Here are 24 books that The Purpose Driven Church fans have personally recommended if you like
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I know it's kind of weird, but I have been fascinated by the world of direct-response marketing ever since I first saw the full-page ads in the "newspapers" my grandmother loved to read (The National Inquirer and the Weekly World News). Those ads fascinated me because, at first, I thought they were stories in the newspaper. That was my first exposure to the work of the brilliant Eugene Schwartz. I used to check our mail so I could grab all the "junk mail" that everyone else threw away because that's the only mail I wanted to read. That's why I became a direct-response copywriter.
The first time I read this book, it hit me like a bolt of lightning. This simple book about how to state your marketing message clearly in a way that makes people decide they must buy your product or service is revolutionary.
Lots of people talk about "telling stories" as a powerful form of communication and persuasion. But Don is the only person I know who does a great job giving you the practical, hands-on, how-to approach so that you can actually do this for yourself. This is a book I reread at least once a year.
More than half-a-million business leaders have discovered the power of the StoryBrand Framework, created by New York Times bestselling author and marketing expert Donald Miller. And they are making millions.
If you use the wrong words to talk about your product, nobody will buy it. Marketers and business owners struggle to effectively connect with their customers, costing them and their companies millions in lost revenue.
In a world filled with constant, on-demand distractions, it has become near-impossible for business owners to effectively cut through the noise to reach their customers, something Donald Miller knows first-hand. In this book, he shares…
I know it's kind of weird, but I have been fascinated by the world of direct-response marketing ever since I first saw the full-page ads in the "newspapers" my grandmother loved to read (The National Inquirer and the Weekly World News). Those ads fascinated me because, at first, I thought they were stories in the newspaper. That was my first exposure to the work of the brilliant Eugene Schwartz. I used to check our mail so I could grab all the "junk mail" that everyone else threw away because that's the only mail I wanted to read. That's why I became a direct-response copywriter.
I have read this book five times, and every time, I feel as if I picked up a new epiphany or distinction about how to launch (or relaunch) a business online. Over the years, I have paid the author, Jeff Walker, tens of thousands of dollars to attend his in-person training and seminars.
I can hardly believe how many of his "secrets" he reveals so openly inside a $27 book. It really does teach how to sell almost anything online, how to create huge “profit events”, and how to do it with excellence and integrity.
The only guide you'll ever need to achieve online marketing success. With new chapters offering fresh information, you'll find all the insider tips in one place.
The revised and updated edition of the #1 New York Times bestseller Launch will build your business - fast. Whether you've already got an online business or you're itching to start one, this is a recipe for getting more traction and a fast start.
Think about it: What if you could launch like Apple or the big Hollywood studios? What if your prospects eagerly counted down the days until they could buy your product?…
I know it's kind of weird, but I have been fascinated by the world of direct-response marketing ever since I first saw the full-page ads in the "newspapers" my grandmother loved to read (The National Inquirer and the Weekly World News). Those ads fascinated me because, at first, I thought they were stories in the newspaper. That was my first exposure to the work of the brilliant Eugene Schwartz. I used to check our mail so I could grab all the "junk mail" that everyone else threw away because that's the only mail I wanted to read. That's why I became a direct-response copywriter.
If ever I have read a book that made a bold promise on the cover and then fully delivered on that promise in the pages of the book itself, it's this one. Reading this book (more than once) has literally helped me outthink, outperform, and outearn my competition.
Jay Abraham is truly the "guru to the gurus" in business growth. I found this book to be the best distillation of Jay's teachings I have ever encountered. It’s been worth more than 100 times the $30 I paid for it.
A trusted advisor to America's top corporations and recognized as one of today's preeminent marketing experts, Jay Abraham has created a program of proven strategies to help you realize undreamed-of success!
Unseen opportunities face each of us every day. Using clear examples from his own experience, Jay explains just how easy it can be to find and/or create new opportunities for wealth-building in any existing business, enterprise, or venture.
And just how easy can it be? One entrepreneur took the concept of the ballpoint pen and refined it into a multimillion-dollar idea: roll-on deodorant. Fred Smith of Federal Express took…
I know it's kind of weird, but I have been fascinated by the world of direct-response marketing ever since I first saw the full-page ads in the "newspapers" my grandmother loved to read (The National Inquirer and the Weekly World News). Those ads fascinated me because, at first, I thought they were stories in the newspaper. That was my first exposure to the work of the brilliant Eugene Schwartz. I used to check our mail so I could grab all the "junk mail" that everyone else threw away because that's the only mail I wanted to read. That's why I became a direct-response copywriter.
This book was a massive revelation to me years ago when I first read it. It showed me how to use all the marketing knowledge I had to help “direct marketing companies”—companies that sold online or through the mail—and transfer it to “regular businesses.”
Regular businesses like retail stores, professional practices, healthcare providers, and virtually any other business you can think of. I am a huge fan of Dan’s work and this is my favorite book by him. One of the most valuable things I learned from this book was how to simplify my marketing and only invest time (and money) in the things that work.
Dan S. Kennedy dares marketers to dramatically simplify their marketing, refocusing on what works. Updated to address the newest media and marketing methods, this marketing masterplan delivers a short list of radically different, little-known, profit-proven direct mail strategies for ANY business. Strategies are illustrated by case history examples from an elite team of consultants-all phenomenally successful at borrowing direct marketing strategies from the world of online sales, infomercials, etc., to use in 'ordinary' businesses including retail stores, restaurants, and sales.
When I used to pick up my youngest from elementary school, instead of asking about her day, I’d say, “Tell me your stories.” Her stories always ended with, “And in my head I said…” After laughing at all her unspoken responses, I finally started to tease, “You’re really funny in your head.” That’s me too. She and I see the world as a cartoon for entertainment. I don’t have the comedic timing to say my funny thoughts aloud, but they transfer well to paper where I can share them with readers. And I still look for stories from people who are funny in their head.
This book is actually a novella collection of three romances, so…bonus! Sarah Monzon writes some of the best chemistry, and she’s written in a few different genres, but I love this one best because of the humor. And because of Book Nerds!!! I related a little too well to the author character who locked herself in the trunk of a car for research. Thankfully, my friend didn’t get pulled over by a cute police officer with me in the trunk, but still. This trilogy is so fun, and this author is one you’ll want to watch.
It all started with a bet and a book.Emory Blake is the ultimate bibliophile. She’d take curling up with a good novel over a night on the town any day of the week. But then best friend Tate Woodby accuses her of living between the pages of her paperbacks instead of the real world, and makes a bet that will force her to experience the adventures of her fictional friends…instead of just reading about them. With her face no longer buried in books, Emory must confront the pain of the past.…
Cory Hartman (DMin, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) collaboratively crafts practical tools, interactive processes, and breakthrough content for the Future Church Company, three interconnected organizations that exist to help the church embody the movement Jesus founded. I previously served as a pastor for thirteen years and founded Fulcrum Content, a gospel communication training organization.
In the 1950s, Robert Coleman, then a professor at Asbury Theological Seminary, was assigned to teach a class on evangelism. But he had a problem: he had no idea what to say. So he decided to pore over the four Gospels to discern Jesus’ strategy for winning people to his message. His lecture notes became The Master Plan of Evangelism.
The reach of The Master Plan since its publication in 1963 has been enormous. Billy Graham even wrote the foreword. But Jesus’ model of training a few was so alien to the operating systems of 20th-century churches and traveling evangelists that generations had no idea how to implement it. Not many books have been so widely read and so little applied. Yet if you only read one book on this subject, make this the one. And if you’ve already read it long ago, read it again.
For more than forty years this classic study has shown Christians how to minister to the people God brings into their lives. Instead of drawing on the latest popular fad or the newest selling technique, Dr. Robert E. Coleman looks to the Bible to find the answer to the question: What was Christ's strategy for evangelism? This convenient, portable format has an updated look for a new generation of readers.
One of the things I love most about fiction is the way it allows you to “be” different people—to experience, think, feel, and behave from inside a particular temperament, worldview, or experience. My very favorite is adding the complexity of multiple perspectives to that magic trick so that you get to live inside two or more people who may be at complete odds with each other. Reading good fiction is an exercise in empathy, and reading good fiction from multiple viewpoints is empathy supercharged. I’ve loved that immersion since I was a little kid who believed there was nothing better than a novel.
I grew up with the true story of the missionaries to an isolated Indigenous tribe in Ecuador who, in 1956, were killed by the people they’d come to help. I loved Five Wives because it’s an incisive but compassionate interrogation of a story from my own religious background, but you don’t need to be familiar with the source material to find it riveting.
As a religiously fervent teen, I was inspired by the courage of the wives of these martyred men, who later returned to bring the gospel to their husbands’ murderers. As an ex-Christian adult, I was awed by the ways Joan Thomas manages to neither patronize her religious characters nor leave the faith-and-martyrdom myths unchallenged. She deftly imagines the inner lives of these women, the very different doubts, struggles, and desires of each in the lead-up to and aftermath of the tragedy, and she doesn’t let anyone off…
WINNER OF THE GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARD FOR FICTION
A GLOBE AND MAIL, CBC BOOKS, APPLE BOOKS, AND NOW TORONTO BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
In the tradition of The Poisonwood Bible and State of Wonder, a novel set in the rainforest of Ecuador about five women left behind when their missionary husbands are killed. Based on the shocking real-life events
In 1956, a small group of evangelical Christian missionaries and their families journeyed to the rainforest in Ecuador intending to convert the Waorani, a people who had never had contact with the outside world. The plan was known as…
I’ve had the joy of “making disciples” for a long time. From the time I became a Christian while in college, to raising my own sons as disciples, to 15 years of work with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship on secular campuses, to the last third of my life as a Professor of Bible and Theology at a Christian University, I have responded to Jesus’ Great Commission to “make disciples” with both the joys and sorrows that calling includes. I have experienced the richness of intergenerational congregations that my pastor-husband has led, and seen our sons grow and mature as Christians through “parenting in the pew” before it was a book!
This multi-author book is a terrific resource for older teens and college students to navigate “growing up” well and maturing in their own faith commitment and practices. Chapters offer good advice and the reasons behind the advice for faith challenges, dealing with failure, forgiving parents as a part of loving them, finding a new congregation for worship, work, and witness, as well as dealing with sexuality, morals, justice issues, vision for missions, and creation care and much more! This book is a practical as well as a biblically faithful guide for the transformation of a lifetime as children empty the nest into adulthood. I give this book as a graduation gift to every high-schooler I know!
Do you want to live for Jesus but struggle with what that means day by day? The deep desire of our hearts to be close to God is so easily sidetracked by daily realities. This book is designed to cover the areas of faith and life that you most want to bring together under God's leadership:
decision-making
dating and relationships
racial reconciliation
suffering
experiencing God
loving your parents
emotional healing
time management
everyday evangelism
hope for times of failure Following Jesus is a wild and wonderful journey. It is perhaps the riskiest choice you will ever make. And the most…
I have had the pleasure of exploring many career paths and businesses as an attorney, CPA, minister, life coach, media company CEO, publisher, international motivational speaker, and author. Yet it was not until illness from stage 4 endometriosis almost took me out that I realized that life happiness and success were not synonymous. I took the time to 1) figure out the difference and 2) create a pathway to joy. Joy is the step beyond happiness, and it ensures life satisfaction and longevity. And this is the answer to my question – and the topic – what am I living for? I am living for joy, peace, and fulfillment.
I have purchased and gifted this book through the years when I met someone in need of a reminder of how good life is and that pain is both part of the process of growing and a tool in becoming the strong person we were meant to be.
It has wonderful illustrations of life pain that includes losing loved ones, jobs, status and position, and relationships; and how that pain may be turned into fuel to become stronger, wiser, and more compassionate in our life journey.
Purpose in Your Pain is an inspirational breakthrough for those who seek meaning in their lives. Evangelist Stephanie Davenport holds nothing back as she takes the reader through the reason God uses pain to strengthen us, gives tips and tools to face trouble head on, and shares her own struggles and resolution to motivate us to push on through crisis. This second book by Evangelist Davenport challenges traditional thoughts on how to face pain in our families, work lives, churches, and within ourselves - and provides scripture references and prayers for most situations. Purpose in Your Pain is a spiritual,…
“I am loved and forgiven. What a wonderful thing! I’m adopted as God’s own. I’m a child of the King!” I am an author who wants to help parents write important truths on their children’s hearts. Nothing is a book I wish I had written sooner, and would have loved to have read with my own children when they were little enough to hold in my lap. I hope these book recommendations help you share God’s love with your little ones, so that when they grow up they are sure of the promise that nothing can ever separate them from God’s love.
This book is short, but it contains a powerful message for children: God created you and loves you - everywhere and always. Despite its economy of words, it can spark deep conversations. The text is a wonderful affirmation for children to take into their hearts. It can be savored, but can also be a quick read on those busy nights when parents are as tired as their listeners during storytime. (For reference, God’s Great Love for Youis the same number of words as this recommendation.)
God's Great Love for You, written by #1 New York Times bestselling author and respected pastor Rick Warren, takes children on a whimsical and heartfelt journey that lets them know God's love is with them wherever they go. With breathtaking illustrations by Chris Saunders, the simple yet poignant text comes alive as a child journeys to places far and near and discovers God's great love is perfect, and everywhere, and will never end.
