Web Site; Life Long faith

Lifelong offers resources and information on Christian Faith Formation ​for All Ages including Projects, Workshops, and Resources developed ​by John Roberto and LifelongFaith Associates.

Resources include:

• Book - Faith formation for the new generation 
• Resources for Child and Adolscent faith formation
• Resources for Adolscent faith formation
• Faith formation practices for Adults, children and adolescents, Digital, family, parent, Intergenerational, Lifelong and Missional faith formation
• Journal
• Books
• Workshops

Take a visit to www.lifelongfaith.com to discover more

Book: God is Good for you

At a time of crisis for Christianity in the West, God is Good for You shows just why we need faith in our world.

The Judeo-Christian tradition has created and underpinned the moral and legal fabric of Western civilisation for more than 2000 years, yet now we've reached a point in both Australia and many parts of the West where Christianity has become a minority faith rather than the mainstream belief. It's a situation that's fraught both for Christians and our wider society, where the moral certainties that were the foundation of our institutions and laws are no longer held by the majority.

At this point of crisis for faith, God is Good for You shows us why Christianity is so vital for our personal and social well-being, and how modern Christians have never worked so hard to make the world a better place at a time when their faith has never been less valued. It carries a vital torch for Christianity in a way that's closely argued, warmly human, good humoured yet passionate, and, above all, convincing.

Contents include:

• Introduction: Is God dead?
• Christianity. Believing in God is rational, atheism is an odd religious faith and the new atheists are false prophets
• The ragged edge of justice-what Christians believe
• What did we ever get from Christianity-apart from the idea of the individual, human rights, feminism, liberalism, modernity, social justice and secular politics?
• Christianity's problems-evil, suffering, the sins of Christians
• Give the Old Testament a try-you'll be astonished
• Christians. Politicians-more Christian than you'd think
• So national leaders have souls too-who knew?
• Free radicals-Pentecostalsand monks
• Signs of new life
• Ordinary extraordinary Christian
• Death (nearly) comes for the archbishop
• Chapter twelve: Bold minority-the future for Christians and their churches.

To obtain your copy of God is Good for You visit here 

Book: Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough

Jefferson Bethke burst into the cultural conversation in 2012 with a passionate, provocative poem titled “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus.” The 4-minute video literally became an overnight sensation, with 7 million YouTube views in its first 48 hours (and 23+ million in a year). The message blew up on social-media, triggering an avalanche of responses running the gamut from encouraged to enraged.

In Jesus > Religion, Bethke unpacks similar contrasts that he drew in the poem—highlighting the difference between teeth gritting and grace, law and love, performance and peace, despair and hope. With refreshing candor he delves into the motivation behind his message, beginning with the unvarnished tale of his own plunge from the pinnacle of a works-based, fake-smile existence that sapped his strength and led him down a path of destructive behavior.

Bethke is quick to acknowledge that he’s not a pastor or theologian, but simply a regular, twenty-something who cried out for a life greater than the one for which he had settled. Along his journey, Bethke discovered the real Jesus, who beckoned him beyond the props of false religion.

Content
Chapter 1 “Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?”
Chapter 2: “Why I Still Think Jesus Hates Religion (and You Should Too)”
Chapter 3: “Fundies, Fakes and Other So-Called Christians”
Chapter 4: “Religion Makes Enemies/Jesus Makes Friends”
Chapter 5: “With Religion, There are Good and Bad People/With Jesus, There are Only Bad People…”
Chapter 6: “Religion Is the Means to Get Things from God/If We Seek Jesus, We Get God”
Chapter 7: “With Religion, If You are Suffering, God is Punishing You/God Already Punished Jesus…”
Chapter 8: “Religion Says, “God Will Love You If…”
Chapter 9: “Religion Points to a Dim Future/Jesus Points to a Bright Future”
Chapter 10: “Why Jesus Loves the Church (and You Should Too)”

Buy Jesus>Religion here

Bible Study: The Greatest Story ever told

The Greatest Story is a new Bible study that comes with dvd resources of sand artist Joe Castillo telling the story and books, giving participants a big-picture overview of the Bible—discussing key people, places, and events in an easy-to-understand way, as they dive deeper into the story and discover their place in God's story.  

To discover more and gain a sample of The Greatest Story visit here

Bible Studies - A Pastoral look at the bible

Preface

In September of 1999, Pastor Mark Wilms began work on a pastoral commentary of the entire Bible.  A month later, he started a weekly Bible study in the church he was serving at the time, Bethlehem Lutheran (ELCA) on the south side of Chicago, using the material that he was producing.  By October of 2008 he came to the end of my journey with a complete set of Bible studies on the sixty-six commonly-accepted books of scripture.

These studies can be used individually to cover just a small piece of scripture, a whole book at a time, or a survey of the entire Bible.

The format is consistent throughout. 
Each biblical book is divided up into a series of studies covering one or more chapters (usually a group of several). 
 Each study (and sometimes a book or other kind of section) offers an introduction that attempts to be informative but also pastoral in tone, followed by a series of notes that add more information, and then one or more discussion questions. 
The historical material has been gleaned from a number of study Bibles and commentaries that are listed after this preface. 

This commentary takes a high view of scripture, but also strives to be in harmony with responsible scholarship.

The intent has been to produce a Bible study that is highly informative, true to scholarly research, but also helpful and interesting for anyone, from the person who has had little contact with the Bible but would like to know more, to someone who knows their Bible well but would like to deepen his or her knowledge.  More than that, it is my desire that these studies will help people grow in their faith in the God who brought so many people of the Bible out of bondage and gave them hope in spite of their many failures as God’s children, a hope that, in the end, could only be satisfied by God’s own action through Christ.

Bible Studies are available here

Lutheran Preaching Course online

At the 2014 Pastor's confernece of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod - Michigan District Reverend Dr David Schmitt presented 5 sessions on preaching which are available below:

Contemporary Preaching Trends

Confessional Preaching

Transformational Preaching - Narrative

Transformational Preaching

Conversational Preaching