Something is wrong. People are going missing, right in front of your eyes! One minute they are staring back at you from their favorite pew, the next Sunday you are looking at an empty spot in that pew. Is there a way to determine ahead of time which members are the likely "religious dropouts"? Often the clues are clearly visible -- but can you recognize them? What's more, do you know what you can do now to keep your "missing members" from drifting away? The secret lies in knowing and understanding the attitudes and belief systems that people hold, because certain sets of attitudes are linked to inactivity. A detailed examination of this distressingly common experience, Solving The Missing Member Puzzle can help you spot potential dropouts in advance, learn the reasons why they become inactive, and counteract the process with a proactive strategy for reaching them while they are still within your grasp. Based on "blind" interviews with individuals from ten different congregations, it reveals the underlying attitudes and belief systems that encourage or discourage dropping out of church. Solving The Missing Member Puzzle is a valuable tool for leaders of any church or organization -- it shows how you can develop more faithful members, and assists in their growth, participation, and retention. Don't wait until people drop out before you take action. Learn ways to anticipate which members of your congregation might become inactive and the preventive measures that you can take to help keep them in the pews. Arlon K. Stubbe is the pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in Sharon, Pennsylvania. He previously served parishes in Michigan. He is also the author of Shaping the Word (LPTC Publishing). He is a graduate of Carthage College and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

Missing Persons is a memoir about dealing with death in a culture that gives no help. As the last of her family, Greene’s losses are stark, first her aunt, then her mother, in quick succession. She is as ill-equipped for the challenges of caring for a dying person at home as she is for the other losses, long repressed, that rise to confront her at this time: the suicide of her younger brother, the death of her father. As the professional identity on which she’s based her selfhood comes to feel brittle and trivial, she is catapulted into questions of “who am I?” and “what have I done with my life?” The memoir is structured as an account of her mother's and aunt’s final days and the year that follows, a year in which she reconstructs her life. This is a powerful story about family, what it means to have one, to lose one, never to have made one, and what, if anything, might take its place. It’s the story of a vexed mother-daughter relationship that mellows with age. It is also a search for home, as the very landscape shifts around her and the vast orchards are dug up and paved over for tract housing, strip malls, freeways, and the Santa Clara Valley, once known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight, is transformed to “Silicon.”

Few Americans remember these days that politics can be funny. But Texas congresswoman Carly Wagner knows this firsthand. She won her first election delivering one-liners about her opponent that made people chuckle so hard they voted her into his seat. She won not only because she could outtalk her rival but also because she wasn't shy about employing her sexy contralto, big baby browns, and the long legs that once got her the crown of Miss Texas. She doesn't apologize for her methods, either---in the Lone Star State, sassy women have always plowed tough ground to get what they want. Although she currently sleeps alone, professionally, Carly knows politics can make strange bedfellows. But when she walks into her office one morning and finds her party's second most powerful man murdered in her office chair, she finds out that politics can also be deadly serious. Someone has to find the culprit before this capital crime kills Carly's prospects for reelection. Resourceful and gutsy, she wants to go it alone, but her party can't take that chance. When they send in the cavalry, she can't believe the kind of man they choose. He's young, yummy, and lethal. He calls himself Mr. Jones, owns toys like Mr. Bond---and acts like Mr. Corleone. He's one of the town's secret weapons of mass destruction---and she wants nothing to do with him. Then she wants to do everything with him. Missing Member is the first in a vastly entertaining new series featuring the crime-solving duo of Congresswoman Carly and the delectable Mr. Jones.

People yearn for a sense of belonging. Congregations become places of belonging when people find ways to make connections, form relationships, and share their personal stories. That's hard to do in the hasty comings and goings around the typical worship service. It's even hard to do in a choir, committee, or ministry group. In Know and Be Known, Brooke Collison looks at the element missing in most group dynamics today: intentionality about relationships. Counselor, educator, and long-time leader and participant in small groups, Collison knows the power of small groups to create meaningful bonds of friendship and support.

​“Truly thrilling. Daniel Levin brilliantly conveys both the menace and the evil of Middle Eastern intrigue, and some victories of human kindness over cruelty and despair.” —Daniel Kahneman, New York Times bestselling author of Thinking, Fast and Slow “In laying bare the raw human toll of the ferocious and cruel Syrian conflict, Proof of Life asks the reader to make a choice between cynicism and compassion.” —Ayaan Hirsi Ali, New York Times bestselling author of Infidel Daniel Levin was at his office when he got a call from an acquaintance with an urgent, cryptic request to meet in Paris. A young man had gone missing in Syria. No government, embassy, or intelligence agency would help. Could he? Would he? So begins a suspenseful, shocking, and at times brutal true story of one man’s search to find a missing person in Syria over twenty tense days. Levin, a lawyer turned armed-conflict negotiator, uses his extensive contacts to chase leads throughout the Middle East, meeting with powerful sheikhs, drug lords, and sex traffickers in his pursuit of the truth. He also discovers remarkable people who retain their essential goodness and spirit in the face of adversity. In Proof of Life, Levin dives deep into a shadowy world where few have access—an underground industry of war where everything is for sale, including arms, drugs, and even people. He offers a fascinating study of how people use leverage to get what they want from one another and where no one does a favor without wanting something in return, whether it’s immediately or years down the road. Proof of Life is a fast-paced thriller wrapped in a memoir, a must-read for anyone interested in power dynamics, international affairs, the Middle East, or our growing number of forever wars.

Provides families with information to better understand how law enforcement and related agencies work to solve missing persons cases.