Ministry Leadership

The road to launching a successful business can be long and confusing. Where do you start? Should you rent office space or work out of your garage? Should you register as a for-profit or a nonprofit business? How should you handle legal issues that come up? What does it mean to be a "Christian" entrepreneur anyway? Drawing from his work as a legal expert and business coach, Brock Shinen combines practical wisdom and a biblical worldview to help Christians turn their dreams and passions into viable businesses.

Beyond Integrity offers a balanced approach to a number of concrete ethical issues. Readings from a wide range of sources present competing perspectives on each issue, and real-life case studies further help the listener grapple with ethical dilemmas. The authors want to help the listener arrive at his or her own conclusions. To this end, they provide a decision-making model. They also present, in addition to several views on each topic, a distinctly Christian perspective on each issue under discussion.

The market is flooded with books, conferences, and workshops on how to be a better leader. In most companies, leaders are noticed and applauded while followers are often viewed as weak and passive. However, Scripture tells us a different story; although leadership is valued and respected, being obedient followers of Christ is at the very heart of faith. In The Call to Follow, Richard Langer and Joanne J. Jung teach listeners that "followership" is essential to both organizational and spiritual flourishing.

Women comprise at least half the world, and usually more than half the church, but so often Christian teaching to women either fails to move beyond a discussion of roles or assumes a particular economic situation or stage of life. This all but shuts women out from contributing to God's kingdom as they were designed to do.

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.

In A Work of Heart, best-selling author and missional expert Reggie McNeal helps leaders reflect on the ways in which God is shaping them by letting us see God at work in the lives of four quintessential biblical leaders: Moses, David, Jesus, and Paul. McNeal identifies the formative influences upon these leaders, which he sees as God's ways of working in their lives: the same influences at work today forming leaders for ministry in our times. He explores the shaping influence of culture, call, community, conflict, and the commonplace.

You may be a new believer and wonder what it means to belong to a church; you may be reluctant to commit to your church because of past experiences; you may have recently relocated and want to find a church where you feel at home; or you may love your church and desire to commit to it more deeply and serve it more fully. Whatever the case, this book will help you to see that belonging to a church is a good gift from God, the outworking of our identity as brothers and sisters in Christ, and worth your time, love, and commitment.

A great reckoning is underway in the church today: a naming and exposing of the exclusivity, abuse, racism, patriarchy, and unchecked power that have marked evangelical Christianity for far too long. What kind of church will emerge on the other side?

This book captures the story of a widespread movement of churches that are expanding their ministries to include multiple formats, venues, and locations, using dozens of in-the-trenches examples, identifying the primary reasons churches succeed as well as how they overcome common snags on the route to "one church, many congregations".

Combining history, a look at the causes of social upheaval, and current events, The Great Emergence shows readers what the Great Emergence in church and culture is, how it came to be, and where it is going. Anyone who is interested in the future of the church in America, no matter what their personal affiliation, will find this book a fascinating exploration.

Respected church consultant, founder and CEO of Church Answers, and author of several church leadership books Thom S. Rainer shows how the trend of low church attendance is slowly undermining churches and sending many to the grave. With this leadership parable, Thom illustrates the five key dysfunctions that plague congregations and block healthy church growth. He demonstrates why church leaders need to pay more attention to core issues like unbelief, membership, and dedication to evangelism.

Digital is a confusing concept, and many churches struggle to understand it, with most limiting their digital experience to streaming their church services and nothing more. In this book, you'll learn how to think strategically about digital strategy and how to best integrate digital ideas into your church that align with your ministry's in-person objectives. The goal is to disciple more people and not just get an online audience.

In The Pathway to Powerful, Danny Silk - author of Culture of Honor and Keep Your Love On - teams up with Carla Chud to offer a practical road map for becoming a more powerful, healthy leader. Drawing from the journey Carla and her leadership team have taken to transform themselves and their organization, she and Danny lay out the steps to overcome fear-driven, dysfunctional leadership and establish the core values and practices of honor in their lives, team dynamics, and organizational culture.

Evangelism is not only misunderstood, it is often unpracticed. Many Christians want to share the gospel with others, but because those Christians don't grasp the fundamentals of witnessing, they feel intimidated and incapable of sharing the truth of the gospel. Yet those believers fail to recognize that God has already established who and how we are to evangelize. In The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Dr. Mark Dever seeks to answer the four basic questions about evangelism that many Christians ask: Who should we evangelize? How should we evangelize? What is evangelism? Why should we evangelize?

Ministry comes with many weighty responsibilities. Ministry leaders are called to teach, serve, and lead. But in leading those under their care, there comes a moment when they recognize the future leaders under their leadership. With this recognition comes an all too familiar question: What comes next? In Calling Out the Called, Scott Pace and Shane Pruitt answer this question by giving direction, encouragement, and a charge for ministry leaders to recognize the future leaders in their midst and do what needs to be done for the future of ministry: the calling out of the called.

Although serving may imply weakness to some, conjuring up a picture of the CEO waiting on the workforce hand and foot, servant leadership is actually a robust, revolutionary idea that can have significant impact on an organization's performance. Author Jim Hunter champions this hard/soft approach to leadership, which turns bosses and managers into coaches and mentors.

Evangelical Christianity is a paradox. Evangelicals are radically individualist, but devoted to community and family. They believe in the transformative power of a personal relationship with God, but are wary of religious enthusiasm. They are deeply skeptical of secular reason, but eager to find scientific proof that the Bible is true. In this groundbreaking history of modern American evangelicalism, Molly Worthen argues that these contradictions are the products of a crisis of authority that lies at the heart of the faith.

In this inspiring autobiography, Morris West, aged 80, reviews the chronicle of his life and belief, offering a lyrical, intimate and affirming account of his pilgrimage as a 20th-century Christian. From the vantage point of his hard-won and deeply held faith, West shares a remarkable and moving journey, through doubting and questioning to ultimately embracing faith in God.

In Pressure Points, J. D. Payne gets to the heart of 12 of the most important challenges we face today, raising awareness of realities that will influence the church for decades to come. J. D. helps us understand how we can prevent these global issues from pushing the church off her biblical moorings. Pressure Points gives us the tools to absorb the pressures of society while responding in a way that remains faithful to the church’s calling and mission.

Maybe you have been there: you’re running late to church, and you know it will be hard to find an empty seat. This is an all-too-frequent experience in a growing church. For churches experiencing this dilemma, a common solution is to add another service or location. This seems like a cost-effective fix. Besides, no one wants to turn away non-Christians. But is it the best option? Jonathan Leeman presents a series of biblical, theological, and pastoral arguments to help reorient our minds to a scriptural definition of church.