Church Age

"In my first seminary class, we were asked to introduce ourselves and say why we enrolled. I'll never forget what one student said: 'My denomination wants me to have an M.Div., but once they see I can grow a big church, I don't think they'll make me finish the program.'" The priorities of this future pastor were startling, but he's not alone in them. In the years since that class, author and minister Skye Jethani has seen more and more pastors swallowed by the celebrity syndrome. Immeasurable will help ministers recognize the forces shaping their view of the calling.

This two-volume history of the supernatural, first published in 1863, is a staggering feat. William Howitt attempts to describe the engagement with the supernatural in all ages and all parts of the world in order to identify a common link between them. Howitt (1792-1879), a well-known writer in his day, published over 50 books in his lifetime, some in collaboration with his wife, writer, and translator Mary Howitt.

From New York Times bestselling author Babs Costello, the internet’s favorite grandma, comes a picture book filled with the motherly wisdom we all need! Did Your Mother Ever Tell You? offers readers new insights on familiar phrases, with emotional support, encouragement, and unconditional love...

In Pequot Landing, there are two sights to see: The largest elm in America, which dominates the stately old village green, and the house of Lady Harleigh. When the Great War ended, she was the most beautiful bride in the village, and though she was widowed soon after, mourning dampened neither her beauty nor her spirits. By the time the Great Depression rolls around, she is the unchallenged center of Pequot society - lovely and energetic, but subject to bouts of grim melancholy that hint at something dark beneath her surface.

The Fitzgeralds are buttressed by wealth and privilege, but they are also buffeted by crisis after crisis, many of their own creation. Even so, they live large, in love and in strife, wielding power, combating adversaries and each other.

Sixteen-year-old Amina Conteh has always believed in using her tongue as her weapon—even when it gets her into trouble. After cursing at a classmate, her father forces her to volunteer at their church with Pastor Johnson. But Pastor Johnson isn’t the holy man everyone thinks he is. The same voice Amina uses to fight falls quiet the night she is sexually assaulted by Pastor Johnson. After that, her life starts to unravel: her father is frustrated that her grades are slipping, and her best friend and boyfriend don’t understand why the once loud and proud girl is now quiet and distant.

After her mother’s sudden death, artistically gifted Megan lost her will to draw as she watched her family crumble. When her father unexpectedly moves what’s left of them halfway across the country to mend, Megan must try, yet again, to rise from the ashes and create a new existence for herself. She’s intrigued when she sees Shawn—a secluded classmate who sparks unexpected drawing inspiration.

Unpacks unique insights from Jesus' parables that can help us understand and experience the full, transformative life in community we are divinely intended to live. Christ never actually told us how to "do church." Yes, he had a lot to say about the church, but what he did say was mostly...

The key to effective church leadership is the ability to be a nonanxious presence. This is not a technique; it is a way of being. It is deceptively simple, but tremendously difficult. Yet, if you are willing to take the journey, you can lead change in even the most challenging contexts.

Adventurous and fun-loving Becca Daniels loves the rush of new experiences and is constantly pushing the envelope—trying everything from extreme sports, to wild hair colors, to skydiving. So when a broken leg grounds her temporarily, Becca doesn’t take the interruption well. Grumpy, restless...

If ever a catharsis in Western European Civilization occurred, it had to have been the period we refer to as the Renaissance. After a thousand years of theocracy, manorialism, feudalism and narrow economic development, Europe was ripe for change. She got it with a vengeance.

Es una buena pregunta, ya que existen muchas ideas erróneas sobre las causas de las cruzadas, por no hablar de lo que ocurrió realmente durante las mismas. En este libro pretendemos aclarar muchas de estas cuestiones y ofrecerle una historia concisa y precisa de las cruzadas. Gran parte de la historia de las cruzadas se ha visto oscurecida a lo largo de los años por conjeturas basadas en opiniones. Intentamos aclarar las cosas de la forma más imparcial posible.

Christians are often thought of as defending only their own religious interests in the public square. They are viewed as worrying exclusively about the erosion of their freedom to assemble and to follow their convictions, while not seeming as concerned about publicly defending the rights of Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and atheists to do the same. Andrew T. Walker, an emerging Southern Baptist public theologian, argues for a robust Christian ethic of religious liberty that helps the church defend religious freedom for everyone in a pluralistic society.

The audioguide tells the story, describes the architecture and reports interesting facts about the cathedral. The island of Torcello, populated since Roman times, sheltered the population from the mainland, during the Gothic invasion period. The basilica of Santa Maria Assunta was built in 639. The fulcro of the cathedral are the magnificent mosaics, executed by local and Byzantine workers.

Christianity in America is under siege. From litigation over coaches starting games with prayer to expulsion from college for refusing to endorse beliefs at odds with the Christian faith, hardly a week goes by without news of the declining influence that Christianity has in the public square. Can Christianity in this country survive the advances of secularists and remain influential in our culture? And if a new spiritual awakening is possible, what form will it take?

Just four days ahead of her wedding, Lizzie Lavender receives a letter her mother wrote for her, a year ago, just before she died. Shocked into realising life is passing her by, she runs away, heading for the West Country, where she plans to clear her head and reconsider her options. Fate, however has its own ideas and Lizzie has no idea that a tiny village, two guardian angels and a host of new friends are exactly what she needs. And then there's Tom – who she can’t help but feel she's met before.

When Jess and Rupert parted ways, it was the end of a great love story that might have been. Now, 10 years later, the very different paths they have taken in life will bring them back together for a chance meeting. But with so much left unsaid about the break-up neither ever recovered from and with each keeping their own devastating secrets, will they finally be able to make the fractured pieces of their love for one another whole again?

In the long, hot summer of 1995, 22-year-old Alice Lang rents a caravan on a holiday park on the outskirts of the lively holiday resort of Severn Sands. She befriends Marnie, a shy, damaged little girl whose father is the park's caretaker and whose mother died a few months earlier. Will, whose mother runs the bar, falls in love with Alice and is unbearably jealous of anyone else she sees. Tensions rise until one evening Alice disappears from her caravan. She's never seen again, and only her scarlet dress is found washed up on the shore.

They think nothing can tear their bond apart, until a long-buried secret threatens to destroy everything. Every year they have met up for a vacation, but their time away is much more than just a bit of fun. Over time, it has become a lifesaver, as each of them struggles with life’s triumphs...

In this groundbreaking, inspiring book, Robin R. Meyers, the senior minister of Oklahoma City’s Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ, shows how listeners can move from a theology of obedience to one of consequence. He argues that we need to stop seeing our actions as a means for pleasing a distant God and rediscover how God has empowered us to care for ourselves and the world. Drawing on stories from his decades of active ministry, Meyers captures how the struggles of ordinary people hint at how we can approach faith as a radical act of trust in a God who is all around us.