Soultsunami

Soultsunami
Author: Leonard Sweet
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 598
Release: 2009-10-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310865530

Road rage, animal rights, cyberporn, crystal healing, doctor-assisted suicide — everywhere we look, the signs all tell us we’re living in a post-Christian culture. Or are we? Leonard Sweet -- cultural historian, preacher, futurist, creatologist, and preeminent thinker -- firmly believes we live today in a pre-Christian society, fraught with challenges, dangers, critical choices, and above all, tremendous potential for the church. The outcome will depend on our response to today’s flood of religious pluralism that threatens to sweep us away. What will we do? Deny the reality of the incoming surge? "Hunker in the bunker," hermetically sealing ourselves in an increasingly out-of-touch church counterculture? Or will we boldly hoist our sails, and -- looking to God for guidance and strength -- move with confidence and purpose over the waves. SoulTsunami is a fascinating, even mind-numbing look at the implications of our changing world for the church in the 21st century. With uncanny wisdom and trademark wit, Leonard Sweet explores ten key "futuribles" (precision guesses that fall short of predictions), expanding on and relating topics ranging from the reentry of theism and spiritual longing in contemporary society, to the impact of modern technology, to the global renaissance, to models for the church to reach people caught in the cultural maelstrom. Here are eye-opening perspectives on the church from within and from without — from its surrounding society.Lively, well-written, and provocative, SoulTsunami is a clarion call for Christians to remove their tunnel-vision glasses and take a good look at the swelling postmodern flood. It also is a voice of encouragement, affirming the church in its role as God’s lifeboat. And it is a passionate, prophetic guide, pointing the way to reach a world swept out to sea.


Signs of the Times

Signs of the Times
Author: Brian A. Ross
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2016-03-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498220614

All ministry leaders concern themselves with the intersection of Jesus-centered ministry and contemporary culture. They ask themselves questions such as, "What do we need to change in order to keep up with a wired world?" "What should never change?" "What are the nonnegotiables of faith in Jesus?" Many have attempted to answer these questions. However, most of these leaders offer solutions that the everyday ministry leader simply cannot replicate. Signs of the Times is a unique offering to those who wrestle with the mash-up of ministry and culture. All of the contributors have found success within their ministries, and yet most do not minister to thousands on a weekly basis. Additionally, all of them have had the privilege of studying directly with Dr. Leonard I. Sweet. Despite having authored more than fifty books, Sweet can still be a bit of an enigma. Many of his readers have been deeply influenced by him, and yet they may still struggle to understand what his insights might mean for their ministry. Each of the contributors to this work thoughtfully engages with a key idea that they personally learned from Sweet and they translate it for ministry in the early twenty-first century.


More Ready Than You Realize

More Ready Than You Realize
Author: Brian D. McLaren
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2009-08-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310859581

WARNING: This is not just another book on evangelism. It's a simple idea of evangelism through friendship first, and the opportunities to share your faith that follow. It will bring friendships you already have to a new levels, and create opportunities for new, authentic friendships with those you will eventually meet. OUT: Evangelism as sales pitch, as conquest, as warfare, as ultimatum, as threat, as proof, as argument, as entertainment, as show, as monologue, as something you have to do. IN: Disciple-making as conversation, as friendship, as influence, as invitation, as companionship, as challenge, as opportunity, as conversation, as dance, as something you get to do. You're more ready for this than you realize, and so are your friends!


Jesus Drives Me Crazy!

Jesus Drives Me Crazy!
Author: Leonard Sweet
Publisher: HarperChristian + ORM
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2009-12-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310862698

The gospel presents a life-changing NUTS wisdom that conflicts with normal ways of making sense of the world. There is the World According to Normal. There is the World According to NUTS . . . where NUTS is an acronym for Never Underestimate the Spirit. The wisdom of Jesus is a NUTS wisdom.—From the book All people are different, but some are more different than others. Christians are meant to be the most different of all. Yet we often “normalize” God. We judge what is a successful Christian and a successful church by the world according to Normal, not the world according to NUTS, the wisdom of Jesus.In Jesus Drives Me Crazy!, Leonard Sweet reminds us of the “crazy wisdom” of Christ and how our lives and our churches can and should be different from the way “normal” people live. He says, “Jesus wants to drive you crazy . . . crazy in love with God, with life.” Jesus Drives Me Crazy! challenges you to make the upside-down wisdom of God your own, inspiring you to live an extraordinary Christian life that does not conform to the world, but transforms the world.When you truly grasp the freeing truth that we do not have to conform to this world, then you can become the crazy, zany, unpredictable, but powerful force for Jesus you were intended to be. Jesus Drives Me Crazy! shows how, by losing your mind, you can find your soul.


Carpe Mañana

Carpe Mañana
Author: Leonard Sweet
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2003
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310250129

A 'naturalization manual' to help Christians become leaders in the new world of postmodern culture. Through nine 'naturalization classes' Leonard Sweet, an 'outside the box' thinker, offers strategies for leaders to put their faces, not their backs, to the future.


"A" is for Abductive

Author: Leonard I. Sweet
Publisher: HarperCollins Christian Publishing
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2003
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310243564

A playful, witty, but substantive "postmodern ministry for dummies-type" book that fills the huge and getting huger hunger for something in one volume that introduces basic concepts and vernacular of "postmodern ministry."


Operation Inasmuch

Operation Inasmuch
Author: David W. Crocker
Publisher: Chalice Press
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2009-08-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0827227310

Operation Inasmuch is a proven way to mobilize believers in hands-on local church missions through one-day ministries that have significant impact on both the community and the church. It creatively combines how-to with stories and testimonies that will inspire and energize local congregations. Engaged in local mission projects, participants gain spiritual renewal and continued commitment to respond to the needs of others in the community. Operation Inasmuch is Christians doing the work of the church instead of church work. They go beyond the walls of church buildings to apply God's love to human hurts and hopes wherever they are found. A TCP Leadership Series title.


Soulsalsa

Soulsalsa
Author: Leonard Sweet
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2009-09-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310833809

Getting a Christian worldview is all the rage these days. But how about a Christian worldlife? Got one of those?Leonard Sweet wants to show you the ins and outs of living an old-fashioned faith in these newfangled times. In his engaging, symphonic, thought-bytes style, Sweet invites you to . . . Mezuzah your inverse * Do dirt and do the dishes * Cycle to churchGive history a shove * Cheer rivals from the bench * Dance the salsaSoulSalsa unpacks biblical faith in ways that can change how you live in the real world. You can be a man or woman who walks the ancient path of a disciple in the world of the future. Because the NEW future is NOW--and now is the time to practice the "17 Lifestyle Requirements for Membership in the Postmodern Body of Christ." It’s no longer enough to say "Say Amen, Somebody." It’s time to "Dance the Salsa, Everybody!"--in a culture that desperately needs to see your moves.


Summoned to Lead

Summoned to Lead
Author: Leonard Sweet
Publisher: HarperChristian + ORM
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2009-12-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 031083404X

Leadership Re-VisionedCast a vision, set a strategy, rally the troops, and take the hill—you don’t need another book to rehash the well-worn principles of modern leadership. But if you’re looking for something different, something that . . .approaches leadership as an art as well as a scienceinspires hope and expectation in those of us who aren’t born leaderschallenges those with leadership roles to explore new possibilities. . . then Leonard Sweet wants to help you discover a very different kind of leadership vision. It’s one you hear if your ears are open, and it could summon you at any time. When you respond, the puzzle pieces of who you are will fit together into a leader others follow because you’ve answered a call, not trained for a position. “The church has it all wrong. It is trying to train leaders. Instead, it ought to train everyone to listen and to develop their own soundtrack.”Leaders don’t see a vision, says Sweet, they hear one. “Sound becomes sight. Leaders hear life.”For a sonogram of “acoustic leadership,” Sweet takes us inside the incredible account of Sir Ernest Shackleton, the celebrated polar explorer who led his entire crew of twenty-seven from disaster in the Antarctic to safety. Called “the greatest leader that ever came on God’s earth, bar none,” Shackleton objectifies the goals of Sweet’s own exploration in search of wisdom for today and tomorrow’s truly compelling, voice-activated leaders.Right now, you may be leading many people or just yourself. But who knows what tomorrow—or a minute from now—will call forth in you. Are your ears open?