Times are changing. The Truth never will. It's tough to be a pastor today. Christians who stand up for what God has said are disregarded and labeled right-wing extremists. Political correctness and tolerance of anything but godly character is the norm. So how do ministers lead God's people in this pagan culture? How do they shepherd the flock as the lights fade dimmer and the nights grow colder? This book is not about programs. It not about developing the best techniques for numerical growth. Rather it is a discussion of the heart of the matter - the heart of the shepherd. In Shepherding the Church, Dr. Stowell takes a look at what it takes to be a truly effective leader from the inside out. He encourages today's leaders to focus on their own character, spiritual growth, and spiritual gifts. Examine some heart issues like: how do I prove to my congregation that I'm trustworthy? how do I lead by loving? how do I overcome insecurities? how can I transform lives with my preaching? how do I lead my flock by the way I live my life? how do I persevere?Even in these tough times, effective leadership is possible. Learn from Dr. Stowell as he encourages today's leaders to keep their eyes on the non-negotiables of Christian ministry.

Certain essentials of a church’s life and structure are necessary for the spiritual and moral welfare of its people. When those essentials are missing or distorted, the lives of the people will be proportionately corrupted and weakened. Simply encouraging more fellowship and ministry is not enough. What can change a church? God can do it through you! . . . and perhaps this manual will prepare you to help with the healing. Don’t give up or drop out until you have read this book carefully. Members should urge their pastors to read this book. Pastors should urge members to read it.

Insightful instructions on how to make your church grow -Invaluable manual on how to enlarge the local church -Comprehensive exposé that leaves no stone unturned -Concise instructions on how to become a mega church pastor - Helpful hints on how to develop your ministry

Throughout the past centuries, many matters concerning the Christian life and church life were lost in the degradation of the church. Therefore, today the Lord desires to have a recovery. This recovery includes fruit-bearing. A proper Christian life is a fruit-bearing life, because we are the branches of the vine (John 15:5). God's operation in the universe is with His vine, and we are all the branches of this vine. The normal life of the branches is nothing other than to bear fruit. Whatever else a branch on a vine can do means nothing. In actuality, branches can do nothing but bear fruit. Therefore, to bear fruit is the normal living of the branches of the vine.

Servant Church is about the Values of the Church of Philippi, which is located in one of the cities of greater Baltimore and Washington metropolitan area. This book is primarily about the church’s Ten Values, which are not to be compromised, along with its mission, vision, strategies, structures, and programs related to the values. The Ten Values are only (through redemption of) Jesus, servanthood, precious one, shepherding first, process centered, lay ministry oriented, harmonizing of message and system, small-group accented, walking the talks, and all encompassing grace. Started as a Korean diaspora faith community, Church of Philippi held its inaugural service in a leased warehouse building on October 31, 1993, in Columbia, Maryland, USA. Back then, not many of the Korean immigrant population took residences there. Yet the Lord made the church grow both in lives transformed and in size enlarged for last twenty-two years. Reflection on church expansion histories (early Jerusalem church, Antioch’s Jewish diaspora churches, Moravians church in the eighteenth century, American and English churches during the great awakening movements in nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and churches of Latin America, Africa, and Asia in recent decades) teaches reflectioners valuable lessons in that they see the wisdom and power of well-thought-out values of the message, the church, and the culture that they were in. Of course what has been done was by the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit. Yet the Bible teaches us that the wisdom that the Holy Spirit demonstrated is written in it so that we, who came later, may be able to learn from the teachings and then follow after the Holy Spirit. If they were not followed, the church was not able to accomplish the great commission of the Lord as was desired. If followed, the church always prevailed against the power of the gate of Hades. For thirty some years, the author has been a reflectioner and an agonizer over the present plight of the powerless church in the postmodern world and its values. With the invaluable learnings from the Bible and histories of the churches, along with their surrounding cultures, he was able to establish the Ten Values that can unleash the power of a prevailing church. May all the readers of the book find a road map that leads an unprepared church planter, like the author once was, to build a church that prevails against the power of the gate of the Hades (Matt. 16:18). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18, Holy Bible, English Standard Version (2001), Wheaton: Standard Bible Society).

A thoroughly revised and updated edition of one of the most trusted and authoritative strategic resources for church leaders In this second edition of his groundbreaking book, Kennon Callahan identifies the twelve essential qualities of successful, growing churches and offers all congregations a way to unlock their potential for effective ministry. The Twelve Keys program balances practical planning with theological understanding to help churches function more effectively as they seek to grow and better serve their members. Shows church leaders how to claim and expand upon their church's strengths and become a mission growth congregation Explores each of the twelve keys in depth, from mission to visitation to worship to relationships to programs to details of facilities maintenance Based on a time-tested approach that has been used by hundreds of thousands of churches Now incorporates the planning guide (previously a separate publication) The book includes solid, practical guidelines and tools to help any church become a strong, healthy congregation.

This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the eight messages of the international training for elders and responsible ones hosted by Living Stream Ministry on October 8-10, 2021. The messages were provided via webcast from Anaheim, California, and the mutual fellowship, prophesying, and studying by groups were practiced locally in the various churches that participated. The general subject of this series of messages is “Meeting God’s Need and Present Needs in the Lord’s Recovery.” We must see that God has His need. No matter what our human needs or the churches’ needs are, God’s need is much greater. To see God’s need, we need to realize that God has a will, a good pleasure, which is His heart’s desire. God’s good pleasure, that which makes Him happy, is the fulfillment of His eternal purpose to have His eternal habitation for His eternal expression. In order for His will to be done on earth and for His eternal purpose to be fulfilled, God needs our cooperation. He has placed His almighty power under the limitation of the human will; hence, only when He has gained a people who will cooperate with Him by being totally responsive to Him will He have an unhindered way to accomplish His will. God also needs to recover the earth from His enemy by man’s dealing with Satan and subduing and conquering the rebellious earth. Moreover, God needs the “family of Noah” to build the church as today’s ark to terminate the present crooked and perverted age and bring in God’s kingdom. God needs the man-child, the overcomers in the church, as His dispensational instrument for His greatest dispensational move to end the age and bring in His kingdom. To be constituted as overcomers, we must realize that through regeneration we have been made a new creation. As such, we need to walk in newness of life, to serve in newness of spirit, and to be renewed daily. Furthermore, we daily need to labor on the all-inclusive Christ as the good land by seeking and enjoying Christ in every situation. Especially as elders and responsible ones, we should enter into Christ’s wonderful shepherding in His heavenly ministry by enjoying and ministering Christ to shepherd the church of God as a slave of God. In meeting the Lord’s need, prayer is our most direct and intimate cooperation with Him. Prayer is to absorb the elements of the soil of Christ [4] as the good land and to express what God has spoken within us by our contacting and fellowshipping with Him. The best prayer is to pray to God as a friend, as portrayed in Abraham’s glorious intercession, his intimate conversation with God. This kind of intercession expresses God’s desire and carries out His will. The Announcements section at the end of this issue contains a list of upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry and a website link for information related to similar events in Europe.

The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994–1997, volume 4, contains messages given by Brother Witness Lee from March 7 through December 21, 1996. During the entire period of 1994 until his death in 1997, Brother Lee ministered in Anaheim, California. The contents of this volume are divided into fourteen sections, as follows: 1. A message given on March 7, 1996. This message is included in this volume under the title The Difference between the Lord’s Recovery and the Denominations. 2. Twenty-five messages given on March 7 through December 8, 1996. These messages are included in this volume under the title Various Meetings in Anaheim. Five of the messages were brief and were combined with other messages. 3. Six messages given on April 9 through 11, 1996. These messages were previously published in a book entitled The Divine and Mystical Realm and are included in this volume under the same title. 4. Five messages given on April 9 through 11, 1996. These messages are included in this volume under the title Pre-meeting Fellowship on the Divine and Mystical Realm. 5. Four messages given on April 28 through June 29, 1996. These messages were previously published in a book entitled Incarnation, Inclusion, and Intensification and are included in this volume under the same title. 6. Six messages given on May 24 through 27, 1996. These messages were previously published in a book entitled The Secret of God’s Organic Salvation—“the Spirit Himself with Our Spirit” and are included in this volume under the same title. 7. Four messages given on May 25 through 27, 1996. These messages are included in this volume under the title Pre-meeting Fellowship on the Secret of God’s Organic Salvation—“the Spirit Himself with Our Spirit.” [x] 8. A message given on May 29, 1996. This message is included in this volume under the title The Divine Revelation in the New Testament and the Lord’s Recovery. 9. A message that was prerecorded and played on June 4, 1996, for the blending conference of the churches in Taiwan. This message is included in this volume under the title The Three Major Sections of the Divine Revelation in the New Testament. 10. Two messages given on June 6 and December 21, 1996. These messages are included in this volume under the title Miscellaneous FTTA Fellowships. 11. Fifteen messages given on July 4 through September 8, 1996. These messages were previously published in a book entitled Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John and are included in this volume under the same title. One of the messages was divided into two chapters. 12. Eight messages given on July 4 through 10, 1996. These messages are included in this volume under the title Pre-meeting Fellowship on the Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John. 13. A message given on July 29, 1996. This message is included in this volume under the title The Office Life of the Living Stream Ministry. 14. Two personal talks given on August 7 and 8, 1996. These talks were expanded into six chapters and are included in this volume under the title My Autobiography—an Oral Presentation to My Children Revealing My Experiences of the Processed and Consummated Triune God.

There are many ideas about how to increase the size of a church. But what if our vision is upside down? What if God’s desire is that we focus on being a quality church instead of simply a large church? The Bible envisions the church as a spotless bride, a vision of quality. Today’s church seems far from God’s vision of perfection, but that does not change the goals God has for His flock. Using Psalm 23 as a blueprint, Becoming a Grand Champion Church explores how Christ is shepherding His church toward maturity. A gap exists between this age’s knowledge of sheep and shepherding that makes it difficult to grasp the fullness of Christ’s shepherding work in the church. The author seeks to fill that gap with homespun remembrances of raising sheep to be shown at the county fair. He then ties the shepherd’s duties with practical suggestions of how the whole body can work alongside the Good Shepherd toward Christ’s vision for His bride. The result of following God’s plan is a Grand Champion Church that reflects the qualities of Christ to the world.