Have you started to look at Jesus differently over the years?  Instead of learning about Him from commentaries and anecdotes, have you really gotten to know the Jesus of the Bible?  If you have, then you know what Jesus really expects of Christian church ministry leadership.  Instead of skirting around the message, or sugar-coating it for the “me-first” culture in which we live, David Platt challenges Christians to take back their faith from the American Dream.  In Radical Together, Dr. Platt shares six foundational concepts that will help Christian church ministry leadership make an impact for God’s glory, and he broadens this call to challenge believers everywhere to unite around the vision Jesus shared in the Gospels.

Christians who are looking for inspiration and spiritual growth will benefit from reading a complete collection of Discipleship Journal (DJ) archives.  If you’re not yet familiar with DJ, then you will be delighted with the wealth of information found on its pages.  Published by the Navigators, a Colorado Springs-based ministry organization, Discipleship Journal offers believers an insightful discipleship study that fosters a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.

For several decades, the Discipleship Journal has become known as a wonderful resource for Christian ministry leaders as they seek to understand and apply God’s word to their daily lives. Today’s leaders are looking for ways to incorporate a discipleship study into their daily Bible reading, but they are seeking a more flexible way to search through the archives of this popular periodical.  In response to the growing demand for discipleship resources, NavPress is offering several product to make Discipleship Journal archives more accessible.

As someone who attended Christian summer camps throughout my childhood, I truly believe in their power to transform young lives and set teenagers on the right path.  Lifelong memories are made at summer camps for Christian youth, but unless you attended one as a child you may not realize how important these experiences can be.  It was at a Christian summer camp in the Adirondack Mountains of New York where I dedicated my life to the Lord Jesus Christ, and I remember coming home and telling my pastor all about it.  Even though this happened just a month before I left for college, and my life would take many twists and turns after that, the experience left an indelible mark on my life and kept me anchored to Christ in my heart.

If you’ve ever considered joining a ministry within your church, you may have wondered if you have the skills to do it successfully. This is a common issue, particularly with ministry leaders who have no formal training in Christian discipleship.  Fortunately, there are dozens of books and online resources available today that can help people learn the simplest and most effective way of growing a ministry.  The Navigators is a Colorado-based Christian organization with several different ministries; the best known of which is NavPress, a Christian publishing company.

One of the best known NavPress authors is Jim Putman.  In addition to writing several popular books on Christian discipleship, Putman is a veteran of the ministry himself and a nationally-known Christian speaker. He is also the senior pastor at Real Life Ministries in Post Falls, Idaho.  Because of his strong background in sports, he places a high value on coaching as a form of Christian discipleship training. At Real Life Ministries, one of America’s fastest-growing churches, everyone plays a part in the church’s mission, and his books can help reinforce this model of training in your church as well.

Ever since the Navigators’ web site, www.NavPress.com, introduced a special section called “Discipleship Inside Out,” a lot of their regular customers have started learning how to transform their lives through the work of the Holy Spirit.  Using Discipleship Inside Out, Bible students and new believers alike can answer the question – “what is discipleship?”

As a publisher of Christian books, NavPress offers a way to transform the hearts and minds of believers as they discover the gifts of the Holy Spirit. When new Christians reach out for spiritual guidance from mature believers, they will often enter into a discipleship relationship.  Fortunately, the Navigators offer numerous books and tools that help people become better mentors.

Nothing makes people more motivated to change their lives than a helping hand.  Whether this comes in the form of a friend, a mentor, or their faith in God; individuals are more likely to set goals when they have a roadmap showing them how to get there. Some people may call these books from the Navigators Bible studies; others may call them books on spiritual growth, but they are all bestsellers at NavPress.com.

For the holidays, nothing shows a loved one how much you care more than a personalized gift.  By personalized, I don’t mean it has to have their name on it.  Personalized books, for example, will show the recipient that you thought of their needs specifically, and you found a book that will help them move in a more positive direction.  Books on spiritual growth are plentiful in the self-help section of any bookstore, but the real spiritual growth books are not based on human wisdom or psychological discovery.  They are based on transforming the reader into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

If you are a Christian woman, you know how important it is to stay in the Word daily.  Thankfully, there are countless devotional books and Bible reading plans available from the Navigators and other Christian publishers. But Bible studies for women don’t stop there. In fact, the latest trend in Christian publishing for women is a hybrid between a personal devotional and a topical study.  Books like Becoming a Woman of Influence by Cynthia Heald, or Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow do double duty as both a daily reflective Bible study and a book that can be read for hours at a time.

Many churches hold regular weekly Bible studies for women, and they rely on the lessons provided within a selection of study books from NavPress.com.  Also available in Christian book stores, the popularity of these topical Bible studies for women has grown exponentially over the past few years.   Authors like Linda Dillow and Cynthia Heald may be the best known names among Christian women, but there are several other notable authors writing for the Navigators today.

If you have been sending your child to summer camp every year, then you may find they learn a lot in a very short period of time.  However, as children approach their teenage years, they may be overly influenced by other kids who are being raised differently.  When I took my children out of traditional summer camp and sent them to a Christian overnight camp, a lot of their friends’ parents asked me, “Why church camp?”  Perhaps it was my own upbringing and memories of going to Christian camps that gave me the idea.

It’s interesting to note that no matter how far we progress as a society, some of the most profound truths are found in first-century methods of storytelling.  Acknowledging this, one of the latest discipleship books from NavPress is revolutionizing Bible teaching for small group studies.  If you’ve ever wondered how to promote disciplemaking in your church, it may be something as simple as learning how they did it back in the early days of the church.  Back then, people didn’t read that much, but somehow they were able to learn and apply Biblical truths and stories and relate them to others with ease.  How did they do this?  Through oral storytelling, of course.

In one of their most groundbreaking discipleship books yet, the Navigators has just published “Truth that Sticks: How to Communicate Velcro Truth in a Teflon World,” by Avery T. Willis, Jr. and Mark Snowden.  Based on their extensive experience in discipling people with inadequate literacy, or those who don’t like to read, Snowden and Willis gained experience in oral cultures and have thus developed a method of oral storytelling that can be used in any small group setting.

Is it possible to find calm in this chaotic world?  Well, if you’re lucky enough to visit the global headquarters of this family Christian book store, then you may enjoy the serenity of walking amidst the iconic red rocks of the Garden of the Gods.  But most people will be happy to settle for one of this online store’s bestsellers, “Finding Calm in Life’s Chaos” (Becky Harling, NavPress, $14.99.)  That’s the beauty of NavPress, the publishing arm of the Navigators.

Based in the heart of Colorado Springs, adjacent to the majestic Glen Eyrie Castle, there is a genuine family Christian book store where one can shop for NavPress books, but the best selection is available on their comprehensive website.  Christian readers from all over the world visit this site regularly to learn more about the numerous NavPress releases from popular authors like Jerry Bridges and Cynthia Heald.  They seek out resources for teaching group Bible studies and Sunday School classes, as well as discipleship tools and resources for student ministries.  Many of the authors who write for the Navigators are internationally known speakers, counselors and ministry leaders whose books are regularly used in church Bible studies.