Our church buildings, synagogues, and other religious places – which once stood as beacons of hope and reverence for its community – have become a burden for the organizations who seek to keep them standing. In efforts to patch leaky roofs and paint over years of wear, leaders are putting more and more money each year into property instead of people. The practices we have fallen into to keep a building running are not only demoralizing to the pastoral profession and the mission of the church, but they also run the risk of violating property tax laws and incurring more debt. What if our properties didn’t have to be a source of pain but one of purpose and profit? Can we as faith-based organizations begin to think collaboratively about how we might further our missions by creatively and intentionally rethinking how we utilize the space we inhabit? In Fresh Expressions of People Over Property the authors reflect on strategies, scriptures, and stories that help leaders faithfully re-imagine their community spaces so that they reflect that God and God’s people value people over property.

New forms of church that gather and network with people who typically have never been to church.

From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Sweet Thing and Nowhere But Here comes a love story about a Craigslist “missed connection” post that gives two people a second chance at love fifteen years after they were separated in New York City. To the Green-eyed Lovebird: We met fifteen years ago, almost to the day, when I moved my stuff into the NYU dorm room next to yours at Senior House. You called us fast friends. I like to think it was more. We lived on nothing but the excitement of finding ourselves through music (you were obsessed with Jeff Buckley), photography (I couldn’t stop taking pictures of you), hanging out in Washington Square Park, and all the weird things we did to make money. I learned more about myself that year than any other. Yet, somehow, it all fell apart. We lost touch the summer after graduation when I went to South America to work for National Geographic. When I came back, you were gone. A part of me still wonders if I pushed you too hard after the wedding… I didn’t see you again until a month ago. It was a Wednesday. You were rocking back on your heels, balancing on that thick yellow line that runs along the subway platform, waiting for the F train. I didn’t know it was you until it was too late, and then you were gone. Again. You said my name; I saw it on your lips. I tried to will the train to stop, just so I could say hello. After seeing you, all of the youthful feelings and memories came flooding back to me, and now I’ve spent the better part of a month wondering what your life is like. I might be totally out of my mind, but would you like to get a drink with me and catch up on the last decade and a half? M

In See, Know & Serve, Tom Bandy shows how the transition between Christendom and Post-Christendom is unfolding at different speeds and with different twists in diverse regions and places, and that this development makes standardizing ministry practices, or using collections of "best practices," unsuccessful in growing God's mission. Bandy presents startlingly new ways to view congregations and communities, enabling leaders to understand the people within their reach on a granular level. The author demonstrates with real-world examples how organizations can translate this information into practical strategies and tactics. The book includes helpful charts and diagrams, making the material surprisingly easy to digest and share. This important, groundbreaking and convicting book lays out with depth and clarity a pioneering new way forward for every church and every mission-focused organization. Bandy shows how we can see the people in our communities with unparalleled clarity, so that we can serve them—fulfilling our mission—effectively.

A wave of new Christian churches are emerging to reach unchurched and dechurched people who live in a culture that is increasingly non-religious and multi-religious. These new forms of church gather and network with people who typically have never been to church. The new faith communities listen to people and go where they are on the journey toward Jesus. They are deeply ecumenical but do not lose their distinctiveness because they learn fresh ways to communicate their identity through discipleship. Fresh Expressions began in the United Kingdom where it ignited over 3000 new faith communities. In the United States the movement is putting down roots in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Ken Carter and Audrey Warren offer this book as a group study for church leaders and congregations who are in the grip of Holy Spirit motivation to renew their tradition by reaching people who are dechurched or not yet in a discipleship relationship with Jesus. Each chapter includes two Bible study experiences for group conversation.

A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.

A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.

Ken Carter reached a point when he knew his prayers for others-even as a pastor-were not what they might have been. He decided to explore Christian intercession in depth. Now he shares what he's discovered about the power of intercession, a practice at the heart of Christian living. Praying for others is meant to be part of the fabric of life as a Christian. Find out how to be prepared when someone says to you, "Pray for me." These chapters give you the foundation for deeper, more meaningful prayer: Book jacket.

Learn to cultivate the extraordinary gifts of Christian community in the countryside with Fresh Expressions of the Rural Church by Tyler Kleeberger and Michael Beck. The rural church was a community’s centerpiece. The place where people gathered to worship and hear a sermon, break bread together, and support each other through the joys and struggles of life with the land. In many ways, the rural church captured a central aspect of the church’s mission: to be the guiding hand for the life of a place. Can rural congregations flourish again? Can new Christian communities succeed in rural areas? Could healthy rural churches catalyze a better future for their declining communities? This book collects stories from the diversity of rural contexts across the US. It lays out a fresh theology for rural life and offers principles for harnessing the potential of what some consider the forgotten spaces. Each chapter includes a helpful Field Exercise—questions for discussion and suggested actions for leadership teams to work through together. Chapters conclude with a Field Story illustrating how the chapter’s main ideas can work in a real church setting. Praise for Fresh Expressions of the Rural Church Fresh Expressions of the Rural Church offers hope for the renewal that can take place in “out of the way” places. In these sacred rural places folks can experience the love of God and neighbor, undergo true healing, participate in the renewal of community, and discover a place to belong. - Daniel G. Beaudoin, Bishop, Northwestern Ohio Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Fresh Expressions of the Rural Church helps us to reconsider our Wesleyan roots and the gifts of our rural contexts, a seedbed packed with possibility for new communities of faith to form and flourish. - Heather M. Jallad, Fresh Expressions specialist, North Georgia Conference, UMC Beck and Kleeberger have taken a sample of the good soil that is faithful rural mission, identified the challenges, celebrated the riches, and offered us a powerful way to learn and be in partnership and connection with the gifts of God. - Ken Carter, Bishop, Florida and Western North Carolina Conferences of the United Methodist Church; co-author, Fresh Expressions: A New Kind of Methodist Church from Abingdon Press

Sharing your faith doesn’t have to be complicated. Christians are called to be a witness for Christ in daily life, to surprise people around us with the good news of the gospel. Yet putting that mission into regular practice can seem overwhelming. Author Michael Frost, a renowned expert on evangelism, offers refreshingly simple tactics to make evangelism fulfilling, exciting, and effective. Surprise the World teaches clear and practical tools for making evangelism part of your daily life. This short and easy read covers the BELLS method, along with thought-provoking questions and prompts for applying each habit. You’ll learn about each of the five habits: Bless others Eat together Listen to the Spirit Learn Christ Understand yourself as Sent by God into others’ lives Ideal for personal use or training groups on evangelism, the inspiring lessons in this book will transform your view of evangelism in daily life. “A timely wake-up call for believers. A concise and helpful encouragement to those seeking to live on-mission in their communities.” —Ed Stetzer, author and pastor “Eminently doable, entirely practical, and exceptionally effective!” —Felicity Dale, author of An Army of Ordinary People “If every believer developed a lifestyle that included these 5 habits, I’m convinced a great spiritual awakening would take place.” —Al Engler, mission director of Nav Neighbor