Church Ministry

In this honest and eye-opening book, Pastor Shane Idleman shares what most ministry leaders won’t: the pain, pitfalls, and pressures that nearly led him to walk away from his calling. Drawing from over two decades in ministry—including intense seasons of burnout, loss, criticism, and spiritual warfare—Shane opens the door to his personal journey and offers wisdom to help other leaders navigate the minefields of ministry without losing heart.

Many new believers have questions about what it means to live as a Christian in the context of a local church, and pastors are looking for resources to pass along to their congregations to help them think biblically about the Christian life. Church Questions is a series by 9Marks that seeks to provide Christians with sound and accessible biblical teaching by answering common questions about church life. Each booklet offers biblical answers and practical applications with the goal of nurturing healthy church practice and commitment.

Gene Edwards challenges one of the most entrenched traditions in modern Christianity: the role of the professional pastor. Drawing from both Scripture and church history, Edwards argues that the contemporary pastoral office is not only unscriptural but also spiritually debilitating, for pastors and congregations alike. Through personal anecdotes, historical insight, and biblical analysis, he reveals how the institutional pastorate emerged not from the early church but from post-apostolic traditions, particularly Roman Catholic practices.

In Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk: A Christian’s Guide to Engaging Politics, Cho encourages listeners to remember that hope arrived—not in a politician, system, or great nation—but in the person of Jesus Christ.

Fidèle à son approche collaborative et interdénominationnelle, le WET a proposé à treize théologiens de discerner le vrai du faux derrière ces phrases que l’on a l’habitude d’entendre… ou de dire. Confrontons notre jargon à la vérité de l’Évangile et parlons mieux!

Drawing on decades of ministry experience, Gillian Cameron offers listeners tried and tested insights that will help build the leadership capabilities of a new generation of Christians. In revealing the importance of the table for a leader, Gillian highlights the principles Jesus used to disciple and grow the people around Him. Listeners will learn how to identify potential leaders, unlock the supernatural in ministry, embrace the power of innovation, lead through seasons of pain, inspire a shared vision, and keep Jesus at the center. Be empowered to grow authentic, confident leaders.

Sue Nilson Kibbey follows up the Abingdon Press leadership classic, Ultimately Responsible, with her latest experience-based research about how your congregation can make the shift from plateau or even decline - to opening the flood gates of spiritual upsurge. This resource is a practical “how-to” guide for pastors and church leaders who dream about releasing holy momentum in their current setting.

I feel that Christian Churches, available for attendance to worship God and to receive from His written Word, are the most important institutions that exist. Nations that practice freedom of religion and worship are blessed to have this privilege and people of the world who desire this but who are not allowed this privilege, would love to trade places with us who do. The Church is also a place of sanctuary from the everyday problems we face in life.

“Meester Volansky, how you say in English? In Ukrainian, we say it like when person live in house. Jesus is my house. I live in Him . . . Because Jesus is like my house . . . I has hope!” Where did Diana get her hope? Somehow, despite the horror of the moment in which the Wolansky family found themselves, and despite whatever horrors Diana had faced in her past over her own children, she seemed to have enough hope to calm everyone else down and to take charge of the situation. Where did she get that capacity? Could Petr and Jen find this type of hope to endure?

Pandemic of Pastors and the Leadership Lie explores the crisis of modern church leadership, exposing how cultural trends have overshadowed biblical shepherding. This book calls the Church to return to Scripture's foundational truths, urging those truly called by the Spirit to embrace humble, faithful shepherding and to recognize false leaders disguised as shepherds. It is a compelling wake-up call for pastors, church leaders, and believers who long for Spirit-led discipleship centered on Christ, the true Shepherd.

An engaging and timely guide to preaching with passion from minister and professor Lucas Hergert. Done well, preaching engages mind and heart, soul and body. Passionate preaching offers more than discussion about topics held at a distance; it claims a stake in them. This is especially true right now, as progressive preachers must address today’s social issues with power and conviction. But how does a preacher ensure the congregation not only receives but also feels the message?

With its play-on-words title that points to the familiar biblical metaphor around shepherds and flocks of sheep in need of attentive care, David McCauley's You Don't Know Sheep provides road-tested insight for some of today's most perplexing faith-based leadership issues. You Don't Know Sheep offers new perspectives; solutions to problems you've been wanting to fix; and the good-natured realization that leading people successfully requires wise shepherding—starting with a shepherd who knows the way.

One of the church's primary responsibilities is to foster genuine spiritual growth in people's lives. Today's pastors bring tremendous effort and passion to this task, but they are often disappointed by people who sit in the pews for years, knowing about Jesus but never really knowing him. In 2004, Willow Creek Community Church in suburban Chicago undertook a three-year study to measure spiritual growth called the REVEAL Spiritual Life Survey. Over the next six years, additional data was collected from over a quarter million people in well over a thousand churches of every size....

A church's culture is the launchpad for everything a church does, the starting point for every ministry. If the culture is "off," everything else will be out of kilter. Church Culture equips every pastor and leader with the tools necessary for culture change. Authors Ozier and Thibodeaux, both experts in this area of church leadership, teach the basic concepts so listeners can understand what culture is and why it's so crucial. Even more importantly, they provide a step-by-step process leaders can use to diagnose and gently shift the culture in their church.

Este libro es una crónica sobre el Grupo Pequeño o Movimiento Celular, partiendo de la época de Jesús hasta llegar a la explosión celular en los tiempos modernos. Comiskey destaca las fortalezas y debilidades de estos movimientos históricos de grupos pequeños, y aplica estos principios a la iglesia actual. Crecerás en gratitud y en entendimiento de los valores clave de las células a causa de aquellos pioneros que allanaron el camino.

Biblical eldership is too important to the local church to be muddled in confusion and unscriptural church traditions. According to the New Testament, elders jointly pastor the church, teach the word, protect the church from false teachers, exhort and admonish believers in sound doctrine, pray with the sick, and judge doctrinal issues. In biblical terminology, elders shepherd, oversee, lead, manage, and care for the local church. By developing a healthy eldership, we develop a healthy church.

In 2012, Steve Austin, then a pastor, nearly died by suicide. His experience launched him on a journey that opened his eyes to the widespread problem of mental illness and how those who live with it are often treated in congregations. He began to wonder: If church folks had talked openly about mental health, therapy, suicide prevention, recovery from abuse, and other difficult issues, would that have changed his story? In Hiding in the Pews, people with mental illness - some of whom might be pastors themselves - will find comfort as they learn they are not alone.

What if I told you that you were only one step away from unlocking new levels of maturity and growth in your church? The myth of the silver bullet still exists because we desperately want it to. We all prefer quick fixes and bandage solutions to the long, hard, slow work that produces real change. What if the solution isn't a new model or a complicated strategy but a shift in perspective? What if you could keep your church's current vision, values, and model and simply make a few microshifts...leading to macrochanges?

Although the vast majority of human beings have always believed in the universe having a creator, concepts of God vary greatly among them today. For many people, important questions remain unresolved, such as: Are religions divine in origin or man-made? Can God really do "all things" like some scriptures claim? Could he create a rock too heavy for him to lift? Who created the Creator, and did God become man?

You can be young, passionate about Jesus Christ, surrounded by diversity, engaged in a postmodern world, and reared in evangelicalism and not be an emergent Christian. In fact I want to argue that it would be better if you weren't. The Emergent Church is a strong voice in today's Christian community. And they're talking about good things: caring for the poor, peace for all men, loving Jesus. They're doing church a new way, not content to fit the mold. Again, all good. But there's more to the movement than that.