Starting a Seeker Sensitive Service

Starting a Seeker Sensitive Service
Author: Ed Dobson
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 164
Release: 1993
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780310384816

This is a book about radical change. It is the story of how a traditional church launched a non-traditional service in order to open its doors to unchurched people. This book has grown out of five years of ministry to hurting people who are either skeptics, agnostics, or doubters of the Christian faith. It has been shaped by people who do not give much of a rip about God or the Bible, but they are at least willing to listen. It is a book about what I have learned from these fellow travelers in the adventure of life.

Willow Creek Seeker Services

Willow Creek Seeker Services
Author: Gregory A. Pritchard
Publisher: Baker Books
Total Pages: 501
Release: 1995-12-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1441215239

This comprehensive study of the worship service style that is influencing thousands of churches and their leaders worldwide addresses controversies and draws lessons for the church today.

Prayers and Promises When Facing a Life-Threatening Illness

Prayers and Promises When Facing a Life-Threatening Illness
Author: Ed Dobson
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 165
Release: 2007
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310274273

Thirty short, yet powerful, morning and evening reflections offer encouragement, hope, and inspiration to people dealing with a life-threatening illness, and to their family members and caretakers. Here are honest insights and personal stories from a pastor who continues his own journey with ALS (Lou Gehrigs disease).

The Purpose Driven Church

The Purpose Driven Church
Author: Rick Warren
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2007-09-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310294088

The issue is church health, not church growth—if your church is healthy, growth will occur naturally. So how do we make healthy churches, driven by purpose? In order for any church to thrive, it must be built around the five New Testament purposes given to the church by Jesus Christ. In this classic of Christian church stability, pastor and bestselling author of The Purpose Driven Life Rick Warren unpacks this proven five-part strategy that will enable your church to grow: Warmer through fellowship. Deeper through discipleship. Stronger through worship. Broader through ministry. Larger through evangelism. Every church is driven by something. Tradition, finances, programs, personalities, events, seekers, and even buildings can each be the controlling force in a church. But Warren will show you how to concentrate on building people and let God build the church. In other words, healthy, consistent growth is the result of balancing the five biblical purposes of the church. And The Purpose Driven Church will show you how to do that. “The Purpose Driven Church has brought focus and direction to more pastors and church leaders than you can count. What a gift!”—John Ortberg, bestselling author.

Renovation of the Church

Renovation of the Church
Author: Kent Carlson
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2013-11-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0830868585

Copastors Kent Carlson and Mike Lueken tell the decade-long story of how God took their thriving, consumer-oriented church and transformed it into a modest congregation of unformed believers committed to the growth of the spirit--even when it meant a decline in numbers.

Bridges of God

Bridges of God
Author: Donald McGavran
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 175
Release: 2005-07-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1597522503

Dr. McGavran wrote 'Bridges of God' Òin the hope that it will shed light on the process of how peoples become Christian, and help direct the attention of those who love the Lord to the highways of the Spirit along which His redemptive Church can advance.Ó

Conversion in the New Testament

Conversion in the New Testament
Author: Richard Peace
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 420
Release: 1999
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780802842350

A landmark work in the study of conversion. With the tools of scholarship and as a seasoned practitioner, Richard Peace explores the New Testament understanding of the turning points of conversion -- from the night of our captivities to the light of Christ, into the church and out to the neighbor in need. Our contemporary efforts in evangelism have much to learn from this full-orbed view of conversion. - Gabriel Fackre, on back cover.

The Prodigal Church

The Prodigal Church
Author: Jared C. Wilson
Publisher: Crossway
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2015-04-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1433544644

Pastors want to reach the lost with the good news of Jesus. However, we've too often assumed this requires loud music, flashy lights, and skinny jeans. In this gentle manifesto, Jared Wilson—a pastor who knows what it's like to serve in a large attractional church—challenges pastors to reconsider their priorities when it comes to how they "do church" and reach people in their communities. Writing with the grace and kindness of a trusted friend, Wilson encourages pastors to reexamine the Bible's teaching, not simply return to a traditional model for tradition's sake. He then sets forth an alternative to both the attractional and the traditional models: an explicitly biblical approach that is gospel focused, grace based, and fruit oriented.

Kingdom Expressions

Kingdom Expressions
Author: J.D. Payne
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2012-09-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1401676847

In our changing world, how do Christians come together in non-traditional ways? For the Christian, there's value in learning about expressions of our own beliefs that may be unfamiliar. In Kingdom Expressions, an expert takes a look at some of the most significant, gospel-advancing movements and trends to take place in the latter twentieth and twenty-first centuries in the United States, including: The Church Growth Movement Missional Church Movement Multisite Movement The rise of church planting networks The House Church Movement The Emerging Church Movement You'll be quickly introduced to each expression of Christianity—what each means and what it looks like in practice; along with important convictions, history, and influential leaders. Features include: A close look at non-denominational movements that reach new people in Christ's name. Explanations of how contemporary Christianity is changing and why. A concise guide to non-traditional Christian groups.

Liturgy, Theurgy, and Active Participation

Liturgy, Theurgy, and Active Participation
Author: Kjetil Kringlebotten
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2023-09-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666771252

Providing a metaphysical grounding for liturgical participation, this book argues that “active participation” in the liturgy must be understood principally as our participation in God’s act, particularly in the act of Christ, and only secondarily as our ritual involvement. Utilizing Neoplatonist philosophy, Kjetil Kringlebotten proposes that this should be understood in terms of theurgy, which is the human participation in divine action, which finds its consummation in the incarnation of Christ. Without the incarnation all acts will remain extrinsic and imposed but acts can become real and intrinsic precisely because the incarnation makes possible true union with the divine, a metaphysical union-in-distinction, without confusion, because this union is not extrinsic. Through union with Christ, as the one common focus of the divine-human relation, we can have true union with God and may offer true worship. In order to make sense of active participation, then, we need to understand theology in theurgic terms, where theurgy is understood not as a mechanical “coercion” of God but as a participation in His act, in creation and through Christ as the true theurgist, the “master theurgist,” Whose work transforms our act and the liturgy.