues related to Great Commission leadership, history, strategies, and vision, which have characterized Reid's life work. A dynamic teacher, inspiring speaker, and accomplished author, Reid currently serves as professor of evangelism and student ministry occupying the Bailey Smith Chair of Evangelism at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. A Passion for the Great Commission provides an enduring testament to his legacy and ministry. This collection of writings from friends, colleagues, and former students, expressing their gratitude for Reid and his work, continues to fan the flame of conquest for the hearts and minds of an unbelieving world.

Never before have we seen the church degenerate at such a rapid pace. This is largely due to the church pursuing congregational growth instead of kingdom growth. The church is dying because our growth isn't based on strategies to reach the lost with the gospel. The time to change is now, we can't wait any longer. People's eternities are at stake. What is your church's priority? Are you more concerned with filling your building or furthering the Kingdom? This book will challenge you to evaluate just how important gospel-based evangelism is to you and your church, and call on you to restore an intentional evangelism strategy within the body. Hell will tremble when churches once again make evangelism the central theme of their strategy.

Seminary president Jeff Iorg looks back at the New Testament church in Antioch to find a biblical model of what healthy churches should look like today. Advising a principled approach in the context of this comparison, he shares methods for measuring church health that are based on hard data as well as discernable spiritual realities. Key areas of discussion include a church's need to emphasize the empowering of the Holy Spirit, advancing the gospel, changing lives, maintaining doctrinal integrity, resolving conflicts, strong leadership, and sacrificial living.

Veteran missionary David Hesselgrave and rising missional expert Ed Stetzer edit this engaging set of conversational essays addressing global mission issues in the third millennium. Key contributors are Charles E. Van Engen ("Mission Described and Defined"), the late Paul Hiebert ("The Gospel in Human Contexts: Changing Perspectives on Contextualization"), and the late Ralph Winter ("The Future of Evangelicals in Mission"). Those offering written responses to these essays include: (Van Engen) Keith Eitel, Enoch Wan, Darrell Guder, Andreas J. Kostenberger; (Hiebert) Michael Pocock, Darrell Whiteman, Norman L. Geisler, Avery Willis; (Winter) Scott Moreau, Christopher Little, Michael Barnett, and Mark Terry.

Christians are too often guilty of pledging their allegiance to the influential principalities and powers of this age rather than to Christ alone. In Holy Subversion, Trevin Wax challenges such behavior by urging a return to the subversive lifestyle of the earliest Christians. Their proclamation and demonstration that "Jesus is Lord" directly opposed the Caesar worship of their day.
Today, Christians in the West must choose between Jesus and our "Caesars": self, success, money, leisure, sex, power. What would it look like, asks Wax, if today's church reclaimed the communal, subversive nature of the gospel, intentionally undermining all contenders for our devotion? How would the message that "Jesus is Lord" change our thinking about our jobs, our families, and our church participation? Here this gifted pastor-theologian offers help in taking our faith public, dethroning modern-day Caesars, honoring the Lordship of Christ, and understanding the church as the ultimate counterculture-an embodiment of Christ's supremacy over all.

Welcome to the world's first urban century. How will you respond? For the first time ever, more people now live in cities than outside them. Cities offer both big headaches and vast opportunities, and agencies that once focused on rural work are increasingly turning their attention to urban centers. Join veteran researcher and missiologist Patrick Johnstone as he explores the fastest growing cities and megacities in the world, showing how Christian workers are addressing people's spiritual, physical, and social needs. In 1962 Patrick Johnstone left England's countryside to serve the bustling townships of apartheid-era South Africa. His pioneering of urban ministries changed his life. Journey with Patrick and Dean Merrill as they share God's heart for the city and introduce pastors, missionaries, and community workers who are addressing urbanization's key challenges. God has a heart for today's cities. See how you can join this urgent mission.

Why would a leader ever want to be mean? It's all about the vision. Almost every organization has a vision, but few stick to it over time. Even after short-term success, visions tend to blur, drift, and fade. Why does this happen? Accomplishing the vision requires intentionality. It requires consistency. It requires commitment. It requires courage. In Be Mean About the Vision, author Shawn Lovejoy challenges leaders to stay true to the vision-regaining and sustaining its trajectory over time. Lovejoy offers a proven strategy for relentlessly protecting our organization's guiding vision: Develop a vision people are willing to die for Keep the vision alive in us Align everyone around the vision Keep the vision from being compromised or even hijacked One thing is certain-if our church or organization is going to accomplish its mission, we're going to need to be: Determined. Resolute. Intentional. We're going to need to be willing to do whatever it takes to keep the vision from being detoured or derailed. Where there is no vision, people perish. They wander off in random directions. On the flip side, when everyone understands and embraces the vision, there is life, passion, growth, and success! And God will be glorified. As a leader the kindest, godliest, thing we can do is Be Mean About the Vision.

Churches in North America are bigger than ever, but their slow rate of growth cannot keep up with population increases. Existing churches simply cannot add enough new believers! The good news is that by multiplying--steadily and strategically planting new churches that, in turn, plant new churches--the global Church creates more of what Ralph Moore calls harvest points. In How to Multiply Your Church, Pastor Moore shows church leaders and pastors why multiplication is the key to growing God's global kingdom in their communities, and he offers them proven methods for implementing multiplication in their existing churches. Countless leaders have found an indispensable resource in starting a new church because of Pastor Moore's vast firsthand experience and practical wisdom. How to Multiply Your Church is the next leap forward for those who long to see God's kingdom increase.

Join three seasoned church-ministry experts on an insider's tour of the most innovative churches today! Discover a dozen types of innovation, each with profiles of congregations that have implemented that innovation. This is more than a show-and-tell tour, however. Each chapter offers a solid take-away for church leaders on how to learn and apply the appropriate innovation profiled. The authors also offer scripturally based assessments of both the positive and negatives implications of implementing each innovation, providing guidance and wisdom. There are many ways to present the gospel, and this timely book will serve as a springboard for church leaders scratching their heads and asking themselves, "What should we do next?" By learning from a dozen different church types, church leaders can become more intentional about exploring new directions and reaching more of the world for Christ.