Church Ministry

From the historic Council of Nicaea in 325 to the transformative Second Vatican Council in the 20th century, this book offers a deep, clear, and accessible journey through the key moments that shaped the faith, theology, and structure of the Church. Isaac Volpe presents the conflicts, dogmatic definitions, reforms, and tensions that have marked the path of Christianity for over 1,600 years with rigor and passion. Ideal for believers, historians, theologians, and readers interested in understanding how the Church faced each doctrinal, political, and pastoral challenge throughout the centuries.

In Made for Love, Fr. Michael Schmitz presents the Catholic teachings on same-sex attraction and same-sex "sexual" relations. While this audiobook is intended primarily for those who have same-sex attraction and their family and friends, its presentation of the compassionate truth of Catholic teaching on same-sex attraction will be of great benefit to everyone in today's society.

Discipleship occurs when someone answers the call to learn from Jesus how to live his or her life as though Jesus were living it. The end result is that the disciple becomes the kind of person who naturally does what Jesus did. How the church understands salvation and the gospel is the key to...

A practical tool for women who are called to leadership roles in any area of life, Entrusted to Lead offers biblical insight and real-life encouragement for how to navigate their leadership journey. In Entrusted to Lead, Pastor Donna Pisani draws on over four decades of experience to offer a biblical perspective of women in leadership that considers their role an entrusted assignment rather than just an entitled position.

As faith-filled Catholics, we are called to go out and spread the good news of the Gospel, build up the Church, and fuel its mission. We are supernaturally empowered by God to do this through the charisms we receive at baptism. Learn about each charism, what they are, and how discipleship unleashes these powerful gifts to produce fruit that lasts.

The character of the times in which we live is such as to call forth from us even this admonition, that we ought not to be astonished at the heresies (which abound) neither ought their existence to surprise us, for it was foretold that they should come to pass; nor the fact that they subvert the faith of some, for their final cause is, by affording a trial to faith, to give it also the opportunity of being “approved”. - Tertullian

What if everything you've heard about leadership is wrong? Secular models of leadership rooted in pragmatic success dominate Christian leadership in the West. It makes our work impersonal and exploitive. And, at worst, it serves the leader rather than those the leader leads. We need a different...

Ministry Makeover examines the decline within the church, especially the United Methodist Church (UMC), and some causes for this decline. It calls for a reforming of United Methodist structure and polity by drawing more attention to the value of the bi-vocational model of ministry and a re-visitation of the Wesleyan/United Brethren view and historical perspective.

This book is designed to give hope and guidance to churches: leaders, ministers, and members. Anyone who wants to believe again.

Church leaders are called to love and care for their flock, just as Peter did. Unpack the instruction for church leaders found in 1 Peter 5:1-4, where they are exhorted to shepherd the flock among them. Some instruction is timeless. Regardless of the age in which we live, certain instruction...

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.

Follow the Healer provides those in ministry with a practical theology of healing—helping you understand how Jesus heals and why we still need to participate. It's easy to fall into one of two extremes when it comes to Christian healing: outright skepticism on one side and abuse on the other...

In Inventing a Christian America, Green, a leading historian of religion and politics, explores the historical record that is purported to support the popular belief in America's religious founding and status as a Christian nation.

In Radical, David Platt’s plea for Christians to take back their faith from the American Dream resonated with readers everywhere, and the book quickly became a New York Times best seller. Now in Radical Together, the author broadens his call, challenging us to unite around a gospel-centered vision.

Over the last thirty years, conservative evangelicals have been moving to the Northwest of the United States, where they hope to resist the impact of secular modernity and to survive the breakdown of society that they anticipate. Their activity coincides with the promotion by prominent survivalist authors of a program of migration to the "American Redoubt," a region encompassing Idaho, Montana, parts of eastern Washington and Oregon, and Wyoming, as a haven in which to endure hostile social change or natural disaster and in which to build a new social order.

Their stories begin with desperation, and the struggle and the perseverance these national translators show is guaranteed to inspire...these are the least of these. Humble people-largely unknown to anyone else in the world. People hungry for God's Word. People willing to risk everything, sacrifice their own ambitions, to be able to read Scripture in their heart language...stopping at nothing until they hold the precious Word of God—in their language—for the very first time.

Whether you're leading in a church, business, organization, or family, The Rooted Leader offers a path to becoming the kind of faithful leader who stands strong in the storm and bears fruit for those you serve.

Drawing Lines Building Bridges seeks to bring clarity to the confusion Christians have today concerning what to do about homosexuality in the church and how to respond to homosexuals in their lives. While drawing lines between the values held by society and the traditional morality preserved by the church, Drawing Lines Building Bridges advocates strategies of bridge-building engagement between Christians and the LGBT community - strategies which model the example of Jesus and Paul in the Bible and reflect the concerns of the LGBT community.

A collection of inspired writings (originally in Greek) about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, the apostles, and other followers of Jesus Christ. The New Testament is commonly divided into the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, Paul’s epistles, the general epistles, and the book of Revelation. The four Gospels - the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - are accounts of the life of Christ. The Book of Acts records the history of the Church and the apostles, especially Paul’s missionary travels, after Christ’s death.

The gospel is the greatest message of all time, addressing the greatest need of all people. However, the good news about Jesus does more than just promise eternal life to all who believe. In this addition to the 9Marks Building Healthy Churches series, pastor Ray Ortlund explains the gospel's power to transform individuals from the inside out and create beautiful human relationships. This short book helps listeners experience the power of God as they are encouraged to trust in Christ and allow him to transform their beliefs, perspectives, and practices.