"It is a commentary with two parallel goals: to read Revelation as literature and to read Revelation theologically. This double interpretative focus has a number of entailments, which I will outline in this introduction. Revelation bears repeated witness to Christ as 'the coming one.' He is the Son of Man who comes on the clouds of heaven (1.7 cf. Dan 7.13), the one who warns the seven churches that he will come to them (2.5, 16, 25; 3.3, 11, 20), and the who closes the book with his thrice-repeated promise 'I am coming soon' (22.7, 12, 20). Again, whatever this 'soon' means, we must not attempt simply to plot it on the chronology of this world but seek to understand it with the life of God who is 'the coming one,' who came in the incarnation of Jesus, comes to us now by the Spirit, and will come again as sovereign of the world"
"It intrigues me to reflect on the reality that my systematic study of the various "ologies" of Christian theology and my hobby of turning bowls from wood scraps have much in common, particularly in the case of the nature and function of the Christian community-both some church somewhere and all Christians everywhere. In many ways the diversity of those wood scraps is similar to the diversity of the people who make up the Christian community. Species of wood are even more diverse than the racial, ethnic, cultural, and ideological diversities of human beings, yet they are all botanical products of the creativity of God as surely as we are all human beings created by that same God. This means that the scraps resulting from the creative endeavors of a woodworker are not automatically useless and worthless simply because they are flawed or oddly sized or hard to work with or damaged in some way. In a similar way, human beings who, by our own collective and individual choices, have fallen from our original relationship to our Creator are not automatically useless and worthless simply because theologically, psychologically, sociologically, and ecologically we are flawed, oddly sized, hard to work with, and damaged by our collective and individual choices to go our own way rather than God's way"--
"This book looks at the five "ingredients" of organizational culture (each is a chapter) and walks the reader through shaping the church culture based on each aspect. There are reproducible pages for group study as well as questions for group discussion"--
"A collection of Christian devotions for those living with chronic illness"--
"Following a brief foundational review of the ways evil has historically been explained and connected to religious belief, the author offers a clear and helpful distinction between the two most influential patterns of thought that have shaped a Christian understanding of the place of evil in the overall scope of history"--
"Exploring Paul's main themes in 1 Corinthians, this book explores the issues raised by those who struggle with seeking to understand how one can serve Christ through the local church and in one's daily life"--
"This book is not about how to get to heaven or hell after you die. (There are plenty of other great books about that.) This is about how Jesus can make your twenties a little less hellish and can use you to usher God's kingdom into your own heart and into the suffering world around you. This is a spiritual but practical book. Every page offers a little good news for your life"--
"In Loving God in the Darkness, the author explores how he responded to traumatic events in his life and how they affected his faith"--
"James Arthur West was not just a fireman and a fire chief, he was also a devout Christian, in fact a deacon at Temple Baptist Church and a Sunday school teacher. I have exactly no memory of him being the latter, but as my sister and I have been going through our mother's effects, Laura found his spiral notebooks full of his Sunday school and devotional lessons. They are all written out in beautiful cursive script verbatim, all dated and usually with a Scriptural text cited. According to the dates on the surviving lessons, these were given in the 1960s through the end of the 1980s"--
The contrast in appreciation of Leviticus and Numbers by the synagogue on the one hand, and by the church on the other, is little short of astonishing. The former has considered it crucial to an understanding of God and of the nature of the "chosen people" (Israel). The latter has usually reduced it to allegory or as a mere historical record of Israelite religion. In this new volume of the groundbreaking Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary series, Hebrew Bible scholar Lloyd R. Bailey examines these often overlooked or underappreciated books of Moses in the contexts of both the Jewish and Christian traditions.Written by accomplished scholars with all students of Scripture in mind, this innovative new commentary series is designed to make quality Bible study more accessible. Pastors, professors and students of Scripture are discovering that this commentary is a wonderful new tool for enhancing interpretation.
"This prayer book offers a wellspring of experience for those who know adoptions well and for those who have walked alongside others who have adopted. Those who have written prayers for this short book include clergy and laypeople; men, women, and nonbinary folk; gay and straight; Black and white; well-off and struggling. They encompass, as you will see, the beauty of what God is doing in the peculiar world of adoption and foster care"--
In the last twenty years, Americans have witnessed dramatic changes in the wider culture, and yet local churches have hardly changed. We pretend that people want the same things from church in the present day that they wanted in the 1950s. For this reason, 21st century Christianity in America is deeply troubled. Loren Mead states in the foreword, "Nash is terribly helpful to us in exploring the painful cultural divide we straddle between a world he describes as the modern world and the world emerging around us, which he calls the postmodern world. He clarifies for us how that very change is shifting the ground under our feet, making obsolete the practices of yesterday; making obsolete, as it were, even some of the institutional structures and the ways we have articulated the deepest things of our faith . . . New language and new structures will be needed for gospel truth to be articulated in this world of postmodernity." For a future to materialize, though, the church must first look in the mirror. Only then can corrective measures be taken to help make the church a more relevant part of peoples lives in the 21st century. If changes aren't made, the church will become obsolete much like an 8-track in todays digital world. In the first half of An 8-Track Church in a CD World, Nash provides a clear picture of the problems facing the church. The second half of the book offers a look ahead to changes and approaches which can help churches minister effectively in the postmodern world.Robert N. Nash, Jr. is a popular seminar leader. He often directs workshops designed to assist churches in understanding the influences of cultural change upon Christian ministry. He is Assistant Professor of Religion at Shorter College in Rome, Georgia where he teaches in the areas of American religion, church history, and cross-cultural theology. He holds the Ph.D. degree in American Christianity from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the M.A. degree in American History from Georgia College and State University. The son of Baptist missionaries in the Philippines, he has pastored three churches and served in other staff ministry positions. He has co-authored The Bible in English Translation: An Essential Guide and has contributed to an edited volume on cross-cultural ministry titled Many Nations Under God: Ministering to Cultural Groups in America.
"Sessions with Ezekiel is a ten-session study unit designed to provide a compelling look at the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel is addressed to exiles, forced migrants, people who have had everything they ever knew laid waste by the destructive forces of empire. They find themselves in a foreign land that speaks a foreign language and worships foreign gods. Ezekiel and the exilic community likely experienced both the initial ordeal of the siege of Jerusalem and the exile but also the continual trauma of being removed from their land and temple. Exile is about a fundamental, bedrock loss of identity"--
"This book echoes with the voices of women who live out their callings as ministers in multiple contexts of Christian community. Their stories intersect and diverge across regions, denominations, educational institutions, and family settings. While not all of them continue to serve within Baptist congregations, each of them has some element of a "Baptist past" that both nurtured and distanced itself from their calling to ministry. Their stories bear witness to the gifts of spiritual formation they received in Baptist traditions and the testimony that each of them bring inside and outside those traditions"--
"Would Moses Throw a Chair is collection of tales from travels in Russia, war in Vietnam, and places the author and his family have lived in Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Connecticut, Texas, Tennessee, and Iowa speak to and for all of us. This collection demonstrates that stories connect us to one and to our humanity"--
Once upon a time, being a minister's spouse was a full-time job in itself; the spouse (usually the wife) was expected to serve in a multitude of roles, whether teaching Sunday school or leading the choir or chairing countless committees. In recent years, though, pastorates have welcomed both men and women, and their spouses often have diverse roles unrelated to ministry. They may be juggling several responsibilities: full- or part-time work, parenting, continuing education, care-giving, etc.While no pastor does his or her work alone, roles for a spouse or partner are much more flexible and fluid in the twenty-first century than they once were. Spouses who want to support their minister-mates' vocation may wonder where to begin.They may begin here, with John and Anne Killinger's The Ministry Life: 101 Tips for Ministers' Spouses. John and Anne have mined their decades of marriage and partnership to offer a resource for ministers' spouses who are looking for ways to make meaningful contributions to their mates' ministry. The Killingers' suggestions are notable for their range of interests; whatever your talents may be, the Killingers have identified a way to put those gifts to work in tasks both large and small. And, as in The Ministry Life: 101 Tips for New Ministers, the Killingers sought and included additional advice from other ministers and their spouses.
"Sessions with Esther is a ten-session study unit designed to provide a compelling look at the book of Esther. Each session is followed by a a page of questions that allow for a deeper experience of the scriptural passages"--
"This is a 13-session study of the book of Exodus. The first part, "The Characters," identifies some famous and overlooked characters that God uses. Part 2 discusses "The Contest" for the hearts and lives of the people. I view the plagues or "fingers of God" as a performance to command the attention of the people that God wants. These events prepare Moses and the people to move to the wilderness. Part 3 explores the challenges and gifts during "The Journey" through the wilderness. We look at the changes Moses undergoes as a leader and at God's gift of the Law to constitute the Israelites. We also look at the tests of dependence on God that are still relevant today. In part 4, we arrive at "The Destination"-a place in the wilderness where we are ready to encounter God's presence. We study how disobedience is part of the process we undergo as we design, follow, and construct a place for God to be with us"--
"This book offers an approach to Christian ethics. It does so first by organizing Christian ethics around the virtue of practical wisdom and suggesting what the guiding vision of a Christian practical wisdom should be. Second, it provides an account of practical wisdom that integrates literature drawn from the fields of philosophy, psychology, evolutionary theory, and the neurosciences. Reconceptualizing Christian ethics in this way can help us address-but not resolve once and for all-in a faithful way the challenges of our divided age"--
Living a Narrative Life is an exploration of our vault of stories assembled along the arc of life."All of life is a story," author Keith Herron writes. Our stories are sources of self-understanding, and if we draw guidance from those stories, each has something valuable to offer. Living a Narrative Life is an exploration of our vault of stories assembled along the arc of life. As Herron explains, "This is the richness of life: to know your own stories, to value and understand them, and to share them with others. In doing so, we are all enriched."By making sense of our stories, by mining them for their shades of meaning, and by sharing them in community with others, we deepen our understanding not only of ourselves but also of our place in our families and world.Keith Herron lives in St. Louis, where he teaches and writes at the intersection of spirituality and psychology. He has degrees in business, religion, education, and a doctorate in pastoral counseling and psychotherapy. He has served as a campus minister and as a pastor in the local church, where seeking the right questions is at least as important as finding the right answers. He and his wife Wanda have two adult children and one granddaughter.Praise for "Living a Narrative LifeLiving a Narrative Life is a deeply thoughtful book written to facilitate meaningful conversations about the timeline of our lives individually, generationally, and within community. It's an important read with clear directives for personal reflection and projection. Considering the stories of our lives in the ways Herron suggests will result in fresh appreciation of one's life story and new gratitude for why it matters. Get a group. Read this book." -Colleen Walker Burroughs, Vice President of PASSPORT and Founder of Watering Malawi"To cite but one of the many reasons for you to dive right into what Keith Herron has written, he takes you on a journey of remembrance of persons, events, and pathways that compose the narrative arc of your life, just as he does with his own, so that you may glance anew upon what makes for those deep and sacred meanings of your story. In the process Keith shows you how to create a rich experience of mutual discovery by sharing life-stories in a community of trust with others." -Charles Davidson, Author of Bone Dead and Rising: Vincent van Gogh and the Self Before God"Living a Narrative Life is a carefully crafted, highly accessible, and remarkably useful guide to the powerful role of stories in shaping, understanding, and transforming the meaning of our one-and-only lives. Herron skillfully interweaves significant life cycle and narrative scholarship in ways that instruct, inspire and guide the reader to deeper understandings of his or her own story. This book is a critical reminder of the practical importance of recent research on memory, carefully articulating the ways we construct and rewrite our own life stories over time." -David A. Harper, Professor Emeritus of Pastoral Theology and Counseling, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
A white female minister struggles to understand the real lessons of racial justice in America and what work is required of white people of faith to make things right.First as a teacher, then as clergy, Martha Dixon Kearse, a white female minister, struggles to understand the real lessons of racial justice in America-particularly for those people of faith who claim to love everyone-and what work is required of those same white people of faith to make things right. Through the theology of hospitality, Kearse describes how she came to understand her privilege as a white person, the racism built into many institutions-even sometimes in the church-and ways she can speak out against racism without speaking over marginalized voices. Delay it, do it halfway, ignore it-however we avoid it, the truth is that progress is stymied until the people of the church confront real issues in hard, sincere, painful, revealing, and honest conversations with other Christians, both black and white. Only then can any action occur; only then can the process of true reconciliation move forward.Martha Dixon Kearse, a Virginian by birth, has divided her years between central Virginia and Charlotte, North Carolina. Martha attended the College of William & Mary, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Gardner-Webb University's M. Christopher White School of Divinity (twice). She and her husband, Henry Montjoy Kearse, Jr., are the proud parents of Mattie, Conner, and Anna. The people of St. John's Baptist Church in Charlotte supported her call to ministry and formed a minister out of rough clay; the people of Peakland Baptist Church in Lynchburg are currently affirming her call.Praise for The Sun Is Up"'Sleeper, awake, ' Paul sings, 'and the light of Christ will shine on you.' In these personal reflections, Martha tells the story of how she, like Paul, has woken up and had the scales fall from her eyes. In a church culture that loves its willful blindness, this memoir comes from a powerful white lady who has seen the light, and now has an important song to sing." -Greg Jarrell, Author of A Riff of Love: Notes on Community and Belonging and Founder of QC Family Tree
Readers who embark on a study of 1, 2, 3 John and Jude will encounter writers with a passion for learning and living the truth. If there is one verse in the Bible that captures the theme of these four letters, it is John 8:32, where Jesus says, "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."First John focuses on the truth about loving God, the truth about loving people, and the truth about the difference Jesus makes. Second and Third John and Jude all focus on the truth about bad religion and how Christians must take a stand against bad teaching, bad leading, and bad living within the church. This study will focus on those four truths and guide readers on a quest for truth in our day.To read these old letters is to read the words of people who loved the truth, especially the truth they had discovered in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This was the truth they held most dear, the truth that had transformed their lives, and the truth they felt was under attack in the early church.Studying these four letters will challenge readers to consider their own truth-the truth that governs their lives and the truth they feel is worth living and dying for. In a world where truth is a slippery reality, 1, 2, 3 John and Jude remind us that truth does exist and that truth still sets people free.This Study Guide for the Smyth & Helwys Annual Bible Study on 1, 2, 3 John and Jude serves three purposes: to educate the learner on major issues of appropriate interpretation, to offer an overview of theological themes, and to build the learner's Bible study skills by reviewing significant interpretations.
In Practicing Resurrection, Jeanie Miley reflects on the myriad ways the final line of a Wendell Berry poem shaped her understanding of God's presence in her life-and its meaning for all Christians who yearn for strength and hope in the face of life's difficulties. This "resurrection principle," as Miley calls it, affirms that God is working for good in all of creation. In the midst of trouble and trauma, we can find hope by cultivating the presence of the Living Christ.Through stories of her own literal and metaphorical journeys toward hope and renewal, Miley demonstrates that when we face hardship or the inevitable, difficult transitions in life, we may practice resurrection-and trust steadily in the goodness and mercy of God.
Read these sermons and prayers and look directly into the heart of Wayne Oates. He was a consummate counselor, theologian, and writer, but first of all he was a pastor. His identity-his very heart-was that of a pastor to people in the midst of life's struggles. No struggle was foreign to him: depression, divorce, suicide, grief: he shied away from nothing. He gave voice to our deepest hurts, thenfollowed with words we long to hear: you are not alone.-Kay ShurdenAssociate Professor Emeritus, Clinical Education, Mercer University School of Medicine, Macon, Georgia... a faithful and keen reflection of a man who shaped the ministry of many pastors and teachers.-Daniel BagbyTheodore F. Adams Emeritus Professor of Pastoral CareBaptist Theological Seminary at Richmond
We've heard the narrative that millennials are done with the institutional church; they've packed up and left. This book is an alternative to that story and chronicles the journey of millennials who are investing their lives in the institution because they believe in the church's resurrecting power. Through anecdotes and interviews, Rob Lee takes readers on a journey toward God's unfolding future for the church, a beloved institution in desperate need of change.
In his latest book, Star Thrower: A Pastor's Handbook, William Powell Tuck draws on over fifty years of experience to share his perspective on being an effective pastor. He describes techniques for sermon preparation, pastoral care, and church administration, as well as for conducting Communion, funeral, wedding, and baptismal services. He also includes advice for working with laity and church staff, coping with church conflict, and nurturing one's own spiritual and family life.
While most people in the Western world affirm the existence of God or a "higher power," this conviction has little to do with daily life. God is marginalized in the public square and in the day-to-day lives of most people. This secular approach to life is the most serious challenge the church faces.McKim's contention is that what happens in many evangelical churches on Sunday mornings has also become deeply secularized, with an unrecognized shift in focus away from God to the needs, desires, and preferences of worshippers. Evangelical worship, McKim argues, has drifted far from both its biblical roots and historic origins, leaving evangelicals in danger of becoming mere chaplains to the wider culture, oblivious to the contradictions between what the secular culture says is real and important and what Scripture says is real and important.But McKim also believes the resources exist to step back from the abyss. Countercultural Worship provides a careful theological and biblical study of the purpose, nature, and elements of corporate worship, as well as myriad resources for worship focused exclusively on the God whom we know best in Jesus Christ. Such worship, by its very nature, will be, as it always has been, countercultural.
When Baptists in 17th-century England wanted to talk about freedom, they unfailingly began by reading the Bible-and what they found in Scripture inspired their compelling (and, ultimately, successful) arguments for religious liberty. In an age of widespread anxiety, suspicion, and hostility, these early Baptists refused to worship God in keeping with the king's command. This book is about how these early English Baptists read the Bible together and were led by that reading to the startling faith convictions-startling, at least, in the context of 17th-century England-that eventually came to define them as a distinctive type of Christians.Author Lee Canipe believes that it's not only possible for Baptists in the 21st century to recover this habit of using Scripture to articulate their faith convictions about religious freedom, but that doing so is essential to preserving our unique Christian witness. With the boundaries between church and state as contested as ever, Loyal Dissenters offers scholars, clergy, and laypeople a fresh look at what Baptists believe-and how we can once again learn to talk about religious liberty in distinctively Christian language.
Sometimes the Christian journey is a stroll along quiet shores. Other times it is an uphill climb on narrow, snow-covered mountain paths. Usually, it is simply walking in the direction of wholeness, one step after another, sometimes even two steps forward and one step back.Learning what we believe about God and what God expects from us is an ongoing journey. In A Five-Mile Walk, Michael B. Brown considers paths our journey takes, exploring our attitudes, emotions, expectations, community, and faithfulness. Though these are not the only paths we travel on our Christian journey, they are indispensable if we are serious about living faithfully as followers of Jesus.
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