Past Featured Books

Nurturing the Spirit of a Child

Although we apparently live in a child-friendly culture, many aspects of children's spirituality as practiced assumes that children need others to 'do' spirituality for them. But a genuinely child-centred spirituality will allow them to be active agents, and could help us to discover authentic forms of spirituality for adults, too.
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Introducing the Missional Church

Ours is a post-Christian culture, making it necessary for church leaders to think like missionaries right here at home. In this book two leading voices in the missional movement provide an accessible introduction, explaining how the movement developed, why it's important, and how churches can become more missional. 196 pages.
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Called to Minister

This collection of essays has been prepared to assist the people of God in thinking about whom God calls to minister, to discern the specific ministries to which individuals are called and to prepare them for the exercise of those ministries. It will help those managing vocational discernment to be aware of the evolving demands placed upon leaders in a mission-shaped church and of the aptitudes and abilities that are integral to emerging models of ministry.
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History of Christianity

MacCulloch takes the story of Christianity back to its origins in Judaism and Greek culture a thousand years before Jesus Christ's birth and forward to its expansion in the contemporary world. He explores the ways in which, over three millennia, the cosmic puzzle of God made human gave Christianity a constant struggle to find its identity.
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Passion for Leadership

Eight of Australia's Christian leaders reveal their thoughts, insights, and experiences on the complex issues of leadership. Topics include developing leaders, leading churches through change, leaders and evangelism, looking after yourself, leaders and teams, and more.
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I, You and Us

This book is designed to be a valuable resource for clergy and those who work with couples who are engaged, contemplating marriage, being remarried, renewing their vows, or desiring to enrich their marriage. Can be used individually or in a small group, and focuses on practical information, ideas, and relationship skills.
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Facing The Future

Here and there, congregations of the Anglican Church in Australia are pioneering new strategies and growing. In other places, the church is shrinking and ageing. Jesus still gets a good press among most Australians, but the church and clergy are less popular. In this book, 22 Anglican bishops face the future squarely and begin to imagine a different kind of church local, national and international.
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In The Beginning, God

With the grace and insight for which she is known, Marva Dawn shows how the opening pages of the book of Genesis rivet our attention on God, calling us to worship and to praise. The repeated words, phrases, and actions themselves beckon us into a rhythm of worship which touches our very souls.
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Sport & Spirituality

This collection of essays examines the links between sport, spirituality and everyday theology from the ancient Greek dominated world right through to the modern day olympics. It comes at this examination from a Judeo-Christian perspective.
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Abiding Faith

Australian theologian Scott Cowdell explores how "having faith" has changed under the influence of modernity and post-modernity in the West. He returns faith from pious sentimentality and arid philosophy of religion to the realm of "participating knowing," "paradigmatic imagination," and transformation where it belongs as a "form of life".
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The God I Don't Understand

If we are honest, we have to admit there are many things we don't understand about God. For some, these issues raise so many questions that faith becomes a struggle. Chris Wright encourages us to face up to the limitations of our understanding and to acknowledge the pain and grief they can cause.
Also available in hardback.
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Losing My Religion

Have Australians lost their religious convictions? Has modern rationality rendered traditional religious belief largely untenable? What would living in a godless society be like? Tom Frame, one of Australia's best-known writers on religion and society, addresses these crucially important questions.
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Movements

From biblical, historical, and contemporary case studies, Movements identifies the 5 recurring characteristics of dynamic missionary movements: white-hot faith, commitment to a cause, contagious relationships, rapid mobilization and adaptive methods.
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Leadership on the Front Foot

Outlines 23 principles to inspire and encourage church leaders to lead proactively and strategically, with confidence and initiative, in order to create missional churches. Practical and principled guidance is offered together with application guides for further reflection, planning and decision making.
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1 and 2 Samuel (Apollos)

In this commentary, David G. Firth argues that the books of Samuel are a carefully constructed, intentional unit for interpretation, and explores the central theme of how the reign of God is worked out in the interplay between king and prophet.
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Christianity's Dangerous Idea

World-renowned scholar Alister McGrath sheds new light on the fascinating figures and movements that continue to inspire debate and division across the full spectrum of Protestant churches and communities worldwide.
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God's Love In Action

This book introduces the biblical basis for caring for one another and covers lay pastoring, pastoral spiritual gifts, skills for caring, principles of caring in particular situations, and tools for caring. A must-have for all looking for wisdom on how to care for the body of Christ.
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Another Way to Love

This book explores the theology behind social reform and looks at some major issues affecting the poor today - climate change, overseas aid, fair trade and child slavery - and ways we can act to make a difference.
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Islam

In this ground-breaking Australian book, a diverse group of international writers, scholars and commentators shed light on some of the most pressing human rights and public policy challenges of our time. Contentious areas of debate such as the sources of religious violence are not avoided but addressed with openness, honesty and candour.
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In A Word

In this blending of word and image, an artist and theologian explore 23 well-known words of the Christian faith: grace, mercy, love, eternity, righteousness, salvation, and others. Eugene Peterson's wise, spiritual reflections illuminate Anneke Kaai's vivid abstract paintings, infusing new life and meaning into age-old words.
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New Dictionary of Pastoral Studies

Written by a team of 212 international scholars and practitioners, this dictionary includes some 800 articles covering every subject touching on the field of pastoral studies. This book is intended to serve as an authoritative yet accessible sourcebook on the theology and methods of pastoral studies.
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Justification

In what has become known as the 'new perspective' on Paul, Wright has proposed a vision of the apostle's central message that does fuller justice to the whole of Paul's letters and, in particular, to the God-centred nature of his gospel. He argues that 'traditional' readings of Paul can suggest that the apostle's message is simply about us: our sin, our justification, our salvation.
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Open House

Every Sunday evening Sheridan Voysey welcomes a variety of authors, artists and activists to his national radio program Open House. This collection of the 'best' Open House interviews could be the equivalent of a Masters course in life, with topics ranging from God, pain, success and poverty to masculinity, materialism, politics and art.
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1 & 2 Samuel

Reid's insights into how the people, events, and promises of the books of Samuel point to and find fulfilment in the person and work of Jesus Christ will not serve to bore the 21st century reader. They will evoke an even greater desire to search the pages of the Old Testament and, in them, discover the depth and richness of living daily in an intimate relationship with the Lord.
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Jesus Brand Spirituality

Wilson takes readers back to what he calls "Jesus brand spirituality," the way of living that Jesus modeled. This spiritual path is not concerned with processes, power plays, or jumping through hoops to participate.
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The Place of Anglicanism in Australia

In this revisionist history, Brian Fletcher contends that the Anglican Church in Australia remained externally united as a major creative force in shaping the nation after Federation, while examining the causes of its internal diversity and division.
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Biblica - The Bible Atlas

Written by a team of international writers and distinguished academics and bible scholars, and illustrated with more than 650 full-colour images from leading art galleries, and museums, Biblica - The Bible Atlas is the most authoritative and up-to-the-moment atlas of the Bible available in the world today.
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From Eden to the New Jerusalem

Why does the earth exist? What is the purpose of human life? These are two of life's most fundamental questions - and they are addressed by the Bible's remarkably unified story, which centres on a unique deity. Desmond Alexander explores this story by beginning at the end, in the final chapters of the book of Revelation.
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A Costly Freedom

With this study of the Gospel of Mark, Brendan Byrne completes his trilogy of works on the Synoptic Gospels. Mark, the "Cinderella gospel," as Byrne says, languished for millennia in the shadow of Matthew ("the first gospel") and Luke.
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Refuge on the Roper

Murray Seiffert reviews the early years of the Roper River Mission, begun by three white men from the south and three Indigenous missionaries from Queensland.
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Dictionary of the OT: Wisdom, Poetry & Writings

This third OT volume in IVP's "Black Dictionary" series offers nearly 150 articles covering all aspects of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ruth and Esther. Over 90 contributors, many of them experts in this literature, have contributed to this invaluable reference.
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One Land, One Saviour

This is a significant time in the history of the Aboriginal people, and of the Aboriginal Church. Recent developments have put Aboriginal issues back on the political agenda, and back in the public consciousness. This book is written for all Australian Christians who care about Aboriginal people in the North.
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Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes

Beginning with Jesus' birth, Ken Bailey leads readers on a kaleidoscopic study of Jesus throughout the four Gospels. Bailey examines the life and ministry of Jesus with attention to the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes, Jesus' relationship to women and especially Jesus' parables, employing his trademark expertise as a master of Middle Eastern culture.
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Christ and Culture Revisited

Called to live in the world, but not to be of it, Christians face the challenge of how they should interact with their culture, which often departs from Judeo-Christian roots and values in significant ways. Carson begins by exploring Richard Niebuhr's classic typology, with its five options for understanding culture.
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Dictionary of the Christian Church

This unique, one-volume reference work has put information on all aspects of the Christian church at generations of reader's fingertips. Its extensive entries offer unmatched coverage of a wide-range of topics. Whether seeking information on the Bible, religious orders, theologians or philosophers, archaeology or spirituality, this is the resource to consult.
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Matthew BECNT

New Testament scholar David Turner offers a substantive yet highly accessible commentary on Matthew in this latest addition to the BECNT series. With extensive research and thoughtful chapter-by-chapter exegesis, Turner leads readers through all aspects of the Gospel of Matthew - sociological, historical, and theological - to help them better understand and explain this key New Testament book.
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Surprised by Hope

What do Christians hope for? To leave this wicked world and go to heaven? For the kingdom of God to grow on earth? What do we mean by the 'resurrection of the body', and how does that fit with the image of sitting on clouds playing harps? How does all this affect our lives? Tom Wright, one of our leading theologians, addresses these questions in this provocative and wide-ranging new book.
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Written For Us

Understanding what the Bible teaches about itself is an issue of central importance. Peter Adam's conviction is that there is a coherent 'biblical theology of the Bible'. In this volume he searches the Scriptures to find their answer to the question of their identity and use. This fresh, energetic presentation is a valuable complement to the author's previous works on the function and application of Scripture.
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New Jerome Biblical Commentary

Affordable hardback reprint of the 1995 edition.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary is a commentary to be used in studying the Scriptures. It is aimed at anyone interested in religion and theology, lay and clergy alike. It contains a verse-by-verse commentary on all books in the Bible, complemented by topical articles.
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Pilgrims of Christ on the Muslim Road

Today's tensions between the "Islamic" East and "Christian" West run high. Here Paul-Gordon Chandler presents fresh thinking in the area of Christian-Muslim relations, showing how Christ - whom Islam reveres as a prophet and Christianity serves as Lord - can close the gap between the two religions.
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Commentary on the New Testament use of the Old Testament

Readers of the New Testament often encounter quotes or allusions to the Old Testament that may be unfamiliar or obscure. In this volume, G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson have brought together a distinguished team of scholars to isolate, catalog, and comment on both the obvious Old Testament quotations and the more subtle allusions found in the New Testament.
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A Gentle Bunyip: The Athol Gill Story

Athol Gill was a minister, a scholar, and founder of the House of Freedom in Brisbane and the House of the Gentle Bunyip in Melbourne. Internationally recognised both as a scholar and provocative advocate for the poor and social justice, he campaigned relentlessly for the church to adhere to the teachings of its founder, and for society to be reshaped along the lines of peace and justice.
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BST New Testament CDROM

The Bible Speaks Today series has been widely acclaimed for its accurate exposition, contemporary relevance, and readability. On this Windows CD-ROM the entire New Testament series is now made available in electronic form, with helpful study guides. Logos Bible Software 3 provides outstanding search and study facilities.
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Icons

This handsome oversize volume (9.5 x 12.5 inches) features hundreds of full-color reproductions (many full-page) of classic Christian icons from the Eastern Orthodox Churches. The most famous icons are included, but also many rarely if ever seen in books. The selection is heavy on Russian icons, but icons of several other countries are well represented.
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Being Human, Being Church

To a greater or lesser extent, every church engages in three areas of experience: community, mission and worship. Where these three overlap, a church's spirituality can be found, argues Robert Warren. This is a pulsating heart beat that gives life and growth and enables individual Christians to engage with the culture that surrounds them courageously and creatively.
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Christian Worship Worldwide

As Christianity has boomed in the non-Western world, several significant questions have emerged regarding how worship and culture relate. Charles Farhadian here presents a timely investigation of the interaction between culture and worship. Leading scholars - experts in history, mission, culture, and liturgy - offer diverse essays addressing worship in the context of worldwide Christianity.
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The Twilight of Atheism

Atheism is one of the most important movements in modern Western culture. For the last two hundred years, it seemed to be on the verge of eliminating religion as an outmoded and dangerous superstition. Recent years, however, have witnessed the decline of disbelief and a rise in religious devotion throughout the world.
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Dictionary of Christian Biography

This book is a unique rapid reference to those men and women of all denominations who have, over the last two millenia, contributed to the life, history and study of Christianity in all its facets, or in whose lives Christianity has been a significant factor. Entries are concise and accessible, although for key figures longer essays have been written. Over 1200 pages.
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The Chaplaincy Phenomena

This book takes a long hard look at just what it is like on the front-line of this emerging ministry. It has been told from the heart and uses real stories of young people coming to Christ. It is the good, the bad and the ugly of what it is like being a young person today - at a time when the idea of family values has diminished and fear of the world at large is commonplace.
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The Living Church

Convictions of a lifelong pastor

What exactly is a living church? Author John Stott explains, 'We need more radically conservative churches: "conservative" in the sense that they conserve what Scripture plainly requires, but radical in relation to that combination of tradition and convention that we call "culture". Scripture is unchangeable, but culture is not.'

The Living Church brings together a number of characteristics of what the author calls 'authentic' or 'living' church. The marks, being clearly biblical, are timeless and need to be preserved.

We are encouraged to become learning churches, caring churches, worshipping churches and evangelising churches. John Stott unpacks the Bible's wisdom rigorously with a teacher's skill and applies it faithfully with a pastor's heart. Becoming a living church is not an impossible goal.

Visit the publisher's website to view the book's contents and read the preface online.

Please! No more boring sermons

Preaching for Australians - Contemporary Insights and Practical Aspects

Ten preachers and teachers share contemporary insights and practical help for sermon preparation and delivery.

Not another book about preaching! As preparation for preaching is a solitary, time-consuming and responsible activity, no experienced preacher would buy such a book unless it contained different, contemporary and practical advice and, as illustration of this, some real sermons already preached to real congregations with no thought of publication.

By inviting some highly credentialed preachers to contribute a chapter on a particular aspect of preaching and/or a sermon, the Simeon Association has given preachers a great gift in making this material available to fellow preachers and would-be preachers. Common themes display a variety of insights and aspects reflecting not only the topics under consideration, but the individual perceptions and gifts of the authors.

This collection contains ideas and practical help for experienced preachers who might wish that this wisdom was imparted to them long ago. Those new to preaching will learn skills and habits whose fruit will enrich the spiritual lives of their fellow Christians.

Contributors: Peter Adam, John Chapman, Richard Condie, John Dickson, Harry Goodhew, Michael Gourlay, Adrian Lane, Robin Payne, Keith Rayner, David Williams.

Engaging with the Holy Spirit

6 crucial questions

In this book, Graham Cole focuses on important questions of practical relevance. What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? How may we resist the Holy Spirit? Ought we to pray to the Holy Spirit? How do we quench the Holy Spirit? How do we grieve the Holy Spirit? How does the Holy Spirit fill us?

In offering answers to these questions, Professor Cole also demonstrates the value of having a clearly defined and articulated theological method, that takes the biblical text seriously, learns from others in the process of interpretation, and works hard at application to the contemporary context.

Tokens of Trust

An introduction to Christian belief

What are the essentials of Christian belief? In Tokens of Trust Rowan Williams looks at the implications of saying 'I believe' to the great claims of the Creeds.

Wonderful, thought-provoking phrases leap off each page and there is a characteristic depth of thoughtfulness that will reveal new dimensions each time this book is read.

God Next Door

What if God lived next door? Would it make any difference to your neighbourhood? Jesus summed up the essence of the Christian life as loving God with heart, soul, mind and strength and loving our neighbour as ourselves. So what does this mean for the way we live with the people next door?

Simon Carey Holt has listened to the experiences of numerous men and women of faith living in a variety of urban and suburban neighbourhoods. By drawing these experiences into conversation with biblical and cultural perspectives on residential life, he uncovers the spiritual possibilities of our neighbourhoods. The result is an inspiring new agenda for local mission in the 21st century.

What Jesus Demands from the World

In the four Gospels, Jesus Christ makes many demands, which show us who Jesus is and what he expects of us. They are not harsh requirements of a taskmaster, however, but rather the command of the life-giver to come and have life.

In this book, Piper has gathered many of Jesus' demands from the Gospels. He provides a brief outline of Jesus' person and work to set his demands in context, and then examines them in fifty concise chapters, offering an accessible book for those who want to know Jesus better.

The Mission of God

Unlocking the Bible's grand narrative

Most Christians would agree that the Bible provides a basis for mission. Chris Wright believes that there is actually a missional basis for the whole Bible - it is generated by, and is all about, God's mission.

Beginning with the Old Testament understanding of who God is, what he has called his people to be and to do, and where the nations belong within God's mission, and following these themes into the New Testament, Wright emphasizes that biblically defined mission is intrinsically holistic. God's mission to redeem his whole creation from all that sin and evil have inflicted upon it, and the mission of God's people must reflect the breadth of God's righteous and saving love for all he has made.

Biblica - The Bible Atlas

A Social and Historical Journey Through the Lands of the Bible

This book maps the entire world of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. Written by a team of distinguished academics and bible scholars and illustrated with more than 550 full-color images from leading art galleries, museums, and collections, Biblica is the most authoritative and up-to-the-moment atlas of the Bible available.

Includes CD-ROM which contains the complete book, maps, the ability to save notes, search the text by keyword and topics, and print sections of the book.

View a preview of the book online here (HTML).

310mm x 410mm, 576 pages, 550 full color images including 125 original maps.

Credible Witness

Companions, prophets, hosts & other Australian mission models

Australians long for expressions of faith that are genuine and practical. This book explores how clues for credible witness can be gleaned from Australian historical images - the Aborigine, convict, bushman, gold digger, Anzac 'digger' and migrant. A conversation between these historical themes and Christian tradition suggests models of mission which are authentically at home in Australian culture: spiritual companion, chaplain, shepherd, prophetic advocate, servant and community host.

NICNT - The Letters to Timothy and Titus

In this commentary Towner shows how theological expression and ethical admonition are carefully integrated into messages that emphasize the importance of the church's reputation in the world for the success of its evangelistic call. Complemented with thorough footnotes, bibliographical citations, and indexes, this book will soon become the standard work on these letters.

Prayer

In his new book, Prayer, Yancey probes the very heartbeat of our relationship with God: prayer. What is prayer? How does it work? And more importantly, does it work? Is God listening? Why should God care about me? Why do answers to prayer seem so inconsistent? This book encourages us to pray to God who sees what lies ahead of us, knows what lies within us, and who invites us into an eternal partnership through prayer.

Orthodoxy

Chesterton has been called the ablest and most exuberant proponent of orthodox Christianity of his time. One of the twentieth century's most discerning authors, he has had a profound impact on countless Christian writers including C S Lewis. Chesterton's Orthodoxy offers an inimitable explanation of the essentials of the Christian faith, and of his own journey from skepticism to belief.

The New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics

The New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics addresses the main intellectual objections to the Christian faith, and puts the case in its favour from a wide variety of perspectives. The contributors also consider how the truth of the church's message can be demonstrated within the elements of contemporary culture.

Building the Mission-Shaped Church in Australia

Building on the studies and reports from the UK, this book was commissioned by the Anglican General Synod. Questions for small group discussions in churches and home groups. The stories in this book will encourage Australian Christians, especially Anglicans, to work out their own strategies.

Exiles

Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture

Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture presents a biblical, Christian worldview for the emergent church people who are not at home in the traditional church or in the secular world. Aimed at church leaders, pastors and laypersons, Exiles seeks to explores the life of a Christian and suggests that faith is about more than church attendance and belief in God.

Free of Charge

Giving & Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace

With a foreword from Rowan Williams, and recent high praise from NT Wright, what more can we say? Miroslav Volf draws from popular culture as well as from a wealth of literary and theological sources, weaving his rich reflections around the sturdy frame of Paul's vision of God's grace and Martin Luther's interpretation of that vision. Blending the best of theology and spirituality, he encourages us to echo in our own lives God's generous giving and forgiving.

Christian Foundations

7 volume set

New in paperback, this seven-volume series is a comprehensive, systematic theology. Bloesch contributes significantly to late modern evangelical theology, exploring what an ancient faith has to say to perplexing new times.

Never Alone

The remarkable story of David & Robyn Claydon

A child with no name, no parents and no place in the world, grows up in war-time Israel, escapes death several times, is rescued, and brought to Australia. It seemed he had no future; but God had him in the palm of his hand. As he grew up, he knew that he would never be alone.

David's story, and God's work in his life is remarkable. From belonging nowhere, he in now a man who through his dedication to Christian mission belongs almost everywhere: a true citizen of the world. His ministry and partnership with his equally remarkable wife Robyn, has touched lives around the world.

This is a story of two people nurtured and held close by a God who had a plan for them; a plan which proved bigger than they could ever have imagined.

Leadership Next

Our culture is constantly changing, as fast as - or faster than - we can adapt to it. In this context Christian leaders have not only to acquire new insights and skills, but also to unlearn what they previously knew. Even our definition of leadership is under review.

In this sequel to the acclaimed Church Next, Eddie Gibbs examines how Christian leadership might change in the light of new cultural conditions. He considers recent developments in leadership styles, from hierarchies to networks and compartments to connections, and assesses the dynamics of leadership teams. Having specified the healthy characteristics of Christian leaders, he then explains how they can be identified and nurtured.

This incisive analysis, from an expert in church growth, will serve as a comprehensive resource for current and potential Christian leaders, and those who teach and mentor them.

Inheriting Wisdom

Readings for today from Ancient Christian Writers

This book groups quotes from early Christians according to a wide range of everyday themes, providing a resource which is both scholarly and devotional.

Early Christians looked at all things through the lens of God and Christ, including those that today we would consider secular in nature, as the wide range of subjects these writers addressed clearly demonstrates. The words of Christian writers such as Tertullian, Jerome, John Chrysostom, Basil of Caesarea, and Clement of Alexandria are organized around familiar, everyday themes. In study, reflection, or devotional reading, use this book to look through their eyes at our issues - and, perhaps, find a deepened and sharpened awareness of what it means to choose the Christian life.

Introduced, organized, and translated by Everett Ferguson, these quotes are arranged to allow the ancient authors to speak for themselves. Inheriting Wisdom will refresh modern readers with the rich resources of early Christianity and provide direction and guidance for the twenty-first century.

The Art & Craft of Biblical Preaching

A Comprehensive Resource for Today's Communicators

This is the most complete practical encyclopedia ever on the practice of preaching based on articles from over a hundred respected communicators of Christian truth. The book comes with an audio CD which contains preaching technique examples from the book.

The entries are characterized by intensely practical and vivid writing designed to help preachers deepen their understanding and sharpen their communication skills, while the contributors include a virtual Who's Who of preaching from a cross section of denominations and traditions.

For a full table of contents and list of contributors, please visit the publisher's website.