RECOMMENDED BOOKS
What Made Them Think They Could? Volume 1: Ten Case Studies of Female Pioneers in Pentecostal Missions (1906-1925)
Early Pentecostals (approximately 1905-1925) sent women as well as men into global missions and charitable work. They served on every inhabited continent. These ten case studies reflect the fascinating women from diverse backgrounds, a shared calling, and a variety of opportunities and challenges in living all across the world in the early twentieth century. Six women were married - with or without children. Four were single. Their adventures and exploits model how those who may be considered disempowered or less able for a variety of reasons - whether physical limitations, a lack of resources, or carrying a vision that no one else (yet) sees - can change the world. Most in our case studies were not trained for global work. Some had only a grammar school. However, each one served with confidence that the Holy Spirit who had called them would empower them, provide for them, and protect them. Their trial-and-error efforts had mixed results, whether in partnerships or pioneering regions alone.
What Made Them Think They Could? Volume 2: American Religious and Cultural Influence on Early Pentecostal Women in Missions (1906-1925)
Extraordinary European and American women have taught, preached, and cared for people in global settings for centuries. Most of the Pentecostal missionaries who went abroad after the early C20 Pentecostal revivals were WOMEN as well.
This volume, second in a series, examines precedent and concurrent women from many backgrounds: Catholic, American mainline churches, Evangelicals, and revivalist groups. Before the Pentecostal revivals, career missionary women paved the way for serving abroad, connecting with partners at home, and updating missions administrators.
These women, with diverse education and varied successes, were role models for early Pentecostal women about how to go, how to prepare, and what to expect in foreign cultures.
What Made Them Think They Could? Volume 3: Shaping Theology, Policy, and Praxis in Early Twentieth-Century Pentecostalism
In the first quarter of the twentieth century, many women - single and married - experienced the Pentecostal revival and entered Pentecostal missions in every corner of the world. Generally discouraged from preaching and leading congregations in the USA, these disempowered women considered their Holy Spirit baptism all the permission and empowerment they needed to go abroad to share the gospel. However, Pentecostal missionaries in the Assemblies of God, the largest American Pentecostal organization, soon became part of an emerging system of AG policy and emerging regulations. Why and how did this happen? And in what ways did precedent Evangelicalism and denominational missions of the nineteenth century shape the beliefs and practices of the women who became part of global Pentecostal missions?
The Jesus-Hearted Woman
By Jodi Detrick
Do you want to be an enduring and endearing leader? Do you long to use the transforming love God has poured into your heart to influence the lives of others? Then you want to be a Jesus-hearted woman!
The Jesus-Hearted Woman is Jodi Detrick’s personal guide to help you become a dynamic and delightful leader. With a blend of delightful humor and great compassion, Jodi Detrick weaves together memorable stories and insights gathered from her many years of successful ministry. When you read The Jesus-Hearted Woman you will be entertained, but most importantly, you will be encouraged along your own leadership path.
The Settled Soul: Tenaciously Abiding with a Tender God
By Jodi Detrick
What does it mean to live with a settled soul? This world...what a chaotic place to live. It seems like every year—even every day—things get more complex and unsettling. If you’ve ever thought, This is all too much, and I am not enough, you’re not alone.
In this devotional study, Jodi Detrick explores, not formulas, but simple practices leading to the only safe, restful place for our world-weary hearts. She invites you to take a deep dive into John 15:1-17 and experience what it means to tenaciously abide with Jesus. Life shakes us up—abiding settles us down. Perfect for individual or group study, The Settled Soul will help you cultivate a soul that lives from the place of peace and purpose Jesus has reserved just for you!
Emboldened: A Vision for Empowering Women in Ministry
By Tara Beth Leach
Throughout Scripture and church history, women have been central to the mission of God. But all too often women have lacked opportunities to minister fully. Many churches lack visible examples of women in ministry and leadership. Pastor Tara Beth Leach issues a stirring call for a new generation of women in ministry: to teach, to preach, to shepherd, and to lead. God not only permits women to minister―he emboldens, empowers, and unleashes women to lead out of the fullness of who they are. The church cannot reach its full potential without women using their God-given gifts. Leach provides practical expertise for how women can find their place at the table, escape impostor syndrome, face opposition, mentor others, and much more. When women teach, preach, lead, evangelize, pastor, and disciple, and when men partner to embolden the women in their lives, the church's imagination expands to better reflect God's story and hope for the world.
Radiant Church: Restoring the Credibility of Our Witness
By Tara Beth Leach
Something is not right. The witness of the church in North America is eroding. Many Christians are alarmed by the decline in church attendance and seek a culprit. Too often, we point the finger away from the church, make culture the enemy, and build walls between us and others. But our antagonism and enemy-making are toxins that further eat away at our witness. Is there a better way? Tara Beth Leach could easily be one of those millennials giving up on the church. Instead, she is a pastor who loves the church and is paradoxically hopeful for its future. In an era where the church has lost much of its credibility, Leach casts a radiant vision for Christians to rediscover a robust, attractive witness. We need to name the toxic soil we've grown in, repent for past wrongs, and lean into a better way to become the church that Jesus proclaimed we would be. Leach casts down idolatrous false images of God to recover a winsome picture of a kingdom of abundance and goodness. We can be sustained by practices that will tune our hearts to God's and form us into the radiant communities God intends for us and those around us.
Chasing Slow: Courage to Journey Off the Beaten Path
By Erin Loechner
You're here, but you want to be there. So you spend your life narrowing this divide, and you call this your race, your journey, your path. You live your days tightening your boot straps, wiping the sweat from your brow, chasing undiscovered happiness just around the bend. And on and on you run. Through a series of steep climbs--her husband's brain tumor, bankruptcy, family loss, and public criticism--Erin learns just how much strength it takes to surrender it all, and to veer right into grace. In Chasing Slow, Erin upgrades her life through downsizing--her stuff, her obligations, her fears, her personal metric of "perfect." And ultimately, her invitation becomes yours: to turn away from the fast and frenzy, and find freedom in a new-fashioned lifestyle defined by grace.
Have More Fun: How to Be Remarkable, Stop Feeling Stuck, and Start Enjoying Life
By Mandy Arioto
Have More Fun is for anyone who has forgotten that fun is an option. In a world where political dramas and cultural uncertainties churn through our news feed every day, Mandy is here to suggest that the answer to many of the most pressing questions is fun.
Not to mention that choosing fun can be a spiritual discipline--a place to experience the boundless love and joy of God in everyday, surprising ways. If you have ever waited until your to-do list is finished to have fun or you can't remember the last time you really laughed, it is possible you might be taking life, work, or parenting too seriously. Weaving together science, historical trends, hilarious stories, practical ideas and spiritual truth, Mandy uncovers fresh ways to take fun seriously instead.
It's Not Supposed to Be This Way: Finding Unexpected Strength When Disappointments Leave You Shattered
By Lisa TerKeurst
What do you do when God’s timing seems questionable, His lack of intervention hurtful, and His promises doubtful? Life often looks so very different than we hoped or expected. Some events may simply catch us off guard for a moment, but others shatter us completely. We feel disappointed and disillusioned, and we quietly start to wonder about the reality of God’s goodness.
Lysa TerKeurst understands this deeply. But she's also discovered that our disappointments can be the divine appointments our souls need to radically encounter God. In It's Not Supposed to Be This Way, Lysa invites us into her own journey of faith and, with grit, vulnerability, and honest humor.
Everybody Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People
By Bob Goff
What happens when we give away love like we're made of it? In his entertaining and inspiring follow-up to Love Does, Bob Goff takes readers on a
journey into the secret of living without fear, constraint, or worry. Driven by Bob’s trademark storytelling, Everybody, Always reveals the lessons Bob learned--often the hard way--about what it means to love without inhibition, insecurity, or restriction. From finding the right friends to discovering the upside of failure, Everybody, Always points the way to embodying love by doing the unexpected, the intimidating, the seemingly impossible.
Let's All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have
By Annie F. Downs
A call to embrace the God-given courage that lives inside you! How often does fear hold you back from the very things you most want to taste, touch, and experience? Author, blogger, and speaker Annie F. Downs admits she's not exactly the bravest girl in the world. She still cries sometimes when she leaves her parents' home in Georgia, she's never jumped out of a plane, and she only rides roller coasters to impress boys. But Annie knows that courage resides inside each and every one of us, and she's on a mission to triumph over her own fears while encouraging the reader to do the same.
The call to be brave isn't just for one person--it's for everyone. Let's All Be Brave is more than a book, it's a battle cry. Annie will challenge you to live boldly, calling you to step into those places that require courage and giving you the help you need to take the next step forward--even when it's scary.
One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are
By Ann Voskamp
Author Ann Voskamp invites you to embrace everyday blessings and embark on the transformative spiritual discipline of chronicling God's gifts. In One Thousand Gifts, Ann invites you to discover a way of seeing that opens your eyes to ordinary amazing grace, a way of living that is fully alive, and a way of becoming present to God that brings you deep and lasting joy. It's only in the expression of gratitude for the life we already have, we discover the life we've always wanted . . . a life we can take, give thanks for, and break for others. We come to feel and know the impossible right down in our bones: we are wildly loved - by God.
Placemaker: Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty, and Peace
By Christie Purifoy
In Placemaker, Christie Purifoy invites us to notice our soul's desire for beauty, our need to create and to be created again and again. As she reflects on the joys and sorrows of two decades as a placemaker and her recent years living in and restoring a Pennsylvania farmhouse, Christie shows us that we are all gardeners. No matter our vocation, we spend much of our lives tending, keeping, and caring. In each act of creation, we reflect the image of God. In each moment of making beauty, we realize that beauty is a mystery to receive.
Placemaker is a timely yet timeless reminder that the cultivation of good and beautiful places is not a retreat from the real world but a holy pursuit of a world that is more real than we know.
Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living
By Shauna Niequist
Author Shauna Niequist invites you to consider the landscape of your own life, and what it might look like to leave behind the pressure to be perfect and begin the life-changing practice of simply being present, in the middle of the mess and the ordinariness of life.
Written in Shauna's warm and vulnerable style, this collection of essays focuses on the most important transformation in her life, and maybe yours too: leaving behind busyness and frantic living and rediscovering the person you were made to be. Present Over Perfect is a hand reaching out, pulling you free from the constant pressure to perform faster, push harder, and produce more, all while maintaining an exhausting image of perfection.
Speak: How Your Story Can Change the World
by Nish Weiseth
Speak, by popular blogger Nish Weiseth, is a book about the power of telling our own stories and hearing those of others to change hearts, build bridges, advocate for good, make disciples with grace, and proclaim God’s kingdom on Earth today.
Nish Weiseth exhorts today’s Christians to follow Jesus’ example by using story as a vehicle for change. After all, Jesus was a master storyteller. He frequently and effectively used the art of storytelling to communicate deep truths about God, humanity, love, and eternity to a culture on the brink. His stories defied social norms, revealed God’s Kingdom, and fiercely advocated for the least of these.
With examples from Scripture as the foundation, Speak is a call for grace, openness, and vulnerability within the evangelical church. Nish Weiseth encourages those in the Body of Christ to know their own story of transformation and redemption―and to use those stories as a catalyst for change at both a personal and global level.
The Better Mom: Growing in Grace between Perfection and the Mess
By Ruth Schwenk
Mothering is messy. Our joy and hope in raising children doesn’t change the reality that being a mom can be frustrating, stressful, and tiring. But just as God is using us to shape our children, God is using our children and motherhood to shape us.
At the heart of The Better Mom is the message that Jesus calls us to live not a weary life, but a worthy life. We don’t have to settle for either being apathetic or struggling to be erfect. Both visions of motherhood go too far. Ruth offers a better option. She says, “It’s okay to come as we are, but what we’re called to do and be is far too important to stay there! The way to becoming a better mom starts not with what we are doing, but with who God is inviting us to become."
The Ministry of Ordinary Places: Waking Up to God's Goodness Around You
By Shannan Martin
For Christ-followers living in an increasingly complicated world, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed and unsure of how to live a life of intention and meaning. Where do we even begin?
Shannan Martin offers a surprisingly simple answer: uncover the hidden corners of our cities and neighborhoods and invest deeply in the lives of people around us. She walks us through her own discoveries about the vital importance of paying attention, as well as the hard but rewarding truth about showing up and committing for the long haul, despite the inevitable encounters with brokenness and uncertainty. With transparency, humor, heart-tugging storytelling, and more than a little personal confession, Martin shows us that no matter where we live or how much we have, as we learn what it is to be with people as Jesus was, we'll find our very lives. The details will look quiet and ordinary, and the call will both exhaust and exhilarate us. But it will be the most worth-it adventure we will ever take.
The Nesting Place: It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful
By Myquillyn Smith
Popular blogger and author of Cozy Minimalist Home Myquillyn Smith (The Nester) helps readers find beauty in imperfection and freedom to take risks to create the home--and life--they've always wanted. This beautiful four- color book is full of photos and creative, easy ideas for arranging, decorating, and cultivating a welcoming home.
Myquillyn Smith is all about embracing reality--especially when it comes to decorating a home bursting with boys, pets, and all the unpredictable messes of life. In The Nesting Place, Myquillyn shares the secrets of decorating for real people--and it has nothing to do with creating a flawless look to wow your guests. It has everything to do with embracing the natural imperfection and chaos of daily living.
Full of easy tips, simple steps, and practical advice, The Nesting Place will give you the courage to take risks with your home and transform it into a place that's inviting and warm for family and friends.
Heartbeat of a Mother: Encouragement for the Lifelong Journey
by Jane Rubietta
Many mothers experience the joy, laughter, and hope of parenting and yet are riddled with shame, doubt, guilt, and anxiety because of their past and fear of the future for their children. Through discipleship and intimate fellowship, mothers of all ages will enjoy diving into this six- week group study that provides interactive vulnerability and truth. This is for every woman who has lived through the rigors of having a mother and/or the labor of childbirth or the adoptive process.
Unashamed: Drop the Baggage, Pick up Your Freedom, Fulfill Your Destiny
by Christine Caine
Shame can take on many forms. It hides in the shadows of the most successful, confident and high-achieving woman who struggles with balancing her work and children, as well as in the heart of the broken, abused and downtrodden woman who has been told that she will never amount to anything. Shame hides in plain sight and can hold us back in ways we do not realize. But Christine Caine wants readers to know something: we can all be free.
5 Habits of a Woman Who Doesn't Quit
By Nicki Koziarz
Have you ever gotten to the place where you just couldn’t take it anymore? Dreams. Programs. Jobs. Relationships. There are so many different areas where we feel like calling it quits. It’s time for an honest conversation on how not to give in to the temptation to give up. Nicki Koziarz is a woman who has thrown in the towel a time or two. In fact, she’s quit just about everything in her life. But with God’s help, she’s discovered a few habits that have helped her and others conquer the choice to quit.
Come With Me: Discovering the Beauty of Following Where He Leads
by Suzanne Eller
What if there was a real-life invitation to a lifetime of unexpected destinations and adventure? What if your faith was the key?
In her warm, conversational way, Proverbs 31 author Suzie Eller shows how your faith is just that. How when you take a step away from the uncertainty, the to-do list, the busy life, the worries and excuses, you take a step toward the One who promises to delight and surprise. Who brings you deeper than you ever thought possible.
Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely
By Lysa TerKeurst
The enemy wants us to feel rejected . . . left out, lonely, and less than. When we allow him to speak lies through our rejection, he pickpockets our purpose. Cripples our courage. Dismantles our dreams. And blinds us to the beauty of Christ’s powerful love.
In Uninvited, Lysa shares her own deeply personal experiences with rejection - from the incredibly painful childhood abandonment by her father to the perceived judgment of the perfectly toned woman one elliptical over.
Survivor - A Journey Through Abortion and Back
By Sheila Harper
Survivor is the true life story of Sheila Harper and her journey through an unwanted pregnancy, the decision to abort, and the life she lived afterward. This book will bring you face to face with the realities of abortion and its aftermath. You will experience a firsthand (sometimes graphic) account of the abortion clinic, the raw emotions, the struggles of unforgiveness, and much more that encompasses this one decision. Then you will see God's miraculous rescue of Harper, who thought she had nothing to live for and nowhere to turn. Yet God has taken her most regrettable mistake and used it to birth a worldwide ministry that is now helping men and women to be free from the choice of abortion.
Love & War
By John and Stasi Eldredge
With astonishing vulnerability that engages readers from the first page, John and Stasi Eldredge openly discuss their own marriage and the breakthroughs they have won from the challenges they’ve faced. Each talks to the reader about what he and she have learned, providing a balance between male and female perspectives that has been absent from previous books on this topic.
John and Stasi begin Love & War with an obvious confession: Marriage is fabulously hard. But beneath and behind the inevitable tensions a man and woman “locked in the same submarine” are going to have, the real battle is against the work of the Enemy, who plots and schemes to tear love apart. The Eldredges show how couples can win “by fighting for each other, insteadof against each other. ”As they say, “We live in a great love story, set in the midst of war.”
Soul Keeping
By John Ortberg
When is the last time you thought about the state of your soul? The health of your soul isn’t just a matter of saved or unsaved. It’s the hinge on which the rest of your life hangs. It’s the difference between deep, satisfied spirituality and a restless, dispassionate faith.
In an age of materialism and consumerism that tries to buy its way to happiness, many souls are starved and unhealthy, unsatisfied by false promises of status and wealth. We’ve neglected this eternal part of ourselves, focusing instead on the temporal concerns of the world―and not without consequence. Bestselling author John Ortberg presents another classic that will help you discover your soul―the most important connection to God there is―and find your way out of the spiritual shallow-lands to true divine depth. With characteristic insight and an accessible story-filled approach, Ortberg brings practicality and relevance tone of Christianity’s most mysterious and neglected topics.
Rhythms of Grace
By Kerri Weems
Life is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. These well-known words of wisdom remind us to pace ourselves in the journey of life so we reach the finish line with no regrets. Pacing yourself is not as easy as it sounds. Life tends to take on a pace of its own which when left unchecked, will drive us toward burnout and fatigue. We can easily become driven by care, worry, and ambition rather than led by the Holy Spirit. We may tend to think of burnout as a modern problem, but we can see that people in Jesus’ day felt their own kind of spiritual and emotional fatigue. Why else would Jesus have said these comforting words?
True Beauty
By Carolyn Mahaney & Nicole Whitacre
From age-defying makeup to the latest diet fad, our culture continually tells women they need to have a flawless face and a supermodel figure. Exposing the lie of physical perfection for what it really is, True Beauty directs women to the truth of God’s Word, which proclaims an entirely different—and refreshingly liberating—standard for beauty. Carolyn Mahaney and her daughter Nicole Whitacre set forth a path to freedom from the false idols that society, the Devil, and the human heart have created. Drawing on years of experience as mothers, writers, and popular bloggers, Mahaney and Whitacre help ladies to exchange the temporary glamour of pop culture for the unfading beauty of godliness.
What to Do When you Don't Know What To Do
By Dr David Jeremiah
In this revised edition of What to Do When You Don't Know What to Do, renowned Bible teacher Dr. David Jeremiah offers stories and biblical insights about what to do when you don't know what choice to make, when faith doesn't seem to work, and when difficult times seem overwhelming.
Counter Culture
By David Platt
Seemingly overnight, culture has shifted to the point where right and wrong are measured by popular opinion. In his new book, David Platt shows Christians how to actively take a stand on such issues as poverty, sex trafficking, marriage, abortion, racism, and religious liberty—and challenges us to become passionate, unwavering voices for Christ.
Life Is: God's Illogical Love Will Change Your Existence
By Judah Smith
Life is . How would you finish that sentence? Judah Smith believes Jesus shows us how to live life to the fullest, and in the follow-up to Jesus Is___., Judah completes the new sentence over and over.
The Best Yes: Making Wise Decisions in the Midst of Endless Demands
By Lysa TerKeurst
Are you living with the stress of an overwhelmed schedule and aching with the sadness of an underwhelmed soul? Lysa TerKeurst is learning that there is a big difference between saying yes to everyone and saying yes to God. In The Best Yes, she will help you:
Cure the disease to please with a biblical understanding of the command to love.
Escape the guilt of disappointing others by learning the secret of the small no.
Overcome the agony of hard choices by embracing a wisdom-based decision- making process.
Rise above the rush of endless demands and discover your best yes today.
Growing Disciples Organically
By Don Detrick
"Follow me.” These two simple words spoken by Jesus are often needlessly complicated with theological, psychological, and sociological interpretations. Using metaphors from organic farming, Don Detrick believes that a less complicated, organic approach for growing disciples makes sense. Maybe Jesus just wants us to simply accept the clear invitation to follow him, and experience the excitement and adventure of the journey.