Showing posts with label ebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ebook. Show all posts

Saturday, November 07, 2020

Lutheran EBOOK Library

 Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry is a  non-profit publisher of Christian books. They offer ebooks and paperbacks. All Ebooks are provided without charge. Paperbacks are at cost. 

They seek to provide solid, encouraging material to strengthen you as a believer in Christ

Visit:  https://www.lutheranlibrary.org/ to view their selection


Wednesday, February 13, 2019

E Book: What happened to our churches? - Regaining Spiritual energy

“What Happened to Our Churches?” is a free eBook from David S. Luecke.

What happened to our churches is a Collection of 52 blogs About Regaining Spiritual Energy.

The Apostle Paul was an organizational genius and a world-class entrepreneur. He was also a high-level analyst who could spot what wasn’t working in churches he oversaw and figure out what to do about it. His letters to churches were his report along with an explanation for God’s empowering presence that would bring the intended results.

How would the Apostle Paul assess what is happening with the current steep decline of mainline Protestant churches in America, after serving so well and faithfully for centuries?

With a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior, Dr. David Luecke fills the role of Analyst in his latest book release. This collection of blogs is Dr. Luecke’s analysis of what’s happening in mainline churches that are in steep decline. They are losing their spiritual energy and the only way to regain it is to take the Holy Spirit’s empowering presence more seriously in church life and ministries.

Contents
Chapter 1: Six Perspectives on Regaining Spiritual Energy
Chapter 2: Motivated by the Spirit
Chapter 3: Recognizing the Spirit
Chapter 4: Discipled by the Spirit
Chapter 5: Waiting on the Spirit
Chapter 6: Culturally Shaped Experiences of the Spirit
Chapter 7: Organizing the Spirit’s Fellowships

About the Dr Luecke
There was a time in Dr. Luecke’s professional career when he had the title “Analyst.” His Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior was great preparation for a consultant as well as a professor. For six years, Dr. Luecke taught the M.B.A. Organizational Behavior course at Washington University in St. Louis. For ten years he taught the Doctor of Ministry course on Church Management at Fuller Seminary, where he was an administrator and associate professor. He also taught Strategic Management as a professor at Valparaiso University.
These 52 blogs address what Dr. Luecke sees has gone wrong with traditional mainline churches that, fifty years ago, were healthy but are now in steep decline. Luecke thinks Lutheran, as well as Presbyterian, Reformed, Episcopalian, Methodist, and United Church of Christ churches, have lost their basic spiritual energy. The only way to regain it back is to pay much more attention to who the Holy Spirit is and how he works today — that is, to recover the emphasis in Paul’s theology that Dr. Luecke gained from Gordon Fee’s detailed exegetical study God’s Empowering Presence (1994).
In 1990, Dr. Luecke received a call to plant a new Lutheran church in a suburb of his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. He saw it as a great opportunity to practice what he had been teaching. That church just moved into its large new sanctuary in a choice location in Broadview Heights. From their, Dr. Luecke moved on to become the Administrative Pastor at Royal Redeemer Lutheran Church in the neighboring suburb of North Royalton, where he still serves as a semi-retired Missions Pastor. Dr. Luecke was ordained 50 years ago and has a multitude of experience with what works and what doesn’t in congregations.

You can download the book here

Saturday, November 10, 2018

EBOOK: The Gospel Centred Christian

This ebook  focuses on the nature of the relationship between the Gospel and
Scripture in our theology. It explores what happens when the relationship between the Gospel and Scripture become unbalanced, and the implications for the teaching and life of the church. The book explores  that the Lutheran understanding of the relationship between the Gospel and Scripture is not only an intellectual construct, it is also what we we embody it in our lives.

Available for downloading here

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Free ebook: Purchasing audio and visual equipment - a guide for churches

Some form of modern sound and lighting system can be found in almost every church today, but purchasing this equipment can be intimidating. Concordia Technology has produced an ebook to get you pointed in the right direction and to help you learn how to navigate the planning, sales, and purchasing and installation processes.
For more information about this free ebook visit here

Monday, October 09, 2017

Book of Ministerial Acts from Church of the Lutheran Brethren

The Church of the Lutheran Brethren's Bookd of Ministerial Acts is available as a pdf at http://www.clba.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/CLB-Ministerial-Acts-Interactive.pdf

Table of contents
The Creeds of the Christian Church

Baptism
Baptism of Infants—First Setting 
Baptism of Infants—Second Setting 
Baptism of Older Children 
Baptism of Adults
Emergency Baptism
Private Baptism 

Communion
Service of Holy Communion 
Private Communion

Confirmation 

Marriage
Service of Marriage
Preface to the Marriage Ceremony When There  Has Been a Divorce—First Setting
Preface to the Marriage Ceremony When There  Has Been a Divorce—Second Setting
Preface to the Marriage Ceremony When There  Has Been a Divorce—Third Setting

Burial of the Dead 
Funeral Service
Scripture Readings
Committal Service—First Setting
Committal Service—Second Setting

Anointing the Sick
Reception of New Members

Ordination, Installation, Commissioning
Ordination of a Pastor
Installation of a Pastor
Ordination and Installation of Elders
Commissioning
Installation of Deacons/Deaconesses
Installation of Church Officers
Installation of Sunday School Teachers 

Groundbreaking

Cornerstone Laying

Service of Dedication for a Church

Mortgage Burning

Service of Dedication for a Home

Service of Dedication for a Ship or Boat

Church Discipline

Reinstatement of Membership
Restoration Service for a Pastor

Pericope Texts 
Series A 
Series B 
Series C

Monday, July 03, 2017

Book: Faithfull Generation: 10 foundations for lifelong faith formation with children in families, churches and communities

Faithfull Generation brings together 10 key insights about how we can help ourselves and our churches develop resilient faith in our children.


The 10 key insights include:
Community: helping the church to thrive as a growing, intergenerational faith community, whilst supporting the family as a key place of spiritual nurture
Encounter: creating opportunities for children to connect with the big story of the Bible and space where they can encounter the living Jesus for themselves.
Dialogue: Encouraging faith to be both talked out and lived out, within peer relationships and supported by the wider church family.
Milestones: Enabling peak experiences in the lives of children and celebrating key moments and anchor points in their life and spiritual journey.
Action: Allowing children to contribute as active participants in mission and giving them the opportunity to respond with compassion to the world around them.

Each contribution is from a hands-on practitioner active in children's ministry and advocacy. Each chapter introduces the writer and also contains suggestions for further reading and practical resource material.

The Faithfull Generation project is the work of several Christian agencies and denominations and is promoting dialogue, learning communities and resource promotion around all of the 10 key insights.

Buy this book here

Thursday, June 08, 2017

Ebook: Bring Jesus

Bring Jesus is a series of Mission focused articles with study guides that appeared in  The Lutheran magazine (Australia) (2014-15) written by the Lutheran Church of Australia's, South Australian and Northern Territory District Mission Director, Steen Olsen.   
Articles include:

  • Wherever I go I bring Jesus
  • God at work
  • It doesn’t depend on you
  • Inviting others to believe
  • No clones here!
  • What are we waiting for?
  • Evangelism must die!
  • Let Jesus speak!
  • A welcome peace
  • We want to grow!
  • Christmas at the margins
  • I am making all things new!
  • Prayer: As individual as you are
  • Gospel glimmers in unlikely places
  • Making room for more people
  • Welcoming the stranger
  • Pregnant congregations bring life
  • Dare to be different
  • Set free
  • Christmas blows away the fog about God

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Ebook: Why God made cities by Tim Keller

In this free ebook book Tim Keller (pastor and founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church) talks about why cities, why churches, and how global cities can be renewed. 
Contents

  • God invented the cities
  • The city redeems our greatest potential
  • The city is a place of refuge
  • The city compels us to Spiritual seeking
  • God sends us into the city

Gain your free copy of Why God made cities here

Thursday, March 23, 2017

EBook: Pauline Hermeneutics, exploring the power of the Gospel

Paul’s letters are of crucial importance for Christian theology and church life. The way in which the apostle Paul critically reflected on the meaning of the gospel message in light of Scripture, the traditions, ethics and Christian faith and hope, has had a significant and lasting impact on the Lutheran tradition.

In this publication, the fourth and final in a series of LWF publications on biblical hermeneutics, renowned international scholars from the fields of biblical studies and systematic theology reevaluate to what extent twenty-first-century Lutherans can rediscover the Pauline paradigm of the “power of the Gospel” and hereby overcome ambiguous perceptions of the so-called “Lutheran reading(s)” of Paul.

Contents
The “Gospel” as the Hermeneutic of Emancipation in Paul’s Letters: Contemporary Implications 
Exploring Paul and Pauline Hermeneutics How and Why Paul Deals with Traditions 
Principles of Paul’s Hermeneutics
Slave and Free: Hermeneutical Reflections on Paul’s Use of the Slave–Master Metaphor

Reading Pauline Texts and Contexts
Paul on Charismata (1 Corinthians 12–14): The Principles of Diversity and Community Edification
Rospita Deliana Siahaan
Creation and Reconciliation in 2 Corinthians 5: Impulses from Paul and Luther 
Towards an Intersectional Hermeneutics: Constructing Meaning with and not of Galatians 3–4

Pauline Hermeneutics: Exploring the “Power of the Gospel”
Paul on Citizenship: Pauline hermeneutics in Philippians 1:27 and 3:20 

Applying Paul’s Theology and Hermeneutics to Church and Society
The Paradox of Reading Paul in the Context of the Lutheran Churches in Africa
The Pauline Letters and (Homo)Sexuality: Examining Hermeneutical Arguments Used in the Estonian Discussion 
Called and Cold Saints: Some Thoughts on Holiness in the Hebrew Bible and in Paul
A New Life in Christ: Pauline Ethics and its Lutheran Reception 
Christians Engaging in Culture and Society and Hoping for the World to Come 

Obtain your free copy by visiting
https://www.lutheranworld.org/sites/default/files/dtpw-studies-201602-pauline_hermeneutics_low.pdf

Sunday, February 05, 2017

Catechisms in pdf format

Collection of Luther's Catechisms in pdf format
Luther's Small Catechism
Luther's Small Catechism with explanation (supporting bible verses)
Luther's Large Catechism

available here

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Graphic Novel - The Stormy Monk


It was an age of turmoil, lust and power. Kings and Popes bought and sold thrones. The Black Plague crept through the streets. The Turks were banging at the doors of Vienna. Human rights and an individual’s conscience meant nothing. Any dissent could land you in the stocks or find you facing the Inquisition and the stake. Into this time came one solitary monk  who nailed an objection to a church door and, with it, ushered the Medieval Era out and the Modern Era in, changing the course of history forever.

With humor, wit, and meticulous historic detail, playwright and storyteller Dr. Rich Melheim weaves a spell-binding tale of courage, deception, and a world about to unwravel.

Illustrated by the award-winning talents of Tim Kane, Sherwin Schwartzrock and Jonathan Koelsch, Luther: The Graphic Novel leaps from  the pages. Beginning with the hauntingly predictive martyrdom of Reformer Jan Hus, the story moves to the electrical storm that launched a young law student to the monastery. It moves from his restless quest to find peace with God, to the protesting professor nailing his objections to the Wittenberg Door 500 years ago next year. It takes you from the heretic’s trail, to Luther’s staged kidnapping, and up to and through the unlikely events that gave the protesting monk and his death-defying princes the breathing space for the reform to take hold…. And eventually split the church.

The Stormy Monk is available for $9.99 paperback or $4.99 ebook

For more information about the Stormy Monk visit here

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Free EBook: Parable of the dancing God

In this brief and easy-to-read booklet, C. Baxter Kruger vividly retells the parable of the prodigal son (including the full text of Luke 15:1-32).
His fresh interpretation focuses not on the prodigal son, but on the character of the father as it is revealed through his interaction with his two very different sons.   Baxter asks you to consider with which son you most identify--the dutiful elder brother or the wayward younger brother.   Then he helps you explore the spiritual implications of that identification.    Finally, he shows you how an examination of the father of the two sons highlights important aspects of God's character: rejoicing, compassion and more.   You'll come away from this short but profound study with new insight into the ways God the Father is at work in your own life.

Free EBook available here




Monday, May 16, 2016

Book: Developing a series - A guidebook for planning, branding, and marketing an effective sermon series

Jonathan Malm has put together a fantastic resource to help you plan sermon series' for your church. This e-book has practical tips and tricks to make your sermon series' effective and impacting to your congregation.

Chapter topics include:
- Why your church should do sermon series'.
- How to break down a complex and obscure concept into an easily brand able series idea.
- The importance of developing a unified visual theme for your sermon series.
- Planning individual messages, illustrations, and sermon titles.
- How to brand your sermon series so it's memorable.
- Getting the word out about your sermon series.
- A discussion on planning ahead and how far ahead is far enough.
- Using pop-culture brands to assist in branding your series.

It also includes tips and tricks from creative directors and graphic designers from churches around the country.


Friday, January 01, 2016

eBook: Running on Empty - 60 Devotions for Church Leaders

Churches have always been busy places. Pastors and Church leaders are often over-worked and under-appreciated. They are usually busy doing so many things for God and others, that they forget or neglect to recharge their souls and refresh their spirits. They are often running around on empty because they selflessly give so much of their time, talents, and energy.
This book is for all of brothers and sisters in the Lord, who tirelessly and sometimes relentlessly, do God’s work in the churches they serve and the communities where they reside. All of them are heroes because of their commitment and conviction, their fortitude and faith, especially in turbulent times.
John Stuart has written sixty short devotions that will only take five minutes to read, reflect upon, and pray. They can be used on a daily basis or for weekly times of reflection. Pastors and leaders can read them alone, share them with their peers or use them for staff devotions. His intention is to help, encourage, and sometimes challenge those who are called to serve Christ in the Church and world. Each devotion contains a Bible verse, devotion, questions for reflection, and a short prayer. There is also an art illustration, which John has drawn and created, for meditation.

eBook: 60 devotions for church meetings

60 devotions for church meetings is a devotional book of sixty short devotions to be used for individual meditations, or as opening devotions for church meetings. Stories from the Bible, childhood memories in Scotland, personal experiences, and pastoral situations in the United States are used to challenge church groups and inspire the readers.


eBook: God will find you

God will find you - is a devotional book of 50 short devotions, stories and reflections for pilgrims, seekers, and Christians looking for God in their lives.

eBook: Meta-Moments Transformational Encounters with Christianity's Core

Meta-Moments are points of transformation.  Eric Burtness , Dave Daubert and Robert Driver-Bishop have written this book to encourage people to see the Christian faith as more than a static thing, but as a source of real and important transformation. Each chapter explores a key theme and also invites the reader to engage the material in ways to see new things about themselves as well as about the God we meet in Jesus. This book is a way for people exploring Christianity to dig deeper into some key themes.
Perfect for small groups, individual study or for framing a congregational campaign or sermon series, this book will invite the reader into a look at Christian faith for mainline participants. Whether the reader is a long-time member of a congregation with a desire to dig into their faith in new ways or a new person who is curious about what mainline Christianity has to offer, this book will be a good foundation for exploring. Chapters explore the themes of Beginnings, Jesus, The Reign of God, Diversity's Challenge, Meaning and Purpose, and Why Church.


Monday, September 28, 2015

Book: Characters of Christmas - Advent Candle Lighting reflectrions

Characters of Christmas - Advent Candle Lighting reflections is an ideal resource for congregations or individuals as they prepare for Christmas through the Advent season.

This resource offers
Weekly reflection skits of the characters of:
Wisemen
Shepherds
Animals
Mary
and Jesus

A daily bible reading plan

Paperback available at https://www.createspace.com/5769830


Kindle edition available at 

Thursday, June 04, 2015

Book: The doctrinal theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church

In the contemporary Lutheran church, our rich dogmatic heritage is often forgotten. We tend to privilege Luther and other early reformers over the later tradition that developed through his reforms. The church would benefit from a thorough read of those within the seventeenth century scholastic tradition, along with the reformers, who systematized and expounded upon Luther's ideas.
Heinrich Schmid's The Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church is a concise summary of the developments of the seventeenth century scholastic theologians in the Lutheran tradition. Schmid compiles citations from the best of that tradition, including Gerhard, Chemnitz, Calov, and Quenstedt. Schmid also includes several historical notes, demonstrating how each particular doctrine has developed in the history of Lutheran theology. This book is an essential read for anyone who desires to understand the Lutheran theological tradition and how the Lutheran doctines developed.