Effective churches understand the need for effective families. We know you're concerned with the state of family today. What if you could turn your church into a powerful family of families? Now you can! This comprehensive guide recognizes that each church and its families are unique. So it provides you a variety of clear and practical tips on . . . - Building strong family foundations - Enriching family ministries - Connecting families to other families Â- both inside and outside the church - Building a happier, healthier, and more effective church

In this book, I help parents navigate local church life through the ordinary means of grace in preaching, singing, praying, fellowship, and even in the hardships and trials.Tour Guides of Everlasting JoyParents are tour guides at the gates of everlasting joy. Don't miss the treasures. As a great tour guide, you need to help your children see the opportunities there. Help them experience the beautiful things God has in store for families who prioritize gathering with the redeemed in local churches. What is in store is better than what your children could gain from their sports or hobbies or camping.Give your children 10,000 reasons to believe that Jesus Christ is the only Savior, and His Word is the sole authority. Do it now. Do it through full engagement in local church life.Local churches offer dozens of opportunities to orient your family around the knowledge of the graces of the Lord Jesus Christ.The earlier you get going on this, the sweeter life will be. Now is the time to strengthen your family and your church. Table of Contents:The Onramp to This BookA Family Field GuideThe Power of Church and Family LifeTwenty Days to Transform Your Local Church ExperienceA Vision of HopeChapter 1, Tour Guides for Everlasting JoyChapter 2, Your Golden OpportunityChapter 3, The Church Needs Strong Families Chapter 4, Love the Church Chapter 5, Show Them the TreasuresChapter 6, Joined and Knit TogetherChapter 7, Face to Face RelationshipsChapter 8, The Day of RestChapter 9, Delightful CelebrationChapter 10, The Family Together in ChurchChapter 11, Keeping Children in Worship ServicesChapter 12, Distracted Children Chapter 13, Fellowship of Gladness and Sincerity of HeartChapter 14, Joyful SingingChapter 15, Teaching Children to SingChapter 16, Listening to SermonsChapter 17, Applying Sermons Chapter 18, Prayer MeetingsChapter 19, The Ordinances of the Lord's Supper and BaptismChapter 20, At the Gates of Everlasting Joy

A study of the early Christian church in the Mediterranean region and its emphasis on collective good over individual desire clarifies much about what is wrong with the American church today.

This book is essentially bound as a Wire-O bound journal, with a hardback cover wrapping around the entire book, even the spine. This keeps the book in good shape for a long time, and also provides for optimum usablility. The One True God is a unique kind of workbook, intending not just to teach truth but to lead to an encounter with the living God. Beneath that goal the book aims to ground believers in orthodox Christian theology and the actual contents of the Bible. Students are encouraged to thoughtfully draw conclusions from the Scriptures rather than to merely absorb the principles, inferences, and illustrations set before them by theauthor. For this reason the book does not include such material and instead focuses on digesting the Scriptures directly. Through God's own words and under various systematic headings the book unfolds the nature of God. In this way the reader is set on a firm foundation and will readily perceive the centrality and high authority of biblical doctrine within the Christian life. It is the author's conviction that the study of doctrine is both an intellectual and devotional discipline. Therefore students are guided throughout the study to think through and apply the truths they learn, meditating on the demands of Scripture for their heart and mind. The book puts us squarely in the middle of the material and demands we give searching thought to how we will live before such a God. This workbook is especially suited for the following contexts: (1) doctrinal training for new converts; (2) college and adult group Bible studies; (3) private study; (4) Christian or home school curriculum; (5) Sunday school material; (6) an aid to parents in teaching the Word of God to their children.

Teens and emerging adults don't feel at home in the church because they are not fully included in the church body. How can congregations nurture young adults, welcome them as siblings into God's household, and empower them to become fully embedded contributors within and to their faith community? Integrating the latest research on adolescent faith and young adult ministry for the local church, this book presents a new way of thinking about youth ministry. Chap Clark offers today's youth leaders highly practical principles based on his extensive experience, showing how they can implement a sustainable youth ministry program in their local church. He presents the adoptive youth ministry model as a way to help congregations see youth ministry as a bridge to inclusion, participation, and contribution in the body of Christ. Clark's comprehensive plan for designing and implementing youth ministry shows churches how to intentionally welcome young people and create an environment where they belong.