Book: Gathered Guests

Gathered guests - a guide to worship in the Lutheran Church 

God's gathered guests come together because God calls us by His Gospel. We are gathered in His name to receive His Word and Meal. We respond in praise and prayers and works of service. This gathering time provides us with the power for living and believing. The worship service ends, but our service continues throughout the week as we live out our faith in Christ in our daily lives.-from the Introduction

This second edition of Gathered Guests explores the elements that compose the broad category of Lutheran worship, including:

• The historic nature of and current structure of the Divine Service, prayer offices (including Matins and Vespers), and festival and occasional services used in the Lutheran Church.
• An overview of music, the arts, architecture, and their relationship to worship.
• The role of liturgy, rite, and ceremony in the Divine Service.

Special features include

• Glossary and topical and Scripture indexes.
• Targeted information for lectors and worship planners.
• Family and small-group devotional outlines.
• Addresses the service orders included in the Lutheran Service Book.

Available from Amazon

Book: Think like Jesus

The main reason people don't act like Jesus is because they don't think like Jesus. Discover the seven core questions that Christians must be able to answer biblically in order to live a transformed life.

The latest data from researcher George Barna’s polls across America shows that we are confused by the issues that confront us today. We find ourselves wrestling with what is right and wrong. Some of us cut ethical corners and don’t even know it. We often base our actions on what feels right or keeps people happy rather than on what is best or true.

All because, Barna concludes, we lack an active, clear belief system based on solid, scriptural principles.

Now more than ever, we need a way of life that brings us clarity in chaos, peace in the problems, and boldness in the bad times. We need a new way of seeing—a biblical perspective that guides our every thought and action.

What is a biblical perspective on life? To put it simply, Barna says, it is a "way of dealing with the world so that we act like Jesus, twenty-four hours a day, because we think like Jesus. It’s like wearing a pair of eyeglasses that enable us to see things differently, to see things from God’s point of view, and to respond to these perceptions in the way He prescribes.”

Think Like Jesus:

• Uncovers the seven core beliefs of Christianity necessary for developing a strong Christian worldview
• Provides a firm explanation of why Christians believe what we believe
• Includes detailed statistics and polls on where Americans agree with the Bible on key topics
• Exposes causes of concern in modern Christianity through the misalignment of key beliefs

Would you like to simplify your life, shore up your moral foundations, and strengthen your Christian witness? Think Like Jesus can help you chart a path that will allow you to make a difference for eternity in your home, your job, your church, and your community. 

You can order Think Like Jesus here

Book: Beginners Gospel Story Bible

The Beginner's Gospel Story Bible is a gospel-centered, Bible storybook for toddlers and preschoolers with fifty-two Bible stories retold in a simple and compelling way.

Author Jared Kennedy traces through the stories of the Old and New Testament how God keeps his promises in surprising ways better than anyone could have ever thought or imagined! Each story highlights for young children God's story of redemption through Jesus Christ and the unexpected ways that God's grace and mercy are revealed throughout the Bible. Children will hear the good news of God's love for them clearly expressed in ways that will speak to their young hearts. Each story ends with a question that Christian parents and caregivers can use to further reinforce the story. 

Brightly colored illustrations highlight each story and add fun teaching elements of
counting, opposites, patterns, and object recognition to keep even the youngest child's attention on these important Christian teachings about God's love.

Available from Amazon

Book: Evangelism in a Skeptical World: How to Make the Unbelievable News about Jesus More Believable

Evangelism in a Skeptical World: How to Make the Unbelievable News about Jesus More Believable is a book written by Sam Chan, an experienced evangelist who has experienced evangelising in modern and post modern scenarios, varying cultural contexts and over many years.   

He recognises that many of the old methods of evangelism no longer work effectively today. We need new methods to communicate the timeless message of the gospel in culturally relevant ways.

In a post-Christian, post-churched, post-reached world, most Christians have been poorly equipped to tell their friends about Jesus. Dr. Chan combines the theological and biblical insights of classic evangelistic training with his own and hard-won insights from missiology on contextualization, cultural hermeneutics, and storytelling.

Every chapter is illustrated with real-world examples drawn from over fifteen years of evangelistic ministry across the globe. These are methods that really work—with university students, urban workers, and professionals—getting past the defensive posture that people have toward Christianity so they can seriously consider the claims of Jesus Christ.

Field-tested and filled with unique, fresh, and creative insights, this book will equip you to share the gospel in today's world and help as many people as possible hear the good news about Jesus.

Chapters include

1. A Theology of Evangelism
2. Everyday Evangelism
3. How to Craft a Gospel Presentation
4. Evangelism to Postmoderns
5. Contextualization for Evangelism
6. Gospel-Cultural Hermeneutics
7. Storytelling the Gospel
8. How to Give Evangelistic Topical Talks
9. How to Give Evangelistic Expository Talks
10. Religious Epistemology, Apologetics, and Defeater Beliefs

Evangelism in a Skeptical World available here

Book: Uproar: Calm leadership in anxious times

Uproar: Calm Leadership in Anxious Times helps leaders understand the powerful impact that emotional processes have on the people they lead.

If “these are the times that test men’s souls,” never more than for the leader’s ability to think clearly, to be present calmly, and to challenge effectively. 

It’s a time when leaders cannot be as anxious as those they serve; otherwise, the system is leaderless. Anxiety flows down like water from a leaky pipe. To lead effectively we must understand the impact of powerful emotional forces on people’s behavior, especially in anxious times.

Peter Steinke, bestselling author of Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times draws on decades of work on system conflict and personal experiences to share real stories of challenges leaders have faced and how understanding the power of emotions has dramatically influenced their success. 

In this book, readers will observe important leadership characteristics such as separating oneself from the surrounding anxiety, making decisions based on principle and not instinct, taking responsibility for one’s own emotional being, staying connected to others including those who disagree with you, being a non-anxious presence, focusing on emotional processes rather than the symptoms they produce, knowing people naturally influence one another, and recognizing leader and follower as complements. 

At the end of each chapter, there is a Leader’s Notebook, a short section to illustrate, enrich or engage your thinking about leadership. 

As Steinke suggests, being anxious causes you to lose perspective, and leaders do their best thinking when they are not overly stressed and can think about options, doing their best work when they work on themselves. 

So where are you in your leadership journey? No matter where you are―beginning, middle or end― this book will be one the most significant leadership books you’ll read.

Book: Called to Witness - doing missional theology

One of the leading voices in the missional church conversation, Darrell Guder here lays out basic theological issues that must be addressed for the church to serve God faithfully as Christ's witnessing people. 

Guder argues that there are major consequences for every classical theological locus if the fundamental claims of the missional church discussion are acknowledged. 

In Called to Witness he delves into these consequences, saying that we need to keep doing missional theology until it is possible to leave off the "missional scaffolding" because, after all, mission defines the very essence and calling of the church.

Chapters 

1. Reconstructing Theology: Mission and the Task of Theology
2. The Missional Challenge: De-Centering Christendom
3. The Missional Calling: The Apostolic Vocation of the Church
4. Why the Term “Missional”?
5. The Witness of God: The Trinitarian Foundation for Missional Theology
6. The Witness of God’s Word: Reading Scripture Missionally
7. The Witness of God’s People: The Royal Priesthood
8. The Witness of the Marks of the Church: The Nicene Creed
9. Integrating Theological Formation for Apostolic Vocation
10. The End of Missional Theology

Available on Amazon

Book: The Great Sending- God's heart beating through you

Will Sohns goes right to the heart—the heart of the missional problem—and offers a powerful solution. 

God’s Sending is a call to join Him in something beyond self, beyond a congregation, and beyond a denomination. God is calling us to much more. His Great Sending is His heartbeat for the world that He wants beating in and through you. 

Readers will learn to re-arrange their understanding of Scripture and life around God’s Mission…no longer arranging God’s Mission around their self-centered lives. 

Each chapter in this collection of writings from renowned authors connects God’s heart to your own through a deep dive into Scripture. The Great Sending will begin new conversations in the church around the Great Sending (Missio Dei) and lead laity, congregations, and pastors to let God change the direction of local churches that are collapsing under protectionism and self-preservation. 

The Great Sending is about opening up to God’s heart for the world. Let this book challenge you and call you to see God’s Mission and move your life to join God in the Mission.

chapters

1. Christ in the heart of the great sending
2. Engaging Disciples in the great sending
3. The great Christ sending
4. The great sending essentials
5. The great sending in the multiplication of Acts
6. The great sending in nature and culture
7. Nailing 12 missional theses in the great sending
8. Missional Resources 
9. A missio dei catechism

The Great Sending is available on Amazon

Book: Day 7: For work, rest or play

The Third Commandment asks Christians to "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy." But how is one supposed to keep it holy? What are the ways that we are to honor the sabbath through our work, rest, play, and everyday life? Author Joel Biermann invites you to join him on an exploration of the sabbath and how it's all about living in the joy and celebration of God's good gifts. 

Start with a look at what both Luther's Small Catechism and the Bible say about the sabbath to give you a foundational understanding of what God says. 

Then, see how to apply it in your work, personal, and leisure, rest, and day-to-day activities.

You can purchase this book at Amazon

BOOK: Unapologetic by Francis Suppford

 Francis Spufford's Unapologetic is a wonderfully pugnacious defense of Christianity. Refuting critics such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the "new atheist" crowd, Spufford, a former atheist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, argues that Christianity is recognizable, drawing on the deep and deeply ordinary vocabulary of human feeling, satisfying those who believe in it by offering a ruthlessly realistic account of the grown-up dignity of Christian experience.

Fans of C. S. Lewis, N. T. Wright, Marilynne Robinson, Mary Karr, Diana Butler Bass, Rob Bell, and James Martin will appreciate Spufford's crisp, lively, and abashedly defiant thesis.

Unapologetic is a book for believers who are fed up with being patronized, for non-believers curious about how faith can possibly work in the twenty-first century, and for anyone who feels there is something indefinably wrong, literalistic, anti-imaginative and intolerant about the way the atheist case is now being made.

Chapters

1. The Crack in Everything:    Introduces the book’s central idea: Christianity as an emotional, not merely intellectual, framework for understanding human brokenness.

2. Yeshua:  A vivid, historically grounded portrait of Jesus, focusing on his emotional impact rather than doctrinal claims.

3. The Human Propensity to F* Things Up (HPtFtU)**:  Spufford’s famous reframing of “sin” as a universal human tendency toward self‑sabotage.

4. Something is Missing:  Explores the longing, absence, and emotional hunger that often precede faith.

5. Hello, Cruel World:  A meditation on suffering, tragedy, and the emotional realism of Christian hope.

6. The Territory of Joy:  Discusses grace, forgiveness, and the surprising emotional richness of Christian experience.

7. Big Daddy:  A chapter on God the Father—addressing stereotypes, misunderstandings, and the emotional logic of belief.

8. The Church:  A candid, humorous, and affectionate look at the flawed but enduring Christian community.

9. The Story:   A sweeping retelling of the Christian narrative as an emotionally coherent whole.

10. The End of the Book:  A concluding reflection on why Christianity still “makes emotional sense” despite modern skepticism.

You can buy this book here

Book: Reclaiming the joy of ministry

A life in Christian ministry can be tremendously rewarding and exhilarating. 

It can also be incredibly demanding and stressful. Professional church workers run the risk of becoming depleted—spiritually, relationally and vocationally, as well as physically and financially. Nearly every minister endures times of significant hardship, but few are willing to admit how overwhelmed they often feel by the demands and expectations placed on them. 

Longtime parish pastor Darrell Zimmerman will guide you on a detailed analysis of the hazards of the ministerial lifestyle and help you discover new possibilities for a long, joyful and fruitful career in ministry. His insights are grounded in the latest research into church worker stress and burnout, and informed by his vast experience as a parish pastor and as a mentor and guide to other church workers. 

The reader will learn to: 

• Monitor the presence of the Spirit’s gift of JOY, our fuel for ministry; 
• Assess their spiritual wellbeing and renew their life with God; 
• Tend to their relationships to find encouragement, love and unity; 
• Make vocational, physical and financial health top priorities.

Chapters/Lessons

• Ministry is great but hard
• Because ministry is the way of the cross
• And overwhelmed is a way of life
• So don't try this alone
• Joy is a fuel for ministry
• But ministry threatens the joy of life with God
• And ministry threatens the joy of life with community
• And ministry threatens the joy of ministry
• Which makes daily healing essential
• Therefore, self-care has to be intentional

Reclaiming the joy of ministry is available from Amazon. 

Book: Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels

Understand the Life of Jesus in Cultural Context

Discover a deeper, richer understanding of the life and teachings of Jesus with Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by renowned scholar Kenneth Bailey. 

This book invites readers to see Jesus through the lens of his historical and cultural context, lifting away the layers of Western interpretation that have shaped modern perspectives. From Jesus' birth to his parables, from the Beatitudes to his relationships, Bailey helps readers remove modern Western interpretations to see Jesus as he was understood in his own time, offering readers a kaleidoscopic view of the person of Jesus that is simultaneously ancient and refreshingly new.

In Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, you'll find

• Cultural Insight: Gain a deeper understanding of Jesus within his Middle Eastern context, removing Western cultural blinders.
• A Transformational Perspective: Be inspired to read the Gospels with renewed clarity and depth, seeing Jesus in the light of his historical and cultural setting.

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes is a valuable resource for anyone passionate about studying the New Testament and the life of Jesus deeply and meaningfully. Explore Jesus’ story as it was meant to be seen and enrich your spiritual study with this compelling, context-driven approach.

Available on Amazon

Book: The Ultimate Christmas Wishlist

We all need hope in our lives, but many struggle to know where to look for it. This short, warm and profound book by well-known evangelist Rico Tice makes a compelling case for Christianity and the hope that it provides.

Based on Isaiah 9:6 (a passage often used in Christmas services), readers will see how Jesus – the Mighty God, Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father and Wonderful Counsellor – is the ultimate gift as he delivers what they really want: hope, peace, purpose and guidance.

This gospel presentation is ideal to give away at Christmas.

Contents

1. What Do You Want for Christmas?
2. Hope
3. Peace
4. Purpose
5. Guidance

This book is available here

Booklet: Making the Christmas Connection

This book will help you connect the Christmas story with God and how He wants to connect with us....

J. John in this book unpacks who is God and how he connects and interacts with us, and the Christmas story plays a major role in this

Find out and discover something more about who God really is and exactly how he feels about us. Find out how we lost our connection with God and how our connection can be restored.

You can purchase this booklet here

Book: The Gospel for the person who has everything

The Gospel for the person who has everything

Secure, content, competent, reasonably happy and fulfilled, such persons of strength go their own way without any apparent discomfort at having missed the benefits of the Christian faith. . . . What do you say to the person who says, through his or her neglect of the faith, "Thanks, but I don’t need it"? —from the book

Bishop William Willimon brings the Gospel of Jesus Christ to life for the person who has everything – happy, fulfilled human beings, who don’t feel the same level of need expressed by the downcast, the outcast, the brokenhearted, and the miserable. Willimon says that the church’s message to the wretched and sad must not exclude the strong and the joyous. 

In nine concise, inspired chapters, he discusses these ideas:

• Must one be sad, depressed, wallowing in sin and degradation, immature, and childishly dependent in order truly to hear the Good News? (See chapters 1 and 2.)
• “What do we say to the strong?” (See chapters 3 and 4.)
• Speaking to the strong and to the people who are weak and want to be stronger: a particular kind of evangelistic message. They have their sins, but these sins are not the sins of the weak (chapter 5).
• Worship which takes God’s strong love seriously (chapter 6)
• Ethics which arise out of our response to that love (chapter 7)
• Church as a place of continual growth and widening responsibility (chapters 8 and 9)

Buy this book here

Book - Acts to Action

Acts to Action is a 90 day devotional journey to missional living. 

This resource is ideal for individuals, bible studies or even a congregational worship series.     It is written by a Lutheran pastor and mission director, with Lutheran congregations in mind.

It will help you explore is my faith and my local church still relevant? 

The answer of course is a resounding, “YES!” 

But only the Word of God, and especially that Word as it come to us in the Acts of the Apostles, can make it so. This 90-Day devotional journey leads readers on a guided tour of the entire Book of Acts to see and learn anew how God is always working through His people, His leaders, and His local congregations to grow His kingdom. The first century church changed the world for the better. The Lord of the church wants to use you and your 21st century congregation to do the same.

The journal will you :

• Appreciate how God uses His people to save people
• Love people from all backgrounds, races, nations, and ethnicities
• Follow the example of the early church and be intentionally engaged in the mission of God
• Bring the love and hope of Jesus Christ to your family, friends, neighbourhoods, and communities

Available through Amazon

Book: Faith Notes: A Christ-Centered Survival Kit for Young Men

Today's youth are facing big problems and challenges, and they need life-saving truth that speaks directly to their unique circumstances.

Faith Notes: A Christ-Centered Survival Kit for Young Men, and its companion title for young women, is an engaging and practical devotional that candidly addresses the real hurts and heartaches of adolescence. In contrast to the daily media onslaught that young people are subjected to that leads to comparison, anxiety, perfectionism, and confusion, Faith Notes offers Jesus, grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone. They offer a survival guide that lead to eternal life.

In all, Faith Notes offers 96 devotionals on general subjects: Relationships; Spiritual Life; Thoughts and Feelings; Friends; the Future; Character; Family and Home; Anxiety; and Mistakes.

The author, Rev. Michael W. Newman, has been a pastor in The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and has served and ministered to youth for decades, giving him unique insight into what's troubling the youth of today, and how to respond Christ-like to those troubles.

Buy Faith Notes here

Book: Future Church - 7 laws of real church growth

Church growth models have often been long on promises and short on disciple-making. We continue to watch consistent church attendance shrink, and our desire to reach the lost is infected with a need for self-validation by growing our numbers at any cost. If we believe that God wants his church to grow, where do we go from here? What is the future of the church?

Drawing from his 20 years and 15,000 hours of consulting, author Will Mancini shares with pastors and ministry leaders the single most important insight he has learned about church growth. With plenty of salient stories and based solidly on the disciple-making methods found in Scripture, Future Church exposes the church's greatest challenge today, and offers 7 transforming laws of real church growth so that we can faithfully and joyfully fulfill Jesus's Great Commission.

Chapters

1. Real church growth starts with a culture of mission, not worship. 
2. Real church growth is powered by the gospel, not relevance. 
3. Real church growth is validated by unity, not numbers.
4. Real church growth is local, not imported. 
5. Real church growth is about growing people, not managing programs. 
6. Real church growth is led by calling, not celebrity. Call every believer to engage their parish and serve God through their vocation.
7. Real church growth is energized by shared imagination, not shared preference. 

2024 Australian Christian Diary

 The 2024 Australian Christian Diary is now available

This popular Australian Christian Diary contains the following:

• Lectionary Bible reading for each day
• All Church Year festivals
• Week to an opening,
• Monthly planner
• Australian holidays and school terms

Available from Australian Christian Resources

Book: Canoeing the Mountains

 Over 100,000 Copies Sold Worldwide!

Canoeing the mountains is a book to help Christian leaders to prepare for leading their church and ministries into the future.  

Explorers Lewis and Clark had to adapt. They had originally canoed up a waterway, and expected this waterway to continue all the way to the Pacific Ocean, instead they found themselves in the Rocky Mountains, with no water way.  So what got them to where they were was not going to help them for the next part of the journey.   You too may fe

el that you are leading in a cultural context you were not expecting. You may even feel that your training holds you back more often than it carries you along.

Drawing from his extensive experience as a pastor and consultant, Tod Bolsinger brings decades of expertise in guiding churches and organizations through uncharted territory. He offers a combination of illuminating insights and practical tools to help you reimagine what effective leadership looks like in our rapidly changing world.

If you're going to scale the mountains of ministry, you need to leave behind canoes and find new navigational tools. Now expanded with a study guide, this book will set you on the right course to lead with confidence and courage.

Reviews
Lutheran Church Workers

Andrew Fuller Blog

Journey UCA 

Book: This is most certainly true - learning Jesus Christ through Luther's Small Catechism

This is most certainly true - learning Jesus Christ through Luther's Small Catechism

Dr Mark Worthing

This is most certainly true is an engagement with Luther's Small Catechism that helps us discover Jesus Christ for today's context, with a biblical focus.  Dr Worthing discusses more deeply in an easy to digest manner each section of the catechism and their relevance for knowing Jesus, life and faith.

This book is ideal for:

• Anyone new to the Christian faith or Lutheranism
• Confirmation instruction
• New Members classes
• Small groups looking to  review or renew their faith
• Resource for worship and sermons
• Devotional resource

Reviews and recommendations

"This clear, lively engagement with Luther's Small Catechism grows you in faith, while at the same time helping you to reflection what this means for daily living. Ideal for small groups focused on discipleship."  Robert Bartholomaeus - Bishop, Lutheran Church of Australia, NSW & ACT

"This is Most Certainly True highlights beautifully the brilliance of Martin Luther's Small Catechism. [It] reminds us how relevant and applicable Luther's Small Catechism still is today and how it cuts through to the basic simple truths of God's love for us, and how we can live a purposeful and meaningful life."   Carolyn Teusner, mother and carer

"Dr Worthing;s explanation of Luther's Small Catechism clears up much confusion surrounding Christian faith and values today with a clear presentation of the message of the gospel. It will be of great help both to Church leaders, including clergymen/women, and to everyday believers seeking uphold professional and moral standards and to live as people of faith."  Peter Garang Deng, educator

"Not having been brought up in a Christian family, this book was a wonderful inspiration for me and will benefit anyone wanting a better understanding of the essentials of the Bible. It is a clearly written and concise analysis of Luther's Small Catechism and will appeal to those wanting to learn more about Lutheran doctrine as well as Christianity generally. This is Most Certainly True is a powerful tool for the Christian life which I highly recommend."   Peter Geyer, lawyer

Australian Christian Resources