Mission Ministry

Beginning with the biblical basics, Jeff Lockyer walks listeners through the underlying theology and practical application of how Southridge Community Church has approached ministry for nearly a quarter century. While providing a fresh approach to ministry, the book stimulates how to think - not what to think. It's written by a local church practitioner for local church practitioners.

The Monkey and the Fish decodes profound shifts and events taking place in the world today due to globalism, multiculturalism and technology, and introduces an original approach to ministry, church, and leadership known as The Third Culture. The book title refers to an Eastern parable that will challenge you to reexamine fundamental assumptions of the evangelical movement, including erroneous interpretations that have made the church increasingly irrelevant in North America and the global village.

There's got to be more to church than this. People around the world are seeking a community that focuses more on others than on themselves. Yet most don't know where to start. Drawing from his own journey, Brandon Hatmaker reminds us that serving the least is not a trendy act of benevolence but a lifestyle of authentic community and spiritual transformation. In Barefoot Church, Brandon offers practical ideas for creating service-based, missional communities and explains how the organizational structure of a church can be created or restructured for mission in any context.

While "missions" used to be the territory of experts and missionary professionals, globalization has made the issues and needs of our world accessible to average Americans. Many American Christians feel overwhelmed by the scope of the brokenness in the world and conclude all they can do is go on with their lives. Others respond by giving and praying, and still others want to do more. What Can I Do shows that global mission is something we all can be part of in tangible ways.

In 1986, Ken and Julie Vaughan were living the American dream: good education, interesting career, nice home, and healthy, bright children. When God called them to teach in Africa, they turned their backs on financial and physical security to accept the challenge of living in a third world country. Through a series of God-initiated events, the Vaughans found themselves living in Cote d’Ivoire, teaching at an international boarding school. In 1997, Ken faced a bout with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. After completing treatment, Ken and Julie returned to Africa to resume the life they loved.

The least of these have the most to give. In Wherever the River Runs, Kelly Minter invites us on a journey down a river teeming with piranhas and caimans, as well as machete-wielding mothers, heroic jungle pastors, faith-filled children, and miracles too seldom experienced in our part of the world. Kelly's honest and engaging narrative pulls back the curtain on one of the most captivating places on earth as well as on parts of the gospel we may be able to recite but have never fully believed.

A single woman missionary, Becky Ruland, vividly writes about death defying adventures in communist nations where she lived for 14 years. From the challenges of learning Russian to understanding how to live cross-culturally in spiritually dark lands, Becky's words tell the stories of real people.

Many believe Charles Colson and Ellen Vaughn¿s The Body to be the watershed book of the past decade. It impacted the Church worldwide, encouraging Christians of diverse backgrounds to see themselves as part of the universal body of Christ. It challenged many to a new sense of unity, realizing that we blunt the Gospel message every time we divide over petty issues and personal turf.

You have a plan for the rest of your life. God has a plan for the rest of your life. Are they the same? Say Yes to God - formerly titled Dangerous Surrender - will help you find the answer. You have expectations for how your life will play out, and you hope those plans will become realities. But what if God's plan for your life is far different from what you had in mind? Can you accept that? Will you surrender your goals for God's? If you've ever struggled with knowing and doing God's will, this audiobook is for you.

The hour is critical. The American republic is suffering its gravest crisis since the Civil War. Conflicts, hostility, and incivility now threaten to tear the country apart. Competing visions have led to a dangerous moment of cultural self-destruction. This is no longer politics as usual, but an era of political warfare where our enemies are not foreign adversaries, but our fellow citizens. Yet the roots of the crisis are deeper than many realize. Os Guinness argues that we face a fundamental crisis of freedom, as America's genius for freedom has become her Achilles' heel.

This book offers the inspirational story of an unlikely friendship and the two men who collaborated in an extraordinary way to begin to help heal centuries-old wounds. For two decades Sir Gilbert Levine and Pope John Paul II collaborated on symbolic acts of reconciliation: a series of internationally broadcast concerts designed to bring together people from all religious backgrounds under the auspices of the Vatican.

When it comes to sharing our faith, we can make things more complex than they need to be. Simple evangelism offers practical ways to connect people to Gods amazing love. With three decades of outreach leadership, Kevin Harney provides tools that free you to set fear aside and walk boldly into the adventure of evangelism.

God calls each of us to be messengers of the gospel. In Peru Is Calling, author Robbie Freeman Shugart invites you to experience her international ministry trips to Peru complete with travel tips. Not only will you discover things to do in cities like Lima, Trujillo, Callao, Cajamarca, and Cusco, you will also see how simple it is to carry Jesus with you wherever you go.

It’s time to overthrow the status quo with Disruptive Compassion. With inspiring and empowering stories from the front lines, Convoy of Hope founder and CEO Hal Donaldson equips us to carry radical hope and help to a world in need. Will you join the revolution?

More people live in cities now than at any other time in human history, presenting a historic opportunity for Christians to influence the majority of the world. Unfortunately, most Christian literature about the city focuses solely on its problems (crime, homelessness, etc.), rather than providing a comprehensive analysis of the city that informs, instructs, and inspires. Using sociological research and data, urban pastors Justin Buzzard and Stephen Um lay out the vision and rationale for church planting, cultural engagement, and missionary impulses in our world’s cities as they provide a solid foundation for motivation.

In a remote valley north of Kabul, in August 2010, American peacemaker Dan Terry and nine other aid workers were attacked and killed in an event that made worldwide headlines. Why would one man take his family, follow faith and calling into the political and religious maelstrom of Afghanistan, and through years of war and strife believe he could make a difference? In Making Friends among the Taliban, childhood friend Jonathan Larson retraces Dan's nearly 40 years in Afghanistan, and through interviews and eye-witness accounts, relays Dan's incredible way of daily living.

Riley Unlikely is the inspiring story of Riley Banks, who first traveled to Kenya at age 13, and has been back every year since, bringing backpacks of school supplies and hygiene kits for young girls, developing relationships and friendships, and is currently, as a young millennial, raising money to build a complete learning complex in Kibwezi, Kenya for those who have nothing.

I Am N reminds us that we are each “n”, or ن ― the Arabic letter radical Muslims use to identify followers of Jesus the Nazarene. Wherever we live, we have fellowship with those persecuted for their Christian witness — just like the individuals found in this book. So come meet their families. Hear their stories. And deepen your faith in a God who calls us to follow Christ's example of enduring suffering in order to fulfill God's redemptive mission.

In this upside-down world, when the have and have-nots are at war; when the privileged and underprivileged contend for resources, man fails to look at what’s truly important: eternity. In America, the fight for equal rights, better treatment under the law, social justice, and income inequality permeate our dialogues. Now more than ever, people are vying for power and influence. Yet too few in this country actually consider the greatest power of all, known to millions of believers worldwide as the kingdom of God.

On an inky moonlit night, in Dupax Del Norte, an Igorot man would share with me the legend of the Ayturi tree, the symbol of the kings of Ituy. A Tuy was the Igorot king who embodied the ideal of the deep-rooted Ayturi tree. My religion sent me to Ituy to convert the Igorot and Cagayanese people to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, it was my adventure to Ituy that converted me to the way of the Tuy.