Attract Families to Your Church and Keep Them Coming Back


Book Description

To grow and remain vital, churches need to attract families. But the cultural landscape has changed and any church may have two-parent families with children, blended families, boomerang families, adult children of divorce and their families or lack of families, single adults whose family is the church, grandparents parenting again, childless families, co-habitation families, and children with three legal parents. What ministries are helpful in attracting and keeping families active and engaged in the life and mission of the church? This book will help church pastors and leaders navigate the changing tides in ministry to become the kind of church that families want to attend, where the church’s dynamic faith invites families who may then bring their friends.This means reaching out to all kinds of families, some with needs that only a church family can fulfill. With practical helps and suggestions for ministries, worship, small groups, and even facilities, author and family expert Linda Ranson Jacobs will help you create a welcoming place for everyone.




Wildly Creative Puzzles with a Point:


Book Description

All kids love puzzles And now, you can take the busywork out of puzzles and instead give kids an experience that makes them think and sparks faith growth. You'll never think of puzzles in the same way once your kids grapple with the challenges in these pages. Each of the 52 wildly reinvented puzzles in this book is tied to a Bible passage you can add to a lesson to help kids dig deeper into the topic. Here's how it works... - Each puzzle is based on a Bible passage, which makes it easy for you to tie it to a lesson. - Each puzzle emphasizes at least two faith-building themes. The puzzles are labeled with faithbuilding themes so you're equipped to help kids understand the point. - The puzzles themselves become an experience that helps kids dive into their faith rather than passively do fill-in-the-blank time-fillers. - The pages in this book are reproducible, so no matter how many kids you have, everyone can join in the experience. - There's a lot of variety. Throughout this book, you'll find a whopping 41 different types of puzzles--so kids will never be bored. - Each puzzle leads to discussion. We've provided great thought-provoking questions that will help kids unpack the point of each puzzle. With easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions, these brain-twisting experiences are sure to be a hit. And they're great for when the sermon runs over or the lesson runs short. Kids will love this new spin on puzzles that helps cement the Bible point and grow their faith.




Standing on the Rock in Heels


Book Description

Do you delightfully wander through a shoe store, drooling at the various styles of footwear on the shelves? Maybe you can’t go on a shopping trip without coming home with a new pair. Certainly, a woman can never have too many shoes. In Standing on the Rock in Heels, author Robyn Besemann compares the many types of shoes and how they relate to our spiritual walk with God. From our first baby shoes to beautiful high heels, she shares how our spiritual walk can stay in the “baby Christian” stage, hold us in “spiritual flip flops” with no support, stay bound in “practical pumps” where we live by the “spiritual rules,” or walk with confidence as a woman of God in glorious heels. Offering an interesting exploration of shoes as they relate to sturdiness, support, confidence, walking boldly, commitment, and a growing faith, as well as the pitfalls that can trip us up, Standing on the Rock in Heels helps you grow in your walk with God, step by step.




Confident Leader!


Book Description

You’re a good leader, but leadership is challenging and can rattle your confidence. Setbacks, challenges, and problems can cause you to second-guess yourself, doubt, or pull back. Your confidence may be stretched thin, but there is a way to strengthen it. In Confident Leader!, Dan Reiland draws from his 39 years of leadership experience to share a practical, workable, and transformational process that results in your ability to become a more self-assured leader and achieve maximum success. Building unshakable confidence will positively impact your personal work performance, your belief in self, your support and approval from others, and your trust and reliance on God. In this book you will learn how to: Make deep foundational decisions about your core identity Implement practical steps for deliberate character development Incorporate daily, practical disciplines that transform your leadership ability Together these essentials present a step-by-step plan to greater confidence, increased influence, less uncertainty, and more significant accomplishments. Learn how to become the most confident version of yourself today.




Hot Tub Religion


Book Description

A timely and practical collection of essays and thoughts on contemporary Christian living from a concerned theologian.




Rearing Children in a Postmodern World


Book Description

Todays world presents many challenges to raising children, including ever-changing technology, gangs, drug culture, and an array of other harmful influences. Its more difficult than ever to help children be safe, stable, happy, and able to resist temptations. In Rearing Children in a Postmodern World, author Pastor Carey N. Ingram guides you through the complexities of Christian parenting and gives hope to those overwhelmed by the worldly conditions. Building on his experiences as a parent, grandparent, teacher, pastor, and mentor, he provides advice about teaching children to live a life that is pleasing in the eyes of God. He explores the origin of the dysfunctional family, emphasizes the importance of mentoring, and discusses how to understand the postmodern world; whether to discipline or punish children; how gangs affect children; and why abstinence should be a teen goal. Providing a fresh approach to raising children today, Rearing Children in a Postmodern World offers insight into how parents, schools, community agencies, and industries can work together to bring success and happiness to youngsters lives.




Sticky Faith


Book Description

Sticky Faith delivers positive and practical ideas to nurture within your kids a living, loving faith that lasts a lifetime. Research indicates that almost half of high school seniors drift from their faith after graduation. Struck by this staggering statistic, and recognizing its ramifications, the Fuller Youth Institute (FYI) conducted the "College Transition Project" in an effort to identify the relationships and best practices that can set young people on a trajectory of lifelong faith and service. This easy-to-read guide presents both a compelling rationale and a powerful strategy to show parents how to actively encourage their children’s spiritual growth so that it will stick with them into adulthood and empower them to develop a living, lasting faith. Written by Fuller Youth Institute Executive Director Dr. Kara E. Powell and youth expert Chap Clark--authors known for the integrity of their research and the intensity of their passion for young people--Sticky Faith is geared to spark a movement that empowers adults to develop robust and long-term faith in kids of all ages. Further engage your family and church with the Sticky Faith Guide for Your Family, Sticky Faith curriculum, and Sticky Faith youth worker edition. Sticky Faith is also available in Spanish, Cómo criar jóvenes de fe sólida.




Rebuilding Catholic Culture


Book Description

Rarely does a book come along that so succinctly explains the decline of modern culture, articulates a defense of the Church's teachings, and offers a hope-filled path for building a civilization grounded in Catholic truth. In these pages, Dr. Ryan Topping does all three, pulling back the curtain on the false philosophies of the secularists and showing that in the West today the most formidable threat to freedom is not failing economies or Islam, but secularism. Our best defense, he claims, is a vibrant Catholic culture, and our best hope for creating it lies in the principles found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In Rebuilding Catholic Culture, you'll discover sensible ways to begin restoring Catholic culture - right now-in your own life and family, and in our larger communities as well: in the theater, in the classroom, in our hospitals, and even in the public square. This profoundly accessible book will renew your confidence in the world-transforming character of our Creed and in the potency of our Faith to shape and redefine the culture of the West. Book jacket.




A Stranger in the House of God


Book Description

Growing up the son of agnostics, John Koessler saw a Catholic church on one end of the street and a Baptist on the other. In the no-man’s land between the two, this curious outside wondered about the God they worshipped—and began a lifelong search to comprehend the grace and mystery of God. A Stranger in the House of God addresses fundamental questions and struggles faced by spiritual seekers and mature believers. Like a contemporary Pilgrim’s Progress, it traces the author’s journey and explores his experiences with both charismatic and evangelical Christianity. It also describes his transformation from religious outsider to ordained pastor. John Koessler provides a poignant and often humorous window into the interior of the soul as he describes his journey from doubt and struggle with the church to personal faith




Ingenuity


Book Description

Ingenuity introduces a theology and practice of preaching that emerges from the faith and wisdom of black women. Preaching has been resourced and taught from a narrow field of cultural or gendered experiences, historically. Without much support from established channels, black women are left to “figure it out” on their own, and others discern how to preach from a limiting scope. The best preachers understand their own voices and the voices of others. They stretch and grow, and this enables them to preach more effectively. Ingenuity equips readers to negotiate tradition, life experiences, and theological conviction in the creative work that makes way for sacred speech. With Ingenuity, Lisa Thompson offers deep insights for anyone seeking to enlarge their understanding, their language, and their sense of lived experiences, and offers practical help through “In Practice” segments for those who preach. "Written from the deep well of the spirituality of Black women, Thompson has given us a remarkable guide for what preaching should be and must be for the times we are in. Accessible, thoughtful, probing, pastoral, prophetic—all come together in this text. A must read for anyone committed to faithful excellence in proclaiming the word." -Emilie M. Townes, Dean and E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society, Vanderbilt University Divinity School