Many biblical women play critical roles in the drama of God's salvation. Women of the Bible grew out of a desire to discover how some of the women who made a difference in the Bible can make a difference in our lives today. Join Pastor James A. Harnish as he takes a closer look at the stories of four extraordinary women in Scripture: Deborah, Abigail, Mary Magdalene, and the woman at the well. You'll be drawn into a fresh awareness of what it means for all of us--men and women alike--to be more faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.Converge Bible Studies is a series of topical Bible studies based on the Common English Bible. Each title in the series consists of four studies on a common topic or theme. Converge can be used by small groups, classes, or individuals. Primary Scripture passages are included for ease of study, as are questions designed to encourage both personal reflection and group conversation. The topics and Scriptures in Converge come together to transform readers' relationships with others, themselves, and God.
From childhood through adulthood, most of us spend a considerable amount of time and energy trying to figure out who we are and who we want to be. And there's no shortage of people in the world willing to give us their answers to those questions. Who You Are in Christ takes a look at how our faith in Jesus radically changes who we are and our relationships with God, each other, and the world. Using passages from Paul's New Testament letters, this study explores our identity in Christ as well as how our self-perception affects who we become and what we accomplish when we choose to live according to God's ways of justice, mercy, and love.Converge Bible Studies is a series of topical Bible studies based on the Common English Bible. Each title in the series consists of four studies on a common topic or theme. Converge can be used by small groups, classes, or individuals. Primary Scripture passages are included for ease of study, as are questions designed to encourage both personal reflection and group conversation. The topics and Scriptures in Converge come together to transform readers' relationships with others, themselves, and God.
Bree Cordel Whitman is a Whitman by marriage, but sometimes she forgets she wasn't born into Grant and Audrey's family. Her late husband, Timothy Whitman, gave his life for his country on a windblown hill in Afghanistan. Bree has let the love of Tim's family keep her ties to him strongin the same way she keeps Tim's memory alive for them. But it's been almost five years, and she can't hang onto the past forever.Fighting the guilt she feels for wanting to love again, she can't help her dreams about a tall, dark, and handsome mana man who is not her Tim. How can she accept the flirtations from Drew Brooks without throwing the Whitman family back into grieving? And how can Drew compete with the ghost of a hero and the hero's very alive family who seem to hold some spell over the woman who shares their name . . . a woman he might just love?
The disciples were fairly ordinary people. They had regular families, made their livelihoods in regular ways, and had typical and varied political leanings. But they met Jesus and started to live extraordinary lives. Because of their closeness to Jesus, we tend to think that the disciples lived lives with less sin than we live with. We imagine that Jesus' love rubbed off on them so that they were also extraordinary humans. But the Gospels show us differently. They show us that Jesus' close companions were as human as we are. And it is because we recognize the sins of the disciples as our own that we can relate to them so closely. They are our common sins.Converge Bible Studies is a series of topical Bible studies based on the Common English Bible. Each title in the series consists of four studies on a common topic or theme. Converge can be used by small groups, classes, or individuals. Primary Scripture passages are included for ease of study, as are questions designed to encourage both personal reflection and group conversation. The topics and Scriptures in Converge come together to transform readers' relationships with others, themselves, and God.
Adapting from Luke 9:51, Richard Wilke looks at Jesus' journey to Jerusalem in order to help us think about how we set our faces in life. What are our goals as people of faith? What are we resolute or determined about in our lives? As we "e;set our faces"e; to Jerusalem and to the ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus, what difference does it make? What does Jesus' determination say to us about our commitments and about our need to grow in love of God and neighborThe 40 days of Lent are ideal to use this study and for readers to set their faces toward Easter. Study includes seven sessions, one for each Sunday in Lent and Easter Sunday. Each session features a Scripture reference, a personal reading, questions for personal reflection or group study, and closing prayer.
An unflinching look at the meaning and substance of sin.
Introducción al pentecostalismo nos acerca al origen del movimiento pentecostal y con palabras del prólogo "en una forma muy marcada llama la atención al afecto y el sentir humano con su enfoque Espíritu-céntrico. Inclusive, en su acercamiento a la dimensión dinámica espiritual del pentecostalismo aparecen rayos postmodernos y metafísicos." Written in Spanish, Introduction to Pentecostalism provides a look into to the origins of the Pentecostal movement and gives a clear understanding of its law and its Holy Spirit-centered focus on the human condition. The book also provides a glimpse into the postmodern and metaphysical aspects that make up the spiritual dynamic dimensions of Pentecostalism.
Equip your congregation to help the needy.
Creada a su imagen, en palabras de la autora, responde a la necesidad de proveer herramientas biblicas y teologicas a mas de la mitad de las personas que asisten a nuestras iglesias. No hay iglesia que no testifique de la presencia, trabajo y teson de las mujeres en todos los ambitos de trabajo y servicio eclesial. Sin embargo, pocas veces nos preguntamos si nuestro ministerio es integral y pertinente a las necesidades y esperanzas de estas mujeres que son parte del cuerpo de Cristo. Esta obra pretende dar respuesta a esta necesidad y proveer una pastoral disenada para la mujer.
A guide to the history of Christian worship formation.
Good pastoral leadership is not a "e;by the numbers"e; proposition. It is a matter of heart and soul, of devoting the whole self to the vision God gives for the congregation in which one serves. Yet neither is it purely intuitive; it requires hard, careful thinking about the directions and details of the path down which God calls. When Adam Hamilton became pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, its membership consisted of himself and his family. Ten years later the church averages between five and six thousand worshipers per weekend. Throughout this remarkable period, Hamilton learned many serious lessons about both the broad visions and the specific details of pastoral leadership. Bringing a depth of analytical skills often lacking in visionary leaders, in this book he goes beyond simply telling the story of Church of the Resurrection. He shares the questions that he learned to ask about the largely unchurched population to which Church of the Resurrection has reached out. Further, he demonstrates what he learned by listening to the answers to these questions, and how doing so has made possible a number of strategically crucial decisions the church has made. One of those crucial decisions was to make more traditional forms of worship and praise the center of the congregation's life. The result is that the example of Church of the Resurrection offers pastors and church leaders (especially those in mainline denominations) the realization that they need not completely change their liturgical and theological identity in order to reach out to the unchurched. Drawing on his own experience, as well as the detailed research on the characteristics of highly successful congregations he undertook during a sabbatical leave, Hamilton offers pastors and other church leaders solid, substantive thinking on steps that congregations can take to become centers of vibrant outreach and mission.Also available in:Adobe Ebook 9780687026753Microsoft Ebook 9780687027491
Worship should be about more than just your ears. Worship means more when we're experiencing more than simply the spoken, read, and sung word. That's why Delia Halverson and Karen Appleby have written Creating Holy Space; to help us worship with our eyes as well as our ears.The book contains suggestions for worship visuals tied to each Sunday of all three years of the Revised Common Lectionary. These visuals can be assembled on the altar, placed elsewhere in the sanctuary, or photographed to be used for projection. The weekly entries describe each of the four readings for that Sunday, and suggest viuals appropriate to each, creating a multi-sensory experience of worship bound up with the day's lectionary theme.
A vivid portrait of Martin Luther, the man of unshakable faith in God who helped bring about the Protestant Reformation.
Jim Moore's warm, conversational style inspires readers to transform negative, pessimistic attitudes into positive, optimistic attitudes centered on the love and hope of Jesus Christ. The book includes a study guide designed for both group and individual use, features questions related to each chapter and presents several options for study based on varied numbers of weeks devoted to the study.
In this engaging book from popular author J. Ellsworth Kalas, a portrait of each apostle as a servant in ministry, a human being, and individual are drawn from Scripture as well as historical writings and tradition. A chapter is also devoted to Mathias, the successor to Judas Iscariot.Each chapter features a key passage of Scripture. At the end of the book is a 16-page study guide.
An indispensable introduction that clearly addresses the important and complex questions about Israel and the Old Testament's relationship to the ancient Near East.
Mara Keegan is an ber-successful mother and a widow of three years. She's been chasing success and all the "good things in life" for her family. In an effort to be the perfect mom, she decides to make a photo memory quilt, a graduation present for her daughter.
In Being Methodist, popular and well-loved J. Ellsworth Kalas uses his approachable style to address a topic that sometimes seems complicated even to those who have practiced it for years.In this book, Kalas explores questions such as Who are these people called Methodists? Where have they come from, and where are they going? And how is it that so few of them really know what it means to be a Methodist? What makes them tick, and in a spasmodically changing world, what keeps them ticking?
Promoting the idea of sermon as narrative, Eugene Lowry's first book, The Homiletical Plot, became one of the most influential preaching books of the latter part of the 20th century. While the sermon as narrative has become conventional preaching wisdom, it is largely misunderstood.Sermons are, by definition, narratives and as such, they have plots. At the same time, the sermon is not a story. While similar in many ways, narratives and stories are distinct. Therefore, to think of narrative preaching as merely one of many homiletical styles is to misunderstand and reduce the nature of the sermon. The sermon is more than just an option for the preacher; rather, it is, by definition, a narrative because it happens in time, not in space.This changes everything because the sermon ceases to be something a preacher constructs, like a thesis or even a painting. Instead, it is more like a piece of music - something a preacher plays within intuitively, to a constant beat - time after time, week after week.In light of this revelation, what are new strategic aims for sermon preparation and delivery?
Often our Advent/Christmas journey is focused on us our memories, feelings, relationships and experiences. This study puts the focus on Gods action in Jesus Christ. It encourages participants to think more deeply in terms of the biblical, theological and spiritual meaning of the Nativity, while still applying it to their own life experience.
Brief, affordable, practical resources to help all who plan and lead in worship.
In this follow-up to his book The Thirteen Apostles, popular author J. Ellsworth Kalas focuses on several women of great faith who were crucial, in ways both obvious and understated, to the story of the New Testament. Kalas looks into the life and times of eleven different women. With his signature style, Kalas examines the Scriptures to see what we can learn about these women and what we can learn from them, and how each woman fit into as well as shaped the New Testament story.Chapters include: ';Elizabeth: A Friend in Need' ';Anna: She Knew How to Wait' ';Martha, the Disciplined' ';Mary, the Extravagant' ';The Mighty Widow' ';The Anonymous Evangelist' ';Mary Magdalene: When Love Is Greater than Faith' ';Mary, the Mother of Mark' ';Dorcas: Worth a Miracle' ';Lydia, the Businesswoman ';Mary in Life and Legend' ';Why Mary?' This book also includes a discussion guide.
In A Faith of Her Own: Women of the Old Testament, popular author J. Ellsworth Kalas focuses on women who were crucialsome in obvious and some in less obvious waysto the story of the Old Testament. Kalas takes a look at several different women of the Old Testament. He examines the Scriptures to see what we can learn about them and from them, including their defining characteristics, how they fit into as well as shaped the Old Testament story, and how their stories of strength, courage, perseverance, and faith have shaped our lives as believers today.Chapters include:- The Ultimate First Lady (Eve)- A Woman Who Married Trouble (Cain's Wife)- The Compleat Woman (Sarah)- A Mother Who Played Favorites (Rebecca- They May Have Been Twins -- But Not Identical (Leah & Rachel)- The Original Big Sister (Miriam)- God Saw Beyond Her Profession (Rahab)- Israel's First Female Prime Minister (Deborah)- The Perfect In-Laws (Ruth & Naomi)- The Ladies Chorus (The Women of Bethlehem: Ruth 4: 13-17)- Counslor to the Clergy (Huldah)- Married to a Husband's Career (Wives of Old Testament Prophets)A discussion guide is included.
Popular author James W. Moore recalls how several years ago, while delivering the sermon at his church one Sunday morning, he had told a moving story about a boy and his dog. The author's then-five-year-old son, Jeff, was fascinated by the story, but feeling a bit uncertain about some of the details of it, during the family's car ride home from church, Jeff asked his father, "e;Daddy, is that story true, or were you just preaching?"e;Highly amused by Jeff's question, Jim Moore went on to explain to his young son that there are two kinds of stories: TRUE stories, stories that happened factually in history; and TRUTH stories, stories like Jesus' parables, which are shared to underscore a dramatic truth in life.The several short chapters and stories in this book are designed to highlight such life-truths, with chapter titles such as "e;Go out Singing,"e; "e;Roadblocks,"e; "e;Should I Forgive?"e; "e;One Step at a Time,"e; "e;Who's in Control Here?"e; "e;What Can One Person Do?"e; "e;Tell Me, Please, How to Be Happy,"e; "e;Why not You?"e; "e;Keep on Keeping On,"e; "e;Jesus: The Message and the Messenger,"e; "e;The Importance of Uniqueness,"e; and others. This book contains a discussion guide.
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