Download or read book Your Jesus Is Too American written by Steve Bezner and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2024-10-08 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An invigorating look at the current state of the American church and what might be done to move it forward."--Publishers Weekly The American church faces a discipleship crisis. Instead of following the values of Jesus, many Christians are chasing after what our culture prizes: power, money, and political influence. In Your Jesus Is Too American, Baptist pastor Steve Bezner invites Christians to rediscover what Jesus treasured and incorporate those kingdom values into the church's witness. With a pastoral voice, Bezner shares the lessons he has been teaching in his church community for 11 years--humble service rather than worldly success, healing relationships across religious and ethnic divides, repairing harm against marginalized groups, giving generously, and providing a political witness rooted in the local church. Bezner shows that Jesus's vision of discipleship points toward a different way of being in the world. The book offers a welcome perspective for church leaders and congregants alike who are frustrated with the way many churches pursue values that are not in line with Jesus's teachings and are worried about the American church's credibility crisis. It includes a foreword by Beth Moore.
Download or read book Your Jesus is Too Safe written by Jared Wilson and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative new book that calls Christians to stop making Jesus so "convenient"
Download or read book Jesus in America written by Richard W. Fox and published by HarperOne. This book was released on 2005-05-03 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where else but America do people ask: What Would Jesus Do? What Would Jesus Drive? What Would Jesus Eat? "This book is for believers and non-believers alike. It is not a book about whether one should believe in Jesus, but about how Americans have believed in and portrayed him."—from the Introduction Jesus in America is a comprehensive exploration of the vital role that the figure of Jesus has played throughout American history. Written by one of our most distinguished historians, Richard Wightman Fox, this book provides a brilliant cultural history of Jesus in America from its origins to today, demonstrating how Jesus is the most influential symbolic figure in our history. Benjamin Franklin understood Jesus as a wise man worthy of imitation. Thomas Jefferson regarded him as a moral teacher. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln, which occurred on Good Friday, was popularly interpreted as paralleling the crucifixion of Jesus . . . as one preacher put it, "Jesus Christ died for the world, Abraham Lincoln died for his country." Elizabeth Cady Stanton appropriated Jesus' message to champion women's rights. George W. Bush named Jesus as his favorite political philosopher—and several other GOP candidates followed suit—during the last presidential race. As we have seen in recent presidential elections, the name of Jesus is often thrust into the center of political debates, and many Americans regularly enlist Jesus, their ultimate arbiter of value, as the standard-bearer for their views and causes. Fox shows how Jesus influenced such major turning points in American history as: Columbus's voyage of discovery The arrival of the English puritans and Spanish missionaries The American Revolution The abolition of slavery and the Civil War Labor movements Social and cultural revolutions of the sixties and beyond The swelling tide of Christian voices in the politics and entertainment of today Fox gives an expert, lively account of all the ways that Jesus is portrayed and understood in American culture. Extensively illustrated with images representing the multitude of American views of Jesus, Jesus in America reveals how fully and deeply Jesus is ingrained in the American experience.
Download or read book The Color of Christ written by Edward J. Blum and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2012-09-21 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How is it that in America the image of Jesus Christ has been used both to justify the atrocities of white supremacy and to inspire the righteousness of civil rights crusades? In The Color of Christ, Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey weave a tapestry of American dreams and visions--from witch hunts to web pages, Harlem to Hollywood, slave cabins to South Park, Mormon revelations to Indian reservations--to show how Americans remade the Son of God visually time and again into a sacred symbol of their greatest aspirations, deepest terrors, and mightiest strivings for racial power and justice. The Color of Christ uncovers how, in a country founded by Puritans who destroyed depictions of Jesus, Americans came to believe in the whiteness of Christ. Some envisioned a white Christ who would sanctify the exploitation of Native Americans and African Americans and bless imperial expansion. Many others gazed at a messiah, not necessarily white, who was willing and able to confront white supremacy. The color of Christ still symbolizes America's most combustible divisions, revealing the power and malleability of race and religion from colonial times to the presidency of Barack Obama.
Download or read book Jesus Made in America written by Stephen J. Nichols and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-05 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jesus is as American as baseball and apple pie. But how this came to be is a complex story - one that Stephen Nichols tells with care and ease. Beginning with the Puritans, he leads readers through the various cultural epochs of American history, showing at each stage how American notions of Jesus were shaped by the cultural sensibilities of the...
Download or read book Jesus Outside the Lines written by Scott Sauls and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2015-03-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether the issue of the day on Twitter, Facebook, or cable news is our sexuality, political divides, or the perceived conflict between faith and science, today’s media pushes each one of us into a frustrating clash between two opposing sides. Polarizing, us-against-them discussions divide us and distract us from thinking clearly and communicating lovingly with others. Scott Sauls, like many of us, is weary of the bickering and is seeking a way of truth and beauty through the conflicts. Jesus Outside the Lines presents Jesus as this way. Scott shows us how the words and actions of Jesus reveal a response that does not perpetuate the destructive fray. Jesus offers us a way forward—away from harshness, caricatures, and stereotypes. In Jesus Outside the Lines, you will experience a fresh perspective of Jesus, who will not (and should not) fit into the sides.
Download or read book American Jesus written by Stephen Prothero and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2004-09-18 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Deep Dive into America's Complex Relationship with Jesus There's no denying America's rich religious background–belief is woven into daily life. But as Stephen Prothero argues in American Jesus, many of the most interesting appraisals of Jesus have emerged outside the churches: in music, film, and popular culture; and among Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and people of no religion at all. Delve into this compelling chronicle as it explores how Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth, has been refashioned into distinctly American identities over the centuries. From his enlistment as a beacon of hope for abolitionists to his appropriation as a figurehead for Klansmen, the image of Jesus has been as mercurial as it is influential. In this diverse and conflicted scene, American Jesus stands as a testament to the peculiar fusion of the temporal and divine in contemporary America. Equal parts enlightening and entertaining, American Jesus goes beyond being simply a work of history. It’s an intricate mirror, reflecting the American spirit while questioning the nation's socio-cultural fabric.
Download or read book Reading While Black written by Esau McCaulley and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reading Scripture from the perspective of Black church tradition can help us connect with a rich faith history and address the urgent issues of our times. Demonstrating an ongoing conversation between the collective Black experience and the Bible, New Testament scholar Esau McCaulley shares a personal and scholarly testament to the power and hope of Black biblical interpretation.
Download or read book Your Jesus Is too Small written by Douglas J. Miller and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2018-02-06 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We can make Jesus look very small if we are not careful. Your Jesus Is Too Small explores how a trivialized Jesus contributes to a collapsed Christian moral character. The 2016 election exposed the truth that for many Christians character does not count, or is a very low priority. Eighty-one percent of white evangelicals voted for President Trump, not known as a man of high moral character. This collapse of character is especially troubling since Christians claim to seek after the mind and character of Jesus Christ. What’s more, the ingrained and unrelenting cultural values—combined with our inescapable self-centered pursuits—bombard us every moment and blight our character. After noting how we belittle Jesus, this book explores ways we can exalt him, allowing his character traits to inform and then transform our hearts and minds. A credible Jesus also means that more tongues will confess him and more knees bow before him and that more people will desire his compassionate character. Then we will be morally equipped to address the great crises of our day: persistent poverty, the marginalizing of out-groups, raging violence, and our planet’s lingering woes.
Download or read book Does Jesus Really Love Me written by Jeff Chu and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Fascinating, thoughtful, and important. [Jeff Chu] captures the fractures and conflict at a moment when the issue of what to do with L.G.B.T. people is tearing Christian denominations apart. Does Jesus Really Love Me? deserves to be widely read.” —Dan Savage, New York Times Book Review In this timely work—part memoir, part investigative analysis—a prize-winning writer explores the explosive and confusing intersection of faith, politics, and sexuality in Christian America. When Jeff Chu came out to his parents as a gay man, his devout Christian mother cried. And cried. Every time she looked at him. For months. As a journalist and a believer, Chu knew that he had to get to the heart of a question that had been haunting him for years: Does Jesus really love me? The quest to find an answer propels Chu on a remarkable cross-country journey to discover the God “forbidden to him” because of his sexuality. Surveying the breadth of the political and theological spectrum, from the most conservative viewpoints to the most liberal, he tries to distill what the diverse followers of Christ believe about homosexuality and to understand how these people who purportedly follow the same God and the same Scriptures have come to hold such a wide range of opinions. Why does Pastor A believe that God hates me, especially because of my gayness? Why does Person B believe that God loves me, gayness and all? From Brooklyn to Nashville to California, from Westboro Baptist Church and their god hates fags protest signs to the pioneering Episcopal bishop Mary Glasspool, who proclaims a message of liberation and divine love, Chu captures spiritual snapshots of Christian America at a remarkable moment, when tensions between both sides in the culture wars have rarely been higher. Both funny and heartbreaking, perplexing and wise, Does Jesus Really Love Me? is an intellectual, emotional, and spiritual pilgrimage that reveals a portrait of a faith and a nation at odds.
Download or read book Lamb Special Gift Ed written by Christopher Moore and published by William Morrow. This book was released on 2007-10-23 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hundreds of thousands of people around the world have read—and reread—Christopher Moore's irreverent, iconoclastic, and divinely funny tale of the early life of Jesus Christ as witnessed by his boyhood pal Levi bar Alphaeus (a.k.a. Biff). Now, in this special (check out the cool red ribbon marker, gilt-edged pages, and gold lettering) gift edition of Christopher Moore's bestselling Lamb, you, too, can find out what really happened between the manger and the Sermon on the Mount. And, in a new afterword written expressly for this edition, Christopher Moore addresses some of the most frequently asked questions he's received from readers since Lamb's initial publication, about the book and himself. Fresh, funny, poignant, and wise, this special gift edition of Lamb is cause for rejoicing among readers everywhere.
Download or read book Jesus and John Wayne How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation written by Kristin Kobes Du Mez and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2020-06-23 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The “paradigm-influencing” book (Christianity Today) that is fundamentally transforming our understanding of white evangelicalism in America. Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping, revisionist history of the last seventy-five years of white evangelicalism, revealing how evangelicals have worked to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism—or in the words of one modern chaplain, with “a spiritual badass.” As acclaimed scholar Kristin Du Mez explains, the key to understanding this transformation is to recognize the centrality of popular culture in contemporary American evangelicalism. Many of today’s evangelicals might not be theologically astute, but they know their VeggieTales, they’ve read John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart, and they learned about purity before they learned about sex—and they have a silver ring to prove it. Evangelical books, films, music, clothing, and merchandise shape the beliefs of millions. And evangelical culture is teeming with muscular heroes—mythical warriors and rugged soldiers, men like Oliver North, Ronald Reagan, Mel Gibson, and the Duck Dynasty clan, who assert white masculine power in defense of “Christian America.” Chief among these evangelical legends is John Wayne, an icon of a lost time when men were uncowed by political correctness, unafraid to tell it like it was, and did what needed to be done. Challenging the commonly held assumption that the “moral majority” backed Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 for purely pragmatic reasons, Du Mez reveals that Trump in fact represented the fulfillment, rather than the betrayal, of white evangelicals’ most deeply held values: patriarchy, authoritarian rule, aggressive foreign policy, fear of Islam, ambivalence toward #MeToo, and opposition to Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ community. A much-needed reexamination of perhaps the most influential subculture in this country, Jesus and John Wayne shows that, far from adhering to biblical principles, modern white evangelicals have remade their faith, with enduring consequences for all Americans.
Download or read book Grand Theft Jesus written by Robert S. McElvaine and published by Broadway Books. This book was released on 2009 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "We're mad as Heaven, and we're not going to take it anymore!" declares historian Robert McElvaine in this passionate and often hilarious rallying cry for sincere Jesus followers. He lets us know that the extreme right wing won't be allowed to speak for all Christians any longer. This polemic blends outrage and humor to expose the televangelists and the leaders of megachurches as the people Jesus warned us about. The religion McElvaine calls ChristianityLite promises, "Be saved without sacrifice or good works!" Run by a crew of politicians, megachurch preachers, televangelists, hypocrites, and snake-oil salesmen, it has hijacked true Christianity and distorted it into something Jesus wouldn't recognize, a religion that advocates war and intolerance, values money above charity, preaches hatred instead of brotherhood, and promises "true" believers the keys to the gates of the kingdom of God--and to the bank.--From publisher description.
Download or read book Immortal Combat written by Fr. Dwight Longenecker and published by Sophia Institute Press. This book was released on 2020-04-28 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, far too many leading Christians water down the robust teachings of our Faith. Ignoring Christ's clear example and constant demand that we boldly confront evils, they preach an amicable, nonconfrontational, feel-good gospel. Instead of teaching the faithful to edify and enjoin the wayward, they urge them to pacify and submit . . . with catastrophic results personally, for the Church, and for society at large. Now comes Fr. Dwight Longenecker with this potent book that shows how, by engaging in the lost art of spiritual warfare, good Christians can cure this trend and repair the extensive damage it has caused. Here, without fear or favor, Longenecker maps out the myriad places where evil lurks in our world, shines a light on its many faces, and details the countless clever tricks it uses to hide. He delineates ten sturdy principles that must motivate all Christian warriors who hope to expunge evil and stop it from returning. And finally, he explains in fascinating detail the art of immortal combat, showing how self-sacrifice and contemplation of the Cross can bring victory over any evil, no matter how hidden or how grave. Be forewarned: this book calls you to sanctity and is not for wimps. For sanctity is impossible apart from heroic virtue, and heroic virtue is impossible apart from spiritual warfare. As Fr. Longenecker puts it, “Find a saint, and you'll find a warrior.” These pages are a mighty guidebook for souls hungry to follow the way of the Christian warrior by taking up their crosses and following into immortal combat the King of the Universe, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Download or read book Jesus Religion written by Jefferson Bethke and published by HarperChristian + ORM. This book was released on 2013-10-14 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abandon dead, dry, religious rule-keeping and embrace the promise of being truly known and deeply loved. Jefferson Bethke burst into the cultural conversation with a passionate, provocative poem titled "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus." The 4-minute video became an overnight sensation, with 7 million YouTube views in its first 48 hours (and 23+ million in a year). Bethke's message clearly struck a chord with believers and nonbelievers alike, triggering an avalanche of responses running the gamut from encouraged to enraged. In his New York Times bestseller Jesus > Religion, Bethke unpacks similar contrasts that he drew in the poem--highlighting the difference between teeth gritting and grace, law and love, performance and peace, despair, and hope. With refreshing candor, he delves into the motivation behind his message, beginning with the unvarnished tale of his own plunge from the pinnacle of a works-based, fake-smile existence that sapped his strength and led him down a path of destructive behavior. Along the way, Bethke gives you the tools you need to: Humbly and prayerfully open your mind Understand Jesus for all that he is View the church from a brand-new perspective Bethke is quick to acknowledge that he's not a pastor or theologian, but simply an ordinary, twenty-something who cried out for a life greater than the one for which he had settled. On this journey, Bethke discovered the real Jesus, who beckoned him with love beyond the props of false religion. Praise for Jesus > Religion: "Jeff's book will make you stop and listen to a voice in your heart that may have been drowned out by the noise of religion. Listen to that voice, then follow it--right to the feet of Jesus." --Bob Goff, author of New York Times bestsellers Love Does and Everybody, Always "The book you hold in your hands is Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz meets C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity meets Augustine's Confessions. This book is going to awaken an entire generation to Jesus and His grace." --Derwin L. Gray, lead pastor of Transformation Church, author of Limitless Life: Breaking Free from the Labels That Hold You Back
Download or read book Rise written by Trip Lee and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2015-02-03 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Society says youth is a time for carefree self-expression, but Trip Lee says God has called everyone to RISE from slumber, above low expectations, and to live for the risen King. The world tells us that our early years are to be irresponsibly enjoyed rather than devoted to meaningful pursuits. We’re told that responsibility and commitment are burdens to be put off as long as possible. And so, most of us spend our youth in a sad state of slumber—sleeping in on life until we’re forced to get up. The problem is that life has already begun. It’s happening right now. And God has called you to live it. In this powerful book, Trip Lee argues it’s time to wake up and RISE, to live the way we were created to live. Young or old, we’ve been called to live for Him. Right now. Young believers face the same problems as older Christians, but they feel them in unique ways. RISE addresses those core problems in an engaging, profound, and life-changing way. Don't just sit there: RISE!
Download or read book Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart written by J.D. Greear and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2013-02-01 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “If there were a Guinness Book of World Records entry for ‘amount of times having prayed the sinner’s prayer,’ I’m pretty sure I’d be a top contender,” says pastor and author J. D. Greear. He struggled for many years to gain an assurance of salvation and eventually learned he was not alone. “Lack of assurance” is epidemic among evangelical Christians. In Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart, J. D. shows that faulty ways of present- ing the gospel are a leading source of the confusion. Our presentations may not be heretical, but they are sometimes misleading. The idea of “asking Jesus into your heart” or “giving your life to Jesus” often gives false assurance to those who are not saved—and keeps those who genuinely are saved from fully embracing that reality. Greear unpacks the doctrine of assurance, showing that salvation is a posture we take to the promise of God in Christ, a posture that begins at a certain point and is maintained for the rest of our lives. He also answers the tough questions about assurance: What exactly is faith? What is repentance? Why are there so many warnings that seem to imply we can lose our salvation? Such issues are handled with respect to the theological rigors they require, but Greear never loses his pastoral sensitivity or a communication technique that makes this message teachable to a wide audience from teens to adults.
