This book offers practical insight into the work ofthe church in childhood ministry. The pre-school section is especially helpful. This book would be a good resource for Children's Pastors and workers as well as a classroom requirement.

The editorial review states that this resource was "written by a wide variety of experts in Christian education, this volume is designed for use in teacher training classes, and for professional training in Bible colleges and seminaries." I would say that they are right. What I found particulary helpful was the developmental psychological information that the authors give for different age groups. Very usefull!

Oswald and Friedrich have given us a wonderful source book for doing congregational planning. But in addition, they have given strategic planning consultants and facilitators in many fields a concept that opens new horizons in strategic planning. The idea of discerning, rather than planning, future direction says that there is a way we ought to go and our job is to find it. This concept, when coupled with systems thinking and organizational learning (see for example Senge, _The Fifth Discipline_), provides a way of reframing the strategic planning process. The exercises, while generally unsuited to the board room, can be adapted to that environment with a little imagination, once the planning consultant creates a safe place for those invovled in planning to access the part of their mind capable of discernment.

My grandmother was one of the authors of this book, but that isn't the reason I like this book. The book has a lot on my ancestors, and it is so cool to learn where I cam from. I definatly think that if you live in the low country, it is worth reading.

This is one of the best books you would ever find on dynamic flash that is if you find any other book on that topic.First there are very limited books on individual topics like generator or asp-flash but this books goes a step ahead and collaborates all the aspects of dynamic studio .chapters like ultradev,generator,asp-flash and Flash-turbine .A must read for all those people who are interested in making dynamic websites.They should refer to this book as it would make their work very easy.The book starts off by taking into consideration that the reader is a beginer and then graduates to more advanced topics.

Hats off !! to all those who made this book possible as this book is goin to be there for a long time to come.

An excellent book! Well worth the investment! It transitions well from more basic concepts to more complex topics -- With lots of substance for people at all levels of experience. Even those with more expertise can learn a thing or two from the different conceptual approaches presented. The book is not just about "here's how to do the same old boring X, Y & Z, just in the updated version of Flash", it also says "here's some different ways of thinking about solutions that takes greater advantage of new features of Flash". I also really enjoyed the mini math and geometry lessons... it's good to know that years of high school algebra and geometry could be put to some use!

The interface design chapters were particularly outstanding; judging by how awful so many Flash sites are at integrating interactivity, PLEASE!! I BEG YOU!!! everybody read the chapters on designing interfaces! They are a "must read" for anyone who wants to improve their site's interactivity.

The game design chapters are also incredibly helpful as well, and I think are some of the first useful explanations of game design I've ever seen for Flash. Even if you're not designing games in Flash, using a familiar game like Asteroids as a vehicle for explaining some pretty clever design elements works very well. Not to mention, it's very cool to be able to make your own video games! Flash isn't just for dull corporate websites anymore!

I'll be incorporating the lessons learned from those chapters into all the stuff I do... even though I only get to do very boring stuff for a corporate site. And if I use what this book teaches, maybe someday I can get hired to make games and do cool interfaces!!! :)

I've been looking for a books for backend for over a year now. This is the PHP, ASP, PERL, JavaScript, Generator, PHP Turbine dream book! 1000 pages of MUST-KNOW knowledge for the serious flash designer/developer. The PHP section is what I've been searching for for months as I've been stumbling through integration for a month now.

This will become the "BIBLE for BACKEND" (sounds sexual, I guess) Flash. Flash IS the future. This is the book I will refer to most for the next year... guaranteed. my "most advised purchase" to date for Flash Developers. Better than Flash 5 Magic at describing Backend application integration.

This will set you apart from the hacks.

It is highly significant that no Salvation Army personel recommend this book. The author, being unsaved and a senior British politician, concentrates on the radical social reforms the Booths and Salvation Army championed in Victorian Britain. Hattersley, sadly, hasn't a clue about salvation. I suspect Roy's next book may portray Christ as a zealous Jewish Zionist with Marxist leanings. Well written fluff. Now Roy's managed to write a book about John Wesley characterising him as a lecherous toad. Don't waste your money.

For a far better biography of William and Catherine Booth, get Trevor Yaxley's. And for John Wesley, read John Pollock's.

William and Catherine Booth were both remarkable. Many past biographers of one or the other have found it difficult to concentrate on their chosen subject, as the other keeps intruding. Roy Hattersley has solved that problem. He has written about the two of them.

The story is engrossing. William Booth, the pawnbroker's assistant, became a Methodist minister, then an itinerant evangelist, before founding the East London Mission, which eventually became The Salvation Army. Catherine, brought up by Methodist parents, met William in London in 1852, where they fell in love and soon became engaged. It was to be three more years before they were able to marry; at one time during that period they endured over 14 months of almost unbroken separation.

They formed a dynamic partnership, each complementing the other. William was an action man, a whirlwind who swept all before him. Though he was not unintelligent, he was anti-intellectual and repeatedly ignored Catherine's frequent urgings for him to study. Catherine by contrast had a powerful mind, wrote forcefully, argued convincingly, and, in spite of her shyness, became a powerful preacher. She had strongly held views about Christians abstaining from alcohol and women being allowed to preach. It is no coincidence that The Salvation Army has always taken a strong stand against alcohol, and women have been prominent in its ministry. Two of its Generals have been women.

One of the fascinating aspects of the Booths' story is the motley crowd of eccentrics they attracted to their flag. Many of their early soldiers were recruited literally from the streets, and then immediately put to work to win others to Christ. Some were illiterate, some had been drunks, others prostitutes. This particular volume, however, does not quite capture that diversity. Though The Salvation Army is probably most often thought of today as an organization engaged in social work, the Booths were first and foremost evangelists. To them the social work was secondary, both in terms of emphasis and chronology.

Roy Hattersley, the author of this book, was a cabinet minister in a British Labour Government, and his political background gives the book an interesting slant, particularly when he examines The Salvation Army's social work. The book does, however, have some problems. Hattersley seems out of sympathy with the Booths' religious convictions, and tends to sound rather condescending when discussing them. He also does not understand some basic Christian terms such as "sanctification", and frequently uses them inappropriately. In addition the book has too many avoidable errors, which suggests it may have been a rushed job. But it remains both very readable and enjoyable, and is a worthy tribute to two great Christians.

For those of us who have grown up in the UK Roy Hattersley's wit and intellect has long been well known. For those of us who are also Salvationists the prospect of Hattersley writing about the founders of the movement we love and serve filled our minds with a sense of forboding.

We needed not worry. Hattersley writes well, every word being closely considered, and brings what is for me the best biography I have yet read about these icons of The Salvation Army. In a "no punches pulled" account, which propels one forward with a real idea of the Booths' enthusiasm and obsession, one reads about how the movement began, survived and ultimately prospered. Unlike many in-house accounts there is no glossing over of the shortcomings of these very human beings, rather we learn how, fired by what the Booths would consider Divine Inspiration, they "pressed forward to the mark of their high calling".

Hattersley concludes "It is not necessary to believe in instant sanctification to admire and applaud their work of social redemption." To those of us who do believe we not only admire and applaud but also see the hand of God in all that the Booths did. Hattersley notes that the Army is the only breakaway group from schismatic 19th century Methodism which survives into the twenty-first century. Many of us who believe know the reason - "Blood and Fire" gives enough evidence for every reader to reach his or her own conclusions.