Vertical Church

An emergency call, and I rush from my coziness into the dark community where the police have requested a chaplain. Arriving in minutes, I find the family imploding with grief having just discovered their son hanging in the garage. In a moment of unshakable pain, he jumped off the ladder and into eternity. And I will never shake the look in their eyes when I asked why he hadn't called a church. "Why would he do that?" Across town, a pool of tears on my kitchen table as an out of town guest feels the weight of his infidelity, despairing that his famished soul finds no refuge and that he has to board a plane to feel fellowship. "Has your church tried to help you?" And the Christian leader confesses he hasn't been to church in years. Infighting, backbiting, heartbreaking, frustrating ... church. Though exceptions do exist, the reality is that church in America is failing one life at a time. Somewhere between pathetically predictable and shamefully entertaining, sadly sentimental and rarely authentic, church has become worst of all ... godless. Vertical Church points to a new day where God is the seeker, and we are the ones found. In Vertical Church God shows up, and that changes everything. If you want to experience God as you never have before and witness His hand at work, if you want to wake up to the first thought, "Thank God it's Sunday," if you're ready to feel your heart beat faster as you drive to your place of worship ... then devour and digest the lessons of Vertical Church.

For anyone who is married, preparing for marriage, or desperate to save a relationship teetering on the brink of divorce, marriage coaches Dave and Ann Wilson offer hope and strategies gleaned from personal experience and Scripture that really work. Vertical Marriage will give you the insight, applications, and inspiration to transform your marriage into everything you hoped it would be. Honest to the core and laugh-out-loud funny, Dave and Ann Wilson share the one secret that brought them from the brink of divorce to a healthy and vibrant relationship. If you had asked Dave how their marriage was doing on the night of their tenth wedding anniversary, Dave would have rated it a 9.8 out of 10, and he would have even guaranteed that Ann would say the same. But instead of giving him a celebratory kiss, Ann whispered, "I've lost my feelings for you." Divorce seemed inevitable for the Wilsons, but starting that night, God began to reveal to Dave and Ann the most overlooked secret of getting the marriage we are looking for: a horizontal marriage relationship just doesn't work until your vertical relationship with Christ is first. As founders of a multi-campus church and marriage coaches with 30 years of experience, Dave and Ann share the hard-earned but easy-to-apply biblical principles that ensure a strong marriage. Written in a highly relatable dialogue between both husband and wife, Vertical Marriage will guide you toward building a vibrant relationship at every level, giving you the tools you need to embrace: Effective communication Fair conflict True romance A deeper connection Through their unique perspectives, Dave and Ann share an intimate, sometimes hilarious, and at times deeply poignant narrative of one couple's journey to reconnecting with God and discovering the joy and power of a vertical marriage.

Crises around race have put the church in a defensive posture, always reacting to racial conflicts in society. But Jesus wants more. He wants Christians to play offense by discipling people into a new humanity, where we push beyond mere diversity and into a biblical vision for ethnic unity. Bryan Loritts calls Christians to proactively and intentionally live out the embodied reality of a people at one with one another. We play offense by practicing a robust gospel, preparing reliable leadership, and providing relational environments so that the church becomes the aroma of Christ to our culture and gains ground against the demonic foothold of racism in all its forms.

Over 90 percent of all Christian churches in the United States have fewer than 200 members. While they vary in shape, size, ethnicity, and denomination, they have one thing in common: the desire to grow. So why is it that some churches fail to grow for years, while other congregations in the same community increase exponentially? The problem, says church marketing authority Richard Reising, is that most churches should not be doing promotion. Instead, they should focus on the preparation that will make members eager to invite others. In ChurchMarketing 101®, he demystifies basic marketing principles for the church, evaluates them against biblical principles, and illustrates how simple changes can remove roadblocks that hinder members from reaching out. Reising's simple yet insightful approach will be invaluable to pastors and ministry leaders from churches of all denominations and styles.

Vertical Churches of the World has been an ongoing project since its beginnings in 2012 in New York. As a photographer I am always trying to come up with something unique, a way to stand out from the rest of the many talented photographers in today's photography world. "Vertical Churches" is my stand-out project. The photographs have been spotlighted in some of the most highly regarded news agencies, blogs and articles from around the globe. They have been featured in well over 100 countries to critical acclaim, as well as museum exhibits and international photo festivals. The book features over 150 photos from more than 50 countries on 6 continents.

Will You Stay? Caleb Breakey prays to God you do. In Called to Stay Breakey takes a refreshingly honest look at the church, the problem of Millennials leaving, and the stark reality of why the church desperately needs them. He holds nothing back as he unleashes an ambitious rallying cry to heal the church and inject his generation's desire for truth, passion, and conviction into other believers. Caleb knows that answering the challenge of his own generation leads to a transformed church. And a changed church can change the world.

Top World Guild Awards Best Nonfiction Book of the Year What if our neighbors were our friends? When Lynda MacGibbon moved from a small city in eastern Canada to a high-rise apartment in Toronto, she decided to follow Jesus' famous commandment to "love your neighbor" a bit more literally. In the past, she would have looked first for friends at her new job or her new church. This time, though, she decided to look for friends among the strangers who shared her apartment building—her actual neighbors in her new "vertical neighborhood." In this charming and relatable memoir, MacGibbon tells the story of the community that took shape as neighbors said yes to weekly dinners and a writing group, Christmas morning brunch and even a Bible study. It's a story of the simple, everyday risk of reaching out with love to those around us, and of the beauty and messiness of real human relationships. It's a story of the risks—and rewards—of taking Jesus at his word.

New movements in the Kingdom of God are either promoted by men or are an organism created by the Spirit of Christ. Man has formed many structures created to defend doctrines, organization formats, etc. Some of these are church-based and some are simply castles standing among the Para church groups, built by men who seek personal significance by forming a structure often named after themselves. Bill Beckham has painstakingly evaluated current movements existing around the world today. The reader will be encouraged to evaluate his or her commitment to the various models presented. Those who seek to manipulate “groups for growth” will find in Bill’s chapters a new paradigm, one as old as the book of Acts, presently being restored for the Last Days witness.