What does the good news of Jesus look like in the North of England? Rooms and Wort analyse what the North actually is, and why we need to study our context if we want to understand more about God and God’s ways.

"For fifty years, a parade of writers has labored to show declining churches the route to new growth. Bill McConnell, from extensive experience and wise reflection, has written one of the most interesting and useful books of the type. As this book is read by church leadership teams (not by the pastor alone), it will catalyze the turnaround of several thousand local churches, at least." -Dr. George G. Hunter III, Distinguished Professor of Evangelization, Asbury Theological Seminary "Bill McConnell is a delightful writer, and this book is as easy to read as it is substantive in its content. It is intelligent, intuitive, and informed. There is no substitute for wisdom born of experience and perseverance, and that wisdom is found here. Full of practical insights and suggestions, this book also provides a window into Bill's personal journey as a successful leader of congregational transformation." - Dr. Dick Hamm, author, coach-consultant, partner of The Columbia Partnership, and past president and general minister of The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) "Although not textbooks, I wish Bill McConnell's books could be required reading for all mainline denominational churches. As a successful pastor and an advisor to many churches, McConnell writes from a wealth of experience that is immensely practical and applicable. All church leaders and pastors who wish to move their churches forward toward a healthy and exciting future should get this book." - Margo Woodworth, Retired Executive Director of Net Results, Inc. Dr. Bill McConnell is a native of Louisville, Kentucky, has served in the church for over forty years, and is a church transformation consultant and Christian leadership coach. He speaks in many venues around the nation on the subject of church transformation. He is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University, Asbury Theological Seminary, and Kingsway Theological Seminary.

This timely release explores the community-altering phenomenon of social networking sites and what it reveals about friendship, God, and our own hearts. With hundreds of millions of users, social networks are changing how we form relationships, perceive others, and shape our identity. Yet at its core, this movement reflects our need for community. Our longing for intimacy, connection, and a place to belong has never been a secret, but social networking offers us a new perspective on the way we engage our community. How do these networks impact our relationships? In what ways are they shaping the way we think of ourselves? And how might this phenomenon subtly reflect a God who longs to connect with each one of us? The Church of Facebook explores these ideas and much more, offering a revealing look at the wildly popular world of online social networking.

This book brings together prominent practitioners and academics to answer these questions and explore what it means to proclaim the gospel in the North of England from many angles.

For anyone who is concerned about Church decline, the contents of this book offer an essential blueprint for building God’s whole community in the coming years. This unique set of resources offers practical help and insight for all who want to grow, enrich and develop their congregational life. The Church of Scotland has drawn on the findings of extensive new research that it has commissioned in order to put together this set of carefully crafted and informed resources aimed at helping every congregation to understand why people leave the Church, how to avoid unnecessary departures and, above all, to develop an enriching, vital Christian fellowship with the large numbers of Churchless Christians in every community across the country. This ground-breaking book, illustrated by Dave Walker, offers information, hope, insight, prayerful reflection and practical ideas for bringing together in fellowship all Christians, whether they are members of an institutional Church or not.

What exactly is a living church? Author John Stott explains, 'We need more radically conservative churches: "conservative" in the sense that they conserve what Scripture plainly requires, but radical in relation to that combination of tradition and convention that we call 'culture'. Scripture is unchangeable, but culture is not.' 'The Living Church' brings together a number of characteristics of what the author calls 'authentic' or 'living' church. The marks, being clearly biblical, are timeless and need to be preserved. We are encouraged to become learning churches, caring churches, worshipping churches and evangelising churches. John Stott unpacks the Bible's wisdom rigorously with a teacher's skill and applies it faithfully with a pastor's heart. Becoming a living church is not an impossible goal.

Flexible Church proposes an ecclesiology for innovative expressions of church that is grounded in biblical texts whilst self-consciously and intentionally developed for the contemporary Western milieu. The result is a framework serves as a guide and auditing tool for pioneering church planters.

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. Hear what they say about their views of Scripture, Christ, the atonement, other world religions, and other important doctrines, so you can come to your own conclusions about the emerging church.

Too many Christians are religious - their faith is more a human endeavor than a response to God's loving initiative. Such religion assumes that our value comes not from God but from what we do. It absorbs principles and postulates from the surrounding society, leading to further misconceptions about God and our relation to our Creator. All this hinders people from experiencing vibrant Christian community, where they could freely love and be loved. Mark Baker suggests that just as car companies test automobiles under severe conditions to uncover weaknesses, North American Christians may detect fallacies in their gospel by examining how it plays out under the challenges of poverty, injustice, and entrenched religiosity. Baker's test case is drawn from his ten-year missionary experience in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, at churches born out of North American mission work. Baker observes Honduran church life, draws parallels to the dangers of religion in the North American church and mines from Galatians exciting possibilities of robust Christian grace and freedom. The result is a bracing and refreshing approach to Christian community for laypersons, pastors, missionaries, and mission strategists.