Showing titles in Church & Church Leadership

Since resigning from the papacy in 2013, the first pope in more than 700 years to do so, Pope Benedict has lived quietly in a convent in the Vatican gardens in Rome. He has devoted himself to a life of prayer and study and has vowed to remain silent, until now. So much controversy still surrounds Pope Benedict’s time in office - in this book, written with best-selling German author Peter Seewald, he addresses the issues of his papacy and reveals how, at his late age, governing and reforming the Church was beyond him.

We don’t talk a lot about sin these days. But maybe we should. The Puritans sure did - because they understood sin’s deceptive power and wanted to root it out of their lives. Shouldn’t we want the same? Though many books have been written on the “doctrine of sin”, few are as practical and applicable as this one. In Knowing Sin, Mark Jones puts his expertise in the Puritans to work by distilling the vast wisdom of our Christian forebears into a single volume that summarizes their thought on this vital subject.

In Accidental Saints, New York Times best-selling au­thor Nadia Bolz-Weber invites readers into a surprising encounter with what she calls "a religious but not-so-spiritual life." Tattooed, angry and profane, this former standup comic turned pastor stubbornly, sometimes hilariously, resists the God she feels called to serve. But God keeps showing up in the least likely of people - a church-loving agnostic, a drag queen, a felonious Bishop and a gun-toting member of the NRA.

Modern culture is increasingly hostile to Christians, and Christians are increasingly aware that they need to form strong communities to do for them what the culture no longer can. This is a good thing, but it will only work if we, like Nehemiah, remain committed to resisting the dictates of our culture. In this short book, Pastor Douglas Wilson describes some of the most important ways to create and maintain countercultural Christian communities. Whether it's the need for kids to get calluses or the necessity of love and loyalty within churches, Wilson brings decades of wisdom.

From the preaching of the First Crusade by Pope Urban II in 1095 to the loss of the last crusader outpost in the Levant in 1302-03, and from the taking of Jerusalem from the Fatimids in 1099 to the fall of Acre to the Mamluks in 1291, Crusaders tells a tale soaked in Islamic, Christian and Jewish blood, peopled by extraordinary characters, and characterised by both low ambition and high principle.

This oldest of the extant Apocryphal Gospels claims to have been written by James (the Just) in Jerusalem. It was first published in the Latin version of Postellus in 1552. It exists in numerous Greek mss., the best of which is said to be one of the 10th century. The Syriac versions are older, and, with occasional abbreviations, agree fairly with the Greek text, and with one another. The fragment translated by Dr. Wright is supposed to belong to the sixth century; the text on the palimpsest of Mrs. Lewis is referred to the fifth or sixth century.

Sodoma expone la decadencia y la corrupción en el corazón del Vaticano y de la actual Iglesia Católica. Este libro expone la decadencia en el corazón del Vaticano y de la actual Iglesia católica. Un brillante trabajo basado en cuatro años de investigación rigurosa, que incluye entrevistas a los más altos cargos eclesiásticos. Sodoma revela los secretos de un sistema que se inicia en los seminarios y continúa hasta el Vaticano; basado en la doble vida de algunos sacerdotes y en la homofobia más radical. La esquizofrenia resultante en la Iglesia es insondable.

At the end of his earthly ministry, Jesus commissioned his followers to embrace a way of life making disciples. He extends that mission to us―a way of life rooted in relationship, focused on mutual growth, intentionality, and transformation as we follow Jesus together. Sadly, the activities and events that dominate many churches too often become an end in themselves and actually distract from discipleship. The Great Commission drifts out of focus of the whole church and becomes outsourced to a spiritual elite.

"I'm deconstructing my faith." As any pastor can tell you, hearing these words is simply a regular feature of ministry these days. How we respond to those who are deconstructing will reveal the kind of church—and the kinds of Christians—we really are. Ian Harber knows the fear and grief of deconstruction firsthand. In this book, he tells the story of his own process of deconstruction and reconstruction over more than ten years and explores what is actually happening, both culturally and spiritually, when someone deconstructs their faith.

If someone were to ask you what was the theme of Jesus' preaching, what would be your answer? Man's need for salvation? God's love for mankind? The new birth? To be sure, Jesus spoke about all of those things. And they're all essential truths. But none of them were the theme of his teaching. The theme of Jesus' message was the kingdom of God. Wherever he went, Jesus preached about the kingdom. The irony is that the message of the kingdom is almost totally missing from the gospel that's preached today.

In NASCAR, as in life, the difference between winning and losing often comes down to being in the right place at the right time and making the most of every opportunity. Nobody understands that better than Dave Alpern. Dave started his career as an unpaid intern selling T-shirts for the newly formed Joe Gibbs Racing team. Nearly three decades later, he’s now the president of JGR, a multimillion-dollar elite, record-setting racing team with more than 500 employees. In Taking the Lead, Dave shares the wisdom he’s learned along the way.

Mormonism Unvailed, authored by Eber D. Howe and published in 1834, presents one of the first published critiques and investigations into the origins and credibility of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS Church or Mormon Church) and its founder, Joseph Smith. The book elucidates the skepticism and criticism of early Mormonism, disputing its authenticity and alleging fraudulent and deceptive practices within its early formation.

Small Church Essentials is for leaders of smaller congregations. It encourages them to steward their role well, debunking myths about small churches while offering principles for leading a dynamic, healthy small church. Based on the popular six-hour lecture that Karl Vaters delivers to church leaders across the country, Small Church Essentials will affirm small church leaders and show them how to identify what they do well and how to do it even better.

Sex and money scandals. An exploding divorce rate. Drug-addicted youths. And an ever-growing worldliness. Today's evangelical church is fighting battles on all fronts. And we seem to be losing these battles to the relentlessly encroaching world. Perhaps the answers to our problems are not in the present, but in the past. Because there was time when Christians were able to stand up to world.

The key to growth as a church, youth ministry, or a business is getting first-time guests to come back. It's about hospitality. The Come Back Effect reveals to church, ministry, and even business leaders the secret to helping a first-time guest return again and again. Through an engaging, story-driven approach, they explain how service and hospitality are two different things, describe how Jesus practiced hospitality, and invite leaders to develop and implement changes that lead to repeat visits and, eventually, to sustained growth.

What was the starting point of Christianity? Was it in a little town in Bethlehem, just as the lyrics of our favorite Christmas songs contend? In truth, in the earliest days of Christianity, when Peter and Paul first set out to preach the gospel, the belief systems of early Christians were viewed as merely a new sect of Judaism.

It began when a small group of believers stepped out in faith—against all odds—and claimed the Queen of Angels Hospital in downtown Los Angeles for the cause of Christ. Now 200 different ministries in the Los Angeles International Church reach out to thousands of residents. Innovative programs minister to AIDS victims, the homeless, battered women, drug and alcohol addicts, and abused children—offering hope and a chance for a better life. The Church That Never Sleeps shows how God can use this incredible ministry as a model to make dreams come true across the nation.

Death in Florence illuminates one of the defining moments in Western history - the bloody and dramatic story of the battle for the soul of Renaissance Florence. By the end of the fifteenth century, Florence was well established as the home of the Renaissance. In an exhilaratingly rich and deeply researched story, Paul Strathern reveals the paradoxes, self-doubts, and political compromises that made the battle for the soul of the Renaissance city one of the most complex and important moments in Western history.

Evangelism and missions are parts of the Christian life often accompanied by fears, insecurities, and cultural pressures. In this addition to the Union series, Daniel Hames and Michael Reeves argue that an individual's relationship with God influences their evangelism and missions more than anything else. Scripture clearly shows that a believer's responsibility is to make God known in the world, but this cannot be done without first knowing and enjoying God.

Who is Satan in the New Testament, and what is the evil that he represents? In this groundbreaking book, Elaine Pagels, Princeton's distinguished historian of religion, traces the evolution of Satan from its origins in the Hebrew Bible, where Satan is at first merely obstructive, to the New Testament, where Satan becomes the Prince of Darkness, the bitter enemy of God and man, evil incarnate. In The Origin of Satan, Pagels shows that the four Christian gospels tell two very different stories.