Church Development

At the age of five, Megan Phelps-Roper began protesting homosexuality and other alleged vices alongside fellow members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. Founded by her grandfather and consisting almost entirely of her extended family, the tiny group would gain worldwide notoriety for its pickets at military funerals and celebrations of death and tragedy.

Hollywood Park is a remarkable memoir of a tumultuous life. Mikel Jollett was born into one of the country’s most infamous cults and subjected to a childhood filled with poverty, addiction, and emotional abuse. Yet, ultimately, his is a story of fierce love and family loyalty told in a raw, poetic voice that signals the emergence of a uniquely gifted writer.

A Weed in the Church: How a culture of age segregation is harming the next generation, fragmenting the family, and dividing the church. While almost everyone involved in youth ministry agrees there is a crisis, not everyone agrees on its severity nor has the same diagnosis. A Weed in the Church suggests that this well-recognized crisis has a specific cause, which will surprise many. Brown argues that while scripture defines and wholeheartedly encourages youth discipleship, the premises of modern youth ministry are at odds with biblical teaching and must be reformed.

What would your church look like in the future if it were to maximize the dormant gifts of the women God has brought there? In Developing Female Leaders, Kadi Cole, 20-year veteran in leadership and people development, offers a practical strategy to help church and organizational leaders craft cultures that facilitate the development of women as volunteer and staff leaders.

While many aspects of leadership development are similar for women and men, women face different cultural expectations and have different experiences than their male counterparts. Anna Morgan's own experiences in pastoral ministry leadership launched her search for a holistic way to grow the skills, influence, and authority of women who are gifted and called as leaders. This book provides a positive, comprehensive research-based model for developing women in church and ministry leadership. Morgan identifies seven aspects of leadership development that form a woman over her lifetime.

Most Christians dismiss their dreams, yet they're the gateway to the supernatural realm, the place where God reveals his plans and purposes. Diving deep into the supernatural side of your dreams, pastor and bestselling author Jennifer Eivaz offers a thorough, practical guide to navigating the vital God-given dreamscape. Laying out a biblical framework, she empowers you to reawaken your spirit to God's voice at night; discern the source and meaning of your dreams; discover the plans God reveals as you sleep; access supernatural weapons for any battle you face; and more.

Gay marriage, transgender rights, birth control - sex is at the heart of many of the most divisive political issues of our age. The origins of these conflicts, historian R. Marie Griffith argues, lie in sharp disagreements that emerged among American Christians a century ago. From the 1920s onward, a once-solid Christian consensus regarding gender roles and sexual morality began to crumble, as liberal Protestants sparred with fundamentalists and Catholics over questions of obscenity, sex education, and abortion.

Are you ready to lead with wisdom, compassion, and the heart of Christ? The Heart of a Shepherd is your ultimate guide to transforming your leadership and shepherding with purpose, power, and precision. Packed with timeless biblical wisdom and actionable strategies, this book equips you to care for your flock and leave an indelible mark on the lives you touch. In a world desperate for godly leadership, The Heart of a Shepherd stands as a beacon for pastors, ministry leaders, and anyone called to guide others spiritually. Drawing deeply from Scripture and real-world insights, this book ...

The Art of Conversation will show you step by step how to converse skillfully and enjoyably with other people, at home, at work, on the phone, and in the street. Even if you're daunted now, discover the difference good conversation can make in every aspect of your life.

Life crises can throw you into a tail-spin - a lost job, a failed relationship, a struggling business, a financial mess. Where do you start? How do you pull it together? How do you begin again? Tom Holladay experienced a catastrophe first-hand when a sudden flood in California destroyed his home, his church, and the homes of many church members. Tom and his congregation had to rebuild, and they used the principles in the book of Nehemiah to get back on their feet.

Investors don't back entrepreneurs, they back Investable Entrepreneurs. Too many brilliant business ideas are killed by poor communication, leaving investors unable to understand the very basics of the business. When it comes to pitching, clarity is key. 'The Six Principles of the Perfect Pitch' is a proven process that will help to make your pitch powerful, get you noticed, generate interest and have investors queuing up to help you succeed.

Online church is the new front door to visitors. Is your church connecting effectively with people behind the screen? When the pandemic forced congregations to set up online services in record time, people thought it would be temporary. But for too many, online church has become a staple, the new front door for visitors. But what does this mean for congregations who struggle to effectively reach online guests? Is it possible to create a connected virtual experience that fosters Christian community and enhances our faith? In Visiting Online Church: A Journey Exploring Effective Digital ...

In today’s polarized context, Christians often have committed, biblical rationales for very different positions. How can Christians navigate disagreements with both truth and love? Tim Muehlhoff and Rick Langer provide lessons from conflict theory and church history on how to negotiate differing biblical convictions in order to move toward Christian unity.

Exciting and effective movements of the gospel are happening around the world yet in the US we are still losing the battle to see the gospel keep pace with the population's growth. Mega-church, multi-site, missional communities are all new forms to attempt more effective spread of the good news of Jesus Christ. But despite all of our best efforts, with our most talented and gifted leaders we still can't seem to crack the code of setting the good news of Jesus free from our forms to spread viral. But can you adapt these new strategies without jettisoning the current structures? Hybrid church...

How can the people of God develop churches in ways that help and don't hurt poor neighborhoods? Pastors and church planters interested in Christian community development will find here practical insights into the power of the local church, which is often underrated. Churches can serve their communities and improve the quality of life of every facet of the neighborhood.

A trillion years from now, your child will be either in heaven or in hell. And this is only the beginning of eternity. In light of this eternal perspective, the time is now, dear parent, to raise your child to live entirely for Christ and his church. The time is now to train your child in the Four Last Things, the spiritual life, the virtues of piety and humility, and the school of Calvary while shielding him from the errors of modernism, Protestantism, and much more.

The Sunday collection in every Catholic church throughout the world is as familiar a part of the Mass as the homily and even Communion. There is no doubt that historically the Catholic Church has been one of the great engines of charity in history. But once a dollar is dropped in that basket, where does it go? How are weekly cash contributions that can amount to tens of thousands of dollars accounted for? Where does the money go when a diocese sells a church property for tens of millions of dollars?

In this compelling book, Jason Garwood unpacks the theological depth and practical application of the Disciples' Prayer, teaching believers how to pray with God's glory, kingdom, and will as the foundation. Rooted in Reformed theology and infused with pastoral insight, this book explores the richness of each petition—from daily dependence on God's provision to the transformative power of forgiveness and the ultimate victory over evil through Christ. Designed to inspire heartfelt worship and obedient living, The Disciples' Prayer invites readers to align their lives with God's purposes and...

This book focuses on the development of a missional ethos at New Hope Church of God in Christ in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Members were encouraged to embrace missiology as a means of spreading the gospel, making disciples within New Hope Church, and throughout the community. The project was based on the premise that the congregation was not involved in missional ministry. The hypothesis was that an attitudinal change would occur within members once they were informed of the concept of a missional church. The methodology used to evaluate the hypothesis was qualitative, using surveys, ...

As humans we are social beings. Our organizations are too. Therefore, we create opportunities to interact with each other. This book speaks about one of those entities - the Baptist association. The purpose of an association is to help members of the association - the churches - work, fellowship, and better fulfill their purposes. The association does not take the place of a church; it is there to help so it can function better. The purpose of this book is to help churches form associations which can help them fulfill their purposes. It is also a tool that can be useful to the associational...