Tag Archives: Christian Conversations

The Church is Rising

I want to thank you all for the great feedback from yesterday’s post on The Church vs. The Church.

Many of you who followed my blog in the early days remember that I wrote on Christian living in today’s world. I have had many people ask me to go back and write more of those blogs. While I love teaching the Word to others – and while I will continue to do that from time to time – that is not the direction I feel God taking me in my life at this point in the journey.

I have refocused my blog to help other great Christian people get their messages and testimony into print. The self-publishing world is a tricky world to navigate and I feel that my eye for detail, my desire to spread the Gospel to the ends of the Earth and my passion for lifting up others to shine, is better served by me using my blog to help people “Publish With Purpose”.

I will still take time out to talk on  issues that I see that need to be addressed, (as I did yesterday) but I need to keep my eye’s focused on using my skills and talents to lift up others and help them share their testimonies to the world.

With that said, I want to share a couple of great blogs from up and coming stars in the Christian world. These are people with passion and a desire to see Kingdom living today and not waiting until our time is done here on Earth. These people are proof positive to me that the Church is rising and is becoming strong and a force to be reckoned with.

The first person I want to introduce you to is Robin Bremer. Robin is passionate about helping people unleash their full potential as Christians. Her dedication to reveal scripture to people and exposing them to the gifts that Jesus has promised us through the Holy Spirit, is motivating. I love her passion and drive.

We will be releasing Robins book, Feed My People Joy, in September of this year. Take the time to check out her vast amount of YouTube teaching videos and also visit her site to learn more about her ministry.

The next person I want to introduce you to is Melissa West. Melissa has taken her life experiences and her love of Christ and poured it all into riveting teachings. Melissa is a doer. When she sees a need or something lacking, she jumps in and fills that void.

There are so many important areas that we need to address in our Christian walk and we don’t always find all the teaching we need at church. The roles of pastors is to guide their flocks and reach the loss. With only 52 Sundays in a year to address people, they cannot cover all the bases of what the bible teaches. Melissa is using her writing to address those areas that the church is missing. Bookmark her blog and learn more.

Everyone who follows Cross Point Publishing and my blog already know of F. Remy Diederich. Remy is the founding pastor of Cedarbrook Church and the author of Healing the Hurts of Your Past.

Remy works with people who are fighting through  destructive behaviors in a local rehabilitation center. His work and passion to help these people find healing has led to his blog which deals directly with helping people reconnect with a God who desires to restore us to a life of glory.

These are just three of the rising stars of the church today. These three people are people who are in my life and that I want to give some exposure to.

Who would you like to add to this list? Add their name, what type of ministry work they do and a link to their site in the comments section below.

Why Every Pastor Should Publish a Book

A couple of years ago I was at the Global Leadership Summit and had the opportunity to hear Pastor Jeff Manion speak on the subject of the Israelite’s experience in the desert. His message that day was based on a very successful sermon series he had preached at his church.

In between sessions I wandered out to the lobby where I discovered he had published a book titled The Land Between. I loved his message so much that I bought the book and took it home for some further reading. Imagine my surprise when I realized that his entire message made up nearly the entire content of his book.

You see, Jeff partnered with another writer to take his sermon series and re-write it into a book. The book mirrored his message and probably his sermon series in every way. It is great to have that message forever captured in print form. Like the books of the bible, Jeff’s message will be available for those who make up the future of the church.

This got me to thinking about how many pastors out there have a great sermon series sitting on the shelf somewhere. If the job of the church is to “Go forth and make disciples of all nations”, what better way to achieve that goal then to use modern technology and publishing programs to bring their sermons to book form.

Many will object saying that their work is not worthy.

I disagree.

Here are five reasons that I feel every pastor should seek to publish at least one of their sermons into a book:

  1. New Technology Makes it Affordable- In the past, the only people who could get published were the lucky few. Now with self-publishing and print-on-demand technology, every pastor can be published and available to the world at little to no charge.
  2. Books are an Easy Fix- Many people will seek out answers to their problems from the pages of a book before they will seek help from their pastor. Perhaps it is selfish pride that prevents them from discussing issues with their pastors. Either way, wouldn’t it be nice to have an important message in print and ready to aid someone in their struggles?
  3. The Message Heard Around the World- Some self-publishing companies offer the ability to distribute your book around the world. Now pastors have the ability to turn their sermon series into a book and share it on a global level.
  4. Ministry Costs Money- By bringing a sermon to print brings the added potential for income. Profits from book sales can go towards the writer, the writers church, an organization or any form of ministry. Ministry costs money, what better way to raise money than making money off a successful sermon that helps transform lives for Christ.
  5. Share the Ooh-Aah With Others- Someone out there is waiting for the Ooh-Aah moment that only your book may deliver. For many years, once a sermon was preached it disappeared with time. Years later you always hear someone say, “You remember that message that Pastor Joe preached. Powerful stuff. I wish he would teach on it again. I know someone who needs to hear it.” With a published version, that perfect sermon is forever preserved.

Every pastor has one or two Ooh-Aah sermon series tucked away.

Isn’t it time to turn that Ooh-Aah moment into a book?