In Journeying in the Wilderness, author Terri Martinson Elton observes that faith formation in the church setting is contextual, and multiple forces are coming together today to create seismic contextual changes at record speed. These changes are disrupting aspects of our lives, challenging assumptions, and dislodging personal and communal practices. For the church to take seriously its call to form faith in each generation, it must be attentive to current contextual realities. Elton places confessional understanding of faith in dialogue with five contextually altering forces in order to provide a pathway for congregations to reimagine faith formation in the midst of twenty-first-century realities. The use of stories, nontechnical language, and biblical perspectives make this work accessible for congregational leaders and others who seek to explore new directions in forming faith. Processes and practices are offered to help both leaders and congregations contextualize their approach to their particular settings. Each chapter includes leadership competencies, shared practices, and group discussion questions.

A unique book that explores 250 famous Bible stories, each accompanied by intriguing background information, photography, maps, and vibrant full-color illustrations.

SET YOUR HEART ON APILGRIMAGE INTO THE GLORIOUSFUTURE GOD HAS FOR YOU.

Wilderness periods of our lives—those dry and desperate seasons when God seems distant and detached, perhaps even indifferent or impotent—can seem an abnormal and painful part of our lives that simply must be painfully plodded through and somehow endured. Yet, far from being something abnormal and life-threatening, like a cancer invading our bodies, wilderness periods represent a fundamental element of our life in the Spirit and part of God’s well-orchestrated plan to guarantee that we become and possess everything he desires for us.

Every athlete will testify that not finishing a race is one of the worst feelings they can have. For once started, the aim indeed is to finish, preferably in first place, but finish nonetheless. Like those running a race, when going through a wilderness experience, the determination to endure is what we need most. This book will aid the reader to gain knowledge for those hard times. Providing detailed account of some such as Moses, the Children of Israel, David, Job, John The Baptist and Jesus, who have gone through wilderness experiences in their lives and have left us examples from which we can draw inspiration and learn. Take this journey and gather tools to aid you endure your wilderness.

God is constantly moving His children along the path to a better and deeper world of wonder and supernatural power and destiny. Are you following His lead? The Journey is an exciting look at biblical journeys and parallels them with your modern-day life. Practical truths revealed throughout the pages dissolve the mediocrity from your life, and provide direction to walk a new path—with Him. You will learn: How to identify where you are. Where your destiny is and how to get there. About life’s four possible destinations. How to exercise your creative power. The terms of God’s covenant with you. How to defeat your Jericho. That your greatest enemy may be within you. The Journey is an anointed, insightful, and often humorous revelation of the stages of Christian life. With a refreshing absence of religiosity, author Jason Anderson pinpoints life-changing truths, exposes common misconceptions, releases grace, and debunks the time-tested excuses keeping you from the place of rest in which you were designed to rule and reign.

This book discusses the supernatural in Scripture, including the scope and significance of events and embodiments.

There is not much enjoyment in contemplating a single piece from a jigsaw puzzle. It may create some level of interest—but not much. Even looking at three pieces, or even ten pieces, isn’t that interesting. What makes a jigsaw puzzle attention-grabbing is the process of figuring out how the pieces fit together. Slowly, a pleasant, unified, comprehensible picture begins to appear. The more complete that image becomes, the more anxious we are to grab another piece and see where and how it fits. In some ways, the books and stories of the Old Testament are like the pieces to a jigsaw puzzle. In and of themselves they create some level of interest—but they don’t become attention-grabbing until we begin to see how the individual pieces relate to the whole. For many, the study of the Old Testament may never reach beyond looking at the individual pieces. Nothing fits the pieces together. How is the book of Leviticus connected to the book of Hebrews? How is John’s reason for writing his Gospel related to Psalm 2? How do we connect the covenant ceremony of Genesis 15 with the cross—much less understand that ceremony to begin with? Why is the book of Ruth included as part of the Bible? What does it have to do with anything? Or better yet, why do we have the book of Esther—where God is not mentioned at all? What makes each of these important? How are they related, or are they? In short, how is God’s story—God’s revelation—unified? And that’s where A Forty-Day Study of the Biblical Story comes in. We journey through Scripture in a way that brings all of the bits and pieces into a unified whole—because our focus is going to be on what makes the Biblical Story whole: Jesus Christ. We examine the Old Testament through the lens of what we learn about Jesus.

What happens when someone gets fired from their church? One day in the Spring of 2017, Pastor Kyle Isabelli was brought into his supervisor’s office at his church and to his complete surprise, was told “he wasn’t a good fit” as the youth pastor of the church and was fired from his job. This sent Kyle into a process of navigating being fired, dealing directly with the pain caused by this experience, and figuring out his next steps in life and ministry. Through this traumatic experience, Kyle prayed, read, sought wisdom and journaled, which in turn, helped him process his pain, regain his purpose and persevere through one of the most challenging seasons of his life. Over time, he’s realized that he’s not alone. Far too many pastors, church staff and church members have struggled immensely when they experience a church firing. So, he’s sharing his story and wisdom to help and encourage others as they are Refined by the Fire(d). Now, as a Senior Pastor since January 2020, Kyle has a greater passion to create healthy staff cultures and come alongside those in the Church, whether staff or church members, to help them process pain, regain purpose and persevere through their own church firing.

Space in the Hebrew Bible is increasingly studied from the perspective of critical spatiality, emphasizing the social and cultural dimension of space, how people experience space, and their creativity in constructing space. Zhenshuai Jiang investigates the discourses on space in Gen 1-11 and discusses the connection between social space and spatial narrative. He deals with various questions in different spatial terms, with a detailed textual analysis of Gen 1-11. How is space constructed in Gen 1-11? To what extent and how is this construction influenced by social and cultural elements? The author describes specifically how space in Gen 1-11 is constructed rhetorically, taking into account historical and social circumstances in which the texts were written.