Spiritual growth sounds great, but what does it mean? There is something very grounding about trees. We understand how they grow and how dirt, seeds, water, and roots support the life and seasons of a tree. Using a tree as a metaphor, Christopher Maricle presents a model for spiritual growth that is easy to use and remember. Deeply Rooted borrows Catherine of Siena's image of the soul as a tree and categorizes it into four parts: the garden, the soil and roots of the tree, the trunk and essen...

How can the church stay in step with the Spirit during a time of unprecedented change? The apostle Paul led the Galatians through a massive cultural shift in which they had to radically expand their ideas of who God is, who they were, and God's mission for the church. He was able to lead them through this time of great change because of his encounter with the risen Christ on the Damascus road, an experience in which his view of God was completely upended. Today Christianity is undergoing a cu...

Doug Ruffle writes A Missionary Mindset using the timeless principles of E. Stanley Jones and transfers them for use today. Teaching us to approach the mission field as if we were from a different country and learning a new culture, a new way of communicating, and a new way to connect people to the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

A Manual of Christian Denominations: Similarities and Differences, by Dr. Samuel Hong is an introduction to the Christian Denominations. It explains why there are so many denominations in Christian history, what similarities and differences they have in teaching, and how we can partner in Jesus' missions for disciple making. This book helps us to understand how the churches and denominations were formed and have led people to influence the world with the gospel in the past and present. It als...

Drawing from the strength of their previous book, Transforming Evangelism, Henry Knight and Douglas Powe show us a Wesleyan way to form missional communities and congregations. Drawing from John Wesley's own organizing abilities, this will better equip today's congregations to be more transfomational. Each chapter also has study questions. This is the Participant's Book. Click here for the Leader's Guide, Leading Missional Small Groups.

In this personal story, Dee Dee Risher weaves experiences from her life with the biblical story of the prophet Elisha and the Shunammite woman. Risher is captivated by this spiritually attuned, generous, hospitable, honest, and bold woman. The woman from Shunem extends radical hospitality to the prophet, expecting no reward. But when disaster strikes, she does not hesitate to hold Elisha accountable or talk back. Hidden in the story, Risher believes, are the questions that lead to a more auth...

Reverend Iosmar Alvarez created this book to teach church planting leaders how to plant new, healthy, vital, and vibrant churches with multiplication DNA. Using scripture-grounded values, principles, and the author's own testimony, this book will help reach both new and diverse Hispanic/Latino people, as well as other cultures and contexts.

An overview of the history, beliefs, organization, and mission of The United Methodist Church. Great for membership training classes and as a gift for new and prospective members.

Getting to know God means getting to know ourselves. The more we know who God is the more we know who we are. The Gospel of John records several declarations of Jesus known as the "I Am" sayings. This 7-week study is designed for the entire congregation to explore each of those sayings and will help you find and form an answer to the most essential question in the Christian faith, "Who do you say I am?" One by one, Jesus' statements grab our imagination, reveal more about his identity and pu...

Dr. Stamm integrates the biblical, theological, and pastoral insight fitting of a liturgical scholar-pastor as he attempts to improve and deepen the church's congregational practice of intercessory prayer. In Devoting Ourselves to the Prayers: A Baptismal Theology for the Church's Intercessory Work, Dr. Stamm points to the strong biblical and historical connections between baptism and intercessory prayer, suggesting that intercessory prayer is a vocation—a calling—rooted in our common baptism...