All Entries in the "church planting" Category

God has crafted a unique vision for each of our lives—a voyage of discovery filled with fantastic riches that are embedded in the very journey itself. By exploring the ordinary life of Nehemiah and his vision for accomplishing the extraordinary, Pastor Stanley provides direction, motivation, and encouragement for your own amazing odyssey of self-discovery. 272 pages, softcover from Multnomah.

In this updated edition of his bestseller, Barna addresses a major concern of church leaders—how to embrace God’s vision for their ministries. Stressing the biblical mandate for this, he reveals how vision differs from mission, how it reflects God’s will, how a clear image from God is the beginning to successful kingdom building, and more. 176 pages, hardcover from Regal.

Vision is a key foundation on which church plans and activities must be built. Developing a Vision for Ministry in the 21st Century has been recognized as a groundbreaking resource. It was give a Christianity Today “Your Church” Recommended Resource award and has received favorable reviews. Now revised and updated, this second edition includes sample vision statements and new graphics and visuals. It also shows how vision relates to a ministry’s mission, core values, and strategy. Includes practical guidelines for turning up the energy level of visionary goal setting, worksheets and end-of-chapter questions that clarify principles for those who want to become purposeful strategists.

This 10th anniversary edition of John Maxwell’s The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership has been revised and updated with major revisions from the original edition. A leadership expert recognized worldwide, he outlines the basics of effective leadership including exerting influence, determining priorities, empowering others, and implementing team strategies. It’s essential reading for any one wanting to make a positive difference at church, home, or office.

Some of the updates to this edition are 17 new stories, revision of every chapter, application pieces following every chapter, a leadership evaluation, and 2 new chapters - “The Law of Addition” and “The Law of the Future” (replacing “The Law of Reproduction”). Hardcover.

Henry and Richard Blackaby are “concerned that many Christian leaders are reading secular books and are applying their teachings uncritically, “so they wrote Spiritual Leadership to help Christian leaders in business, politics and the pastorate develop the qualities of spiritual leadership. Spiritual Leadership will help you understand God’s design for leadership and will enable you to lead God’s people towards the fulfillment of His purposes. Let the Blackaby’s teach you the biblically based principles that will enable you to lead in the 21st century.

Every church is driven by something. Tradition, finances, programs, personalities, events, seekers, and even buildings can each be the controlling force in a church. But Rick Warren believes that in order for a church to be healthy it must become a purpose-driven church by Jesus. Now the founding pastor of Saddleback Church shares a proven five-part strategy that will enable your church to grow…Warmer through fellowship - Deeper through discipleship - Stronger through worship - Broader through ministry - Larger through evangelism. Discover the same practical insights and principles for growing a healthy church that Rick has taught in seminars to over 22,000 pastors and church leaders from sixty denominations and forty-two countries. The Purpose-Driven Church shifts the focus away from church building programs to emphasizing a people-building process. Warren says, “If you will concentrate on building people, God will build the church.”

Charles Colson called it “the best book on Christian leadership I’ve read.” Discover why this timeless classic continues to equip tomorrow’s ministers—and challenges today’s shepherds—toward greater effectiveness! Revised and updated, Sanders’s hard-hitting study explores the essential qualities of a godly leader—and offers sterling examples from Scripture and Christian history. Includes study guide.

In these pages, J. Oswald Sanders presents the key principles of leadership in both the temporal and spiritual realms, illustrating his points with examples from Scriptures and the biographies of emenent men of God.

Unsure of how to handle “altar calls” in your church? Veteran pastor Streett offers adaptable step-by-step preparation and presentation principles for those charged with issuing such appeals. Explore effective invitation techniques from the early church to present-day evangelists; guidelines for reaching children and teens with the gospel; contemporary models; and music options. 272 pages, softcover from Kregel.

Where are the powerful preachers today? Stott responds to what may be a generation of preachers who have lost confidence in the Word of God. He reaffirms the relevance of the gift of preaching by exploring its history and theological foundations, the contemporary objections to preaching, and how it can bridge the gap between the biblical and the modern worlds. 351 pages, softcover from Eerdmans.

Does the “E” word make you squeamish? Discover servant evangelism and learn how this fresh approach to faith-sharing is helping churches everywhere reach their communities for Christ! Revised and updated, Sjogren’s groundbreaking book explains how performing simple, unexpected services—washing windows, cleaning bathrooms, handing out free sodas—can open doors to life-changing encounters with Jesus. 256 pages, softcover from Regal.

“They [pre-Christians] were asking questions I wasn’t prepared to answer, and they no longer seemed interested in the questions I was prepared to answer.” Does this ring true for your efforts at evangelism with postmoderns (pre-Christians)? It was common for author Rick Richardson until he began to truly understand the postmodern mind. But once he understood, God began to work in truly new and exciting ways in Rick’s evangelism efforts. Rick began listening to postmoderns, and learning how they viewed various major life issues. He studied postmodern thought, and asked postmodern, pre-Christians what they were looking for in spirituality. Now he knows where postmoderns are, and what is necessary to help them experience God’s love. And you can too, by reading Evangelism Outside the Box.

This book is a vivid reminder that God is looking for people to work with and through to bring the lost into His kingdom. In Richardson’s words, God “wants to turn the big, ugly green station wagon (maybe an appropriate analogy for our church or ministry!) around and race to wherever these lost and hurting people can be found. But he’s letting us drive.” What a privilege and responsibility! But before we can do this, we must remove the boxes we have tried to constrain God in, and the boxes in which our evangelism efforts reside. We must understand the way postmoderns think about life and spirituality, we must understand their questions, and how they come to know and love God. And then we must change our ways (not our message) of reaching out to them to fit their experiences and thoughts.

To that end, Richardson shows us what some of our boxes might be, and offers practical insight into how to effectively reach out and offer a life-changing experience with God. He emphasizes awakening the souls of pre-Christians (making them realize their need for Jesus), drawing them into community, challenging them to convert, and helping them be transformed into disciples. These four practices have been used throughout Christian history to bring the lost into the kingdom, but Richardson has added a distinctly postmodern understanding to each one. The result is a practical, life-changing and ministry-changing book that will stir the embers of your evangelistic fervor into a roaring flame. And that flame will bring heat and light to a lost generation that God longs to reach.

Now with a stronger emphasis on disciple-making, Malphurs’s updated practical resource clarifies nine fundamental ministry issues. His proven, biblically sound methods will help you assess your readiness, articulate your vision, formulate goals, and implement your mission to a postmodern society. Features a new chapter on spiritual formation. A must-read for pastors and church leaders. 320 pages, softcover from Baker.

In today’s world, yesterday’s methods just don’t work. Veteran coach and management consultant David Allen shares his breakthrough methods for stress-free performance that he has introduced to tens of thousands of people across the country. Allen’s premise is simple; our productivity is directly proportional to our ability to relax. Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized can we achieve effective results and unleash our creative potential. From core principles to proven tricks, Getting Things Done can transform the way you work and live, showing you how to pick up the pace without wearing yourself down.

What would happen if God’s people released God’s money to do God’s work? Gold medallion winner and best-selling author George Barna has written this book to prepare church leaders–spiritually, emotionally, and strategically–for the sensitive task of raising money for the work of ministry. Barna dispels the anxiety, fear and misunderstanding surrounding fund-raising and stewardship with knowledge and wisdom gleaned from years of research into the who, how and why of givers and giving.

We all know that the greatest commandment is to love. However, relatively few of us know how to express our love in the heart language of our family and friends. Fortunately, in The Five Love Languages Gary Chapman identifies the five primary love languages and teaches us how to use these languages to express our love. Although this edition of The Five Love Languages was written specifically for couples, the basic principles Chapman explores will apply to all relationships.

Believe it or not, those tough-looking teens are like “love tanks with a leak” - just like the rest of us. Learn which of the five “love languages” most effectively communicates parental affection to your teenagers, and how your loving input can nurture their sense of responsibility, spiritual identity, and security in Christ.

Are you expressing your love in a way your child understands? Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell help you discover your child’s unique communication style, so you can better meet his or her deepest emotional needs. From quality time to physical touch, these five “love languages” hold the key to your child’s development and success.

Believers long for personal purity and power to live as our hearts tell us we should. But how does God change us? Willard reminds us that we can be like Christ if we follow his style of life: solitude and silence, prayer, simple and sacrificial living, meditation on God’s Word, and service to others. The practice of these disciplines is how God guides us into a constant interaction with his kingdom. “Few books have challenged me like this one. I would urge every serious minded Christian to read it…at your own risk.”—Bill Hybels, author of Honest to God?.

This sequel to the bestselling Celebration of Discipline will help you live ethically in a chaotic and relativistic age. Using practical examples that apply biblical principles to the home, the marketplace, and politics, Foster shows you how to manage day-to-day ethical decisionmaking while helping you determine the proper place of money, sex, and power. Paper from HarperCollins!

Scripture reveals that the great business of life is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. Now revised and expanded, Desiring God reveals how delighting in God can motivate us to glorify Him through worship, stewardship, loving our neighbor, rejoicing in suffering, and other “duties.” John Piper reveals that the debate between duty and delight doesn’t truly exist: Delight is our duty. Discover how to lay a biblical foundation for a life of celebration by truly desiring the Lord.

We have schedule planners, computerized calendars, and self-stick notes to help us organize our business and social lives every day. But what about organizing the other side of our lives—the spiritual side?

One of the great battlegrounds of the new century is within the private world of the individual. The values of our Western culture incline us to believe that the busy, publicly-active person in ministry is also the most spiritual. Tempted to give imbalanced attention to the public world at the expense of the private, we become involved in more programs, more meetings. Our massive responsibilities at home, work, and church have resulted in a lot of good people on the verge of collapse.

In this timely update of his classic Ordering Your Private World, Gordon MacDonald equips a new generation to live life from the inside out, cultivating the inner victory necessary for public effectiveness. Includes study guide.