All mission is local-the people of God joining the work of God in a particular place. In Starting Missional Churches Mark Lau Branson and Nicholas Warnes introduce us to seven missional churches while examining common challenges regarding church planting.
Outreach Resource of the Year RecommendationBest World Missions Book, from Byron Borger, Hearts and Minds BookstoreWe are more than the businesses we have become. Much of Christian ministry has been shaped to operate not according to the witness of the Scriptures, but according to the values of the free market. We adopt metrics of success that have nothing to do with the state of people's souls or the seeding of the earth with the kingdom of God. We have borrowed our paradigms uncritically from the for-profit corporate sector. The mission of the Church is being held back by the business container into which we have placed the gospel. Every year Scott Bessenecker travels the world with thousands of college students, ministering to those in need and learning from the global church about what God is doing in the world. In Overturning Tables he shows, through stories and analysis, that the mission of God reaches well beyond the grasp of the free market, and if we are willing to reach as well, we will see God do amazing things, even as the world sees the gospel in its fullest sense.
In this latest volume in the highly regarded Reformation Commentary on Scripture series, volume editor Beth Kreitzer introduces us to the wisdom and insight of familiar and unfamiliar reformers alike as they unpack the riches of Luke's inspired "narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us" (1:1, ESV).
Throughout Scripture and church history, women have been central to the mission of God. But all too often women have lacked opportunities to minister fully. Many churches lack visible examples of women in ministry and leadership. Pastor Tara Beth Leach issues a stirring call for a new generation of women in ministry: to teach, to preach, to shepherd, and to lead. God not only permits women to minister-he emboldens, empowers, and unleashes women to lead out of the fullness of who they are. The church cannot reach its full potential without women using their God-given gifts. Leach provides practical expertise for how women can find their place at the table, escape impostor syndrome, face opposition, mentor others, and much more. When women teach, preach, lead, evangelize, pastor, and disciple, and when men partner to embolden the women in their lives, the church's imagination expands to better reflect God's story and hope for the world.
Parenting teenagers is one of the biggest challenges parents face. New realities make becoming independent more difficult. Teens are traveling a different road and are moving at a different pace than those of previous generations. Today's cultural environment is more complicated and confusing than ever. But fear not! Family expert Jim Burns provides a handy guide for parenting teens. For teens to become responsible adults, parents need to help them grow through developmental changes to attain a healthy self-identity, establish good relationships, make wise decisions, and grow in their relationship with God. Burns shows how parents can shape behavior and character, navigate social media challenges, and communicate and resolve conflict healthily. He also tackles the realities of our day, including cyberbullying, dating violence, self-injury, depression, and much more. Whether you're facing serious troubles or looking for simple tips for a better family life, this book offers help and hope.
Sexual brokenness permeates our culture and is often a source of fear, shame, or secret sin for emerging adults within the church. But as we experience love, joy, and intimacy with God and others, sexual shame and sin lose their power. Incorporating peer-to-peer leadership, this small group curriculum invites us to seek sexual maturity and discipleship in the context of community.
Randy White tells how he and his family left suburbia to live and minister in a disadvantaged area of Fresno, California.When you get involved with city ministry, you''re in for some adventures--and you see God at work! You will learn more about God''s heart for the city, meet some of the people who live there, and discover ways you might make a difference too.Discussion questions, twelve Bible studies on God and the city, and a list of "21 Things You Can Do to Love the City" will help you dig even further into the topic. Ideal for small group discussion and action.
Sandra L. Barnes helps us sort out why prejudice is unfair, what feeds our prejudices, how to overcome prejudice, and how to avoid being victimized by discrimination. "This holistic book is an essential read for Christians committed to understanding prejudice and making change," says Jenell Paris of Bethel University.
The shadow of David Hume, the eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher, has loomed large against all efforts to prove the existence of God from evidence in the natural world. From Hume's day to ours, the vast majority of philosophical attacks against the rationality of theism have borne an unmistakable Humean aroma. The last forty years, however, have been marked by a resurgence in Christian theism among philosophers, and the time has come for a thorough reassessment of the case for natural theology.James F. Sennett and Douglas Groothuis have assembled a distinguished team of philosophers to engage the task: Terence Penelhum, Todd M. Furman, Keith Yandell, Garrett J. DeWeese, Joshua Rasmussen, James D. Madden, Robin Collins, Paul Copan, Victor Reppert, J. P. Moreland and R. Douglas Geivett.Together this team makes vigorous individual and cumulative arguments that set Hume's attacks in fresh perspective and that offer new insights into the value of teleological, cosmological and ontological arguments for God's existence.
"Sandy" will encourage and strengthen your faith. Leighton Ford shares the joy of his son's exceptional life and the pain of his untimely death. His story captures the vitality of a young man with a heart for God.
Over 200 hymns (arranged by topic with four-part harmony and guitar chords) are included in this work. Includes several indexes, including scripture references and composers and sources clearly organized.
Stephen Rhodes proposes a biblical, ministry-tested pastoral theology of multiethnic ministry. He shows how the church is called to serve and include all ethnicities, examines how the church can bring healing to a conflicted world, and suggests how such a ministry can be successfully conducted in churches.
In this book Scott Burson and Jerry Walls compare and contrast for the first time the thought of Lewis and Schaeffer. With great respect for the legacy of each man, but with critical insight as well, they suggest strengths and weaknesses of their apologetics. All the while they consider what Lewis and Schaeffer still have to offer in light of postmodernism and other cultural currents that, since their deaths, have changed the apologetic landscape.
Is everything good in Christianity plagiarized from traditional African religions? What about criticisms of Christianity made by the Nation of Islam? Craig S. Keener and Glenn Usry answer these and other hard questions put to the black church.Craig Keener and Glenn Usry's highly acclaimed Black Man's Religion showed in impressive detail that Christianity and Afrocentricity can go together. Now they turn to specific, nitty-gritty questions put to the black church by non-Christians:Is everything good in Christianity plagiarized from traditional African religions?Isn't it intolerant to say Christ is the only way to God?Is the Bible reliable?What about criticisms of Christianity made by the Nation of Islam?Keener and Usry meet these and other important questions head-on, providing responses relevant to and especially for black men and women.
J. Daryl Charles considers the "just war" teaching of the church throughout history, comparing it with both pacifism and jihad/militarism and addressing the unique challenges of international injustice and global terrorism.
For Westerners the Qur'an is a deeply foreign book. Christians who venture within this sacred scripture of Islam encounter a world where echoes of biblical figures and themes resound. But the Qur'an speaks in accents and forms that defy our expectations. For it captures an oral recitation of an open-ended drama, one rooted in seventh-century Arabia. Its context of people, events and ideas strikes us not only as poetically allusive but as enigmatic. And yet the Qur'an and its contested interpretations scroll in shadowed text between the headlines of our daily news. In The Qur'an in Context Mark Anderson offers a gateway into the original world and worldview of the Qur'an. With keen attention to the Qur'an's character, reception and theology, he opens up a hermeneutical space for Christians and others to engage its fabric of religious claims. The Qur'an's theology, anthropology, soteriology, spirituality as well as its portrayal of Jesus are all carefully examined. Finally, the Qur'an's claim to be the Bible's sequel is probed and evaluated. Forthright in Christian conviction and yet sympathetically open to dialogue, The Qur'an in Context is a reliable guide for those who want to explore the holy book of Islam in its varied facets.
The world has needs. Children are orphaned, refugees are displaced and families are devastated by natural disasters. But God is greater than those needs, and he works through his people to accomplish healing and transformation. God calls us to integral mission, obeying both the Great Commission and the Great Commandment in ministering to people's spiritual, physical, emotional and social well-being. This curriculum from World Relief is designed to mobilize the church to engage the great causes of our day, stand with the vulnerable and meet the needs of our neighbors as Jesus did. These ten sessions show how shaping our fundamental beliefs and values lead to better actions and results. Together we can alleviate poverty, welcome the stranger and transform communities at home and around the world. Join with others in learning how to love God, love your neighbors and put that love into action.
Coach. Entrepreneur. Mentor. Executive. Servant. Visionary. Everyone has a different idea of what a leader should be. How can any one person be everything? Scott Rodin brings unity and clarity to this confusing, demanding picture of leadership. He offers a comprehensive model that brings together a biblical understanding of holistic stewardship with the best in leadership studies. Whether in churches, not-for-profit ministries or in business the need for sound leadership is readily apparent. Drawing on his years of experience in development and fundraising and his extensive theological training, Scott Rodin offers a new paradigm--a transformational approach to leadership that is biblically sound, theologically rich and practically compelling.
This book, edited by Carey C. Newman, offers a multifaceted and critical assessment of N. T. Wright's work, Jesus and the Victory of God. Wright responds to the essayists, and Marcus Borg offers his critical appraisal. N. T. Wright's Jesus and the Victory of God is widely heralded as one of the most significant and brilliantly argued works of the historical Jesus. In this volume of his multivolume investigation titled "Christian Origins and the Question of God", Wright uncovers a Jesus that most historians and believers have never met. Jesus & the Restoration of Israel is a serious attempt to offer a multifaceted and critical appreciation and assessment of Wright's work. Essays focus on Israel's continuing exile, Jesus as prophet, his Christology, apocalyptic sayings, parables and ethics. Newman sets the stage with an introduction, and Craig Blomberg offers a critical and appreciative overview of Jesus and the Victory of God. Various facets of Wright's proposal are then investigated by contributors.
After a flurry of heated debates in the mid-twentieth century over the relationship between faith and history, the dust seems to have settled. The parties have long since dispersed into their separate camps. The positions are entrenched and loyalties are staked out. This first volume in the New Explorations in Theology is a deliberate attempt to kick up the dust again, but this time as a constructive development of what is now being called "e;apocalyptic theology."e; Samuel Adams argues that any historiography interested in contributing to theological knowledge must take into consideration, at a methodological level, the reality of God that has invaded history in Jesus Christ. He explores this idea in critical dialogue with the writings of New Testament historian and theologian N. T. Wright, whose work has significantly shaped the current conversation on this problem. The Reality of God and Historical Method is a fresh, bold and interdisciplinary exploration of the question: How is it possible to say that a particular historical person is the reconciliation of the world?
"e;Daniel, you may be white, but don't let that lull you into thinking you have no culture. White culture is very real. In fact, when white culture comes in contact with other cultures, it almost always wins. So it would be a really good idea for you to learn about your culture."e;
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