Welcome to the inner lives of leaders. Current leadership literature is more apt to feature practices than practitioners--what leaders do rather than who leaders are. Much of today's leadership literature seems to assume leaders burst forth ready to lead with little introspection or no struggle. We know better. Our best leaders are anchored in clear values and considered beliefs. They have grown down. And, our best leaders have cultivated their own maturity. They have grown up and are comfortable in their skins. Growing down, growing up: In the pages ahead we trace and weave together these two master threads.

Weaving Strong Leaders: How Leaders Grow Down, Grow Up, and Grow Together

Religion & Spirituality

Wilson, Bill

Dale, Bob

Christian Books & Bibles

Nurturing Faith Inc.

Onion Ring Theology

Taylor, Charles E.

Literature & Fiction

"And Now for Something Completely Different!" That phrase, the opening line for each episode of the groundbreaking British comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus, might well describe this book, for it is not a standard introduction to the Old Testament. This book should be treated instead as a thought experiment that investigates the question, "What does the Old Testament teach us about moral development?" The answer that I will develop over the course of the book is that it calls us to develop wisdom to live in a complex world full of competing voices. This is, in short, what I am calling the moral story of the Hebrew Bible. In fact, I will go further to suggest that reading the Old Testament as Hebrew Bible actually initiates its readers into a process of moral development, the end point of which is wisdom.

Wisdom Calls: The Moral Story of the Hebrew Bible

Lewis, Professor Paul

This book is designed to reach multiple audiences. First, I hope it will be a resource for beginning classes in formal theological education. For students interested in church ministry, I believe an appropriate starting point for theological studies is with a study of God's call. Such a study at the beginning of an undergraduate or graduate theological degree could serve to inspire students and increase their hunger for greater biblical and theological learning. Students tend to be full of questions regarding God's call at the beginning of formal theological education, whether undergraduate or graduate.
Second, I want to provide a written resource about God's call that may be helpful to lay readers as well as to those called to the ministry. In church life, many persons other than clergy feel called to some form of non-ordained ministry or service. Many of the characteristics of God's call are similar for both groups.
Third, I want this book to be a ready resource for professors, pastors, ministers, and mentors to have available to give to persons seeking their wisdom and counsel relative to God's call. Many times I have wished I had such a volume at my fingertips to offer to inquiring persons. I hope this book will meet this need.
A theme of personal conviction will provide the foundation for this book. This conviction is that "it is worth a life" to answer God's call. This is true for persons called to vocational ministry and equally true for those called to ministries not requiring ordination. The call of God is not exclusive to clergy, as special as that call is. God's call can come to all, and it is worth a life to serve God, whether as an ordained servant or layperson.

It's Worth a Life: Hearing and Responding to God's Call

Cogdill, Michael G.

Trouble the Water is a resource for individuals and congregations endeavoring to take seriously the ever-increasing necessity of work toward racial justice while attending to the intersections of our identities and the intersecting nature of oppression, injustice, and violence. At a time in our country and in our world when expressions of interpersonal prejudice and structural racism are validated and even valorized, this is a resource addressing the pressing concerns of our current era. Deeply rooted in the Christian tradition and evidencing the flavors of peace-and-justice Baptists in particular, this book calls all of us to greater awareness and action in the ministry of racial justice. 
Trouble the Water is shaped by a multitude of voices that make it unique among resources for individuals and congregations working toward racial justice. The authors address theory and theology that is foundational to the work of racial justice, provide praxis-oriented chapters helping readers conceive of ways to engage in the work of racial justice as individuals and as congregations, and render inspiring narratives from churches that have been doing the work of racial justice for many years. Whether read by individuals or book study groups, Trouble the Water issues a call to readers: Put your faith into action toward the cultivation of a new way of being in the world--a way of being that honors human difference through embodied action to bring about a more just and less violent world.

Trouble the Water

I love digging into parts of the Bible that are underexplored. As an archaeological excavation can uncover layer upon layer of ancient civilizations hiding just beneath the earth's surface, so the trowel of careful study and exegesis can unearth layers of meaning that have long been overlooked.So it is with the five brief biblical books we will study in this volume. The book of Ruth is familiar to many Christians as a story of love and devotion--but not for its deeper significance. Esther is a lesser known heroine whose story is more convoluted and troubling than it appears. The Song of Songs, with its frank eroticism, has frightened pious clerics into masking its message with allegory, while the dark books of Lamentations and Ecclesiastes may send readers fleeing to higher literary ground lest they become too deeply enmeshed in the hard questions of life.Our purpose in these Bible studies is to tackle these texts as they have come to us, digging beneath surface pleasantries to discover the clever, hopeful, skeptical, sorrowful, delightful, and sometimes naked characters beneath. In doing so, we may see new things, think new thoughts, and seize the opportunity to appreciate the scriptures even more.---John D. Pierce, Publisher Nurturing Faith, Inc.

Five Scrolls for All Times: Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther

Cartledge, Tony W.

Reclaiming and Re-Forming Baptist Identity

Wilder, Gene

Maples, Terry

Join young N.W. (Noble Wimberly) Jones and his family on a bold journey from their home in Lambeth, England to settling into the Georgia colony.  The Georgia where N.W. lived as a teenager and young man (1740-1753) was marked by wars and Indian turmoil. The "Malcontents" finally suc-ceeded in getting the laws against rum and slaves repealed. General James Oglethorpe was fed up with their gripes, so he returned to England. The trustees also grew tired of the endless complaints and decided to turn the colony over to the British government. Georgia was now a crown colony.

Trailblazer: Part Two

Mason, Lynelle S

Children's Books

To Dream Again, Again! Growing Healthy Congregations for Changing Futures explores the power of congregational dreams. The health cycle model offers an organic, inside-out approach for understanding church health and avoiding pathology. To root churches in redemptive health, we'll identify and apply health cycle discoveries.
This book is for leaders, both clergy and laity, who love their congregations and are committed to keeping their churches healthy and redemptive.

To Dream Again, Again!: Growing Healthy Congregations for Changing Futures

Dale, Robert D.

"Going to Mullinix" was my grandfather's response every time someone asked where he was going. I rode with Pa-Pa in his dark green Ford pickup throughout the little community of Chip, N.C. as he transported feed and biddies for his chicken and egg business. I was 10 to 12 years old at the time and "Mullinix" became for me an ideal, safe place from my childhood challenges and fears. When I became a pastor, I adopted "Mullinix" as a symbol of that place of authentic discipleship to which serious followers of Christ aspire. So, "going to Mullinix" became for me a metaphor for the "pressing on" journey of attaining higher levels of discipleship. This is a collection of personal stories from my more than 45 years as a pastor. I reflect on how each of these stories or events, (mostly involving people or animals), have served as "signs" directing my walk as a disciple.

Going to Mullinix: Mostly Gentle Tales About Mostly Gentle Folks and Curious Critters

Haywood, Jerry

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