Journeying Toward Renewal

“Time to reflect. Time. This is what clergy renewal is about. To continue in ‘the heat of work’ our whole career is to rob ourselves and our congregations of the time we and they need to reflect on our lives and our call. Here is where change begins.” - Melisa Bane Sevier “Melissa Bane Sevier – fresh from (and refreshed by) a much-needed sabbatical – offers personal testimony, practical advice, and an array of helpful resources that will inspire and empower pastors to seek and then to drink deeply of a time apart. This is a moving statement from and on behalf of our hard-working clergy, written for them but also for those who care about their well-being and that of the congregations they serve.” - Dorothy C. Bass - Author, Receiving the Day: Christian Practices for Opening the Gift of Time “Vital congregational ministry depends on the leadership of pastors, priests, and rabbis whose hearts sing with vision, creativity, faith, competence, and passion. In Journeying toward Renewal Melissa Sevier uses her pastoral sensitivity to tell her own renewal story and the stories of those who have been lead in the planning and practice of renewal leave by the question “What will make my heart sing – again?” Whether you’re planning an extended time of renewal leave, or just trying to bring regular sabbath time back into your days and weeks, this book will be a trustworthy guide.” - Richard Bruesehoff - Director for Leadership Support, ELCA - Co-author of Clergy Renewal: The Alban Guide to Pastoral Sabbaticals

Planned time away from the parish for study, rest, and spiritual renewal can be beneficial-and often necessary-for any pastor, as well as for the congregation. In this thoroughly revised and expanded edition of Alban's popular Sabbatical Planning for Clergy and Congregations, Bullock and Bruesehoff provide the definitive guide to putting together refreshing pastoral sabbaticals that can help keep ministry vital and growing for the long term

Sabbaticals are becoming increasingly common practice in congregations, and while there are many books on helping pastors prepare for their time away, there are no texts that approach the experience with the congregation in mind, from start to finish. This guide for congregations and their pastors draws on nearly two decades of wisdom from the Lily Endowment Clergy Renewal Program and helps draw the conversation away from a pastor-centric model and towards a holistic congregational framework for thinking about how the entire community can benefit from a pastor’s sabbatical.

Evangelical theology in the twentieth century often wrestled with the ideas of Prof. Clark H. Pinnock of McMaster University. To understand the tensions of Pinnock's work is to grasp the diversity of theological options now confronting evangelicalism and to glimpse the future of evangelical theology.This biblical conservative has interacted constructively with the whole Christian community -- Evangelicalism, Pentecostalism, Wesleyanism, Process Theology, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Roman Catholicism. Described as a theologian who has prayed his head into his heart, Dr. Pinnock is not ashamed to say that he has changed his mind on theological issues several times. He insists that Christian theology is best done on one's knees.

What are the lies you believe every day? Perhaps you're not even aware of them! The battle for our everyday freedom begins in the mind - the realm of our thinking. Learning to replace old thoughts with new thoughts and false thoughts with true thoughts can lift away the heaviest of burdens and help you experience the abundant life God offers. On this 40-day devotional journey, you'll discover what it means to "be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2) in these seven key areas of life: Faith, Failure, Family, Friends, Foes, Finances and the Future. How badly do you want to be free from the things that bind you up emotionally and behaviorally? Why wait another day when you can begin experiencing freedom right now?

Take a journey together with others from your local church--a road trip that will help you rediscover your true mission. This newly revised and updated edition of Roadmap to Renewal will serve as a vital resource enabling you to reconnect to your mission area. Use the step-by-step process in a small group to come up with a Ministry Action Plan for your community of faith. Know your community. Know your mission. Know your strengths and challenges. Know where you are going. Reach people with the good news of Jesus Christ!

Forty-day program for spiritual renewal assists readers in discovering potential for an inner transformation that will make them sensitive and malleable to God's shaping hand.