Living Ministries

What can the incredible life of Moses teach us about modern Christianity? When you face your personal Red Sea, will you be prepared like Moses was? In Great Lives: Moses, pastor and bestselling author Charles Swindoll gives us the facts based squarely on the truth revealed in God's Word. He also fills in the fine-line details of Moses' life with emotion and feeling, because Moses, like all of us, was a human being with faults and frailties. And finally, Swindoll helps us apply the lessons of Moses' life to our own daily dilemmas.

Every church is driven by some controlling force: tradition, finances, programs, events, personalities, or even the building itself. But author and pastor Dr. Rick Warren, the founder of Saddleback Valley Community Church in California, believes that a church can only be truly healthy if it becomes "purpose-driven," built around the 5 goals Jesus stated in the New Testament. Dr. Warren's illuminating work outlines a proven 5-part strategy that will enable your church to become warmer through fellowship, deeper through discipleship, stronger through worship, broader through ministry, and larger through evangelism. By shifting the focus away from church-building programs, Dr. Warren emphasizes a people-building, inclusive process that will allow your church to grow without compromising its message and mission.

We’ve never been more educated and entertained. We have technological tools our parents could only dream of, and we are saturated with information, amusement, and recreation. Yet more than ever, we are starving for hope. After 40 years of counseling and ministry, Max Lucado has learned that nothing lifts the desperate, weary heart like the promises of God. In a world full of despair, depression, anxiety, and instability, we do not need more opinions or hunches; we need the definitive declarations of our mighty and loving God.

What can the call to discipleship, the adherence to the word of Jesus, mean today to the businessman, the soldier, the laborer, or the aristocrat? What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will for us today? Drawing on the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer answers these timeless questions by providing a seminal reading of the dichotomy between "cheap grace" and "costly grace."

Dallas Willard spent his life making eternal living concrete for his friends. After his unexpected passing in 2013, the kaleidoscope of memories and the diversity of the lives he had touched could not be confined to one or even two memorial services but three. It is this wide breadth of impact that inspired friends, family, colleagues, students, and leaders of the church to gather their reflections on this celebrated yet humble theologian and philosopher.

The stories we read--and the conversations we have about them--help shape family traditions, create lifelong memories, and become part of our legacy. Reading aloud not only has the power to change a family—it has the power to change the world. But we all know that connecting deeply with our families can be difficult in our busy, technology-driven society. Reading aloud is one of the best ways to be fully present with our children, even after they can read themselves, but it isn't always easy to do.

Most of us have times when, if we are honest, we’d admit to feeling like our lives are embarrassingly small and insignificant. Times when it seems like we’re going through a whole lot of pain and striving without much to show for it. Like our daily pursuits don’t really matter in the long run. At times like that, we can’t help wondering if we really matter - to the world or even to God. In Chasing Vines, Beth Moore gives us a new hope, revealing the abundant secrets of a fruitful, Kingdom-building, God-pleasing life.

In her new audiobook, New York Times best-selling author Joyce Meyer explores a life lived in complete and total dependence on God. Drawing on her own experiences and inspiration from the word of God, Joyce makes the case that in every area of your life - spiritually, relationally, emotionally, financially - you can trust that God has your very best in store. This audiobook will both equip and encourage, as you learn how to "trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding".

This is a motivating, provocative look at the awesome potential trapped within you, waiting to be realized. This audiobook will cause you to be uncomfortable with your present state of accomplishment and dissatisfied with resting on your past success. Includes a study guide for personal or group use.

You don't have to be perfect to do God's work. Look no further than the twelve disciples, whose many weaknesses are forever preserved throughout the pages of the New Testament. Join best-selling author John MacArthur in Twelve Ordinary Men as he draws principles from Christ's careful, hands-on training of the original disciples for today's modern disciple, you!

Changing Our Mind has helped thousands of families and congregations carefully and compassionately rethink traditional religious teachings about full LGBTQ inclusion. With growing scientific evidence, our wider society has taken big steps, but too many religious families and communities have not kept up. Dr. David Gushee offers a powerful, inspiring message of hope and healing by helping Christians to return to Bible study, prayer, and reflection in a way that creates a vision for a more inclusive church.

The challenge every man faces...the fight every man can win! From movies and television, to print media and the Internet, men are constantly faced with the assault of sensual images. It is impossible to avoid such temptations... but, thankfully, not impossible to confront them and gain victory over them! Millions have found Every Man's Battle the single greatest resource for overcoming the struggle and remaining strong in the face of temptation.

Turning the other cheek does not mean standing by while the enemies of God dismantle Christian civilization and brainwash our children. Decrying the cowardice that masquerades as meekness, Eric Metaxas summons the Church to battle. An attenuated and unbiblical “faith” based on what Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace” has sapped the spiritual vitality of millions of Americans. Paying lip service to an insipid “evangelism,” they shrink from combating the evils of our time. Metaxas refutes the pernicious lie that fighting evil politicizes Christianity.

The experience of shame is more common than we think. It isn't confined to those who have failed or gone through trauma or who have been told as children they would never amount to anything. People who are immensely successful also struggle with a sense they are deficient in some way. Drawing on a wide range of sources including scripture, spiritual formation classics, psychology, and relational neuroscience, and using a rich variety of stories from his own life, Ken Shigematsu shows how a deep, experiential encounter with the love of God can heal us of our shame and make us whole.

Beginning from Genesis and working all the way through the story line of the Bible, Worthy demonstrates the significant and yes, even surprising, ways that God has used women to accomplish his kingdom goals. Like men, they are created in his image, and their lives reflect and declare his worth. Worthy will enable and encourage both men and women to embrace this true and lofty vision of God’s creation, plan, and their value in his eyes.

The Christian life is more than thinking - but not less. And it's more than feeling - but not less. It's more than doing as well - but never less. Healthy followers of Jesus engage their minds, hearts, and hands in glorifying him. This volume, built on the 2010 Desiring God National Conference and John Piper's recent book Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God argues that thinking and the affections of the heart are inseparable. Our emotions fuel our thoughts for God. Likewise, hard thinking about God leads to deeper joy in our relationship with him....

Best-selling author Bruce Wilkinson shows how to identify and overcome the obstacles that keep millions from living the lives they were created for. He begins with a compelling modern-day parable about Ordinary, who dares to leave the Land of Familiar to pursue his Big Dream. With the help of the Dream Giver, Ordinary begins the hardest and most rewarding journey of his life.

What is the way forward for the church? Tragically, in recent years, Christians have gotten used to revelations of abuses of many kinds in our most respected churches―from Willow Creek to Harvest, from Southern Baptist pastors to Sovereign Grace churches. Respected author and theologian Scot McKnight and former Willow Creek member Laura Barringer wrote this book to paint a pathway forward for the church.

Best-selling author Myles Munroe reveals in this book the key to personal fulfillment: purpose. We must pursue purpose because our fulfillment in life depends upon our becoming what we were born to be and do. In Pursuit of Purpose will guide you on that path to finding God's purpose for your life.

Our emotions are complex. Some of us seem able to ignore our feelings, while others feel controlled by them. But most of us would admit that we don’t always know what to do with how we feel. The Bible teaches us that our emotions are an indispensable part of what makes us human―and play a crucial role in our relationships with God and others. Exploring how God designed emotions for our good, this book shows us how to properly engage with our emotions.