Serious Times

Serious Times PDF Author: James Emery White
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830833803
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Does your life matter? How can you make a difference? James Emery White shows how you can live a life of significance at the front lines of what God is doing in the world today.

Serious Times

Serious Times PDF Author: James Emery White
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830833803
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 193

Get Book

Book Description
Does your life matter? How can you make a difference? James Emery White shows how you can live a life of significance at the front lines of what God is doing in the world today.

Cracking Your Church's Culture Code

Cracking Your Church's Culture Code PDF Author: Samuel R. Chand
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470872977
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
Strategies for transforming a toxic church culture Why is it that the best strategic plans and good leadership often are not able to move churches in the desired direction? Sam Chand contends that toxic culture is to blame. Quite often, leaders don't sense the toxicity, but it poisons their relationships and derails their vision. This work describes five easily identifiable categories of church culture (inspiring-accepting-stagnant-discouraging-toxic), with diagnostic descriptions in the book and a separate online assessment tool. The reader will be able to identify strengths and needs of their church's culture, and then apply practical strategies (communication, control and authority, selection and placement of personnel, etc.) to make their church's culture more positive. Discusses how to diagnose the state of a church's culture Reveals what it takes to put in place effective strategies for creating a more positive church culture Author served on the board of EQUIP (Dr. John Maxwell's Ministry), equipping five million leaders world-wide. This important book offers a clear guide for understanding and recreating a healthy church culture.

Churches, Cultures, and Leadership

Churches, Cultures, and Leadership PDF Author: Mark Lau Branson
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 1514002884
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
We live in a culturally diverse society. As the church continues to heed Christ's call to reflect the multiethnic character of his people, pastors and lay leaders need to gain skills and competencies to serve in multicultural contexts, both inside and beyond their congregations. With this book, Mark Lau Branson and Juan F. Martínez equip leaders to create environments that make God's reconciling initiatives apparent in church life and in missional engagement with their neighborhoods and cities. Drawing on courses they've taught at Fuller Theological Seminary, Branson and Martínez take an interdisciplinary approach that integrates biblical and theological study with sociology, cultural anthropology, leadership studies, and communications. The result is a rich blend of astute analysis and guidance for the practical implementation of a deeper intercultural life for the church. Case studies, Bible studies, and exercises for personal and group reflection address real-life challenges and opportunities that arise in multiethnic contexts. Churches, Cultures, and Leadership offers not a static model but a praxis of paying attention, study, and discernment that can lead to genuine reconciliation and shared life empowered by the gospel. This new edition is updated throughout to address current trends and sources, particularly emphasizing the continuing power of racism and how churches should respond.

Look Before You Lead

Look Before You Lead PDF Author: Aubrey Malphurs
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 1441240357
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
Pastoral ministry is challenging work, especially when a pastor ignores the church's "congregational culture" when seeking to minister to church members or implement changes. Just as a pastor studies to interpret the Scriptures in order to understand and preach the Bible, he or she must interpret the local church culture to better understand and move it toward accomplishing its mission and vision. In Look Before You Lead, trusted church leadership expert Aubrey Malphurs shows pastors how to read their church's unique local culture, how to change or revitalize it, and even how to combine two cultures when one church adopts another. This unique resource approaches leadership and discernment from a solid, biblical perspective and includes a number of helpful appendixes, such as a behavior, belief, and a values audit, that are key to reading and understanding the culture.

Creating a Missional Culture

Creating a Missional Culture PDF Author: JR Woodward
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830866795
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Once upon a time, Moses had had enough. Exhausted by the challenge of leading the Israelites from slavery to the Promised Land, Moses cried out to God, "What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? . . . If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me" (Exodus 11:11, 15). If that sounds hauntingly familiar to you, you may be the senior pastor of a contemporary church. The burden of Christian leadership is becoming increasingly unbearable--demanding skills not native to the art of pastoring; demanding time that makes sabbath rest and even normal sleep patterns seem extravagant; demanding inhuman levels of efficiency, proficiency and even saintliness. No wonder pastors seem and even feel less human these days. No wonder they burn out or break down at an alarming rate; no wonder the church is missing the mark on its mission. In Creating a Missional Culture, JR Woodward offers a bold and surprisingly refreshing model for churches--not small adjustments around the periphery of a church's infrastructure but a radical revisioning of how a church ought to look, from its leadership structure to its mobilization of the laity. The end result looks surprisingly like the church that Jesus created and the apostles cultivated: a church not chasing the wind but rather going into the world and making disciples of Jesus.

A Church Called Tov

A Church Called Tov PDF Author: Scot McKnight
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
ISBN: 149644602X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
“Scot and Laura do an amazing job of teaching us what a good church looks like.” —Beth Moore 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. We need a better way. The sad truth is that churches of all shapes and sizes are susceptible to abuses of power, sexual abuse, and spiritual abuse. Abuses occur most frequently when Christians neglect to create a culture that resists abuse and promotes healing, safety, and spiritual growth. How do we keep these devastating events from repeating themselves? We need a map to get us from where we are today to where we ought to be as the body of Christ. That map is in a mysterious and beautiful little Hebrew word in Scripture that we translate “good,” the word tov. In this book, McKnight and Barringer explore the concept of tov—unpacking its richness and how it can help Christians and churches rise up to fulfill their true calling as imitators of Jesus.

The Church and the Culture War

The Church and the Culture War PDF Author: Joyce A. Little
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Theologian Joyce Little examines the current conflict between American secular culture and the Catholic faith, with a view to enabling Catholics to understand why it is that such a conflict necessarily exists and what is at stake for both Catholics in particular and all Americans in general. The book focuses most specifically on the feminist movement, because feminism exemplifies in so many ways that relativism, subjectivism and individualism which characterizes the thinking of so many Americans today. Little argues that the secularism of our times is fundamentally anarchic and nihilistic and, as such, constitutes a frontal assault on the Catholic faith. Many Americans do not recognize the nihilistic character of the popular secular culture. Because secularism so often clothes itself in a host of catchwords which Americans find so appealing, the destructive character of secularism is not immediately obvious to them. Little shows why those who employ such language are wedded to a view of reality that is fundamentally chaotic and meaningless. The book emphasizes the importance of the dogma of the Trinity, and explains the trinitarian character of reality and the implications which flow from the fact that God is triune both in himself and as Creator. Little explains that the key conflict today is between the secular exaltation of human power and the Christian witness to a divine authority which transcends all things and demands our allegiance to it.

Church Girl Culture Vs. Christ

Church Girl Culture Vs. Christ PDF Author: Saphina Carla
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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Book Description
In Church Culture Vs Christ, author Saphina Carla sheds light on common ideologies that have supplemented the Christian faith. In it, she discusses her own faulty beliefs that had to be readjusted by Christ and not by church girl culture - a culture of cosmetic Christianity that can often prioritize false piety, over transparency and truth. Her goal is to make taboo church topics - - not so taboo. The goal is to remove the pressures of perfection when it comes to women of faith and to restore biblical truth in places where it's been set aside for shallow formulas. Above all, her goal is for Christ to be glorified. Saphina Carla is a writer, blogger, and Christian content creator. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY and is of Haitian descent. She started her journey of salvation at nineteen years old after God delivered her from an abusive relationship. Her aim is to promote biblical truth while providing a safe space to have authentic dialogue within the church, especially as it relates to the taboo and the uncomfortable.

Many Colors

Many Colors PDF Author: Soong-Chan Rah
Publisher: Moody Publishers
ISBN: 9781575674971
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
The United States is currently undergoing the most rapid demographic shift in its history. By 2050, white Americans will no longer comprise a majority of the population. Instead, they'll be the largest minority group in a country made up entirely of minorities, followed by Hispanic Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans. Past shifts in America's demographics always reshaped the county's religious landscape. This shift will be no different. Soong-Chan Rah's book is intended to equip evangelicals for ministry and outreach in our changing nation. Borrowing from the business concept of "cultural intelligence," he explores how God's people can become more multiculturally adept. From discussions about cultural and racial histories, to reviews of case-study churches and Christian groups that are succeeding in bridging ethnic divides, Rah provides a practical and hopeful guidebook for Christians wanting to minister more effectively in diverse settings. Without guilt trips or browbeating, the book will spur individuals, churches, and parachurch ministries toward more effectively bearing witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Good News for people of every racial and cultural background. Its message is positive; its potential impact, transformative.

Christ and Culture

Christ and Culture PDF Author: H. Richard Niebuhr
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061300039
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
This 50th-anniversary edition, with a new foreword by the distinguished historian Martin E. Marty, who regards this book as one of the most vital books of our time, as well as an introduction by the author never before included in the book, and a new preface by James Gustafson, the premier Christian ethicist who is considered Niebuhr’s contemporary successor, poses the challenge of being true to Christ in a materialistic age to an entirely new generation of Christian readers.