Stop Preaching And Start Communicating

Stop Preaching and Start Communicating examines the medium of television as a powerful method of communication to consider what we can learn from it as communicators of the most important message the world needs to hear. Tony discusses: knowing your target audience, how to begin and end your message effectively, communicating without notes, the need for one memorable big idea, and how to communicate to transform, rather than simply inform.

Shares uplifting advice about the virtues of forgiveness, offering strategic and biblically based advice on how to achieve peace and personal fulfillment by letting go of past wrongs.

When You Talk, Are People Changed? Whether you speak from the pulpit, podium, or the front of a classroom, you don’t need much more than blank stares and faraway looks to tell you you’re not connecting. Take heart before your audience takes leave! You can convey your message in the powerful, life-changing way it deserves to be told. An insightful, entertaining parable that’s an excellent guide for any speaker, Communicating for a Change takes a simple approach to delivering effectively. Join Pastor Ray as he discovers that the secrets to successful speaking are parallel to the lessons a trucker learns on the road. By knowing your destination before you leave (identifying the one basic premise of your message), using your blinkers (making transitions obvious), and implementing five other practical points, you’ll drive your message home every time! “Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” “Once upon a time…” “In the beginning…” Great stories capture and hold an audience’s attention from start to finish. Why should it be any different when you stand up to speak? In Communicating for a Change, Andy Stanley and Lane Jones offer a unique strategy for communicators seeking to deliver captivating and practical messages. In this highly creative presentation, the authors unpack seven concepts that will empower you to engage and impact your audience in a way that leaves them wanting more. “Whether you are a senior pastor with weekly teaching responsibilities or a student pastor who has bern charged with engaging the hearts and minds of high school students, this book is a must-read.” -Bill Hybels, Senior pastor, Willow Creak Community Church “A very practical resource for every biblical communicator who wants to go from good to great.” -Ed Young, Senior pastor, Fellowship Church, Grapevine, Texas “To communicate effectively, you have to connect. Andy has been connecting with people for years, and now he’s sharing his insights with the rest of us.” -Jeff Foxworthy, Comedian Story Behind the Book Andy Stanley and Lane Jones are on staff at one of America ’s largest churches, North Point Community. Leaders of thousands of people, they regularly speak in front of large groups. They also listen to numerous speakers and know the disastrous effects of a poorly delivered message. This book is the result of their efforts to make public speaking—one of the most common fear-inducing activities known to mankind—simple, easy, and even enjoyable, so that God’s messages will readily produce the life-changing results they should.

Our Father is a compelling memoir by Bruce Smith chronicling his life as a fatherless boy growing up in segregated Texas and his rise to fame and fortune as a star professional football player and real estate mogul. As his story unfolds, ghosts from his past and the lingering effects of being raised without a stable father figure, haunt him. Throughout the book, Smith takes the reader on an emotional, sometimes funny, at times painful journey, illustrating how the power of personal redemption and salvation transforms his life. A thought provoking read, it draws attention to the problem of fatherlessness, described by social commentators as one of the most serious issues facing society today. Statistics on youth crime, addiction, drop out rates and teen pregnancy, paint a picture of the devastating effects, the lack of engaged fathers in our homes is having on children. Pastor Smith s story gives insight into the feelings of hopelessness and confusion that fatherless children, particularly boys tend to experience and the self-destructive choices they make as a result. While Our Father speaks candidly about the harmful effects of fatherlessness on youth and society, it is a story about hope that illustrates how through the saving power of Jesus Christ, we can all conquer our demons and triumph.

Hope for the Hopeless continues the journey of Charles Mulli started in the best-selling biography Father to the Fatherless. His journey of faith challenges him to trust Christ in desperate times, confront evil forces and believe God for even greater miracles of healing and deliverance. It takes him into the heart of the most devastating event in recent Kenyan history, where in the wake of the post-election violence that shook Kenya to its core, while the nation stands in fear and desperation, Mulli risks everything to follow the call of Christ on his life to bring hope to the hopeless. You will be greatly moved by these amazing true stories. Each tells of a tragedy turned miraculous. Whether the young girl evicted by her family and left to survive in a slum or the boy whose parents passed away, leaving him destitute on the street, all appear hopeless cases until they encounter Charles Mulli and discover a new life they could not have imagined.

Life, as we know it, will end. It’s not a thought that tends to occupy our minds when we are young and in full health and vigor. We take risks, some foolhardy. We live as though we were immortal. And then when we have our own children we are renewed and life is good. But we can’t look in the mirror every day without noticing subtle signs of change. We can’t lose a loved one without reflecting on the passage of time and being nagged by the question, “What is it in life that I have yet to accomplish?” Then it’s not a giant leap from asking that question about ourselves to wanting to know “What happens when I die?” Brian Stiller, author of When Life Hurts took on the task of answering this challenging question. Where is the proof that anything is going to happen after death? Why not just live life for the day, because that may be all there is? What Happens When I Die? is a journey toward understanding the nature of life after death, one that leads ultimately to the Scriptures and the promise given by God. It is a promise rooted in faith and joy. It is a promise that has everything to do with what we make of our life here on earth. What Happens When I Die? is not just about death, but about living a fulfilled, loving and caring life. The choice is ultimately ours to seek and God’s gift—or not. But the way had been prepared as this insightful and thought-provoking book affirms

The winner of the 2006 Best New Canadian Christian Author Award. No matter how far you run, God will find you. No matter how bad you’ve been, God will forgive you. Alex Donnelly is running and trying to hide. He has picked a good place to do it - The Yukon - but he is pursued by friends, enemies, and most effectively, by God. Burning with the need to know about his parents, Alex returns to his birth-city, Seattle, where he discovers that his mother tried to abort him. The trauma sends him on the run again only to find out God has orchestrated a divine appointment for him back in the Yukon. The story is filled with miraculous healing, struggles with rage and an obsession with revenge for a childhood abuser. This story illustrates that God never gives up on those whom He has chosen. God’s mercy and grace extend even to those who consider themselves unworthy, and even more, to those who are considered unworthy in the eyes of the world.

The many challenges life throws at us do not shape us. How we respond to these challenges do. In "The Beautiful Disappointment" urban youth worker and author, Colin McCartney, shares his personal struggles in dealing with the murder of one of his staff, the death of a child in his program and his own near death experience from a paralyzing water accident in Hawaii. While the author was recovering from this life threatening accident in the critical care unit of Maui Memorial Hospital he slowly realizes that trials are "beautiful disappointments" God can use to purge us off all the false things we have allowed to disfigure who we truly are. It is through this "refining by trials" that the author experiences the intimate presence of God, a presence in our soul that frees us to reconnect to who we truly are as God originally created us to be. A true story that will leave the reader truly changed.