Discipleship

Compassion in Practice, Revised Edition

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 16:18:22 GMT

Available May 2026; Preorder Now!

Discover a path of radical compassion rooted in the way of Jesus.

How do we practice love and compassion for ourselves and others in a world marred by conflict and violence in our families, communities, institutions—and even our own hearts? In Compassion in Practice: The Way of Jesus, internationally renowned compassion teacher Frank Rogers introduces the spiritual path of radical compassion Jesus walked and taught, grounded in God's extravagant love for all people. This path transforms hardened hearts and brings healing and wholeness to even the most challenging situations.

In this inspiring and practical book, you'll discover a series of practices to ground and restore you through self-compassion as you cultivate an ethic of radical care that extends not only to loved ones, neighbors, and strangers, but also to enemies, opponents, and oppressors. Illuminated with extraordinary real-life stories of restorative love in action, these practices will equip you to step heart-first into a challenging world, ready to engage in a new way that beats with the pulse of compassion.

This updated and revised edition provides specific practices for compassionate social activism, more interfaith conversation, and a "compassion compass" to help orient you as you travel the path of healing and restoration.

In Compassion in Practice, you will learn:

The six essential dimensions of authentic compassion
A compassion practice that softens hardened hearts and accesses our best self
Spiritual exercises to cultivate compassion for yourself and others
The critical difference between empathy and compassion
How to practice compassion with a difficult person or amid violence and injustice
Ten principles of empowered and just compassionate action

Exploración de una cultura del cuidado en la congregación

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 18:11:24 GMT

Esta guía completa para líderes contiene seis sesiones de enseñanza de 90 minutos, diseñadas para el curso de Ministerios de Líderes Laicos Exploración de una cultura del cuidado en la congregación. Basado en el libro The Caring Congregation (La congragación que cuida) de Karen Lampe, este recurso equipa a los ministros laicos con habilidades prácticas para el ministerio de cuidado pastoral. Los participantes aprenderán técnicas de escucha profunda para establecer conexiones significativas, cómo brindar cuidado durante tiempos de pérdida y crisis, cómo mantener límites saludables en las relaciones que implican el cuidado y cómo comprender las diferencias culturales en los enfoques del ministerio del cuidado.

Exploring a Culture of Care for a Caring Congregation: Leader’s Guide

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 13:26:48 GMT

This comprehensive leader's guide contains six 90-minute teaching sessions designed for the Lay Servant Ministries course "Exploring a Culture of Care for a Caring Congregation." Based on Karen Lampe's book The Caring Congregation, this resource equips lay servant ministers with practical skills for pastoral care ministry. Participants will learn deep listening techniques for meaningful connections, how to provide care during times of loss and crisis, how to maintain healthy boundaries in caring relationships, and how to understand cultural differences in care ministry approaches.

Transformed by Grace

Fri, 02 May 2025 16:20:37 GMT

A Year of Prayer, Rooted in Wesleyan Faith.

In the devotional classic Praying in the Wesleyan Spirit, renowned Wesleyan scholar Paul Chilcote invited readers to experience the spiritual depth of John Wesley's sermons through devotional prayer. Now, in Transformed by Grace: 52 More Prayers in the Wesleyan Spirit, Chilcote continues this journey, offering a fresh collection of weekly prayers inspired by Wesley's later sermons. As in the first volume, Chilcote pairs each prayer with a beloved hymn by Charles Wesley, offering readers an opportunity to sing as they pray.

While Praying in the Wesleyan Spirit focused on Wesley's "standard sermons" and their theme of salvation, this new volume explores a broader range of spiritual themes. Traditional theological topics like the Trinity, creation, the image of God, faith, and perfect love are included here, but more fall into the broader category of spiritual formation and examine practical questions of every Christian related to topics like temptation, patience, conscience, simplicity, and zeal.

In Transformed by Grace, Chilcote takes on some of Wesley's most challenging sermons for modern readers and artfully conveys their original purpose: to touch the heart and inspire change. Whether you are a lifelong Methodist, a pastor seeking inspiration, or a person of faith longing to grow in grace, Transformed by Grace will be a treasured resource as God speaks to you through the insights of the Wesleys and their vision of the Christian way.

Walk with Christ through these prayers, both read and sung, and invite the Holy Spirit to be your companion along the way.

Also available: Praying in the Wesleyan Spirit: 52 Prayers for Today

Transformed by Grace

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 13:17:12 GMT

A Year of Prayer, Rooted in Wesleyan Faith.

Walk with Christ through these prayers, both read and sung, and invite the Holy Spirit to be your companion along the way.

Also available: Praying in the Wesleyan Spirit: 52 Prayers for Today

Sacred Tension

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 18:11:26 GMT

"The Bible was not written for passive readers or lazy listeners. It was written for active engagement, deliberation, dialogue, and debate, because the Bible itself is fundamentally a conversation."—Old Testament professor and scholar William P. Brown, from Sacred Tension

Embrace the complexities of the Old Testament with curiosity and courage.

As people of faith, the words of the Bible are sacred. They tell us about our spiritual heritage and convey our ever-present hope. But sometimes, if we're being honest, the Bible — especially the Old Testament — can bring more confusion than clarity. Apparent contradictions and a wide variety of different accounts about God, faith, and humanity's role can leave us perplexed with more questions than answers. How are we to read the Bible in a way that helps us understand its deepest truths?

In Sacred Tension, renowned biblical scholar and Old Testament professor William P. Brown challenges our unease by suggesting that the "problem" of dissonance within the Old Testament is in fact one of its most powerful features. To read the Bible with one uniform voice, he asserts, is to miss the richness and complexity of the canon. Instead, the Bible is "a canonical cornucopia, a 'horn of plenty' filled with diverse perspectives tied together by a common affirmation that God is God, expressed in different ways." With expert insight and passionate prose, Brown invites us to consider the Old Testament as a wide-ranging dialogue that is in conversation both with itself and with us, fostering further discussion and mutual discernment.

Each chapter of Sacred Tension addresses a key question central to the Old Testament texts like the nature of God, the purpose of the Law, and the problem of evil. By exploring these themes through the lens of diverse, and often contradictory, perspectives, you'll begin to gain a more nuanced understanding of the foundational texts that have informed Jewish and Christian beliefs for millennia.

Whether you know the books of the Bible by heart or are brand new to biblical study, Sacred Tension will invite you into an exciting new dialogue with these ancient scriptures. In this accessible and insightful introduction to the Old Testament, encounter the texts with curiosity and wonder and open yourself to what this inner tension has to offer those who engage with it.

Written for everyday people who long to better understand the Bible, Sacred Tension invites us to embrace the complexity of the Old Testament and discover the profound truths that lie within its hallowed pages.

Join Old Testament scholar William P. Brown in a revelatory journey through the Bible that will change the way you think about our sacred scriptures and your faith. Discussion questions at the end of each chapter will deepen the dialogue. Let the conversation begin!

Key Features:

Accessible language tailored for a general audience
Thought-provoking exploration of key Old Testament themes
Discussion questions with each chapter
Suitable for both personal study, group study, and academic courses

READ A SAMPLE.

Sacred Tension

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 19:18:07 GMT

"The Bible was not written for passive readers or lazy listeners. It was written for active engagement, deliberation, dialogue, and debate, because the Bible itself is fundamentally a conversation." —Old Testament professor and scholar William P. Brown, from Sacred Tension

Embrace the complexities of the Old Testament with curiosity and courage.

Key Features:

Accessible language tailored for a general audience
Thought-provoking exploration of key Old Testament themes
Discussion questions with each chapter
Suitable for both personal study, group study, and academic courses

READ A SAMPLE.

The Sacraments

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 20:59:34 GMT

This PDF leader's guide is designed to lead the Lay Servant Ministries course covering the sacraments. This course is based on the books By Water and the Spirit: A United Methodist Understanding of Baptism and This Holy Mystery: A United Methodist Understanding of Holy Communion both written by Gayle Carlton Fenton. The leader guide contains lesson plans for ten hour-long sessions to help lay servant ministers learn more about the theology of baptism and communion, how these sacraments relate to their communities, and how to help their communities more fully embrace the meaning behind these sacraments. The leader guide also contains handouts and printable resources for the Lay Servant Ministries course.

Lanzar una nueva comunidad de adoración

Fri, 29 Sep 2023 14:09:44 GMT

«En una época en la que la religión organizada se asocia a menudo con un pensamiento obsoleto, una gran parte de la población ha renunciado a la iglesia. No creen que la iglesia pueda ofrecer algo interesante y relevante para ellos», escribe Paul Nixon. «Por lo tanto, ahora es necesario un trabajo mayor para construir la comunidad de adoración y cultivar la confianza antes de que la gente se comprometa con nosotros. En el mundo actual, las comunidades de adoración nuevas e innovadoras son más necesarias que nunca».

En el libro Lanzar una nueva comunidad de adoración, los autores Paul Nixon y Craig Gilbert junto con un equipo de otros catorce expertos en plantación de iglesias, ofrecen consejos valiosos a los líderes del ministerio — tanto al clero como a los laicos — para alcanzar a nuevas personas con el evangelio.

Lanzar nueva comunidad de adoración contiene 32 capítulos cortos que profundizan en los detalles más prácticos a los que se enfrentan los equipos de lanzamiento de comunidades de adoración hoy en día.

Los temas incluyen lo siguiente:

¿Por qué iniciar una nueva reunión?
Enfocarse en un grupo particular de personas
Desarrollar una cultura de invitación
Promover la diversidad étnica
Conectar bien en un mundo digital
Reunir a su equipo de lanzamiento
Ofrecer una hospitalidad de primera clase

Lanzar una nueva comunidad de adoración

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 16:35:33 GMT

Los temas incluyen lo siguiente:

¿Por qué iniciar una nueva reunión?
Enfocarse en un grupo particular de personas
Desarrollar una cultura de invitación
Promover la diversidad étnica
Conectar bien en un mundo digital
Reunir a su equipo de lanzamiento
Ofrecer una hospitalidad de primera clase

Leadership is Discipleship 2024 (Korean)

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 13:53:59 GMT

LID 2024 리더십저널은 ‘인공지능’을 다룬다. 물론 우리가 과학자나 기술자가 아니기에 인공지능 기술이 얼마나 발전하고 어떤 방향으로 갈지는 확정할 수 없다. 그러나 현재 상황과 예측할 수 있는 현실을 직시하며 인공지능 시대에 목사와 신학자로, 기독교학자와 교수로 인공지능 영역에 관한 이해와 전망, 이슈와 문제점, 직업과 노동, 인간 이해와 관계성, 윤리와 영성, 교육과 신학 관련 질문을 하고 방향을 제시할 수 있을 것이다. 인공지능이라는 한 주제 속에서, 좀 더 세밀한 부분, 곧 윤리, 문화, 인간론, 영성, 노동, 사회, 교육, 사역 등과 연계한 글이 많으니, 인공지능과 신학의 이해 폭을 넓히고 인공지능과 기독교의 만남으로 펼쳐질 미지의 세상에 길을 트고 방향을 제시해 나가기를 바란다.

Leadership is Discipleship 2025 (Korean)

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 19:32:35 GMT

2025년 리더십저널 주제는 리셋이다. 다음 질문으로부터 리셋의 여정을 함께 시작하기를 바란다. 예수의 리더십은 우리에게 무엇을 리셋하라고 하는가? 감리교 운동이 대중들에게 흡인력을 가질 수 있었던 이유는 무엇이고, 리셋해야 할 요소는 무엇인가? 기독교의 어떤 특성이 대중에게 자신의 신학적 지향을 효과적으로 전달할 수 있었을까? 오늘의 기독교가 편협한 자기중심적 경계를 벗어날 길은 무엇인가? 믿음을 재정비하고, 식었던 선교적인 열정을 회복하고, 강한 연대와 신뢰를 회복하고 미래적인 교회를 위해서 무엇을 해야 하는가? 어떻게 창조를 이끌고, 섬김을 실천하며, 낮은 곳으로 향하는 리더십을 실천할 수 있을까? 신의 이름으로 타인을 압도하는 과오는 무엇이고 진정한 환대와 선교는 어떻게 이룰 수 있을까? 리미널리티 시대를 살고 있는 우리는 미래 교회의 모습을 어떻게 전망할 수 있을까? 어떻게 진정성, 완전성, 창의성을 들어내는가?

La evangelización transformadora

Fri, 20 May 2022 15:30:09 GMT

Debido a las tácticas más agresivas y de confrontación que escuchamos, el evangelismo ha desarrollado una mala connotación. Las puertas se cierran apresuradamente, las llamadas telefónicas terminan abruptamente y los correos electrónicos quedan sin respuesta.

Después de todo, ¿no es una tarea que debería realizar el pastor?

Tal vez sea el momento de reexaminar el modelo de evangelización de Juan Wesley como un ciclo completo y natural, en el que se trata de un punto de partida común en lugar de un final solitario.

El motivo central del evangelismo auténtico es: Habiendo recibido un mensaje que ha marcado la diferencia en nuestras vidas, deseamos compartir ese mensaje con otras personas con la esperanza de que también transforme sus vidas. Wesley modela un evangelismo que se extiende y da la bienvenida, invita y nutre, y habla tanto a la razón como al corazón.

«El evangelismo es relacional», escriben los autores. «Cómo nos relacionamos con Dios, que es capaz de transformarnos en seres nuevos. Cómo estamos en relación con nuestro prójimo, al que debemos amar como a nosotros mismos».

Como dice un crítico «Knight y Powe nos han dado un libro para relacionarse. Describen la profunda conexión entre los pensamientos de Juan Wesley, los himnos de Carlos Wesley, el pensamiento erudito sobre la evangelización y la comprensión bíblica del evangelio, todo ello en relación con las necesidades, preocupaciones y esperanzas de «la gente de a pie».

Aprenda por su cuenta o como grupo congregacional de este estudio práctico sobre cómo vivir una vida evangelística que demuestre el poder transformador de amar a Dios y al prójimo.

La evangelización transformadora. La manera wesleyana de compartir la fe: Guía para el liderato facilitador del curso, por Henry Knight III y F. Douglas Powe, también está disponible aquí.

La evangelización transformadora

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:27:42 GMT

El evangelismo tiene que ver con nuestra relación con Dios y con las personas con las que entramos en contacto a diario. Este curso enlaza el testimonio con la formación espiritual, llevando a las personas participantes a una mayor comprensión de la importancia del evangelismo para todas las personas involucradas. También incorpora ideas wesleyanas para un público del siglo XXI.

La evangelización transformadora. La manera wesleyana de compartir la fe: Guía para el liderato se utiliza junto con el recurso La evangelización transformadora de Henry H. Knight III y F. Douglas Powe Jr.

Disponible sólo como descarga en PDF.

Notas:

Se concede permiso al comprador para fotocopiar con fines educativos.
Lo sentimos, este artículo no es elegible para descuentos especiales de promoción y por volumen.
Este es un producto no retornable y no reembolsable.

La evangelización transformadora

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:47:50 GMT

Después de todo, ¿no es una tarea que debería realizar el pastor?

Tal vez sea el momento de reexaminar el modelo de evangelización de Juan Wesley como un ciclo completo y natural, en el que se trata de un punto de partida común en lugar de un final solitario.

Aprenda por su cuenta o como grupo congregacional de este estudio práctico sobre cómo vivir una vida evangelística que demuestre el poder transformador de amar a Dios y al prójimo.

La evangelización transformadora. La manera wesleyana de compartir la fe: Guía para el liderato facilitador del curso, por Henry Knight III y F. Douglas Powe, también está disponible aquí.

Everyday Contemplative

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:38:01 GMT

What does it mean to live a contemplative life? How does someone become contemplative? Does being contemplative mean sitting around thinking about God all day? Does it require living a simple or even austere life, like a monk or a nun?

Roger Owens challenges readers to expand their definition of contemplative living to encompass all ways of seeking to be more open, available, and responsive to God. God may be found just as easily in an office cubicle, a donut shop, or a laundry room as in a monastic cell.

In Everyday Contemplative, Owens presents seven characteristics of contemplative living: longing, attention, patience, playfulness, vulnerability, nonjudgment, and freedom. One ingredient he considers essential to the contemplative life is sharing it with others, and this book invites readers to discover the joys of contemplative living.

Everyday Contemplative

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 21:31:00 GMT

Everyday Contemplative

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 21:31:01 GMT

A Disciple's Journal Year C

Wed, 18 May 2022 15:05:29 GMT

Carefully designed and deeply Wesleyan, A Disciple's Journal provides a pattern of daily prayer and scripture reading for people who want to grow—as John Wesley encouraged—in "holiness of heart and life." This daily companion invites readers "to witness to Jesus Christ in the world and to follow his teachings through acts of compassion, justice, worship, and devotion under the guidance of the Holy Spirit." This edition begins with Advent 2021 and goes through Reign of Christ/Christ the King Sunday 2022. It can be used for all cycle C years, beginning Advent 2024, 2027, and 2030.

The journal includes the following:

daily lectionary readings that correspond to the Revised Common Lectionary
inspirational quotes from John Wesley
excerpts from John Wesley's sermons
hymns from Charles Wesley
orders for prayer in the morning and evening
prayers for each day of the week
a journal for discipleship
a pattern for intercessory prayer
a guide for using the journal in family devotions

Launching a New Worship Community

Wed, 18 May 2022 15:15:21 GMT

For many churches, the call to make disciples comes with a realization that the church's current worship opportunities do not reach certain groups in their surrounding community. New worship services offer the most promising strategy for renewing established churches and planting new worship communities. In a post-pandemic world, churches will be challenged to reach new people with the gospel and to help them meet in a way that is meaningful to them.

Accessible to ministry professionals and lay leaders, Launching a New Worship Community is a comprehensive guide to starting a new worship community—whether that means an established church beginning a new worship service or a church startup designing its first worship offering. The authors, writing with a team of church planting experts, provide practical advice rooted in solid academics, theology, and real-world experience. With this guide, readers will have the tools they need to begin and sustain a new worship community.