A Strategy For Reaching Secular People


Book Description

Dr. Ernan A. Norman, D.Min. has identified strategies to implement John 13:35 “All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other.” An excellent source for the essential principles of discipleship in a postmodern world. This book is written in nontechnical language based on the experiences as a student, pastor, and professor. I believe that the concepts presented are fundamental and are in harmony with the model demonstrated by Jesus during His ministry on earth. Meeting people at their level, putting their needs ahead of His own, treating people with respect, befriending the nonreligious and inviting them into a relationship with Himself are some of the concepts that are identified and supported as strategies for reaching secular people. This book is an outstanding and important piece of work, and easily readable. I would urge A Strategy for Reaching Secular People on members and leaders in every church – if they are willing to challenge basic assumptions and embrace change relative to reaching lost people. Strategies that remove the barriers that keep people from hearing about God’s love, and to create a warm, friendly, uncritical, and non-judgmental attitude of acceptance are clearly presented. Full of practical how-to’s and watch-out’s this book by Ernan Norman is for individuals serious about sharing the love of God. As we interact with and minister to secular people, matters such as marriage and family, academics, employment, addictions, and human rights must be addressed. Norman clearly gives strategies for intentional efforts to reach secular-postmodern men and women in our day. The central concept is the example of Jesus that we should follow. A must read! Weymouth Spence, Ed.D. President of Washington Adventist University




Pilgrims and Priests


Book Description

What does “missional” mean for small Christian communities in a deeply secular society? Leading missiologist Stefan Paas asks what missional spirituality could possibly mean for today’s local church. This fully revised new international edition will make this an important introduction to contemporary thinking on mission and the church.




Follow Me


Book Description

2014 “Christian Retailing’s Best” award finalist! What did Jesus really mean when he said, “Follow Me”? In this new book, David Platt, author of the New York Times bestselling book, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, contends that multitudes of people around the world culturally think they are Christians yet biblically are not followers of Christ. Scores of men, women, and children have been told that becoming a follower of Jesus simply involves believing certain truths or saying certain words. As a result, churches today are filled with people who believe they are Christians . . . but aren’t. We want to be disciples as long as doing so does not intrude on our lifestyles, our preferences, our comforts, and even our religion. Revealing a biblical picture of what it means to truly be a Christian, Follow Me explores the gravity of what we must forsake in this world, as well as the indescribable joy and deep satisfaction to be found when we live for Christ. The call to follow Jesus is not simply an invitation to pray a prayer; it’s a summons to lose your life—and to find new life in him. This book will show you what such life actually looks like.




How to Reach the West Again


Book Description

Christianity is declining in the West. Churches in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe are closing their doors at an accelerating rate. How will the church respond? In this short but sweeping manifesto, New York Times bestselling author and pastor Timothy Keller argues that this decline should prompt us to rethink evangelism from the ground up. Using the early church as our guide, churches and individual Christians must examine ourselves, our culture, and Scripture to work toward a new missionary encounter with Western culture that will make the gospel both attractive and credible to a new generation.




What's Best Next


Book Description

By anchoring your understanding of productivity in God's plan, What's Best Next gives you a practical approach for increasing your effectiveness in everything you do. There are a lot of myths about productivity--what it means to get things done and how to accomplish work that really matters. In our current era of innovation and information overload, it may feel harder than ever to understand the meaning of work or to have a sense of vocation or calling. So how do you get more of the right things done without confusing mere activity for actual productivity? Matt Perman has spent his career helping people learn how to do work in a gospel-centered and effective way. What's Best Next explains his approach to unlocking productivity and fulfillment in work by showing how faith relates to work, even in our everyday grind. What's Best Next is packed with biblical and theological insight and practical counsel that you can put into practice today, such as: How to create a mission statement for your life that's actually practicable. How to delegate to people in a way that really empowers them. How to overcome time killers like procrastination, interruptions, and multitasking by turning them around and making them work for you. How to process workflow efficiently and get your email inbox to zero every day. How to have peace of mind without needing to have everything under control. How generosity is actually the key to unlocking productivity. This expanded edition includes: a new chapter on productivity in a fallen world a new appendix on being more productive with work that requires creative thinking. Productivity isn't just about getting more things done. It's about getting the right things done--the things that count, make a difference, and move the world forward. You can learn how to do work that matters and how to do it well.




Go


Book Description

Churches and denominations often appear to settle for a primary objective that is less than what the apostles recommended. If we are honest, most church leaders acknowledge that our institutional sense of purpose is inconsistent, at best. In some places the purpose of the church is quite narrowly defined, and in others the definition is so broad that it seems meaningless. People wonder, “Is this all there is to the church?” It’s a good question, and George Hunter, a longtime keen observer of the church, demonstrates the answer. Hunter’s richly descriptive explanation of the “missional church” will convince leaders and students to recover a clear and consistent sense of purpose. As we are the stewards of “the faith once delivered to the saints,” so we are the heirs of the mission once entrusted to the apostles and their movements. The church’s mission, locally and globally, is or should be its main business. The “real church” is an “ecclesia”—God’s “called out” people whom the Lord shapes into an “apostolate”—and “sends out” to be publicly present in the world—but not of it. This mission is a serving, witnessing, inviting outreach to all people.




Becoming a Missionary Church


Book Description

This book offers a historical assessment and balanced critique of contemporary church movements, especially in light of missional ecclesiology. An expert on Lesslie Newbigin and an expert on contemporary church models show how Newbigin's ideas have been developed and contextualized in three popular contemporary church movements: missional, emergent, and center church. In addition, the authors explain that some of Newbigin's insights have been neglected and need to be retrieved for the present day. This book calls for the recovery of the missionary nature of the church and commends church practices applicable to any congregation.




The Pastor as Evangelist


Book Description

From a minister, professor, and recognized leader in the field of evangelism comes a challenge to pastors to take a new look at their mission. Richard Stall Armstrong invites pastors to put on "evangelistic glasses" to perceive what it means to be a pastor-evangelist in terms of personal relationships and in light of the various factors that define evangelism. Clearly and compellingly, Armstrong shows how to take the responsibility for evangelism seriously. He analyzes in a concrete way the many contexts of evangelism--the difference between witnessing to the young and the old, to individuals and groups, on the telephone or on television. He counsels pastors to adopt not a particular method but rather a style that is nondogmatic, that blends consistency with flexibility, and, above all, one that reflects the integrity and power of the Christian message. Biblically based, theologically sound, and vocationally relevant, this book is full of useful ideas and practical suggestions that will benefit pastors, professors, and seminarians.




Should We Change Our Game Plan?


Book Description

Many of the most effective churches consist of some sort of combination of “traditional” and “contemporary.” However, they are not simply “blended.” In fact, much of what they do is beyond mere categorization of “traditional” and “contemporary.” Instead, they are “missional” and “strategic” in their approach. Using sports metaphor, author George Hunter lays the groundwork for a new line of thinking, a new identity, in order to incite a quiet revolution.




Emerging Hope


Book Description

How do we "do" church in this era of cynicism? Jimmy Long looks at the connections between postmodernism and the emerging generations--GenXers and millennials--highlighting implications for evangelism and discipleship. Here is a hopeful strategy for ministry that will appeal to a generation starved for belonging.