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- List View
Listening & Caring Skills: A Guide for Groups and Leaders
by John SavageThe secret to leadership and transformation of a group--or of another person--is the quality of the relationship one person has with another. The effective group leader or counselor will be the person who learns how to listen to other people. By studying and employing listening skills, church leaders will engage others more compassionately, allowing them to feel that their needs are being met. These skills can be used with persons who are terminally ill, inactive at church, going through a divorce, in a family with a severely ill person, unemployed, seeking a new church, grieving, traumatized by catastrophe, going through teenage adolescence, in marriage counseling, or leading a ministry team. John Savage offers eleven specific and teachable listening skills for improving relationships among those who do ministry in small-group settings or when offering counsel to others. The skills are taught through oral exercises and unfailingly helpful examples from actual congregational situations. The skills include paraphrasing, productive questions, perception check, expression of feelings and emotions, fogging, negative inquiry, behavior description, and story listening.
Reclaiming Church: A Call to Action for Religious Rejects
by J.J. WarrenIn Reclaiming Church, J.J. Warren continues his call to reaffirm the Church be welcoming to all, including young people like those he led at Sarah Lawrence College who "didn’t know God could love them because their churches said God didn’t." The book addresses three points of importance to young people looking to be part of a church community, and a call: 1. The identity and nature of God2. The role of Scripture in discerning God’s call3. The author’s own experience of God, church, and identityIn the final chapter, "We Are the Church," Warren focuses on practical and positive steps for joining voices, being heard, building bridges, and working together for young people to reclaim Church in their lives.Key Features• Affirms to the LGBTQ community and those who love them that the Church is for all.• Inspires younger progressive people to stay within the Church and work to renew the call of ministry.• Explores the Church’s beginnings and emphasis on community.• Calls readers to focus on practical and positive steps to reclaim Church in their lives.
365 Meditations for Women by Women
by Various Nell W. Mohney Monica Johnson Cynthia Gadsden Lillian C. Smith Sally, D. Sharpe Anne Hagerman WilcoxThis ebook offers a year's worth of daily devotional readings from twelve different women of faith. This ebook is for women of all ages. Each day's reading includes a focus Scripture verse from a mix of translations, a brief reflection, and a prayer.
Active Faith: Resisting 4 Dangerous Ideologies with the Wesleyan Way
by Paul W. ChilcoteChristians are invited to practice the way of Jesus by engaging in four formative practices representing central themes of the Wesleyan way: humility, hospitality, healing, and holiness. These four practices function as counterpoints to four growing dangers based on fear in the contemporary church and in society:1. Christian fundamentalism2. Nationalism3. Dispensationalism4. Antinomianism.Each of the four practices is an antidote related to the quest for a particular virtue as well, namely, truth, joy, peace, and love in resistance to these dangerous movements. Each of the four chapters discusses the relationship of these practices to scripture, identifying a signature biblical text or story related to each. They introduce the reader to a spiritual mentor who can help them understand and embrace the practice more fully. They describe contemporary forms of Christianity that distort or compromise our received faith tradition, directing their attention to a contemporary issue in which these distortions figure prominently and in which a progressive Wesleyan perspective offers an alternative vision of Christian authenticity. Finally, the chapters offer guidance showing how readers can engage in these practices on a very practical level.
Genesis to Revelation: A Comprehensive Verse-by-Verse Exploration of the Bible (Genesis to Revelation series)
by Keith SchovilleStudy the entire books of Hebrews; James; First and Second Peter; First, Second, and Third John; and Jude, including the uniqueness of God's final revelation for the salvation of the people, essential instruction in the faith, strengthening faith in the midst of the difficulties of life, faith and works, fellowship with God and with other believers, encouragement to be ruled by love, and the spiritual health of the church. Some of the major ideas explored are: developing a personal relationship with Christ; running the race of life; your Christian experience; your influence in the life of your church; Jesus as a historical person; the second coming of Christ; and Christian hospitality.More than 3.5 million copies of the series have been sold.This revision of the Abingdon classic Genesis to Revelation Series is a comprehensive, verse-by-verse, book-by-book study of the Bible based on the NIV. These studies help readers strengthen their understandingand appreciation of the Bible by enabling them to engage the Scripture on three levels: What does the Bible say? Questions to consider while reading the passage for each session. What does the passage mean? Unpacks key verses in the selected passage. How does the Scripture relate to my life? Provides three major ideas that have meaning for our lives today. The meaning of the selected passages are made clear by considering such aspects as ancient customs, locations of places, and the meanings of words. The simple format makes the study easy to use.Updates will include: New cover designs. New interior designs. Leader Guide per matching Participant Book (rather than multiple volumes in one book). Updated to 2011 revision of the New International Version Translation (NIV). Updated references to New Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible. Include biblical chapters on the contents page beside session lesson titles for at-a-glance overview of biblical structure.The simple format makes the study easy to use. Each volume is 13 sessions and has a separate leader guide.
In Capable Arms: Living a Life Embraced by Grace
by Sarah KovacSarah Kovac was born with Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita (AMC), a rare congenital birth defect that left her with arms that she could barely use. Growing up, she was the only one in her class with a disability, setting her apart as “different” and unpopular. Realizing her unique place in the world, Sarah began adapting, working to her strengths, and eventually learned to use her feet to do such activities as changing her son's diapers, making dinner, putting on makeup, and even typing on the computer--even as she grew in spiritual and emotional maturity and independence in exceptional ways. Picked up by national news network CNN, Sarah’s story went viral and she was suddenly presented with a platform from which to share her love for God. In Capable Arms brings readers on Sarah’s journey, crying with her through intense frustration and the desire to be perfect, cheering her through physical training and pain, and admiring her eventual spiritual surrender as she let go of her insecurities and let God use her . . . even her crippled arms. Sarah brings readers face to face with their own struggles, challenges them with questions about self-worth and fear, then offers guidance, wisdom, and inspiration for finding hope—and healing—in the arms of the One who loves them no matter what.
Saving Grace Clergy Workbook: A Guide to Financial Well-Being (Saving Grace)
by AbingdonMoney Management from a Wesleyan PerspectiveIn the clergy workbook, three additional clergy sections address financial issues unique to pastors, bringing together faith and vocation while attending to the unique financial details of living as a pastor and being employed by the church. The clergy workbook contains worksheets and downloadable planners.Saving Grace is a program to help people of faith create healthy relationships with money and possessions and how to manage their personal finances. Participants will move through six sessions covering such topics as saving, earning, giving, spending, and debt, along with helpful strategies for achieving a sustainable financial life. Adapted from the best-selling Freed Up Financial Living from the Good Sense Movement, this study is based on Wesleyan values and provides text and tools to help participants address life concerns and reach personal financial goals.Components for a six-week study include video content (DVD/Streaming), particiapant workbook, clergy workbook, leader guide, and a 40-day devotional.
The Methodist Book of Daily Prayer
by Matt MiofskyDaily prayer the Wesleyan wayPrayer is a spiritual practice, and daily prayer uses the repetition of forms and words to cultivate a deep, meaningful ritual, drawing the individual into an ever-closer relationship with God. This book is organized by liturgical season, but is undated, so the individual is free to begin using it at any point during the year. The book is concise and easy to use and includes the words of scripture and other necessary text. It is a simple, frictionless tool for spiritual health. The Methodist Book of Daily Prayer provides complete texts for Morning Prayers and Evening Prayers, with a new set of texts for each week of the year. Each week is anchored in its liturgical season: Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Eastertide, Pentecost, Sow & Rest (Ordinary Time), and Harvest & Create (Ordinary Time).Each set of prayers centers on a scripture passage, with an emphasis on the Psalms. The prayers draw from familiar historic, classic, and ancient Christian texts, and from Methodism’s rich hymnody. They also feature fresh, original words from new writers. This book facilitates deep daily connection with God--a method for spiritual sustenance.
Next: Surviving a Leadership Transition
by Marvin Anthony MossMost new leaders hear the same phrase in some form: "This is the way we do it here." Resistance to change is common, and it is deadly to new church leadership.Leadership transition is a critical point for the church and its new leader. Incoming leaders need a realistic perspective and practical ideas, whether their successor was long-term or interim, highly effective or dysfunctional, beloved or unpopular.The author writes from personal experience: He helped transform a small, dying congregation, and later transitioned into leadership at a nationally recognized, historic congregation. He draws from these experiences and biblical examples to focus on practical principles, empowering the new leader to build a solid foundation.The Next leader is calm, determined, and effective, no matter who came before.
Who Will Be Saved?
by William H. WillimonWhat does it mean to say that salvation is God’s business, and God’s alone?“Who will be saved?” is almost always a question about them, and rarely about us. Thinking itself wrapped securely in the everlasting arms, the church has spent much of its history speculating on whether God will allow anyone else to join the party.But if we truly believe that salvation is God’s business, and God’s alone, then perhaps we should stop asking, “Who will be saved?” and ask instead, “How is God calling me to participate in the redemption of the world?” Rejecting the idea that God chooses some and not others, drawing on his Wesleyan heritage, and deepening his longstanding theological conversation with Karl Barth, Willimon reflects as a pastor and a theologian on God's intention that all would someday return from the far country into the loving embrace of the One who created them.
Introducing the Uncommon Lectionary: Opening the Bible to Seekers and Disciples
by Thomas G. BandyLays out the plan for a collection of readings from Scripture designed for the needs of seekers and the unchurched.The church has used lectionaries–lists of scriptures to be read on particular Sundays throughout the year–across its long history. Yet most lectionaries are inward-looking: they presuppose hearers who are familiar with the biblical story and accustomed to gearing their lives around the Christian year.Yet in the increasingly pagan world of North America, the church’s task is to reach out to those who are spiritually hungry, yet unfamiliar with the Christian story. In this important new work Tom Bandy has given those who plan and lead worship a new lectionary, specifically geared to the needs of seekers. He lays out a plan for a trip through the central biblical narratives, the purpose of which is to provide seekers with a basic understanding of the gospel, and to call disciples to a deeper experience of Christian faith.
Genesis to Revelation: A Comprehensive Verse-by-Verse Exploration of the Bible (Genesis to Revelation series)
by Robert JewettStudy the entire Book of Romans, beginning with an introduction to Paul and following through his life and his call. Some of the major ideas explored are: his purpose and situation, righteousness and wrath, being set free from sin, new life in the Spirit, and a tolerant ethic.Leader Guide includes: A verse-by-verse, in-depth look at the Scriptures. Background material, including word studies and history of the biblical setting. Answers to questions asked in the Participant Book. Application of the Scripture to daily life situations. Discussion suggestions. A variety of study options. Practical tips for leaders to use.More than 3.5 million copies of the series have been sold.This revision of the Abingdon classic Genesis to Revelation Series is a comprehensive, verse-by-verse, book-by-book study of the Bible based on the NIV. These studies help readers strengthen their understanding and appreciation of the Bible by enabling them to engage the Scripture on three levels: What does the Bible say? Questions to consider while reading the passage for each session. What does the passage mean? Unpacks key verses in the selected passage. How does the Scripture relate to my life? Provides three major ideas that have meaning for our lives today. The meaning of the selected passages are made clear by considering such aspects as ancient customs, locations of places, and the meanings of words.The meaning of the selected passages are made clear by considering such aspects as ancient customs, locations of places, and the meanings of words. The simple format makes the study easy to use. Includes maps and glossary with key pronunciation helps.Updates will include: New cover designs. New interior designs. Leader Guide per matching Participant Book (rather than multiple volumes in one book). Updated to 2011 revision of the New International Version Translation (NIV). Updated references to New Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible. Include biblical chapters on the contents page beside session lesson titles for at-a-glance overview of biblical structure. Include larger divisions within the contents page to reflect macro-structure of each biblical book. Ex: Genesis 1-11; Genesis 12-50; Exodus 1-15; Exodus 16-40; Isaiah 1-39; Isaiah 40-66.The simple format makes the study easy to use. Each volume is 13 sessions.
Groove: Dilemmas Leader Guide (Groove)
by Tony AkersEvery day, youth are called to navigate a world full of challenging decisions—from the simple choices about everyday life to the much more serious ethical dilemmas that can make being a teenager a complicated experience. Some of those dilemmas include: What does it mean to be a person with established morals and ethics? How does the commandment to love others affect our lives in a tangible way? What happens when we make choices that have consequences that greatly affect our lives and the lives of those around us?Dilemmas isn’t designed to provide simple answers to complicated questions, but rather help teens understand how to make inspired, smart choices that reflect both who they are and who they are striving to be.The Groove: Dilemmas Student Journal will challenge youth to be deliberate, thoughtful, and faithful as they attempt to make choices that are consistent with their character and their faith.The Groove Bible study series invites teens to learn the essentials of their faith, own their story, and engage the world in serving Jesus. Each topical study consists of four weekly sessions that are easy to lead and relate to life issues teens face. With up to 48 weeks available, Groove is great for Sunday and mid-week gatherings for both large and small groups as well as retreats. The leader guide contains everything needed to lead teens through a Groove study, including teaching outlines, leader notes, Bible background, reflections, and parent communication.
Listen My Son: Wisdom to Help African American Fathers
by Lee H. Butler JR.Straight talk about what it means to be African American men. "Let’s have a conversation. Let’s talk man-to-man and brother-to-brother. Let’s talk about how we grow into adults and what manhood means. Let’s talk brother-to-brother and man-to-man about how we relate to one another as we grow into adults. Let’s talk about what defines our maleness and our manhood. Let’s talk brother-to-brother as African American men. Let’s talk openly and honestly about what it means to be black men and American. We can no longer assume that we all know what it means to be African American men. This is a conversation that is long overdue. Let’s talk together and listen to one another. This is our time to talk instead of being talked about. It is time for us to shed the unhealthy images and opinions that we have accepted as the standards of what it means to be Black men. The benefits of our talk will transform our souls as well as benefit all the girls and women in our lives." from the book
The Lord's Prayer Leader Guide: The Meaning and Power of the Prayer Jesus Taught
by Adam HamiltonThe power and significance of the prayer Jesus taught.Most Christians know the Lord’s Prayer by heart. We pray it often, at different times and in different settings. We remember it as the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. But do we really understand and appreciate the meaning and power of its words, what we ask of God each time we pray it? When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, Jesus gave them this prayer. He likely taught it to his followers often, not just one time. He never intended the Lord’s Prayer to be a museum piece, framed and placed on a mantel or in a display case. It was Jesus teaching God’s people, through his disciples, how to pray.In The Lord’s Prayer: The Meaning and Power of the Prayer Jesus Taught, pastor and bestselling author Adam Hamilton guides us to really know—and really pray—the Lord’s Prayer. He explores each of its rich lines and their meaning in the Bible, illuminating what we ask of God and what we ask of ourselves through its words. And he teaches us how to use it as a pattern for our own prayer life.The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the six-week study including session plans, activities, and discussion questions, as well as multiple format options.
Preaching to Teach: Inspire People to Think and Act
by Richard VoelzPreaching to Teach merges the related functions of preaching and teaching, and equips the reader to accomplish both. Preachers stand up to speak each week in challenging times to unsettled congregations. Each week seems to bring a new difficult subject: mass shootings and other forms of violence; hard conversations around race, ethnicity, and multi-religious contexts; immigration; poverty; climate change; foreign and domestic terrorism; and bickering about it all on social media. Preachers are hungry for ways to envision the work of preaching in these times, as well as for tools that will help them speak to difficult and contentious topics. In a divided and weary world, preachers struggle with the choice of any number of "images" to describe their preaching identity. Responding to social crisis after social crisis, preachers most often lean toward the roles of pastor, prophet, or somewhere on the spectrum in between the two. Juggling between these images and their associated roles on a week-to-week basis can be exhausting. But there is an ancient image of the preacher that may help: the preacher as teacher. The image of teacher has traditionally focused on content and rhetorical aspects of preaching: the preacher is conveying information, modeling theological reasoning, or effecting a certain pulpit style. But rather than focusing on traditional concepts of teaching to determine the content, form, style, or delivery of sermons, the field of critical pedagogy (represented by notable figures such as Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux, Peter McLaren, and bell hooks) offers a way of re-envisioning the preacher-as-teacher. Recasting the preacher-as-teacher through the lens of critical pedagogy grounds the image of teacher in an ethical framework, inviting preachers to redefine their public roles, stand in relationships of solidarity with communities of faith, break the silences of taboos, tackle tough issues, and re-imagine the world in the shape of the kingdom of God.
The Abingdon Introduction to the Bible: Understanding Jewish and Christian Scriptures
by Joel S. Kaminsky Joel N. Lohr Mark ReasonerThe Bible has profoundly influenced the western world. Many of its characters and stories are well known and yet, oddly enough, wide swaths of the Bible are unknown and misunderstood. The laws and teaching contained within it have shaped contemporary thinking and jurisprudence in ways many do not realize. Equally important, two of the world’s largest religions—Judaism and Christianity—consider the Hebrew Bible to be sacred and to contain enduring truths about beginnings and creation, life and death, the world, and what it means to be human.Introductions to the Bible tend toward extensive discussion with little to introduce the beginner to the Bible’s tremendous influence on contemporary society or to the complexities of reading ancient religious literature. Further, few discuss the differing ways Jews and Christians approach those parts of the Bible that they share in common or how each group appropriates materials from this common scriptural pool in divergent, conflicting, and often complex ways. As classroom teachers of introductory courses on the Bible, the authors of this volume will acquaint students with the tremendous influence that the Bible has had on culture and to address some of the critical questions in user-friendly, faith-respecting ways, in order to maximize students’ appreciation of the biblical text and their understanding of it. This introduction will introduce the beginner to the Bible with simplicity and precision, in an engaging manner. It will provide the reader with a quick overview of the issues related to reading and studying the Bible as an academic discipline while simultaneously illustrating the importance of the Bible for religion, western jurisprudence, ethics, and contemporary conceptions of the family, morality, and even politics.A CHOICE Magazine Outstanding Academic Title of 2014.
Short Stories by Jesus Leader Guide: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi (Short Stories by Jesus)
by Amy-Jill LevineJesus was a skilled storyteller and perceptive teacher who used parables from everyday life to effectively convey his message and meaning. Life in first-century Palestine was very different from our world today, and many traditional interpretations of Jesus' stories ignore this disparity and have often allowed anti-Semitism and misogyny to color their perspectives.In Short Stories by Jesus, Amy-Jill Levine analyzes these "problems with parables" taking readers back in time to understand how their original Jewish audience understood them. With this revitalized understanding, she interprets these moving stories for the contemporary reader, showing how the parables are not just about Jesus, but are also about us—and when read rightly, still challenge and provoke us two thousand years later.The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the six-week study including session plans, activities, and discussion questions, as well as multiple format options.
Beyond the Screen: Youth Ministry for the Connected But Alone Generation
by Andrew ZirschkyIt's no secret that teenagers are perpetually connected via social media and mobile devices, but while we've analyzed as a culture how youth are connecting we've done less well at understanding why teenagers are drawn to the glow of the screen. Beyond the Screen explores the reality that teenagers use these technologies in desperate bid for an intimacy and depth of relationship largely absent from face-to-face society and the church. Employing the latest ethnographic research on youth and digital media in tandem with theological reflection and interviews with teens themselves, author Andrew Zirschky provides a deeper glimpse into the world of teens and social media and gives new direction and directives for ministering to Millennials.
The Christmas Letters Leader Guide: Celebrating Advent with Those Who Told the Story First
by Magrey deVegaHear from “those who told the story first.” The Leader Guide contains discussion questions and session plans for a four-week Advent study. It includes opening and closing prayers, optional activities, and session goals for each week, and is designed to be used with the book and DVD.You may or may not know the story of your birth. If you do, there is something special about hearing your origin story again and remembering how it all began for you. That’s why we observe Advent: to celebrate how it all began for us. In The Christmas Letters, Magrey deVega invites you to hear about the miracle of Christ’s birth from those who first told the story. The letters in the New Testament, known as the Epistles, contain the first attempts by the church to understand and celebrate the mystery of the Incarnation. They point us to the origins of what we believe about Jesus, fully human and fully divine. By spending time with these holy, ancient words this Advent, you’ll come to know the meaning of Christ’s coming like never before. Read the New Testament letters, Romans, 1 John, Philippians, and Colossians as your first Christmas letters of the season and find within them an invitation from God to deepen your understanding of the Incarnation and embrace a fuller commitment to Jesus Christ.
Juvenile Delinquency: Pathways and Prevention
by Christopher A. Mallett Miyuki Fukushima TedorJuvenile Delinquency: Pathways and Prevention, Second Edition explores the pivotal roles that family, trauma, mental health, and schools have on juvenile delinquency, while examining opportunities for prevention and intervention. Authors Christopher A. Mallett and Miyuki Fukushima Tedor draw from years of experience working with juvenile offenders to shed light on the nature of delinquency and the diverse pathways to juvenile delinquency, while offering evidence-based techniques for preventing and rehabilitating youthful offenders. Each chapter features interactive and critical thinking sections alongside special interest boxed features, designed to move students beyond memorization while guiding them to develop informed recommendations for better practices and policies.
Ethnography: Step-by-Step (Applied Social Research Methods #17)
by David FettermanDavid M. Fetterman captures the ethnographic imagination with the Fourth Edition of his popular text, Ethnography: Step-by-Step. He shares new case examples of his work to highlight the illuminating power of reflexivity and theory. The new edition expands the discussion of critical concepts such as culture, contextualization, emic and etic distinctions, and symbols. The book provides insights into the use of technology in ethnography from qualitative data analysis software to data visualization, and Questions for Reflection have been added to the end of each chapter. Fetterman is a seasoned educator, evidenced by both the clarity of his thinking and the simplicity of his writing.
Adult Development and Aging: Growth, Longevity, and Challenges
by Lisa Hollis-Sawyer Bert Hayslip Julie Hicks PatrickTopically organized, Adult Development and Aging: Growth, Longevity and Challenges provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the aging process in adulthood from multiple perspectives. In this Second Edition, Julie Hicks Patrick, Bert Hayslip, and Lisa Hollis-Sawyer use principles of lifespan development to show readers the directionality of changes in early, middle, and late adulthood. Within its framework of scientific literacy, the text charts four key themes to guide learners: a focus on aging as development; a global perspective on contexts; a vibrant, integrated approach to diverse coverage; and psychological science that translates into real-life experiences. A final chapter focuses on ways to improve the experience of aging for all adults.
Conducting Qualitative Research of Learning in Online Spaces
by Hannah R. Gerber Sandra Schamroth Abrams Jen Scott Curwood Alecia Marie MagnificoQualitative researchers have grappled with how online inquiry shifts research procedures such as gaining access to spaces, communicating with participants, and obtaining informed consent. Drawing on a multimethod approach, Conducting Qualitative Research of Learning in Online Spaces explores how to design and conduct diverse studies in online environments. The book focuses on formal and informal learning practices that occur in evolving online spaces. The text shows researchers how they can draw upon a variety of theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches, and data sources. Examples of qualitative research in online spaces, along with guiding questions, support readers at every phase of the research process.
Breaking the Code Leader Guide Revised Edition: Understanding the Book of Revelation (Breaking the Code)
by Bruce M. MetzgerThe Book of Revelation contains passages of great beauty and comfort, as well as passages that strike the casual reader as bizarre, bewildering, and sometimes frightening. How are readers today to discern God’s message in this peculiar part of the Bible?Breaking the Code Revised Edition provides a trustworthy guide to the rich symbolism of this important biblical book. Noted biblical scholar Bruce M. Metzger presents the fruits of solid scholarship in a non-academic style. This revised edition includes updates based on current biblical research, as well as additional teaching from author and respected New Testament scholar David deSilva.The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the six-week study using the DVD and book, including session plans, activities, and discussion questions, as well as multiple format options. It also includes alternatives for adapting the study to 4 or 8 weeks to fit your group’s needs.