Neil Cole

Christians today are on a rescue mission. Each of us is called to get involved in God's plan to make disciples. A former California lifeguard, Neil Cole weaves together his personal experiences of saving lives with biblical principles for how to make and multiply disciples. Cole shows how to create Life Transformation Groups that can help a Christian grow in a safe and transparent relationship with one or two other spiritual pilgrims. Full of heroic and even humorous stories, Search and Rescue captures readers' imaginations and hearts and doesn't let go until they want to make a difference and know how to go about doing it.

Becoming a Disciple Who Makes a Difference

Search & Rescue

An expert practitioner answers to questions about the burgeoning organic church movement Neil Cole's best-selling book Organic Church described the fastest growing segment of contemporary Christianity-the so-called organic church. Now in this next-step book, he answers questions about how to deal with theological and organizational issues that come up. He talks about issues such has what to do with finances, children, heresy, leader training, and rituals and ordinances. Without the top-down structure of a denomination, even people who are proponents of this small, house-church model worry that they are not doing it right. Offers an important resource for anyone involved with or thinking of starting an organic or house church Addresses practical issues of theology, rituals, doctrinal heresy, how to handle children, finances, and other important questions Written by an acknowledged expert who is now and has been for over twenty years an organic church planter and practitioner A new Leadership Network title and follow-up to Organic Church Church 3.0 offers solid information about organic churches based on Cole's extensive experience in starting, nurturing, and mentoring in the organic church movement.

Upgrades for the Future of the Church

Church 3.0

A powerful, biblically based model of leadership development based on the life of the Apostle Paul All churches, denominations, and parachurch organizations are eager for new models of leadership development. Cole uses the life and leadership lessons of the Apostle Paul to show how to develop leaders who are skilled, dedicated, and always open to learning from experience. Cole, a trusted, innovative authority, uses the four journeys of Paul to shows how leaders can grow to be more influential. A publication from the acclaimed Leadership Network Paul, the original “church planter,” was very instrumental in the growth of Christianity—and a perfect model for today’s leaders. Shows how Paul’s leadership developed over the course of his life to get better and better with time and maturity—and how they can do the same.

Charting a Leadership Course from the Life of Paul

Journeys to Significance

Christians today are on a rescue mission. Each of us is called to get involved in God's plan to make disciples. A former California lifeguard, Neil Cole weaves together his personal experiences of saving lives with biblical principles for how to make and multiply disciples. Cole shows how to create Life Transformation Groups that can help a Christian grow in a safe and transparent relationship with one or two other spiritual pilgrims. Full of heroic and even humorous stories, Ordinary Hero captures readers' imaginations and hearts and doesn't let go until they want to make a difference and know how to go about doing it.

Ordinary Hero

In the earliest days of the church, followers of Jesus embraced five core spiritual gifts—apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers—and the world was set on fire as a result. Over the past two thousand years, however, some of these gifts have been neglected or set aside, and we’ve forgotten what we’re capable of. Now, in Primal Fire, Neil Cole shares the surprising truth about the five gifts of Jesus—what they mean, how they reflect Christ, and the remarkable power and synergy that comes when we all work together to ignite the church’s full potential and passion. Whether you’re a church leader who wants to equip your members to grow spiritually, or someone who wants to better understand your own contribution to the body of Christ, it’s time to reignite the Primal Fire and become the gifts that Christ intended for us to be.

Reigniting the Church with the Five Gifts of Jesus

Primal Fire

Argues for a revolutionary new understanding of leadership in the church--to raise up organically grown leaders from ordinary Christians and make everyone clergy.

Leading Naturally Right Where You Are

Organic Leadership

CHRISTIANS SHOULD BE REVOLUTIONARIES! WE SHOULD BE BRINGING A REVOLUTION TO OUR WORLD. Today's world needs a revolution. But not a violent one. We've had plenty of those. We need a revolution that changes hearts and minds. Jesus didn't come to earth just to change your Sunday morning routine. He came to change your life every day and in every way. The Right and Left are growing farther apart each week. Liberal politicians and conservatives are in a moral and political take-no-prisoners civil war. And the expanding divide is evident, not just in politics, but also in the arts, education, business, journalism, science, technology, social services, the military, and even in the faith community. Today's emerging generation is fed up with an unengaged, judgmental Christianity that is afraid to get its hands dirty with real change but is more than willing to shout at the decaying world from a distance. We simply must take a different stance in this world if we want to make a difference . . . and now is the time. But what is that stance? And how do we revolutionize our world as Christians? As author Neil Cole dramatically points out, it's all about One Thing. It's a revolution of love! Grounded in the love found in the new covenant, this book passionately calls the church back to its true spiritual roots and provides tangible examples of how that was done in the past and how we can do it today. One Thing offers an alternative that is biblical, effective, subversive, and loving all at the same time. It's time for us to trade in our busy religion with so many rules for a one-thing spirituality. That one thing is the love generated by being with Jesus, focused upon Jesus, and letting Jesus leak out in our lives. Jesus was all about transformation and change. He was a revolutionary of the heart, and as his followers, we must bring that radical revolution to our world. ¡VIVA LA REVOLUTIÓN!

A Revolution to Change the World with Love

One Thing

Phil Helfer

Just as our life is in our blood, the life for Christ’s body is in His blood. Changing a church is more than a new goal or direction. Our churches need more than an organizational transition; we need a full transfusion of Jesus' blood, His life, within every disciple. Anything less than that will only perpetuate more of the dysfunction and unhealthy church practices that have already plagued us for too long. We are in desperate need of the internally transforming power of the gospel of grace and the presence of Christ so that our salvation is then worked out in a way the rest of the world will notice. It isn’t enough that we believe in the facts contained in the gospel, we must allow the gospel itself to infect our souls and transform us from within. The DNA of Jesus' lifeblood is needed in our churches and nothing shy of a full transfusion that touches every cell will be sufficient. In this book Neil Cole (author of Organic Church, Church Transfusion and Journeys to Significance) and Phil Helfer, co-founders of Church Multiplication Associates, will first point out that change is possible with God, but only with God. In the second half of the book they will lay out some of the actual practical considerations to weigh if you want to release real organic health in your church. Using multiple examples of very different kinds of churches that have been through the process, the authors present ways that leadership and practices need to change in order to release organic church movements from their midst. Chapters cover: Leadershifts necessary Detoxification from dependence issues. How to ignite change virally. How to grandparent movements. How to measure success in movements. This book (another in the Leadership Network series) applies organic life principles to established churches with practical help that is holistic and natural. The content in this book will be helpful whether you are pastor of an established church or wanting to revitalize a small organic church. Jesus didn’t die and rise from the dead so that we can be like everyone else in the world. Our faith is more than just a better doctrine or a bigger goal with a capital giving campaign; it is a better life. Jesus is the difference, and what a difference he makes...don't be satisfied with less.

Changing Your Church Organically--From the Inside Out

Church Transfusion

Cultivating a Life for God calls upon us to rethink our busy, fast-paced lives. If there is a stirring in your soul for "something more" in your spiritual journey, take a risk on what God might do in and through your life. Discover the compassion that comes from heaven and can be experienced in a Life Transformation Group (LTG). You may never be the same again "The Life Transformation Group system is a grass roots tool for growth. Through this simple system the most essential elements of vital spiritual ministry are released to common Christians without the need for specialized training. It taps the disciple's internal motivation and provides the support needed to grow in the essentials of a spiritual life. The LTG empowers the common Christian to do the uncommon work of reproductive discipling." (page 63) "In my years of ministry, I have not found any method that produces such powerful results in fulfilling the Great Commission. I personally plan on using this system for the rest of my life to make as many disciples of the kingdom as I can before Christ calls me home " - Neil Cole (page 89) - See more at: http: //www.cmaresources.org/cultivating-a-life-for-god

Cultivating a Life for God

Churches have tried all kinds of ways to attract new and younger members - revised vision statements, hipper worship, contemporary music, livelier sermons, bigger and better auditoriums. But there are still so many people who aren't being reached, who don't want to come to church. And the truth is that attendance at church on Sundays does not necessarily transform lives; God's presence in our hearts is what changes us. Leaders and laypeople everywhere are realizing that they need new and more powerful ways to help them spread God's Word. According to international church starter and pastor Neil Cole, if we want to connect with young people and those who are not coming to church, we must go where people congregate. Cole shows readers how to plant the seeds of the Kingdom of God in the places where life happens and where culture is formed - restaurants, bars, coffeehouses, parks, locker rooms,and neighborhoods. Organic Church offers a hands-on guide for demystifying this new model of church and shows the practical aspects of implementing it.

Growing Faith Where Life Happens

Organic Church

Is it possible that the division between the clergy and the laity is unnecessary and, in fact, harmful to the church? In Organic Leadership, Neil Cole fervently says yes and shows how this causes great harm to all. But rather than doing away with the clergy, Cole argues that the answer is to raise up organically grown leaders from ordinary Christians and make everyone "a priest." Using examples from modern cinema, personal experience, and the Bible, Cole sets out to change our view of what a leader is and how one is formed. This fresh and revolutionary alternative will transform readers and equip them to challenge themselves and others to find the vision God has for them. Now available in trade paper.

Today's culture is defined by four exponential growth trends: the population boom, the technology tsunami, the rising economic gap and the increasing polarization of worldviews. Rising like tides, these trends are leading us toward a crushing break.This is a wake-up call for God's people, who must act now to respond to the demands of these shifting tides if they hope to weather the storm. Time is short.Neil Cole carefully lays out some simple ways we can catch up, and keep up, with this rapid change. An unflinching appraisal of the challenges we face, coupled with tangible and achievable solutions, Rising Tides offers profound hope for the way forward.We can future-proof our faith.The Church will not be overcome, but our old ways must be if we hope to survive the rising tides.

Finding a Future-Proof Faith in an Age of Exponential Change

Rising Tides

Katie Driver

Jan Diss

Felicity Dale

Peggy Batcheller-Hijar

All it took was one. One black swan changed people's minds forever. The Black Swan Effect presents a vision for what can happen as men and women work together in the Kingdom of God. The authors (both male and female) encourage men to champion women as equal co-laborers and partners in the harvest. They give women permission and inspiration to follow the Lord—to reach their own full potential and encourage others to fulfill God's call. The Black Swan Effect equips both men and women to bring an informed and positive contribution to the increasingly crucial conversation on gender in the church. If you are like most Christians, one of three primary motivations propels you into this discussion about women in ministry: • Many Christians have come to the conclusion that there is no better way to increase the size of God's missions workforce than to fully deploy women to use their spiritual gifts and God-given capacities. • Some are asking theological questions. They are investigating how the Bible portrays women, especially women leaders. How did Jesus treat women? Were the New Testament writers—in particular, the apostle Paul—misogynists? Are there alternative interpretations for some of the really difficult passages of Scripture? • Others are drawn to this discussion because of issues related to justice and human dignity around the world as well as in the church. As they study Scripture, they are assured that God creates all men and women in his image, and they can't even imagine a God who would discriminate against women. Fourteen different authors contribute to these themes, each writing from their own area of passion and expertise, the whole being woven together into a single narrative. Encouraging stories of women who are doing marvelous things for God today accompany each chapter. Change is coming! Let's get ready.

Neil Cole

Books

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