How Can Deacons Mobilize Service in the Church? Deacons are essential to a church's health—yet confusion abounds regarding their biblical job description. What's their God-given role in a local congregation and how do they relate to the church's overall mission? In this short book, Matt Smethurst makes the case that deacons are model servants called to meet tangible needs, organize and mobilize acts of service, preserve the unity of the flock, and support the ministry of the elders. Clearing away common misconceptions, Smethurst offers practical guidance for deploying deacons and helping churches to flourish.

How should a church be organized? What functions do the pastors, deacons, and congregation serve? How does a congregation biblically address problems? The authors answer these important questions and many more. As fellow servants in the same church, the authors have collaborated in the writing of this book.

A godly deacon is a great asset to the work of God. His servant leadership benefits the entire church family, and his support and care for the pastor is invaluable. The Ministry of a Baptist Deacon is written for local church deacons who desire to invest themselves in the work of God and give themselves to the service of God's people. It is designed as a handbook to equip deacons as servant leaders. This two-part manual scripturally defines the office and responsibilities of a deacon as well as providing practical helps for local church ministry. This book also includes several appendices with sample forms, financial procedures, and a sample church constitution.

This book lays out an application-intensive approach to seeking out and developing qualified church leaders. Thoughtful analysis of key passages in Acts and 1 Timothy are balanced with practical action points in a contemporary context.

Is the Black Church dying? The picture is mixed and there are many challenges. The church needs spiritual revival. But reviving and strengthening the Black Church will require great wisdom and courage. Reviving the Black Church calls us back to another time, borrowing the wisdom of earlier faithful Christians. But more importantly, it calls us back to the Bible itself. For there we find the divine wisdom needed to see all quarters of the Black Church live again, thriving in the Spirit of God. It’s pastor and church planter Thabiti Anyabwile's humble prayer that this book might be useful to pastors and faithful lay members in reviving at least some quarters of the Black Church, and churches of every ethnicity and context— all for the glory of God.

An updated examination of ecclesiology from a Baptist perspective In this useful book, professor and former pastor John Hammett helps church leaders think through foundational questions about the nature of the church. Blending biblical teaching and practical ministry experience, Hammett presents a comprehensive ecclesiology from a historic Baptist perspective, examining crucial contemporary issues such as church discipline, the role of elders, and church ministry in a post-Christian culture. This second edition contains updates throughout, including: · Substantive changes to chapters on the nature of the church, Baptist church polity, and deacons · An expanded chapter on baptism and the Lord’s Supper · A thoroughly revised chapter on church models like multisite churches and missional churches · A brand-new chapter on meaningful church membership