Church Vision

The last time I spoke was eight years ago when my best friend tried to kill me. I never dreamed my silence would break with a scream. Being sent to Chapel Crest after my new stepfather deemed me a heathen seemed like a blessing compared to staying with him and my mom. I was a mute demon in his eyes, and when the rod didn’t beat the evil out of me, he prayed Chapel Crest could. I envisioned the religious academy would become my sanctuary. I was wrong. So very wrong. Chapel Crest was an asylum moonlighting as a religious school.

David Tatel has served nearly 30 years on America’s second highest court, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where many of our most crucial cases are resolved—or teed up for the Supreme Court. He has championed equal justice for his entire adult life; decided landmark environmental and voting cases; and embodied the ideal of what a great judge should be. Yet he has been blind for the past 50 of his 80-plus years.

Lamar Hardwick was thirty-six years old when he found out he was on the autism spectrum. While this revelation helped him understand and process his own experience, it also prompted a difficult re-evaluation of who he was as a person. And as a pastor, it started him on a new path of considering the way disabled people are treated in the church. Disability and the Church is a practical and theological reconsideration of the church's responsibilities to the disabled community.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Reignite your purpose in Christ, restore your dignity, heal your pain, transform your rest, and learn how to flourish in today’s secular world as a Black Christian woman—from Bible teacher, speaker, and psychotherapist Dr. Sarita Lyons. “Masterfully intertwines the...

Views on the roles of deacons vary widely among evangelical Christians. What does scripture actually teach about deacons and their role in the church? Views range from deacons being the board of directors to the church-building maintenance crew. Strauch states that his purpose in writing this book is to encourage my deacon friends and fellow church leaders to think more critically about what they are saying, what they are doing, and what scripture actually teaches about deacons.

In today's frenetic society, people rarely develop intimate friendships. Instead, they spend their lives essentially disconnected from others, rushing through life content with brief visits and casual conversations. But what if one were to develop a community, a spiritual community, of people who walked with and supported each other through life's journey? A community of real friends who listened to each other's personal tragedies without merely trying to fix the problems, who encouraged and nurtured each other's strengths, and who accepted people for who they really are.

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 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.

Wake Up to the Kingdom is a bold invitation to rediscover the message that Jesus preached. In this awakening guide for modern believers, Ted Yule unpacks the revolutionary power of the Kingdom of God—not as a distant hope, but as a present reality transforming how we live, lead, and influence the world around us. Born out of a season of stillness and discovery, this book affirms the beauty of the Church while confronting the limits of tradition when it's disconnected from mission.

While today’s business world is dominated by technology and data analysis, award-winning financial journalist and anthropology PhD Gillian Tett advocates thinking like an anthropologist to better understand consumer behavior, markets, and organizations to address some of society’s most urgent challenges.

Church leadership is a shared responsibility, not a solo venture. This book equips pastors and elders to lead the church together as a team, focusing not so much on what they are to be but on what they as a body are to do.

Ephesians presents a wide-ranging panorama of the Christian gospel and its implications. It looks backwards toward the creation of the world, and it looks forward to the time when God will be "all in all." It foregrounds the work of Jesus the Messiah and the work of the spirit, and it positions the church as central to the purposes of God--a small, working model of new creation.

How do we acquire this mind of Christ and where is it to be found? For the Orthodox Christian, salvation is the acquisition of this mind of Christ which is to be found in the Church. This acquisition moves us from the image of God to the likeness of God; through our obedience to this call we begin to know God and this knowledge is eternal life (John 17:3). This small book hopes to begin to answer how acquiring the mind of Christ is possible and why it is necessary in our lives today.

Reaching out to listeners of all religious backgrounds, Desmond Tutu shows us how to transform suffering into joy both in our lives and in our world. He tells us that God dreams of a world where laughter, love, and peace reign, and where we realize that we are all members of one family, God's family. In this extremely personal and liberating message, Father Tutu helps us "see with the eyes of the heart" and cultivate the qualities of forgiveness, humility, generosity, and courage.

Since when did believing in God and having moral values make you pro-war, pro-rich, and solely pro-Republican? And since when did promoting and pursuing a progressive social agenda with a concern for economic security, health care, and educational opportunity mean you had to put faith in God aside?

An estimated one in 5 households has a child with a disability. Many of these families miss out on church due to a lack of physical or social accommodations. And while ministry leaders want to help, they often don't know how to with limited space, budget, and trained volunteers. Churches must understand the challenges that disability families face so they can remove barriers to biblical fellowship.

The period from 1933 to 1943 was one of the darkest and most chaotic in human history, as the Second World War unfolded with unthinkable cruelty. It was also a crucial decade in the dramatic, intersecting lives of some of history’s greatest philosophers. There were four women, in particular, whose parallel ideas would come to dominate the twentieth century—at once in necessary dialogue and in striking contrast with one another.

Leading from the Second Chair will raise awareness of the need for strong leaders in secondary positions. It will describe the value they can bring to their organization and to primary leaders when they are serving at their full potential. It will reshape the way they view their role, with an emphasis on their own responsibility as leaders. It recognizes the unique challenges and frustrations of serving in a subordinate position and equips these leaders with the attitudes and skills that they will need to survive and thrive in this new paradigm.

Church Unique is written by church consultant Will Mancini - an expert on a new kind of visioning process to help churches develop a stunningly unique model of ministry that leads to redemptive movement. He guides churches away from an internal focus to emphasize participation in their community and surrounding culture. In this important audiobook, Mancini offers an approach for rethinking what it means to lead with clarity as a visionary. Mancini explains that each church has a culture that reflects its particular values, thoughts, attitudes, and actions.

Do you want to reignite your passion for the local church and see your congregation live out the Great Commission by growing and making disciples? If so, implementing the revolutionary Intentional Growth Planning™ operating system will benefit you, your church, and your community! Just as laptops and smart phones have an operating system, the church needs a biblically based operating system where its various programs and activities can effectively plug in to.