Did you see the way that guy acted at that meeting? I cant believe someone would act that way in church! If you have ever heard, or perhaps thought or said, something like this, Listening To Your Sheep is for you. Based on more than ten years of research, Listening To Your Sheep uses the common Biblical image of the people of God as sheep to describe the major types of people who are bound to be in every congregation. Not only does Dr. Wayne Perry describe the sheep and how they are likely to respond in common situations in a congregation, he also gives concrete advice the leaders of the congregation can use to work more effectively with these sheep. The book begins with some necessary background on listening skills and on the rules by which all human systems, from families to congregations to multinational organizations, operate. With this foundation in place, each succeeding chapters describes a particular kind of sheep which will be found in every religious body. Listening is indeed key to diagnosing each type of sheep. As the author points out, to diagnose actually means to listen thoroughly. Dr. Perry shows how to listen to the words and the actions of the people in the congregation to understand what type of sheep you are working with. Each chapter also shows what happens when this type of sheep become a shepherd, that is, when the sheep becomes a leader of the body. The results are often fascinating. All the more so because the practical suggestions Dr. Perry provides are based on research into and observations of many different religious groups. You are sure to hear someone you know in this book.

"In the Footsteps of Sheep details the completion of a mission the author, a Welsh-born Scot, set for herself: to travel and camp throughout Scotland, find cast off tufts of wool from 10 Scottish sheep breeds, then spin the wool on her spinning stick while walking (or waiting for ferries), and finally design and knit one pair of socks to represent each breed ... all the while writing about her adventures and taking plenty of photographs. Debbie has written beautifully about her journey; the hills, shorelines, and bogs explored; the sheep and people she met along the way; weather both foul and fair, and a particularly exciting chapter about the intriguing St. Kilda archipelago and its feral Soay and Boreray sheep. The eleven sock patterns, one at the end of each chapter, are a bonus and, for those of us unable to gather and spin our own fleece, all were test-knitted with commercial wool. The designs are knitted from top to toe with different motifs, among them color-patterns, cables, spirals, stripes, Kilt Hose with top-turnovers, and a pair of baby booties."--Provided from Amazon.com.

How do you practice real conversation with God? How can you make your experience of God 's presence part of everyday life? In this six-session LifeGuide® Bible Study, Jan Johnson covers the disciplines of prayer and of practicing God's presence. Going deeper in these areas will help you to draw closer to God in everything you do.

From watching Mom shepherd, shear, spin, and knit, a little girl finds out just how her sweater is made.

The hugely admired author of "The Last Fine Time" preserves and makes new the sights, smells, sounds, and poetry of country living. Klinkenborg reveals the beauty of the American landscape, not from a scenic overlook, but through a screened-in porch or from the window of a pickup driving down an empty highway in the teeth of an approaching storm.

A groundbreaking manifesto about what our nation’s top schools should be—but aren’t—providing: “The ex-Yale professor effectively skewers elite colleges, their brainy but soulless students (those ‘sheep’), pushy parents, and admissions mayhem” (People). As a professor at Yale, William Deresiewicz saw something that troubled him deeply. His students, some of the nation’s brightest minds, were adrift when it came to the big questions: how to think critically and creatively and how to find a sense of purpose. Now he argues that elite colleges are turning out conformists without a compass. Excellent Sheep takes a sharp look at the high-pressure conveyor belt that begins with parents and counselors who demand perfect grades and culminates in the skewed applications Deresiewicz saw firsthand as a member of Yale’s admissions committee. As schools shift focus from the humanities to “practical” subjects like economics, students are losing the ability to think independently. It is essential, says Deresiewicz, that college be a time for self-discovery when students can establish their own values and measures of success in order to forge their own paths. He features quotes from real students and graduates he has corresponded with over the years, candidly exposing where the system is broken and offering clear solutions on how to fix it. “Excellent Sheep is likely to make…a lasting mark….He takes aim at just about the entirety of upper-middle-class life in America….Mr. Deresiewicz’s book is packed full of what he wants more of in American life: passionate weirdness” (The New York Times).

The NIV is the world's best-selling modern translation, with over 150 million copies in print since its first full publication in 1978. This highly accurate and smooth-reading version of the Bible in modern English has the largest library of printed and electronic support material of any modern translation.

A story about many different sheep, and one that seems to be missing.

Jesus promised that his sheep would hear and know his voice, but what does his voice sound like? How does he speak to his people today? How can the contemporary church embrace prophetic ministry in a way that will both resource discipleship and empower mission? Prophecy did not die out with the early church and remains a vitally important gift, bearing much fruit in the lives of disciples if well taught, responsibly handled, and ministered with love. There is a great need in the church today for a healthy, holistic and biblical prophetic ministry that will equip God's people to become more radical followers of Jesus and engage more effectively in the world around them. This is a book for all those who seek a mature and outward-looking expression of prophetic ministry. It provides a way forward for everyone who desires to hear God's voice with clarity, as well as bringing greater understanding of the role that prophets play today.