New books by ACC authors

MY FATHER'S SON A Generational Journey

By Wayne Alcorn

I remember the day clearly. We were almost at the end of the twentieth century. A brand-new millennium was at our doorstep. There were all kinds of predictions about the change that awaited all of us. The Doomsday prophets were having a field day. Ah yes, who can forget ‘Y2K’? It’s amazing that we’re all still here!

Late in 1999, I was sitting in the front of a church, about to speak on a Sunday morning, knowing that the seasons of life were also changing for me personally. I’d been leading a program in our nation called Youth Alive.

It had been an amazing ride: from being a local youth group leader in a regional town to seeing our desire to help young people unfold. Youth Alive became a significant force for good, helping countless thousands of young people in our nation. Beyond that, it played a part in shaping the contemporary Australian church.

In that moment, I heard what I believe was the whisper of heaven into my own heart: ‘You’ve spent the last 20 years helping young people. Now it’s time to help their fathers help them.’

Since then, I’ve spent much of my time talking to and with men – at church, at camps, at conferences and at men’s events.

There have been conversations in boardrooms, over barbecues in back yards, on fishing trips and in the grandstands at sporting events, both large and small.

One moment stands out. I was in the far north of my state, in the beautiful tropical region of Queensland, to speak at another men’s event. The men there were ordinary guys who loved outdoor activities – sport, recreational fishing, camping and the like – and they were the kind of people I love hanging with. There was a broad range of age groups. Professional businessmen rubbed shoulders with tradesmen, middle management and retirees. Many were husbands. A lot were fathers. Some were single. But we all had a common need. (Read on: you’ll discover it!)

Daddy Will Carry Me

The story of one family's journey through tragedy

By Barbara Ireland

October 14th, 2003. The day began like any other, but changed me completely. I started early. My morning walk was interrupted by the sound of the slasher in our neighbour’s wheat crop. A drought had ravaged our community in the season just gone. Now frost. Again. Young life stolen in an instant! Not the only thief that day.

When I stepped in through the back door, I had no idea that the events of the next few hours would forever change our lives. Laura Grace greeted me. Three years old, funfilled, and life-loving. She had taken off all her nightwear and laughed as I asked her, “Where are your clothes?” She had a belly laugh that filled the room– a familiar, loved sound in our home.

It was a typical morning for that time of year; sunny, clear skies, shaping up to be a beautiful spring day. The older children got ready for school, and Laura and I were preparing for childcare, where I worked, and she attended, an enjoyable thing that we did together.

...We were propelled, my little family and I, into a dense fog, driven by grief’s unbearable pain. The faith we held so dear hung loosely across us like a worn life jacket that we hoped might somehow save us. Each had the task of traversing Tragedy’s waters. Every man for himself, yet bonded by our loss.

©2023 Barbara Ireland Extract from 'Daddy Will Carry Me' published with permission. Orders and info: www.barbireland.com

HOLY SPIRIT BREAKOUT Discovering the stories of Australian Pentecostalism

By Jon K. Newton

Most of the research was carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2022. During this time Australia was beset with lockdowns, restrictions on movement and closures of borders between different states. Our plans often had to be adjusted as a result of unforeseen factors like these. But this helped us see God’s hand in our work. In 2021, Tex and I were travelling in NSW for the second time, this time by road. He had brought an Apple computer to load the data onto, but he forgot to bring the power cord. It was an old-style power cord often used with electric jugs in the past. But without it, his camera would soon have no more space to store data and we would be in major trouble. We tried to buy a cord at Bunnings, a major Australian hardware chain, but they didn’t stock such obsolete items. Then as we drove from Orange to Parramatta, across the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, we noticed the local community was having a hard-waste rubbish collection, so Tex would stop every so often to rummage through people’s waste looking for such a cord. No luck.

So I said, belatedly, “We’d better pray about this.” At the next town we found a “Cash Converters” store open, even though it was Sunday, and they nearly matched what we wanted, but not quite. So we drove on, did some more interviews, and finally arrived at the apartment of Kevin and Glenys Hovey in Parramatta, where we were to stay a few nights. We hoped they could direct us to some kind of shop where we might obtain the needed cord the following day before our next set of appointments. But imagine our surprise when Kevin said, “I think we have such a cord.” They had found it in their apartment just a few days earlier, even though they had never had an appliance needing such a cord, and were wondering why they owned it. It was brand new!

It was experiences like this, and the privilege of sitting at the feet of the amazing participants in this research, that has motivated us to keep going, even when our journey was complicated by COVID-19 issues, money problems and other people’s schedules. We have completed nearly 200 interviews in nearly all states of Australia, including people from nearly all Pentecostal and charismatic streams, men and women, and from varied ethnic backgrounds.

©2023 Jon K. Newton. Extract from 'Holy Spirit Breakout' published with permission. Orders and info: voicesofpentecost.online

Bible Society Group aims to empower Australian churches through our various ministries, to disciple people by providing practical resources that help Open The Bible to all people everywhere by all means possible.

MY FATHER'S SON

A Generational Journey

by Wayne Alcorn

Wayne Alcorn has seen the radical life-change that happens in men as they embrace the love of God the Father.

And he has seen that love heal and transform men’s lives –his father’s, his own and the countless men across Australia he has talked to and helped heal. This is his – and their – story. And the story of how God’s love transforms generations. A story that just might change your life. This book aims to:

Provide encouraging stories of lives transformed through a relationship with God

Give insight into how the love of a Father God can heal lives

Inspire to transform lives and future generations by embracing God’s love

Lead Like Life Matters

7 Leadership Principles for a Church that Lasts

by Craig Groeschel

Craig Groeschel is the founding and senior pastor of Life.Church, an innovative multisite church known around the world and an organisation that Glassdoor has named a #1 U.S. Best Place to Work. But it didn't happen by accident. In 1996, a handful of congregants worshipped together in a two-car garage. Today, the church welcomes tens of thousands of attendees in multiple states across the country and globally at Life. Church Online.

Lead Like It Matters presents Groeschel's transformative insights on how to effectively build a thriving, enduring ministry and organisation, and the secret for building ministry momentum and then keeping it going.

*Lead Like It Matters is a completely revised and updated version of the book previously published as It: How Churches and Leaders Can Get It and Keep It.*

Good Catastrophe

The Tide-turning Power of Hope

by Benjamin Windle

What if we could fundamentally reframe how we see life’s challenges?

Good Catastrophe is your blueprint for finding your way out of pain. It is an atypical, no holds barred message of redemptive hope that will breathe new sunshine into your soul.

We need to rebrand hope. The era of everything in our lives fitting neatly in a box is done. That world is over. We need hope - but we need a hope that is robust enough to speak to real life.

In a gritty and unique take on the story of Job, Benjamin Windle shows that flourishing does not come from a life devoid of loneliness, trauma, and anxiety. It's one lived with hope engineered for adversity.

True hope is not hype. It's not pretending that everything is fine. Hardship, not perfection, is the starting point of hope.

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DADDY WILL CARRY ME The Story of One Family's Journey Through Tragedy

by Barb Ireland

Life changed forever for Barbara and Paul Ireland and their family following a freak accident that claimed their little daughter's life.

Three-year-old Laura died tragically and, in the process, left the Irelands devastated.

Daddy Will Carry Me is a powerful story told by Barb with rawness and honesty. She confronts the question of “why?” and the dilemma of where God is when the worst happens. The hope-filled pages will bring assurance and encouragement to all who encounter heartbreak and those who stand with them.

Barb and her husband Paul were married in 1986. Between them, they have many roles, including Pastor, Farmer, and Teacher. They are passionate about helping people overcome adversity. Barb and Paul live in regional South Australia with their youngest daughter and two dogs. Family gatherings with their children and granddaughters are among their favourite things.

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HOLY SPIRIT BREAKOUT Discovering the Stories of Australian Pentecostalism

by Jon K. Newton

Why are Pentecostal movements like the ACC highly visible and growing, attracting large numbers from all ages and many ethnic groups and even expanding overseas? What happened to stimulate such amazing growth from a movement that was insignificant in 1970? Who were the main players and what did God do through them?

This book came out of a research project conducted by AC Associate Professor Jon Newton and ‘Tex’ Houston (YiLong Productions) in 2019. They both lived through the explosive growth period in Australian Pentecostalism that began in the later 1970s. They carried out (so far) 193 interviews, mostly face-to-face but a few online. Only a small sample of these stories are contained in the book but more will be included in a TV documentary and a more substantial history to come. You will be inspired as you read what these amazing men and women did by the Spirit

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Jesus Revolution

In cinemas on April 20

When you open your heart, there's room for everyone. In the 1970s, young Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney) is searching for all the right things in all the wrong places: until he meets Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie), a charismatic hippie-streetpreacher. Together with Pastor Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer), they open the doors of Smith’s languishing church to an unexpected revival of radical and newfound love, leading to what TIME Magazine dubbed a 'Jesus Revolution'.

Jesus Revolution will release in over 120 Cinemas around Australia, New Zealand and Fiji from April 20, 2023.

More info: JesusRevolutionMovie.com.au Group bookings & enquries: movies@crossroad.com.au