It's a balancing act. If you're a bivocational pastor, you are familiar with the stresses, complications, and unique hurdles that come with bivocational ministry. You have a special calling. In The Art and Practice of Bivocational Ministry, Dennis Bickers renders sound advice to help bivocational pastors succeed while juggling second jobs and/or families at home. Along with his seasoned insights, you will find real-life case studies of the specific challenges bivocational ministers common...

Small churches can be found in every denomination and among every ethnic group but often these churches struggle to survive in the shadow of the larger churches around them. And many of these churches are afflicted with unhealthy issues such as feelings of unimportance, a lack of vision, exclusivity, limited resources, and unbalanced leadership. It is because of these aliments that many churches fail to survive. But it is possible for an unhealthy church to become a healthy church capable ...

"A lovely and lively tale of second chances, following one’s dreams, and books. Bickers deals with sensitive topics with a deft and delicate hand...Highly recommended." **- Booklist starred reviewA USA TODAY BESTSELLERA LibraryReads pick!An Indie Next pick!**A story of second chances and new beginnings, this is a love letter to books—and a love letter to lifeStill reeling from a recent tragedy, Erin Connolly knows she...

One book. Two strangers. An unforgettable journey as they rewrite the ending.Daisy Douglas has spent her life behind the scenes: at work, in her relationships, and now, in planning a wedding she isn’t sure she even wants. As an entertainment journalist, she can spot the start of a story a mile away. So when her routine 4 a.m. bus ride to the newsroom takes a surprising turn, she notices.For months, the same man has boarded at the same stop, reading the same...

One book. Two strangers. An unforgettable journey as they rewrite the ending.Daisy Douglas has spent her life behind the scenes: at work, in her relationships, and now, in planning a wedding she isn’t sure she even wants. As an entertainment journalist, she can spot the start of a story a mile away. So when her routine 4 a.m. bus ride to the newsroom takes a surprising turn, she notices.For months, the same man has boarded at the same stop, reading the same...

In the early nineteenth century China remained almost untouched by British and European powers - but as new technology started to change this balance, foreigners gathered like wolves around the weakening Qing Empire. Would the Chinese suffer the fate of much of the rest of the world, carved into pieces by Europeans? Or could they adapt rapidly enough to maintain their independence?This important and compelling book explains the roots of China's complex relationship with the West by...

From its origins in Liverpool in 1816, one unusual British firm has threaded a way through two centuries that have seen tumultuous events and epochal transformations in technologies and societies. John Swire & Sons, a small trading company that began by importing dyes, cotton and apples from the Americas, now directs a highly diversified group of interests operating across the globe but with a core focus on Asia. From 1866 its fate was intertwined with developments in China, with the story...

At a time where there are repeated claims of the impending demise of art criticism, The Ends of Art Criticism seeks to dispel these myths by arguing that the lack of a single dominant voice in criticism is not, as some believe, a weakness, but a strength, allowing previously marginalised voices and new global and political perspectives to come to the fore.An essential book for anyone interested in contemporary art criticism, The Ends of Art Criticism benefits from ...

A kaleidoscopic history of Hong Kong, revealing how the city continues to shape China, Asia, and the world to this day.In 1841, Britain claimed a sparsely populated island on China’s southern coast as its own. In Lion Rock, historian Robert Bickers narrates Hong Kong’s stunning expansion from nineteenth-century colonial backwater to vibrant twenty-first-century commercial metropolis.From its first decades, Hong Kong drew in people from China, Japan...

The writer of these pages was born at Laxfield, a village in the County of Suffolk, on the 16th day of January, 1809, the forty-eighth year of our good King George the Third’s happy reign. That eventful day was to me the commencement of a long and sometimes tedious journey: oftimes I have had to encounter great perils and dangers, but out of all the Lord hath delivered me. That eventful day witnessed the closing career of a great British General, Sir John Moore, at Corunna, a seaport of Sp...

After 1914, between tiffin and a day at the race track, the British in Shanghai enjoyed a life far removed from the horrors of the Great War. Shanghai's status as a treaty port – with its foreign concessions home to expatriates from every corner of the globe – made it the most cosmopolitan city in Asia. The city's inhabitants on either side of the conflict continued to mix socially after the outbreak of war, the bond amongst foreign nationals being almost as strong as that between...

Bivocational ministers face unique challenges. Often, you are called to lead smaller churches with few resources, many of which have plateaued or are in decline. Many bivocational pastors have little or no formal theological training. Bivocational ministry is looked at by some as a "second-class" ministry performed by people who do not have the opportunity to serve a larger church. Along with your family and church responsibilities, your second job also requires a large amount of time each we...