This annual bestselling resource for preachers provides a planned preaching program for an entire year, including Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and midweek sermons as well as helps for special occasions such as weddings, funerals, and youth meetings.

A Storehouse of Practical HelpCountless preachers have turned to the Zondervan Pastor’s Annual to save them time in sermon and service preparation. This tried-and-true resource makes your demanding job as a pastor a lot easier. Use its contents as is, or tailor it to fit your unique approach.The Zondervan 2010 Pastor’s Annual supplies you with: • Morning and Evening Services for Every Sunday of the Year• Sermon Topics and Texts Fully Indexed• Definitive and Usable Sermon Outlines• Devotionals and Bible Studies for Midweek Services• Fresh and Applicable Illustrations• Appropriate Hymn Selections• Special-Day Services for Church and Civil Calendars• Meditations on Lord’s Supper Observance• Wedding Ceremonies and Themes• Funeral Messages and Scriptures• Basic Pastoral Ministry Helps• Messages for Children and Young People• Offertory PrayersBonus CD-ROM included!

Meant to both inspire and inform pastoral leaders, So Much Better examines the impact of peer group participation on pastoral leaders, their families, and ministries. This book goes beyond numbers and data by breathing life into the statistical bones. At this book's heart are seven peer group models including stories and examples from participants, families, and church members. Also featured is information about peer group recruitment, leadership, content, and structure, and practical advice about the cost, sustainability, and evaluation of peer groups. So Much Better can change the way you think about and perform your ministry and lead you to a life that is-- well, so much better. Authors: Penny Long Marler James Bowers Larry Dill Brenda K. Harewood Richard Hester Sheila Kirton-Robbins Marianne LaBarre Janet Maykus D. Bruce Roberts Lis Van Harten Kelli Walker-Jones From The Columbia Partnership (TCP) Leadership Series

The standard resource for teachers of the Uniform Lesson Series. This resource provides 52 weekly step-by-step lesson plans for an entire year's worth of material. Includes: Lesson analysis Bible background, occasional quarterly maps or timelines, and index to background Scriptures Articles for teachers on spiritual formation Eight pages of Bible interpretation and step-by-step lesson plans "Faith in Action" section to suggest ways to put lesson concepts into action The only lesson commentary with popular and easy-to-understand New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) and New International Version (NIV)

This book presents a story of the experiences of being church of the pastors’ wives within the Baptist Convention of Malawi (BACOMA). Formed in 1970 out of the missionary endeavours of the North American-based Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), BACOMA is a voluntary national association of Baptist churches. Molly Longwe‘s book presents a concise picture of African Feminist Theology and to relates it to the lived experiences of pastors‘ wives in the Baptist Convention of Malawi.

The multisite church model has been consistently challenged by those who deem it unbiblical and incompatible with God's design for the local church, but does Scripture support this claim? In Multisite Churches, pastor and church vitalist Dustin Slaton posits that congregational polity is compatible with the multisite model, dismantling critiques with both urgency and care for the local church's future. At a time when church fostering and church adoption are predicted to increase significantly, the multisite church model is a solution that can support the adoption of churches. Bringing in personal experience and erudite research, Slaton heuristically demonstrates a methodological approach of ecclesiology with a theological framework for the multisite model, fairly addressing both critics and supporters. Multisite Churches is a resource for biblical ecclesiology with wide-ranging benefits for both clergy and congregant. Those prayerfully discerning whether they can transition to a multisite church in a biblical way and those who are interested in the topic will benefit from the guidance and insight provided in this timely resource.

In Authoritarian Containment, Marie-Eve Reny examines why local public security bureaus tolerate unregistered Protestant churches in urban China--an officially atheist country where religious practice is controlled by the state--when the central government considers them illegal. She argues that local states tolerate these churches to contain the underground practice of Protestantism. Containment necessitates a bargain between informal religious organizations and the state. Even though they are not regulated, unregistered churches are allowed to operate conditionally, so long as church leaders keep a low profile, share information as needed with local authorities, and agree that the state will not grant them formal institutional recognition. Reny also considers authoritarian regimes other than China that employ a similar strategy to control informal religious communities. She focuses on two Middle East cases-President Sadat's control of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1970s Egypt and the Jordanian monarchy's containment of jihadi Salafists after 2006. By reducing the incentives for local religious leaders to politicize and inducing such leaders to willingly provide inside information, governments can avoid the heavy hand of coercion and forceful co-optation. Based on extensive fieldwork, Authoritarian Containment offers insight into the way authoritarian regimes neutralize underground religious leaders and discourage opposition to the state.