Children's pastors and ministry leaders consistently point to recruiting and retaining dedicated volunteers as their number-one challenge. How can they keep volunteer workers engaged in ministry that will change people's lives? Larry Fowler, director of program and training for Awana Clubs International, believes that there are seven biblical principles, drawn from the book of Nehemiah, that will help pastors and leaders more effectively motivate and manage volunteers. Rock-Solid Volunteers looks at the obstacles Nehemiah and his volunteer workers faced: fatigue, weakness, loss of vision, peer pressure, and opposition, just for starters! He examines the seven steps Nehemiah took to lead his volunteers to success. Pastors and ministry leaders will be equipped to attract, inspire, and keep talented, committed volunteers, no matter the challenge!

How Do We Measure Success in Our Ministry to Kids? In children's ministry, the essence of what we do is to impact the immeasurable--the heart of a child. While Bible knowledge is highly valuable in this endeavor, knowing Scripture does not automatically translate to changing the heart of a child. Practical application is also desirable, but changing behavior can be done without a heart change. Relating Scripture in such a way that it meets a child where he or she is at is critical, but as an approach, it may fail to build a solid enough foundation to equip children for the challenges that they will face later in life. All three approaches must be synergized to have a greater impact, and all three must be retargeted at the "bull's eye"--the heart of a child. Read this book to discover the seven standards of a rock-solid children's ministry!

Volunteers: How to Get Them, How to Keep Them Your Coaching Guide to Recruiting and Retaining Them For most children’s ministries, attracting new volunteers and getting your existing volunteers to remain is a never-ending task. It is often rooted in inefficient recruiting practices, misunderstood motivational techniques, inadequate training, and high-volunteer turnover. The results: low productivity and poor performance, unhappy volunteers, and endless leadership headaches. Volunteers: How to get Them, How to keep Them offers creative approaches to effectively recruit long-lasting volunteers. And the best part? These powerful principles work! Each is presented in a bite-sized package that allows instant execution. You don’t have to invent any new step-by-step methods, concepts, or buzz words to do it! Just follow some of Ricardo’s practical wisdom keys to building an eager, willing, and fervently driven team.

This book theorizes the roles of optimism in anthropological thinking, research, writing, and practice. It sets out to explore optimism’s origins and implications, its conceptual and practical value, and its capacity to contribute to contemporary anthropological aims. In an era of extensive ecological disruption and social distress, this volume contemplates how an optimistic anthropology can energize the discipline while also contributing to bettering the lives, communities, and environments of those we study. It brings together scholars diverse in background, career stage, and theoretical approach in a collective attempt to comprehend the myriad intersections of anthropology and optimism. The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic have recently underscored the larger, longer-term catastrophes of climate change, ecosystemic collapse, social injustice, and antipathy toward scientific knowledge and those who produce it. In this context, exceedingly few anthropologists feel comfortable observing and documenting passively while their research communities face unrelenting waves of (un)natural disasters. We need to act. But we also need to hope. Discontent with the state of the world and cultural anthropology’s turn to increasingly positive, future-oriented, and engaged work have converged to unleash a courageously optimistic anthropology. This book is a timely springboard for this impactful and emergent approach.

Setting aside the pervasive material bias of science and lifting the obscuring fog of religious sectarianism reveals a surprisingly clear unity of science and religion. The explanations of transcendent phenomena given by saints, sages, and near-death experiencers—miracles, immortality, heaven, God, and transcendent awareness—are fully congruent with scientific discoveries in the fields of relativity, quantum physics, medicine, M-theory, neuroscience, and quantum biology. The Physics of God describes the intersections of science and religion with colorful, easy-to-understand metaphors, making abstruse subjects within both science and religion easily accessible to the layman—no math, no dogma. This intriguing book: Pulls back the curtain on the light-show illusion we call matter. Connects string theory’s hidden brane worlds to religion’s transcendent heavens. Reveals the scientific secret of life and immortality: quantum biology’s startling discovery that the human body is continuously entangled. Demonstrates the miracle-making power of our minds to effect instantaneous physiological changes. Explains how the intelligent observer effect confirms our high spiritual potential. Compelling and concise, The Physics of God will make you believe in the unity of science and religion and eager to experience the personal transcendence that is the promise of both.

Thank you for making the decision to be a volunteer youth worker—you give the gospel a flesh and blood presence and show God’s compassion for students in a way no one else does. Being a youth worker can be exciting, intimidating, fulfilling and challenging, and until now there was no “manual” on how to be a volunteer in a youth ministry. After more than twenty years as a paid youth worker, Jim Hancock left and became a volunteer in a student ministry. That experience taught him things he may never have learned as a youth ministry professional, and now he wants to empower others who are passionate about being volunteer youth workers. Inside this book you’ll find practical help, like: • tips about what to do on the first day • ideas on how to build and develop relationships with students • ways to combat youth “culture shock” • how to prepare students for life after youth group • how to say goodbye when it is time to leave …and many more indispensable insights that will make your experience as a volunteer youth worker valuable and rewarding for you and your students.

Conquering Nonprofit Chaos is a nonprofit leader's guide for dealing with crisis, financial mismangement, urgent fundraising, bad boards, and cultures of negativity and despair. Author Bradley Burck provides readers a valuable reference to help identify and correct poor nonprofit management practices that contribute to chaos and can ultimately lead to crisis.

Sober for thirteen months, Trevor Dison is determined to do the right thing: rebuild his relationship with his family, and help his brother get Rock Solid Construction off the ground. Too bad the first estimate Trevor goes on alone is for an uptight doctor with a superiority complex. A hand injury took away the only important thing in Dr. Simon Malone's life: performing heart surgery. Now he doesn't know who he is. When Trevor and Simon form an unlikely friendship, Trevor starts wondering if maybe Simon's not as straight-- or uptight-- as he thought. They have little in common, yet there's something about each other that they just can't shake.