"Drawing from his work as global activist, pastor, and public theologian, McLaren challenges readers to stop worrying, waiting, and indulging in nostalgia, and instead, to embrace the powerful new understandings that are reshaping the church. In [this book], he explores three profound shifts that define the change"--Dust jacket flap.

The study Way of Life will help groups approach and engage the spiritual, theological, and missional proposals in Brian McLaren’s book The Great Spiritual Migration. This participant guide provides an introduction to the main text and can also stand alone with additional commentary and questions. The book also contains new content from Brian McLaren, including personal devotionals written to accompany each section. In The Great Spiritual Migration, Brian McLaren argues that in order to survive, Christianity must shift away from an outdated system of beliefs to a way of life based on love. In order to achieve this, McLaren outlines three migrations: spiritually, Christians focus less on doctrine and more on the abiding life of love made manifest in Jesus; theologically, a new way of reading Scripture shifts away from literalism and toward a more generous, literary approach; and missionally, the new way of life leads to “organizing religion,” rather than organized religion, in which spiritual activists are committed to ecological, economic, and interfaith concerns.

The study Way of Life will help groups approach and engage the spiritual, theological, and missional proposals in Brian McLaren’s book The Great Spiritual Migration. The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the four-week study including session plans and discussion questions, scripture, prayer, opening activities as well as multiple format options.

This participant's guide from Barton, designed for use with the six-session Sacred Rhythms DVD study, provides guidance for groups in a way that links the disciplines of the Christian faith to the most compelling desires of the human soul.

With powerful true stories and specific activities for readers to try, this participant's guide to the inspirational book shows how to live out faith in a way that improves people's lives.

It's said that prayer is so primal an urge for humankind that we're born into the world praying. Yet, something so natural and seemingly so easy comes hard sometimes. The Way of Prayer is a 10-week small-group study about the nature, practice, and results of prayer. "All prayer, formal or informal, is about our relationship with God," the authors write. "Somewhere deep inside us resides the experience of being so deeply connected to God that we long to express the wonder of that relationship. We pray because we can.and must." Honor the ways you were taught to pray while expanding your understanding to include new ways to pray. Topics covered include: How Do You Pray? Images of God Praying by Heart Praying with Music Praying by Gaze Praying with Our Bodies Scriptural Prayer Contemplative Prayer Praying with and for Others Prayer and Social Transformation

You have a story. So does the guy sitting next to you at Starbucks, the lady in the car next to yours at the stoplight, your best friend, your boss. A story of plans that fizzled, people who let you down, or goals that came to nothing. A story of a time you had to turn to Plan B. So, what do you do with a shattered dream? Or an unmet expectation? How do you accept your Plan B when God doesn’t show up the way you thought he would? In his book Plan B, Pete Wilson showed how God often does His best work in our most hopeless situations. In this DVD-based study, Pete shows you how to take the ideas in the Plan B book and appy them to your life. With powerful real-life stories of disappointments and tragedy along with biblical stories and teaching, the Putting Plan B Into Action Participant's Guide will lead you and your small group through the process of discovering the Plan B for your life, accepting your story, and embracing it as your reality. This is your chance to share with and embrace a community of believers to begin a journey of real healing and change.

In the six-session small group Bible study, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, John Ortberg guides you and your group through the spiritual disciplines and teaches you how they can transform your spiritual life. What does true spiritual life really look like? And what keeps you from living it? What can you do to pursue it? If you’re tired of the status quo—if you suspect there’s more to Christianity than what you’ve experienced—John Ortberg invites you to join him on a road to transformation and spiritual vigor that anyone can take. Cultivate new intimacy and confidence in prayer. Discover the freedom of secrecy. Taste the benefits of slowing life’s frenetic pace. Learn how to be guided by the Holy Spirit … and much more. As in a marathon, the secret lies not in trying hard, but in training consistently. Proven by followers of Jesus over the centuries, the spiritual disciplines are exercises that strengthen your endurance race on the road to growth. Sessions include: It’s Morphing Time Slowing Down and Celebrating Praying and Confessing Meditating on Scripture and Seeking Guidance Practicing Servanthood, Finding Freedom Going the Distance with a Well-Ordered Heart Designed for use with The Life You’ve Always Wanted: A DVD Study 9780310810506 (sold separately).

Take the Next Step Perfect for individual or group study The Finding Your Way Back to God companion Participant’s Guide explore the idea that we all want to find our way home – and back to God. The participant’s guide offers Bible investigation, life application questions, and prayer exercises help you take positive action on your desire to find God.

Each congregation has a unique mission field. Several tools for developing disciples and for engaging in discipleship are available to churches; however, the resources assume that the churches using them are similar to the church that created them. With Gospel Discipleship, individuals and churches learn how to engage in self-reflection, which then defines a path that fits their context. The discipleship path for each individual disciple is assessed and determined through the Gospel Discipleship Participant Guide while this Gospel Discipleship Congregation Guide guides the implemntation of the program and assesses the discipleship path for the congregation as a whole. Therefore, the program leader(s) needs the congregation guide while individual particpants need their own participant guide. With Gospel Discipleship, churches can identify a pathway for discipleship applied from one of the four Gospel storytellers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each had a distinct approach to discipleship which can be applied to a given church's identity, vision, and mission. As disciples are encouraged by the church to step beyond the door and engage the needs of people, they can be sent forth confidently with an awareness of personal, unique gifts, and insights into the actual mission field where they participate with God in changing the world.