If you’ve ever wondered how you could be more effective at engaging audiences, conveying what you have to say and, thereby, motivating them to change their attitudes and behaviour – you’re not alone. Robert Little has often wondered the same thing (but about himself, not you). He’s spent many years speaking in the world of business; advising other people on how to speak; listening to and watching others speak in a variety of contexts, as well as being a preacher. He’s also been a singer, performing as a soloist in concerts and operas around the UK. Cajoled into writing this book – outlining many of the tips and techniques you’ll need to be an effective public speaker – Robert has captured relevant thoughts and observations from many people. These include practical, pragmatic, preachers; assiduous academics, along with popular presenters and personable performers from the worlds of business, the arts and even sport. He’s contributed several of his own tried-and-tested techniques, too. Robert believes Christian communicators tend to miss out on some of this book’s tips and techniques which have been garnered from today’s business world. These tips and techniques focus on how to engage and keep an audience’s attention – and motivate that audience to put into practice what they hear and see. So, this book is worth at least a cursory glance from those who want their preaching ministry (or any other type of public speaking) to be effective – as well as, perhaps, to be memorable, popular and successful. *If you’re a Baptist, part of the Baptist church leadership, or just want to improve your biblical preaching and public speaking, this book can help you to prepare for worship leading. Discover the responsibilities of a worship leader; references to leading worship, Scripture and much more.

Worship is a dynamic, living encounter that should never be static. In the Church of England, although Common Worship provides texts for every season and occasion, the church constantly needs to refresh its worship, just as it reshapes its presence in local communities. In this comprehensive volume, a wide range of experienced liturgists, musicians and pastoral practitioners consider the principles that will determine the character and quality, as well as the content, of our worship in the future. It explores how new forms can meet new needs while remaining faithful to the church’s essential understanding of worship. Over twenty chapters consider how emerging forms of worship can be: - Relational, accessible and inclusive - Rooted in Scripture, the Creeds, and Spirit-filled - Sacramental, symbolic and multi-sensory - Transformative, pastoral and prophetic The contributors are all members of the Group for the Renewal of Worship, a broadly evangelical group within the Church of England and including senior clergy, musicians, theological college tutors in liturgy and former members of the Liturgical Commission.

The Church is currently experiencing a transition in the way it understands and practises both mission and ministry. It is to be outward-looking, engaging with the wider community, involving all its members in mission and clergy are to play the role of enablers and equippers of the ministry of the whole church. However, ministerial formation in colleges and courses throughout the country lags behind this emerging consensus. ‘Theological education’ is still largely based on academic models. Reimagining Ministerial Formation offers a new way forward, where ‘ministry’ comes to be about the whole church, and ministerial formation is about collaboration between clergy and laity. It argues strongly for a shift away from ‘front-loaded’ training, to a new focus on formation as a life-long process.

This author and pastor offers an invitation to the kind of preaching that "creates followers of God who serve the world well and live the invitation to the rhythm of God."

While there are many books that tell the "stories" about churches and church life, this work takes the rarely traveled path of looking directly into the lives of church members, focusing on the process of spiritual formation in each.

Imagine for a moment...that you can forget almost everything you've ever read, ever heard, ever been taught about preaching. Somehow, everything is new; nothing is impossible. Imagine if----with the Holy Spirit's working----missional communities could be formed, vibrant stories would be told and retold for generations, in new and ever vivid manners of communication. emergentYS author and pastor Doug Pagitt offers an invitation to the kind of preaching that 'creates followers of God who serve the world well and live the invitation to the rhythm of God.' He introduces you to an approach to engaging with the Bible with a focus on three questions: * What kind of communities are we forming? (Sociology) * What story are we telling? (Theology) * How can we tell it more effectively? (Communication) These questions are engaged through the introduction of Progressional Implicatory Preaching. This insightful combination of both theory and practical advice will open the floodgates of your imagination to once again dream big dreams for your church. Envision Preaching beyond speechmaking as an agent in the creation of Christian communities and take a hopeful look toward new approaches to encouraging the spiritual formation of your church body. Includes study/discussion questions.

Imagining the Small Church: Celebrating a Simpler Path bears witness to what God is doing in small churches. Steve Willis tells stories from the small churches he has pastored in rural, town, and urban settings and dares to imagine that their way of being has something to teach all churches in this time of change in the American Christian Church. Willis tells us in the introduction, 'This book boasts no ten or fifteen steps to a successful small church. Instead, I hope to encourage you to give up on steps altogether and even to give up on success, at least how success is usually measured. I also hope to help the reader imagine the small church differently; to see with new eyes the joys and pleasures of living small and sustainably.' The joys and sorrows Willis helps us see through the compelling stories of faith in the small church puts flesh and bones on the possibilities that lie ahead for congregations in the future as well as the here and now. From the foreword by Tony Pappas: 'In Imagining the Small Church, pastor, writer, and lover of small things Steve Willis takes us on a narrative and imaginative journey. Some readers will have a sense that what Willis is describing simply names what they have already known in their hearts about their small churches. For them the journey will cover some familiar ground, explore some territory from a fresh angle, but deposit them nearly home again, hopefully with just a bit more awareness and appreciation. For others, though, Willis will take them on a long journey to a far and foreign place. They probably won't bother to finish reading it, and they will miss his invitation to find pastoring a small church extremely rewarding and meaningful. They will find this a strange book weird, off-center, and impractical; unlivable in the twenty-first century and undesirable in any event. This is because Willis is taking on the ethos, the values of our age, and claiming that it needn't be so. We can live on a different basis. We can live on the basis of gospel values.' There will be a variety of paths as the Church seeks new ways of being in this time. Willis knows this. In Imagining the Small Church he presents us with one that embraces a life of faith on the periphery and challenges church leaders to do the same.

Religion is often seen as a conservative force in contemporary Africa. In particular, Christian beliefs and actors are usually depicted as driving the opposition to homosexuality and LGBTI rights in African societies. This book nuances that picture, by drawing attention to discourses emerging in Africa itself that engage with religion, specifically Christianity, in progressive and innovative ways--in support of sexual diversity and the quest for justice for LGBTI people. The authors show not only that African Christian traditions harbor strong potential for countering conservative anti-LGBTI dynamics; but also that this potential has already begun to be realized, by various thinkers, activists and movements across the continent. Their ten case studies document how leading African writers are reimagining Christian thought; how several Christian-inspired groups are transforming religious practice; and how African cultural production creatively appropriates Christian beliefs and symbols. In short, the book explores Christianity as a major resource for a liberating imagination and politics of sexuality and social justice in Africa today. Foregrounding African agency and progressive religious thought, this highly original intervention counterbalances our knowledge of secular approaches to LGBTI rights in Africa, and powerfully decolonizes queer theory, theology and politics.

Author Frank Viola gives readers language for all they knew was missing in their modern church experience. He believes that many of today's congregations have shifted from God's original intent for the church. As a prominent leader of the house church movement, Frank is at the forefront of a revolution sweeping through the body of Christ. A change that is challenging the spiritual status quo and redefining the very nature of church. A movement inspired by the divine design for authenticity community. A fresh concept rooted in ancient history and in God Himself. Join Frank as he shares God's original intent for the church, where the body of Christ is an organic, living, breathing organism. A church that is free of convention, formed by spiritual intimacy, and unbound by four walls.

This text is a comprehensive introduction to mission and ministry in the contemporary Church which enables students to prepare for ministry in a changing church within a changing world.