Church Ministry

This audiobook is a guiding light for anyone who has pondered the nature of the Body of Christ and the multitude of churches in existence today. We earnestly encourage every Christian to delve into this audiobook. May the Lord grant you a profound vision of His Body and lead you into deep fellowship with Him and His people.

Countless books are designed to help leaders to become better leaders. But most resources neglect the underlying emotional struggles of both emerging and established leaders, who are often isolated and suffering in silence. Leadership professor Nicholas Rowe and counselor Sheila Wise Rowe offer their expertise in helping leaders process painful and traumatic experiences. Trauma contributes to how we lead others in either empowering or dysfunctional ways. Understanding how these experiences formed us is the beginning of the path to healing.

Kent Dobson climbed Mount Sinai in search of the God who had eluded him. Instead he got bitten by a camel. Dobson was climbing the ladder of Christianity, too: a worship leader, teacher, and ultimately senior pastor of one of the largest and most prominent churches in America. But he was growing disillusioned with the faith, at least inside the shell of organized religion.

Reflecting on John Paul II's greatness, drawing on first-hand interviews to paint an intimate portrait of the new Pope, and boldly assessing the Church's current condition, God's Choice is an invaluable book for anyone seeking to understand the Catholic future and the larger human future the Church will help to shape.

What does the Bible mean when it says we are to fear God? Is it difficult for you to reconcile the two sides of God’s nature - His wrath and His love? Mattie Montgomery teaches that a right pursuit of the fear, fire, and fullness of God can lead you into the knowledge of a side of God you may never have imagined before. He notes that the fear of God does not mean that we should be afraid of God; but rather, that we should be afraid to be against Him.

What was it like to be a woman in the biblical period? It depended, in part, on who you were: a queen, a judge, a primary wife, a secondary wife, a widow, a slave, or some other kind of "ordinary woman". In Women in the Bible, Jaime Clark-Soles investigates how women are presented in Scripture, taking into account cultural views of both ancient societies as well as our own. Most of Christendom still excludes women from religious leadership, and many Christians invoke the Bible to circumscribe women's leadership in the public square and in the home as well.

This sharp commentary on the rise and current decline of Western Civilization touches on historical moments - including the building of early universities in the Middle Ages and the American Revolution - and figures - including Augustine, Acquinas, Edmund Burke, and Adam Smith - that exemplify the faith-reason synthesis at the heart of Western Civilization, as well as the modern villains that threaten to destroy it.

There was something different about the way Jesus communicated with the lost: He didn't force answers upon people, he asked questions. So why don't we? Following Christ's lead, Randy Newman has been using a questioning style of evangelism for decades. In this provocative book, he provides practical insights to help Christians engage others in meaningful spiritual conversations. He challenges us to examine how we think about people, their questions, and our crucial message.

In recent years the American media have portrayed the evangelical movement as a conservative force in society equating it with fundamentalism. Many people equate evangelical Christianity with conservatism in religion, politics, theology and social attitudes. But is this the whole story of evangelicalism? Roger Olson's new book sets forth evidence that the link between evangelicalism and conservatism has not always been as strong as it is today in the popular mind.

Shattering the idea that Christianity is a journey free from storms and hardships, Into the Gray explores the connection between broken humanity and God's plan of reconciliation, and takes on issues regarding the church, ministry, and serving the poor that Christians often negate to keep the gospel of Christ from "wrecking" their lives.

Despite Jesus' prayer that all Christians "be one", divisions have been epidemic in the body of Christ from the beginning to the present. We cluster in theological groups, gender groups, age groups, ethnic groups, educational, and economic groups. We criticize freely those who disagree with us, don't look like us, don't act like us, and don't even like what we like. With a personal touch and the trained eye of a social psychologist, Cleveland brings to bear the latest studies and research on the unseen dynamics at work that tend to separate us from others.

Insights from Philip Yancey's personal pilgrimage away from and back to the church. Why are there so many more professing Christians than churchgoing Christians? Is it because something is wrong with the church? In his candid, thought-provoking manner, award-winning author Philip Yancey reveals the reasons behind his own journey back from skepticism to wholehearted participation in the church, and weighs the church's human failings against its compelling worth as the body of Christ.

Brokenness, communion, servanthood, and obedience. These four characteristics provide the framework for Leadership as an Identity. Examining each trait, Loritts undermines the pervasive and unbiblical assumptions about leadership.

In Writing Worship: How to Craft Heartfelt Songs for the Church, the Christian songwriter will explore the depths of the heart, immersing in relationship with God before learning practical worship songwriting skills. Award-winning songwriter Krissy Nordhoff helps lyricists and musicians sharpen their skills in starting songs, adding dimension, removing distractions, maintaining momentum, and co-writing.

In her timely book, author, Floydise Paquette, effectively confronts the age-old issue that has been plaguing the church and creating division, drama, strife and contention. With wisdom, grace and revelatory insight, the issue of jealousy, in its manifold manifestations, is being exposed to be overthrown.

Celebrity—defined as social power without proximity—has led to abuses of power, the cultivation of persona, and a fixation on profits. In light of the fall of famous Christian leaders in recent years, the time has come for the church to reexamine its relationship to celebrity. Award-winning journalist Katelyn Beaty explores the ways fame has reshaped the American church, explains how and why celebrity is woven into the fabric of the evangelical movement, and identifies many ways fame has gone awry in recent years.

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?

Shepherding a congregation comes with many responsibilities. In addition to preparing weekly sermons, pastors manage church teams and minister to a variety of people with different needs. Attempting to tackle these roles separately can be exhausting and may eventually affect the health of the church. How should leaders integrate their roles to effectively shepherd their congregations?

Every day of the week in contemporary America (and especially on Sundays) people raise money for their religious enterprises - for clergy, educators, buildings, charity, youth-oriented work, and more. In a fascinating look into the economics of American Protestantism, James Hudnut-Beumler examines how churches have raised and spent money from colonial times to the present and considers what these practices say about both religion and American culture.

The church needs sold-out, all-in Jesus-followers. Disciples and disciple-makers. But where do you find them? How do you develop them? Look no further than how Jesus did it. The greatest leader and mentor of all time poured into 12 guys for a season. Those lives multiplied to build the church to over two billion who declare their belief in Christ today.