Church Talk Makes Men Walk

The mystery of the missing men can be answered in one sentence: The church has forgotten how to speak to men. While the church's language has excluded women in its use of nouns and pronouns, it has excluded men in everything else. Its content, character, and construction say, "You don't belong here." Church Talk Makes Men Walk: - Corrects the myth that men are innately non-religious or non-spiritual; - Demonstrates how the culture increasingly reflected in church talk has filtered action-oriented people out of the church in favor of relationally orientated ones; - Demonstrates that the same factors that have driven most men from the church have also driven like-minded women away; - Provides research-based and theologically informed solutions to the problem of the missing action-oriented men and women. Chapters presenting well-documented social science research alternate with chapters presenting practical steps that answer the question, "So what should the church do?" Written in a conversational, humorous, and sometimes confessional style, Church Talk bridges the gap between the academy and the local church. It shows how language that is inclusive of both women and men, relational and action-oriented, can create a church that is once again gender-balanced and missional.

The mystery of the missing men can be answered in one sentence: The church has forgotten how to speak to men. While the church’s language has excluded women in its use of nouns and pronouns, it has excluded men in everything else. Its content, character, and construction say, “You don’t belong here.” Church Talk Makes Men Walk: • Corrects the myth that men are innately non-religious or non-spiritual; • Demonstrates how the culture increasingly reflected in church talk has filtered action-oriented people out of the church in favor of relationally orientated ones; • Demonstrates that the same factors that have driven most men from the church have also driven like-minded women away; • Provides research-based and theologically informed solutions to the problem of the missing action-oriented men and women. Chapters presenting well-documented social science research alternate with chapters presenting practical steps that answer the question, “So what should the church do?” Written in a conversational, humorous, and sometimes confessional style, Church Talk bridges the gap between the academy and the local church. It shows how language that is inclusive of both women and men, relational and action-oriented, can create a church that is once again gender-balanced and missional.

Have we over complicated, over systematized, and over formalized making disciples? When our hearts are changed by Christ, it’s natural that we should want to help others come to know Him too. And while Scripture clearly sets forth how to do so, modern Western society has formalized, professionalized, and systemized disciplemaking to a point that it seems too complicated to practice. What happened to the simple, heart-to-heart ministries of the New Testament? In Walk with Me, you’ll return to the essential biblical practices that help people grow as Christ-followers in simple, slow, and deep ways. Learn how you can connect with your neighbors, coworkers, or anyone you want to reach with the gospel in ways that are relational and Spirit-led. You’ll learn five kingdom principles that will reshape how you can pass on the faith: In heart-to-heart ways By keeping it simple By going slow By building deep By living on mission

A New York Times Notable Book A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2012 A bold approach to understanding the American evangelical experience from an anthropological and psychological perspective by one of the country's most prominent anthropologists. Through a series of intimate, illuminating interviews with various members of the Vineyard, an evangelical church with hundreds of congregations across the country, Tanya Luhrmann leaps into the heart of evangelical faith. Combined with scientific research that studies the effect that intensely practiced prayer can have on the mind, When God Talks Back examines how normal, sensible people—from college students to accountants to housewives, all functioning perfectly well within our society—can attest to having the signs and wonders of the supernatural become as quotidian and as ordinary as laundry. Astute, sensitive, and extraordinarily measured in its approach to the interface between science and religion, Luhrmann's book is sure to generate as much conversation as it will praise.

We live in an age of skepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it’s easy to wonder: Why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives? In this thoughtful and inspiring new book, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller invites skeptics to consider that Christianity is more relevant now than ever. As human beings, we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice, and hope. Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet these needs. Written for both the ardent believer and the skeptic, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.

"Starting a new organization is risky business. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, most startups fail; half of them do not reach the five-year mark. Protestant churches are not immune to these trends. Most new churches are not established with denominational support-more than 50% are actually non-denominational-and, therefore, have many of the same vulnerabilities other infant organizations must overcome. Research on both congregants and congregations has shown that millions of Americans are leaving churches, half of all churches do not add any new members, and thousands of churches shutter their doors each year. These numbers suggest that American religion is not a growth industry. Yet, more than 1000 new churches are started in any given year. What are the forces that move people who might otherwise be satisfied working for churches to the more risky role of starting one as a religion entrepreneur? In Church Planters, sociologist Richard Pitt uses more than 125 in-depth interviews with church planters to understand their motivations. First, he uncovers themes in their sometimes miraculous, sometimes mundane answers to the question: "why take on these risks?" Then he examines how they approach three common entrepreneurial challenges-recognizing opportunities, marshalling resources, and framing success-in ways that reduce uncertainty and lead them to believe they will be successful. The book combines their evocative stories with insights from research on commercial and social entrepreneurship to explain how these religion entrepreneurs come to believe their organizational goals must be accomplished, that they are capable of being accomplished, and that they would accomplish them over time"--

“A perceptive and practical book about why our calendars so rarely reflect our priorities and what we can do to regain control.”—ADAM GRANT “Carey’s book will help you reorganize your life. And then you can share a copy with someone you care about.”—SETH GODIN You deserve to stop living at an unsustainable pace. An influential podcaster and thought leader shows you how. Overwhelmed. Overcommitted. Overworked. That’s the false script an inordinate number of people adopt to be successful. Does this sound familiar: ● Slammed is normal. ● Distractions are everywhere. ● Life gets reduced to going through the motions. Tired of living that way? At Your Best gives you the strategies you need to win at work and at home by living in a way today that will help you thrive tomorrow. Influential podcast host and thought leader Carey Nieuwhof understands the challenges of constant pressure. After a season of burnout almost took him out, he discovered how to get time, energy, and priorities working in his favor. This approach freed up more than one thousand productive hours a year for him and can do the same for you. At Your Best will help you ● replace chronic exhaustion with deep productivity ● break the pattern of overpromising and never accomplishing enough ● clarify what matters most by restructuring your day ● master the art of saying no, without losing friends or influence ● discover why vacations and sabbaticals don’t really solve your problems ● develop a personalized plan to recapture each day so you can break free from the trap of endless to-dos Start thriving at work and at home as you discover how to be at your best.

Making use of the formerly secret archives of the Soviet government, interviews, and first-hand personal experiences, Nathaniel Davis describes how the Russian Orthodox Church hung on the brink of institutional extinction twice in the past sixty-five years. In 1939, only a few score widely scattered priests were still functioning openly. Ironically, Hitler's invasion and Stalin's reaction to it rescued the church -- and parishes reopened, new clergy and bishops were consecrated, a patriarch was elected, and seminaries and convents were reinstituted. However, after Stalin's death, Khrushchev resumed the onslaught against religion. Davis reveals that the erosion of church strength between 1948 and 1988 was greater than previously known and it was none too soon when the Soviet government changed policy in anticipation of the millennium of Russia's conversion to Christianity. More recently, the collapse of communism has created a mixture of dizzying opportunity and daunting trouble for Russian Orthodoxy. The newly revised and updated edition addresses the tumultuous events of recent years, including schisms in Ukraine, Estonia, and Moldova, and confrontations between church traditionalists, conservatives and reformers. The author also covers battles against Greek-Catholics, Roman Catholics, Protestant evangelists, and pagans in the south and east, the canonization of the last Czar, the church's financial crisis, and hard data on the slowing Russian orthodox recovery and growth. Institutional rebuilding and moral leadership now beckon between promise and possibility.