Download or read book Uncomfortable written by Brett McCracken and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2017-09-15 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does your church make you uncomfortable? It’s easy to dream about the “perfect” church—a church that sings just the right songs set to just the right music before the pastor preaches just the right sermon to a room filled with just the right mix of people who happen to agree with you on just about everything. Chances are your church doesn’t quite look like that. But what if instead of searching for a church that makes us comfortable, we learned to love our church, even when it’s challenging? What if some of the discomfort that we often experience is actually good for us? This book is a call to embrace the uncomfortable aspects of Christian community, whether that means believing difficult truths, pursuing difficult holiness, or loving difficult people—all for the sake of the gospel, God’s glory, and our joy.
Download or read book Christian Community written by Rob Suggs and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2002-01-18 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this ten-session LifeGuide® Bible Study, Rob Suggs leads us to grow in community--in loving and nurturing one another, and in reflecting Christ's love to the world around us.
Download or read book Homosexuality and Christian Community written by Choon Leong Seow and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contributors to this volume, all members of the Princeton Theological Seminary faculty, address the various exegetical, interpretive, and practical issues pertaining to the issue of homosexuality in the church. These include the ordination of homosexuals and the blessing of homosexual unions, as well as broader issues dealing with liturgical and theological language about God and the role of the church in a pluralistic society. The contributors speak of these various issues as theological educators, ministers, and committed Christians. They ask, What do the scriptures say about homosexuality and related issues? How should the scriptures inform our theological reflection? and How do we live faithfully in regard to this matter? And like the Christian community at large, the contributors are not of one mind on any of these issues; many times they are in considerable disagreement. Homosexuality and Christian Community will help to guide churches and individuals engaged in theological reflection about the place of homosexuals in the church.
Download or read book Living in Christian Community written by Art Gish and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 1998-09-29 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a description of what the church ought to be. Gish purposes to deal with the concrete issues of what it really means to be a Christian community, the body of Christ.
Download or read book Life Together written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 1978-10-25 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After his martyrdom at the hands of the Gestapo in 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer continued his witness in the hearts of Christians around the world. His Letters and Papers from Prison became a prized testimony to Christian faith and courage, read by thousands. Now in Life Together we have Pastor Bonhoeffer's experience of Christian community. This story of a unique fellowship in an underground seminary during the Nazi years reads like one of Paul's letters. It gives practical advice on how life together in Christ can be sustained in families and groups. The role of personal prayer, worship in common, everyday work, and Christian service is treated in simple, almost biblical, words. Life Together is bread for all who are hungry for the real life of Christian fellowship.
Download or read book Christian Community in History Volume 1 written by Roger Haight and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2004-09-16 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing upon the methodology developed in his Dynamics of Theology (1990) and exemplified in Jesus Symbol of God (1999), Roger Haight, in this magisterial work, achieves what he calls an historical ecclesiology, or ecclesiology from below. In contrast to traditional ecclesiology from above, which is abstract, idealist, and ahistorical, ecclesiology from below is concrete, realist, and historically conscious. In this first of two volumes, Haight charts the history of the church's self-understandings from the origins of the church in the Jesus movement to the late Middle Ages. In volume 2 Haight develops a comparative ecclesiology based on the history and diverse theologies of the worldwide Christian movement from the Reformation to the present. While the ultimate focus of the work falls on the structure of the church and its theological self-understanding, it tries to be faithful to the historical, social, and political reality of the church in each period.
Download or read book Making Neighborhoods Whole written by Wayne Gordon and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2013-08-26 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Civil rights leader John Perkins and CCDA president Wayne Gordon revisit the founding principles of the Christian Community Development Association, seeking to provide the terms for a new discussion around the emerging priorities of Christian community development today. Includes profiles of thriving urban ministries.
Download or read book Beyond Charity written by John M. Perkins and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 1993-07-01 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A powerful call to action to bring reconciliation and restoration to broken communities.
Download or read book Emerging Churches written by Eddie Gibbs and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2005-12 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a comprehensive examination of the emerging church phenomenon, considering emerging patterns in leadership, worship, mission, spiritual practices, and cultural engagement.
Download or read book Community written by Brad House and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2011-09-07 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Community within the church today is hemorrhaging. Attention spans are dwindling, noise levels are increasing, and we can't seem to find time for real relationships. The answer to such social fragmentation can be found in small groups, and yet the majority of small groups—at least in the traditional sense—are often not the intentional, transformational community we really want and need. Somehow we need to get our groups off life support and into authentic community. Pastor Brad House helps us to re-imagine what gospel-centered community looks like and shares from his experience leading and reproducing healthy small groups. With wisdom and candor, House challenges us to think carefully about our own groups and to take steps toward cultivating communities that are able to glorify Jesus, bless one another, and participate in the mission of God.
Download or read book Paul s Idea of Community written by Robert J. Banks and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2020-01-21 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This highly readable investigation of the early church explores the revolutionary nature, dynamics, and effects of the earliest Christian communities. It introduces readers to the cultural setting of the house churches of biblical times, examines the apostle Paul's vision of life in the Christian church, and explores how the New Testament model of community applies to Christian practice today. Updated and revised throughout, this 40th-anniversary edition incorporates recent research, updates the bibliography, and adds a new fictional narrative that depicts the life and times of the early church.
Download or read book Interracialism and Christian Community in the Postwar South written by Tracy Elaine K'Meyer and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Koinonia Farm, an interracial cooperative founded in 1942 in southwest Georgia by two white Baptist ministers, was a beacon to early civil rights activists. K'Meyer (history, U. of Louisville) describes the influence of this single community on the history of the civil rights movement. In the process, she provides a new perspective on white liberalism as well as a nuanced exploration of an extraordinary case of religious belief informing progressive social action. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book Body Politics written by John Howard Yoder and published by MennoMedia, Inc.. This book was released on 2001-03-01 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Binding and loosing, baptism, eucharist, multiplicity of gifts, and open meeting; these five New Testament practices were central in the life of the early Christian community. Some of them are still echoed in the practice of the church today. But the full social, ethical, and communal meaning of the original practices has often been covered by centuries of ritual and interpretation. John Howard Yoder, in his inimitably direct and discerning style, uncovers the original meaning of the five practices and shows why the recovery of these practices is so important for the social, economic, and political witness of the church today.
Download or read book The Other Half of Church written by Jim Wilder and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Could brain science be the key to spiritual formation? Why does true Christian transformation seem fleeting? And why does church often feel lonely, Christian community shallow, and leaders untrustworthy? For many Christians, the delight of encountering Christ eventually dwindles—and disappointment sets in. Is lasting joy possible? These are some of the questions Michel Hendricks has considered both in his experience as a spiritual formation pastor and in his lifetime as a Christian. He began to find answers when he met Jim Wilder—a neurotheologian. Using brain science, Wilder identified that there are two halves of the church: the rational half and the relational half. And when Christians only embrace the rational half, churches become unhealthy places where transformation doesn’t last and narcissistic leaders flourish. In The Other Half of Church, join Michel and Jim's journey as they couple brain science with the Bible to identify how to overcome spiritual stagnation by living a full-brained faith. You'll also learn the four ingredients necessary to develop and maintain a vibrant transformational community where spiritual formation occurs, relationships flourish, and the toxic spread of narcissism is eradicated.
Download or read book Uprooted written by Grace Olmstead and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-03-16 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A superior exploration of the consequences of the hollowing out of our agricultural heartlands."—Kirkus Reviews In the tradition of Wendell Berry, a young writer wrestles with what we owe the places we’ve left behind. In the tiny farm town of Emmett, Idaho, there are two kinds of people: those who leave and those who stay. Those who leave go in search of greener pastures, better jobs, and college. Those who stay are left to contend with thinning communities, punishing government farm policy, and environmental decay. Grace Olmstead, now a journalist in Washington, DC, is one who left, and in Uprooted, she examines the heartbreaking consequences of uprooting—for Emmett, and for the greater heartland America. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Uprooted wrestles with the questions of what we owe the places we come from and what we are willing to sacrifice for profit and progress. As part of her own quest to decide whether or not to return to her roots, Olmstead revisits the stories of those who, like her great-grandparents and grandparents, made Emmett a strong community and her childhood idyllic. She looks at the stark realities of farming life today, identifying the government policies and big agriculture practices that make it almost impossible for such towns to survive. And she explores the ranks of Emmett’s newcomers and what growth means for the area’s farming tradition. Avoiding both sentimental devotion to the past and blind faith in progress, Olmstead uncovers ways modern life attacks all of our roots, both metaphorical and literal. She brings readers face to face with the damage and brain drain left in the wake of our pursuit of self-improvement, economic opportunity, and so-called growth. Ultimately, she comes to an uneasy conclusion for herself: one can cultivate habits and practices that promote rootedness wherever one may be, but: some things, once lost, cannot be recovered.
Download or read book Created for Community written by Stanley J. Grenz and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 1998-08 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Makes theology accessible to a wider audience, introducing readers to the core doctrines of the Christian faith and encouraging them to connect belief with everyday life.
Download or read book When the Church was a Family written by Joseph H. Hellerman and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2009 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the early Christian church in the Mediterranean region and its emphasis on collective good over individual desire clarifies much about what is wrong with the American church today.
