Church Life
Showing all 21 results
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Grace To Grow
$19.99Read moreMost pastors pray for a healthy and vibrant church, a prosperous organization and transformative change among those they disciple, but many find themselves frustrated because they lack direction and feel as though they are spinning their wheels. They struggle to correct unhealthy patterns or do not have fresh vision for their ministry.
John K. Jenkins can relate. The first church he attended is best described as a shack with a bell and a steeple. The restroom facilities? An outhouse. When he accepted his first senior pastoral role, he ministered to 35 people on a good Sunday.
Today, Pastor Jenkins welcomes more than 11,000 worshipers to Sunday services, and thousands more participate virtually. And he has learned what it takes to help an organization function wisely and efficiently, no matter its size.
Grace to Grow reveals the lessons Jenkins has learned along the way. It is a guide to help pastors move their ministries from merely surviving to fully thriving, despite the challenging road ahead. He gives insight into his own journey as a young pastor and identifies biblical principles, strategies, and techniques that made the difference in the life of his church and his personal discipleship for almost four decades.
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Serve : Loving Your Church With Your Heart, Time And Gifts
$16.99Read moreThis book looks at the gospel of Jesus and the example of Jesus to motivate us to serve our church family sacrificially with our energy, time and gifts.
This is a great book for Christians who have grown weary over time, those who need help in identifying their gifts and gaining the confidence to offer them, and church members who are lacking the motivation to get started.
As we look to the example of Jesus, who “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45), we will be excited and equipped to use what God has given us to serve others with a renewed sense of purpose and joy. We will also see that we do not need to have any particularly impressive gifts or emulate anyone else in order to answer Jesus’ call to love one another.
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Welcome : Loving Your Church By Making Space For Everyone
$16.99Read moreWalking into church can be intimidating, whether for the first time or after a period of absence, whether you are a non-believer or a believer. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your church was a place where everyone received a warm welcome? A place where newcomers can quickly feel at home and where non-believers receive the welcome of God’s people alongside the welcome of Jesus?
This warm, practical book by Jen Oshman explores what the Bible says to help readers discover how to make space for others, however different they are to them, in their church and in their lives. She also gives practical advice, drawing on good practice from churches around the world in a range of situations. In a world of division, individualism and isolation, readers will see that their church can witness to Christ by being a place of welcome, community and connection.
Chapters include how Jesus welcomes us, the impact of welcoming in the early church, the effect of being siblings in Christ, how to welcome beyond Sunday, helpful systems and strategies, how our joy in Christ causes us to be outward-looking, and mirroring the glorious vision set out in Revelation.
Whether you’re a pastor looking to encourage your congregation to welcome others or a church member wanting to see unbelievers come to faith and help everyone feel part of the family, this book is for you.
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Gather : Loving Your Church As You Celebrate Christ Together
$16.99Read moreWhy do we meet on Sundays?
Now that technology allows us to access services remotely, many see little need to meet face to face every week. Others think that because we have a personal relationship with Jesus as Christians, church is an optional add-on. For some, they know deep down that there is a reason why gathering on Sundays is important, but they are weary and don’t feel excited about it. So what is the purpose of corporate worship, and what is our role in it?
In this book, Tony Merida highlights how in-person Sunday gatherings are central to God’s plans and to our faith and joy. He reminds believers of their privileges as citizens of heaven, members of God’s family and stones in God’s temple.
Readers will see how each part of a church service (preaching, praying, singing, baptism, Lord’s Supper and building each other up in conversations) are ways to enjoy and share God’s grace, and are therefore essential for spiritual endurance. You’ll also be reminded that your presence in corporate worship matters because you have a part to play in encouraging your brothers and sisters and spurring them to love and good deeds:
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)
Read this book to renew your understanding and enjoyment of going to church and to be excited by the ways in which your presence can encourage others.
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Belong : Loving Your Church By Reflecting Christ To One Another
$16.99Read moreAuthor Barnabas Piper states in the first chapter of his book:
“We are looking for something personal, something deeply meaningful, something with which we can identify. And this book is an invitation to find that in the church, because God wants us to …Part of God’s perfect strategy is offering hurting, tired, worn out, needy sinners like you and me a place to belong in … A place in which to encounter the profound, transformative, healing, restoring grace of Jesus Christ.”
This book explores how you can help to create a church where everybody feels at home: a place where fellow believers build genuine, honest, meaningful Christian relationships and enjoy deep fellowship as a community of believers.
You may be a new believer and wonder what it means to belong to a church; you may be reluctant to commit to your church because of past experiences; you may have recently relocated and want to find a church where you feel at home; or you may love your church and desire to commit to it more deeply and serve it more fully. Whatever the case, this book will help you to see that belonging to a church is a good gift from God, the outworking of our identity as brothers and sisters in Christ, and worth your time, love and commitment.
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Gods Vision For The Church
$14.99Read moreIn this compelling look at God’s vision and design for the body of Christ, internationally renowned Bible teacher Derek Prince describes the original blueprint for the church: loved, redeemed, transformed, and called. Discover deeper meaning through the pictures of God’s church from Ephesians, including the assembly, the body of Christ, the workmanship, the family, the temple, the bride, and the army. Explore the daily lifestyle of the local church as well as the future of all God’s people. Highlights include:
*The powerful, productive New Testament life
*God’s program of transformation
*Our place in God’s exciting community
*True fellowship among believers
*Our role in fulfilling the Great CommissionWe can be infused with a new sense of power and expectation as we learn what it means to be a vital member of the body of Christ. And we can help fulfill God’s vision for the church by becoming dynamic ambassadors of His message to a lost world.
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Our Fathers House
$14.99Read moreMost people visit a church for the first time either by invitation or reputation. Many books have been written on the subject of personal evangelism and the importance of being a bringer. This book however, explores the power of reputation specifically, God’s reputation as upheld and reflected in a church’s culture. Based on the story of the Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon and how her initial encounter with his kingdom left her breathless and astounded, this book explores the profound effect a church’s culture can have on the heart of a seeker as they pursue rumors of King Jesus and His Kingdom. It warns that Kingdom-culture doesn’t happen by chance, but only as every member of the King’s household lays down their own comfortable and familiar culture to surrender instead to the common culture of Heaven. This book has been written to inspire every Christian to vigilantly uphold Heaven’s culture when living, loving and serving in the Father’s House their local church. It implores us all not to waste another minute in engaging our God-given gifts and talents to create Heaven on Earth so that the Kingdom of God might be revealed in all of its glory to a world that is in desperate need of its wisdom, power and atmosphere. Only then, having tasted Heaven, will lost people truly desire to seek out this Kingdom s magnificent King!
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New Apostolic Reformation
$19.99Read moreThis critique provides a framework for understanding and interpreting the widespread but little-known New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement. As the authors state in the preface: “We write this book with two major goals in mind. First, to give people an idea of the sheer size and reach of the NAR movement. And second, to systematize its key teachings and practices and evaluate them on the basis of Scripture and careful reasoning – . In our judgment, the NAR perspective crosses these boundaries [that is, certain broad parameters, revealed in Scripture and practiced in the historical orthodox church], and it does so in part because of flawed theology rooted in a flawed understanding of Scripture. We wish to warn readers about a possible confusion: Some critics have linked the NAR movement with mainstream Pentecostalism and charismatics. We do not do this. In fact, it is our contention that the NAR movement deviates from classical Pentecostal and charismatic teachings. This movement has emerged out of independent charismatic churches and, thus, has gained a foothold in many of those churches in varying degrees.”
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Life Tastes Better
$3.99Read moreIt’s easy to think that following Jesus would make life less fun and more limited. Drawing on his decades of introducing the real Jesus to people, founder of NewFrontiers Terry Virgo reveals the surprising truth that the Jesus who turned water into wine is ready to make every life taste better, both now and eternally. Easy-to-read, short, clear, faithful and conversational, this is a perfect book to give to an interested friend.
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Becoming A Welcoming Church
$14.99Read moreMost church members don’t see their churches clearly.
In almost all of Thom Rainer’s consultations, church members perceive their church to be friendly. But as he surveyed guests, he found that the guests typically saw church members as unfriendly. The perception chasm existed because the members were indeed friendly . . . to one another.
The guests felt like they crashed a private party.
Bestselling author Thom Rainer (I Am a Church Member, Autopsy of a Deceased Church) has a game plan for churches to become more hospitable. In a format that is suitable for church members to read individually or study together, Rainer guides readers toward a practical framework for making a difference for those who visit their church. Churches may use Becoming a Welcoming Church to assess and audit where they are on a spectrum between welcoming and wanting. Additionally, churches can use the companion book We Want You Here to send guests home with a compelling vision for what pastors want every guest to know when they visit.
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Dangers Of American Christianity
$15.99Read moreThe message of the gospel should be the lens through which our world view is formed.
The author believes that instead our culture has made us water down the true message to fit contemporary American Culture.The dangers he identifies include:
-Getting too mixed up in our culture
-Isolating ourselves too much from contemporary culture
-Safe and easy believism without proper life changing repentance
-Making it all about what God can do for me
-Entitlement
-The prosperity gospel
-Not being busy with the things of GodThe Church needs to rediscover what made it the powerful force it is supposed to be in a culture that wants to adapt the Church to fit its own values.
We cannot water down or dilute the gospel message in any way and remain effective in a world of secular humanistic values.
The Church has to get back to biblical values and not compromise with the world’s values and culture.Each chapter has questions for reflection, if you’re reading on your own, or discussion in groups.
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Vibrant Church : Strategies For Church Renewal
$13.99Read moreHelp your church reach its potential to become a beacon in your community, a model of all that God has called the church to be. The Vibrant Church provides guidance for pastors and key lay leaders, teaching you how to make your church healthy in all areas of church life.
You’ll learn to:
-Write a specific vision for your church
-Improve your leadership skills
-Establish a strategic plan for the future
-Build the ministry team
-Grow a dynamic outreach ministry
-Disciple fully devoted followers of Christ
-Create an environment of genuine love and concern
-Develop meaningful worship
-Train faithful stewards of money and time -
Why Bother With Church
$7.99Read moreIntroduction
1. Foundations: How To Consider Church
2. Life Changing: How To Attend Church
3. Running: How To Organize Church
4. Imperfect: How To Survive Church
5. Wonderful: How To Love Church
ConclusionAdditional Info
The church has an image problem.It is widely viewed in the world at large as being outdated, boring, irrelevant and filled with backbiting hypocrites.
How different that picture is to how the Bible talks about the new family that Jesus has gathered. It is a precious bride, a sparkling jewel, a lifeboat for forgiven sinners that is precious and holy; nurturing and warm; filled with truth, friendship and all embracing, forgiving love.
Sam Allberry understands the collision between these two views, and how, even as Christian believers, we can lose sight of how truly wonderful church is and should be, and what a privilege it is to be part of, and to serve.
In this brief accessible but thorough guide to church, Sam outlines what church is and why we need it. And how, when we have got it wrong, we can move closer to what a true church should be.
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Any 3 Anyone Anywhere Any Time
$14.95Read moreMike Shipman, a Southern Baptist missionary in Asia, took a bold and biblical approach to reaching the millions of Muslims in his country. Drawn from the patterns established by Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 10, Mike Shipman demonstrates how these same principles are relevant and applicable today. The result is, Any-3: Anyone, Anywhere, Any Time, a highly effective and deeply biblical five-step process that has seen thousands of Muslims say “Yes” to Jesus and enter into new communities of faithful discipleship.
Any-3 provides biblical principles and practical steps that have equipped hundreds of Christians to witness confidently and effectively. Over the past decade, thousands of Muslims have been engaged with the gospel. Within the first few years, Any-3 resulted in seven generations of Muslim-background churches planting churches, with more than a thousand baptized believers.
Any-3 introduces Christians to a five-step process that helps them to 1) get connected with Muslims, 2) get to a God conversation, 3) get to lostness, 4) get to the gospel, and 5) get to a decision. Hundreds of Christians have learned to walk this path with Muslims, leading thousands of them to say “Yes” to Jesus and pray to receive him into their lives as Savior and Lord.
Any-3 is truly revolutionizing Christian ministry to Muslims. Through this highly readable new resource, you too will learn how to share the gospel with Muslims and bring them into new discipleship communities. -
Church Shouldnt Suck The Life Out Of You
$15.99Read moreUsing humor and frank honesty, Pastor Jim Minor describes how his own street outreach organization transformed from a vibrant, God-infused ministry into a conventional, safe church that almost sucked all the passion for ministry right out of him. Then, Jim explains how he got his passion back again.
Who is this book for?
*Pastors and ministry leaders who have lost their focus and have grown to resent the ministries to which they have been called
*Those in the pews who have lost the spark of their passion for God and find themselves merely going through the motions and “playing church”
*Non-churchgoers who stay away because they don’t want any part of a dry, lifeless religion that doesn’t make any difference in the world
If you identify with any of those categories, this book is for you!
Let Jim Minor cast a vision for what church can be. Discover that it’s possible to venture beyond the church walls, to interact with the lost and hurting, and to watch God do miracles in people’s lives. And in the process, church might even become fun and fulfilling once again.
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Evangelize Or Fosselize
$14.99Read moreTruly, there is nothing so tragic, so hard, and so icy as a fossilized church or Christian. Nothing can keep the Christian warm, fresh, and alive like evangelism. Soulwinning is a safeguard against a dead, barren orthodoxy. That the church’s expansion depends upon her evangelism is the testimony of the ages. Failing to save, she cannot survive. A lack of evangelism, ultimately, will lead to extinction.
Renowned Bible teacher Dr. Herbert Lockyer examines the call, the methods, the obstacles, and the challenge of bringing the gospel to a lost and hurting world. When the Holy Spirit enables men and women of God to offer their lives for the sake of the Lord Jesus and to turn the world upside down, it is the greatest adventure of all time!
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1 Corinthians 1-9 Challenging Church (Student/Study Guide)
$8.99Read moreIntroduction
Why Study 1 Corinthians?
Timeline
1. Count Your Blessings – 1 Corinthians 1 V 1-9
2. Unite In “foolishness” – 1 Corinthians 1 V 10 – 2 V 16
3. Unite As God’s Community – 1 Corinthians 3
4. Recognise Real Ministers – 1 Corinthians 4
5. Don’t Go Soft On Sin – 1 Corinthians 5 – 6
6. Let Your Calling Count – 1 Corinthians 7
7. Use Your Rights – 1 Corinthians 8 – 9
Leader’s GuideAdditional Info
Even today, Jesus is still a figure of intense interest and admiration for millions. But then there’s His church. Church is a boring topic for most, and a reluctantly fulfilled duty for many.And we can understand why. Churches say they have the best news in the world, that they have the answer to our problems, that they are God’s embassies on earth; and yet churches are made up of people like you and me, who are grumpy, irritable, unfaithful, selfish, and worse.
And as that is sadly true of churches today, so it was of the church in Corinth. It was young, it was full of life, and it was just as full of problems. What would God say to such a challenging church? What did they need to be excited by, to listen to, to learn?
Use this seven-study guide to open up the first nine chapters of the letter of 1 Corinthians, to hear what God said to His church in Corinth, and what God still says to His church today.
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Listen Up : A Practical Guide To Listening To Sermons
$3.99Read moreSeven Ingredients For Healthy Sermon Listening:
1. Expect God To Speak
2. Admit God Knows Better Than You
3. Check The Preacher Says What The Passage Says
4. Hear The Sermon In Church
5. Be There Week By Week
6. Do What The Bible Says
7. Do What The Bible Says Today – And Rejoice!
How To Listen To Bad Sermons
7 Suggestions For Encouraging Good PreachingAdditional Info
Why on earth does anyone need a guide on how to listen to sermons? Don’t we simply need to ‘be there’ and stay awake? Yet Jesus said: ‘Consider carefully how you listen.’ The fact is, much more is involved in truly listening to Bible teaching than just sitting and staring at the preacher.Christopher Ash outlines seven ingredients for healthy listening. He then deals with how to respond to bad sermons – ones that are dull, or inadequate, or heretical. And finally, he challenges us with ideas for helping and encouraging our Bible teachers to give sermons that will really help us to grow as Christians.
* Where does the authority of a Bible teacher come from?
* Why is Bible teaching offensive?
* Why is it important to hear Bible teaching in church?
* How can we actually enjoy Bible teaching more?These (and more) are the questions answered by this practical guide, which includes effective, hands-on suggestions for implementing each idea. All with the aim of helping us learn how to listen properly, so that through His word, God will make us more and more Christ like.
‘We give Listen Up to all our new members’ – Mark Dever, Senior Pastor, Capitol Hill Baptist Church
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To Life : Rediscovering Biblical Church
$14.99Read moreAre you satisfied with your Christian life or do you get the feeling that something is missing, but you’re not sure what it is? Have you ever asked the question, where does the World end and the Church begin? Is the 21st Century Church truly the best it could possibly be? Are there forgotten places that we should be revisiting?
Dare we believe that we could return to the Biblical Church of the first apostles?
Some say we can’t, others have tried and failed. This author believes it’s worth trying again because it’s all a question of mindsets and this book will explain why, with the wit, wisdom and wonder that is the trademark of Steve Maltz’s writing.
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How The Church Lost The Truth
$14.99Read moreIt should have been so simple. There was the Bible, God’s authoritative and complete word for mankind. His gift to us. One volume of sixty six books in all, from “In the beginning” to “amen”. One basic message. Choose Life, He said. So what did we do? We chose … denominations, 38,000 of them. One book, thousands of interpretations.
Snake handlers in Kansas, Prosperity teachers in Washington, Liberationists in El Salvador, Gay Bishops in New Hampshire, New Age rectors in London. They all claim the Bible as their inspiration and rulebook. Once this book is opened, why is it that folk seem to see different things? One book, one message, one Babel. How come? Where can the Truth be found or has the Church lost The Truth?
This explosive book tells the whole sad story of what actually happened to the Church over the last two thousand years and how it managed to lose its focus and take on so many ideas from Greek philosophy that Christianity has just become a melting point of truth mixed up with very strange ideas.
If Jesus were to return today, which Church – if any – could He call his own?
In this challenging, provocative but entertaining book the author examines what has happened to some key battlegrounds for Truth and asks, where did those ideas come from?
*How did God kick things off?
*How does He deal with His covenant people?
*Who does He let into heaven?
*What is Hell really like?
*How is He really going to wrap things up?Some of the answers will astound you and you may also be prompted to ask the question, how has the Church managed to lose so much Truth?
Prepare to be challenged to the very core of your faith.
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Apostles : The Fathering Servant
$13.99Read moreBill Scheidler has illuminated the qualifications and function of an apostle today by approaching the subject from a purely biblical point of view. Apostles compares this biblical view with current apostolic trends found in the church today. If you are a leader or pastor, Apostles will serve as your roadmap to understanding the function of an apostle today.