Church of the Wild

Church of the Wild PDF Author: Victoria Loorz
Publisher: Broadleaf Books
ISBN: 1506469655
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
2024 Nautilus Book Awards Silver Winner in "Religion / Spirituality of Western Thought" CategoryWinner of the Living Now Book Award, Church of the Wild reminds us that once upon a time, humans lived in an intimate relationship with nature. Whether disillusioned by the dominant church or unfulfilled by traditional expressions of faith, many of us long for a deeper spirituality. Victoria Loorz certainly did. Coping with an unraveling vocation, identity, and planet, Loorz turned to the wanderings of spiritual leaders and the sanctuary of the natural world, eventually cofounding the Wild Church Network and Seminary of the Wild. With an ecospiritual lens on biblical narratives and a fresh look at a community larger than our own species, Church of the Wild uncovers the wild roots of faith and helps us deepen our commitment to a suffering earth by falling in love with it--and calling it church. Through mystical encounters with wild deer, whispers from a scrubby oak tree, wordless conversation with a cougar, and more, Loorz helps us connect to a love that literally holds the world together--a love that calls us into communion with all creatures.

Church of the Wild

Church of the Wild PDF Author: Victoria Loorz
Publisher: Broadleaf Books
ISBN: 1506469655
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 262

Get Book Here

Book Description
2024 Nautilus Book Awards Silver Winner in "Religion / Spirituality of Western Thought" CategoryWinner of the Living Now Book Award, Church of the Wild reminds us that once upon a time, humans lived in an intimate relationship with nature. Whether disillusioned by the dominant church or unfulfilled by traditional expressions of faith, many of us long for a deeper spirituality. Victoria Loorz certainly did. Coping with an unraveling vocation, identity, and planet, Loorz turned to the wanderings of spiritual leaders and the sanctuary of the natural world, eventually cofounding the Wild Church Network and Seminary of the Wild. With an ecospiritual lens on biblical narratives and a fresh look at a community larger than our own species, Church of the Wild uncovers the wild roots of faith and helps us deepen our commitment to a suffering earth by falling in love with it--and calling it church. Through mystical encounters with wild deer, whispers from a scrubby oak tree, wordless conversation with a cougar, and more, Loorz helps us connect to a love that literally holds the world together--a love that calls us into communion with all creatures.

Church as Network

Church as Network PDF Author: Jeffrey H. Mahan
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538135817
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
Just as the emergence of print and literacy created conditions for vast religious change at the time of the Reformation, the emergence of a digital culture shaped by computers and the internet has led to radically different assumptions about religious identity, how people connect and maintain transformative relationships, and how people follow and give authority to leaders. The central issues concerning this digital culture are not technological but theological and anthropological. Old models of stable religious identity and community seem irrelevant in a culture in which everyone is in motion. The book identifies three profound changes produced by digital culture which challenge existing understandings of church: 1) a shift to seeing Christian identity as an ongoing constructive project, 2) the development of fluid networked forms of community, and 3) the emergence of less hierarchical more conversational forms of leadership.

Sticky Church

Sticky Church PDF Author: Larry Osborne
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 031031299X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
Why closing the back door of your church is even more important than opening the front door wider. In Sticky Church, author and pastor Larry Osborne 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 for launching your own sermon-based small group ministry. Topics include: Why stickiness is so important Why most of our discipleship models don't work very well Why small groups always make a church more honest and transparent What makes groups grow deeper and sticker over time Sticky Church is an ideal book for church leaders who want to start or retool their small group ministry—and velcro their congregation to the Bible and each other.

Dangerous Church

Dangerous Church PDF Author: John Bishop
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310318327
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
Dangerous churches are willing to put everything on the line for the one thing that matters most; reaching lost people. Through probing questions and amazing stories of God's grace, John Bishop confronts church leaders to embrace what matters most to the heart of God, whatever the cost. Most churches naturally gravitate to what is safe and familiar. Church leaders who take risks are bound to fail, and fear drives us to continue in our comfortable, but ineffective patterns. But reaching out to a lost world was never meant to be easy. Jesus promised his followers that they would have trouble in this world. Dangerous churches are churches that are willing to risk everything--comfort, safety, and the security of the familiar--for the sake of the one thing that matters most: reaching out to people who may spend eternity separated from the God who created them. God wants us to live on the edge of our margins, walking by faith and not simply following scripted methods or programmed patterns. Dangerous Church takes you back to the Book of Acts and reminds church leaders that the heartbeat of the church is not found in agendas or human plans, but in pursuing the mission of God and reaching out to a lost world. Learn what can happen when church leaders abandon their fears and begin to live a dangerous faith. Dangerous Church is part of the Leadership Network Innovation Series.

Network Church

Network Church PDF Author: Andy Lord
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004222022
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
Drawing on pentecostal experience of growing church networks, this book offers a systematic ecclesiology that provides a fresh approach to catholicity, church structures, partnership and contextualisation.

We Are Church: A Small Group Experience

We Are Church: A Small Group Experience PDF Author: Francis Chan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780781403849
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
BASIC.We Are ChurchA Small Group ExperienceFRANCIS CHAN In this bold new interactive 9-session small group study, Francis Chan takes on the practical aspects of the church, distilling the reality of God's design for the church into foundational truths that will challenge Christians to become the church described in Scripture. Features the final four BASIC films on DVD, each enhanced with two exclusive study sessions found only in this small group experience.- BASIC.Fellowship DVD- BASIC.Teaching DVD- BASIC.Prayer DVD- BASIC.Communion DVD- Six (6) We Are Church Follower's Guides, corresponding to the interactive DVD studies- Resource DVD with video clips, trailers, and poster for church use, sermon outlines for pastors, tips for leaders, and more.

Leading a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church

Leading a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church PDF Author: Mark DeYmaz
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310514754
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
Increasingly, church leaders are recognizing the power and beauty of the multi-ethnic church. Yet, more than a good idea, it’s a biblical, first-century standard with far-reaching evangelistic potential. How can your church overcome the obstacles to become a healthy multi-ethnic community of faith? And why should you even try? In Leading a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church (formerly titled Ethnic Blends), Dr. Mark DeYmaz provides an up-close-and-personal look at seven common challenges to creating diversity in your church. Through real-life stories and practical illustrations, DeYmaz shows how to overcome the obstacles in order to lead a healthy multi-ethnic church. He also includes the insights of other effective multi-ethnic church leaders from the United States and Australia, as well as study questions at the end of each chapter. Leading a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church describes what effective local churches in the 21st century will look like and shows us how to create them, together as one, beyond race and class distinctions. –Miles McPherson, Senior Pastor, The Rock Church, San Diego, CA Mark DeYmaz, perhaps more than any pastor in America, has his pulse on what it will take for the Church to find real reconciliation in our generation. –Matt Carter, Lead Pastor, Austin Stone Community Church, Austin, TX

The Missional Church in Perspective

The Missional Church in Perspective PDF Author: Craig Van Gelder
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 0801039134
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Two ministry experts map the variety of missional church visions over the past decade, opening up new horizons for extending the conversation biblically and theologically.

Underground Church

Underground Church PDF Author: Brian Sanders
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310538084
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
What If the Church Truly Empowered People to Engage in God's Mission? Something extraordinary has been happening in Tampa, Florida. A new expression of the church has been quietly growing. It's something of an experiment, but over the last ten years the church has been validating its ideas with sustained and growing results. At The Underground, being the church is not focused around a weekly gathering or church programs. It's about empowering individuals to respond to God's call to ministry and mission, especially to the poor and disadvantaged in our midst. While many churches talk about discerning calling and engaging in mission, very few are structured to make this their ministry focus. Underground Church is a new vision for the church rooted in its biblical mission to share the love of God and serve the poor. Sanders explores how to make structural changes, how to think about leadership, how to fund ministries, and how to truly engage people in God's mission. Filled with creative insights, he explains what it means to center the mission of the church around the callings of individuals to outward ministry - whether that involves leading Bible studies in the workplace, feeding the homeless, or working to free women and children from sex trafficking. This book will both tell the inspiring story of a church that is rethinking what church looks like while also outlining and uncovering the principles that transfer for every church and Christian community that hopes for more. It's the true story of a 10-year experiment that unpacks the possibilities of a church structured and streamlined for mission. X

Church Planting Thresholds

Church Planting Thresholds PDF Author: Clint Clifton
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781985441842
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Have you ever considered the incredible odds against Christianity? Over two thousand years ago, the self-proclaimed Son of God and His band of disciples first preached the Gospel in a small Roman province. From there, the Good News spread north, south, east, and west. It crossed oceans, climbed mountains, and traveled on horseback and footpath over every imaginable terrain. Within just a few generations Christianity grew from an obscure, regional uprising into a worldwide movement through the multiplication of local churches. Church Planting Thresholds explores both the why's and the how's of church planting, providing "Thresholds" that serve as progress mileposts along the church planting journey. This simple guide will encourage ordinary Christians as they seek to fulfill the Great Commission through planting churches.