Download or read book The Path to Being a Pastor written by Bobby Jamieson and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2021-08-04 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A man who's been transformed by Christ and desires to preach the gospel might say he feels called to be a pastor. This personal conviction, while heartfelt, doesn't acknowledge important, challenging steps necessary to be a qualified leader. So where should full-time ministry begin? In The Path to Being a Pastor, Bobby Jamieson explains why it's better to emphasize "aspiration" over "calling" as men pursue the office of elder and encourages readers to make sure they are pastorally gifted before considering the role. He shares from his own eleven-year experience preparing to be a pastor by walking potential leaders through different stages of ministry training, from practical steps—such as cultivating godly ambition and leadership, observing healthy churches, and mastering Scripture—to personal advice on building a strong family and succeeding in seminary. Emphasizing the importance of prayer, godly counsel, and immersion in the local church, Jamieson encourages men to ask Am I qualified? instead of Am I called? when considering a life in ministry.

Download or read book The Heart of the Preacher written by Rick Reed and published by Lexham Press. This book was released on 2019-10-09 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You can teach the craft, but you must first form the heart. Many preachers want to preach better, but they don't always know how to go about improving, and most books on preaching focus on the mechanics of the craft. But preaching involves more than the steps from a text to a sermon, because every time a preacher stands up to preach, their character shines through—for better or for worse. In The Heart of the Preacher, Rick Reed focuses on the personal heart preparation required before any preacher is ready to preach. He explores issues preachers often wrestle with—like discouragement, insecurity, and pride. He then offers practices to fight these challenges and form a heart that carries the fruit of the Spirit into the pulpit. It takes more than a good speaker to preach. It takes a Spirit-filled person. This book will help you check your heart and cultivate the most important aspect of preaching: your character.

Download or read book The Preacher and the Presidents written by Nancy Gibbs and published by Center Street. This book was released on 2007-08-14 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No one man or woman has ever been in a position to see the presidents, and the presidency, so intimately, over so many years. They called him in for photo opportunities. They called for comfort. They asked about death and salvation; about sin and forgiveness. At a time when the nation is increasingly split over the place of religion in public life, The Preachers and the Presidents reveals how the world's most powerful men and world's most famous evangelist, Billy Graham, knit faith and politics together.

Download or read book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry written by John Mark Comer and published by WaterBrook. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ECPA BESTSELLER • A compelling emotional and spiritual case against hurry and in favor of a slower, simpler way of life “As someone all too familiar with ‘hurry sickness,’ I desperately needed this book.”—Scott Harrison, New York Times best-selling author of Thirst “Who am I becoming?” That was the question nagging pastor and author John Mark Comer. Outwardly, he appeared successful. But inwardly, things weren’t pretty. So he turned to a trusted mentor for guidance and heard these words: “Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. Hurry is the great enemy of the spiritual life.” It wasn’t the response he expected, but it was—and continues to be—the answer he needs. Too often we treat the symptoms of toxicity in our modern world instead of trying to pinpoint the cause. A growing number of voices are pointing at hurry, or busyness, as a root of much evil. Within the pages of this book, you’ll find a fascinating roadmap to staying emotionally healthy and spiritually alive in the chaos of the modern world.

Download or read book Unfettered written by Mandy Smith and published by Brazos Press. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Smith's sage advice will aid Christians in recognizing the simple joys of practicing their faith."--Publishers Weekly Western culture is in a tailspin, and Christian faith is entangled in it: we do kingdom things in empire ways. Western approaches to faith leave us feeling depressed, doubting, anxious, and burned out. We know something is wrong with the way we do faith and church in the West, but we're so steeped in it that we don't know where to begin to break old habits. Popular pastor and speaker Mandy Smith invites us to be unfettered from the deeply ingrained habits of Western culture so we can do kingdom things in kingdom ways again. She explores how we can be transformed by new postures and habits that help us see God already at work in and around us. The way forward isn't more ideas, programs, and problem-solving but in Jesus's surprising invitation to the kingdom through childlikeness. Ultimately, rediscovering childlike habits is a way for us to remember how to be human. Unfettered helps us reimagine how to follow God with our whole selves again and join with God's mission in the world. Foreword by Walter Brueggemann.

Download or read book Live No Lies written by John Mark Comer and published by WaterBrook. This book was released on 2021-09-28 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The bestselling author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry equips readers to recognize and resist the lies that seek to rob them of peace and freedom. “Live No Lies is brilliant, deep, scriptural, and will equip you to face the enemy and fight.”—Jennie Allen, New York Times bestselling author of Get Out of Your Head We are at war. Not with a foreign government or domestic terrorists or a creepy new artificial intelligence hell-bent on taking over the world. No, it’s a war we feel deep inside our own chests: we are at war with lies. The problem isn’t so much that we tell lies but that we live them. We let them into our bodies, and they sabotage our peace. All around us in the culture and deep within our own body memories are lies: deceptive ideas that wreak havoc on our emotional health and spiritual well-being, and deceptive ideas about who God is, who we are, and what the good life truly is. The choice is not whether to fight or not fight, but whether we win or surrender. Ancient apprentices of Jesus developed a paradigm for this war; they spoke of the three enemies of the soul: the devil, the flesh, and the world. Live No Lies taps into this ancient wisdom from saints of the Way and translates the three enemies for the modern era, with all its secularism and sophistication. As a generation, we chuckle at the devil as a premodern myth, we are confused by Scripture’s teaching on the flesh in an age where sensual indulgence is a virtue not a vice, and we have little to no category for the New Testament concept of the world. In this provocative and practical book, bestselling author John Mark Comer combines cultural analysis with spiritual formation. He identifies the role lies play in our spiritual deformation and lays out a strategic plan to overcome them. Do you feel the tug-of-war in your own heart, the inner conflict between truth and lies? The spirit and the flesh? The Way of Jesus and the world? It’s time to start winning. It’s time to live no lies...

Download or read book He Will Be the Preacher written by Erwin W. Lutzer and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2015-04-21 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "He will be the preacher." Whether this was just an offhand remark or the woman leaning over his crib was speaking under inspiration from the Holy Spirit, either way, her prediction came to pass. This is the story of a shy, wisecrack kid from rural Canada becoming a well-known American preacher. It’s a story of seemingly random events deciding one man’s destiny. But most of all, it’s a story of God leading one of His dear children along. Join Erwin Lutzer on this tour of his life—from a Saskatchewan farm to a Dallas seminary to the historic Moody Church in Chicago. Hear his personal reflections and tales of pastoral hardship. Meet the people who have shaped him: his parents, professors, family, and even the great evangelist Billy Graham. And see how his many roles—author, speaker, evangelist, historian, and cultural critic—have carried his prophetic voice beyond Moody’s pulpit, even abroad. Part story and part reflection, full of heart with a dose of wit, He Will Be the Preacher is a personal and engaging witness to the providence of God.

Download or read book Lewis on the Christian Life written by Joe Rigney and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2018-04-16 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: C. S. Lewis excelled at plumbing the depths of the human heart, both the good and the bad, the beautiful and the corrupt. From science fiction and fantasy to essays, letters, and works of apologetics, Lewis has offered a wealth of insight into how to live the Christian life. In this book, Rigney explores the center of Lewis's vision for the Christian life—the personal encounter between the human self and the living God. In prayer, in the church, in the imagination, in our natural loves, in our pleasures and our sorrows, God brings us into his presence so that we can become fully human: alive, free, and whole, transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

Download or read book Fight for Your Pastor written by Peter Orr and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2022-10-31 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Practical Ways to Support and Care for Your Pastor Do you pray for your pastors? Do you encourage them? Do you have realistic expectations for them? The office of pastor is simultaneously a rewarding and draining position. Pastors today have immense pressure on their shoulders and they need the support of their congregations. Peter Orr has written Fight for Your Pastor as an exhortation for church members to stand behind their pastors through the difficulties of ministry. Orr specifies ways in which congregations can be intentional in caring for church leaders, including prayer, encouragement, generosity, and forgiveness. Featuring stories from current pastors about their struggles, this book is perfect for thoughtful church members eager to understand the weight of their pastors' positions and support leaders in their important ministry. For Thoughtful Christians: Specifically those wanting to know more about their pastors and how to care for them Current: Features insight from pastors about their personal experiences in ministry Applicable: Gives practical examples of how to love and care for pastors, including specific prayers for church leaders and the best ways to encourage them

Download or read book Dear Church written by Lenny Duncan and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2019-07-02 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lenny Duncan is the unlikeliest of pastors. Formerly incarcerated, he is now a black preacher in the whitest denomination in the United States: the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Shifting demographics and shrinking congregations make all the headlines, but Duncan sees something else at work--drawing a direct line between the church's lack of diversity and the church's lack of vitality. The problems the ELCA faces are theological, not sociological. But so are the answers. Part manifesto, part confession, and all love letter, Dear Church offers a bold new vision for the future of Duncan's denomination and the broader mainline Christian community of faith. Dear Church rejects the narrative of church decline and calls everyone--leaders and laity alike--to the front lines of the church's renewal through racial equality and justice. It is time for the church to rise up, dust itself off, and take on forces of this world that act against God: whiteness, misogyny, nationalism, homophobia, and economic injustice. Duncan gives a blueprint for the way forward and urges us to follow in the revolutionary path of Jesus. Dear Church also features a discussion guide at the back--perfect for church groups, book clubs, and other group discussion.

Download or read book Ways of the Word written by Sally A. Brown and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2016-05-19 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Preaching, and the discipline of preaching, is at a crossroads. The changing realities of church and theological education, the diversity of our classrooms, and our increasingly complex community contexts leave us in search of tools to help train a rising generation of preachers for a future whose contours are far from clear. The questions are immense: How to support preachers in contexts that are diverse religiously, culturally, and ethnically, both inside and outside the church? How to help students take varied contexts seriously as they are formed as leaders? In Ways of the Word, a dynamic team of master preachers brings much-needed help. Different in race, gender, age, and tradition, both Sally A. Brown and Luke A. Powery speak with one voice their belief that preaching is Spirit-empowered event: an embodied, vocalized, actively received, here-and-now witness to the ongoing work of God in the world. They aspire to help students and preachers alike to reflect on a journey of learning by doing. They aim to help preachers to become more attuned to the Spirit, more adept in preaching’s component skills, and more self-aware about all that is at stake in proclaiming the redemptive work of God in specific contexts.

Download or read book A Peculiar Glory written by John Piper and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2016-03-16 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: God has provided a way for all people, not just scholars, to know that the Bible is the Word of God. John Piper has devoted his life to showing us that the glory of God is object of the soul’s happiness. Now, his burden in this book is to demonstrate that this same glory is the ground of the mind’s certainty. God’s peculiar glory shines through his Word. The Spirit of God enlightens the eyes of our hearts. And in one self-authenticating sight, our minds are sure and our hearts are satisfied. Justified certainty and solid joy meet in the peculiar glory of God.

Download or read book The Crisis of Bad Preaching written by Joshua J. Whitfield and published by Ave Maria Press. This book was released on 2019-04-26 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Crisis of Bad Preaching is an audacious response to a long-simmering pastoral crisis: poorly prepared, often stale, and largely irrelevant homilies that are fueling the mass exodus of people from the Church. Echoing Popes Benedict and Francis, Rev. Joshua Whitfield confronts what is perhaps the most common complaint of Catholics around the world: hollow, vacuous preaching. A parish priest in Dallas, Whitfield encourages fellow preachers to profound renewal, reminding them that preaching is not just something they do, it is essential to who they are. Catholic preaching today often achieves the opposite of what it should, which is connecting the People of God with the Gospel of Christ in a compelling and motivating way. With an insider’s candor, biting honesty, and persuasive conviction, Whitfield stresses that preachers need to return to this ideal because the wellbeing of the Church depends on it. More than just another how-to book, The Crisis of Bad Preaching is at once deeply challenging and uplifting and full of practical advice for a reversal of the status quo. In Part I, Whitfield explores the essential role of the preacher as a public intellectual and member of the communion of preachers that spans the history of the Church. Whitfield offers advice about which great preachers—from Origen, Augustine , and Aquinas to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bishop Robert Barron—to study and what to learn from them. Whitfield also explains why preachers must submit in humility to the fullness of the Church—its teachings, authority, practices, and structures. In Part II, Whitfield explores the important habits of prayer, preparation, cultivating rhetorical skill, and learning to take full advantage of both positive and negative criticism. He explains how the way of the preacher must be the way of the Holy Spirit and argues that without the preacher opening his heart to the fire of evangelical proclamation, he will lack the capacity to preach the transforming grace of the Gospel, his mandate. In a brief epilogue, Whitfield encourages ten habits for listening. Addressed to both laity and the ordained, he asserts that fixing preaching will take the concerted effort of all members of the Church.

Download or read book Holy Roar written by Chris Tomlin and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2018-10-23 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What happens when we praise God? What are the benefits of praising Him? Do you know what praise actually means? In Holy Roar, Chris Tomlin and Darren Whitehead share a fresh perspective from the worship practices of the ancient world. They take readers on a praise journey that answers questions and provides valuable insight. After reading Holy Roar, you will: Grow an understanding of praise with Darren's unique insights. Gain a deeper understanding of how to worship. Be inspired as Chris shares how those insights take shape in the stories behind some of your favorite worship songs, including "How Great Is Our God," "We Fall Down," and "Good Good Father." Holy Roar is for: Readers of all ages interested in growing their faith Pastors, worship leaders, and small group teachers leading believers In the ancient world, something extraordinary happened when God's people gathered to worship Him. It was more than just singing; it was a declaration, a proclamation, a time to fully embody praise to God for who He is and what He has done. In fact, in the Psalms, seven Hebrew words are translated into the English word praise, each of which represents a different aspect of what it means to truly praise God.

Download or read book The Stranger written by Camilla Läckberg and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-11-15 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A local woman is killed in a tragic car crash, but it isn’t a clear-cut drunk driving case. The victim’s blood contains high alcohol levels, but she rarely drank a drop. Meanwhile, a reality TV show begins shooting in the town, and as cameras shadow the stars’ every move, tempers start to flare. When a drunken party ends with an unpopular contestant’s murder, all eyes turn to the cast and crew. Could there be a murderer among them? The ratings spike as the country tunes into a real-life murder mystery. Detective Patrik Hedstrom finds himself increasingly unable to focus on the strange circumstances of the first case, but what if that holds the key to a series of other unsolved cases across Sweden? Under the unforgiving media spotlight, Patrik tackles his toughest investigation yet.

Download or read book Expository Exultation written by John Piper and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2018-04-16 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “God has appointed preaching in worship as one great means of accomplishing his ultimate goal in the world.” —John Piper John Piper makes a compelling claim in these pages about the purpose of preaching: it is intended not merely as an explanation of the text but also as a means of awakening worship by being worship in and of itself. Christian preaching is a God-appointed miracle aiming to awaken the supernatural seeing, savoring, and showing of the glory of Christ. Distilling over forty years of experience in preaching and teaching, Piper shows preachers how and what to communicate from God’s Word, so that God’s purpose on earth will advance through Biblesaturated, Christ-exalting, God-centered preaching—in other words, expository exultation.

Download or read book Sex Dating and Relationships written by Gerald Hiestand and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2012-02-29 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Considering the pervasive immorality and high divorce rate of our contemporary Christian culture, we evidently need a biblically based, theologically compelling, practical understanding of sex, dating, and relationships. Pastors Gerald Hiestand and Jay Thomas counteract this problem with their paradigm-shifting view of purity and relationships—a view that challenges even the basic assumptions of evangelical subculture. Unlike most books on dating, this one cuts straight to the heart of dating relationships, asserting with confidence that the line must be drawn at "no sexual activity" whatever. Few have dared to define and apply the Bible's understanding of purity in premarital relationships to this degree, but Heistand and Thomas have done it. Furthermore, both authors are vocational pastors who communicate regularly with the target audience and have a proven ability to express biblical truth in a winsome and compelling manner. Sex, Dating, and Relationships adds a new, almost provocative voice to the conversation that, with straightforward theological insight, pleads with Christians to get serious about honoring Christ with their sexuality.