Church Ministry

Amy Orr-Ewing has learned a lot of lessons the hard way. As an internationally known speaker, theologian, and apologist, she has navigated through many challenges: battling abuse, finding and using her voice, building a lasting ministry, leading with confidence, thriving in friendship, relying on God in hard times, and more. Now, she's sharing the wisdom she has gained over twenty-five years with other women so they, too, can grow in Christian leadership.

This illuminating and insightful audiobook analyzes problems with the culture's underlying worldviews and suggests how Christians can offer solutions to current problems as a way to rebuild culture and faith.

Who Stole My Church? is a fictional story that tells the all-too-real tale of many church communities today. In this audiobook, you can walk alongside an imaginary community, led by real-life pastor Gordon MacDonald and his wife, Gail, and discover how to meet the needs of all believers without abandoning the dreams and desires of any.

There are plenty of reasons to criticize, judge, and even walk away from the church. Many of us have been hurt and rejected. We may see church as insular and irrelevant. Despite this, Kevin Makins believes that the church still matters - perhaps more than ever. If you've been burned or burned out by the church, if you've been silenced or misunderstood, if you've left or never even joined in the first place, this candid, hopeful audiobook is your invitation to consider what you miss out on when you give up on church - and what the church misses out on when it gives up on you.

No one wants to see a church die. And yet, far too many churches are dying. For more than 25 years, Dr. Thom Rainer has helped churches grow, reverse the trends of decline, and has autopsied those that have died. From this experience, he has discovered 12 consistent themes among those churches that have died. Yet, it's not gloom and doom because from those 12 themes, lessons on how to keep your church alive have emerged.

If we desire to honor God in all we do, we need to be in his Book every day. Through the Bible, God offers us so much more wisdom for living and leading-and for every domain of life—than anything this world can ever give us. That's why Hobby Lobby founder and CEO David Green wrote The Leader's Devotional. By sharing the biblical principles that are the foundation of his life and leadership, he challenges and encourages each of us to seek God's guidance for our lives, for our families, and for our organizations.

While many aspects of leadership development are similar for women and men, women face different cultural expectations and have different experiences than their male counterparts. Anna Morgan's own experiences in pastoral ministry leadership launched her search for a holistic way to grow the skills, influence, and authority of women who are gifted and called as leaders. This book provides a positive, comprehensive research-based model for developing women in church and ministry leadership. Morgan identifies seven aspects of leadership development that form a woman over her lifetime.

Christian identity is in moral and political crisis. Lee Camp writes “that one major reason Christianity in America has been made into a bad public joke is our failure to rightly understand what Christianity is.” Scandalous Witness provides a way forward. Although refusing to reduce Christianity to any partisan agenda, he reminds us that the gospel is inherently political and that we are called to be political witnesses.

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.

In the year since he was elected, Pope Francis' simple message of mercy, service, and renewal has spread to every corner of the world. Through his gentle demeanor, selfless actions, and welcoming call for service to others, he has captured the attention of a world longing for an authentic message of hope - we want to hear what he has to say. Collected from Pope Francis' speeches, homilies, and papers presented during the first year of his papacy, The Church of Mercy is the first Vatican-authorized book detailing his vision for the Catholic Church.

Administration is an essential component of every church. Pastors, ministers, and church leaders will benefit from this practical guide to understanding and managing administrative details such as church finances, policies, and staff.

In his new book, Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around, AND Campaign cofounder and president Justin Giboney explores a compelling vision of how the Black Church's social action tradition can inspire hope and healing in the face of today's polarized culture wars. The spirituals of the Black church, such as "Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around," were rallying cries during the Civil Rights movement, making clear the connection between faith and justice during marches and protests.

Congregations often seek to combat the crisis of decline by using innovation to produce new resources. But leading practical theologian Andrew Root shows that the church's crisis is not in the loss of resources; it's in the loss of life—and that life can only return when we remain open to God's encountering presence. This new book, related to Root's critically acclaimed Ministry in a Secular Age project, addresses the practical form the church must take in a secular age.

As many have said, the church must always be reforming. It must continually move closer to a truer, more faithful expression of the gospel. The risen Christ’s powerful letters to the seven churches in Revelation are a guide to just that. Based on John MacArthur’s exposition of these letters, Christ’s Call to Reform the Church is a plea to the modern church to heed these divine warnings, to reform before it succumbs to the kinds of compromise and error that invite God’s judgment.

A confession and manifesto from a senior leader in the emerging church movement, A Generous Orthodoxy calls for a radical, Christ-centered orthodoxy of faith and practice in a missional, generous spirit. Brian McLaren argues for a post-liberal, post-conservative, post-protestant convergence, which will stimulate lively interest and global conversation among thoughtful Christians from all traditions.

In a tiny, dilapidated trailer in northeastern Oregon, a young woman saw a vision of the Virgin Mary in an ordinary landscape painting hanging on her bedroom wall. After being met with skepticism from the local parish, the matter was officially placed "under investigation" by the Catholic diocese. Investigative journalist Randall Sullivan wanted to know how, exactly, one might conduct the official inquiry into such an incident, so he set off to interview theologians, historians, and postulators.

In this exciting book, Paula Fredriksen explains the variety of New Testament images of Jesus by exploring the ways that the new Christian communities interpreted his mission and message in light of the delay of the Kingdom he had preached. A new introduction reviews the most recent scholarship on Jesus and its implications for both history and theology.

As a pastor in Silicon Valley, Jay Kim has experienced the digital church in all its splendor. In Analog Church, he grapples with the ramifications of a digital church, from our worship and experience of Christian community to the way we engage Scripture and sacrament. Could it be that in our efforts to stay relevant in our digital age, we've begun to give away the very thing that our age most desperately needs: transcendence? Could it be that the best way to reach new generations is in fact found in a more timeless path?

American Christianity teaches the centrality of the individual: my will, my experiences, my decision, my heart, my work, and my dedication. Yet we couldn't be more unaware that Christ and His saving and comforting work are being lost. Our minds and hearts are captivated in some way by those who often preach the Christian instead of Christ.

It’s time to break free from our Sunday-centric, formulaic versions of church and instead architect fresh kingdom ecosystems as an ancient yet new frontier for sustainable mission. The temptation for many church leaders is to take what’s worked elsewhere and use it as a paint-by-number. Yet Jesus showed us a different way. Every word he spoke and everything he did utterly broke the molds, rules, and laws that people had created to confine God and his kingdom.