Download or read book Church is a Team Sport written by Jim Putman and published by Faithhappenings Publishing. This book was released on 2024-03-20 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do churches grow and make an impact in their community . . . and the world? They work together in intentional ways in order to maximize everyone's gifts. They're mission-driven. Church Is a Team Sport shows proven ways to push believers, new and mature, toward growth as both Christians--and leaders. Through this powerful, thought-provoking volume, ministers both in the congregation and on staff will discover how to expand the church one soul at a time. Making disciples is the crux of pastor Jim Putman's message. The plan works. Caring for people, following up on stray sheep, and teaching what it means to love God and obey him. That's how Church Is a Team Sport transforms Christians from Monday-morning quarterbacks into dynamic players. "Jim Putman is a coach at heart. He is a leader of people, and they follow him. He is committed, authentic, and refreshingly honest. What you see is what you get. . . . He boils everything down to its essence and is not distracted. But at the core he cares. He cares for people and believes that one sheep should not be lost no matter what it costs the shepherd. You cannot read this book with an open heart and remain nonchalant about the people God has put in your care." -From the foreword by Avery Willis, author and international speaker "Time out . . . this one's the real deal! Jim Putman does an awesome job of challenging Christian leaders to rethink the boxes we find ourselves in. Church Is a Team Sport is a gutsy book that promotes innovative and practical means for how to become a true team. There's no trash talking here, just positive lessons to improve your church." -Dave Stone, senior pastor, Southeast Christian Church, Louisville, Kentucky "Jim Putman has written a clear, practical, and powerful guide for doing church together, as a team. His authenticity is refreshing and the story of Real Life is amazing. Pick up a copy of this book for yourself and for your team." -Jud Wilhite, author, Stripped; senior pastor, Central Christian Church, Las Vegas "I have observed Jim and his ministry up close for several years. He is a great coach, pastor, and leader. This book is not theory. It is a practical playbook that has been used at Real Life to develop a winning church. Jim's insights will help your church become more effective in impacting your community. All of your leadership team needs to read this book." -Don Wilson, pastor, Christ's Church of the Valley, Phoenix, Arizona

Download or read book Church is a Team Sport written by Jim Putman and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2009-08-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now available in trade paper, Church Is a Team Sport shows proven ways to push believers, new and mature, toward growth as both Christians--and leaders. Through this powerful, thought-provoking volume, ministers both in the congregation and on staff will discover how to expand the church one soul at a time. Making disciples is the crux of pastor Jim Putman's message. The plan works. Caring for people, following up on stray sheep, and teaching what it means to love God and obey him. That's how Church Is a Team Sport transforms Christians from Monday-morning quarterbacks into dynamic players.

Download or read book Evangelism in a Skeptical World written by Sam Chan and published by Zondervan Academic. This book was released on 2018-03-13 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most Christians already know that they should be telling their friends about Jesus. But they have been poorly equipped with methods that are no longer effective in today's post-Christian world. As a result, many people become frustrated, blame themselves, and simply give up. Evangelism in a Skeptical World is a textbook on evangelism that is ideal for the church or the classroom to equip Christians with the principles and skills they need to tell the unbelievable news about Jesus to friends in a skeptical world. Many of the older principles and methods of evangelism in the twentieth century no longer work effectively today. In a post-Christian, post-churched, post-reached world we need new methods to communicate the timeless message of the gospel in culturally relevant ways. Dr. Chan combines the theological and biblical insights of classic evangelistic training with the latest insights from missiology on contextualization, cultural hermeneutics, and storytelling. Every chapter is illustrated with real-world examples drawn from over fifteen years of evangelistic ministry. These are methods that really work - with university students, urban workers, and high school students - getting past the defensive posture that people have toward Christianity so they can seriously consider the claims of Jesus Christ. Field-tested and filled with unique, fresh, and creative insights, this book will equip you to share the gospel in today's world and help as many people as possible hear the good news about Jesus.

Download or read book Sticky Teams written by Larry Osborne and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2010 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Sticky Teams, Larry Osborne exposes the hidden roadblocks that all too often sabotage the health and harmony of even the best intentioned ministry teams. Then, with practical and seasoned advice, he shows what it takes to get a leadership board, ministry team, and an entire congregation headed in the same direction.

Download or read book DiscipleShift written by Jim Putman and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2013-04-23 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Question: What is the God-given purpose of the local church? Answer: Relational discipleship. DiscipleShift walks you through five key "shifts" that churches must make to refocus on the fundamental biblical mission of discipleship. These intentional changes will attract the world and empower your church members to be salt and light in their communities. Over the last thirty years, many influential church leaders and church planters in America have adopted various models for reaching unchurched people. While many of these approaches have merit, something is still missing, something even more fundamental to the mission of the church: discipleship. Making disciples—helping people to trust and follow Jesus—is the church's God-given mandate. Devoted disciples attract people outside the church because of the change others see in their Christ-like lives. And discipleship empowers Christians to be more like Christ as they intentionally develop relationships with non-believers. Through biblical and professional insights, Jim Putman and Bobby Harrington discuss the transformational effectiveness of making disciples and just how to do so, in practical terms. You’ll learn: The specific roles of a disciple-making pastor. The components of person-to-person discipleship. How each ministry in your church leads to discipleship. How to implement discipleship in your church. Disciple-making leaders will not produce perfect churches, but they will create effective churches.

Download or read book Real Life Discipleship written by Jim Putman and published by Tyndale House. This book was released on 2014-02-27 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is your church making disciples . . . who make disciples . . . who make disciples? Real-Life Discipleship explains what should happen in the life of every Christian and in every small group so that the church becomes an army of believers dedicated to seeing the world saved. With the overriding goal to train disciples who know how to make more disciples, this book offers proven tools and strategies from Real Life Ministries, one of America’s fastest-growing churches. In this book, you will learn: How to create churches that succeed and grow How to intentionally disciple believers in every stage of their spiritual development How to find and develop leaders in your church This book also contains these helpful features: A summary and profile of each stage of spiritual growth Recommended resources for disciple-makers Spiritual facts A presentation of the gospel Discover what the Bible says about true and effective discipleship with these strategies and practices in this great church resource.

Download or read book Sports and Christianity written by Nick J. Watson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This interdisciplinary text examines the sports-Christianity interface from Protestant and Catholic perspectives. In addition to a "systematic review of literature," the contributors, who include many of the pioneers in the field, address a wide range of topics. These include biblical athletic metaphors, disability, evangelism, professionalism and celebrity, humility, the Vatican's perspective on sport and genetic enhancement technologies.

Download or read book The Christian Athlete written by Brian Smith and published by David C Cook. This book was released on 2022-04-05 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Christian Athlete is a gospel-centered guide that assists athletes who identify as Christians and are seeking to understand how to practically apply their faith to their sport. Athletes desire—and deserve—a more substantive expression of the Christian faith in the context of sport, but they don’t know what it looks like or where to turn to learn more. Author Brian Smith shares his story as an athlete and coach, and his experience working with high-level athletes in the last decade to help readers better understand how to integrate faith and sport by: Assisting those who want a wide-angled understanding of how to live the Christian faith in the context of sports Walking through the many questions Christian athletes ask about winning, losing, injuries, practice, and everything in between Moving Christian athletes from simply having clichéd spiritual sayings decorating their bodies or t-shirts to actually living out their faith through all the opportunities their sport offers them The Christian Athlete will show readers how to live out a biblical perspective on athletics and urge them to engage in the gifts they are given to glorify God whether they are the team MVP or riding the bench.

Download or read book Insourcing written by Randy Pope and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2013-03-19 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Too many of today’s pastors and leaders mistakenly think that thriving programs, lively worship services, and relevant preaching are adequate for developing people into the spiritual dynamos God desires. In many churches, the primary objective of the church—personally discipling individuals into mature followers of Jesus—has been “outsourced” to large-scale programs. But are people truly being disciple and taught how to follow Jesus? Are they growing in spiritual depth and missional determination? Twenty-five years ago, the leadership team of Perimeter, Randy Pope’s rapidly growing church realized that nothing but personal discipleship could account for the uniqueness of individuals and the call of God on each person’s life. Perimeter calls their approach “life-on-life missional discipleship,” and this book tells the story of how they learned to bring discipleship back from the margins of church life to the mainstream. Many pastors and leaders are slowly awakening to the reality that current models of ministry just aren’t working the way they had hoped they would. Randy’s journey as a pastor will encourage you and invite you to consider the effectiveness and fruitfulness of your own church’s discipleship efforts.

Download or read book Church Membership written by Jonathan Leeman and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2012-04-30 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jonathan Leeman addresses the commonly asked (and often unanswered) question of, "Why should I join a church?" in a time when many are shunning the practice of organized religion. By offering a brief, straightforward explanation of what church membership is and why it's important, Leeman gives the local church its proper due and builds a case for committing to the local body. Church Membership is a useful tool for churches to distribute en masse to new and potential members of their congregation. This volume is part of the 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches series. Look for upcoming, quick-read formats of the following marks of a healthy church: expositional preaching, biblical theology, the gospel, conversion, evangelism, church discipline, discipleship and growth, and church leadership.

Download or read book Baseball as a Road to God written by John Sexton and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-03-07 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The president of New York University offers a love letter to America’s most beloved sport and a tribute to its underlying spirituality. For more than a decade, John Sexton has taught a wildly popular New York University course about two seemingly very different things: religion and baseball. Yet Sexton argues that one is actually a pathway to the other. Baseball as a Road to God is about touching that something that lies beyond logical understanding. Sexton illuminates the surprisingly large number of mutual concepts shared between baseball and religion: faith, doubt, conversion, miracles, and even sacredness among many others. Structured like a game and filled with riveting accounts of baseball’s most historic moments, Baseball as Road to God will enthrall baseball fans whatever their religious beliefs may be. In thought-provoking, beautifully rendered prose, Sexton elegantly demonstrates that baseball is more than a game, or even a national pastime: It can be a road to enlightenment.

Download or read book The Power of Together written by Jim Putman and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2016-06-21 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Invitation to Deeper, More Joyful, and Rewarding Relationships with God and Others None of us is lovable all of the time. People are unreasonable, arguments flare, feelings are hurt. And no one can make us feel worse than those closest to us. It's easy to fall into the trap of closing ourselves off in order to protect ourselves, rather than opening ourselves up for relationship with each other. But think of who Jesus invited into his life and ministry. They weren't always lovable. Yet he modeled perfect love for us and showed how the mark of a spiritually mature believer was always love. In The Power of Together, pastor and author Jim Putman uncovers the core of true discipleship with an in-depth, biblical look at how Jesus always invited people into relationship with himself. He loved them with God's perfect love and, in the process, showed everyone around him that the act of following God is the act of extending and receiving love that endures all things.

Download or read book Don t Waste Your Sports written by C. J. Mahaney and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2010-11-03 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Why is it that sports seem to bring out the best and the worst in us?” asks author C. J. Mahaney. “Sports are a gift from God. But as soon as you introduce the human heart, things get complicated.” For the Christian athlete, sports are one of the key battlegrounds in which pride and self-glory are regular temptations. If sports are indeed a gift from God, why are playing fields and courts so often arenas for our egos? How are we to enjoy sports in a godly way? Self-described “pastor athlete” C. J. Mahaney looks to Scripture for principles that speak to the role of sports in our lives. This booklet outlines how Christian athletes are to play for the glory of God and model gratitude, humility, and service. With candor and humor, Mahaney recounts his own story with sports and through illustrations and practical applications exhorts athletes not to waste their sports. The booklet concludes with application questions and an addendum to parents. A great gift for Christian athletes, these booklets are also sold in packs of twelve.

Download or read book Church Reset written by Jack Wilkie and published by . This book was released on 2020-04-30 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Church Reset: God's Design for So Much More, Jack Wilkie traces the problem back to its roots to show how we've deviated from God's plan and how we can get back on track. How can we stop operating as an organization and start living like a family? How do we stop creating church customers and start making dedicated disciples? How do we abandon man-made strategies and rediscover the power of God's design? Church Reset casts an exciting vision for what Christ's church can be by pointing back to what it was meant to be from the very start.

Download or read book Simple Church written by Thom S. Rainer and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2011-06 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in paperback, this multi-awarded national best seller shares a clear message from case studies of 400 North American congregations: church is done best when it's kept simple.

Download or read book God Technology and the Christian Life written by Tony Reinke and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2021-12-09 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What Does God Think about Technology? From smartphones to self-driving cars to space travel, new technologies can inspire us. But the breakneck pace of change can also frighten us. So how do Christians walk by faith through the innovations of Silicon Valley? And how does God relate to our most powerful innovators? To build a biblical theology of technology, journalist and tech optimist Tony Reinke examines nine key texts from Scripture to show how the world's discoveries are divinely orchestrated. Ultimately, what we believe about God determines how we respond to human invention. With the help of several theologians and inventors throughout history, Reinke dispels twelve common myths in the church and offers fourteen ethical convictions to help Christians live by faith in the age of big tech. Biblical, Informed Look at Technology: Written by the author of 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You and Competing Spectacles: Treasuring Christ in the Media Age Gathers Ideas from Industry Experts and Theologians: Interacts with Christian and non-Christian sources on technology and theology including John Calvin, Herman Bavinck, Wendell Berry, and Elon Musk Educational: Discusses the history and philosophy behind major technological innovations

Download or read book The Last Christian Generation written by Josh McDowell and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The research on the current generation of young people reveals an alarming fact: they have redefined what it means to be Christian. The majority of our churched young people do not believe Christ is the Son of God, do not believe the Holy Spirit is a real entity, and think 'doing good' earns them a place in heaven. And just as disturbing is the fact that their attitudes and behavior are virtually no different than those of non-Christians. In this defining message of his 40 years of ministry, Josh McDowell strikes at the heart of the problem and offers a clear solution. "We must bring this new generation face to face with who Christ really is," Josh explains. "They know the facts, but they don't know Him. They are believing distorted views of Christianity. This means we must first model Christlikeness to them and then continually lead them through a basic spiritual formation process that sets them on a solid foundation for building a life that is authentically Christian." Reintroduce the real and relevant Christ to your young people, lead them through the process of Christlikeness and you may very well ignite a spiritual revolution for an entire generation.