You want to help -- a church member faces a terminal illness, good friends of yours just lost their child, a member of your group is struggling with an addiction, the death of a child, divorce, addiction, terminal illness--but you feel unsure how to help. Prepare yourself with practical ways to love others through their greatest challenges. People face difficult, painful stuff in life--and they shouldn't struggle alone. But what do you say? How do you help? What if you make things worse? This rapid-response handbook gives you and your small group the confidence to share God's love and comfort with hurting friends. You will be prepared to respond with 12 chapters focused on twelve emergencies that people you care for may encounter. Each chapter includes: Real Life Narrative -Learn from someone who has been there Care and Counseling Tips -Practical ideas to personally reach out in love Tips for your entire small group -Great ways your group can offer support What to say and What not to say -Positive encouragement to help the hurting, and advice on what not to say You'll also find Scripture connections, guidelines for referring your friend to a professional counselor, additional resources, and ways your group can stand by your friend in need.

This volume considers the current research of group communication scholars, provides an overview of major foci in the discipline, and points toward possible trajectories for future scholarship. It establishes group communication’s central role within research on human behaviour and fosters an identity for group communication researchers.

Meant to aid State & local emergency managers in their efforts to develop & maintain a viable all-hazard emergency operations plan. This guide clarifies the preparedness, response, & short-term recovery planning elements that warrant inclusion in emergency operations plans. It offers the best judgment & recommendations on how to deal with the entire planning process -- from forming a planning team to writing the plan. Specific topics of discussion include: preliminary considerations, the planning process, emergency operations plan format, basic plan content, functional annex content, hazard-unique planning, & linking Federal & State operations.

The Second Edition of The SAGE Handbook of Leadership provides not only an in-depth overview the current field of leadership studies, but also a map into the future debates, innovations and priorities of where the field will move to. Featuring all new chapters from a global community of leading and emerging scholars, each chapter offers a comprehensive, critical overview of an aspect of leadership, a discussion of key debates and research, and a review of the emerging issues in its area. Featuring an innovative structure divided by prepositions, this brand-new edition moves away from essentializing boundaries, and instead seeks to create synergies between different schools of leadership. A key feature of the second edition, is the attention to sensemaking (exploring the current themes, structures and ideas that comprise each topic) and sensebreaking (disrupting, critiquing and refreshing each topic). Suitable for students and researchers alike, this second edition is a critical site of reference for the study of leadership. PART 1: Between: Leadership as a Social, Socio-cognitive and Practical Phenomenon PART 2: About: Exploring the Individual and Interpersonal Facets of Leadership PART 3: Through: Leadership Seen Through Contemporary Frames PART 4: Within: Leadership as a Contextually Bound Phenomenon PART 5: But: A Critical Examination of Leadership

Is your church prepared to respond if natural disaster or human tragedy strikes your community? Jamie Aten and David Boan, codirectors of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute, provide this practical guide for disaster preparedness, filled with resources for emergency planning and crisis management plus best practices for local congregations.

Offering the wisdom of practitioners from the military, law enforcement, fire and rescue, as well as prominent scholars this guide integrates theory and research with practical experience to help the reader prepare for the unique psychological, social, and physical challenges of leading in dangerous contexts. Whether a young soldier preparing for war, seasoned combat commander, SWAT team leader, EMT supervisor, law enforcement patrol unit leader, or fire department lieutenant, those involved in life-and-death situations face common challenges, and the authors draw on their own experiences and that of others to help first responders effectively function in dangerous environments.

This book provides pastors and church leaders with the vision, values, and initial steps necessary to begin building a church where small groups are integrated throughout the entire ministry.