Divorce and remarriage are major pastoral issues facing every church. Yet when we turn to Scripture for guidance, we often hear conflicting messages about its teachings. David Instone-Brewer shows how the New Testament provides faithful, realistic and wise guidance of crucial importance and practical help for the church today.
Charles Stone's research on thousands of pastors and ministry leaders demonstrates the dangers of approval-motivated leadership. Bringing together biblical insights and neuroscience findings, Stone shows why we fall into people-pleasing patterns and what we can do to overcome these tendencies for more effective ministry.
How do you counsel a couple that is already heading for divorce by the time they seek help? Building on the research presented in their previous book Family Therapies, Mark Yarhouse and James Sells have developed a resource to train pastors and counselors in restoring high conflict relationships.
Everett L. Worthington Jr. offers a comprehensive manual for assisting couples over common rough spots and through serious problems in a manner that is compassionate, effective and brief.
Everett L. Worthington Jr. provides a model for short-term marriage counseling that is biblical, practical and compassionate. Valuable evaluations of five other major approaches (psychoanalytic, systems, behavioral, cognitive and Christian) are included in an appendix.
Counselor and teacher Virginia Todd Holeman weaves together biblical insight and rich theological reflection while drawing from the best of current psychological studies on forgiveness, repentance and reconciling to help couples work towards healing and transformation of broken relationships.
Attract kids to church, the logic often goes, and you get parents in the pews. All that's left is to get the kids out of the way. Here children's ministers David Csinos and Ivy Beckwith draw on research in human development and spiritual formation to show how children become disciples and churches become centers of lifelong discipleship.
Sometimes pastors fear that if people knew who we really are, we'd be disqualified from ministry. Not so, says pastor Mandy Smith. Transparently describing her pastoral journey, Smith shows how vulnerability shapes ministry, unpacking the biblical paradox that God's strength is revealed in our weakness. God has called you to lead just as the human you are.
You want to have vibrant relationships with those who struggle with addiction in your church and community. This practical resource for church leaders and congregations answers your pressing questions about addiction and recovery, through real-life stories, the latest insights from medical science and a biblical framework for how to love the addicts in your midst.
There are some things we just don't talk about. Pastor T. C. Ryan narrates the unsettling story of his lifelong struggle with sexual addiction, one that predated and pervaded his pastoral ministry—one that went on for years in secrecy and isolation. In light of his full experience of exile and healing, Ryan calls the church to a ministry of unsettling grace that is the worthy of the gospel.