When worship is done right, it connects teens with God and each other like nothing else. But it can be difficult for teens to overcome their insecurities and inhibitions to enter God's presence. Now, with Uncommon Worship Experiences, you can invite students to trade their self-doubt for confidence in God's love and acceptance! This comprehensive resource will help you create a culture of worship in your group by fostering an atmosphere of freedom and leading by example. Inside you will find articles and Bible studies that explore every facet of worship - what it is, what it is not, why we do it, how to do it right, and much more. Also included are reproducible planning and evaluation sheets, creative group prayers, biblical meditations and activities, sample worship service plans, a sample camp worship booklet and tons of helpful suggestions for creating a worshipful environment at your next group meeting, Sunday School class, retreat, camp, lock-in or outreach program. With Uncommon Worship Experiences, you will have all the tools you need to enter God's presence and bring your group along! Includes CD-ROM with easy-to-print files of every article and additional responsive readings.

Offering helpful suggestions on how to avoid the common problem of restricting liturgy to words being spoken in the front of the church, "Creating Uncommon Worship" is filled with ideas on how to enrich the liturgy by creating a context of action, movement, and symbolic expression involving the whole assembly.

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.

Spiritual formation is the key to the survival of our faith. According to worship leader Rory Noland, in order to stem the tide of nominal Christianity we need to reclaim our worship services as formative spaces that are substantive and purposeful. Combining discipleship and worship—what Noland calls transforming worship—he offers a vision for worship as spiritual formation.

This practical book by pastor and writer Henry G. Brinton studies the biblical basis for Christian hospitality and how it is practiced in congregations today.

What does it feel like to be loved by a limitless God? God for the Rest of Us will wake you up to the outrageous, extravagant, and sometimes even scandalous love of God for the rest of us—whether you think you are unfit or a misfit, an underdog or overlooked, the least or the lost, the left behind or the left out. Vince Antonucci, a pastor who reaches out to people on the Las Vegas Strip, has seen it all—and more important, he has seen God’s love in action on each and every street corner. Vince is convinced that too many of us underestimate God and the scope of his love. God for the Rest of Us is Vince’s story of how he found God’s breathtaking love at work among the people often forgotten and disdained by this world. Is God for the people who are forgotten and left out? Is He for the guy who betrayed his wife and left his kids? Is He for the doubters? The skeptics? The atheists? The answers to these questions can be found in the lives of people Vince meets. As you read their stories of transformation, you’ll begin to imagine how your life could be changed if you truly believe that you are loved with a perfect love. You’ll catch a glimpse of God—who is greater than your wildest dreams.

“[Philip Gulley’s] vision of Christianity is grounded, gripping, and filled with uncommon sense. He is building bridges instead of boundaries, and such wisdom is surely needed now.” —Richard Rohr, O.F.M, author of Everything Belongs Quaker minister Philip Gulley, author of If Grace Is True and If God Is Love, returns with If the Church Were Christian: a challenging and thought-provoking examination of the author’s vision for today’s church… if Christians truly followed the core values of Jesus Christ. Fans of Shane Claiborne, Rob Bell, and unChristian will find much to discuss in If the Church Were Christian, as will anyone interested in the future of this institution.