Ir-rev-rend (ir REV rund) noun 1. a pastor who is somewhat critical of what is generally accepted or respected 2. a pastor who is trying to make sense of life, love, the church and other confusing things from a slightly satirical point of view; an irreverent sense of humor. 3. a "normal" guy pursuing God Whatever you may think about the "typical" pastor, throw it out. Do they make bad decisions? Yes. Commit sin and experience severed relationships? Yes and yes. Pastor Greg Surratt is not perfect, and he unashamedly tells the stories that have strengthened his faith. He writes that the choice to follow Christ is never clean, is often scary, is usually clothed in mystery, and is always an adventure. For some people, God appears in dark, dirty, lonely, or just plain odd places. Greg found God while huddled under a grand piano, hiding from overzealous friends and family trying to accost him during an altar call at a Pentecostal revival. So began a life of sharing stories of God's endlessly creative and often surprising work and seeing God's transforming power in unexpected ways. Despite years of vocational ministry, Greg never underestimates the power of divine/human encounters in some of teh least "churchy' places on earth. Humorous, insightful, and challenging, IR-REV-REND is a revealing and joyous look at real-life Christian living. As Greg himself affirms, if God can use his missteps and blunders, God can use anybody's.

Every day we encounter scores of people headed to an eternity without God. What will it take to wake us up to their desperate need for a Savior? While the earth's time clock ticks away, well-meaning Christians go to church, pay their tithes, and pray for foreign missionaries—going through the motions of Christian life as millions face an eternity without God. If heaven is indeed for real, and only those who have put their faith in Christ will be given entrance, shouldn't we be making the most of every opportunity to share the Gospel, the last great hope for all the world? Join pastor Ronnie Floyd as he challenges readers to face reality and begin a global movement to reach the lost. He says, "God is calling us to an awakening regarding his most urgent command found in Matthew 28:19 to go and make disciples of all nations. This Great Commission is the compelling charge given to us with divine authority by our Commander in Chief, Jesus Christ." Our Last Great Hope will move us beyond casual and theoretical talk about the Great Commission and lead us into a Great Awakening. “This book could revolutionize the way we think. . . . Read it and be inspired, changed, and equipped.” —Bruce Wilkinson, best-selling author of The Prayer of Jabez “Floyd challenges us to engage the next generation . . . a must-read.” —Greg Surratt, lead pastor of Seacoast Church and author of IR-REV-REND “This book inspires me to do extraordinary things through my most ordinary life. Our Last Great Hope should be your fi rst required read.” —Leonard Sweet, best-selling author of Jesus Manifesto “Our Last Great Hope pushes us beyond predictability and points us to a deep, intimate knowledge of why we are here.” —Ed Young Jr., pastor of Fellowship Church and author of Outrageous, Contagious Joy “I’ll be pulling this book off my shelf again and again.” —Pete Wilson, author of Plan B and Empty Promises “This book is an energizing wake-up call to today’s churches.” —Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research

Question: What is the God-given purpose of the local church? Answer: Relational discipleship. DiscipleShift walks you through five key "shifts" that churches must make to refocus on the fundamental biblical mission of discipleship. These intentional changes will attract the world and empower your church members to be salt and light in their communities. Over the last thirty years, many influential church leaders and church planters in America have adopted various models for reaching unchurched people. While many of these approaches have merit, something is still missing, something even more fundamental to the mission of the church: discipleship. Making disciples—helping people to trust and follow Jesus—is the church's God-given mandate. Devoted disciples attract people outside the church because of the change others see in their Christ-like lives. And discipleship empowers Christians to be more like Christ as they intentionally develop relationships with non-believers. Through biblical and professional insights, Jim Putman and Bobby Harrington discuss the transformational effectiveness of making disciples and just how to do so, in practical terms. You’ll learn: The specific roles of a disciple-making pastor. The components of person-to-person discipleship. How each ministry in your church leads to discipleship. How to implement discipleship in your church. Disciple-making leaders will not produce perfect churches, but they will create effective churches.

Discover your true identity in Christ. Many of us live for the approval of others. We let the world decide who we are, or we look to those around us to discover who we think we’d like to be. The problem is that living for what people think of you is the quickest way to forget what God thinks of you. In Altar Ego, pastor and author of Winning the War in Your Mind Craig Groeschel will show you how to sacrifice your broken ideas of approval-based identity on the altar of God’s truth and become who you were meant to be in Christ. You'll learn how to: Expose false labels and selfish motives. Live according to God's higher values with a deeper confidence in His calling. Trade in your broken ego and unleash your “altar” ego as a living sacrifice to Him. Understand how God continuously shapes you into His vision of you. Once you know your true identity and are growing in Christ-like character, then you can behave accordingly with bold behavior, bold prayers, bold words, and bold obedience. Altar Ego reveals who God says you are, and then calls you to live up to it. Rather than living a timid, halfhearted, shallow cultural Christianity, you'll boldly live in the confidence of the God who believes in you.

Do You Have a Game Plan? Premier agent Drew Pittman loves sports. Maybe even more than you do. But an experience early in his management career convinced him that a life of significance is about faith, family, and football--and always in that order. So how do you make significance your game plan? Competitive sports are filled with lessons about motivation, perseverance, hard work, and collaboration--and these lessons are powerfully transferable to everyday life. Yet few men apply them to the most important arena they'll ever play in: their home. In First Team Dad, Drew Pittman shares the principles that can change the game in your family, straight from a sports insider who has field-tested each and every one with his home team. With heart-pounding stories of unforgettable plays and one-in-a-million players, First Team Dad is your ticket to create a legacy of significance in your family. "It's my hope that by reading First Team Dad you will be motivated to do a better job of leading your family and that you will reach out to other men you know to help them catch this vision."--Tony Dungy, former NFL head coach and bestselling author "Knowing Drew, I've been encouraged and challenged by his example and wisdom--read this book so you can get to know this man as well."--John Schneider, executive vice president and general manager, Seattle Seahawks "To the football fan's delight, Drew shares behind-the-scenes stories about his experiences with famous players and coaches in order to demonstrate practical points about having a strong family. I believe every man who reads this book will walk away inspired and will have a game plan for his own family."--Robert Morris, founding senior pastor, Gateway Church, Dallas Texas; bestselling author, The Blessed Life

Craveable is an all-out call for Christianity to return to the allure that caused the church to win the world in the first century.

Packed with new research, new interviews, and practical solutions, this updated and expanded edition of Next will equip pastors, ministry teams, and Christian organizations to navigate leadership changes with wisdom and grace. While there is no simple, one-size-fits-all solution to the puzzle of planning for a seamless pastoral succession, Next offers church leaders and pastors a guide to asking the right questions in order to plan for the future. Vanderbloemen, founder of a leading pastoral search firm, and Bird, an award-winning writer and researcher, share insider stories of succession failures and successes in dozens of churches, including some of the nation's most influential. The authors demystify successful pastoral succession and help you prepare for an even brighter future for your ministry. Includes a foreword by John Ortberg and an introduction by Eric Geiger and Kenton Beshore.

We’ve all gone through times in our lives when we feel like we need a fresh breeze to breathe new life into us. But what is that energy-giving, life-breathing force that inspires and empowers us? How do we put the wind in our sails again, so we can get unstuck, reset our compass, and redirect our course? In Fresh Air, New York Times bestselling author Chris Hodges reveals how breath—the breath of God—is the essence of life as it’s meant to be. Fueled by the breath of God, we are not only refreshed in spirit ourselves; we have the power to create a life-giving environment of freedom and joyful purpose around us. Bold and encouraging, Fresh Air offers “breathing lessons” for those who long for a cool breeze to resuscitate their spirit, bring them closer to God, and make them enthusiastic, contagious life-breathers to those around them.

We live in a world of fakers. Rather than being real with each other, we present a carefully crafted persona that hides our faults and magnifies our good qualities. But inside we long to be loved, warts and all. We long to stop hiding from each other--and especially from God. With candor and clarity, pastor Rick Bezet calls readers to a life built on authenticity, showing that the way to true freedom lies through reclaiming our hearts, reviving our souls, and renewing our minds in light of what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. Through biblical stories and (often funny) personal examples, Bezet encourages readers to live with passion, integrity, and perseverance. He releases readers from the spiritual death that comes with pretending and leads them into a new life characterized by transparency rather than fear.

This book brims with effective strategies for recruiting leaders, connecting members into groups, coaching groups for success, and giving people something to say yes to, even when they have rejected church-wide campaigns previously offered by their churches. Keys to effective, ongoing groups include leadership training, ongoing coaching, appropriate recordkeeping, as well as a sequence of aligned series rather than just a single occasional campaign. This book provides fundamentals that will insure ongoing success proven principles used effectively in hundreds of churches across North America. Readers of Exponential Groupswill learn how to connect their unconnected members into community, recruit the group leaders needed to connect and grow their congregation, coach group leaders for a sustainable group structure that will serve their church for years to come, understand how to maintain current discipleship strategies, and implement new strategies without alienating their members or derailing their current systems.