Center Church
Center Church

Author: Timothy Keller

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 2012-09-04

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 0310494192

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Practical and Gospel-centered thoughts on how to have a fruitful ministry by one of America's leading and most beloved pastor. Many church leaders are struggling to adapt to a culture that values individuality above loyalty to a group or institution. There have been so many "church growth" and "effective ministry" books in the past few decades that it's hard to know where to start or which ones will provide useful and honest insight. Based on over twenty years of ministry in New York City, Timothy Keller takes a unique approach that measures a ministry's success neither by numbers nor purely by the faithfulness of its leaders, but on the biblical grounds of fruitfulness. Center Church outlines a balanced theological vision for ministry organized around three core commitments: Gospel-centered: The gospel of grace in Jesus Christ changes everything, from our hearts to our community to the world. It completely reshapes the content, tone, and strategy of all that we do. City-centered: With a positive approach toward our culture, we learn to affirm that cities are wonderful, strategic, and under-served places for gospel ministry. Movement-centered: Instead of building our own tribe, we seek the prosperity and peace of our community as we are led by the Holy Spirit. "Between a pastor's doctrinal beliefs and ministry practices should be a well-conceived vision for how to bring the gospel to bear on the particular cultural setting and historical moment. This is something more practical than just doctrine but much more theological than "how-to steps" for carrying out a ministry. Once this vision is in place, it leads church leaders to make good decisions on how to worship, disciple, evangelize, serve, and engage culture in their field of ministry—whether in a city, suburb, or small town." — Tim Keller, Core Church

Gospel Shaped Worship Leader's Guide
Gospel Shaped Worship Leader's Guide

Author: Jared Wilson

Publisher: The Good Book Company

Published: 2015-04-13

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 1910307912

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Leader's Guide for the Worship track of Gospel Shaped Church from The Gospel Coalition, exploring how a church should be a worshipping community. Gospel Shaped Church is a curriculum from The Gospel Coalition that will help whole congregations pause and think carefully and prayerfully about the kind of church they are called to be. This seven-week whole-church curriculum explores what it means to be a worshiping community. The Leader's Guide contains everything you need to lead this flexible course. Christians are people who have discovered that the one true object of our worship is the God who has revealed himself in and through Jesus Christ. For most believers, worship is what happens for an hour on Sunday morning as we sing and pray together. But the Bible reveals a much bigger vision for what worship really is and how it should shape our lives. So what exactly is worship? What should we be doing when we meet together for “church” on Sundays? And how does that connect with what we do the rest of the week? As we search the scriptures together we will discover that true worship is more than this-it is to encompass the whole of life. This engaging and flexible resource will challenge us to worship God every day of the week, with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. This flexible resource will train your whole church through teaching, preaching, daily reading and small-group Bible study and discussion-or any combination of those elements. The overall aim is that your church will embark on a journey to discover the kind of people they should be as they are shaped by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Works alongside the Gospel Shaped Worship DVD and the Gospel Shaped Worship Handbook for use by church members.

A Cross-Shaped Gospel
A Cross-Shaped Gospel

Author: Bryan Loritts

Publisher: Moody Publishers

Published: 2011-10-01

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 0802481019

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WARNING! This book could make your life messy! Today’s church is continually being confronted with the question, “What is the gospel?” Many churches answer this through strong exposition of biblical truth. Others answer with a focus on community engagement. But doesn’t Christ call us to do both? The covenant of salvation demands a radical re-patterning of relationships. Bryan Lorrits, a pastor in the heart of one of America’s historically racially divided urban centers, seizes the opportunity to engage God, the church, and culture in ways that may challenge your beliefs, practices, and relationships. A Cross-Shaped Gospel clearly articulates the vertical dimension of the Christian faith, as well as looking at the horizontal implications of salvation for growth, service, and community. It provokes readers to think about the implications of living out their faith. What does the gospel mean for issues of: Political engagement? Class distinctions? Race Relations? It is only by reaching upward that we can reach outward in power and with the proper motives, so let A Cross- Shaped Gospel help you in crafting and communicating a biblical philosophy of engaging God and others well!

The Gospel Shaped Leader
The Gospel Shaped Leader

Author: Scott Thomas

Publisher: New Growth Press

Published: 2021-08-30

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 1645071642

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How do you grow as a leader in the church? Should you read church growth books? Take a few seminars? Or just wing it? Scott Thomas, former President of Acts 29, church planter, and pastor has a different approach. He unpacks how leaning on Jesus empowers not just your teaching, but also grows the humility, kindness, and biblical wisdom you ...

Gospel Shaped Outreach Leader's Guide
Gospel Shaped Outreach Leader's Guide

Author: Erik Raymond

Publisher: The Good Book Company

Published: 2015-04-13

Total Pages: 181

ISBN-13: 1910307920

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Leader's Guide for the Outreach track of Gospel Shaped Church from The Gospel Coalition, exploring what it means to be a community focused on mission. Gospel Shaped Church is a curriculum from The Gospel Coalition that will help whole congregations pause and think carefully and prayerfully about the kind of church they are called to be. This nine-week whole-church resource will help members see both the priority of evangelism for our churches, and to see the role that everyone can play in reaching out to those who are lost without Christ. The Leader's Guide contains everything you need to lead this flexible course. Many Christians are nervous about telling someone else about Jesus. We prefer to leave it up to the preacher, or to those we see as particularly gifted for evangelism in our congregations. But all believers are called to make disciples. The nine sessions in this curriculum don't offer quick fixes or evangelism "gimmicks". But by continually pointing us back to the gospel, they will give us the proper motivation to work together as a church to share the gospel message with those who are lost without Christ. This flexible resource will train your whole church through teaching, preaching, daily reading and small-group Bible study and discussion-or any combination of those elements. The overall aim is that your church will embark on a journey to discover the kind of people they should be as they are shaped by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Works alongside the Gospel Shaped Outreach DVD and the Gospel Shaped Outreach Handbook for use by church members.

Gospel Shaped Mercy Leader's Guide
Gospel Shaped Mercy Leader's Guide

Author: Stephen Um

Publisher: The Good Book Company

Published: 2017-04-03

Total Pages: 151

ISBN-13: 1910307955

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Leader's guide for the seven-week whole-church course exploring how to engage with the world with compassion and justice. Gospel Shaped Church is a curriculum from The Gospel Coalition that will help whole congregations pause and think carefully and prayerfully about the kind of church they are called to be. This seven-week track explores what it means to be a community engaging with the world with compassion and justice. The Leader's Guide contains everything you need to lead this innovative and flexible curriculum. This flexible resource will train your whole church through teaching, preaching, daily reading and small-group Bible study and discussion-or any combination of those elements. The overall aim is that your church will embark on a journey to discover the kind of people they should be as they are shaped by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Works alongside the Gospel Shaped Mercy DVD and the Gospel Shaped Mercy Handbook for use by church members.

Gospel Shaped Living Leader's Guide
Gospel Shaped Living Leader's Guide

Author: Vermon Pierre

Publisher: The Good Book Company

Published: 2015-10-16

Total Pages: 159

ISBN-13: 1910307939

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Leader's Guide for a seven-week whole-church course exploring how a church should live as a light to the world. Gospel Shaped Church is a curriculum from The Gospel Coalition that will help whole congregations pause and think carefully and prayerfully about the kind of church they are called to be. Gospel Shaped Living is a track that explores over 7 sessions what it means for a local church to be a distinctive countercultural community. How should Christians live? The church should be a distinctive community of God’s people-but how different are we from the rest of the world? This track helps us untangle some of the false ideas and traditions that evangelicals have had in the past, and reveals the more deeply challenging picture that emerges from Scripture. This flexible resource will train your whole church through teaching, preaching, daily reading and small-group Bible study and discussion-or any combination of those elements. The overall aim is that your church will embark on a journey to discover the kind of people they should be as they are shaped by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Mission Shaped by Promise
Mission Shaped by Promise

Author: Jukka A. Kääriäinen

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2012-10-03

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 1621896625

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Utilizing resources from Martin Luther and the Lutheran tradition, this study offers an understanding of the gospel as promise as key to addressing the challenge of relating the missio Dei to a generous, constructive approach toward the religious other. In its construction of a Lutheran missiology, it retrieves and reappropriates four resources from the Lutheran tradition: the gospel as promise, the law/gospel distinction, a theology of grace as promise of mercy fulfilled, and a theology of the cross utilizing the hiddenness of God. The law of God as accusing yet webbing humanity to its Creator; the gospel as the comforting promise of mercy; and the hiddenness of God as mystifying form the overarching framework within which the Lutheran missiology presented here seeks to engage the religious other by dialectically relating gospel proclamation and dialogue. Such a view of "mission shaped by promise" offers the paradox of God being both revealed and hidden in the cross as a distinctive contribution to an interreligious dialogue centered on the ambiguity and hiddenness of God.

On Being the Church of Jesus Christ in Tumultuous Times
On Being the Church of Jesus Christ in Tumultuous Times

Author: Joe R. Jones

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2005-08-22

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 1597522767

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This collection of essays, sermons, and prayers urges the church today to be the sort of community that sustains a vigorous and continuing conversation within itself as to who has called it into being, to whom it is responsible, and what it is called to be and to do. Jones reminds the church that it is an alternative political community called into being by the Gospel. This collection explores what it means to be such an alternative community in tumultuous times, in times when it is tempting to look to the world for answers, and to confuse loyalty to the nation-state with loyalty to God. A theme throughout all the writings is that the church is the necessary context for becoming and being a Christian.

John, the Maverick Gospel
John, the Maverick Gospel

Author: Robert Kysar

Publisher: Presbyterian Publishing Corp

Published: 2007-01-01

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 0664230563

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John, the Maverick Gospel has long been regarded as one of the most trustworthy introductions to the Fourth Gospel, paying special attention to the literary and theological dimensions of this Gospel without neglecting historical and other approaches. Robert Kysar, an international expert on John's Gospel, has now revised this useful classroom tool to bring the scholarly discussions up to date and to add sections on women in the Gospel of John as well as postmodern appraoches to the Gospel. This classic text provides an accessible entry into the important critical issues of John's Gospel, both on its own terms and in comparison to the Synoptic Gospels, offering a sure foundation for scholarly study of the book as well as theological interpretation and preaching.