Download or read book Loving My LGBT Neighbor written by Glenn T. Stanton and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2014-10-01 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever feel like we’re just fumbling through the LGBT conversation, always asking but never really finding answers to questions like: What does it look like to be friends with my lesbian neighbors? How should I love my gay child and his partner? What if I’m invited to a same-sex wedding? What did Jesus say—and not say—about homosexuality? What is the role of the church in the same-sex debate? We don’t have to fumble. While the questions are hard, answers can be had. Just ask Glenn Stanton. Stanton, of Focus on the Family, travels widely meeting with and debating LGBT advocates across the country. In doing so he has had the privilege of becoming friends with a number of them. He says, "We disagree on certain convictions, but we still admire and esteem one another . . . Since when was it decided that people who see the world in polar opposite ways can't be friends?" He shares his personal journey building bridges with the LGBT community and offers candid insights on hard questions. In Loving My (LGBT) Neighbor, Glenn Stanton shows us how to speak the truth in love on this difficult but important issue.
Download or read book A Change of Affection written by Becket Cook and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2019-07-30 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The powerful, dramatic story of how a successful Hollywood set designer whose identity was deeply rooted in his homosexuality came to be suddenly and utterly transformed by the power of the gospel. When Becket Cook moved from Dallas to Los Angeles after college, he discovered a socially progressive, liberal town that embraced not only his creative side but also his homosexuality. He devoted his time to growing his career as a successful set designer and to finding "the one" man who would fill his heart. As a gay man in the entertainment industry, Cook centered his life around celebrity-filled Hollywood parties and traveled to society hot-spots around the world--until a chance encounter with a pastor at an LA coffee shop one morning changed everything. In A Change of Affection, Becket Cook shares his testimony as someone who was transformed by the power of the gospel. Cook's dramatic conversion to Christianity and subsequent seminary training inform his views on homosexuality--personally, biblically, theologically, and culturally--and in his new book he educates Christians on how to better understand this complex and controversial issue while revealing how to lovingly engage with those who disagree. A Change of Affection is a timely and indispensable resource for anyone who desires to understand more fully one of the most common and difficult stumbling blocks to faithfully following Christ today.
Download or read book Gay Girl Good God written by Jackie Hill Perry and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2018-09-03 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “I used to be a lesbian.” In Gay Girl, Good God, author Jackie Hill Perry shares her own story, offering practical tools that helped her in the process of finding wholeness. Jackie grew up fatherless and experienced gender confusion. She embraced masculinity and homosexuality with every fiber of her being. She knew that Christians had a lot to say about all of the above. But was she supposed to change herself? How was she supposed to stop loving women, when homosexuality felt more natural to her than heterosexuality ever could? At age nineteen, Jackie came face-to-face with what it meant to be made new. And not in a church, or through contact with Christians. God broke in and turned her heart toward Him right in her own bedroom in light of His gospel. Read in order to understand. Read in order to hope. Or read in order, like Jackie, to be made new.
Download or read book Messy Grace written by Caleb Kaltenbach and published by WaterBrook. This book was released on 2015-10-20 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sometimes, grace gets messy. Caleb Kaltenbach was raised by LGBT parents, marched in gay pride parades as a youngster, and experienced firsthand the hatred and bitterness of some Christians toward his family. But then Caleb surprised everyone, including himself, by becoming a Christian…and a pastor. Very few issues in Christianity are as divisive as the acceptance of the LGBT community in the church. As a pastor and as a person with beloved family members living a gay lifestyle, Caleb had to face this issue with courage and grace. Messy Grace shows us that Jesus’s command to “love your neighbor as yourself” doesn’t have an exception clause for a gay “neighbor”—or for that matter, any other “neighbor” we might find it hard to relate to. Jesus was able to love these people and yet still hold on to his beliefs. So can you. Even when it’s messy. “Messy Grace is an important contribution to the conversation about sexual identity for churches and leaders. Caleb's story is surprising and unique, and he weaves it together compellingly. He states his views clearly, leaves room for disagreement, and champions love no matter where you are in this conversation.” —Jud Wilhite, Sr. Pastor, Central Christian Church
Download or read book Is the Homosexual My Neighbor written by Letha Scanzoni and published by HarperCollins Publishers. This book was released on 1980 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the biblical views on how Christians should treat all people, which includes homosexuals.
Download or read book Building Bridges written by Kendra Weddle and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2018-05-03 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Letha Dawson Scanzoni changed the landscape of American evangelicalism through her groundbreaking work on the gospel-based intersection of gender and LGBTQ justice. She coauthored two of the first books that support women's equality and LGBTQ rights with the Bible: All We're Meant to Be and Is the Homosexual My Neighbor? In all her work Scanzoni applies the liberating message of Jesus to women and to people who have been marginalized by church and society because of sexual orientation. Building Bridges combines an exploration of the life and work of Letha Dawson Scanzoni with stories of people she continues to empower through her writing and the Evangelical & Ecumenical Women's Caucus - Christian Feminism Today, an organization she cofounded. This book illustrates her growing influence as she continues her prophetic collaboration with new generations. In addition, it provides resources for churches as they build bridges for their ministries of liberation, justice, and peace.
Download or read book Not Born Gay and the Zebra Effect Illusion written by Iter Tracy Green and published by WestBow Press. This book was released on 2017-01-26 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are people born gay? I think you need to read what we have discovered in this book. What is the zebra effect? What have the experts and authorities told us about what we are to believe and how to think? There are many people leading a gay lifestyle, who know that they are not born gay but were conditioned to it by nongenetic factors. Why do some people want to think so simplistically about LGBT orientations and behaviors? Yes, many feel that they were born gay, but were they really? What do the teachings of Jesus say about same-sex marriage and sexual relationships? To Bible-believing Christians and pastors, here are some ways to be more empathetic, more understanding, and more helpful to the LGBT community while never compromising the teachings of our Lord, Jesus. To the general public, what do you believe about the gay rights issues, and why does it matter? Do you realize that the Bible points to the truth and that news and media sources sometimes misrepresent the truth? What does it really mean to love others in the best way? To the atheist, the agnostic, the gay activist, and others, here is a chance to try to understand the beliefs of millions of Bible-believing Christians in this country. Please realize that for the great majority of your Christian neighbors, their beliefs are not going to change, even under pressure. Please keep an open mind.
Download or read book The Book of More Delights written by Ross Gay and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2023-09-19 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From bestselling author of The Book of Delights and award-winning poet, a book of lyrical mini-essays celebrating the everyday that will inspire readers to rediscover the joys in the world around us. In Ross Gay’s new collection of small, daily wonders, again written over the course of a year, one of America’s most original voices continues his ongoing investigation of delight. For Gay, what delights us is what connects us, what gives us meaning, from the joy of hearing a nostalgic song blasting from a passing car to the pleasure of refusing the “nefarious” scannable QR code menus, from the tiny dog he fell hard for to his mother baking a dozen kinds of cookies for her grandchildren. As always, Gay revels in the natural world—sweet potatoes being harvested, a hummingbird carousing in the beebalm, a sunflower growing out of a wall around the cemetery, the shared bounty from a neighbor’s fig tree—and the trillion mysterious ways this glorious earth delights us. The Book of (More) Delights is a volume to savor and share.
Download or read book Scattering Ashes written by Joyce Smith Helyer and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2016-06-08 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scattering Ashes is a resource for Christian families confronting the reality of their loved one's gay lifestyle. Joyce Smith Helyer takes the reader on a journey that changed her life when her brother began their midnight Christmas Eve conversation with these words, "Joyce, I have something to tell you." As I waited expectantly for what he was going to say next, he paused, but then shifted the conversation. He tried again, but the same thing happened. I felt like he was trying to land an airplane in trouble and kept circling the airport looking for the best approach. His attempted landings kept falling short of the runway. A vague sense of uneasiness began to fill my mind . . . Little did I realize that my nice, "typical" Christian experience would be undergoing a significant change . . . Fear I could barely articulate almost overwhelmed me . . . Finally, I looked at my handsome, 26-year-old brother and knew the words he was having so much difficulty saying. "Ron, are you trying to tell me you're gay?" His quiet response echoed across the living room. "I thought you had it figured out."
Download or read book Conditionally Accepted written by Baker A. Rogers and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2019-12-13 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores Mississippi Christians’ beliefs about homosexuality and gay and lesbian civil rights and whether having a gay or lesbian friend or family member influences those beliefs. Beliefs about homosexuality and gay and lesbian rights vary widely based on religious affiliation. Despite having gay or lesbian friends or family members, evangelical Protestants believe homosexuality is sinful and oppose gay and lesbian rights. Mainline Protestants are largely supportive of gay and lesbian rights and become more supportive after getting to know gay and lesbian people. Catholics describe a greater degree of uncertainty and a conditional acceptance of gay and lesbian rights; clear differences between conservative and liberal Catholics are evident. Overall, conservative Christians, both evangelical Protestants and conservative Catholics, hold a religious identity that overshadows their relationships with gay and lesbian friends or family. Conservative religion acts as a deterrent to the positive benefits of relationships with gay and lesbian people.
Download or read book Goodbye My Tribe written by Vic Sizemore and published by University Alabama Press. This book was released on 2020 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Memoir of a writer's growing disenchantment with his evangelical upbringing Goodbye, My Tribe: An Evangelical Exodus is Vic Sizemore's collection of personal essays chronicling two simultaneous transformations. One is the gathering of unconnected--and nonpolitical--evangelical congregations across the nation into the political juggernaut called the Religious Right; the other is the author's own coming to terms with the emotional and spiritual trauma of his life deep inside fundamentalist Christianity, and his struggle to free himself from its grasp. Sizemore, whose father was a preacher and professor at a small West Virginia Bible college, attended Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, arguably the crucible of American evangelical Christianity. Sizemore began writing these essays with the aim of exploring and understanding what happened when the mythology of his "tribe" crumbled from beneath his feet. He draws heavily on his upbringing and his family history as a framework for how his "tribe" of white evangelicals have found ways to reconcile Christianity with what the author finds to be troubling stances on many social issues, among them race, gender, sexuality, materialism, anti-intellectualism, and white supremacy. In a clear-eyed and eloquent voice, Sizemore grapples movingly with his own bewilderment and chagrin as he struggles to reconcile the essential philosophical and moral decay that he believes many evangelicals have come to embrace. His insights, arranged topically and thematically and told through graceful and accessible prose, toggle between memoir and literary journalism, along a spectrum that touches on history, philosophy, theology, and personal reflections.
Download or read book Leading a Church in a Time of Sexual Questioning written by Bruce B. Miller and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biblical Guidance for Ministering God’s Love in a Sexually Diverse Culture In a time when sexual norms are changing rapidly, how can a local church be a place of grace—a loving community for all kinds of people—where everyone can flourish and disagreements are overcome in a Christlike spirit while at the same time stay true to biblical standards? In a way that appeals to pastors and lay leaders alike, Bruce offers a biblical theology of sexuality and provides practical wisdom for how a church can approach ministering to, and alongside, people who identify their sexuality in diverse ways: LGBTQ+. Here is a church-tested program full of wise pastoral insights to help church leaders think through day-to-day decisions, such as how to handle baby dedications, small groups, who can serve, membership, baptism, retreats, the Lord’s Supper, weddings, funerals, teaching, hiring, and caring for those caught in sin. If you are a leader who is facing any of these challenging issues and decisions, then this practical, grace-filled book is for you.
Download or read book The Good Neighbor written by Jay Quinn and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2014-04-01 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Good Neighbor, Rory Fallon is walking his dog along the streets of the exclusive Venetian Vistas neighborhood when he notices activity at the house next door. New neighbors have arrived in the form of Austin and Meg Harden, along with their two children. Before long, the Hardens and Rory and his partner, Bruno, have formed a strange, sometimes symbiotic relationship, bringing up questions of love and marriage, trust and temptation. Reflecting our changing social fabric, the unfolding drama reveals that fences exist for a reason, and that when you cross them the consequences can often have confounding results. Jay Quinn’s Lambda-nominated novels transcend traditional gay fiction, exploring universal issues of marriage, aging parents, addiction, and attraction, all while presenting unique characters and page-turning drama. Don’t miss any of Quinn’s novels: Metes and Bounds, Back Where He Started, The Good Neighbor, The Beloved Son, and The Boomerang Kid.
Download or read book What to Say and How to Say It Volume II written by Brandon Vogt and published by Ave Maria Press. This book was released on 2021-02-05 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of a third-place award for popular presentation of the faith from the Catholic Media Association. Are you hesitant to discuss issues such as faith and science, homosexuality, or the Resurrection with your family, friends, and coworkers because you’re afraid you’ll say the wrong thing or forget what to say altogether? Bestselling and award-winning author Brandon Vogt, senior publishing director of Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, is back with more straightforward, practical guidance for any Catholic who wants to engage confidently with today’s culture. In this second volume of What to Say and How to Say It, Vogt tackles seven more of today’s most pressing (and controversial) issues, giving you all the tools you need to be clear and convincing as you share your convictions with those around you. You will find essential resources for speaking with clarity and confidence about the critical issues of faith you face in the world today. This book is an indispensable resource covering seven hot-button issues and pressing questions in the area of faith and science; the Resurrection; heaven, hell, and purgatory; relativism; Islam; homosexuality; and Mary. Each chapter offers an overview of the topic and a clear explanation of what the Church teaches. Then you’ll learn about the most common contemporary arguments against the Church’s teachings followed by step-by-step instructions for responding intelligently and confidently.
Download or read book No Reason to Hide written by Erwin W. Lutzer and published by Harvest House Publishers. This book was released on 2022-09-06 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Will You Be Complicit, Complacent, or Courageous? In a culture with an ever-narrowing definition of tolerance, Christians can no longer stay silent about the divide between the Bible’s truth and the world’s lies. From bestselling author Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer, No Reason to Hide examines the toxic roots behind the alarming symptoms of a nation in spiritual freefall—and why your faith must empower you to engage rather than hide. As you read, you’ll be equipped to defend your biblical beliefs with confidence and compassion. You’ll also identify how you can respond to the battleground issues of today, including identity-driven social justice ideologies that seek to divide rather than unite cultural attacks on the definitions of sex and gender that turn language into a war progressive pushes within the church that ultimately desecrate the Bible’s teachings A call for believers to standing firm in today’s oppressive world, No Reason to Hide is a rallying reminder that will ready Christians everywhere to have the courage to proclaim Scripture’s truth to a culture in desperate need of what only God can offer.
Download or read book Every Believer Confident written by Mark J. Farnham and published by AuthorLoyalty. This book was released on 2021-02-06 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the average Christian who longs to share their faith effectively but doesn't know where to begin, Every Believer Confident is the ultimate guidebook. All believers are called to make disciples and "give an answer" when objections are raised against the faith. Most Christians want to share and defend their beliefs, but they often feel ill-equipped. They desire to reach friends, family, coworkers, and classmates with the good news of Jesus Christ, but lack confidence and skill. They want to be like Jesus and effectively engage the lost with the powerful truth of the gospel. They just don't know how. What's needed is a way to simplify apologetics and make it accessible to the average church member who will never study philosophy or science. If every church member was indeed a skilled evangelist, churches would not have to depend on come-and-see events to reach the community, because every member would be practicing the go-and-tell approach Scripture assumes. Every Believer Confident: Apologetics for the Ordinary Christian simplifies the basic principles of apologetics and provides effective strategies for use in actual encounters with unbelievers. It provides a structure whereby any Christian can engage anyone they meet, move the conversation to spiritual matters, answer objections raised against the Christian faith, and present the gospel of Christ in all its glory and rationality.
Download or read book The Church in Babylon written by Erwin W. Lutzer and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2018-08-07 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do we live faithfully in a country becoming more and more hostile to our faith in Christ? Like the Israelites in Babylon, we must find a way to maintain our faith in the midst of a pagan culture. But that requires we answer two crucial questions: How did we get here? How do we prepare for the dark and difficult days ahead? In The Church in Babylon, Dr. Lutzer answers both of these questions. He will walk you through the many parallels between the church in America and God’s people in Babylon, and embolden you to be a gospel witness. You’ll be encouraged not to compromise your faith even when under constant pressure from all corners of society. And more than all this you will have a fresh encounter with Jesus Christ, as you consider the biblical role of those in exile.
