One thing I love about being a student ministry leader here is helping to equip our leaders and parents to have spiritual and biblical conversations with their students. Having these conversations with kids, parents, friends, and co-workers is a difficult task for many of us. We don’t know how to start the conversation. We don’t know what to talk about when we finally do start the conversation. And we don’t know if we even have the best understanding of the things we are trying to have a conversation about. It can be a stressful thing. So how can we be people who are better prepared for those conversations? That’s where the Resource Center steps in.
A few months ago I noticed a leader going through a book in the Resource Center with a student. They both bought the book and met up to discuss their thoughts on it and what the Bible said about what they were reading. It was such an easy way for them to both grow in relationship with each other while also gaining more knowledge and understanding on a difficult topic. I think that’s such a good example of what our Resource Center is here for. The Resource Center is meant to provide you with an opportunity to grow in understanding of different topics and encourage you to grow with others.
Below is a list of the new books hitting the shelves of our Resource Center. I encourage you to find an opportunity to invite that friend, co-worker, or family member to grow with you as you go through a book together. Let’s be people who are always learning and inviting others to learn with us.
Love Walked Among Us | Paul E Miller
Who Is Jesus? His name is recognized the world over. Christians claim to follow Him. Muslims honor Him as a prophet. And many Jewish rabbis regard him as a great teacher. Everyone knows about Jesus, but how many of us fully understand what He was like as a person?
In Love Walked among Us, Paul Miller invites us to get to know Jesus, to observe his life and His love as they unfold in the Gospel narratives. The book investigates such questions as: How do you love someone when you get no love in return, only withdrawal or ingratitude? How do you love without being trapped or used by another person? How do you love when you have your own problems? When do you take care of yourself? When you are compassionate, people use you, but when you are honest, people get angry―so how do you love with both compassion and honesty? In every way, Jesus’ life exemplifies the full potential of what we were intended to be. And the better we know Him, the more we will be drawn to follow His perfect example.
Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself | Joe Thorn
We need good preaching―preaching that challenges us by God’s Word and brings the comfort that comes from God’s promises. Yet many of us rely solely on others to preach to us and are not benefiting from the kind of preaching that should be most consistent and personal―preaching to ourselves.
Note to Self is a practical introduction to this daily discipline. Pastor Joe Thorn delivers fifty brief, devotional chapters that model preaching the gospel to ourselves and its practical implications. Readers will be challenged by the book’s direct, personal exhortations to apply the law and the gospel to their own lives.
Steal Away Home | Matt Carter
Thomas Johnson and Charles Spurgeon lived worlds apart. Johnson, an American slave, born into captivity and longing for freedom— Spurgeon, an Englishman born into relative ease and comfort, but, longing too for a freedom of his own. Their respective journeys led to an unlikely meeting and an even more unlikely friendship, forged by fate and mutual love for the mission of Christ.
Steal Away Home is a new kind of book based on historical research, which tells a previously untold story set in the 1800s of the relationship between an African-American missionary and one of the greatest preachers to ever live.
Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters | Timothy Keller
Success, true love, and the life you’ve always wanted. Many of us placed our faith in these things, believing they held the key to happiness, but with a sneaking suspicion they might not deliver. The recent economic meltdown has cast a harsh new light on these pursuits. In a matter of months, fortunes, marriages, careers, and a secure retirement have disappeared for millions of people. No wonder so many of us feel lost, alone, disenchanted, and resentful.
But the truth is that we made lesser gods of these good things -gods that can’t give us what we really need. There is only one God who can wholly satisfy our cravings- and now is the perfect time to meet him again, or for the first time.
The Bible tells us that the human heart is an “idol- factory,” taking good things and making them into idols that drive us. In Counterfeit Gods, Keller applies his trademark approach to show us how a proper understanding of the Bible reveals the unvarnished truth about societal ideals and our own hearts. This powerful message will cement Keller’s reputation as a critical thinker and pastor, and comes at a crucial time-for both the faithful and the skeptical.