SEMINARS

The event is free but attendees must register. For dates and more info, contact Koorong. View a short video clip about Why Groups Matter in the Church https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ6I7xs8kd4

This Group Matters Seminar is a discussion about the benefits of growing your Small Groups’ Bible studies.

Building small groups leads to increased –

• Church growth
• Christian maturity within your congregation
• Volunteers to help you carry out the vision God placed on your heart
• Tithing/giving in your church
• Willingness of people effectively sharing their faith.

Creating a church built around small groups will lead your church into everything  your pastors have been wanting all along. Statistical research by Lifeway’s Dr Ed Stetzer (See Leadership) and his team will be briefly looked at and detailed why pastors should make small groups a priority.

6.30pm Location Dates
Koorong West Ryde, Sydney – 28 West Parade, West Ryde, NSW Wed Feb. 18
Koorong Springwood, Brisbane – 38 Chatswood Rd, Springwood, Qld Thu Feb.18
Koorong Blackburn, Melbourne – 4-8 Vicki St, Blackburn, Vic  Fri Feb. 20
Koorong Mt Lawley, Perth – 434 Lord St, Mt. Lawley, WA  Tue Feb.24
Koorong Adelaide – 198 Waymouth St, Adelaide, SA  Fri Feb. 27

BOOK SIGNING
UNDIVIDED
Graham Hooper

Let’s be honest: there are gaps everywhere in life – the gap between who we are and who we would like to be; the gap between the Christianity we profess and the Christianity we practise; the gap between us and those we love; the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be. We feel disconnected from God, from one another and from ourselves.

How do we close those gaps? How is God working to make us whole? This book brings the gospel to bear on the gaps in our lives. Drawing on a highly unusual lifetime’s experience living out the Christian faith in more than twenty countries, Graham Hooper shows how we can be made whole in the struggles and joys of everyday life – work and relationships, success and failure, service and weakness.

Note: Graham Hooper will be book-signing at Koorong Blackburn store, 6-9pm Thursday February 19 and 1.30-4.30pm Saturday February 21. Do meet this author of whom David Jackman, former director Proclamation Trust, says, ‘This is one of those key life-changing books for which we have been waiting for a long time.’

BOOKS – Just Arrived

                  

KOORONG STAFF LOVE… Check this link for latest staff favourites: www.koorong.com
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FOLLOWING AVAILABLE FROM SOURCES INDICATED

I’LL CROSS THE RIVER
Hope Flinchbaugh
Young Soon has one desire – she wants to hear her children laugh. A widow, pregnant with her third child, Young Soon cooks grass soup just to survive. The town loud speaker, her only news source, brags daily that her beloved North Korea is prospering while the rest of the world is starving. She is shocked when her brother, a soldier, informs her that millions in North Korea are starving. A smuggled newspaper reveals there is food just over the border in China. Will Young Soon be forced to abandon her communist beliefs and risk her life and the lives of her children to cross the guarded Tumen River?

Inside China, 21-year-old Mei Lin (the lead character in the author’s previous two novels, Daughter of China and Across the China Sky) launches her first missionary tour. While on a journey of miracles, she has a heart-pounding dream of a baby crying out to her from murky waters. Who is this baby? How will she find him?

Hope Flinchbaugh has a heart for Asia and a gifted way of igniting a deep hunger for the light of God’s love to break across the hardest and darkest areas of the earth and of challenging readers to commit to impacting our troubled world. Available from www.liftjesuscross.wordpress.com. See also TheBuzz.
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THE HEART IS THE  TARGET
Murray Capill

The Heart is the Target has been written to help preachers apply the text of scripture to people’s lives. It opens up a wide variety of ways in which preachers can think about how to press the meaning of the biblical text on the hearts and lives of their hearers.
Dr Murray Capill, who has been preaching for 25 years and training preachers for the last 14 years, encourages preachers to spend as much time working on application as exegesis so as to ensure that people don’t just hear a biblical lecture but hear a message from God that is for them today.
Purchasable on www.amazon.com for $15.29. See also this month’s Missional
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GRACE REVISITED
Jim McClure

Theologian Dr Jim McClure cuts through the jargon so beloved by theologians enabling readers to rediscover the profound significance of the unavoidability of grace in salvation and in living the Christian life.

Grace Revisited takes us on a journey back to ancient Greece to unearth the origins of the word and concept of the Greek word charis. With scholarly precision, this easy-to-read book shows that the commonly accepted definition of grace as ‘The unmerited favour of God’ falls short when applied to the New Testament.

Well researched book by an insightful author, Grace Revisited reveals grace as having a strong active meaning, not something that is passively received but rather as something that has a dynamic effect on those who receive it. Jim McClure shows that grace is like a many faceted diamond out of which shines a greater understanding of the great God we worship. Normally $35 but obtainable from the author for $25 (plus postage). Link: jbmcclure@hotmail.com. See Ask Dr Jim for another of his timely articles.
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NANA’S 3 JARS: GIVING GENEROUSLY
Carol Round

Charlie and Emma are excited. A day spent in the country with their Nana turns into an opportunity to learn about the joy of giving when they make chocolate chip cookies to hand out to veterans at a local center. What does Charlie do when he runs out of the homemade treats before the last veteran gets one? Join Charlie and Emma as they learn about Nana’s 3 Jars and why the ‘giving’ jar is extra special.

Nana’s 3 Jars: Giving Generously is the first in a series of three books for children to teach them about the value of money and its purpose. See also Carol Round’s Generational and TheBuzz articles.
Link: http://www.amazon.com/Nanas-Jars-Giving-Generously-Volume/dp/0692280197
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A SHELTERED LIFE
Jeremy Reynalds

In this amazing story of ‘Taking it to the streets’ Jeremy Reynalds, who founded and runs New Mexico’s largest emergency homeless shelter and was once homeless himself, shares how he rose from the despair of homelessness to the pinnacle of academia, earning a doctorate in intercultural education at Biola University in La Mirada, Calif.

In addition, the book contains stories of a number of people who have fallen on hard times and have gotten back on their feet again with the help of the Lord at Joy Junction. Dan Wooding, ASSIST Ministries, comments: ‘Jeremy’s story has challenged me to pay more attention to the homeless among us. I pray that his life will likewise encourage you.’ Link: http://www.ashelteredlife.net
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FROM TABLOID TO TRUTH
Dan Wooding

This is the life story of Dan Wooding a Christian journalist from the UK now living in California. Although he had a rough start, Dan was able to overcome obstacles because of his faith, and has become very well-known. He worked with Brother Andrew in smuggling Bibles, was in prison in Nigeria, reported on the Uganda holocaust, was in the midst of the trouble in Israel … all part of his job in journalism. He has had lots of adventures!

This inspirational book is about one man’s life, but it also about major historical events of interest to Christians from the late 1960s to the present. Link: www.assistnews.net See also ASSIST TheBuzz items