Community Ministry

Almost any parent you asked would tell you that they want their children to be happy, successful adults. But many of us forget (or never knew to begin with) that lasting personal joy is not necessarily found the way the world says it is - through reaching a certain socioeconomic status, having a certain job, buying a certain house, or having a certain amount in one's bank account. In fact, says Kristen Welch, author of Raising Grateful Kids in an Entitled World, personal satisfaction comes not from grabbing onto things but from holding them with an open hand and, very often, giving them away.

After traveling the globe and speaking to thousands of churches worldwide, Paul David Tripp has discovered a serious problem within pastoral culture. Dangerous Calling reveals the truth that the culture surrounding our pastors is spiritually unhealthy—an environment that actively undermines...

Youth ministry is an essential part of most evangelical churches. And yet, there is a surprising lack of resources written specifically for youth workers focused on viewing all aspects of youth ministry through a gospel-focused lens. Featuring contributions from a host of experienced youth...

Practical and realistic insights, strategies and stories focused on contributing to a caring church culture. You believe in the love of Christ, but does love for one another shape your church’s current culture or the culture your church hopes to build? Coming alongside you as a fellow church...

Within the heart of the modern church, a quiet crisis brews: the steady decline in church attendance—a trend acutely visible among the Gen Z cohort, who holds a deep-seated yearning for authentic connection and an aspiration to thrive within a transparent community. Enter the world of The Weak Church—a groundbreaking narrative that shuns the conventional pursuit of mega-sized congregations and toxic masculinity, inviting instead a resurgence of vibrant, genuine communities through a ministry philosophy of weakness.

In our world of quick fixes, women are starving for real spiritual nourishment. Yet much of women's programming falls short of providing substantial teaching, engaging events, and meaningful activities that add up to a transformative ministry with an eternal impact. Women's Ministry Essentials...

Are you and your church making a difference in your community? Are you meeting needs in a positive, proactive, and loving way? Too often when churches are presented with a need outside their walls, they operate on the principle of "Say no unless you have to say yes." Don't want that to be your church's legacy in your community? Drawing on more than 30 years of service to the community surrounding Faith Church in Indiana, pastor Stephen Viars shows you how to develop a giving relationship with your community, one in which your natural response to needs is "Yes! How can we help?"

When we really love something, we talk about it. This is true when find a great new restaurant, enjoy a sports team, or when we stumble onto a fantastic new product. We want to share the joy and tell others. We naturally “evangelize” and invite others to experience what we have found...

What are the beliefs of the new movement known as the emerging church? In thought-provoking debate, prominent emerging leaders John Burke, Mark Driscoll, Dan Kimball, Doug Pagitt, and Karen Ward discuss their sometimes controversial views under the editorship of author and educator Robert Webber...

The Zondervan Biblical and Theological Lectures series provides a unique audio learning experience. Unlike a traditional audiobook's direct narration of a book's text, Organic Outreach: Audio Lectures includes high quality live-recordings of college-level lectures that cover the important points...

Nearly all churches and ministries consider themselves dedicated to evangelism, and many explicitly include outreach in their mission statements. But few are actually bearing fruit. Kevin Harney diagnoses this problem and offers guidance for multiplying the outreach impact of churches. Organic...

Discover how your church can be truly excited about evangelism and reach out effectively. Your church's sermons often include a call to evangelize. You've held evangelism training events. You give out invites to your Christmas and Easter services. So… where are all the new Christians? Is your...

Why closing the back door of your church is even more important than opening the front door wider. In Sticky Church, author and pastor Larry Osborne offers a time-tested strategy for doing so: sermon-based small groups that dig deeper into the weekend message and tightly velcro members to the...

Veteran urban activist Robert Lupton reveals the shockingly toxic effects that modern charity has upon the very people meant to benefit from it. Toxic Charity provides proven new models for charitable groups who want to help—not sabotage—those whom they desire to serve. Lupton, the founder...

Christian Book Award - Finalist 2022 (print)!! What does the Bible tell us about ethnic diversity? How far do we need to travel to fulfill the Great Commission? Walk out your front door and you’ll find our “new Samaria”―a land of immigrants, refugees, and people of countless cultures and...

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...

In Becoming a True Spiritual Community (formerly titled The Safest Place on Earth), Larry Crabb explores such a place, where God can heal disconnected people and allow them to reconnect with each other and, ultimately, with Him. In today's frenetic society, people rarely develop intimate...

David Anderson writes about multicultural leadership not from the perspective of an ivory tower intellectual, but as a hands-on practitioner who loves and believes in the body of Christ. . . . If you believe there is no solution to the race problem, I urge you to reconsider and to learn from...

This book seeks to provide a guided examination of what unites and divides the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic communities. With over 25 years of experience teaching in the subject area, Dr. Fritz Wenisch begins to unravel this complex and often contentious topic by first discussing the legal injunctions applying to religious studies courses at secular U.S. universities. He investigates the type of monotheism each religion shares before providing an in-depth overview of each religion, one by one.

Your story. It zigs just when you thought it should zag. You honestly didn’t realize you had a plan for your life until it didn’t turn out the way you thought it would. But there’s good news. Belonging to Jesus means that your story is part of a much larger tale to be told.