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Half of Christian high school students walk away from their faith after graduation.Sarah Cowan Johnson unpacks how parents can have an active discipleship role in forming their children's faith, with age-appropriate insights and strategies for different developmental stages. She shows how we can identify God moments, facilitate spiritual encounters, clarify emerging beliefs, and encourage new faith habits in our children.Filled with exercises and activities for families to do together, this handbook is an essential resource for discipling children with confidence and creativity.

Stanley J. Grenz and Roger E. Olson offer a sympathetic guide and a critical assessment of the significant theologies and theologians of the 20th century. They trace the shifts in theol-ogy as it has moved back and forth between God's immanence and God's transcendence.

Embracing your Christian identity does not make you "soft." Embracing your Black identity does not make you less Christian. Throughout American history, Black people were not given the freedom to acknowledge their suffering. A. D. Thomason believes that the Holy Spirit brings freedom and liberation as we're able to name our pain, recognize its roots in history and society, and seek healing. While many saw a confident, six-foot-five Black man, A. D. "Lumkile" Thomason lived most of his life in fear and anguish, deeply wounded by encounters with violence, abandonment, and family tragedy. Hiding behind a tough exterior, Adam earned his "Black card" but felt joyless inside. Even traveling around the globe to play professional basketball could not resolve his despair. But in the art of Jay-Z, A. D. discovered stirring honesty that gave voice to his own expressions of longing. And in the gospel of Jesus, he experienced the healing and salvation that had long evaded him. Now through what he calls "kingdom therapy," he's figuring out how to redefine the Jay-Z and Jesus that make up his blackness. A. D. uses his artistry as a poet and storyteller to share how he confessed his internalized pain and embraced the liberating joy of Christ. He writes for millennials, emerging adults, and anyone else who's ready to acknowledge the reality of racial trauma and our need to confront it. A. D.'s powerful story gives you permission to be Black, to be Christian, and to be the person God has made you to be.

You can only go so far for so long before you find the limits of yourself. For Phileena Heuertz that moment arrived, mercifully, around the same time as a sabbatical to mark her twelfth year of service with an international organization working with some of the most vulnerable people in the world. Activists often see contemplation as a luxury, the sort of thing necessarily set aside in the quest to see the world set aright. But in Pilgrimage of a Soul we see that contemplation is essential-not only to a life of sustained commitment to the justice and righteousness of God, but to the fully human life that the Holy Spirit beckons each of us to. Tracing seven movements from a kind of sleepfulness to a kind of wakefulness, Phileena shows us that life is a journey that repeats itself as Christ leads us deeper and deeper into our true selves and a truer knowledge of God. This revised edition includes practices with each chapter, as well as questions for group discussion and individual reflection.

"e;The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."e;In the Wisdom literature of the Bible we first hear the cool voice of a teacher calling us to think--to think hard and humbly. "e;How long will fools hate knowledge?"e; cries Wisdom in the book of Proverbs. Then in Job comes the anguished voice of the questioner, earnest enough to seek answers, honest enough to doubt easy ones. In Ecclesiastes the chastened tone of the Preacher warns of the vanity of all life under the sun. Sensitive to both literary form and theological content, Derek Kidner introduces Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes, explaining their basic character and internal structure. He also summarizes and evaluates the wealth of modern criticism focused on each book. Looking at all three books together, Kidner shows how their many voices compare, contrast and ultimately give a unified view of life. Kidner extends his analysis to include Ecclesiasticus and The Wisdom of Solomon from the Apocrapha, and he reprints excerpts from non-Israelite works that parallel the three major books treated.

We might be discouraged, disillusioned, or devastated by our work. We might experience trauma or harassment on the job, or we may have experienced work loss by getting fired. If you've been beat up, burnt out, or brokenhearted by work, you're not alone.

"Dear Black woman, you are not alone. God sees you and understands you. Amid a broken world and broken systems, Natasha Smith talks about the grief that is specifically applicable to Black women in the United States and reminds us that there is hope because the kingdom of God is at hand"--

"There are times when the isolation and demands of ministry can wear down even the strongest person. In this emergency preparedness kit for Christian leaders, Bishop Geoffrey Dudley weaves together personal narrative, biblical reflection, and leadership theories into skills that will help leaders lean more confidently into their calling"--

"However you define it, deconstruction is impossible to deny."I'm deconstructing my faith." As any pastor can tell you, hearing these words is simply a regular feature of ministry these days. How we respond to those who are deconstructing will reveal the kind of church-and the kinds of Christians-we really are.Ian Harber knows the fear and grief of deconstruction firsthand. In Walking Through Deconstruction, he tells the story of his own process of deconstruction and reconstruction over more than ten years and explores what is actually happening, both culturally and spiritually, when someone deconstructs their faith.Deconstruction doesn't happen in a vacuum; it is catalyzed by a comfortable society, cultural Christianity, compromised churches, and the compounding anxieties of life. But the Christian faith has better to offer. Harber lays out a vision for the kind of faith environment that can foster genuine reconstruction through healthy relationships, robust doctrine, healthy institutions, a better theology of suffering, and the peace of God.Walking Through Deconstructiontells the author's real life story of deconstruction and reconstructionprovides a clear definition of deconstructionacknowledges the urgency of deconstruction while prioritizing patience and trust over feardescribes common contributing factors and phases of deconstruction, andcasts a vision for healthy communities that help people hold onto faith.We desperately need healthy models of ministry to those who are deconstructing. Whether you're a pastor, parent, or friend of someone on this path, Walking Through Deconstruction offers hope for a renewed faith-stronger than it was before"--

Where do you turn when trauma leaves you feeling lost, ashamed, exhausted, and spinning in spiritual uncertainty? With raw honesty, Michael John Cusick shares his own zigzagging path to authentic faith and reveals how you can reimagine life with God in a way that repairs wounds and deeply satisfies your soul.

"In this six-week Bible study, Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young invites us to view the book of Ruth as more than a Hallmark-tinted story, one that proclaims God's heart for the vulnerable and invites us to become captivated by God's love!"--

"A Holistic Vision of Family in God's KingdomThe Christian world tends to have a blueprint for what families should look like, and these models of the family can be hard to live up to. In some circles, picture-perfect families are idealized and even idolatrized. Many Christians have a gnawing sense that this "traditional family" model is problematic or outdated. But is there an alternative way of understanding family that's neither idolatrous nor revisionist?Theologian Emily McGowin casts a holistic vision for what family can be in light of God's kingdom. Jesus is our first teacher about families in the kingdom of God, and families rightly understand themselves only in relation to God's kingdom and the church.In Households of Faith, McGowinrecovers biblical portraits of households of faith that are not limited to just the biological nuclear family, that can be multigenerational households of married and single, with or without children,acknowledges the realities of how sin and trauma damages families and communities, andcalls Christians to practice family as apprentices to love who discern the times and improvise faithfulness together"

"e;You are your own, and you belong to yourself."e; This is the fundamental assumption of modern life. And if we are our own, then it's up to us to forge our own identities and to make our lives significant. But while that may sound empowering, it turns out to be a crushing responsibility-one that never actually delivers on its promise of a free and fulfilled life, but instead leaves us burned out, depressed, anxious, and alone. This phenomenon is mapped out onto the very structures of our society, and helps explain our society's underlying disorder. But the Christian gospel offers a strikingly different vision. As the Heidelberg Catechism puts it, "e;I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ."e; In You Are Not Your Own, Alan Noble explores how this simple truth reframes the way we understand ourselves, our families, our society, and God. Contrasting these two visions of life, he invites us past the sickness of contemporary life into a better understanding of who we are and to whom we belong.

The world is changing and our traditional models of Christian leadership need to change with it. In this transformative resource for leaders of all ages, Nicole Massie Martin shares a leadership model that inspires us to nail our outdated practices to the cross--for the good of our organizations and the emerging generations we serve.

andIn Search of Guidance,

Too often in the history of Christian worship, evangelical leaders have sought to manipulate anxiety to spur repentance. J. Michael Jordan challenges this utilitarian approach, offering a practical theology of worship within a healing framework that, rather than manipulating anxiety, acknowledges, accepts, and offers it to God.

Explore how to do theology virtuously through the lives of biblical characters.For many who are not initiated into the discipline, theology can feel either overwhelming or just plain boring, especially when theological discourse is disconnected from the lives we live. But for centuries, theology wasn't a disconnected discipline--but an invitation to respond to God from the deepest parts of who we are.Theologian Tim Gaines invites readers into the adventure of theology, breathing life into the study of God. More than an intellectual pursuit, Walking the Theological Life explores the lives of key biblical characters pursuing their own theological paths, helping us learn and grow in our own understanding of how to do theology in a virtuous fashion. Enter into the stories of biblical characters and discover the joy of the theological journey.