Contact: Scott Marshall
SMarshall@Outreach.com
760.940.0600 ext. 3254

VISTA, Calif.—Twenty resources have been selected as 2011 Outreach Resources of the Year, Outreach magazine announced today.

The Outreach Resources of the Year is a celebration of the best outreach-oriented books and other media produced in areas such as evangelism, church multiplication, compassionate service and cross-cultural ministries.

About 150 resources published between Nov. 1, 2009, and Oct. 31, 2010, were submitted to Outreach for consideration. Outreach editors narrowed the field to 103 and placed them in categories.

The magazine then enlisted the help of an expert in each category to consider the resources. Each panelist independently evaluated the resources in his or her area of expertise and selected what he or she thought were the best. The experts had the discretion to choose how many resources to recognize in their categories.

The 2011 Outreach Resources of the Year are:

APOLOGETICS

  • God is Great, God is Good: Why Believing in God is Reasonable and Responsible, Edited by William Lane Craig and Chad Meister (IVP)
  • On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision, By William Lane Craig (David C. Cook)
  • The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith, By Peter Hitchens (Zondervan)

CHILDREN’S OUTREACH

  • Children of God Storybook Bible, By Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Zonderkidz)
  • Kindness Counts (The Berenstain Bears), By Jan & Mike Berenstain (Zonderkidz)
  • That’s Where God Is, By Dan & Ali Morrow (David C. Cook)

CHURCH MULTIPLICATION

  • Church Planter: The Man, The Message, The Mission, By Darrin Patrick (Crossway)
  • Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement, By Dave Ferguson and Jon Ferguson (Zondervan)

COMPASSION

  • Hurt Healer: Reaching Out to a Broken World, By Tony Nolan (Baker)
  • The Invisible: What the Church Can Do to Find and Serve the Least of These, By Arloa Sutter (Wesleyan)

CROSS-CULTURAL MINISTRY

  • Many Colors: Cultural Intelligence for a Changing Church, By Soong-Chan Rah (Moody)
  • Multicultural Ministry Handbook: Connecting Creatively to a Diverse World, Edited by David A. Anderson & Margarita R. Cabellon (IVP)

CULTURE

  • The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America, By Gabe Lyons (Doubleday)

EVANGELISM

  • The Best Kept Secret of Christian Mission: Promoting the Gospel With More Than Our Lip, By John Dickson (Zondervan)

JUSTICE

  • Humanitarian Jesus: Social Justice and the Cross, By Christian Buckley and Ryan Dobson (Moody)

LEADERSHIP

  • Sticky Teams: Keeping Your Leadership Team and Staff on the Same Page, By Larry Osborne (Zondervan)

MISSIONAL LIVING

  • Untamed: Reactivating a Missional Form of Discipleship, By Alan Hirsch and Debra Hirsch (Baker)

PASS-ALONG RESOURCES

  • Everything You Always Wanted to Know About God (but Were Afraid to Ask): The Jesus Edition, By Eric Metaxas (Regal)
  • Start! The Bible for New Believers, Edited by Greg Laurie (Thomas Nelson)

SMALL-GROUP CURRICULA

  • The Reason for God (DVD and Discussion Guide), By Timothy Keller (Zondervan)

The resources of the year are highlighted in the March/April 2011 issue of Outreach magazine, which also includes a list of additional valuable resources that were not part of the Outreach Resources of the Year process.

The March/April 2011 issue also features an interview with best-selling author Philip Yancey and a discussion among church communication professionals about how to best communicate a church’s vision and identity to people inside and outside the church.

Vista, Calif.-based Outreach magazine offers the ideas, insights and stories of today’s outreach-oriented, Bible-based churches. Founded in January 2003 by church communications company Outreach, Inc., Outreach is an award-winning, bimonthly periodical for church leadership. Each year, Outreach publishes the Outreach 100, a special issue in September that features the 100 Largest and Fastest-Growing Churches in America; the Small Church issue (July/August); and the Outreach Resources of the Year (March/April). Outreach is available by subscription. For more information, visit OutreachMagazine.com.

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