What’s Next for Your Church? In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, church leaders are facing challenges they’ve never encountered. As you scramble to adapt to this fast-changing situation, you must also begin thinking through the months ahead to consider: how will my church recover? The Church Recovery Guide outlines the practical steps you can take to help your church not only survive but also thrive in the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis. Pastor Karl Vaters offers insights from his extensive experience in church ministry to help you think through: - Reconnecting with your congregation - Dealing with the financial repercussions - Encouraging and supporting your staff - Clearly communicating a fresh vision for the future - Reworking your church’s technology and online strategy - Ministering to people feeling isolated and fearful The Church Recovery Guide will provide the direction you need to help your church bounce back to full health and chart a path forward to even greater vitality.

Drawn from the Beatitudes, Celebrate Recovery helps people resolve painful problems in the context of the church as a whole. Rather than setting up an isolated recovery community, it helps participants and their churches come together and discover new levels of care, acceptance, trust, and grace.

You’ve undoubtedly heard the expression “time heals all wounds.” Unfortunately, it isn’t true. As many pastors and counselors know, people still carry hurts from thirty or forty years ago. The truth is, time often makes things worse. Wounds that are left untended fester and spread infection throughout your entire body. Time only extends the pain if the problem isn’t dealt with. Your First Step to Celebrate Recovery introduces you to a biblical and balanced program that has helped nearly a million people overcome their hurts, hang-ups, and habits. Based on the actual words of Jesus found in the Sermon on the Mount rather than psychological theory, the Celebrate Recovery program has helped people for over 20 years to grow toward full Christ-like maturity. Author and founder John Baker tells the true story of how Celebrate Recovery became one of the largest Christ-centered recovery programs in history. Baker will help you discover how God’s love, truth, grace and forgiveness can bring healing into your life.

A recovery program based on eight principles from the Beatitudes.

Now an official resource of the nationwide DivorceCare ministry, this new edition of When the Vow Breaks offers practical advice to Christians regarding the top five felt needs and issues that result from facing divorce: kids, finances, anger, depression, and loneliness. In this sensitive and thorough guide, author/attorney Joseph Warren Kniskern recounts the emotions of his own failed marriage and shares a comprehensive study on what the Bible says about marriage and divorce. More important, he shows how God continues to work in people’s lives to provide hope and encouragement in the aftermath of divorce. Kniskern also provides important insights about how to seek reconciliation, secure proper marriage counseling, find a good attorney, and negotiate settlements and custody issues.

Practical strategies for churches in the new-normal. The author, an award-winning writer/scholar on church leadership, looks at 12 radical changes coming to the American church and suggests now is the time to rethink how we do church. The reader will learn how worship is moving from entertainment to experience, largeness is being replaced by relevance, and how leaders can make the most of online attendance. Bob Whitesel, D.Min., Ph.D. draws from his extensive consulting/coaching practice to suggest growth strategies for churches with aging buildings, overbuilt sanctuaries or underfunded staffs. And he describes emerging church alternatives such as pub churches, café churches, online churches and churches led by bi- or co- vocational pastors. He then introduces biblical foundations that every church can embrace to increase survivability: putting the needs of non-churchgoers first, making small groups your hallmark, practicing passionate prayer and growing learners, rather than growing an audience (Matt. 28:18-20). In the chapter, "St. Paul's Guide to Leading Remotely," Dr. Whitesel explores how to lead God's people in difficult, even remote, times based on Paul's theology and practice in his letters. And, in the chapter on the "eReformation," he describes 10 leadership skills needed to remain relevant in a world where communication is increasingly electronic. And because racial tensions continue to rise, Whitesel, a respected author on multiethnic church growth, offers "7 organic steps to building bridges across racial divides," including: learning about the other's culture, how not to judge by appearance, starting with a biblical model of reconciliation, practicing unity, reevaluating where you spend your money, awakening to your own personal preferences and expecting change in people. The book concludes with a look at the "church of the future." Here Whitesel looks at recurring problems that emerge after catastrophes. He looks at each problem from a biblical perspective and describes what churches can do to increase their future impact.

There is a way the church can help the wounded move beyond their hurts, habits, and hang-ups to experience the forgiveness of Christ. Celebrate Recovery helps the church fulfill its role as Christ's healing agent. You don't have to lead alone. To lead people forward in spiritual, physical, and emotional restoration is to walk in the footsteps of Christ. And that's why the Celebrate Recovery Leader's Guide is so important. With everything you need to encourage lasting life-change, the leader's guide is the best way to facilitate Celebrate Recovery in your church and help people look forward to a whole new future. The Celebrate Recovery Leader's Guide includes: Fresh testimonies A 90-day start-up strategy A clear, easy-to-follow format Step-by-step instructions for each meeting Guide for conducting leader training Teaching notes for the 25 lessons of The Journey Begins (Participant Guides 1-4) Overview of the 25 lessons of The Journey Continues (Participant Guides 5-8) Along with a willing heart, this leader's guide is invaluable for leading men and women forward in complete restoration and transformation through Christ.