Disappearing Church

Author: Mark Sayers
Publisher: Moody Publishers
ISBN: 0802493467
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Book Description
When church and culture look the same... For the many Christians eager to prove we can be both holy and cool, cultural pressures are too much. We either compartmentalize our faith or drift from it altogether—into a world that’s so alluring. Have you wondered lately: Why does the Western church look so much like the world? Why are so many of my friends leaving the faith? How can we get back to our roots? Disappearing Church will help you sort through concerns like these, guiding you in a thoughtful, faithful, and hopeful response. Weaving together art, history, and theology, pastor and cultural observer Mark Sayers reminds us that real growth happens when the church embraces its countercultural witness, not when it blends in. It’s like Jesus said long ago, “If the salt loses its saltiness, it is no longer good for anything…”

Disappearing Church

Author: Mark Sayers
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780802413352
Category : Christianity
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Why our churches are shrinking: "In the discomfort between orthodox Christian faith and twenty-first century western dogma, we are tempted to do what it takes to make the pressure go away, to acquiesce on the beliefs that grate against contemporary sensibilities. For Christians raised under the ethic of relevance--the desire to prove believers can be both holy and cool--the pressure is too much. Some compartmentalize their beliefs into an orthodox/secularist mashup; others simply disappear into the ghostly embrace of secularity." - Mark Sayers Disappearing Church is a direct answer to the most pressing question facing church leaders today: How do we make disciples who stay the course? Full of real stories and actionable insights, Disappearing Church is a guide for disciple-making in a highly secularized society. God will grow His church and protect its purity, but He will use us to do it. Are you up for the challenge?

Strange Days

Author: Mark Sayers
Publisher: Moody Publishers
ISBN: 0802495788
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 219

Book Description
What in the world is going on? These days the world has everyone spinning. Weekly terrorist attacks. The refugee crisis. Transgender bathrooms. Academic safe spaces. Tensions with Russia. A perpetually uncertain economy. The list goes on. It’s enough to make us crazy… or want to put our heads in the sand. But we can’t, because these are our times, and we must face them. So what many Christians are looking for is someone to communicate a way forward—someone who both understands culture and trusts the Bible. Mark Sayers is such a leader, one who “writes from the future.” He is a gifted cultural analysist who combines his biblical knowledge, curious mind, and pastoral heart to offer a guide to the times. Strange Days will help Christians slow down, get their bearings, and follow God with wisdom and tact in this wild world. “Take heart, for I have overcome the world,” Jesus said nearly 2,000 years ago. And that’s the message of Strange Days, the message the church needs today.

Already Gone

Author: Ken Ham
Publisher: New Leaf Publishing Group
ISBN: 0890515298
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 190

Book Description
NATIONWIDE POLLS AND DENOMINATIONAL REPORTS ARE SHOWING THAT THE NEXT GENERATION IS CALLING IT QUITS ON THE TRADITIONAL CHURCH.

Why Men Hate Going to Church

Author: David Murrow
Publisher: HarperChristian + ORM
ISBN: 0849949815
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
“Church is boring.” “It’s irrelevant.” “It’s full of hypocrites.” You’ve heard the excuses—now learn the real reasons men and boys are fleeing churches of every kind, all over the world, and what we can do about it. Women comprise more than 60% of the adults in a typical worship service in America. Some overseas congregations report ten women for every man in attendance. Men are less likely to lead, volunteer, and give in the church. They pray less, share their faith less, and read the Bible less. In Why Men Hate Going to Church, David Murrow identifies the barriers keeping many men from going to church, explains why it’s so hard to motivate the men who do attend, and also takes you inside several fast-growing congregations that are winning the hearts of men and boys. In this completely revised, reorganized, and rewritten edition of the classic book, with more than 70 percent new content, explore topics like: The increase and decrease in male church attendance during the past 500 years Why Christian churches are more feminine even though men are often still the leaders The difference between the type of God men and women like to worship The lack of volunteering and ministry opportunities for men The benefits men get from attending church regularly Men need the church but, more importantly, the church needs men. The presence of enthusiastic men is one of the surest predictors of church health, growth, giving, and expansion. Why Men Hate Going to Church does not call men back to church—it calls the church back to men.

The Unstuck Church

Author: Tony Morgan
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
ISBN: 0718094476
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Book Description
Acclaimed church leader, blogger, founder and chief strategic officer of The Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan unpacks the lifecycle of a typical church, identifies characteristics of each phase, and provides practical next steps a church can take to move towards sustained health. Think about your church for a moment. Is it growing? Is it diminishing? Is it somewhere in between? Acclaimed church leader, blogger, and founder and chief strategic officer of The Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan has identified the seven stages of a church's lifecycle that range from the hopeful and optimistic days of launch, to the stagnating last stages of life support. Regardless of the stage in which you find your church, it carries with it the world's greatest mission—to "go and make disciples of all the nations . . ." With eternity at stake the Church should be doing most everything within its power to see lives changed forever. The Church should strive for the pinnacle of the lifecycle, where they are continually making new disciples and experiencing what Morgan refers to as "sustained health." In The Unstuck Church, Morgan unpacks each phase of the church lifecycle, and offers specific and strategic next steps the church leader can take to find it's way to sustained health . . . and finally become unstuck. The Unstuck Church is a call for honest an assessment of where your church sits on the lifecycle, and a challenge to move beyond it.

The Road Trip that Changed the World

Author: Mark Sayers
Publisher: Moody Publishers
ISBN: 0802479391
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 278

Book Description
Can’t find no satisfaction? There’s no shortage of prescriptions for restlessness out there: Seek adventure. Live your life. Don’t hold back. Sound familiar? The Road Trip that Changed the World is a book challenging the contemporary conviction that personal freedom and self-fulfillment are the highest good. Like the characters in a Jack Kerouac novel, we’ve dirtied the dream of white picket fences with exhaust fumes. The new dream is the open road—and freedom. Yet we still desire the solace of faith. We like the concept of the sacred, but unwittingly subscribe to secularized, westernized spirituality. We’re convinced that there is a deeper plot to this thing called life, yet watered-down, therapeutic forms of religion are all we choose to swallow, and our personal story trumps any larger narrative. This is the non-committal culture of the road. Though driving on freely, we have forgotten where we’re headed. Jesus said His road is narrow. He wasn’t some aimless nomad. He had more than just a half tank of gas—He had passion, objectives, and a destination. Do you?

That Was The Church That Was

Author: Andrew Brown
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472921658
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Book Description
The unexpectedly entertaining story of how the Church of England lost its place at the centre of English public life - now updated with new material by the authors including comments on the book's controversial first publication. The Church of England still seemed an essential part of Englishness, and even of the British state, when Mrs Thatcher was elected in 1979. The decades which followed saw a seismic shift in the foundations of the C of E, leading to the loss of more than half its members and much of its influence. In England today 'religion' has become a toxic brand, and Anglicanism something done by other people. How did this happen? Is there any way back? This 'relentlessly honest' and surprisingly entertaining book tells the dramatic and contentious story of the disappearance of the Church of England from the centre of public life. The authors – religious correspondent Andrew Brown and academic Linda Woodhead – watched this closely, one from the inside and one from the outside. That Was the Church, That Was shows what happened and explains why.

The Disappearing People

Author: Stephen M. Rasche
Publisher: Bombardier Books
ISBN: 1642932043
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 185

Book Description
For 1,400 years, the Christians of the Mideast lived under a system of sustained persecution as a distinct lower class of citizens under their Muslim rulers. Despite this systemic oppression, Christianity maintained a tenuous—even sometimes prosperous—foothold in the land of its birthplace up until the past several decades. Yet today, Christianity stands on the brink of extinction in much of the Mideast. How did this happen? What role did Western foreign policy and international aid policy play? What of the role of Islam and the Christians themselves? How should history judge what happened to Christians of the Mideast and what lessons can be learned? This book examines these questions based on the firsthand accounts of those who are living it.

Facing Leviathan

Author: Mark Sayers
Publisher: Moody Publishers
ISBN: 0802489818
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Book Description
There are two styles of leadership at war in the world. On one side the mechanical leader casts a vision of heroic action aided by pragmatism, reason, technology, and power. On the other side the organic leader strives to bring forth creativity, defying convention, and relishing life in culture’s margins. This leadership battle is at the heart of our contemporary culture, but it is also an ancient battle. It is the reinvocation of two great heresies, one rooted in an attempt to reach for godlikeness, the other bowing before the sea monster of the chaotic deep. Today’s leader must answer many challenging questions including: What does it mean to lead in a cultural storm? How do I battle the darkness in my own heart? Is there such a thing as a perfect leader? Weaving a history of leadership through the Enlightenment, Romanticism, tumultuous 19th-century Paris, and eventually World War II, cultural commentator Mark Sayers brings history and theology together to warn of the dangers yet to come, calling us to choose a better way.