There's Hope for Your Church

There's Hope for Your Church
Author: Gary McIntosh
Publisher: Baker Books
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2012-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0801014069

Veteran church consultant calls church leaders back to the hope that God can and does restore churches, equipping them with practical tools to bring about healthy growth.

Hope in the Dark

Hope in the Dark
Author: Craig Groeschel
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2018-08-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310342961

Can God be good when life is not? Rediscover faith in the character, power, and presence of God. Even in the questions. Even in the hurt. "I want to believe, I want to have hope, but . . ." Pastor and bestselling author Craig Groeschel hears these words often and has asked them himself. We want to know God, feel his presence, and trust that he hears our prayers, but in the midst of great pain, we may wonder if he really cares about us. Even when we have both hope and hurt, sometimes it's the hurt that shouts the loudest. In Hope in the Dark, Groeschel explores the story of the father who brought his demon-possessed son to Jesus, saying, "I believe! Help my unbelief!" In the man's sincere plea, Jesus heard the tension in the man's battle-scarred heart. He healed not only the boy but the father too, driving out the hopelessness that had overtaken him. He can do the same for us today. As Groeschel shares his pain surrounding the health challenges of his daughter, he acknowledges the questions we may ask in our own deepest pain: "Where was God when I was being abused?" "Why was my child born with a disability?" "Why did the cancer come back?" "Why are all my friends married and I'm alone?" He invites us to wrestle with such questions as we ask God to honor our faith and heal our unbelief. Because in the middle of your profound pain, you long for authentic words of understanding and hope. You long to know that even in overwhelming reality, you can still believe that God is good. Hope in the Dark is also available in Spanish, Esperanza en la Oscuridad.

Surprised by Hope

Surprised by Hope
Author: N. T. Wright
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2008-02-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0061551821

For years Christians have been asking, "If you died tonight, do you know where you would go?" It turns out that many believers have been giving the wrong answer. It is not heaven. Award-winning author N. T. Wright outlines the present confusion about a Christian's future hope and shows how it is deeply intertwined with how we live today. Wright, who is one of today's premier Bible scholars, asserts that Christianity's most distinctive idea is bodily resurrection. He provides a magisterial defense for a literal resurrection of Jesus and shows how this became the cornerstone for the Christian community's hope in the bodily resurrection of all people at the end of the age. Wright then explores our expectation of "new heavens and a new earth," revealing what happens to the dead until then and what will happen with the "second coming" of Jesus. For many, including many Christians, all this will come as a great surprise. Wright convincingly argues that what we believe about life after death directly affects what we believe about life before death. For if God intends to renew the whole creation—and if this has already begun in Jesus's resurrection—the church cannot stop at "saving souls" but must anticipate the eventual renewal by working for God's kingdom in the wider world, bringing healing and hope in the present life. Lively and accessible, this book will surprise and excite all who are interested in the meaning of life, not only after death but before it.

Moving Beyond Anxiety

Moving Beyond Anxiety
Author: David Chadwick
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2020-04-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0736978461

12 Ways God Can Help You Conquer Anxiety Do you feel like a cloud of worry follows wherever you go? Do you dread the unknown? In today’s anxiety economy its raising stress levels, it’s no secret that fear is often at the root of our problems. The key to overcoming your anxiety is found in the person of Jesus. He calls us to trust rather than despair—to “not be anxious” (Matthew 6:25), and to cast all our cares on him (1 Peter 5:7). Author David Chadwick shares 12 ways you can overcome life’s fears and worries—all of which come straight from Scripture and include… focusing on faith praying caring for your health remembering God’s promises finding good teammates developing an eternal perspective Moving Beyond Anxiety will equip you to defeat worry and fear by trusting God and exercising your faith daily. As you immerse yourself in God’s truth, you will discover it is truly the most powerful antidote to anxiety.

The Hope Quotient

The Hope Quotient
Author: Ray Johnston
Publisher: HarperChristian + ORM
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2014-05-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0529101165

What’s at the heart of every thriving person, every thriving marriage, kid, and business? Hope! The Hope Quotient is a revolutionary new method for measuring—and dramatically increasing—your level of hope. Hope is more than a feeling; it’s the by-product of seven key factors. When these are present in your life, they cause hope to thrive. Factor 1: Recharge Your Batteries Nobody does well running on empty. Factor 2: Raise Your Expectations You don’t get what you deserve; you get what you expect. Factor 3: Refocus on the Future It’s time to throw away your rearview mirror. No one goes forward well when they are looking back. Factor 4: Play to Your Strengths Be yourself; everyone else is taken. Factor 5: Refuse to Go It Alone Never underestimate the power of support. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto. Factor 6: Replace Burnout with Balance Burning the candle at both ends isn’t as bright as you think. Factor 7: Play Great Defense Avoid these five toxic hope killers that can threaten your future. Using seven years of research, powerful biblical illustrations, and compelling human-interest stories, Ray Johnston explains how these seven essential factors will support, sustain, and strengthen your hope. And when consciously built into your life, how they will unleash hope in your marriage, your kids, your career, your church, your community, and the world. Discover your HQ level, the most important contributor to your overall success, and then learn how to improve it. Because when hope rises—everything changes. FLAP COPY: Hope: It’s the one thing that can change everything! When you have hope, eleven things are unleashed in your life: You have more satisfying relationships. You’re more productive. You’re less affected by stress. You’re more successful. You’re more satisfied. You’re more compassionate. You’re more willing to help people in need. You’re physically healthier. You hold yourself to higher moral and ethical standards. You’re more likely to assume leadership. You’re more likely to see God as loving, caring, and forgiving. This book will help you discover your HQ level and learn the seven key factors that, when built into your life, unleash hope. When you have genuine hope—not trite, pious platitudes but authentic hope that produces inner strength and confidence—anything is possible.

Resurrecting Church

Resurrecting Church
Author: John Cleghorn
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2021-03-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1506464858

Resurrecting Church interweaves three strands. First, it is the remarkable turnaround story of Caldwell Presbyterian Church, which was on the edge of extinction when author John Cleghorn filled the role of pastor. Second, Cleghorn tells the story of his own growth and liberation from the myopia of privilege. Cleghorn traded his position as senior vice president of the nation's largest bank for ministry and the dusty and dated church office at Caldwell Presbyterian. The third strand includes the stories of several diverse congregations researched by the author. These congregations are examples of faith communities that have taken risks, deepening empathy and seeking justice. Through these stories, the book updates the "same old" conversation about church vitality in timely and surprising ways. Cleghorn raises these important questions: Can churches survive, even be resurrected, at the intersections of race, sexuality, class, and faith background? Can congregations be liberated by rebuilding around those on the margins who have been wounded by church? As more US cities become majority-minority, the "mainline" church remains stubbornly white and homogeneous. Church leaders and thinkers are seeking ways to build more racial diversity and radical welcome. This book provides hope and practical examples of how this can happen. Cleghorn declares, "God is doing what Isaiah calls 'a new thing'" in congregations where multiple types of diversity intersect, erecting spiritual hospitals for the wounded and marginalized. For the church, these intersections provide both a current lens of self-examination and avenues to growth in faith. With stories, people profiles, and insights from their leaders and members, this book breaks new ground with practical learning and lessons drawn from original research and the lived experience of intersectional churches across the US.

The Hope of Glory

The Hope of Glory
Author: Jon Meacham
Publisher: Convergent Books
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2020-02-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0593236661

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jon Meacham explores the seven last sayings of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels, combining rich historical and theological insights to reflect on the true heart of the Christian story. For Jon Meacham, as for believers worldwide, the events of Good Friday and Easter reveal essential truths about Christianity. A former vestryman of Trinity Church Wall Street and St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, Meacham delves into that intersection of faith and history in this meditation on the seven phrases Jesus spoke from the cross. Beginning with “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” and ending with “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” Meacham captures for the reader how these words epitomize Jesus’s message of love, not hate; grace, not rage; and, rather than vengeance, extraordinary mercy. For each saying, Meacham composes an essay on the origins of Christianity and how Jesus’s final words created a foundation for oral and written traditions that upended the very order of the world. Writing in a tone more intimate than any of his previous works, Jon Meacham returns us to the moment that transformed Jesus from a historical figure into the proclaimed Son of God, worshiped by billions.

Jaded

Jaded
Author: A. J. Kiesling
Publisher: Baker
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2004
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780801064678

Church may seem irrelevant, but God still matters! Help and hope for believers who are fed up with a watered down version of the church and desire a more authentic way to worship.

Hope Among the Fragments

Hope Among the Fragments
Author: Ephraim Radner
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2004
Genre: Church
ISBN: 9781587430848

Reminds us, in times of conflict and division, that the church's shared hope is found in scripture, with Christ as the central figure.

Pastors at Risk

Pastors at Risk
Author: H. B. London
Publisher: Chariot Victor Publishing
Total Pages: 248
Release: 1993
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781564761118

Ministry hazards are all around, and many pastors are losing hope during these restless 1990s. Does pastoral ministry make any differnce in morally turbulent times? This groundbreaking volume tackles the tough issues pastors face--from balancing marriage and family life to dealing with stress and burnout.