Download or read book Keep The Faith Change The Church written by James Muller and published by Rodale Books. This book was released on 2004-03-18 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Defining Moment in the Life of the Church Even before the terrible revelations of sexual misconduct and the cover-up that allowed such atrocities to continue happening, the Catholic Church was in trouble. With a devout but aging congregation giving way to a generation of so-called lapsed Catholics, the spiritual vitality and significance of the church had seemed, in the context of modern American society, to be ebbing away. Then when the scandal hit, even true believers were pitched into an all-out crisis of faith. It was at this low point that a fiercely committed group of Catholics emphatically said, Enough! This book tells their inspiring story, the story of Voice of the Faithful, a grassroots organization formed to give the laity a voice in making their church a more effective spiritual and social force. The group came to realize that the underlying cause of the cover-ups and the failure of the church to adopt many needed changes is the abuse by some in the hierarchy of the excessive power they hold. For too long, average Catholics have been disenfranchised. Now, with the growing success of Voice of the Faithful, there is finally a legitimate forum for the laity. As James E. Muller and Charles Kenney show in this urgent call to action, history is on the side of those who would stand up and be heard.

Download or read book Keeping the Faith written by Jonathan P. Walton and published by . This book was released on 2020-10 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Handing Down the Faith written by Christian Smith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-02 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new examination of how and why American religious parents seek to pass on religion to their children The most important influence shaping the religious and spiritual lives of children, youth, and teenagers is their parents. A myriad of studies show that the parents of American youth play the leading role in shaping the character of their religious and spiritual lives, even well after they leave home and often for the rest of their lives. We know a lot about the importance of parents in faith transmission. However we know much less about the actual beliefs, feelings, and activities of the parents themselves, what Christian Smith and Amy Adamczyk call the "intergenerational transmission of religious faith and practice." To address that gap, this book reports the findings of a new national study of religious parents in the United States. The findings and conclusions in Handing Down the Faith are based on 215 in-depth, personal interviews with religious parents from many traditions and different parts of the country, and sophisticated analyses of two nationally representative surveys of American parents about their religious parenting. Handing Down the Faith explores the background beliefs informing how and why religious parents seek to pass on religion to their children; examines how parenting styles interact with parent religiousness to shape effective religious transmission; shows how parents have been influenced by their experiences as children influenced by their own parents; reveals how religious parents view their congregations and what they most seek out in a local church, synagogue, temple, or mosque; explores the experiences and outlooks of immigrant parents including Latino Catholics, East Asian Buddhists, South Asian Muslims, and Indian Hindus. Smith and Adamczyk step back to consider how American religion has transformed over the last 100 years and to explain why parents today shoulder such a huge responsibility in transmitting religious faith and practice to their children. The book is rich in empirical evidence and unique in many of the topics it explores and explains, providing a variety of sometimes counterintuitive findings that will interest scholars of religion, social scientists interested in the family, parenting, and socialization; clergy and religious educators and leaders; and religious parents themselves.

Download or read book Secular Saints written by Joan Carroll Cruz and published by Tan Books. This book was released on 1999-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A monumental Lives of the Saints: people who lived and died as laymen and laywomen. No priests, nuns or monks here--people who often had to overcome incredible difficulties to achieve holiness or who had committed outrageous sins prior to their conversions. Fully indexed by topic. Purposely written to inspire and encourage lay people today. Unique in Catholic literature! 800 pgs 192 Illus, PB

Download or read book Keeping Faith written by Jodi Picoult and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-06 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A triumph. This novel’s haunting strength will hold the reader until the very end and make Faith and her story impossible to forget.” —Richmond Times Dispatch “Extraordinary.” —Orlando Sentinel From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult (Nineteen Minutes, Change of Heart, Handle with Care) comes Keeping Faith: an “addictively readable” (Entertainment Weekly) novel that “makes you wonder about God. And that is a rare moment, indeed, in modern fiction” (USA Today).

Download or read book At Your Best written by Carey Nieuwhof and published by WaterBrook. This book was released on 2021-09-14 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A perceptive and practical book about why our calendars so rarely reflect our priorities and what we can do to regain control.”—ADAM GRANT “Carey’s book will help you reorganize your life. And then you can share a copy with someone you care about.”—SETH GODIN You deserve to stop living at an unsustainable pace. An influential podcaster and thought leader shows you how. Overwhelmed. Overcommitted. Overworked. That’s the false script an inordinate number of people adopt to be successful. Does this sound familiar: ● Slammed is normal. ● Distractions are everywhere. ● Life gets reduced to going through the motions. Tired of living that way? At Your Best gives you the strategies you need to win at work and at home by living in a way today that will help you thrive tomorrow. Influential podcast host and thought leader Carey Nieuwhof understands the challenges of constant pressure. After a season of burnout almost took him out, he discovered how to get time, energy, and priorities working in his favor. This approach freed up more than one thousand productive hours a year for him and can do the same for you. At Your Best will help you ● replace chronic exhaustion with deep productivity ● break the pattern of overpromising and never accomplishing enough ● clarify what matters most by restructuring your day ● master the art of saying no, without losing friends or influence ● discover why vacations and sabbaticals don’t really solve your problems ● develop a personalized plan to recapture each day so you can break free from the trap of endless to-dos Start thriving at work and at home as you discover how to be at your best.

Download or read book Religious Parenting written by Christian Smith and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-12-03 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How parents approach the task of passing on religious faith and practice to their children How do American parents pass their religion on to their children? At a time of overall decline of traditional religion and an increased interest in personal “spirituality,” Religious Parenting investigates the ways that parents transmit religious beliefs, values, and practices to their kids. We know that parents are the most important influence on their children’s religious lives, yet parents have been virtually ignored in previous work on religious socialization. Renowned religion scholar Christian Smith and his collaborators Bridget Ritz and Michael Rotolo explore American parents’ strategies, experiences, beliefs, and anxieties regarding religious transmission through hundreds of in-depth interviews that span religious traditions, social classes, and family types all around the country. Throughout we hear the voices of evangelical, Catholic, Mormon, mainline and black Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist parents and discover that, despite massive diversity, American parents share a nearly identical approach to socializing their children religiously. For almost all, religion is important for the foundation it provides for becoming one’s best self on life’s difficult journey. Religion is primarily a resource for navigating the challenges of this life, not preparing for an afterlife. Parents view it as their job, not religious professionals’, to ground their children in life-enhancing religious values that provide resilience, morality, and a sense of purpose. Challenging longstanding sociological and anthropological assumptions about culture, the authors demonstrate that parents of highly dissimilar backgrounds share the same “cultural models” when passing on religion to their children. Taking an extensive look into questions of religious practice and childrearing, Religious Parenting uncovers parents’ real-life challenges while breaking innovative theoretical ground.

Download or read book Surviving Religion 101 written by Michael J. Kruger and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2021-03-22 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I can't imagine a college student—skeptic, doubter, Christian, struggler—who wouldn't benefit from this book." —Kevin DeYoung For many young adults, the college years are an exciting period of selfdiscovery full of new relationships, new independence, and new experiences. Yet college can also be a time of personal testing and intense questioning— especially for Christian students confronted with various challenges to Christianity and the Bible for the first time. Drawing on years of experience as a biblical scholar, Michael Kruger addresses common objections to the Christian faith—the exclusivity of Christianity, Christian intolerance, homosexuality, hell, the problem of evil, science, miracles, and the reliability of the Bible. If you're a student dealing with doubt or wrestling with objections to Christianity from fellow students and professors alike, this book will equip you to engage secular challenges with intellectual honesty, compassion, and confidence—and ultimately graduate college with your faith intact.

Download or read book Leaving Church written by Barbara Brown Taylor and published by Canterbury Press. This book was released on 2013-01-25 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tells how a renowned preacher left her ministry to rediscover the authentic heart of her faith. A moving reflection on keeping faith amidst the relentless demands of modern life.

Download or read book To Change the Church written by Ross Douthat and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times columnist and one of America’s leading conservative thinkers considers Pope Francis’s efforts to change the church he governs in a book that is “must reading for every Christian who cares about the fate of the West and the future of global Christianity” (Rod Dreher, author of The Benedict Option). Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936, today Pope Francis is the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis’s stewardship of the Church, while perceived as a revelation by many, has provoked division throughout the world. “If a conclave were to be held today,” one Roman source told The New Yorker, “Francis would be lucky to get ten votes.” In his “concise, rhetorically agile…adroit, perceptive, gripping account (The New York Times Book Review), Ross Douthat explains why the particular debate Francis has opened—over communion for the divorced and the remarried—is so dangerous: How it cuts to the heart of the larger argument over how Christianity should respond to the sexual revolution and modernity itself, how it promises or threatens to separate the church from its own deep past, and how it divides Catholicism along geographical and cultural lines. Douthat argues that the Francis era is a crucial experiment for all of Western civilization, which is facing resurgent external enemies (from ISIS to Putin) even as it struggles with its own internal divisions, its decadence, and self-doubt. Whether Francis or his critics are right won’t just determine whether he ends up as a hero or a tragic figure for Catholics. It will determine whether he’s a hero, or a gambler who’s betraying both his church and his civilization into the hands of its enemies. “A balanced look at the struggle for the future of Catholicism…To Change the Church is a fascinating look at the church under Pope Francis” (Kirkus Reviews). Engaging and provocative, this is “a pot-boiler of a history that examines a growing ecclesial crisis” (Washington Independent Review of Books).

Download or read book Sticky Faith written by Kara Powell and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2011-10-04 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sticky Faith delivers positive and practical ideas to nurture within your kids a living, loving faith that lasts a lifetime. Research indicates that almost half of high school seniors drift from their faith after graduation. Struck by this staggering statistic, and recognizing its ramifications, the Fuller Youth Institute (FYI) conducted the "College Transition Project" in an effort to identify the relationships and best practices that can set young people on a trajectory of lifelong faith and service. This easy-to-read guide presents both a compelling rationale and a powerful strategy to show parents how to actively encourage their children’s spiritual growth so that it will stick with them into adulthood and empower them to develop a living, lasting faith. Written by Fuller Youth Institute Executive Director Dr. Kara E. Powell and youth expert Chap Clark--authors known for the integrity of their research and the intensity of their passion for young people--Sticky Faith is geared to spark a movement that empowers adults to develop robust and long-term faith in kids of all ages. Further engage your family and church with the Sticky Faith Guide for Your Family, Sticky Faith curriculum, and Sticky Faith youth worker edition. Sticky Faith is also available in Spanish, Cómo criar jóvenes de fe sólida.

Download or read book Why Christianity Must Change or Die written by John Shelby Spong and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An important and respected voice for liberal American Christianity for the past twenty years, Bishop John Shelby Spong integrates his often controversial stands on the Bible, Jesus, theism, and morality into an intelligible creed that speaks to today's thinking Christian. In this compelling and heartfelt book, he sounds a rousing call for a Christianity based on critical thought rather than blind faith, on love rather than judgment, and that focuses on life more than religion.

Download or read book Family Driven Faith written by Voddie T. Baucham Jr. and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2007 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More teens are turning away from the faith than ever before: it is estimated that 75 to 88% of Christian teens walk away from Christianity by the end of their freshman year of college. Something must be done. Family Driven Faith equips Christian parents with the tools they need to raise children biblically in a post-Christian, anti-family society. Voddie Baucham, who with his wife has overcome a multi-generational legacy of broken and dysfunctional homes, shows that God has not left us alone in raising godly children. He has given us timeless precepts and principles for multi-generational faithfulness, especially in Deuteronomy 6. God's simple command to Moses to teach the Word diligently to the children of Israel serves as the foundation of Family Driven Faith. - Publisher.

Download or read book Keep Your Faith on written by Nelson L. Schuman and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-02-28 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Keep Your Faith On: Changing Your Life From Ordinary to Extraordinary So many people settle for an ordinary life instead of believing in faith to accomplish an extraordinary life. Read about real-life examples to encourage you to achieve the amazing things that the Lord wants to do for you, if only you can believe. Too many in church are unable to overcome their limited beliefs that God will heal them, will provide for their financial needs supernaturally, and will change their children and save their marriage. God will do all of that in more, if you would only get your eyes off of your circumstances and trust in God without fear. Fear is the opposite of faith and stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. The only way that you can please God is with your faith. He loves it when we show bold faith to stand and wait for Him to move the mountains from our paths. Keep Your Faith On provides tangible ways on a day to day basis to believe for anything and accomplish everything.

Download or read book Follow written by Katie Prejean McGrady and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of a 2019 Association of Catholic Publishers Award: Teen Books (First Place). How well do you know Jesus? Like, REALLY know him? Catholic author and speaker Katie Prejean McGrady shares sometimes embarrassing, often humorous, and always inspiring stories about how she came to know and love Jesus and how you can, too, through prayer, scripture, sacraments, and service. In the summer of 2016, Katie Prejean McGrady walked off the stage feeling great about a forty-five-minute talk she had just given, when a young man from the audience stopped her for advice. His questions caught her completely off guard. "Who is Jesus?" "How can I get to know him?" Prejean McGrady--who speaks to tens of thousands of Catholic teens and young adults a year about her passion for Jesus--couldn't give the guy a straightforward answer. And it bugged her. Bigtime. In Follow, she uses engaging, sometimes awkward, and frequently funny stories from her own life to show you four simple and practical steps to get to know Jesus and have life-changing friendship with him: Prayer (lift your heart)--She helps you understand that prayer is just talking to God and gives you the tools to start. Scripture (open your ears)--Prejean McGrady introduces you to an easier way to start reading the Bible. Sacraments (receive God's grace)--She encourages you to see the sacraments as spiritual fuel for your relationship with Jesus. Service (share the gift)--She will nudge you beyond your comfort zone in the Church's common mission to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world. Prejean McGrady will help you open your heart and mind to meeting Jesus in a personal way and challenge you to see him for who he really is.

Download or read book How to Fix a Broken Record written by Amena Brown and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Allow God to heal the broken record of your soul, so you can step into your calling, speak up for what's right, and dance your own story of God's grace. What does the soundtrack in your head sound like? The hurtful words of others and the failures of your past often determine what record you play the most in your mind. Those painful repetitions often keep us from speaking up, standing up for what's right, being loved, pursuing our dreams, and growing closer to God. Spoken word poet Amena Brown's broken records played messages about how she wasn't worthy to be loved. But after years of playing those destructive rhythms over and over, How to Fix a Broken Record chronicles her journey of healing as she's allowed the music of God's love to play on repeat instead. From bad dates to marriage lessons at Waffle House, from learning to love her hair to learning to love an unexpected season of life, from discovering the power of saying no and the freedom to say yes, Amena offers keep-it-real stories your soul can relate to. Along the way, you'll discover how to . . . Recognize the negative messages that play on repeat in your mind Replace them with the truth that you are a beloved child of God And find new joy in the beautiful music of your life.

Download or read book Lapsed written by Monica Dux and published by HarperCollins Australia. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Losing your religion is harder than it looks ... From devout ten-year-old performing the part of Jesus in a primary school play to blaspheming, undergraduate atheist, Monica Dux and her attitude to the Catholic Church changed profoundly over a decade. Eventually, she calmed down and was just 'lapsed'. Then, on a family trip to Rome, her young daughter expressed a desire to be baptised. Monica found herself re-examining her own childhood and how Catholicism had shaped her. Was it really out of her system or was it in her blood for life? In Lapsed, Monica sets out to find the answer. Her investigations lead her to test a miracle cure in Lourdes and visit the grave of a headless Saint who claimed to be married to Christ (and wore a wedding ring made of his foreskin to prove it). She speaks to canon lawyers, abuse survivors and even a nun who insists that the Virgin Mary starts her car every morning. With wry humour and razor-sharp observations, Lapsed is the story of one woman's attempt to exorcise her religious upbringing, and to answer the question, is Catholicism like a blood group and, if so, is it possible to get a total transfusion? 'Enlightening, forensic and laugh-out-loud funny' -- JANE CARO 'A frank, funny and heartfelt exorcism of our need to believe in a man in the sky' -- SHAUN MICALLEF