Occasionally, we will recommend books that have helped us along the way. We hope these books challenge and inspire you too.
- 10 Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe
Author: Larry Osborne
People don't set out to build their faith upon myths and spiritual urban legends. But somehow such falsehoods keep showing up in the way that many Christians think about life and God. These goofy ideas and beliefs are assumed by millions to be rock-solid truth . . . until life proves they're not. The sad result is often a spiritual disaster-confusion, feelings of betrayal, a distrust of Scripture, loss of faith, anger toward both the church and God.
- A Work of Heart : Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders
Author: Reggie McNeal
Leadership is less about technique or motivation than it is about the leader's own heart, suggests McNeal in this careful and readable book. Through brief studies of the lives of Moses, David, Paul and Jesus, McNeal elucidates six factors in the shaping of a leader's heart.
- Boundaries
Author: Henry Cloud
Having clear boundaries is essential to a healthy, balanced lifestyle. A boundary is a personal property line that marks those things for which we are responsible. In other words, boundaries define who we are and who we are not. Boundaries impact all areas of our lives: Physical boundaries help us determine who may touch us, mental boundaries give us the freedom to have our own thoughts, emotional boundaries help us to deal with our own emotions and spiritual boundaries help us to distinguish God's will from our own.
- Chuck Smith: A Memoir Of Grace
Author: Chuck Smith, Jr.
In times of trouble, trial, pain or loss, we often can't see the value in what we're experiencing. We don't realize what God is doing, or why He has allowed us to struggle. But there comes a day when we look back over the road map of our lives and we understand, finally. We see the dots laid out along the path, and the events God permitted in order to move us to our destination. I am pleased to invite you to pull up a chair and listen as my Pastor Chuck tells the story of his life. This book is presented to you with the prayer that what you read will help you see how God's grace is at work in your own life. Everything you have experienced in the past, everything you're going through now, and everything that awaits you on the path ahead is all part of God's plan. His will for you is perfect, and He knows just how to prepare you for your life's purpose. Everything is preparation for something else.
- Courage
Author: Gordon Brown
Prime Minister Gordon Brown explores the lives of eight outstanding twentieth-century figures, in order to better understand courage. These eight heroes are very different people, with very different strengths and frailties, but all share an extraordinary and inspirational courage that Brown celebrates in these fascinating and moving portraits.
- Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God
Author: Dallas Willard
How do we hear Gods voice? How can we be sure that what we think we hear is not our own subconscious? What if what God says to us is not clear?
Being close to God means communicating with him, and this communication is a two-way street; telling him what is on our hearts in prayer and hearing and understanding what he is saying to us. It is this second half of our conversation with God that is so important but can also be so difficult. How can you be sure God is speaking to you? The key is to focus not so much on individual actions and decisions as on building our personal relationship with our Creator. Hearing God is but one dimension of a richly interactive relationship, and obtaining guidance is but one facet of hearing God.
- How Good Is Good Enough?
Author: Andy Stanley
Surely there's more than one way to get to heaven? Bestselling author Andy Stanley addresses this popular belief held even among Christians. But believing that all good people go to heaven raises major problems, Stanley reveals. Is goodness not rewarded, then? Is Christianity not fair? Maybe not, he says. Readers will find out why Jesus taught that goodness is not even a requirement to enter heaven - and why Christianity is beyond fair. Andy Stanley leads believers and skeptics alike to a grateful awareness of God's enormous grace and mercy.
- If God Disappears
Author: David Sandord
Virtually everyone has--or will--face crises of life and faith. These pivotal times are part of everyone's spiritual journey. Why then do some people emerge from the crisis with their faith intact while others give up on God, the church, and holy living? If God Disappears comes alongside the Christian who is spiritually drifting--or is on the verge--or knows someone who is considering leaving God and the church behind--and compassionately empowers them to re-embrace their faith. David Sanford shares nine "faith wreckers" and nine "faith builders" to help us better understand which circumstances and attitudes undermine our faith and which ones draw us closer to God.
- Just Walk Across The Room
Author: Bill Hybels
Believers universally affirm that evangelism is a vital part of what God calls them to do, but very few make a practice of doing it. They feel awkward and ill-equipped, either because they've never been trained, or because their lack of interaction with non - Christians prevents them from using and developing the skills they do have. Bill Hybels addresses these concerns and signals the next era in personal evangelism with Just Walk Across the Room. Drawing on fresh perspectives from the author's own experiences, as well as time-tested and practical illustrations, Just Walk Across the Room encourages and equips readers to routinely initiate spiritual conversations with those who don't know Christ.
- Knowing God
Author: J.I. Packer
A lifelong pursuit of knowing God should embody the Christian's existence. According to eminent theologian J.I. Packer, however, Christians have become enchanted by modern skepticism and have joined the "gigantic conspiracy of misdirection" by failing to put first things first. Knowing God aims to redirect our attention to the simple, deep truth that to know God is to love His Word.
- Letters From A Skeptic
Author: Greg Boyd
Edward Boyd's agnosticism rested "not ... too much on any positive position ... but rather on a host of negative ones" about Christianity. In an attempt to address these negative issues, his son Greg, a professor of theology, asked his father, a strong-willed, highly intelligent, and stubborn 70-year-old, to enter into a correspondence in which "all of their cards would be laid on the table." Greg would give his father the opportunity to raise all his objections to the veracity of Christianity, and Greg would "answer these objections as well as give positive grounds for holding to the Christian faith."
- Money, Possessions and Eternity
Author: Randy Alcorn
What does the Bible really say about money? Alcorn provides a Christian perspective about money and material possessions based on his painstaking study of the Bible. He uses the Scriptures to approach this often touchy subject head-on. Thought-provoking arguments challenge readers to rethink their attitudes and use their God-given resources in ways that will have an eternal impact. Alcorn deals straightforwardly with issues of materialism, stewardship, prosperity theology, debt, and more.
- Night
Author: Elie Wiesel
Night is Elie Wiesels masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elies wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the authors original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie Wiesel reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forget mans capacity for inhumanity to man.
- One Month To Live
Author: Kerry & Chris Shook
With eye-opening insights and soul-inspiring truths, One Month to Live challenges readers to embrace the life God has entrusted to them and to live it out moment by moment with wholehearted authenticity, honesty and integrity.
Each of One Month to Live's 30 chapters - one for every day in a life-changing month - offers fresh strategies for overcoming habits that mire Christians in mediocrity.
- Screwtape Letters
Author: C.S. Lewis
Who among us has never wondered if there might not really be a tempter sitting on our shoulders or dogging our steps? C.S. Lewis dispels all doubts. In The Screwtape Letters, one of his bestselling works, we are made privy to the instructional correspondence between a senior demon, Screwtape, and his wannabe diabolical nephew Wormwood. As mentor, Screwtape coaches Wormwood in the finer points, tempting his "patient" away from God.
- The Case For Christ
Author: Lee Strobel
Using the dramatic scenario of an investigative journalist pursuing his story and leads, Lee Strobel uses his experience as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune to interview experts about the evidence for Christ from the fields of science, philosophy, and history. Winner of the Gold Medallion Book Award and twice nominated for the Christian Book of the Year Award.
- The Complete Book Of Discipleship
Author: Bill Hull
This book is the definitive A-to-Z resource on discipleship for every Christian. It pulls together into one convenient, comprehensive volume relevant topics such as spiritual growth, transformation, spiritual disciplines, and discipleship in the local church and beyond. Best of all, it's produced by The Navigators, the internationally respected organization with more than seventy years of practical discipleship ministry experience. Well organized, fully indexed, and readily accessible, The Complete Book of Discipleship will help you gain a wealth of insight from experts in the field, whether by reading it cover to cover or by finding immediate answers to specific questions.
- The Divine Mentor
Author: Wayne Cordeiro
Do You Have a Sacred Enclosure Around the Roots of Your Soul? Think about what you deal with daily. Maybe you suffer the wear and tear of long commutes and even longer work days. Or you find yourself juggling endless e-mails, phone calls, and text messages.
Noise. Chatter. Crowds. Politics. Talk radio. Television. Bills. Worries. Responsibilities. Deadlines. Endless chores. Demanding children. Relational bruises.Life wears on us. We can't evade most of it, and that's not really the solution anyway. What we need to do is protect the most important part of us ... that deep down, soulish part of life that links us with our Creator.
- The Life You've Always Wanted
Author: John Ortberg
The heart of Christianity is transformation - a relationship with God that impacts not just our "spiritual lives," but every aspect of living. John Ortberg calls readers back to the dynamic heartbeat of Christianity - God's power to bring change and growth - and reveals both the how and why of transformation.
- The Rise Of Christianity
Author: Rodney Stark
Sociologist Rodney Stark focuses on how a tiny messianic movement on the edge of the Roman Empire became the dominant faith of the Western world. The author's experience and erudition, gained through his previous sociological explorations into why people convert and how religious groups recruit members, enable him to parse the historical evidence in new ways. The result is an account of early Christianity that is as vivid as it is unconventional, one that demonstrates the similarity between Christianity's pattern of growth and those of contemporary religious movements.
- Too Busy Not To Pray
Author: Bill Hybels
A 1989 Campus Life Award of Merit winner! Most of us have trouble finding time to pray. There's church and school and neighborhood and job and friends and recreation. And then the crises hit! Time for prayer seems an impossible luxury. As a pastor, Bill Hybels knows hundreds of people with schedules like this. Yet in his own life he has made the hard discovery that prayer doesn't happen on the run. He decided he was too busy not to pray. In this revised and expanded 10th anniversary edition, he includes new insights from his years of ministry and his own spiritual journey. He shows how to slow down to pray, listen to God, respond to what we hear, practice the presence of God and overcome prayer barriers. His fun and practical book offers the resources we need for growing, ongoing experiences in prayer.
- What's So Amazing About Grace?
Author: Philip Yancy
What is grace? If grace is God's love for the undeserving, then what does it look like in action? If Christians are its sole dispensers, how are we doing at lavishing grace on a world that knows far more of cruelty and unforgiveness than it does of mercy? Yancey offers compelling, true portraits of grace's life-changing power. He searches for its presence in his own life and in the church. He challenges us to become living answers to a world that desperately wants to know What's So Amazing About Grace?
