People are leaving the church J.D. Greear pastors. Big givers. Key volunteers. Some of his best leaders and friends. And that’s exactly how he wants it to be. When Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commission, he revealed that the key for reaching the world with the gospel is found in sending, not gathering. Though many churches focus time and energy on attracting people and counting numbers, the real mission of the church isn’t how many people you can gather. It’s about training up disciples and then sending them out. The true measure of success for a church should be its sending capacity, not its seating capacity. But there is a cost to this. To see ministry multiply, we must release the seeds God has placed in our hands. And to do that, we must ask ourselves whether we are concerned more with building our kingdom or God’s. In Gaining By Losing, J.D. Greear unpacks ten plumb lines that you can use to reorient your church’s priorities around God’s mission to reach a lost world. The good news is that you don’t need to choose between gathering or sending. Effective churches can, and must, do both.

The evangelical church is recognizing the need to reach out to their neighbors and the world abroad. In Gaining By Losing, J.D. Greear unpacks ten kingdom principles that you can use to reorient your church's priorities around God's mission to reach a lost world.

Valerie Bertinelli, then: bubbly sitcom star and America's Sweetheart turned tabloid headline and rock star wife. Now: actress, single working mother of teenage rock star, and weight-loss inspiration to millions. We all knew and loved Valerie Bertinelli years ago when she played girl-next-door cutie Barbara Cooper in the hit TV show One Day at a Time, and then starred in numerous TV movies. From wholesome primetime in America's living rooms, Valerie moved to late nights with the hardest-partying band of the decadent eighties when she became, at twenty, wife to rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen. Losing It is Valerie's frank account of her life backstage and in the spotlight. Here are the ups and downs of teen stardom, of her complicated marriage to a brilliant, tormented musical genius, and of her very public struggle with her weight. Surprising, uplifting, and empowering, Losing It takes you behind the scenes of Valerie's acting career and marriage, recalling the comforts, friendships, and problems of her television family, her close relationships with her parents and brothers, the stress and worries of being the wife of a rock star, and the joys of motherhood. Like many women, Valerie often remembers the state of her life by the food she ate and the numbers on her scale. So despite her celebrity, Valerie's voice is so down-to-earth, honest, and appealing that you'll feel as if you're talking with a girlfriend over coffee. Funny and candid, Valerie recounts her attempts to maintain a healthy self-image while dealing with social pressures to look and act a certain way, and to overcome career insecurities and relationship problems, all of which will be familiar to the hundreds of thousands of women who struggle every day with these same issues. From marital turmoil to the joys of a new career, from being named among Penthouse's ten sexiest women in the world to overhearing whispers about her weight gain in the grocery store, this is Valerie's inspiring journey as she finds new love, raises a terrific kid, and motivates other women as a spokesperson for Jenny Craig.

“If there were a Guinness Book of World Records entry for ‘amount of times having prayed the sinner’s prayer,’ I’m pretty sure I’d be a top contender,” says pastor and author J. D. Greear. He struggled for many years to gain an assurance of salvation and eventually learned he was not alone. “Lack of assurance” is epidemic among evangelical Christians. In Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart, J. D. shows that faulty ways of present- ing the gospel are a leading source of the confusion. Our presentations may not be heretical, but they are sometimes misleading. The idea of “asking Jesus into your heart” or “giving your life to Jesus” often gives false assurance to those who are not saved—and keeps those who genuinely are saved from fully embracing that reality. Greear unpacks the doctrine of assurance, showing that salvation is a posture we take to the promise of God in Christ, a posture that begins at a certain point and is maintained for the rest of our lives. He also answers the tough questions about assurance: What exactly is faith? What is repentance? Why are there so many warnings that seem to imply we can lose our salvation? Such issues are handled with respect to the theological rigors they require, but Greear never loses his pastoral sensitivity or a communication technique that makes this message teachable to a wide audience from teens to adults.

Evelyn Christenson's book "Gaining Through Losing" can help you understand how God can turn your most traumatic setbacks into gains. Discover how such setbacks as death, separation, divorce, sickness, suffering, and financial loss can be used by God to make you spiritually richer. This book has touched countless readers with the comfort, encouragement, and hope that only the truth of God's word can bring. It is 12 chapters making it perfect for a bible study or Sunday school class.

"This collection of thirty-one essays by contemporary teachers of Tibetan Buddhism, both Western teachers and Tibetan lamas, provides readers a multifaceted glimpse of the Buddhist practice within the Dzogchen tradition, from its biggest authorities. Sogyal Rinpoche, the author of the bestselling Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, is the primary contributor, contributing seven of the teachings included here, but the collection also includes teachings from the Dalai Lama, Ringu Tulku, Francesca Fremantle, Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, Dzogchen Pönlop Rinpoche, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, and many others. From basic advice on turning the mind toward spiritual concerns through expressions of the highest insights on mind and reality, readers will discover how to integrate Buddhist ideas and practices with the activities and experiences that make up our day-to-day lives. "

Drawing from the lessons and insights of his breakout website, Fit2Fat2Fit.com, personal trainer Drew Manning delivers the story of his quest to go from fit to fat to fit again in one year in order to better understand the weight-loss struggles of his clients and the online community. Drew embarked on this journey to prove to clients, website followers, and people across the country that it is possible to get back into shape—and his bottomless desire to kindle a new hope for his readers comes through on every page of Fit2Fat2Fit. With before and after (and after...) photos to that tell their own striking story, and intimate reflections from Drew’s wife Lynn, Fit2Fat2Fit is more than a spectacle or a gimmick; it’s an inspiring story, and sound proof that anyone can reach the level of fitness they desire to make themselves happy.