MORFX Press, a division of Missional Press, is pleased to announce the publication of “Free to Be You” by Dr. Fred Antonelli, Ph.D.

To celebrate the publishing of Free to Be You, Missional Press is offering the book at the discounted price of $12.99.  To order, click here.

Dr. Antonelli is founder and director of Life Counseling Center with offices on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Delaware. He is a former Senior Pastor of 23 years as well as a licensed pychotherapist specializing in crisis marriage and pastoral counseling. Fred lives with his wife of thirty six years, Debbie, in Easton, Maryland.

The Forward by Dr. David Stoop

“Who am I?” has always been a difficult question for us to answer.  With all of the peer pressures and cultural expectations of our day and age, perhaps this has become the hardest question to answer.  In our attempts to answer the question, we often pick some role we play that is important to us and use it to define our answer.  Most men will say that “I am what I do”-especially my work.  Most women will say the same kind of thing, such as “I am Zachary’s mom.”  But pressed beyond what we do, and we often don’t have an answer.  Someone has said that we are not “human-doers” but we are “human-beings.”  But if the questioner says, “I want to go beyond what you do, to who you are,” we are at a loss for words.

Dr. Antonelli has tackled this question of “who am I” and helps take us step-by-step on a journey of self-definition-what kind of “being” are we?  Weaving together his pastoral experience with his clinical experience, he has creatively provided tools we can use in practical ways to break away from what he calls the “messages and signals” of our family-of-origin, and from the cultural pressures that have often trapped us into an understanding of ourselves that isn’t really who we are.

Beginning with the ability to dream again-to envision what stirs deep within us, Fred goes on to combine your dream with God’s dream for your life. Then he lays out practical ways you can nourish yourself so that you can persevere on the path God wants to lead you on so as to enjoy your life. In these pages you will find ways to redefine yourself that are biblically based, rather than culturally based.  And when you dig in to this book, you will find out how to answer that “who am I” question.  Enjoy the journey!

David Stoop, Ph.D.
Author and Psychologist

We all enter adulthood with many internalized messages that can hamper us from fulfilling God’s plan for our lives.  Free to Be You provides practical as well as biblical insight that can help you overcome hampering “Messages & Signals” that have been implanted from childhood.  I am sure the reader will find this a very helpful resource.

Dr. Archibald Hart
Author, Clinical Psychologist & Former Dean
Fuller Graduate School of Theology

Dr. Antonelli is founder and director of Life Counseling Center with offices on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Delaware. He is a former Senior Pastor of 23 years as well as a licensed pychotherapist specializing in crisis marriage and pastoral counseling. Fred lives with his wife of thirty six years, Debbie, in Easton, Maryland.

Here is a short synopsis of the book:

FREE TO BE YOU, is a clinical/faith based look at just who you were originally meant to be (the greater YOU) as per your Creator. How temperament, learned behavior, and even past/present abuse tend to shape as well as define us in life either positively or negatively.

To be aware of how your ability to “Dream Dreams” and succeed in every facet of life becomes hampered and sabotaged by the “Messages & Signals” that have been implanted into your psyche from childhood. How you then need to “De-Code” the destructive messages that you have allowed to define you throughout your life and then “Re-Code” them with who your Heavenly Father says you are as per His Divine intentions. And to come to understand that God has pre-loaded you at conception with unique talents and gifting that are designed to impact not only your life, but the lives of others assigned to your journey as well.

To know that “nourishing your mind & soul” is one of the most important things that a person can possibly do in life. The emotional, physical, relational, occupational, and spiritual benefits are absolutely crucial in fulfilling and enjoying your specific life purpose.

To appreciate the fact that discouragement can actually, at times, be your friend in helping you fulfill your life’s expression as well as your desired occupational aspirations.

To believe that God’s plan is that you would succeed on your life journey, not fail! That there has been designated and mapped out for you a promising, fulfilling, secure, faith-filled, vibrant, and meaningful future.

And to come to realize that success isn’t merely defined by money or the things that you attain in this life, but more importantly by what you invest into your life experience through acts of random kindness, grace, and mercy toward your fellow man. When you extend yourself in this manner, it actually brings to a clearer and fuller dimension just who you were created to be and the influence that you are to have on your journey. How all of these factors and more will literally transform you… so that perhaps for the first time in your life, you can enjoy being “FREE TO BE YOU”

Look for this book from MORFX Press in mid-summer of 2008.

Our first publication is entitled “Free to Be You” by Dr. Fred Antonelli.

UPDATE: Purchase Planting Churches from:

Amazon & Barnes & Noble

Coming Soon to Lifeway Christian Stores

Missional Press would like to announce it’s latest publication. Planting Churches in the Real World is written by Dr. Joel Rainey, Director of Missions for the Mid-Maryland Baptist Association, a network of more than 50 evangelical churches located in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area. Dr. Rainey has been involved in planting more than 30 churches, and trains church planters nationally and internationally. He lives in central Maryland with his wife and their two sons.

Most church planting literature highlights enormously successful ministries. While such ministries can serve as a noble benchmark for every church planter, they are far from the norm. Most who plant churches will never see their name in lights, and all who plant churches will find it to be one of the most difficult things they have ever sought to accomplish.

In this book, the author invites you to take an “inside look’ at those difficulties. He shares his own successes and failures with candor, and lays bare the reality of planting a new church, which include both strenuous difficulties and glorious rewards. Read this book to be prepared for the effort, and ready for the blessing that comes from planting churches.

Missional Press is offering a pre-publication sale. The book retails for $14.99 but if you enter the code CJ5E9D at checkout, you will receive 20% off your purchase of Planting Churches in the Real World. Click here to purchase the book. The book should be shipping around the end of April.

Praise for Planting Churches:
Church planting is not for the easily discouraged. The average new church is less than 100 attenders after four years, but most conference speakers and book writers tell stories of hundreds after the first year– a reality few church planters experience. Rainey paints a picture of reality, including both the difficulties involved in starting a new church, and the evidence that planting a church is worth enduring those difficulties. If you are a planter drunk with vision, this will sober you up. But, it is more than that. It also shows that church plants make a difference whether they are thousands or dozens after the first year. I’ve known Joel for years, and he tells the stories from his own journey– telling lessons he learned the hard way. It’s real world church planting and it is worth your time.
Dr. Ed Stetzer, author of Planting Missional Churches. Director of Research, Lifeway Christian Resources, Nashville, TN

“Dr. Rainey amuses the reader with countless stories of life on the field. His “lessons learned” approach to the book serves as a clear warning for future church planters: “The Kingdom of Heaven is near you, but this won’t be easy!”
Dr. Jack Allen, Director, The Day Center for Church Planting. New Orleans, LA

“Candid, winsome, thoroughly biblical, keenly missional, and sensibly linked to the real world. Don’t be fooled. The weightiness of this little book is inversely proportional to its size, and its wise counsel will help point a safe way through the tangle of neglected assumptions, misguided strategies, ill-founded hopes, and unintentional blunders that accosts the unwary planter on the way to church. Well done!”
B. Spencer Haygood, Senior Pastor, Orange Hill Baptist Church. Marietta, GA

“Born in the ward of real world experience, Planting Churches in the Real World is theologically sound, theoretically tenable, and practically accessible. During a time when starting a church can be faddish, Rainey’s work is a dose of both Biblical wisdom and common sense that will stop many would-be church planters before a frustrating failure, and direct many others onward toward biblical success.”
Marty Duren, co-author of Journeys: Transitioning Churches to Relevance. Lead Pastor, New Bethany Church. Buford, GA

“Reality bites, as the saying goes. Yet in the age of incredible lostness in America, we must see church planting for what it is . . . a way to spread Gospel influence to every, man, woman and child. High birth weight churches, although fun and influential for the Kingdom, are not the norm, nor are they the answer. Joel Rainey has captured the reality and yet the incredible potential of church planting. New churches running less than 100 are key players in the Kingdom. Small does not have to mean ineffective. Small groups of missionary Christians are critical to our mission and our future. Way to go!
Dr. Dino Senesi. Church Planting Movement Leader, Columbia, SC

From the Cover:
When did the church become our refuge from the world? How did it happen that the church became the place we went when trying to get away from those we are supposed to be trying to reach?

How did we ever become convinced that lost people remain lost because they will not come to church, rather than because followers of Christ refuse to live the gospel while sharing the gospel with them?

For various reasons, many church leaders today have a tendency to ignore the value of understanding the changing times. Others simply preach against the changing seasons, as if by doing so they will prevent the times from coming.

In JOURNEYS: Transitioning Churches to Relevance, Pastors Todd Wright and Marty Duren share candidly about the road they each traveled as they labored to bring their churches to a place of significance and cultural relevance. Wright and Duren speak candidly about their struggles and their own pharisaical attitudes that for years kept them from experiencing lives lived on mission with Jesus Christ.

JOURNEYS is about seeing every encounter as a divine appointment to somehow bring Jesus to the surface of life. It is a challenge issued to the church to intentionally find areas of need in their communities to be the eyes, ears, heart, and hands of Jesus.

Lots of people can tell you what to do. Some can do so through research, others through personal observation, and still others through their intuition. In JOURNEYS: Transitioning Churches To Relevance, Marty and Todd take us on a journey and tell us a story—and it is a worthwhile journey and a moving story. Instead of telling you what to do, Marty and Todd tell their journey from religious role-playing to personal transformation… and from personal transformation to fresh expressions of mission and ministry in their churches. I found myself engaged and challenged and believe you will as well

Ed Stetzer, Co-author Comeback Churches and Compelled by Love

When it comes to writing books about leading transition in the church, there are three types of pastors. There are those who have led change and do not take the time to write about it. There are those who have not led change but write about how to do it anyway. And there are those that have actually done it well and written it down. Todd Wright and Marty Duren are definitely in the right category.

This book rocks! It is the actual story of how they did it - and provides big insights and big ideas. If your church is transition, this is a must read!

Dan Southerland
Author, Transitioning: Leading Your Church Through Change
Pastor of Extension, Next Level Church , Charlotte

“It is a call to have a Kingdom philosophy of ministry as well as a missional approach to life. I commend this book to you. It is one that will help the next generation as they struggle in a less than easy environment in seeking to reach an ever increasing secular culture.”

Dr. Frank Page, Senior Pastor, Taylors (S.C.) First Baptist Church
Southern Baptist Convention President, 2006-2008

About the Authors:

Todd Wright has been the Lead Pastor of Midway, in Villa Rica, GA since 1996. He holds a Master of Arts in Biblical Studies degree from Luther Rice University. He has a passion for the world, having served internationally 22 times in 13 nations in Central and South America, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. Todd is also a leadership conference speaker with the International Leadership Institute. He has been married to his wife Lisa since 1982. They have two teenage daughters, Hannah and Olivia. They enjoy living on a farm in West Georgia. Todd can be contacted though Midway’s website at www.midwaychurch.com.

Marty Duren has been in pastoral ministry since 1989, most recently as Lead Pastor of New Bethany in Buford, GA. Largely self-taught, he hopes to complete his undergraduate degree in time to jointly celebrate his 30th high school reunion. His desire to see the glory of God displayed to the peoples of the world has taken him to every inhabited continent and compelled him to engage unreached people groups such as the Tuvan people of Siberia. He has been married to the longsuffering Sonya since 1984 and abundantly enjoys his three children, Beth, Timothy and Abigail. He enjoys reading, laughing, hiking and blogging and can be contacted via email, martyduren@hotmail.com

Contact:
Missional Press
149 Golden Plover Dr
Smyrna, DE 19977
Phone: 302-449-4318
http://www.missional-press.com
editor@missional-press.com

Missional Press Announces the Publication of its First Book.

Smyrna, DE – September 24, 2007 — Missional Press announces the publication of their first book, Kept: The Message of Jude. The book is authored by W. David Phillips, the pastor of Mission Fellowship Church in Middletown, DE and is available for purchase, beginning today, September 24, 2007.

The book of Jude is a pearl waiting to be discovered. It is a small, yet potent book that covers two main topics: faithfulness to the Gospel of Christ and keeping ourselves from embracing a distorted message.

Kept: The Message of Jude is a devotional commentary that helps one see how to maintain our faithfulness and keep ourselves from embracing a distorted message. Kept helps us see the importance of Jude to our mission in being Christ-followers in our current culture. Designed for those who would like to study, teach or preach through the book of Jude, the author provides solid biblical exegesis and practical application.

The book retails for $9.99, but Missional Press is providing a 25% discount. The book will be available for purchase at the Missional Press online store immediately and at online retailers and other bookstores before the end of the year.

Missional Press is a publisher of Christian books that relate to all aspects of missional living and ministry. It has 4 projects in development with various authors with topics ranging from the house church movement in China to the journey of transitioning a church from a traditional system to a missional mindset.

For more information: http://www.missional-press.com or
Email: editor@missional-press.com
Phone: 302-449-4318

The book of Jude is a pearl waiting to be discovered. It is a small, yet potent book that covers two main topics: faithfulness to the Gospel of Christ and keeping ourselves from embracing a distorted message.

Kept: The Message of Jude is a devotional commentary. Designed for those who would like to teach or preach through the book of Jude, the author provides solid biblical exegesis and practical application to reveal many of the gems Jude has to offer.

It should be available to purchase in about two weeks. Missional Press will have introductory pricing which will include a discount. The book retails for $9.99, but Missional Press be providing a 25% discount by using the coupon code KEPT0208.

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