Books by Hall

At the age of thirty, my calling to preach came to me in a dream, a strange man said, Let God Be the Judge. Many will try to deceive you by telling you God did not call you to preach. You Let God Be The Judge. When I awoke from that dream, I could not believe it. I thought to myself, Is God calling me to preach? A shy county girl like me could not be a preacher. This recurring dream haunted me for three and a half years. It was as if I could not run from it. The stranger in my dreams told me to read John 22:17: Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God. Jesus gave Mary Magdalene the task of spreading the good news. The good news of His Glorious resurrection and His ascending back to God. Mary thought she was there to visit Christs tomb, but Jesus redirected her task and she became the first female evangelist.

In our challenging economic times, it is no surprise that churches must get creative with their resources. But the authors of The More-with-Less Church believe pastors, leadership teams, and planning committees should look on times such as these not as hurdles to overcome but as opportunities to reconsider entrenched but inefficient ministry practices that are siphoning time, money, and energy from their churches. Drawn from time- and field-tested strategies, this practical resource helps church leaders avoid costly mistakes and maximize the return on their investment in four areas of church life--ministries, staffing, facilities, and finances.

John W. Hall is Assistant Professor of U.S. Military History in the Department of History at University of Madison-Wisconsin.

This volume of especially commissioned essays explains what is meant by "civil society", paying particular attention to the relationships between civil society and other social forces such as nationalism and populism.