This book is a comprehensive guide to competent Spirit-led ministry in the 21st century. Written from a Pentecostal/Charismatic perspective, it focuses on four important aspects of effective ministry - preaching, teaching, healing, and leading. Beginning with biblical definitions of ministry, the book describes the challenges presented by the 21st century in light of the long history of Christian ministry, and it offers biblically sound advice to address these challenges. The role of the Holy Spirit in ministry is examined in detail. The bulk of the book is devoted to the theory (theology) and practice of competent, Spirit-led ministry. This book is a call to excellence in ministry as well sa a guide to empowered preaching, teaching, healing, and leading.

This book is a comprehensive guide and a one-volume handbook on Spirit-led ministry in the twenty-first century. Written for ministry students, seasoned pastors, and anyone dealing with a sense of calling, this is an inspiring read on Spirit-empowered ministry that expresses itself in word and deed through preaching, teaching, healing, and leadership. In these pages, a pastor, chaplain, and seminary professor who has trained people for ministry in multiple nations addresses the most important aspects of effective Christian ministry. Read this book to encounter biblically sound and theologically balanced information and transformational instruction. Discern, discover, or reaffirm a call to ministry, seek the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, and develop excellence in contemporary ministry.

In our postmodern, experience-oriented culture, people are longing for greater authenticity, integrity, and depth in their pastors and leaders. Board directors, church members, and staff alike are all eagerly seeking leaders who effectively integrate their spirituality and leadership. Pastors and executives, however, often struggle with knowing how to integrate their spiritual values and practices into their leadership and management roles. Designed for pastors, executives, administrators, managers, coordinators, and all who see themselves as leaders and who want to fulfill their God-given purpose, The Spirit-Led Leader addresses the critical fusion of spiritual life and leadership for those who not only want to see results, but who also desire to care just as deeply about who they are and how they lead as they do about what they produce and accomplish. Geoffrion creates a new vision for spiritual leadership as partly an art, partly a result of careful planning, and always a working of the grace of God

Our Life is Love describes the transformational spiritual journey of the first Quakers, who turned to the Light of Christ within and allowed it to be their guide. Many Friends today use different language, but are still called to make the same journey. In our time people seeking deeper access to the profound teachings of Christianity want more than just beliefs, they want direct experience. Focusing on ten elements of the spiritual journey, this book is a guide to a Spirit-filled life that affects this world. Quakers in the seventeenth century and today provide examples of people and communities living in the midst of the world whose radical understanding of Christ's teachings led them to become powerful agents of social change. The book offers a simple, clear explanation of the spiritual journey that is suitable not only for Quakers, but for all Christians, and for seekers wanting to better understand our spiritual experience and the fullness of God's call to us. The book would make an excellent focus for study groups. Marcelle Martin has led workshops at retreat centers and Quaker meetings across the United States. She served for four years as the resident Quaker Studies teacher at Pendle Hill and was a core teacher in the School of the Spirit program, The Way of Ministry. She is the author of the Pendle Hill pamphlets Invitation to a Deeper Communion and Holding One Another in the Light. In 2013 she was the Mullen Writing Fellow at Earlham School of Religion while working on this book.

The world loves to place labels on people-even on followers of Christ. It's difficult to see yourself as God sees you. But Thomson K. Mathew has created a three-dimensional model of Holy Spirit-empowered Christian identity that allows believers to remain whole in a broken world. Part 1, "Discovering Your Identity in God's Family," discusses the importance of your identity as a child of God, a disciple of Jesus, a citizen of God's kingdom, and a person made whole through faith. Part 2, "Discovering Your Purpose in God's Call," discusses your calling as a hope-filled healer, believer, worshipper, leader, missionary, and prophet. Part 3, "Discovering Your Power in God's Spirit," dives into your position as the temple of the Holy Spirit, your gifts and blessings, and your place among God's living saints. Mathew ends his book with a call to action focusing on your God-given anointing and empowerment through the Holy Spirit to fulfill your specific purpose on Earth. God wants you to know who you are in Him. Mathew's prayer is that you'll begin to see your own beauty and purpose so that you may walk in the knowledge that you are a powerful child of God!

Small group resources tend to overlook the spiritual side of small group leadership. And yet most would agree that spiritual preparation is the most important aspect of leading a small group. Only God’s supernatural power can draw people to the truth and liberate them to be all that God wants them to be. Only through the Spirit’s power can we expect to see the miracles that Jesus talked about when He said that if we would abide in Him, we would bear much fruit and even do greater works than He did while He was on earth. The key distinction of this book is the spiritual perspective it gives to small group ministry. So much of the literature about small groups relates to small group technique and only touches briefly on the Spirit’s power. This book is a practical reference guide to help small group leadership begin to move in the supernatural realm. The book’s first priority is to help small group leaders and members trust the Holy Spirit to lead them, empower them and work in their group. Small group facilitators often sense a lack of guidance, power and spiritual authority. Jesus knew His disciples would be powerless without a touch from the Holy Spirit, and so He told them to wait in Jerusalem, saying, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Small group leaders need a power boost to make small group ministry relevant and exciting. The second priority of this book is to help the facilitator identify and mobilize each small group member to use his or her own spiritual gifts. Small group facilitators often feel ill-prepared to identify spiritual gifts of the people in the group. I firmly believe that the small group atmosphere is the perfect place to develop the gifts of the Spirit in each member’s life, and so it is essential that the facilitator know how to do this. Whatever denominational or non-denominational label a church wears, the most important characteristic, in my opinion, is promoting individual sensitivity, devotion and dependence on the Holy Spirit. In a Holy Spirit-charged atmosphere, cell leaders are best raised up and members are encouraged to minister in their giftedness. This book has been written for those who are leading (facilitating) a small group, participating in a small group or considering joining a small group. Group members should read this book for two particular reasons: First, members make a significant contribution to the life of the cell. Each member will be intimately involved in causing supernatural events to happen—using the gifts, intercession, etc. In the life of the group, no one is to sit back and do nothing. The best cell leaders, in fact, rarely “lead” the entire cell, instead encouraging cell members to participate actively. Second, members are the next in line to actually lead the small group. I am assuming that the readers of this book are believers who desire God and are seeking to walk in the Spirit. I am also assuming that those reading this book are studying the Bible and growing in their relationships with the Lord. There are many great books dedicated to defining each spiritual gift in detail. Many other authors cover gifts beyond the scope of this book, such as voluntary poverty, hospitality, celibacy, missions, exorcism, martyrdom, artistic creativity, craftsmanship and music. Rather than cover every possible gift, this book will focus on how the Spirit uses gifts in the small group context and guides the leader to facilitate a Spirit-filled group. Because this book is written to lay leadership rather than senior leaders of the Church, I will not cover in detail the five-fold offices that Paul mentioned in Ephesians 4.8 Instead, the gifts I will cover in this book are explicitly listed in Scripture (the one exception is intercessory prayer, which I call a spiritual gift although some would disagree).

Who decides what your church (local or denominational) will look like twenty-five or thirty years from now? How can you ensure that your church will continue to fulfill its God-given purpose in the next generation? What can be done now to reverse negative trends in ministry such as pastoral burnout? Much of the answer to these questions about pastors and other local church leaders is tied to the training they receive. Training Spirit-Filled Local Church Leaders for the Twenty-First Century encourages all stakeholders in ministry training—educators, pastors and other local church leaders, church members, and those who sense God is calling them to ministry—to prayerfully consider the foundational issues that determine the effectiveness and relevance of a ministry training program. These foundational issues are: •What is the local church, really? •What is spiritual leadership? •What is ministry training? •What is the role of the Holy Spirit in all this? •What did effective training look like in the past, and what might it look like in the twenty-first century?

This guide will prepare you to teach the transformational content of the book Spiritual Identity and Spirit-Empowered Life in a class or lead and facilitate learning in a small group in a church, parachurch organization, market place, or institution of higher learning. This volume will provide for each lesson the following important elements: 1) specific lesson goals, 2) icebreaker ideas, 3) main points of the lesson, 4) discussion questions, and 5) recommended prayer focus. Including the introductory session, this "course" contains 16 sessions. In some situations, you may offer shorter "courses" with selected chapters/sessions. A class or group that processes these vital lessons can expect to experience transformation at the individual and community levels. You and your group can look forward to an exciting spiritual journey and a time of joyful celebration.

What if the Supernatural Became Normal and Natural in Your Life? How would your world change if you regularly experienced the miraculous? And what if this happened everywhere you went-in a way that attracted people to Jesus? It wouldn't just make a difference in your world; it would make the world different. It might sound too good to be true...but that's the Spirit Contemporary life. While working as a first responder in an ambulance, Leon Fontaine longed to see God's power at work outside the four walls of a church. He learned through many life-changing experiences that we can all unlock the miraculous in a way that works anywhere-at home, in a hospital, at work--with anyone! The Spirit Contemporary way of life involves communicating with others as Jesus would: using their language, stories, and settings. Leon draws on biblical truth and personal stories to reveal how this dynamic first-century faith can be yours when you live so in tune with God that you're guided in ways that are both natural and supernatural. "In a world seeking an authentic, transparent, and genuine touch of God, Leon equips us with a Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered, Bible-based, kingdom prescription." --Samuel Rodriguez, president, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, author of Be Light "When 'Spirit' and 'Contemporary' are synergized, phenomenal outcomes will happen in the church...I believe this valuable resource will help the church go to higher levels of impact and influence in the years ahead." -- Dr. Elmer L. Towns, co-Founder of Liberty University “The Spirit Contemporary Life is a grace-based approach to moving in the gifts of the spirit. You will be greatly blessed by it. --Joseph Prince, senior pastor, New Creation Church