What kind of story is your church telling? Ministry experts describe our culture as having "lost its story." Through neglect or rejection, the next generation seems unplugged from the church's core beliefs. For the most part, young people simply do not feel part of the ongoing, communal story. Paradoxically, this has occurred at a time when youth have fully embraced social networks that connect the world in self-obsessed "I" narratives. This world is starving for a story bigger than what you find on Facebook and YouTube. Sarah Arthur emphasizes the importance of story, an intrinsic aspect of the Christian faith but an aspect that is often overlooked in ministry, especially youth ministry. Arthur shows how youth ministry can be planned as a transforming series of story moments instead of programming. She weaves together her personal experiences and insights along with the sociological work on the faith of teenagers from the book Soul Searching by Christian Smith and Melinda Denton. Repeatedly and unapologetically, Arthur stresses the importance of a distinct Christian language for teenagers. If teens can't speak the Christian language, they don't know the Christian story. If they don't know the Christian story, they don't know how Christians are supposed to live. So what's her solution to this narrative deficiency? The idea of youth ministers as bards, or storytellers. Arthur reminds youth ministers that their primary task is to tell the Christian story, to reclaim the imagination as part of spiritual formation, and to reclaim the church as God's ongoing story. This book would be insightful for all ministers, not only those who work with youth. It can help us make a significant shift in the way we think about and approach ministry in the postmodern world.

God has already given you the power to create your own future…you just need to learn how to use it. The Power of God-Given Imagination awakens the dreamer within you by unveiling this incredible gift and explaining its quiet necessity in your life. No faith has ever sprouted and no prayer has ever been prayed without the use of imagination. For too long the power of imagination has been associated with New Age mysticism or the secular realm of “positive thinking.” Ray McCollum defies this trend by demonstrating that the power of the human mind and imagination belongs to the church—and God expects us to use it. Within the pages of this book, you will discover exactly what the power of imagination is, how it works, and how you can use it to both transform your personal life and transform the culture around you by releasing the kingdom of God.

Too often believers pray for healing but never experience it. They pray for prosperity but never receive it. Why? Because they don’t know how to use a godly imagination correctly. They don’t see themselves healed. They don’t see themselves prosperous. They don’t see themselves victorious. In The Power of Imagination...

A good story draws students in, engaging their hearts and minds---leaving them wanting more. God's story is like this...a captivating epic that stretches from the beginning of time, across our lives and into the future...calling us to find ourselves in it. We can help students to be captured by this amazing story, rather than seeing the Bible as confusing, boring or irrelevant. After ten years in youth ministry, Michael Novelli felt like he had tried everything to help his students connect with the Bible. Then, a missionary introduced him to a unique, ancient way to engage people with the Bible through story. Michael learned the art of 'Storying,' a sequential telling of Bible stories followed by a time of creative retelling and in-depth dialogue. God used this process to completely transform his youth group as they found themselves experiencing God in a whole new way. Take a journey into the amazing process of Storying, and discover how it can change your life and ministry. This new approach to learning builds a lasting theological foundation while challenging students to discover their unique identity and calling in God's story. Shaped by the Story helps you understand why Storying connects with students today, and provides all you need to introduce Storying to your group, including sample narratives and an interactive training DVD.

In this companion book, Milton shares insights about storytelling related to themes ranging from mythology and human identity, to social justice, changing from the inside out, tragedy, awe and mystery, hope and promise, and more. But the story is always central; the story is always “the thing.” The videos include key biblical stories about seminal biblical characters – Eden and Eve, Jonah, the prodigal, Mary and Elizabeth, the Ethiopian eunuch, Zacchaeus, Mary of Magdala, Sarah…and more. In The Gift of Story, Milton reflects on what stories mean to humans, “the story-telling animal,” how we can all tell stories to enrich our lives, and to rejoice in the complementary role that stories and the logic of science play. It’s a fun read full of lively, refreshing stories and insights. The Gift of Story picks up where Ralph Milton’s live StoryFest events leave off. Those events – led by gifted musicians, artists, and storytellers Linnea Good, Don McNair, Allison Rennie, Donald Schmidt, as well as Ralph Milton – were designed to provide a spiritual “shot in the arm, focusing on evocative Bible stories and personal faith experiences.”

If one is looking for answers to the meaning of life and how to make a happier, richer existence (e.g., relationships, finances, health), then Nevilles teaching from personal experience, testimonies from students, and his amazing visions paralleling and explaining the mysteries of the Old and New Testament will answer those questions. Learn his techniques, unleash your power to create, believe in your imaginary acts, and no power in this world can stop the desired results from appearing in your world. Its the only creative power, one that everyone is operating moment to moment. Learning how to direct it deliberately is essential to producing loving, positive changes in ones life. These 1963 lectures also begin a nine-year odyssey of discovering the deepest meanings of six visions of the end that had unfolded in Neville (19591963). The visions are the signs that this long journey as limited man; the terrible opacity and contraction is over, that the purpose of human life has been completed; man has endured and overcome six thousand years of amnesia plus the fires of experience and has emerged victorious. Hes been transformed by his inner being (I Am or God) back into the divinity he truly is and always was.

This monumental work is a series of essays on the influential thinkers and ideas in modern times. The author begins with De Sade, who self-consciously broke with any Christian basis for morality and law. Enlightenment thinking began with nature as the only reality, and Christianity was reduced to one option among many. It was then, in turn, attacked as anti-democratic and anti-freedom for its dogmatic assertion of the supernatural. Literary figures such as Shelly, Byron, Whitman, and more are also examined, for the Enlightenment presented both the intellectual and the artist as replacement for the theologian and his church. Ideas, such as "the spirit of the age," truth, reason, Romanticism, persona, and Gnosticism are related to the desire to negate God and Christian ethics. Reading this book will help you understand the need to avoid the syncretistic blending of humanistic philosophy with the Christian faith.

"Most contemporary young people operate far enough from Moses’ moral compass that it never occurs to them that “OMG” (“oh my God,” in teenspeak) has anything to do with the Ten Commandments, much less that it breaks one of them. After all, the phrase is a nearly ubiquitous adolescent throw-away line...Yet Christians should hear the phrase “oh my God” differently. Youth ministers, parents, teachers—anyone who has ever loved an adolescent—know that “OMG” can be a prayer, a plea, a petition, a note of praise, or an unbidden entreaty that escapes our lips as we seek Christ for the young people we love." from the book Using six lens the authors detail current practices and tease out underlying questions as youth ministry becomes more self-consciously aligned with practical theology. Contributors include: Kenda Creasy Dean, Mike Carotta, Roland Martinson, Rodger Nishioka, Don Richter, Dayle Gillespie Rounds, and Amy Scott Vaughn.

We drown ourselves with monotony, possessions, and obligations. However, from Abraham to Jesus, the essence of faith is found in the idea that we are moving, changing, progressing as a people, and if we are faithful to this process, then we will be moving the world toward the Kingdom of God—living a dynamic faith. Holy Nomad is a deeply motivational call for readers to live a radical, relentless, and raw life of faith. Author Matt Litton explains how and why God wants to liberate so we can live a life of absolute freedom and fulfillment. Holy Nomad calls for readers to divest themselves from all the things that hold us back in order to go on this nomadic adventure, that will challenge us and reward us on this rugged road to joy.

Islands of the Emotional and Moral Imagination is for all those who are on a search for inspiration in their life. If one is dwelling in fear, they may choose not to take this new path. When confronted with the unknown, fear can discourage a chance to seek and find courage, truth, and faith, hidden within. Let us take you on a journey to the islands. Step into our currach weaving through the waves. You will find comfort when one of the islands becomes visible through the mist. You will be introduced to our friends as we step off on the islands to explore a wonder of mystery awaiting our curious hearts and minds. We will be delighted with new aesthetic experiences, growing closer in wisdom of the divine imagination. Let us weave the threads from life’s memories into a tapestry of ideas and possibilities. Breathe in and out each memory that surfaces from the deep shadowed regions of your mind, heart, and soul. Feel the toss of your life’s waves, as unexplained storms are remembered, always knowing that an island of hope will appear on your soul’s horizon.