Religious Leadership

Lyn Brakeman was among the first women to enter the ordination process in the Episcopal Church just after the General Convention voted in 1976 that women could be priests. The bishop of her diocese had voted against ordaining women priests, and hospitality toward female aspirants was guarded at best. So why would a 40-year-old institutional naïf, suburban housewife, and mother of four enter such unfriendly territory to seek priestly ordination at a time when her personal life was in chaos?

We can't help but be inspired by great leaders. In the midst of our increasingly divided age, examining great moral leaders can help us understand the central qualities of moral leadership and discover lessons for our own lives and times. This book explores the lives of 14 great moral leaders of recent centuries. Incorporating skillful storytelling, short biographies, and analyses, the book presents these exemplary moral leaders as human beings who are flawed in some ways, gifted in others, but unforgettable all the same.

The apostle Barnabas may be one of the most overlooked and yet most influential leaders of the New Testament. His impact on the church began with a simple gift to feed hungry believers, then grew into much more. Barnabas was trusted by the original apostles to lead the first organized church outside of Jerusalem, Antioch. He mentored Paul and later Mark, and pioneered the first missionary outreach of the early church. The Barnabas Way follows the journey of this amazing leader across acts, gleaning the important leadership principles that Barnabas leaves along the way.

Wouldn't you like to know how to have a healthy marriage, effective ministry, and godly children? Learn the 13 keys that helped these pastors plant churches and continue leading them for up to 33 years while they grew to over 1,500 people. Now in their 60's, these pastors are still enjoying ministry, happy marriages, and children who are all following the Lord. How did they do it? You're about to find out! This book is based upon a real-world case study that will give you the keys to keep you standing strong - not just in ministry, but personally, and in marriage and family as well.

When Michael was growing up, his father would drive him out to his ranch. There, Ronald Reagan taught Michael how to ride a horse, how to shoot a gun, and much more. As they drove together or did chores together, Michael's father told him stories and taught him about life, love, family, faith, success, and leadership.

In the 1980s, Erika Bornman’s family join, and ultimately move to, KwaSizabantu, a Christian mission based in KwaZulu-Natal, which is touted as a nirvana, founded on egalitarian values. But something sinister lurks beneath ‘the place where people are helped’. Life at KwaSizabantu is hard. Christianity is used to justify harsh punishments, and congregants are forced to repent for their sins. Threats of physical violence ensure adherence to stringent rules. Parents are pitted against children. Friendships are discouraged.

Current church planting, growth, and development strategies cannot be sustained. We need to work smarter in our rapidly changing world. We must become disruptive. And yet we typically hesitate to embrace change. We like our traditions. We prefer our familiar patterns and comfortable ruts. Still...

Get a better understanding of the Bible through ten words that help define God's plan for restoring and redeeming our broken world. The Bible contains around 750,000 words—a number that would intimidate even the most seasoned readers of the Bible. Yet, from the beginning of time, God set in...

Against profiles of other leaders, drawn from different times in history, Jesus emerges as a role model whose example resonates powerfully with all of us leaders - in corporate boardrooms, in government, in social causes, in sports teams, in families, in every facet of life.

The Garden in Eden was filled with fruit-producing trees, sprouting plants and grasses, and gently flowing rivers. Adam, G-d's chosen king/priest, was called to cultivate the garden's fertile soil, to guard the sacred space from external enemies, and to rule over the Earth. After breaking covenant with YHWH, his king, Adam was banished to the field, a place of thorns and thistles, where he became a slave to the earth. The Temple Revealed in the Garden: Priests and Kings examines the Garden story from an ancient Near East perspective.

In recent decades, Americans in Rome have revived an ancient Christian custom: the daily pilgrimage to dozens of Rome's most striking churches during Lent and Easter Week. Along this historical and spiritual pathway, pilgrims encounter hidden artistic wonders and treasured Christian commentaries while also confronting the great mysteries of the Christian faith through a program of biblical and early Christian readings. The itinerary of the Roman station church pilgrimage offers Christians an opportunity to reflect on their religion and ponder the quality of their discipleship.

C'è un'ansia di cambiamento nel mondo. Papa Francesco la raccoglie nei suoi gesti e nelle sue parole, specialmente in un tempo di crisi quale quello che stiamo vivendo. È chiaro che abbiamo tutti bisogno di capire che cosa ci sta accadendo, di dare una lettura umana e spirituale di quel che viviamo. Francesco, come si comprende in questo volume, assimila la visionedi sant'Ignazio di Loyola così come emerge negli Esercizi Spirituali.

Read by the author. Ministry is complicated, and every leadership challenge is unique. How can you lead effectively when there isn't a clear path forward? Real life ministry is complicated--far more complicated than is typically captured in leadership books. There are moving parts and people who...

This book will open your eyes to the needs, frustrations, dreams, and potential of your church’s greatest resource—the 60 percent of its members who provide far more than 60 percent of what keeps it going. The women of your church think the world of you, pastor. But they deeply wish you...

The Great Commission is not just for professional clergy; it is a charge to every follower of Christ—ordinary Christians like you and me.Bob Roberts Jr. urges disciples of Jesus to reclaim their role in God’s transforming work around the globe. In Real-Time Connections, Roberts illuminates...

Herbert Cooper was headed down a very different road, living a reckless lifestyle that would have destroyed him in the end, but God had a different plan. He heard the gospel at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting, at which he wasn’t even supposed to be, and he gave his life to Christ...

The gospel presents a life-changing NUTS wisdom that conflicts with normal ways of making sense of the world. There is the World According to Normal. There is the World According to NUTS . . . where NUTS is an acronym for Never Underestimate the Spirit. The wisdom of Jesus is a NUTS wisdom...

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...

In this practical and inspiring book, Willow Creek Executive vice president and teaching pastor Nancy Beach speaks to women with God-given gifts of leading and teaching. Sharing from her thirty-year journey in a local church, Nancy offers guidance on such issues as: character development, earning respect, finding your voice, managing work and personal life, and forming an intentional support network.

After a dramatic election amid a raging pandemic, racial violence, economic collapse, and historic national divisions that have threatened our democracy, Joe Biden succeeds Donald Trump as the 46th president of the United States. For Catholics, this is a momentous occasion in US public life, as he is the second Catholic to be elected to the nation’s highest office, joining John Fitzgerald Kennedy.