Church Ministry

HELPS: Having Enough Loving People Serving Churches need the ministry of helps. The time has come for church members to begin doing the work of the ministry, and let the pastors return to doing what the have been called to do–be a spokesmen for Jesus. Finally, a book filled with useful information for: • Ushers • Greeters • Nursery Workers • Counselors • All Areas of Your Churches Ministry The Ministry of Helps Handbook by Buddy Bell is a unique combination of teaching, seminar guidelines and answers to often-asked questions. This useful and complete book provides pastors, and ...

Best-selling author, Thom S. Rainer, guides listeners toward a practical framework and game plan for making a difference for those who visit their church to help make churches more hospitable to guests.

Many Christian families have never experienced the joys and benefits of family worship. But as Donald S. Whitney makes clear, the daily worship of God by families at home is a practice rooted in the Bible and common throughout Christian history. How can people unfamiliar with family worship lead it in their own homes? How do busy households in today's culture recover faithfulness in family worship? This practical book shows you how simple and easy it can be.

Best-selling author and ministry leader Thom S. Rainer drew an exceptional response when he posted a 500-word declaration about church membership to his daily blog. Thoughtfully expanded to book form, I Am a Church Member begins to remedy the outbreak of inactive or barely committed church members, addressing without apology what is expected of those who join a body of believers.

Church Unique is written by church consultant Will Mancini - an expert on a new kind of visioning process to help churches develop a stunningly unique model of ministry that leads to redemptive movement. He guides churches away from an internal focus to emphasize participation in their community and surrounding culture. In this important audiobook, Mancini offers an approach for rethinking what it means to lead with clarity as a visionary. Mancini explains that each church has a culture that reflects its particular values, thoughts, attitudes, and actions.

Dangerous Calling reveals the truth that the culture surrounding our pastors is spiritually unhealthy—an environment that actively undermines the well-being and effectiveness of our church leaders and thus the entire church body. Here is a book that both diagnoses and offers cures for issues that impact every member and church leader, and gives solid strategies for fighting the all-important war that rages in our churches today.

The Bible is clear that women as well as men are created in God's image and intended to serve him with their lives. But what does this look like for women in the church? Helping church leaders think through what a Bible-centered women's ministry looks like, this collection of essays by respected Bible teachers and authors such as Gloria Furman, Nancy Guthrie, and Susan Hunt addresses a variety of topics relevant to women.

Why do youth ministries crumble? And what is the cost to students, parents, volunteers and church staff? Is a sustainable youth ministry possible, even after a youth pastor leaves? Youth ministry expert Mark DeVries knows the answer is yes, because he helps build sustainable youth ministries through his coaching service called Youth Ministry Architects. So take heart: No matter what state the youth ministry at your church is in—in need of a leader and volunteers, full of battles and stress, large or small in number—it can be built to survive and to last for the long haul.

No one wants to see a church die. And yet, far too many churches are dying. For more than 25 years, Dr. Thom Rainer has helped churches grow, reverse the trends of decline, and has autopsied those that have died. From this experience, he has discovered 12 consistent themes among those churches that have died. Yet, it's not gloom and doom because from those 12 themes, lessons on how to keep your church alive have emerged.

In Sticky Church, author and pastor Larry Osborne makes the case that closing the back door of your church is even more important than opening the front door wider. He offers a time-tested strategy for doing so: sermon-based small groups that dig deeper into the weekend message and tightly velcro members to the ministry. It's a strategy that enabled Osborne's congregation to grow from a handful of people to one of the larger churches in the nation - without any marketing or special programming. Sticky Church tells the inspiring story of North Coast Church's phenomenal growth and offers practical tips.

Introverts have gifts for the church and the world. But many churches tend to be extroverted places where introverts are marginalized. Some Christians end up feeling like it's not as faithful to be an introvert. Adam McHugh shows how introverts can live and minister in ways consistent with their personalities. He explains how introverts and extroverts process information and approach relationships differently and how introverts can practice Christian spirituality in ways that fit who they are.

Church history is important because it shows us how God's faithful dealings with his people in the Bible continue in the ongoing life and work of Christ in our world. If you have ever wished for a short book highlighting church history's most important events that will enlighten your mind and pique your interest, this is the one you've been waiting for. Three prolific church historians collaborate their efforts in Church History 101 to present you with a quick listen of church history's high points.

In 1962, Don and Carol Richardson risked their lives to share the gospel with the Sawi people of New Guinea. Peace Child tells their unforgettable story of living among these headhunters and cannibals who valued treachery through fattening victims with friendship before the slaughter. God gave Don and Carol the key to the Sawi hearts via a redemptive analogy from their own mythology.

In a time when many are shunning the practice of organized religion, Jonathan Leeman offers a short book on why church membership is a critical element in every healthy Christian's maturation. By offering a brief, straightforward explanation of what church membership is and why it's important, Leeman gives the local church its proper due and builds a case for committing to the local body. Church Membership is a useful tool for churches to distribute en masse to new and potential members of their congregation.

Small Church Essentials is for leaders of smaller congregations. It encourages them to steward their role well, debunking myths about small churches while offering principles for leading a dynamic, healthy small church. Based on the popular six-hour lecture that Karl Vaters delivers to church leaders across the country, Small Church Essentials will affirm small church leaders and show them how to identify what they do well and how to do it even better.

Prayer Ministry of the Church is a collection of five messages on prayer by the great Chinese pastor and teacher, Watchman Nee.

Church Is a Team Sport shows proven ways to push believers, new and mature, toward growth as both Christians and leaders. Through this powerful, thought-provoking volume, ministers both in the congregation and on staff will discover how to expand the church one soul at a time. Making disciples is the crux of pastor Jim Putman's message. The plan works. Caring for people, following up on stray sheep, and teaching what it means to love God and obey him.

In addition to the regular demands of preaching and shepherding, modern pastors feel undue pressure to entertain congregants and increase attendance numbers. Often, churches resort to the latest business models to keep pace. But true, life-giving guidance lies in Scripture and the wisdom of those having come before us. Ancient Wisdom for the Care of Souls helps pastors to embrace a classic, biblical vision of ministry through the study of selected pastoral virtues and early church figures.

Fast cars. Fast and furious. Fast forward. Fast...church? The church is often idealized (or demonized) as the last bastion of a bygone era, dragging our feet as we're pulled into new moralities and new spiritualities. We guard our doctrine and our piety with great vigilance. But we often fail to notice how quickly we're capitulating, in the structures and practices of our churches, to a culture of unreflective speed, dehumanizing efficiency, and disintegrating isolationism.

In this popular introduction to church history, now in its third edition, Mark Noll isolates key events that provide a framework for understanding the history of Christianity. The book presents Christianity as a worldwide phenomenon rather than just a Western experience. Students in academic settings and church adult education contexts will benefit from this one-semester survey of Christian history.