Move Spiritual Growth

One of the church's primary responsibilities is to foster genuine spiritual growth in people's lives. Today's pastors bring tremendous effort and passion to this task, but they are often disappointed by people who sit in the pews for years, knowing about Jesus but never really knowing him. In 2004, Willow Creek Community Church in suburban Chicago undertook a three-year study to measure spiritual growth called the REVEAL Spiritual Life Survey. Over the next six years, additional data was collected from over a quarter million people in well over a thousand churches of every size....

In Try Softer, you'll learn how to: know and set emotional and relational boundaries; make sense of the difficult experiences you've had; identify your attachment style-and how that affects your relationships today; move through emotions rather than get stuck by them; and grow in self-compassion and talk back to your inner critic. Trying softer is sacred work. And while it won't be perfect or easy, it will be worth it. Because this is what we were made for: a living, breathing, moving, feeling, connected, beautifully incarnational life.

Have you ever felt stuck in a cycle of unresolved pain, playing offenses over and over in your mind? You know you can't go on like this, but you don't know what to do next. Lysa TerKeurst has wrestled through this journey. But in surprising ways, she’s discovered how to let go of bound-up resentment and overcome the resistance to forgiving people who aren’t willing to make things right. With deep empathy, therapeutic insight, and rich Bible teaching coming out of more than 1,000 hours of theological study, Lysa will help you stop suffering because of what other people have done to you.

How would it feel to enter into prayer with confidence and assurance - certain that God heard you and that your prayers would make a difference? It would likely feel amazing and unfamiliar. That's because often our prayers seem to be met with silence or don't appear to change anything. Either response can lead to disappointment or even despair in the face of our ongoing battles and unmet longings - especially when we don't know if we're doing something wrong or if some prayers just don't work.

Though compassion lies at the heart of the Gospel, it has been little studied in its own right. This book, written by an accomplished scholar yet accessible to the lay listener, fills that void by drawing on the broad and ancient tradition of the Orthodox Church.

Authored by counselor Dr. Richard Plass and spiritual director James Cofield, The Relational Soul brings together concepts from psychology and spiritual formation. Each chapter includes introductory stories and practical "If this is true, what about you?" questions to help listeners engage in relationships in more life-giving ways. When the presence of Christ and community connects with a soul that is open, we witness the miracle of transformation.

In Emotionally Healthy Discipleship, best-selling author Pete Scazzero combines three decades of wisdom with hard lessons from his own ministry journey. He lays out what is required for church leaders to multiply deeply changed people who are growing in relationship with God, themselves, and others. Scazzero begins with four beneath-the-surface, systemic gaps that undermine serious discipleship. He provides a clear vision for a church culture that deeply changes lives and then practically unpacks the seven biblical marks of emotionally healthy discipleship.

Many people today find that their prayers don't work. And like a broken cell phone, DVD player, or TV remote, they throw prayer out as unnecessary clutter in their busy lives. Anne Graham Lotz has found that while prayer does work, sometimes the pray-ers don't. So she has turned to the prophet Daniel for help. The Daniel Prayer is born deep within your soul, erupts through your heart, and pours out on your lips, words created by and infused with the Spirit of God, quivering with spiritual electricity.

How can you live well and step into the future when you keep stumbling over trust issues? Lysa TerKeurst says it's not simply about finding better people to walk with. It's about developing the stability you long for within yourself and with God, so you don't become cynical and carry a broken belief system into every new relationship.

Everything changes when you crack open your heart. In this book, you'll learn how to move through the four progressive openings of consciousness: pain, compassion, connection and love. You'll also experience 365 Illuminations, Divine messages that guide you during the journey, and help deepen your understanding. These spiritual teachings include questions and contemplations, for you to use in meditation, journaling or part of your spiritual practice, so you can undertake this opening of your heart, one day at a time.

There are times in life when we look back and feel desperate to make time stand still, especially when unexpected change happens and all we want is for things to go back to how they were. But we can't stop the flow of life, and we can't stop time. And looking back doesn't enable us to go back. It just makes us stuck. In a place. In a space. In a memory. In a mindset. In a habit.

Prosperity. It's one of the most dividing words in the church. Some pastors use it to tell their congregations that God will make them all rich, rich, rich! Others spurn the word and insist that true Christlikeness is found in forsaking all worldly riches and possessions. The truth is, both are right - and both are wrong. With refreshing honesty, humor, and keen insight, best-selling author and pastor Kris Vallotton mines the Scriptures in an eye-opening study of what the Bible really says about money, poverty, riches, and wealth.

Many believers today yearn for an encounter with the supernatural. They hunger to experience the glory of God they’ve only read about in the Bible. Joshua Mills believes that all Christians are intended to live, move, and operate within what he calls "glory realms". Now Joshua opens up God's glory by explaining the different realms, spheres, and dimensions of the kingdom. He systematically builds a faith framework in which the listener can begin to move into the glory of God with ease.

Why do we hear this so often on the back side of a bad decision? Because the more questions we ask, the more insight we gain and the better decisions we make. In Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets, Andy Stanley equips us with five catalytic questions to ask every time we make a decision. The result? Well, the title says it all!

With Intercessory Prayer, first-time author and gifted Bible teacher Dutch Sheets brings clear and startling revelation on the power of prayer and the role of intercession. With the rare grace of Lucado and Foster, Dutch unwraps the mystery of intercessory prayer, revealing our role as God's partners in His work. Have you ever wondered if your prayers really count? Or why you never seem to get any answers? If so, then Intercessory Prayer will convince you that your prayers can, indeed, move heaven and earth.

Discover a renewed sense of God's purpose and find the courage to pursue your greatest dreams with this comforting guide to spiritual fulfillment and success. Albert Einstein once said, "Problems cannot be solved with the same mind-set that created them." To resolve our problems and deal with our mistakes, we must be willing to be transformed by God's process of healing and strengthening.

In Starved, popular author and teacher Amy Seiffert shows listeners how to stop ingesting spiritual junk food and offers simple and replenishing practices like silence, service, and Sabbath that can bring us closer to Jesus. She encourages us to put down our phones, set aside our pride, and let go of the hustle so that we can receive a spiritual diet change that will leave us delightfully content, spiritually healthy, and free to experience the goodness of Jesus.

Ff we spend our lives trying to be “the strong one,” we become exhausted, burned-out, and disconnected from our truest selves. What if it were different? Could there be a different way to be strong? Could strength mean more than pushing on and pushing through pain, bearing every heavy burden on our own? What if, instead, true strength were more like the tide: soft and bold, fierce and gentle, moving together as one powerful force? In Strong like Water, author and trauma therapist Aundi Kolber offers a framework for true flourishing.

Sheila Walsh encourages listeners to face the pain head-on and then start again, from right where they are. She shares that when she discovered "I'm not good enough, and I'm good with that", everything started to change. In It's Okay Not to Be Okay, Walsh helps women overcome the same old rut of struggles and pain by changing the way they think about God, themselves, and their everyday lives. She shares practical, doable daily strategies that will help women move forward one step at a time knowing God will never let them down.

Throughout Scripture, God's leaders built altars where He met them in powerful, miraculous ways. God still longs to pour out His power at those altars. But we've been seduced away by worldly wisdom and man-made distractions and plans, leaving us ineffective against the evil sweeping across our land. With insight and humility, international leader and pastor Rick DuBose shows the path back to five forgotten altars—and ultimately, the path to your place in heaven's throne room.