The author details the necessary characteristics for those who want to be involved (or who are involved) in ministry.

The content of this manuscript is research investigated for the resilience and success of pastors in the Church of God in Christ, a Pentecostal denomination that has over six million members, to include over three-thousand pastors. The research is a phenomenological study designed to provide a narrative, interview of the participants to share their background, role, and day-to-day practices of the work of ministry as a senior pastor in this organization. The research will consist of seven to ten pastors selected from across the country, all African-American males, age groups ranging from 42 years to 72 years of age. The information will be gathered by personal interviews conducted by asking each of them the same questions to gather all the facts and data for this research design. The instrument used will be a recording device that will record all conversations that will be transcribed in writing verbatim. As the human instrument conducting this research, it will constitute travel, lodging, and scheduling of each participant that will give the researcher an intimate up and close contact with each participant. The information will be safeguarded, names will be protected and all information will be useful as a model example of what constitutes success for ministry and the tools and resources needed to maintain a healthy and productive state of mind to be resilient in leading the charge as clergymen in the field of ministry. It is with great joy and a privilege to conduct this interview with pastors serving in the Church of God in Christ.

This short volume is a plea for Christians to rethink their point and purpose in light of larger cultural changes and a crisis in leadership. Foss's model of moving from issues into conversation and then into compassion is a blueprint for new leadership.

Senior citizens continue to be a forgotten frontier in evangelism and local church outreach today. When I first wrote this guide in 1982, it was the product of starting seventeen senior citizens’ outreach programs in local churches in Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia. The vision to see more churches see the value of reaching their senior citizens and providing a faith-based fellowship for them was our inspiration then and remains now that local churches see a vision for these special people. Sad to say, this is not the case. Having a senior citizens program in the local church can be one of the least expensive and most meaningful outreach of the local church or community association. It requires space, little funding, a dedicated leader, and volunteers, and it can be one of the least costly programs that can be put on by the local church. It is easy to do and easy to manage. The need for a direct and specific program orientated toward seniors in the local church has never been greater than it is today. People are living longer. This is every growing field that truly is white unto harvest. With the changes in our society, increased life expectancy, increase in birth control, and now the wholesale slaughter of unwanted children (called abortion and sometimes birth killing), we are seeing the senior citizen population increasing.

Put on your boots and get ready to march with Kathy Gray’s new book, HUA! – A Training Guide for Women With over 35 years in ministry, Kathy Gray has the wisdom, insight and anointing to equip others to live effective lives for Christ. Known worldwide as a “freedom fighter” for both men and women, her ministry touches thousands of lives. HUA! – A Training Guide for Women presents the principles of successful Christian living in six “boot camp” lessons. Each lesson reveals a leadership quality important to becoming a strong woman in God. With personal stories and “inspection questions,” Kathy Gray exposes the spiritual enemies women face and takes them through the “drills” needed to become victorious soldiers of Christ. Women worldwide will appreciate the forthright training Gray offers in her new book as she encourages women to “make your new battle cry a confident HUA! You’ve heard the word of the Lord, you understand his mandate and calling as a woman of God, and you acknowledge that with him and him alone, you can succeed in life."

As a senior pastor and former deacon, Dr. James H. Taylor, III, has many years of experience with the "grain of tradition" paradigm of rural ministry. His passion to make a contribution to the betterment of rural ministry through the equipping of laity for servant leadership and excellence in ministry, lies within this vital resource. This book, which is part research project and part servant leadership resource equipping guide, provides the theological foundation, state of the art in servant leadership and step by step training modules for equipping the laity for the role of servant leader.. This book explores basic leadership principles and contrasts leadership and servant leadership and its intricate and important role in excellence in ministry. The ten module training guide systematically unfolds laity's spiritual undergirding in preparation for embracing the ranks of servant leadership, specifically the diaconate. This resource will benefit any church who desire to better equip its laity for servant leadership and strive for excellence in ministry. Dr. James H. Taylor, III is the senior pastor of the Race Street Baptist church in historic Farmville, VA. He is a graduate of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology in Richmond, Virginia. and the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.

A practical and essential guide in the 21st century recapturing the essence of Service be it at an organization, church or government. A safe foundational tool and refresher course for those particularly in the ministry of Helps and Hospitality, or involved in any form of service. A must read.

The Christian fiction genre has been around since the late sixties, but the Left Behind series made it explode. This book walks you through the genre - what it is and isn't, how plot integrates with a Christian message, how to approach edgy subjects, how to navigate Christian and mainstream publishers, and more. Coverage includes discussion of everything from mystery and romance, to historical and young adult.

The purpose of this book seeks to examine the leadership of the Black church through a critical and theoretical lens utilizing historical and anthropological foci to better identify and understand some of the challenges within the paramount institution and its attrition to the Black American community at large and provide appropriate suggestions and generating frameworks for addressing the challenges. The church has always played a pivotal role in Black American culture's identity, development, and progression. Leadership and organizational challenges within the church pervasively matriculate to other Black spaces, historically Black organizations, and a broader societal context. Due to the church's historical and ethnographic context for Blacks in America, many of the challenges faced in the church go unrecognized, unspoken, thus unattended. This manuscript endeavors to identify the challenges, and flaws through research and data, to provide solutions through practical and theoretical implementations to some shortcomings for the betterment of the church and culture. The interconnectedness of culture and religion for Blacks in America established a gargantuan impact factor on the church and its leaders. This manuscript examines the pervading effects of the influence through leadership dispensation. It also explores the understanding of leadership through the lens of Black Christianity, deriving that the foundation of leadership in the Black community was primarily circumscribed by the influence of the church as conglomerate collectivism of almost five hundred years of the history and culture of Africans, African descendants, and members of the African diaspora in what is now America who contributed to the ideal of the Black church. The critical analysis provided is not one of condemnation but likened to a vital performance review through member experiences barred against applicable leadership and organizational development barometers.

The Shepherds Guide through the Valley of Debt and Financial Change is the most comprehensive manual for financial management, planning, counseling, and coaching available. This encyclopedic book (419 pages) contains the basic information and techniques with facts, references, illustrations, worksheets, and case studies. Besides the most crucial issues of today, unique features are 15 budgets/plans, addictions, divorce counseling, low-income resources, pre-marital education, adjustments to financial crises/downturns, funding for college, office politics, economic theology, pastoral care, and Scripture references. New concepts of financial freedom are presented. It is a practical resource management book for those who need the education themselves and equips them to assist others.