Have you been called to tell the story? Maybe you think you would like to serve God as a full-time missionary or evangelist, but you’re not sure. And if you are called, how do you move forward? Telling the Story answers those who wonder “Have I been called to be an evangelist?” and “Where do I begin?” Here, you’ll discover help for: •Understanding evangelism and what it means to be an evangelist •Finding the right position •Building a ministry team •Utilizing multimedia resources •Identifying characteristics and spiritual requirements to have or to cultivate •Maintaining a balance between personal and professional life •Assessing your spiritual gifts Written by international evangelist Timothy Robnett and the late Luis Palau, this second edition of Telling the Story is a powerful resource for young and aspiring evangelists, providing fresh and time-tested guidance for those responding to God’s call to tell the story!

In The Story Is True, folklorist, filmmaker, and professor of English Bruce Jackson explores the ways we use the stories that become a central part of our public and private lives. Describing and explaining how stories are made and used, Jackson examines how stories narrate and bring meaning to our lives. Jackson writes about his family and friends, acquaintances, and experiences, focusing on more than a dozen personal stories. From oral histories to public stories—such as what happened when Bob Dylan "went electric" at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival—Jackson gets at how the "truth" is constantly shifting depending on the perspective, memory, and social meaning that is ascribed to various events—both real and imaginary. The book is ideal for students and writers of oral history and storytelling but goes beyond those topics to encompass how we interpret and understand the real-life "stories" that we encounter in our daily experience. This edition includes new sections on how stories are related to historical facts and new chapters on contemporary films (expanding the discussion of visual storytelling) and on conspiracy narratives and Trump's Big Lie. Fresh examples tie together new material with the existing stories.

The revised and enlarged second edition of J. Dudley Woodberry’s From Seed to Fruit expands on the next stage of the ongoing collaborative research and reflections of many people from many organizations desiring to bless Muslims. Seven additional chapters survey major trends in global Islam today and explore themes that prove to have considerable influence on fruitfulness, including a new chapter on building Christlike relationships with Muslims. The Global Trends Research Group has continued to update the demographic materials on Muslim people groups, their access to Christian witness, and when and how Christian groups covenant to provide meaningful access. From Seed to Fruit presents the most recent worldwide research on witness to Christ among Muslim peoples, using biblical images from nature to show the interaction between God's activity and human responsibility in blessing these peoples.

Which Bible passages are for Christians today and which relate only to ancient readers? Can I simply pick and choose for myself the verses I think best fit my situation? Who gets to decide? Is there a different meaning for each individual reader? What am I supposed to know to read the Bible well? Ray Lubeck has devoted his life to helping others discern for themselves God's truth in the Scriptures and to showing them how it relates to their everyday lives. Reading the Bible for a Change will guide you in how to: -Read each biblical passage in light of its literary style and larger context -Ask and explore the most fruitful questions for understanding the meaning of a passage -Avoid common interpretive mistakes -Hear God, the divine Author, speak through the Bible's human authors -Identify the life-changing truths of Scripture that apply to life today -Move beyond merely reading the Bible to being shaped by and following it Having taught for over three decades at the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as in many ministry contexts, Ray values the importance of holding the interest of students of the Bible. This book is written in an accessible and engaging style, using illustrations, charts, stories, and relevant examples to help the reader grasp key concepts. The second edition has been extensively revised in light of recent scholarly developments and years of use within the classroom, incorporating substantial amounts of updates and new material. Reading the Bible for a Change will equip you with the tools to discover for yourself the life-changing truths revealed in God's word. If you begin practicing these steps, you will embark on a lifetime journey of Scripture reading that will enable you to see for yourself how captivating and transforming it is when we read the Bible on its own terms rather than on ours.

Learning to Lead combines theory and practice with important topics such as human development, diversity, anti-bias, and social change. New to this edition is information on leadership connections in school-age care and nurturing leadership in children. Each chapter is designed to prompt self-evaluation and personal leadership development.

This book presents narrative theology as radically orthodox. It is orthodox because in the tradition of all those who maintain the priority of the story of Jesus, as it is sacramentally performed in the Church, and radical because it eschews all modern attempts to found Christian faith on some other story, such as that of reason, critical history or human consciousness. Acknowledging the indeterminacy of and textuality of human existance, Telling God's Story presents the Christian life as as a truly postmodern venture: the groundless enactment of God's future now.

The Divine Art of Dying explores the time when individuals facing a life-limiting illness make critical decisions about how they will live until they die. Authors Karen Speerstra and Herbert Anderson teamed up to write this book shortly before Speerstra's death. Their hope was that this book would be a gift to help people who are irreversibly ill (and their friends and family) navigate the perilous journey to the point at which one decides to discontinue curative treatment and turn toward death. The book includes reflections from Speerstra's hospice journal and essays written jointly by Speerstra and Anderson on themes that include learning to wait, letting go, giving gifts, and telling stories. Karen's experiential and moving reflections are woven together with Anderson's pastoral insights gleaned from years of teaching, writing, and lecturing on death, dying, and bereavement, as well as practicing hospital chaplaincy and pastoral care. Together they have created a deeply profound and practical book that aims to empower people who are dying to live as fully as they can until life's end, and to help those who care for them to share this journey with compassion and hope. Several reflections by Speerstra's friends and family are included along with sidebars describing "divine-human virtues." Suggestions for caregivers are provided at the end of each chapter.