Essential Church

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.

Since a global pandemic abruptly closed places of worship, many Christians have skipped church life, even neglecting virtual services. But this was a trend even before COVID-19. Polarizing issues, including political and racial strife, convinced some people to pull away from the church and one another. Now it’s time to recommit to gathering as brothers and sisters in Christ.

In Hero Maker, you will learn how to bring real change to your church and community by developing the practical skills to help others reach their leadership potential. Drawing on five powerful practices found in the ministry of Jesus, Hero Maker presents the key steps of apprenticeship that will...

Modern readers of the New Testament often notice its varying ideas about women. Some passages encouraged women to be submissive and remain silent. Yet in others, women characters owned property, headed households, or spoke with approval. Women in the New Testament World helps listeners understand this conflicting evidence. It argues that social norms of the time encouraged traditional feminine virtues. However, as Susan Hylen argues, women in the culture enacted these virtues in a variety of ways, including active leadership in households, associations, and cities.  

Churches are losing both members and vitality as increasing numbers of young people disengage. Based on groundbreaking research with over 250 of the nation's leading congregations, Growing Young provides a strategy any church can use to involve and retain teenagers and young adults. It profiles innovative churches that are engaging 15- to 29-year-olds and as a result are growing—spiritually, emotionally, missionally, and numerically.

Where can a person go to learn how to become a better team player? Your choices are definitely limited. John C. Maxwell takes the pain out of knowing what makes a team tick. If you want to have a better team, you have to develop better players. Great team players, like great teams, are formed...

The church is said to be a mystery according to Colossians 1:25,26 “Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hidden from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:” What is this Mystery - this is something that was hidden in the past during the Old Testament period but now in the New Testament it is revealed to us. This mystery is that the Gentiles should be partakers with the Jews in the gospel and be in the same church. This Book Teaches ...

Fire At The Founding documents the noble influence of Christianclergy, in their own words, and the Judeo-Christian faith in the UnitedStates during the 1700s. These pastors were America’s true FoundingFathers. They built essential foundations for liberty: true religion,righteousness, morality, culture of life, respect for authority and ruleof law, just and limited civil government. The holy fire within themignited a fire for truth and liberty within the American people. Theirwisdom was hidden from us, but now is made known.

If you long to reach kids and see their lives changed by God, this updated, comprehensive guide shows you how. Purpose Driven Youth Ministry will do for youth ministry what Rick Warren's Gold Medallion award–winning The Purpose Driven Church is doing for pastoral ministry. It's an...

30 Years of Research. 3 Years of Development. The Definitive Case for the First Priestess of the Church. What if the most vital component of the spiritual path was intentionally obscured? For two thousand years, a "Masculine Frequency" mandate has governed our understanding of the sacred. By shifting the historical narrative of Mary Magdalene and Mary the Mother, the early Establishment did more than change a story—they altered the very way we connect with the Divine. They bypassed the essential "Sacred Feminine" of spiritual authority. In The Forbidden Bride of Jesus, Valentino St. ...

Father Amaro arrives in the provincial Portuguese town of Leiria without a vocation. He became a priest because he was an orphan in the care of a noblewoman who directed her charity toward the seminary, because the seminary was the institution available to a boy of no means and no family, because ordination was the end of a process that had never asked him what he actually was. He has the appearance and the social position of a priest. He has the appetites and the unresolved nature of a man. The gap between these two facts is where the novel lives. Amélia is his landlady's daughter, pious ...

When everything around us is shaking, the Church must stand firm on truth that cannot be moved. Unshakable Foundations calls every believer back to the bedrock of apostolic doctrine, the timeless truths that form the framework of authentic Christianity. Through clear exposition and heartfelt devotion, Bishop Myron T. Powell leads readers through the essential pillars of the faith: the Oneness of God, the new birth experience, holiness of life, the hope of Christ’s return, the kingdom of God, the infallible Word, and more. Each chapter unveils the biblical “mysteries” that anchor the ...

Discover Your Roots Whether you drive a truck, wait tables, work in an office, or ferry the kids to and from soccer practice, Chuck Swindoll understands that your world is practical, earthy, tough, and relentless. Growing Deep in the Christian Life takes theology out of the ivory tower and...

Culinary historian Anne Willan “has melded her passions for culinary history, writing, and teaching into her fascinating new book” (Chicago Tribune) that traces the origins of American cooking through profiles of twelve influential women—from Hannah Woolley in the mid-1600s to Fannie...

You've read the productivity books. The systems. The habits. Something still isn't sticking. For forty years in service I watched religious people operate on a different frequency. Deadlines didn't shake them. Setbacks didn't derail them. They moved through uncertainty like they knew something the rest of us didn't. I assumed it was God. I was wrong. The difference was a mental architecture that religion had cracked centuries before neuroscience got there. Psychology and philosophy call it a coherent belief structure. A filtering mechanism. The brain uses it to cut cognitive load and hold ...

The Zondervan Biblical and Theological Lectures series provides a unique audio learning experience. Unlike a traditional audiobook’s direct narration of a book’s text, Zondervan Essential Companion to Christian History: Audio Lectures include high quality live-recordings of college-level...

John C. Maxwell breaks down the personal characteristics necessary for becoming an effective team player. Leadership expert John C. Maxwell follows his bestselling The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork with this powerfully succinct companion book. Stating that great team players are developed...

“An excellent small group study.” – Rev. Travis Knoll In a time of upheaval in the largest denomination of the Methodist movement, this classic explanation and defense of Methodist Christianity by its founder is required reading. Pastor David Wentz has updated Wesley’s 18th-century language, deleted references to no-longer-relevant theological disputes, and added an introduction that sets the work in context. The result is a clear, easy to read text that is enjoyable and understandable for modern readers of all levels of theological interest and expertise. This short book is ideal ...

FAIRACRES PUBLICATIONS 050 These seven letters were addressed by St Antony (251-356 AD) to his disciples. This hermit of the Egyptian desert draws our attention to those things which are essential in the spiritual life. Among the main themes are the witness of the Holy Spirit in the conscience of each person, the need for self-knowledge, the call to follow Christ, the unity of the Church, and our mutual co-inherence as members of the Body of Christ.

Perhaps no subject about church generates more opinion and passion than worship. Walk with the typical church-going family on their way to the car after the service and just listen. Everybody really does talk about worship. Now, veteran worship leader and experienced ministry coach Mike Harland offers the tools worship leaders need to build biblically-faithful and effective worship ministries without bringing the disruption that often accompanies change.