An urgent primer on what can be done to combat emerging threats to the core of U.S. Democracy—presidential elections.In 2000, we learned that an exceptionally close presidential election can produce chaos, because we have no reliable Constitutional mechanism for resolving disputes. Joe Biden just won a presidential election that was extremely close in a number of states. Trump—and his many supporters—refuse to accept the legitimacy of those vote results, leading to...

The Western church finds itself in the midst of a seismic cultural shift, as secular paradigms threaten to remove any spiritual explanation for life, and Christianity is often viewed with skepticism and cynicism.Rather than perceiving these ongoing challenges as irritants to expel, it's time to see them as opportunities to embrace, so that we might effectively serve the world around us and form a more robust and Christlike church.Jon Ritner invites you on his journey across...

The Externally Focused Quest: Becoming the Best Church for the Community is designed for church leaders who want to transform their churches to become less internally focused and more oriented to the world around them. The book includes clear guidelines on the changes congregations must adopt to become truly outwardly focused. This book is not about getting all churches to have an annual day of community service as a tactic, but changing the core of who they are and how they see t...

Imagine an organizational model for church leadership that enables the entire team to unleash their full potential.The joy and vigor coming from a collective strength, intelligence, and skill in the community of leaders not only brings greater potency but better yields for your ministry. What would it be like to see this kind of healthy leadership reproduced into the second, third, and fourth generation, on multiple strands?Leveraging the metaphor Ori Brafm...

* How this book distinguishes itself in the market and from the other 3 recently published books on the same subject:It is the the only impeachment-related title that looks at Constitutional law and the history of past impeachments as lessons for understanding our current situation with Donald Trump. Author Alan Hirsch presents a lively and accessible narrative without offering partisan advocacy for Trump’s fitness to serve or his potential culpability.*This book is for the...

When Jesus commissioned his followers, he was not just inaugurating the historical church, he was founding a missionary movement.Originally released by Missional Press and now revised and expanded to include a multi-session discussion guide, SteveAddison's Movements That Change the World draws from biblical, historical and contemporary case studies to isolate the essential elements of a dynamic missionary movement. The church fulfills its mission today to the extent that it honors...

Our world is hungry for salvation, but we don't always know how to talk about it. Christians agree that God cares about people's lives both in this world and into eternity. But the ways we describe salvation often separate the spiritual from the material. Many groups emphasize one at the expense of the other, limiting the picture of what God has to offer.Mark Teasdale works to bridge the gaps by taking up Jesus' language of abundant life. This life is something Jesus invit...

What if the way the Church is "doing church" is the very reason the world is seeing less of Jesus in it every day? Beginning with the biblical basics, Jeff Lockyer walks readers through the underlying theology and practical application of how Southridge Community Church has approached ministry for nearly a quarter century. While providing a fresh approach to ministry, the book stimulates how to think--not what to think. It's written by a local church practitioner for local church practitio...

Every church needs leadership. But leadership should not reside in a single pastor. The biblical model for church leadership is found in teams of elders who together guide the community into God's mission. Church leaders J.R. Briggs and Bob Hyattprovide a comprehensive picture of elders as agents of mission for their communities. Healthy eldership structures a church for mission, as elder teams model the kind of community the local church is intended to be and steward the gospel in a local...

Ever wonder why people fall asleep in church?It happens. We?ve all seen it. We shuffle into rows of seats that grow more comfortable with every new fundraising campaign. We slouch down and settle in for an hour or so, as singers and storytellers and preachers and teachers take their turns filling our ears. And almost without fail, at least one of us nods off while listening to the greatest story ever told.The church was not meant to be like this. The church was meant to be on its feet, in ...

Once upon a time, Moses had had enough.Exhausted by the challenge of leading the Israelites from slavery to the Promised Land, Moses cried out to God, "What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? . . . If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me" (Exodus 11:11, 15).If that sounds hauntingly familiar to you, you may be the senior pastor of a contemporary church. The burden of Christian leadership is becoming increasingly unb...

IVP Readers' Choice AwardMissio Alliance Essential Reading ListPublic gatherings are vital for movement, but too often in our approach to planting churches, we haven't paid enough attention to the difficult grassrootswork of movement: discipleship, community formation, and mission. This book will help you start missional-incarnational communities in a way that reflects the viral movement of the early New Testament church.JR Woodward (author of Cr...