Karen Mulder & Ginger Jurries. The Compassionate Congregation: A Handbook for People Who Care. Faith Alive, 2002. 275 pp.
This handbook is intended to help ordinary pewsitters–as well as pastors and officebearers–be caring and compassionate friends to persons going through a crisis. Section 1 of The Compassionate Congregationconsists of first-person accounts of crises faced by individuals whom the authors interviewed. Here you will find stories on nearly two dozen topics, including abortion, abuse, AIDS, aging, cancer, death, depression, illness, substance abuse, unemployment, and much more.
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Mark Driscoll. Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church. Zondervan, 2006. 208 pp.
Ten Curious Questions
This book is about the hard lessons we have learned at Mars Hill Church in Seattle (www.marshillchurch.org). Writing this book caused me to reflect on our past and subsequently conjured up a horrendous feeling eerily similar to seeing my high school yearbook photo in which I sported a soccer-rocker mullet. Like me, most people prefer not to dwell on past moments of folly, embarrassment, or failure. But the providential hand of a gracious God commonly uses exactly such occasions to shape ministers and their ministries.
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James W. Sire. Why Good Arguments Often Fail: Making a More Persuasive Case for Christ. IVP, 2006. 205 pp.
This is a book about the way Christians can most effectively present a case for Christ. In short, it deals with the art of persuasion, the art of making the most credible witness to the truth of the Christian faith.
It is not so much a book filled with good arguments as one that examines the pitfalls facing Christians who wish not merely to assert the truth of the Christian faith but do so with the greatest likelihood of success. I say likelihood because there are no surefire, knock-down arguments for anything a Christian believes. In fact, there are no surefire, knock-down arguments for anything anyone believes, even one who claims to believe nothing at all.
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Barbara Sullivan. God’s Ground Force: What Happened When One Church Dared to Leave the Comfort Zone. Bethany House, 2006. 192 pp.
In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps. (Proverbs 16:9)
I am eternally grateful that God does not show us all at once the blueprint for our lives. Oh, He has a plan all right. But we can’t see it a lot of the time. Instead, we stumble along, one day at a time, trying desperately to follow Jesus. Sometimes we rush ahead of Him and wonder why the “way” seems so tough. I thought His yoke was easy. Other times we lag far behind. Those are the boring, unfulfilled periods of life. Where is the abundant life He promised?
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Andy Stanley. Next Generation Leader: 5 Essentials for Those Who Will Shape the Future. Multnomah, 2006. 176 pp.
1. Competence—Do Less, Accomplish More
We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is… leadership, let him govern diligently. [Romans 12:6, 8 NIV]
[The apostles] knew all about servant leadership. They had learned from the Master Himself. But more and more of their time was being consumed by administrative activities. And apparently administration wasn’t something they were exceptionally good at, because before long it appeared that they were being partial to the Hebraic Jews in the daily distribution of food.
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Ron Luce. Battle Cry for a Generation: Join The Fight To Save America’s Youth. Cook Communications, 2005. 213 pp.
Imagine living in London as Hitler marches across Europe. Every day you hear the reports of more fallen territory—Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, and even France—all succumbing to the grinding German war machine. Soon there are 500,000 enemy soldiers stretched across the vast landscape of northern Europe. Now only 21 miles away, Nazi troopers eye your precious island across a narrow channel. You are left to the screaming air-raid sirens, running for cover into dark and damp subway tunnels.
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Bob Russell. When God Builds a Church: 10 Principles for Growing a Dynamic Church. Simon & Schuster, 2000. 304 pp.
If you are convinced that God wants to do a mighty work through your congregation, then consider the suggestions below to implement positive change immediately.
Pray for a Vision
Gather your leaders together and pray for a vision of what your church can be. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to become the Body of Christ, the church that God intends you to be. Determine you will try something so big that if God isn’t in it, you will fail. Ask God to give you a vision for what you should set out to do.
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