Resources Books

Understanding that comes from this book is very helpful. You can then see that ADD victims don't need to be told "your a problem" - rather we can work with ADD victims to maximize their tremendous and actually unique potential.

It was a very helpful book. I would like to have seen suggestions about who to see about getting someone tested. Overall, a very informative book.

This is an eye opening book into my husband's heart. It reminded me of his true strength's and helped me to see the reality of how God created him. We've learned better coping skills, especially for day to day and our relationship. This book holds so much hope for the future. My husband now knows that he is loved and accepted.
This is a must read for anyone in relationship with an ADD person.

I always knew my husband was ADD, and tried to do things to help him. The book and authors really helped me to understand, and APPRECIATE my husband. He is my best friend and when he hurts I hurt. It is great to find a book that encourages and gives couples and families help. It gives them a way to deal with everyone else's negative view of ADD. Practical tips on how to help make their lives easier.
This book is a great positive resource to anyone's library. It is a book and audio tape that you will want to give to other people to read and listen to. Even if you have a bookshelf full of ADD books, and you think you know everything about ADD, this book will SHOCK you with new insight and help give you a better and uplifting view of ADD.
GET IT & READ it, the information has saved marriages and made marriages better.

An incredible resource! Based on over a decade of research and their own experience of living with A.D.D. This is a book of hope and it clearly provides answers and validation to those who have had to struggle with A.D.D.
Through this series, you will find that you are not alone-whether you are the one who has A.D.D. or the spouse, family member, or friend of an A.D.D. individual. A true glimpse into the world of somebody who is "Affectionately Designed Differently".

Go ahead - try some fun in worship! There is enough here to delight all ages and involve all levels of worshippers.

I love this book! Packed with resources and real life stories, it leads the reader to consider ways to faithfully and sensitively lead the congregation into experiencing the word authentically and engaging with each other in ways that will build community and hope. Also check out their other book, Talking Faith, which is similarly well written and full of useful ideas.

This book is filled with fantastic ideas that will have you thinking about your church's worship in new and different ways. There is true depth to this pool--"Dare to Dive In" dares preachers and worship leaders to go into the deep end of encounter with an unpredictable God. The authors challenge those of us who usher others into the presence of God on Sunday mornings to engage mind and body, left brain and right brain, as we present our worship. There are terrific ideas here, presented with deeply faithful rationale. Let yourself be inspired by this book to find a new freshness in worship.

How can we communicate the message of our Christian faith in ways that can be deeply heard by all generations of people? Dare to Dive In answers this question by utilizing creative ideas for the parish that will both excite children AND engage adults. As a pastor of a small congregation, I understand the difficulty of communicating the word of God in a way that can be understood by all ages of people. This resource provides a creative and intergenerational approach to worship. It is neither "contemporary" nor "traditional" but simply "creative." Once again, the authors -- both pastors themselves -- have come through with ideas to invite all ages of congregants into worship. I highly recommend this book for pastors and worship leaders who are ready for a change.

Think of this as an idea book for worship planning. Dare to Dive In is exactly what's needed by worship leaders who want to lead experiential worship services. The authors are creative powerhouses and their book is packed with one great suggestion after another. Whether you're looking for liturgical season planning ideas or ideas for special worship services, this book is a great resource. Best of all, reading Dare to Dive In spurred my own imagination and creative thinking for worship.

The grandkids loved the book. They live in Tucson and see the Saguaros every day!

This book is very educational to use in a classroom or an education focused day camp and is not an easy read as a story book at bedtime.

I have used this book every year as a third grade teacher. It is wonderful as a read aloud for science to illustrate how animals and plants adapt to their environment and rely on other plants and animals for survival. This is one of the best books I have ever read to my class because it is not dull science jargon but presented as the story of the life of the cactus. Don't miss this one for teaching and learning about life science in the desert.

We have been reading many different desert books for a unit study. It seemed that we kept running across the same old information in every book. Then we read this one! It tells you things that you just don't find in other books. This turned out to be our favorite book. The pictures are wonderful and it is easily understandable by young children, thought adults will learn a thing or two as well! Highly recommended.

Our third grade loved your book. It gave us a lot of information about the desert. The illustrations were excellent. We especilly liked the use of author techniques such as diagrams, onomatopeias, catchy title and colorful illustrations. We would love to contact Barbara Bash.

I must say that this book came right alone side of some other material I have been studying. I have develop a series of sermons
and to have had this book at this time, was comfirmation for me, that I was is God Will, as I address the concerns at our pastorate. Which allowed me and my congregation to be enhance and to expand our understanding of ministry as it concerns our needs and God's Will. Thanks again for being use of the Lord!

No other book has motivated me to plan ahead and strategize more than this one. Both in personal life and in my ministry, this book points me to accomplishing what needs to be done. This book is invaluable. IT is worth ten times the money. Get it for yourself and see.

Malphus joins the growing ranks of authors whose goal is to help bring renewal to the church by teaching pastors how to develop a vision for ministry. In this, Malphurs was very successful. The author presents a six-step process to help pastors develop and implement a vision in the local church

Being a small church pastor I appreciate his emphasis on the small church. The use of the fictional Pastor Bob was an excellent tool of identification. It allowed the author to bring in the human element of discouragement, frustration and antagonism in a way that every pastor can identify with. Malphurs dealt adequately with the idea of opposition. The Deacon Bill character is a man we call can identify with.

His advice on how to obtain a vision was excellent, it was pragmatic and easy to use. This is in direct contrast with Barna's The Power of Vision (pgs. 81-1-84) that promulgated a process so tedious that only the most tenacious pastor would ever work his way through. His insight that vision will become a dividing rod in the congregation rings true- those who buy into it stay, those who do not, leave.

This was a pretty powerful book, but it was not without some weaknesses. It assumed that some of Pastor Bobs board were visionary people. In far too many churches, the maintenance mind-set is firmly entrenched in the power structure and visionary people are excluded. It is not unusual to have no men of vision on a church board, what then? Although he did not neglect the opposition to vision within the church, I think he did underestimate it. Peter Drucker makes it very clear that the people who have the most to lose by vision are the people who have invested the most into the organization. Barna's insight into the nature of opposition in his excellent book Turn Around Churches was far more realistic.

This book was packed full of helpful advice. I especially appreciated the distinction the author makes between leadership and management and that both are necessary in growing churches. Churches cannot grow without leadership and they cannot deal with the problems caused by growth without management. Thus the pastor must wear both hats.

Yes, this is a must read dealing with issues concerning vision that are not adequately covered in other books on the subject.

Like most ministers, I have read several books on vision. Some titles were very inspiring, other titles were very confusing. The vast majority however, were not very enlightening. This book by Malphurs moves beyond establishing the need for vision and helps the reader grasp, communicate, and implement a vision.

Malphurs follows an easy-to-understand process beginning with the definition of a ministry vision and ending with the preservation of that vision. I recommend this book highly to all ministry professionals, especially pastors.

In a world of religion where many churches seem to simply "exist" without much understanding of their own purpose, the answer time and time again of "Why?" comes back to a people perishing because of no Vision. Aubrey Malphurs skillfully weaves together wisdom and experience with practical application of a much used and little understood term: Vision. With fresh, illuminating spiritual insight, he guides us upon a journey of discovery and awareness. This voyage exposes the snapshot which has been impressed upon the film of your spirit, and through the "light-room" of the Holy Spirit, brings forth a full blown picture of what God wants the ministry He has given you to look like, ready to battle, in the 21st Century. If you would not be ignorant of the wiles of the devil, this book is a must read!

For those of us who live in tourist towns and see how the incredible number of visitors changes them, this is the book! It looks at a large number of places -- from Santa Fe to Maui, from Las Vegas to Aspen -- and shows in great detail how they change. It reads well too, on a par with better known authors like Robert D. Kaplan and Tim Egan. I heard the author speak here in town--I guess he lives here-- and it made me buy the book. I came away extremely impressed. This is not my usual reading. I'm more a John Grisham type. But this one rang bells for me. After I read this book, I was in Thailand on business and I found myself using Devil's Bargains as a lens for what I was seeing. The comparisons were striking and I wondered if this book might apply to more than the West. Well written and snappy, showing a lot of research, this one is a real winner, especially for anyone in city planning or tourist development.

For discerning travelers planning a western vacation this summer, or for that matter, for anyone curious about the popular allure of the West, Hal K. Rothman's "Devil's Bargains" is a must read. Rothman, a professor of western and environmental history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, provides a richly detailed assessment and critique of the development of tourism as it has evolved from the late nineteenth century to the present in the inter-mountain West. Synthesizing the existing scholarship on tourism, enhanced by wide ranging primary research, Rothman reveals a fascinating, yet disturbing, underside to the glitz and glamour of the tourist economies firmly established in western resort towns from Santa Fe to Las Vegas.

"Devil's Bargains" presents a series of provocative histories recounting the development of resort towns and tourist sites across the inter-mountain West including the Grand Canyon, Santa Fe, Carlsbad Caverns, Steamboat Springs, Aspen, Vail, Sun Valley, and Las Vegas, among others. The book also codifies the history of tourism under a new interpretative framework which divides the development of tourism into three phases: cultural and heritage tourism, recreational tourism, and entertainment tourism. Beginning at the turn of the century with cultural and heritage tourism spawned by the transcontinental railroads seeking to expand passenger traffic, tourism evolved into recreational tourism made possible by the automobile and a growing fascination with exercise and the outdoors in the aftermath of World War I, and culminated after World War II with entertainment tourism dependent on the Jet airplane and the dramatic expansion of widespread prosperity, a leisure ethic, and a pervasive consumer culture. Rothman focuses on the Grand Canyon and Santa Fe to illustrate cultural and heritage tourism; various western ski resorts define recreational tourism; and Las Vegas embodies entertainment tourism. These three phases of tourist development reflect the historical transformation of tourism from an elite pastime to a more individualized, democratic experience, to a mass culture phenomena. They also reveal a process of economic development, reflecting the evolving strategies adopted by western communities to replace tapped out extractive economies.

Defining tourism as the quintessential service economy, the pinnacle of post-industrial capitalism, Rothman argues that the promises of tourist industries have been embraced as a panacea for economic decline in towns throughout the West. However, as his research reveals, locals and even "neonatives" have found tourism to be a bitter pill to swallow. Although the advent of tourist economies in places such as Jackson Hole, Steamboat Springs, and Sun Valley has resulted in phenomenal economic growth, prosperity has come with a price. As the book's title suggests, in the process of reviving the economy, tourism displaces locals with outside capital and corporate control, sapping a place of its soul, and leaving in its stead a facade of hollow images and a service economy manipulated by distant corporations whose only interest is the bottom line. What has emerged in places like Vail and Santa Fe is a two-tiered class system where workers who are predominantly people of color (Hispanic, African, or Filipino) hold low-paying, menial jobs providing for the comfort and amusement of wealthy second home owners and visitors. There is little room for an established community of year-round residents when the bottom line centers on the paying visitor. Las Vegas is the exception. In defining itself as the ultimate themed destination resort constantly reinventing itself to satisfy visitors' desires, Las Vegas remains one of the last places where unskilled workers can earn a middle-class income replete with benefits and job security. Las Vegas alone, according to Rothman, has succeeded at perfecting the service economy, becoming a model of sorts for the rest of the country. "The colony became the colonizer," he writes, exporting a model of entertainment tourism for a nation entranced by the spectacles of multi-media consumer culture.

In detailing the ways in which western communities reinvented themselves as tourist resorts, marketing an idealized western ambiance and a scripted history, and in the process losing control of the very community they sought to promote and preserve, Rothman provides a rich assessment of the social and political impact of tourist-based economies as they evolved from local ventures to corporate productions. But more than that, he presents a thoughtful and disturbing critique of the promises and realities of post-industrial, post modern capitalism as manifested in the twentieth-century tourist's West.

Marguerite S. Shaffer, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina, Wilmington

I read the book as part of a course I took, and I found the book to be too long, and somewhat dry. However, Dr. Rothman, a UNLV history professor, does make a very clear point: that tourists towns or places are dealt a "devil's bargain" in which they lose the authenticity of the place for the funds or profit that is brought in by tourists.

Overall, Dr. ROthman does drive his point home. But the same point is made in 20 different ways.

At once extremely learned and passionately engaged, DEVIL'S BARGAINS puts forward a startling analysis of Western tourism. From Rothman we learn about skiing and much else: the economic and historical forces shaping our sense of place, our connections to nature, and our troubled relationships to one another. A travel book of another sort, it takes the reader to a vantage point from which our Western landscapes can be seen most clearly.

I was born into the park service and lived the tourist experience. This book really helped me form a perspective about my early years growing up in western tourist and resort environments. Western history is fascinating, but this angle on western history really gives another intriguing dimension to america's perception of the mythic frontier.

This is a beautiful, prayer book sized leather edition of Saint Faustina's "Divine Mercy in My Soul", especially made to commemorate the First Divine Mercy Conference in Rome, April 2008. I highly recommend it to Divine Mercy lovers.

I highly recommend to anyone who loves St Faustinas Diary. The edition is compact so it easily fits into your purse which makes it much easier to take with you to Adoration. It is a collectors edition that you will cherish for a lifetime.

The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina serves as an essential reading for the followers of the Divine Mercy. The Diary should be read in order to have a better and deeper understanding of Sister Faustina's journey, as described in her four notebooks which are included in The Diary. I would recommend The Diary to all Catholics and those interested in understanding our religion.

This blessed Diary of Saint Maria Faustina's experiences with Lord Jesus Christ; a true revelation of Jesus' Divine Mercy (of God's Divine Mercy & Love), is truely beautiful, and deeply spiritual. And in which one's heart/soul, when reading this, will be in deep agreement, and inflamed with great zeal to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet, prayers for forgotten souls in Purgatory, lost souls/sinners around the world who are in full need of compassion, mercy, Baptism & Salvation. And for the deep consecration of one's heart, mind, and being to the Sacred-Divine-Mercy-Heart of our Lord, Redeemer, Saviour, Sanctifyer, illuminator - Jesus Christ.

This leather-bound edition is perfect; it is thin, for the paper is made from the same cloth paper as that of the Bible, and the Missals. It has gold gilding, and a burgandy satin ribbin to keep your page, and the burgandy leather is soft to the touch. It reads very well. I love it.

This is an absolutely necessary book for everyone to own and meditate on. For those truly committed to gaining a deeper understanding of Our Lord this is an essential resource.

The author gave some great historiography infromation concerning various religious sects as to how pastoral care emerges from each group. The book was not to finite with detail, but it was precise and breif enough to encompass a broad perspective. The CD that comes along with the book was just as useful to use as the book itself.

The Dictionary is useful for readers across a wide spectrum, not only for pastoral carers. Contains concise and practical information. The theological import of each entry is spelled out. Each entry has a bibliography for further reading or cross reference. I found myself browsing at leisure!

Anyone who has worked in the area where psychology and religion interface will appreciate this solid, thorough and carefully edited work that is without par in the field. Grounded in the actual experience of the "theology of living documents", the articles are as much practical as theoretical and academic. Thoroughly ecumenical, this massive reference work promotes dialogue between faith and theology and clinical theory and practice. If this is the kind of subject that interests you then you need to own this book.

F.X. Charet Phd

This a comprehensive and well-written reference work with more than 1200 articles and 1346 pages. For the parish minister or pastor who needs guidance, this book should definitely be on the shelf as a mandatory reference work. For seminarians, it might be overwhelming, but would be a wonderful book to own. For more experienced religious leaders, pastoral counselors and pastoral psychotherapists, however, there is much here that can be gotten more easily and in more sophisticated form from smaller, more specialized books on theology and especially aspects of psychology/psychiatry. Still, it is an admirable piece of scholarship and one that most caregivers will want and use. (Non-religious mental health workers could also use it for working more effectively with religious populations.)

The Dictionary is useful for readers across a wide spectrum, not only for pastoral carers. Contains concise and practical information. The theological import of each entry is spelled out. Each entry has a bibliography for further reading or cross reference. I found myself browsing at leisure!

This book explains or attempt to explain what happens between the preacher and the pulpit!

While a sermon is NOT supposed to be an entertainment, it IS supposed to rouse the listeners to faith, action, and hope. If your preaching is lacking, Dr. Smith has a LOT of help for you.

He is one of my favorite preachers, by a LONG shot. I listen to EVERY sermon he preaches that I can find. His sermons are absolutely LOADED with good theology (and I don't mean "purpose driven drivel")--- it is loaded with theology put to work!

Smith has a magical way with analogies, metaphors, and imagination that most of us don't quite get. I am convinced that PROPER creativity is CAUGHT as much as it is TAUGHT--- read this book and let Smith's logic and ingenuity sink in.

This book is intriguing and a good reference for anyone who speaks or teaches as part of a Christian ministry. Thumbs up!!

Every now and then you need to be made to feel uncomfortable. Perhaps there are few ways to make people fee more uncomfortable than to talk to them about them public speaking or dancing. Robert Smith attempts to combine both of these uncomfortable realities into a helpful metaphor for biblical preaching.

Robert Smith is professor of Christian preaching at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama. Prior to this, he was a professor at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

Right off the bat you have got to respect Smith's gutsy-ness to link the sacred act of preaching to a metaphor such as dancing. Remember, Smith is from a Baptist institution. I can't wait for his next book, perhaps Fermenting Truth: A Pastor's Guide to a Gloriously Intoxicating Ministry

Doctrine that Dances is primarily a book for preachers. Smith employs two main metaphors throughout.

The first is that the preacher is to be a `doxological dancer'. That is to say he is to be not just mentally engaged with the passage but also emotionally engaged. Smith warns against pastors spending time in the study of the word but neglecting their due time under the knife, in surgery, so to speak.

The second metaphor is that the preacher is to be an `exegetical escort'. He is to use the text to bring people into the presence of God. Here is a definition from Smith of such doctrinal preaching:

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My definition of doctrinal preaching emphasizes its underlying aim: transformation through Christ. I state that doctrinal preaching is the escorting of the hearers into the presence of God for the purpose of transformation. I contend that the task of the doctrinal preacher is to serve as an escort who ushers the hearer into the presence of God through the proper and precise expounding of the Word of God. When this is done, the efforts of the doctrinal preachers have reached their limits because they cannot transform the hearer. The hearer is left in the presence of the only One who can transform a human soul--Christ.

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Some may think that Smith is just being too cute with these metaphors and it is overkill. I'll be honest, I thought the same thing for the first 30 or so pages. But Smith pulls it off. He keeps emphasizing the metaphors and developing them within the context of pastoral ministry. When you finish the book I trust you'll agree that you have been served well by a man who wants to see God glorified and people transformed (including the preacher) by the faithful study and proclamation of the Word of God.

The book is written in a very engaging style. Smith is very culturally relevant (a good model for preachers) and writes with an eye toward the end goal (transformation). He also recognizes the negative stigma of doctrinal preaching, that it is boring. However, he doesn't flinch; his charge is for men to not make the glorious truth of Scripture boring but rather to be affected by this truth and then preach as a man who has been so affected.

I think Smith does a great job balancing the oft distorted poles of emotion and content. Too often men compromise one for the other and sadly the casualties are in the pews.

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Smith writes:

The preachers are simultaneously exegetical escorts and doxological dancers as they respond respectively to the substance of the Word of God within a style that is unique to their own personality yet reflective of an enthusiastic and passionate delivery. Doctrinal preaching includes both the exegetical escorting of the hearer and the doxological dancing of the preacher as the preacher ushers the hearer into the presence of God for the purpose of transformation. The preacher, who prior to the preaching moment has been transformed and who dances in the delivery of the message, expects the hearers also to be doxologically responsive to the Word of God because to the transformative moment. The doxological response in the preaching and hearing of the Word of God does not enter the sermon in its conclusion; rather, it begins the sermon in its introduction and resounds throughout the message.
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Throughout the book Smith quotes from people that I did not expect. I wonder as to why he would repeatedly quote Harry Emerson Fosdick, as well as Karl Barth, and St. Francis of Assisi. I did not find their quotes to add significant value to the point he was making and without a disclaimer would be concerned about folks embracing the rest of their teachings within such a context. This however, would not cause me to not recommend this book to preachers.

Finally, there is a continued reference to American slavery, African American preaching and the development of Christianity within the early African-American community. I had found this curious throughout the first 2/3 of the book until I realized the Smith himself was an African-American. This disclosure by Smith was helpful.

Smith has a wide potential readership, the Baptist community (both Reformed and Arminian), the African-American Community, and the rest of evangelicalism. Each area needs to be reminded of the call to preach the word faithfully and passionately for the glory of God and the transformation of people. May God be pleased to use it to this end.

Smith has introduced a work that will encourage, inspire, and educate preachers today who desire to be true to God's Word. Today, many pastor's preach to a crowd that is biblically illiterate. Smith explain how it is our responsibility to escort these listeners into God's presence through both the emotion and the mind. Doctrine that dances will help you see the Christ-centered need in your message and the need to preach hope in his second coming. Must read for any preacher today seeking to be both relevant and biblical.

The internet is a source of a tremendsous volume of data that can be hard to translate into useful information. Dr. Weinberg's guide is a comprehensive compilation of useful and reliable links that provide information on a broad array of health issues.

Dr. Weinberg makes the difficult task of finding good, sound medical resources on the web manageable. As a consumer and as a mental health professional the information that I have found is user friendly and helpful. This book is a must have for everyone, especially those of us who have a medical condition that we are seeking understandable information about.

Dr. Weinberg's Guide is a terrific source for the novice to find great, practical medical information on the internet. The Guide takes the guessing out of the equation when researching or asking questions on everyday medical topics. This is a "must have" for every person and every home with kids.

A MUST HAVE GUIDE FOR ALL. dR. wEINBERG HAS CREATED A NASTERPIECE. tHIS GUIDE SHOULD HELP THE AVERAGE PERSON SURF THE WEB TO GET MORE INFORMATION ON THEIR MEDICAL ISSUES AND CONCERNS. DR WEINBERG HAS HELPED TO ELIMINATE THE SO CALLED GARBAGE WEBSITES THAT ARE ALWAYS TRYING TO SELL SOMETHING.tHANK YOU dR. wEINBERG.

Dr. Weinberg's Guide for health resources is an excellent collection of references covering clinical disease, medical social issues and a section for Spanish-speaking patients. Health professionals as well as patients will find this book a valuable resource for educational/academic information on the web. Just remember that this guide is "Knowledge for your Health."

Living retired in Harbor Beach brought this book close to my heart. I have seen the results of the wire factory and now understand why. I acknowlege completely what is happening except for one main point. When all is said and done who are the consumers of the product. AMERICA, we have and always will be. Unless we take it away and let all our blue collar brothers walk the streets looking for work and cut their wages in half or worse. As much as some companys complain it is their workers and the ones their companys work with that spend the most. So Mr. Auto Company and any others go ahead and take the blue collar workers income away and he will not need the second car, and maybe not even the first. I was taught as a child that the poorer a family is the more of their income they spend, but if there isn't any then what?

Anyone who wants to see the real impacts of outsourcing should read this book. It leaves you thinking the real workers are never the winners, and makes you question what we are allowing to happen.

Reporter Ron French has followed the trail of manufacturing outsourcing and the fascinating aspect is how that path relentlessly twists and turns. He describes the process and humanely examines the impact on individuals. This is a book for those of you who want to know what really happens when America sends it's business elsewhere.

A compelling, personal and entertaining account of outsourcing. This isn't a book about economics but a book about people. The author reports the consquences of boardroom decisions on the people affected - from the workers in Michigan who lose their jobs to the conditions experienced by workers in the developing world who seem to benefit little from economic growth. It's an alarming story from the frontline of globalisation and left me wondering if anyone at all benefits from outsourcing.

Mr. French's book is compelling, humane, and witty. I recommend it to anyone concerned with the state of the global economy; especially those who prefer to read more abstract, theoretically rich tomes.

This book refuses to hide behind theory and jargon. Instead we get a blunt, in-your-face portrayal of the actual people whose lives have been affected by recent changes in the global economy.

After reading Mr. French's complex, fair-minded book, it is hard to condemn any one person or institution for the outsourcing of jobs. That would be too simple, morally satisfying and unrealistic. Mr. French delights in showing us the grey; the penumbra between right and wrong.

It is to the credit of the author that this book leaves you with an ache in the pit of the stomache, and more questions than answers. Everyone is being squeezed by a system that seems to be out of control. We might think the owners of businesses are kings, but they, like workers, are pawns. If we have a desire to change our society, it is clear that we can't just exchange pieces, we have to change the rules.

Bravo to Mr. French for writing this short, snappy, yet surprisingly heavy hitting book.