Christy Sutherland singing "He's Alive" at The Crystal Cathedral's Easte...

Fruitbearer Publishing Announces the Release of the Christian Living Book 'To Women with Love'

FORT WORTH, Texas,  Charlotte Posa's To Women with Love, a practical guide to overcoming the horrors of domestic abuse, was released on November 14, 2011. Mrs. Candy Abbott, managing partner of Fruitbearer Publishing, LLC, says the subtitle, Walking Away from the Abuse, was chosen to impact a tightly targeted audience.

According to the Family Violence Prevention Fund, a woman is battered in the U.S. every nine seconds. The U.S. Department Justice's Bureau of Justice Statics Special Report states that 95% of all victims of domestic violence are women.

For thirty-five years, Charlotte Posa experienced the devastating effects of parental and spousal abuse. Through (a chance encounter -- or what circumstance led her to Christ), she discovered true liberation and complete healing of her emotional and spiritual wounds through the transformational power of Jesus Christ.

In To Women with Love, Charlotte Posa equips her readers with effective ways to stop the vicious abuse cycle, to set realistic boundaries, and to stay free by cultivating healthy relationships. Moreover, she lays out key biblical principles for developing a Christian marriage, including love and respect, right communication, and God's intent for the roles of husbands and wives.

"Those of us who have been abused need our little girl's heart on the inside of us healed," Mrs. Posa says. "It can be done, and we can then walk free of the anger and resentment! God's a good and merciful God. Nothing we've done or can do can keep His love from us!"

Charlotte Posa married Wayne Posa in 1995. Both ordained ministers, they live in Fort Worth, Texas and have served the Lord together in local prison ministry for the past three years. Prior to that, they were involved in street ministry.

What Does It Take to Live a Fulfilled Life?

Dallas/Fort Worth, TX—Many of us dream of living a richer and more significant life—the kind of fulfilling life that, when rated on the scale of one to ten, would score a definitive ten. Inviting us to awaken to the TEN Life is the theme of a new book by Terry A. Smith, lead pastor of The Life Christian Church in West Orange, New Jersey. A gifted communicator, Terry is a national and international speaker with a passion for challenging and encouraging others, especially those who are completely unaware of their own unique power and potential.
                        
Based on the tenth verse of the tenth chapter in the Book of John, Ten: How Would You Rate Your Life? (Higher Life Development Services, Inc) is a guide to living the life God dreams for us. “We can only know life in all its fullness,” he explains, “if we live the life God dreams for us. And part of the TEN experience is to try to figure out what that means for each of us as individuals.” Smith’s easy-going style of writing, coupled with his broad scope of reference, makes the book appealing to any reader wanting to create a richer quality of life.

But while the book does most certainly provide structured steps toward a more fulfilling life, it is far from being the typical “all about me” self-help book. Rather, it is an others-help book. Throughout its pages, Smith links our incredible potential for a superior life to the exponential power of leadership, exposing the bond between creating your own better life and helping others create better lives for themselves. No matter what our inclinations or natural giftings might be, Smith stresses that we all have the ability to lead ourselves and others to the best possible future.

It was while endeavoring to cheer on his wife during her first ever marathon run, Smith explains in the book’s opening, that he began to realize that, even while we yearn for someone to witness our lives, we also have a driving need to be a supporting witness for others. And just as we want desperately to cheer on those we love, he believes God is also desperate to cheer us to a preferred future and be the ultimate witness to our lives. “And if God be for us,” he asks, “then how can we do anything but believe our best possible future is within our grasp?”

Ten is about grasping God’s dream for our lives and then taking the necessary action to make that dream come true. Within the pages of Ten, Smith offers sound advice and gives the reader seven inspired steps specifically designed to lead to a better life:

• Awaken: Wake up to God’s dreams for your life.
• Discover: Learn how to discover your life’s calling.
• Imagine: Learn how the discipline of imagination makes the future real.
• Grow: Develop the life infrastructure necessary to sustain success.
• Act: Take action to create your future.
• Lead: Learn to lead yourself and others to the best possible future.
• Go There: Accept the call to get started living the life God dreams for you.

Through application of these seven steps, Smith reveals how each of us can experience life in all its fullness, moving forward from wherever we are toward a TEN. In this way, we can create the best possible future for ourselves and those around us. We can achieve total fulfillment. We can take our lives all the way up the scale to TEN. All we need is the desire to do so.

YouVersion Shares 'One Minute on The Bible App' Infographic with Community

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla., Dec. 2, 2011  Announcing new developments and sharing usage milestones, YouVersion, creators of the online Bible and the No. 1 Bible App, held a webcast Nov. 30, generating a trend worldwide on Twitter with the hashtag #YouVersion. The event featured a new infographic that details the extensive usage of YouVersion in the span of one minute.

To view YouVersion's complete infographic, visit blog.youversion.com/2011/11/one-minute-in-the-youversion-community/

"Youversion was designed to take today and tomorrow's technology to help people engage in the Bible," said Bobby Gruenewald, Pastor, Innovation Leader of LifeChurch.tv and Co-Founder of YouVersion. "It has been great to see how this is happening with our infographic stats and we are excited to see the growth as we begin creating community for users."

The infographic shows that in one minute, users log 25,134 minutes of Bible engagement; the Bible App is installed on 52 new mobile devices; and the Bible App is opened 1,698 times.

YouVersion will roll out a variety of community features in the coming months for churches to utilize the Bible app with its congregation beginning with the launch of a profile feature this week on the iPhone and Android.

User stats since the creation of YouVersion in 2008 show a cultural trend that is difficult to ignore. The Bible App has been installed on one out of every 17 iPhones, iPads and Android devices sold globally. In just one Sunday recently, the YouVersion community created an average of 2.7 Bible verse highlights per second, for a total of 233,000 highlights in one day.

The free Bible App is available on the iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone, WebOS, and Java phones, as well as any web-enabled mobile device. It was developed by the team at LifeChurch.tv. The Edmond, Okla.-based church has taken a very unconventional approach to ministry by developing technology and leveraging web-based tools to share the Gospel.

Sherry Surratt Named President and CEO of MOPS International

DENVER,  The Board of MOPS International has elected Sherry A. Surratt as the organization's fourth President and CEO. Surratt will assume the position on January 1, 2012, succeeding Shelly Radic, who has served as the Interim CEO during the past 18 months. The MOPS International Board was aided in the search process by Price Harding, III, a managing partner of CarterBaldwin Executive Search of Atlanta, Georgia. Surratt comes to MOPS with deep experience in church ministry and learning from women leaders. Her most recent position was the Director of Leadership Network's Radical Future Innovation Labs.

Board chair Rebekah Burch Basinger describes MOPS' new President as a woman of warm personal faith and a passion for bringing God's good news to young moms. "Sherry's ministry background is noteworthy, but board members are most excited by her deep commitment to Christ and strong desire to have a part in influencing a generation of young mothers for the sake of the Gospel," Basinger says.

Mark Hopkins, chair of the search committee, credits Surratt's wide-ranging contacts with pastors and other church leaders as placing her at the top of the candidate list. Now, the MOPS Board looks forward to what Surratt's networks and focus on women in ministry leadership can mean for the organization.

"In addition to her contacts with churches across the country, the insights Sherry brings from her work with Leadership Network will be invaluable as MOPS seeks to be even more entrepreneurial in how we partner with local congregations and other like-minded organizations in ministry to mothers of preschoolers. Sherry has the skill set to build on the foundation of what MOPS is already accomplishing and the imagination to lead MOPS into a bright future," Hopkins states.

"MOPS is moving into an exciting new chapter, and we are eager that the organization step into this next stage faithfully and boldly. These are challenging times, but MOPS is poised to do great things. It is in this type of climate that God calls uniquely gifted leaders to face the future with courage 'for such a time as this' (Esther 4:14). We are confident Sherry is that leader for MOPS," Basinger says.

For her part, Surratt credits the organization's unwavering passion for equipping the next generation of moms as what drew her to MOPS. "God has filled my heart with an incredible excitement about the future of MOPS, as together we build on their strong foundation of supporting and encouraging moms across the world. I look forward with great anticipation to what God has in store as we equip and inspire an ever widening circle of moms to use their influence for Christ," Surratt states.

A graduate of Sam Houston State University, Surratt began her career as an elementary school teacher in the Houston (TX) Public School system. Very quickly, she moved into an administrative position as Assistant Principal over teacher development curriculum. After relocating with her pastor husband to South Carolina, Surratt joined the staff at Seacoast Church based in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, as Children's Ministry Pastor and Central Support Pastor, developing multisite ministries at their 13 campuses.

In 2009, Surratt accepted a position with Leadership Network, where she spent 18 months researching women in leadership and hosting leadership communities of women leaders. Most recently, she has helped church pastors and leaders implement new ideas in ministry as Director of Leadership Network's Radical Future Innovation Labs, a unique experience designed to help church teams infuse new ideas into existing ministry areas.

Surratt and her husband Geoff are parents of two adult children, Mike and Brittainy, and the proud grandparents of one-year-old Maggie Claire.

MOPS will feature more about the organization's new President and CEO in the Spring 2012 edition of MomSense magazine. Surratt will also be introduced at the 2012 MOPS International Convention in Dallas, TX in August 2012.

MOPS INTERNATIONAL
Denver-based MOPS International is a non-profit ministry that creates mothering communities to help "Better Moms Make A Better World." Moms attend MOPS groups to experience authentic friendship, receive mothering support, and to grow personally and spiritually. Since 1973, MOPS International has served millions of mothers of preschoolers in thousands of local MOPS groups across the U.S. and in almost 40 countries internationally. MOPS serves moms from all walks of life and exists to encourage, equip and develop every mother to realize her potential as a woman, mother and leader. MOPS is the best in the world at creating authentic communities of growth that invite women into a relationship with Jesus Christ.


www.MOPS.org -- www.facebook.com/MOPS.Int -- www.youtube.com/MOPSint -- www.twitter.com/MOPS_Int

LifeWay and ROAR to Develop Free Mobile Apps for 1,000 Churches

NASHVILLE, Nov. 29, 2011  LifeWay Christian Resources and ROAR, a mobile app development group, are giving mobile church apps to 1,000 churches throughout the month of December.

ROAR, LifeWay's recommended church app development partner, will customize mobile apps on the platform of the church's choice. Church leaders can choose either iPhone/iPad, Android, or both.

The mobile apps will feature customizable logos, colors and content.

"We can collect all of the content on a church's website and from other pages -- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, iTunes -- and package it together in an app so people can find it all in one place on their phone," said Matt McKee, president of ROAR.

"Churches can upload audio sermons as podcasts, post calendar events and event details, upload photos from church events or mission trips, create separate pages for separate ministries and allow people to donate to the church from their mobile devices," said Matt Morris, project manager for LifeWay's Digital Church.

Developing an app usually costs approximately $750 per platform per church, McKee said. As part of the giveaway, churches will only have to pay a discounted hosting fee of $30 per month for one app or $50 for two platforms.

"We want to resource 1,000 churches with this technology," Morris said. "Churches will be able to communicate their messages to people through a device that's almost always in their pocket or purse."

Recent Pew Research data from July 2011 stated nine in 10 smartphone owners use their phones to access the Internet or email.

"As the number of smartphone users continues to increase, churches can't deny that communicating through a church app connects with people on-the-go," said Morris.

Learn more about getting a free mobile app developed for your church at ROAR.pro/DigitalChurch.

Digital Church is a collection of web-based resources and services that assists churches in efficiently and effectively managing growth within their church, congregation and community. Digital Church endorses select, top-tier solutions in the cloud to help both churches and ministries reach people for Christ.

Launched in January 2010, ROAR has quickly become one of the top app development firms for churches, schools and ministries.