Gary Thomas

What if God designed marriage to make you holy instead of happy? What if your relationship isn't as much about you and your spouse as it is about you and God?In Sacred Marriage, bestselling author Gary Thomas uncovers the ways that your marriage can become a doorway to a closer walk with God and with each other. Join over one million others who have already uncovered Thomas's tips for fostering a sacred marriage.Within the pages of Sacred Marriage, Thomas invites you to see how God can use your relationship with your spouse as a discipline and a motivation to love God more and reflect more of the character of his Son.In addition to life-changing insights from Scripture, church history, and time-tested wisdom from Christian classics, you'll find practical advice and techniques to make your marriage happier by becoming holier husbands and wives.In Sacred Marriage, Thomas will give you all of the tools you need to:Turn marital struggles into spiritual and personal appreciationLove your spouse with a stronger sense of purposeConfront your weaknesses and sin in order to grow your relationship with God and with your spousePartner in the spiritual growth and character formation of your spouseTransform a tired marriage into a relationship filled with awe and respectThomas reveals that sacred marriages teach us to love God and others well by fostering a healthy sex life, a strong prayer life, and a rich spiritual life. God uses our marriages to help us grow in character, in prayer, in worship, and in service--we just have to recognize that the purpose of marriage is holiness, not happiness.Each copy also includes thought-provoking discussion questions designed to spark conversation between couples and small groups, allowing you to dive deeper into the lessons that Thomas shares in Sacred Marriage.Join the one million others who have already started on their journey to transforming their relationship with their spouses and with their Creator.

In this six-session small group Bible study (DVD/digital video sold separately), Sacred Marriage, writer and speaker Gary Thomas invites you to see how God can use marriage as a discipline and a motivation to reflect more of the character of Jesus.Your marriage is much more than a union between you and your spouse. It is a spiritual discipline ideally suited to help you know God more fully and intimately. Sacred Marriage shifts the focus from marital enrichment to spiritual enrichment in ways that can help you love your mate more. Whether it is delightful or difficult, your marriage can become a doorway to a closer walk with God.Everything about your marriage—from the history you and your spouse create, to the love you share, to the forgiveness you both offer and seek by turn—is filled with the capacity to help you grow in Christ's character.In addition to life-changing insights, you’ll find a wealth of discussion questions in this Participant’s Guide that will spark meaningful conversation in your group, between you and your spouse, or to simply ponder by yourself. You’ll also find self-assessments, activities, and highlights all created to help you engage deeply and prayerfully with the content of this study.Sessions include:God’s Purpose for Marriage: More Than We ImagineThe Refining Power of MarriageThe God-Centered SpouseSacred HistorySexual SaintsMarriage: The Love LaboratoryDesigned for use with the Sacred Marriage Video Study (sold separately).

This sharp, stimulating title provides a structure for thinking about, analysing and designing case study. It explores the historical, theoretical and practical bones of modern case study research, offering to social scientists a framework for understanding and working with this form of inquiry. Using detailed analysis of examples taken from across the social sciences Thomas and Myers set out, and then work through, an intricate typology of case study design to answer questions such as: How is a case study constructed?What are the required, inherent components of case study?Can a coherent structure be applied to this form of inquiry? The book grounds complex theoretical insights in real world research and includes an extended example that has been annotated line by line to take the reader through each step of understanding and conducting research using case study.

This sharp, stimulating title provides a structure for thinking about, analysing and designing case study. It explores the historical, theoretical and practical bones of modern case study research, offering to social scientists a framework for understanding and working with this form of inquiry. Using detailed analysis of examples taken from across the social sciences Thomas and Myers set out, and then work through, an intricate typology of case study design to answer questions such as: How is a case study constructed?What are the required, inherent components of case study?Can a coherent structure be applied to this form of inquiry? The book grounds complex theoretical insights in real world research and includes an extended example that has been annotated line by line to take the reader through each step of understanding and conducting research using case study.

Wie f hrt man virtuelle Teams zur H chstleistung? Alle sprechen von Globalisierung - aber keiner ist wirklich darauf -vorbereitet. Viele Teams, die die Globalisierung managen sollen, sind ganz offensichtlich damit berfordert. Vor allem deshalb, weil diese Teams wegen der gro en internationalen Entfernungen meist virtuell sind; das hei t: Ihre Teammitglieder sitzen sich nicht gegen ber, sondern kommunizieren ber L nder und Kontinente hinweg lediglich via neuer Medien miteinander. Es ist schon wegen der herk mmlichen Gruppendynamik relativ schwer, klassische Pr senzteams zur Spitzenleistung zu f hren. Wenn das Ganze auch noch massiv virtuell wird, versagt das Management nur allzu oft. Exakt an diesem brisanten Mangel setzt der Autor an: Das Buch beschreibt die Kunst der virtuellen Teamf hrung in unterhaltsamem Stil, mit direkt umsetzbaren Tipps und Anregungen und unz hligen illustrativen Beispielen aus allen Branchen und Herren L nder entlang der vier zentralen Herausforderungen der virtuellen Teamf hrung. Gary Thomas ist f r assist International Human Resources, eine weltweit t tige Personalentwicklungsgesellschaft, als Trainer, Berater und F hrungskraft t tig. Da viele seiner Kunden international aufgestellte Unternehmen und Konzerne sind, unterst tzt er seit ber 20 Jahren virtuelle und interkulturelle Teams und F hrungskr fte darin, ihr -volles Leistungspotenzial zu entfalten.

Wie fuhrt man virtuelle Teams zur Hochstleistung? Alle sprechen von Globalisierung - aber keiner ist wirklich darauf -vorbereitet. Viele Teams, die die Globalisierung managen sollen, sind ganz offensichtlich damit uberfordert. Vor allem deshalb, weil diese Teams wegen der groen internationalen Entfernungen meist virtuell sind; das heit: Ihre Teammitglieder sitzen sich nicht gegenuber, sondern kommunizieren uber Lander und Kontinente hinweg lediglich via neuer Medien miteinander. Es ist schon wegen der herkommlichen Gruppendynamik relativ schwer, klassische Prasenzteams zur Spitzenleistung zu fuhren. Wenn das Ganze auch noch massiv virtuell wird, versagt das Management nur allzu oft. Exakt an diesem brisanten Mangel setzt der Autor an: Das Buch beschreibt die Kunst der virtuellen Teamfuhrung in unterhaltsamem Stil, mit direkt umsetzbaren Tipps und Anregungen und unzahligen illustrativen Beispielen aus allen Branchen und Herren Lander entlang der vier zentralen Herausforderungen der virtuellen Teamfuhrung. Gary Thomas ist fur assist International Human Resources, eine weltweit tatige Personalentwicklungsgesellschaft, als Trainer, Berater und Fuhrungskraft tatig. Da viele seiner Kunden international aufgestellte Unternehmen und Konzerne sind, unterstutzt er seit uber 20 Jahren virtuelle und interkulturelle Teams und Fuhrungskrafte darin, ihr -volles Leistungspotenzial zu entfalten.

How healthy eating and an active lifestyle can affect how we serve God. Author Gary Thomas approaches a subject that few pastors or Christian writers have dared tackle. In Every Body Matters, reaches all the way back to the apostle Paul, who wrote that we need to prime our bodies to become, "an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work."To illustrate the body/soul correlation, Thomas presents engaging and diverse stories that include a young mom who got fit through volleyball and reaped spiritual rewards in her marriage, a 300-pound pastor who realized his obesity was eroding his ministry impact, and a woman who gained the spiritual strength to survive a contentious divorce by training for a marathon.In every instance, Thomas makes a direct connection between the physical challenge and its spiritual consequence.This book is a must read for anyone seeking new and compelling motivation for strengthening their bodies and fortifying their souls.

What if God designed marriage to make us holy rather than to make us happy? Starting with the discovery that the goal of marriage goes beyond personal happiness, writer and speaker Gary Thomas invites readers to see how God can use marriage as a discipline and a motivation to love Him more and reflect more of the character of His Son. Everything about your marriage--everything--is filled with prophetic potential, with the capacity for discovering and revealing Christ's character.

Gary Thomas, one of this generation's most trusted writers about the spiritual life, explores what it means to build a life of true pleasure - one that will liberate your spiritual life, marriage, family, community, and outreach.Many Christians assume "pleasure" and "sin" are synonymous. Others define godly pleasure so narrowly that they drastically minimize the powerful and holy role that pleasure can play in their lives. Still others feel guilty even thinking about how to build a life of pleasure.For all of them, Pure Pleasure provides an entirely new paradigm. It invites Christians to embrace a life of true pleasure as a pathway to obedience, worship, and service. Building on his bestselling books Sacred Pathways, Sacred Marriage, and the ECPA Gold Medallion-winning Authentic Faith, Gary Thomas takes readers to a new level of faith by providing a theological and inspirational framework to help them cultivate the kind of life that pleases God.Abounding with spiritual insights and practical exercises, this book invites you to shake off the shackles of misunderstanding about sin, provides the freedom to approach life in Christ with new wonder and joy, and challenges you to experience life as God meant it to be: overflowing with pleasure.Also available: Pure Pleasure small group video study and study guide, Spanish edition, and more.

'... a masterpiece ... long overdue' Professor Judy Sebba, University of Sussex and member of 2008 RAE panel for Education "This is an exceptional book - and one that should be essential reading for anyone seriously thinking about educational practice - for two reasons. First, it is one of the few books on thinking about education which is written with the wit and humour which makes compulsive reading. Second, the approach to theory (or thinking systematically, philosophically and evidentially) is through the author's own attempt to understand what appears to many as a mystery. In this personal journey, the author provides a comprehensive and critical review of different theoretical positions."Professor Richard Pring, University of Oxford What is the role of theory in education? Does the pursuit of theory in education always lead to improvements in practice? What is the alternative to theory?Theory holds a central place in educational inquiry: tutors urge students to embed their work in it; funding bodies demand that research proposals be located in. But in an important new analysis, Gary Thomas suggests that the pursuit of theory in education is the pursuit of a chimera.This compelling book examines what theory means for both student and researcher and questions whether the confidence in educational theory is justified. It begins by looking at what theory is, and what use it has in education and examines some theoretically significant influences on educational thought and practice in the twentieth century. Challenging the idea that the practice of education should be based on theory, the author offers alternative, simpler frameworks for conducting inquiry, without the constraints of existing theory, contending that it is time for a discussion about how values, evidence and ideas can more straightforwardly guide educational practice.Education and Theory is stimulating reading for academics, researchers, teachers and students of education.

"Where does hunch end and evidence begin? Too much is written and said about school improvement - about improvements in teaching and learning - with far too little attention to this question. This book provides vivid discussion from distinguished protagonists and antagonists about what gets called 'evidence-based practice'. Reading it, all involved in education - policymakers and practitioners alike - can proceed more confidently."- Professor Tim Brighouse, London Schools CommissionerThe movement to evidence-based practice in education is as important as it is controversial, and this book explores the arguments of leading advocates and critics.The book begins with an explication of evidence-based practice. Some of the ideas of its proponents are discussed, including the Campbell Collaboration, and the application to education of Cochrane-style reviews and meta-analyses. The thinking behind evidence based practice has been the subject of much criticism, particularly in education, and this criticism is aired in the second part of the book. Questions have been raised about what we mean by evidence, about how particular kinds of evidence may be privileged over other kinds of evidence, about the transferability of research findings to practice, and about the consequences of a move to evidence-based practice for governance in education. Given that the origins of the interest in evidence-based practice come largely from its use in medicine, questions arise about the validity of the transposition, and contributors to the third part of the book address this transposition. The issues raised in the book, while primarily those raised by educators, are of relevance also to professionals in medicine, social work and psychology.

The faith God calls us to is far more than glowing positivism that shields us from life's struggles. It is one that guides us into a deepening intimacy with the God who sustains us in the broad sweep of life.Bestselling author Gary Thomas helps us sharpen our spiritual vision and fortify our commitment to Christ by examining ten disciplines God uses to forge a fire-tested faith. A biblical view of these disciplines can safeguard us from disillusionment when - not if - difficulties surface in our lives.Sharing scriptural insights, the wisdom of Christians through the centuries, and cogent personal observations, Thomas explores the disciplines of: selflessness, waiting, suffering, persecution, social mercy, forgiveness, mourning, contentment, sacrifice, hope and fear.As Thomas reminds us, faith is about something other than a smooth ride through this fallen world. Rather, authentic faith is shaped, tempered, and purified in the flames of struggle. This eye-opening look at what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus will encourage you, bolster your faith, and help you rise above shallow attachments to fix your heart on things of eternal worth.