Download or read book A Wolf in the Pulpit written by Richard H. Swartley and published by . This book was released on 2011-01 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author addresses the epidemic of moral failure of solo and senior church pastors. Some of these scandals he has witnessed personally, and, as an elder, was charged with dealing with the painful aftermath. He delves beneath surface causes and past the usual admonitions to pastors to avoid temptation, and specifically challenges the structure of today's churches-a structure which precipitates overload on the man at the top, and sets him up for overwhelming temptations. Swartley's detailed New Testament analysis exposes the structure the apostles intended and established. He is a strong advocate of the path that the church can and should take-to turn the tide, and to protect our churches and Christ's reputation.
Download or read book Day of the Wolf written by Coleman Luck III and published by . This book was released on 2014-09-26 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagine a hospital where the lead surgeon was a carefully hidden serial killer who got pleasure and made money from bringing slow and excruciating death to his victims. Imagine a hospital where evidence about this murderer was beginning to mount. His acts were becoming clear. People were crying out in pain at what he was doing, yet, in spite of all the evidence, almost the entire staff continued to defend him, even blaming his victims for their wounds and throwing them out of the hospital to fend for themselves. Those who were trying to speak the truth were thrown out too. Sound insane? That is what is happening within many churches and Christian organizations. Most Christians don't know how to recognize spiritual wolves, nor do they even have the desire to do so. Though wolves may be mauling, Christians turn blind eyes to their attacks, allowing the damage to continue and the cause of Jesus Christ to suffer great loss. In the process, the wounded victims are further victimized by the attitudes of ignorant, cowardly people. This book has been written to help those brave people who are willing to stand against the evil that is sweeping through the church.
Download or read book I Declare War Bible Study Guide written by Levi Lusko and published by HarperChristian Resources. This book was released on 2018-10-30 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn how to win the war in your mind by filling your heart with the truth of the Holy Spirit and defending yourself against harmful thought patterns. Whether you recognize it or not, you're at war with yourself. Anxiety--Selfishness--Self-sabotaging tendencies--Narcissism--The black dog of depression... But whatever your battle may be, all is not lost. You can win...if you choose to engage. In this five-session video Bible study (DVD sold separately), Levi Lusko explains how you can fight this battle by declaring war on your thoughts, your words, and your actions. Levi candidly shares about his struggles with moodiness, bullying, suicidal thoughts, and night terrors to show how you--with the help of the Holy Spirit--can achieve victory by learning to think right so you can live right. So that you can claim the victory God has for you. The I Declare War Study Guide includes: Video teaching notes Discussion questions Bible exploration Weekly personal study Reflection materials Sessions include: It's Time to Declare War Declaring War on Your Thoughts Declaring War on Your Words Declaring War on Your Actions Your Secret Weapon in the Battle It's time to stop being your own worst enemy. It's time to declare war and become the person, the spouse, the parent, the leader God intended you to be. Designed for use with I Declare War Video Study (9780310094913), sold separately.
Download or read book Wolves Among Lambs My Story of Sexual Abuse Cover Ups in the Church written by Stacey Shiflett and published by . This book was released on 2019-02-26 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the age of seventeen, Stacey Shiflett was sexually assaulted in his sleep by a Bible College student. His abuser pled guilty and served time in prison. A few years later he was groomed and propositioned by his pastor. His experiences as both a victim and a pastor have uniquely prepared him to address this topic. In May of 2018, the church where he pastors was affected by a sexual abuse scandal. The story made national headlines. Wolves Among Lambs deals with both the terrible crime of sexual abuse within the church and the covering up of those crimes. The author has harsh criticism for those that protect the abuser and make attempts to silence the abused.Section Two is entitled "Restoring Our Credibility" and deals with ways that churches can prevent sexual abuse from happening. It also explains the importance of reporting allegations and how to communicate correctly with the church when it occurs. Wolves Among Lambs emphasizes the church's priority to protect the people within the church and to expose and prosecute the sex offenders. The author uses the Scripture to lay out a set of policies and procedures for how to operate when allegations of sexual abuse surface. The book concludes with words of healing and hope for victims of sexual abuse. If you have been a victim of sexual abuse or you know someone that is a survivor, this book will minister to them in a great way. Wolves Among Lambs is also a great resource for those pastors and church leaders looking for ways to prevent abuse in the church, deal with offenders and restore the victims.
Download or read book The Gospel According to Matthew written by and published by Canongate U.S.. This book was released on 1999 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The publication of the King James version of the Bible, translated between 1603 and 1611, coincided with an extraordinary flowering of English literature and is universally acknowledged as the greatest influence on English-language literature in history. Now, world-class literary writers introduce the book of the King James Bible in a series of beautifully designed, small-format volumes. The introducers' passionate, provocative, and personal engagements with the spirituality and the language of the text make the Bible come alive as a stunning work of literature and remind us of its overwhelming contemporary relevance.
Download or read book Welcoming Children written by Joyce Ann Mercer and published by Chalice Press. This book was released on 2005-11-01 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book develops a theology of childhood both from a theoretical basis in biblical theology (especially the gospel of Mark) and practical experience in children and youth ministry. Mercer builds on classical theologians such as Augustine, Calvin, Barth, and Rahner as well as modern feminist theologians such as Brock and Russell. She gains insights from pastoral theologians such as Capps and Couture and from contemporary cultural criticism. Mercer challenges approaches to educational and liturgical practices with children in congregations that segregate children from the rest of the church and its key practices of service, mission, worship, care, and learning. She reframes ministries with children as processes through which the church as a "community of practice" forms children into an alternative identity that resists surrounding consumerist culture and walks in the ways of Jesus. This book offers strategies for educational practices with children in congregations as it seeks to address the question, "What might educational practices that welcome children and contribute to their flourishing look like in the context of a faith community where children's learning happens in collaboration with experienced practitioners of faith?" Outlining a feminist practical theology of childhood, it explores five basic theological claims: (1) children as gifts and parenting as a religious practice of stewardship; (2) welcoming those who welcome and care for children; (3) children as already fully human; (4) children as part of the purposes of God; and (5) acknowledging and transforming the sufferings of children.
Download or read book Sheep Among Wolves written by David D. Balkum and published by . This book was released on 2004-11-01 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: God commands us to be good stewards of His creation and the resources with which He entrusts us. To do so, we must understand the laws of the world in which we live and minister. It is simply bad stewardship to do otherwise.Most ministers are aware of the church's increasing role as a target. Simultaneously, the law has become more complex than ever and it is difficult for attorneys, much less staff members with other demands on their hands, to maintain the church on steady legal footing. This book raises legal issues which should merit your personal consideration, discusses whether or not your church is doing what it should do to protect itself and its members, and provides a general reference for those in the church who are responsible for its legal affairs.
Download or read book Ministering to Problem People in Your Church written by Marshall Shelley and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2013-11-19 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you face well-intentioned dragons? Every church has them--sincere, well-meaning Christians who leave ulcers, strained relationships, and hard feelings in their wake. They don't intend to be hostile; they don't consciously plot destruction or breed discontent. But they often do undermine the ministry of the church and make pastors question their calling. Ministering to Problem People in Your Church will guide you in dealing with these challenging people. Based on real-life accounts of battle-scarred veterans, this book helps you go beyond just tolerating problem people to limiting their damage and showing them God's love. You'll discover effective strategies to turn dissidents into disciples. This time-tested book by the editor-in-chief of Christianity Today's Leadership Journal has new chapters on using social media and caring for those with mental illness. It will help you not only preserve your sanity (and maybe your job), but minister more effectively, even to those who make life difficult.
Download or read book Pope and Devil written by Hubert Wolf and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wolf presents astonishing findings from the recently opened Vatican archives--discoveries that clarify the relations between National Socialism and the Vatican. He vividly illuminates the inner workings of the Vatican.
Download or read book The Bully Pulpit written by Doris Kearns Goodwin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 912 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pulitzer Prize–winning author and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s dynamic history of Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft and the first decade of the Progressive era, that tumultuous time when the nation was coming unseamed and reform was in the air. Winner of the Carnegie Medal. Doris Kearns Goodwin’s The Bully Pulpit is a dynamic history of the first decade of the Progressive era, that tumultuous time when the nation was coming unseamed and reform was in the air. The story is told through the intense friendship of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft—a close relationship that strengthens both men before it ruptures in 1912, when they engage in a brutal fight for the presidential nomination that divides their wives, their children, and their closest friends, while crippling the progressive wing of the Republican Party, causing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to be elected, and changing the country’s history. The Bully Pulpit is also the story of the muckraking press, which arouses the spirit of reform that helps Roosevelt push the government to shed its laissez-faire attitude toward robber barons, corrupt politicians, and corporate exploiters of our natural resources. The muckrakers are portrayed through the greatest group of journalists ever assembled at one magazine—Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker, Lincoln Steffens, and William Allen White—teamed under the mercurial genius of publisher S.S. McClure. Goodwin’s narrative is founded upon a wealth of primary materials. The correspondence of more than four hundred letters between Roosevelt and Taft begins in their early thirties and ends only months before Roosevelt’s death. Edith Roosevelt and Nellie Taft kept diaries. The muckrakers wrote hundreds of letters to one another, kept journals, and wrote their memoirs. The letters of Captain Archie Butt, who served as a personal aide to both Roosevelt and Taft, provide an intimate view of both men. The Bully Pulpit, like Goodwin’s brilliant chronicles of the Civil War and World War II, exquisitely demonstrates her distinctive ability to combine scholarly rigor with accessibility. It is a major work of history—an examination of leadership in a rare moment of activism and reform that brought the country closer to its founding ideals.
Download or read book The Story of God with Us written by Philip Gregorie and published by . This book was released on 2021-12 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Story of God with Us is a fully illustrated book that tracks through the Bible following the primary storyline of God's relentless pursuit to be with his people. The story moves from Genesis all the way to Revelation by featuring various mountains that appear throughout the Bible.
Download or read book Reply to Faustus the Manichaean written by St. Augustine and published by OrthodoxEbooks. This book was released on 2018-08-04 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written about the year 400. [Faustus was undoubtedly the acutest, most determined and most unscrupulous opponent of orthodox Christianity in the age of Augustin. The occasion of Augustin's great writing against him was the publication of Faustus' attack on the Old Testament Scriptures, and on the New Testament so far as it was at variance with Manichæan error. Faustus seems to have followed in the footsteps of Adimantus, against whom Augustin had written some years before, but to have gone considerably beyond Adimantus in the recklessness of his statements. The incarnation of Christ, involving his birth from a woman, is one of the main points of attack. He makes the variations in the genealogical records of the Gospels a ground for rejecting the whole as spurious. He supposed the Gospels, in their present form, to be not the works of the Apostles, but rather of later Judaizing falsifiers. The entire Old Testament system he treats with the utmost contempt, blaspheming the Patriarchs, Moses, the Prophets, etc., on the ground of their private lives and their teachings. Most of the objections to the morality of the Old Testament that are now current were already familiarly used in the time of Augustin. Augustin's answers are only partially satisfactory, owing to his imperfect view of the relation of the old dispensation to the new; but in the age in which they were written they were doubtless very effective. The writing is interesting from the point of view of Biblical criticism, as well as from that of polemics against Manichæism.--A.H.N.]
Download or read book Well Intentioned Dragons written by Marshall Shelley and published by Bethany House Publishers. This book was released on 1994-07-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every church has them--sincere, well-meaning Christians who leave ulcers, strained relationships, and hard feelings in their wake. They don't intend to be difficult; they don't consciously plot destruction or breed discontent among the members. But they often do undermine the ministry of the church and make pastors question their calling.Well-Intentioned Dragons guides those on church staffs in facing the strenuous task of dealing with difficult people--even ministering while under attack. Based on real-life stories of battle-scarred veterans, Marshall Shelley presents a clear picture of God's love for those on both sides of the problem. He describes tested strategies to communicate that love and turn dissidents into disciples.Here is a book that will not only help pastors and church leaders preserve their sanity (and maybe their jobs); it will help them minister more effectively, even to those who make life difficult.
Download or read book True to the Faith written by David Gooding and published by Myrtlefield House. This book was released on with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Acts of the Apostles is about more than the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth. By the time the ascended Christ had sent the Holy Spirit to guide his disciples, they had no doubt what the basics of the gospel message were: that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again the third day and would one day come again. But, according to Luke’s account, difficult questions and challenges arose for the apostles as they began to spread this message. These questions, when once settled by the apostles, would further define the gospel with answers that are definitive for us today. By carefully tracing Luke’s presentation of the historical material, David Gooding shows us that Luke has arranged his historical material into six sections, each containing a set of issues and a dominant question that confronted the church: – Was the gospel to be under the authority of the Jewish Sanhedrin, even when they called into question the deity and messiahship of Jesus? – Would the temple and its entire system of worship become obsolete because of Christ’s sacrifice at Calvary, as Stephen claimed? – What would God do when the observance of his own food laws became a barrier to preaching the gospel to Gentiles such as Cornelius? – How would the apostles decide about the rite of circumcision and its relationship to salvation? – How would the gospel distinguish itself from the spiritism, idolatry, religions and philosophies of the pagan world and state positively its own answer to questions of the origin of the universe and life’s ultimate goal? – And how would Paul defend the gospel at the highest levels of society, against every kind of misrepresentation, when he found himself under the power of Roman law and order? The conclusions that the apostles and the early churches reached under the guidance of the Holy Spirit are profoundly relevant. Their defence against each new challenge confirmed the truth of the gospel for every generation of Christ’s disciples. David Gooding’s exposition echoes Acts’ powerful, unspoken exhortation to examine ourselves honestly to see whether the Christianity that we represent and the gospel that we preach and defend are uncompromisingly the same as those established by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Download or read book Wolves Among Sheep written by Cyril Nwozor, Sr. and published by . This book was released on 2018-01-11 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you realized that the responsibility to guard against deception is placed on us as believers? Jesus admonished us to take heed that no one deceives us. Unfortunately, deception in the Church today has reached an alarming proportion that even the very elect can be deceived. Today, we have many false prophets, apostles, pastors, teachers, and evangelists who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves seeking to devour the gullible. Jesus said by their fruits you shall know them. This book reveals the fruits of these ravenous wolves and a true life confession of a pastor who was under this deception until the Lord delivered him to expose how some ministers of the gospel are operating under the power of mermaid spirits. My heart desire is that this book will be an immense help to the Church in these Last Days and prevent many from being deceived by the seducing spirits of Antichrist at work.
Download or read book The Black Church written by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The instant New York Times bestseller and companion book to the PBS series. “Absolutely brilliant . . . A necessary and moving work.” —Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., author of Begin Again “Engaging. . . . In Gates’s telling, the Black church shines bright even as the nation itself moves uncertainly through the gloaming, seeking justice on earth—as it is in heaven.” —Jon Meacham, New York Times Book Review From the New York Times bestselling author of Stony the Road and The Black Box, and one of our most important voices on the African American experience, comes a powerful new history of the Black church as a foundation of Black life and a driving force in the larger freedom struggle in America. For the young Henry Louis Gates, Jr., growing up in a small, residentially segregated West Virginia town, the church was a center of gravity—an intimate place where voices rose up in song and neighbors gathered to celebrate life's blessings and offer comfort amid its trials and tribulations. In this tender and expansive reckoning with the meaning of the Black Church in America, Gates takes us on a journey spanning more than five centuries, from the intersection of Christianity and the transatlantic slave trade to today’s political landscape. At road’s end, and after Gates’s distinctive meditation on the churches of his childhood, we emerge with a new understanding of the importance of African American religion to the larger national narrative—as a center of resistance to slavery and white supremacy, as a magnet for political mobilization, as an incubator of musical and oratorical talent that would transform the culture, and as a crucible for working through the Black community’s most critical personal and social issues. In a country that has historically afforded its citizens from the African diaspora tragically few safe spaces, the Black Church has always been more than a sanctuary. This fact was never lost on white supremacists: from the earliest days of slavery, when enslaved people were allowed to worship at all, their meetinghouses were subject to surveillance and destruction. Long after slavery’s formal eradication, church burnings and bombings by anti-Black racists continued, a hallmark of the violent effort to suppress the African American struggle for equality. The past often isn’t even past—Dylann Roof committed his slaughter in the Mother Emanuel AME Church 193 years after it was first burned down by white citizens of Charleston, South Carolina, following a thwarted slave rebellion. But as Gates brilliantly shows, the Black church has never been only one thing. Its story lies at the heart of the Black political struggle, and it has produced many of the Black community’s most notable leaders. At the same time, some churches and denominations have eschewed political engagement and exemplified practices of exclusion and intolerance that have caused polarization and pain. Those tensions remain today, as a rising generation demands freedom and dignity for all within and beyond their communities, regardless of race, sex, or gender. Still, as a source of faith and refuge, spiritual sustenance and struggle against society’s darkest forces, the Black Church has been central, as this enthralling history makes vividly clear.
Download or read book Why Men Hate Going to Church written by David Murrow and published by HarperChristian + ORM. This book was released on 2011-10-31 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Church is boring.” “It’s irrelevant.” “It’s full of hypocrites.” You’ve heard the excuses—now learn the real reasons men and boys are fleeing churches of every kind, all over the world, and what we can do about it. Women comprise more than 60% of the adults in a typical worship service in America. Some overseas congregations report ten women for every man in attendance. Men are less likely to lead, volunteer, and give in the church. They pray less, share their faith less, and read the Bible less. In Why Men Hate Going to Church, David Murrow identifies the barriers keeping many men from going to church, explains why it’s so hard to motivate the men who do attend, and also takes you inside several fast-growing congregations that are winning the hearts of men and boys. In this completely revised, reorganized, and rewritten edition of the classic book, with more than 70 percent new content, explore topics like: The increase and decrease in male church attendance during the past 500 years Why Christian churches are more feminine even though men are often still the leaders The difference between the type of God men and women like to worship The lack of volunteering and ministry opportunities for men The benefits men get from attending church regularly Men need the church but, more importantly, the church needs men. The presence of enthusiastic men is one of the surest predictors of church health, growth, giving, and expansion. Why Men Hate Going to Church does not call men back to church—it calls the church back to men.
