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Losing Church

Author: Michael J. Gehring

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2022-01-14

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 1666734594

From Ft. Smith, Arkansas, to Princeton, New Jersey, to Kernersville, North Carolina, with a stop along the way in Asbury Park, New Jersey, to pay homage to “The Boss,” Michael Gehring takes us on his journeys as a pastor at a pivot point in history for the church and the world. Along the way, we meet up with a fascinating array of characters: Barbara Brown Taylor, Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Jesus’s forerunner, John the Baptist, to name just a few. But it’s the questions Gehring raises that make this book not only entertaining, but compelling reading for individuals and small groups: How might the decline of the church lead us into rediscovering the gospel? Did clergy, and all of us for that matter, make a good choice investing in institutional Christianity? How would you describe the emotional price of love? What does living a soulful life look like? With the humility and genuineness of someone who doesn’t pretend to have it all figured out, Gehring is the perfect travel companion. Come along.

You Lost Me

Author: David Kinnaman

Publisher: Baker Books

Published: 2011-10-01

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1441213082

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Close to 60 percent of young people who went to church as teens drop out after high school. Now the bestselling author of unChristian trains his researcher's eye on these young believers. Where Kinnaman's first book unChristian showed the world what outsiders aged 16-29 think of Christianity, You Lost Me shows why younger Christians aged 16-29 are leaving the church and rethinking their faith. Based on new research, You Lost Me shows pastors, church leaders, and parents how we have failed to equip young people to live "in but not of" the world and how this has serious long-term consequences. More importantly, Kinnaman offers ideas on how to help young people develop and maintain a vibrant faith that they embrace over a lifetime.

Lost in Church

Author: Jonathan Cash

Publisher: Whitaker Distribution

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 9780883687581

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"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."--Luke 19:10 NIVWeek after week you sit peacefully in church. You think everything is OK. But do you really hear the groaning of our lost world? Can you hear the cries of young girls with unwanted pregnancies, the hateful words from the couple who once vowed to love one another, the tired excuses of the overworked, the driven, the defeated?Or, are their cries muffled by the gossip in the next pew, the self-seeking prayers, the unforgiving attitudes barely hidden behind a faade of outward holiness?Out of this chaos, hear a Voice of hope. It comes from One who seeks to rescue the wounded, liberate the enslaved, revive the disheartened. But His message is not just for the lost world; it's for the lost in church.If lately you've been feeling more hypocritical than holy, more apathetic than authentic, more critical than caring, If limits on what or how much you will forgive have crept in, If you've been seeking the gifts rather than the Giver, If you've found yourself spreading gossip instead of grace, If you realize the intimacy you once had with God has dried up...Then journey with Jonathan Cash as his transparent words help to truly satisfy the longing in your heart and renew your relationship with the Lord. Your heavenly Father longs to restore your spirit and show you how to live as you find your way home.

Losing Our Virtue

Author: David F. Wells

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 1999-02

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780802846723

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In Losing Our Virtue: Why the Church Must Recover Its Moral Vision, theologian David Wells argues that the Church is in danger of losing its moral authority to speak to a culture whose moral fabric is torn. Although much of the Church has enjoyed success and growth over the past years, Wells laments a "hollowing out of evangelical conviction, a loss of the biblical word in its authoritative function, and an erosion of character to the point that today, no discernible ethical differences are evident in behavior when those claiming to have been reborn and secularists are compared." The assurance of the Good News of the gospel has been traded for mere good feelings, truth has given way to perception, and morality has slid into personal preference. Losing Our Virtue is about the disintegrating moral culture that is contemporary society and what this disturbing loss means for the church. Wells covers the following in this bold critique: how the theologically emptied spirituality of the church is causing it to lose its moral bearings; an exploration of the wider dynamic at work in contemporary society between license and law; an exposition of the secular notion of salvation as heralded by our most trusted gurus -- advertisers and psychotherapists; a discussion of the contemporary view of the self; how guilt and sin have been replaced by empty psychological shame; an examination of the contradiction between the way we view ourselves in the midst of our own culture and the biblical view of persons as created, moral beings. Can the church still speak effectively to a culture that has become morally unraveled? Wells believes it can. In fact, says Wells, no time in this century has been more opportune for the Christian faith -- if the church can muster the courage to regain its moral weight and become a missionary of truth once more to a foundering world. - Publisher.

Planting a Church Without Losing Your Soul

Author: Tim Morey

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2020-12-22

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 083085343X

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Christianity Today Book Award What does it take to be a church planter or other ministry entrepreneur? Most leaders start out with passion, a sense of calling, and a focus on building ministry skills. Such things might get some results, but they are not enough to sustain a healthy ministry—or a healthy life. Beyond the vocational capacities every church planter needs, there's a range of capabilities more difficult to measure but even more essential: what veteran church planter Tim Morey calls spiritual competencies. Morey provides here a practical guide to spiritual formation geared to the unique needs of church planters. He helps readers answer the questions, What are the spiritual capabilities that I as a church planter need to develop? How might I lean into the work Jesus is doing in these vital areas? Spiritual competencies have to do not just with behaviors but also with the motivations, agendas, and scripts that drive behaviors. Morey explores how church planters can become people who invest in their own physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual health accept limits and share responsibilities can be trusted with power are able to stay resilient and grow through difficulties can minister without being noticed find a sustainable pace that helps them avoid burnout The health of a church or any ministry organization is directly linked to the health of its leaders. Church planters may be used to improvising, but when it comes to their spiritual lives, they can't afford to just wing it. Featuring real-life stories from leaders, suggested practices, and discussion questions in each chapter, this book will equip individuals and teams (and those who coach them) to commit to an intentional plan for spiritual formation—for the good of their churches, their relationships, and their own lives as disciples of Jesus.

That Was The Church That Was

Author: Andrew Brown

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2016-07-28

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1472921658

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The Church of England still seemed an essential part of Englishness, and even of the British state, when Mrs Thatcher was elected in 1979. The decades which followed saw a seismic shift in the foundations of the C of E, leading to the loss of more than half its members and much of its influence. In England today 'religion' has become a toxic brand, and Anglicanism something done by other people. How did this happen? Is there any way back? This 'relentlessly honest' and surprisingly entertaining book tells the dramatic and contentious story of the disappearance of the Church of England from the centre of public life. The authors – religious correspondent Andrew Brown and academic Linda Woodhead – watched this closely, one from the inside and one from the outside. That Was the Church, That Was shows what happened and explains why.

Lost in America

Author: Thomas T. Clegg

Publisher: Flagship Church Resources

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 9780764422577

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Lost in America helps inspire Christians to think and behave as missionaries here in North America. It help encourage and challenge church members to change the way they think of evangelism and begin reaching out to people in their communities. Includes practical advice and steps for churches to take towards lasting change.

Onward

Author: Russell Moore

Publisher: B&H Publishing Group

Published: 2015-08

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1433686171

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Christianity Today "Beautiful Orthodoxy" Book of the Year in 2016. Keep Christianity Strange. As the culture changes all around us, it is no longer possible to pretend that we are a Moral Majority. That may be bad news for America, but it can be good news for the church. What's needed now, in shifting times, is neither a doubling-down on the status quo nor a pullback into isolation. Instead, we need a church that speaks to social and political issues with a bigger vision in mind: that of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Christianity seems increasingly strange, and even subversive, to our culture, we have the opportunity to reclaim the freakishness of the gospel, which is what gives it its power in the first place. We seek the kingdom of God, before everything else. We connect that kingdom agenda to the culture around us, both by speaking it to the world and by showing it in our churches. As we do so, we remember our mission to oppose demons, not to demonize opponents. As we advocate for human dignity, for religious liberty, for family stability, let's do so as those with a prophetic word that turns everything upside down. The signs of the times tell us we are in for days our parents and grandparents never knew. But that's no call for panic or surrender or outrage. Jesus is alive. Let's act like it. Let's follow him, onward to the future.

Before You Lose Your Faith

Author: Ivan Mesa

Publisher:

Published: 2021-04-15

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9780999284377

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Gaining By Losing

Author: J.D. Greear

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 2015-07-28

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 0310515254

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People are leaving the church J.D. Greear pastors. Big givers. Key volunteers. Some of his best leaders and friends. And that’s exactly how he wants it to be. When Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commission, he revealed that the key for reaching the world with the gospel is found in sending, not gathering. Though many churches focus time and energy on attracting people and counting numbers, the real mission of the church isn’t how many people you can gather. It’s about training up disciples and then sending them out. The true measure of success for a church should be its sending capacity, not its seating capacity. But there is a cost to this. To see ministry multiply, we must release the seeds God has placed in our hands. And to do that, we must ask ourselves whether we are concerned more with building our kingdom or God’s. In Gaining By Losing, J.D. Greear unpacks ten plumb lines that you can use to reorient your church’s priorities around God’s mission to reach a lost world. The good news is that you don’t need to choose between gathering or sending. Effective churches can, and must, do both.