Books about Pastors from Amazon.com

Award-winning reporter and author Lee Strobel (The Case for Christ) once again uses his investigative skills to address the primary objections to Christianity As a former atheist, Strobel understands the rational resistance to faith. He even names the eight most convincing arguments against Christian faith:

1) If there's a loving God, why does this pain-wracked world groan under so much suffering and evil?
2) If the miracles of God contradict science, then how can any rational person believe that they're true?
3) If God is morally pure, how can he sanction the slaughter of innocent children as the Old Testament says he did?
4) If God cares about the people he created, how could he consign so many of them to an eternity of torture in hell just because they didn't believe the right things about him?
5) If Jesus is the only way to heaven, then what about the millions of people who have never heard of him?
6) If God really created the universe, why does the evidence of science compel so many to conclude that the unguided process of evolution accounts for life?
7) If God is the ultimate overseer of the church, why has it been rife with hypocrisy and brutality throughout the ages?
8) If I'm still plagued by doubts, then is it still possible to be a Christian?

These are mighty tough questions, and Strobel fields them well. Rather than write a weighty dissertation about the merits of faith, he brings us along on his quest as we meet leaders in the Christian community, such as Peter Kreeft and William Lane Craig. We also encounter his everyday friends and acquaintances that serendipitously fill in the holes in each of the eight arguments against faith. The use of dialogue from personal interviews and a scene-by-scene active narrative makes this an easy and engaging read. However, easy does not mean breezy. This is a book of substance and merit, one that will help Christians defend their faith, especially during the hardest of times, when they have to defend their faith to themselves in moments of doubt. --Gail Hudson.
Price: $4.49 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The Pastor's Wife

Most men barely survive one mother, but Terrance Ellis has three -- his aunts. His grandmother Essie's sisters -- Eva, Dorothy Mae, and Mamie -- lovingly raised him after Essie died in a tragic accident. They made sure that troubled young Terrance got on the right path and made something of his life. And now that he's all grown up and the rising pastor of Houston's Lily Grove church, the endlessly argumentative sisters agree on one thing: Terrance needs to find a wife. And not just any wife -- but the right young woman to stand beside him as First Lady of Lily Grove at the fast-approaching one-hundredth-year Christmas service.

Humble and handsome, Terrance is focused on preaching more than dating and has kindly fended off the advances of more than a few perfectly available ladies. So why, of all women, is outrageous, flirtatious Savannah McKinney drawing him in? Seeing Terrance falling under her seductive spell has got his aunts frantically matchmaking since time is running out and gossip is flying. Who will be the pastor's wife? Only heaven knows for sure...and before he finds her, some surprising and dramatic revelations are in store for Terrance, his congregation, and the three aunts who love him most in the world..
Price: $8.15 [Notify me when price goes down.]

LEADING FROM THE SECOND CHAIR will raise awareness of the need for strong leaders in secondary positions. It will describe the value they can bring to their organization and to primary leaders when they are serving at their full potential. It will reshape the way they view their role, with an emphasis on their own responsibility as leaders. It recognizes the unique challenges and frustrations of serving in a subordinate position and equips these leaders with the attitudes and skills that they will need to survive and thrive in this new paradigm.

Because of the scarcity of resources for second chair leaders, particularly those in the church, this book will offer a practical way to improve the performance of any organization. Leading Congregational Change discussed the importance of a "vision community"--a diverse group of key members who discern and implement the vision for a congregation--to guide the transformation of a church. This work will extend the theme of an empowered leadership team as we explore how individual clergy and laity can lead effectively..
Price: $13.12 [Notify me when price goes down.]

How to promote Christian leadership development through the study of the history of Christianity, including discipleship, mentoring, Christian community, and personal relationships.
Price: $10.60 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Reflecting on his more than sixty years of service at All Souls and a worldwide ministry that led Time magazine to acknowledge him as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World," John Stott alerts a church that is in transition to the marks of a church that is living.

The Living Church is the full articulation of Stott's dream for the body of Christ in the world today. To the people of God who inherit the global church he has helped to build for the past sixty years, he bequeaths this calling:

There is such a thing as goodness: pursue it. The postmodern mood is unfriendly to all universal absolutes. Yet the apostle says there is such a thing as truth: fight for it. And there is such a thing as life: lay hold of it. May God enable us to make an unabashed commitment . . . to what is true, what is good and what is real.

Market/Audience

• General readers
• Pastors
• Church leaders

Endorsements

"Gold on every page." RICHARD BEWES, rector emeritus, All Souls Church

"Vintage Stott: . . . challenging contemporary applications with plenty of punch; great wisdom." VAUGHAN ROBERTS, author of God's Big Picture

"A vision for a church whose roots are deeply biblical and whose touch reaches a dying world." AMY ORR-EWING, Zacharias Trust, author of Is the Bible Intolerant?

Features and Benefits

• An in-depth look at Stott's view of the church
• One answer to the question "What is church?"
• Helpful for churchgoers and pastors alike

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Price: $10.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Who would have thought that a how-to manual, a pastor's guide, could be witty, charming and fun? Unbinding Your Church, the Pastor's Guide to the Real Life Evangelism Series, by author, researcher, pastor and attorney Martha Grace Reese, is all that.

It will help you lead your congregation through a year of life-changing and church-changing study of prayer and faith sharing. Based on the a major, four-year study of superb evangelism, funded by the Lilly Endowment, the Real Life Evangelism Series sparkles with life, practicality, and spiritual depth. The Series has been enthusiastically endorsed by eight heads of denominations as well as by professors of evangelism, leading experts, and pastors. Unbinding the Gospel, the basis of the Series, was selected by The Christian Century as a featured "Take and Read" book in its 2007 Book Issue

Church leaders should first study Unbinding the Gospel (the church leaders' study) then use Unbinding Your Heart for the whole congregation. Unbinding Your Church (the pastor's guide) will help you use both books to maximal effect. Be sure to order Church early. It will help you teach and plan effectively from the very beginning. You will spend your time on what matters--praying, teaching, working directly with your people.

Unbinding your Church offers:

Worship resources: Seven engaging, theologically-rich, inspiring sermons you can adapt or adopt; short Bible teaching on texts; children's activities, prayers and complete coordinated music plans from four stellar and diverse church musicians.

Step-by-step planning tools: Advice for pastors, church staff, organizers, small group leaders, prayer group leaders, and leaders of children and youth. Calendars, check-lists, rosters, forms, impact diagrams, invitations, Web site and e-mail ideas will help you organize the E-vent, establish and intercessory prayer group, recruit small group leaders, form new groups and help existing groups commit to the all-congregation study.


See:Unbinding the Gospel (Church Leaders' Study in the RLE Series) and Unbinding Your Heart: 40 Days of Prayer & Faith Sharing (All-Congregational Study in the RLE Series)..
Price: $12.62 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The Dark Side of a Pastor’s Life—A Breath of Fresh Air

Are you tired of pretending? Living walled up? Going only skin deep? Craig Groeschel , pastor of the thriving LifeChurch.tv, sure was. And in his refreshingly raw and real book, he comes clean. Not that he has anything other than typical, human stuff to confess. Check out a few of his musings: I have to work hard to stay sexually pure, I hate prayer meetings, sometimes I doubt God , and I can’t stand a lot of Christians . Through his incredible honesty, he opens the door for you to follow suit. Are you ready to dig deep and let God shine through the genuine you? No more living just to please others. No more hiding. You can be who God called you to be. You can live for an audience of One.

Is the real you getting lost

because the fake you is just so annoyingly

impressive?

“Stepping onto the platform to preach that morning, I admitted to myself that I was not a pastor first, but a regular, scared, insecure, everyday guy whose life had been changed by Jesus. And if Jesus really loved me as I was (I knew He did), then why should I go on trying to be someone I wasn’t?”

Why do we fake it so much? Why do we spend so much time trying to please everyone else and make so little effort trying to please God? When Craig Groeschel asked himself those questions, he couldn’t come up with a good answer. So one day he decided to drop the act and start getting real. With that one choice, his life began to change in a big way. And yours can too. Craig’s passionate, funny, warts-and-all confessions—and the lessons he learned from them—will help you find your own path to authentic living and a deeper relationship with God (you know He’s on to you anyway!).

Story Behind the Book

“For too many years my life had been a show—my lines well rehearsed and every performance polished. By college, I played so many different roles I lost track of the real me. I began to wonder if there was a real me. Exhausted from playing the parts, I finally took off the masks—and met a God who loved me unconditionally. Confessions of a Pastor reveals in graphic detail my inner struggles, questions, doubts, and fears—to inspire others to abandon lives of pretending—and to meet the authentic love of God like never before.” — Craig Groeschel.
Price: $3.48 [Notify me when price goes down.]