Download or read book Unlearning God written by Philip Gulley and published by Convergent Books. This book was released on 2018-09-25 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America's favorite Quaker storyteller explores the terrain of faith and doubt as shaped by family, church, and young love, finding his way to a less convenient but fully formed adult spirituality. Most of us grow up taking in whole belief systems with our mother's milk, only to discover later that what we received as being certain is actually nothing like it. And then we're faced with a choice--retreat to spiritual security and the community that comes with it, or strike out into the unknown. With his trademark humor and down-home wisdom, Philip Gulley serves as just the spiritual director a wayward pilgrim could warm to, inviting readers into his own sometimes rollicking, sometimes daunting journey of spiritual discovery. He writes about being raised by a Catholic mother and a Baptist father across the street from a family of Jehovah's Witnesses--all three camps convinced the others are doomed. To nearly everyone's consternation, Philip grows up to be a Quaker and a pastor. In Unlearning God, Gulley showcases his well-loved gift as a storyteller and his acute sensibilities as a public theologian in conversations that will charm, provoke, encourage, and inspire.

Download or read book Unlearning God written by Philip Gulley and published by Convergent Books. This book was released on 2018-09-25 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America's favorite Quaker storyteller explores the terrain of faith and doubt as shaped by family, church, and young love, finding his way to a less convenient but fully formed adult spirituality. Most of us grow up taking in whole belief systems with our mother's milk, only to discover later that what we received as being certain is actually nothing like it. And then we're faced with a choice--retreat to spiritual security and the community that comes with it, or strike out into the unknown. With his trademark humor and down-home wisdom, Philip Gulley serves as just the spiritual director a wayward pilgrim could warm to, inviting readers into his own sometimes rollicking, sometimes daunting journey of spiritual discovery. He writes about being raised by a Catholic mother and a Baptist father across the street from a family of Jehovah's Witnesses--all three camps convinced the others are doomed. To nearly everyone's consternation, Philip grows up to be a Quaker and a pastor. In Unlearning God, Gulley showcases his well-loved gift as a storyteller and his acute sensibilities as a public theologian in conversations that will charm, provoke, encourage, and inspire.

Download or read book UnLove written by Nathan Steel and published by . This book was released on 2020-09-30 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Unlearning Protestantism written by Gerald W. Schlabach and published by Brazos Press. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this clearly written and insightful book, Gerald Schlabach addresses the "Protestant dilemma" in ecclesiology: how to build lasting Christian community in a world of individualism and transience. Schlabach, a former Mennonite who is now Catholic, seeks not to encourage readers to abandon Protestant churches but to relearn some of the virtues that all Christian communities need to sustain their communal lives. He offers a vision for the right and faithful roles of authority, stability, and loyal dissent in Christian communal life. The book deals with issues that transcend denominations and will appeal to all readers, both Catholic and Protestant, interested in sustaining Christian tradition and community over time.

Download or read book Reconstructing the Gospel written by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2018-02-26 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2018 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award Finalists - Multicultural "I am a man torn in two. And the gospel I inherited is divided." Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove grew up in the Bible Belt in the American South as a faithful church-going Christian. But he gradually came to realize that the gospel his Christianity proclaimed was not good news for everybody. The same Christianity that sang, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound" also perpetuated racial injustice and white supremacy in the name of Jesus. His Christianity, he discovered, was the religion of the slaveholder. Just as Reconstruction after the Civil War worked to repair a desperately broken society, our compromised Christianity requires a spiritual reconstruction that undoes the injustices of the past. Wilson-Hartgrove traces his journey from the religion of the slaveholder to the Christianity of Christ. Reconstructing the gospel requires facing the pain of the past and present, from racial blindness to systemic abuses of power. Grappling seriously with troubling history and theology, Wilson-Hartgrove recovers the subversiveness of the gospel that sustained the church through centuries of slavery and oppression, from the civil rights era to the Black Lives Matter movement and beyond. When the gospel is reconstructed, freedom rings both for individuals and for society as a whole. Discover how Jesus continues to save us from ourselves and each other, to repair the breach and heal our land.

Download or read book Tenderness written by Eve Tushnet and published by Ave Maria Press. This book was released on 2021-12-03 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of a second-place award in the category gender issues, inclusion in the Church from the Catholic Media Association. What would happen if gay Christians began to believe the truth about God—that he loves all people unconditionally? In Tenderness, Catholic writer and speaker Eve Tushnet says trusting God’s love would be the beginning of a transformation, not only in the lives of gay Christians but also in the Body of Christ itself. She offers hope and companionship to those who have been deeply hurt by their parishes, a wound that also damaged their relationship with God. Tushnet also offers practical guidance from her own journey as a celibate lesbian. Tenderness explores scripture and history to find role models for gay Christians—including Jesus, King David, Ruth, St. John, Mary, poets, mystics, penitents, leaders, and ordinary gay people who have found unexpected paths of love. The book also offers guidance on living through or recovering from the painful experiences that are all too common in gay Christian life—from familial rejection and weaponized Christianity to ambivalence and doubt. Weaving her own story with resources, prayers, and practical actions that can help gay people trust that God loves them, Tushnet renews our understandings of kinship, friendship, celibacy and unmarried life, ordered love, personal integrity, solidarity with the marginalized, obedience, surrender, sanctification, and hope. This book is primarily for gay Christians, but it also offers a window into their experiences and needs that will make it useful for anyone in pastoral care or who wants to be a better friend to the gay people they know.

Download or read book What Is God Like written by Rachel Held Evans and published by Convergent Books. This book was released on 2021-06-15 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The late, beloved Rachel Held Evans answers many children's first question about God in this gorgeous picture book, fully realized by her friend Matthew Paul Turner, the bestselling author of When God Made You. Children who are introduced to God, through attending church or having loved ones who speak about God, often have a lot of questions, including this ever-popular one: What is God like? The late Rachel Held Evans loved the Bible and loved showing God’s love through the words and pictures found in that ancient text. Through these pictures from the Bible, children see that God is like a shepherd, God is like a star, God is like a gardener, God is like the wind, and more. God is a comforter and support. And whenever a child is unsure, What Is God Like? encourages young hearts to “think about what makes you feel safe, what makes you feel loved, and what makes you feel brave. That's what God is like.”

Download or read book Unlearning God written by R. Leo Olson and published by . This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I've heard stories about people making wagers with the devil for their lives. Growing up in the world of Protestant fundamentalist, Bible banging, 'hell fire and brimstone preachin' Christianity, I was taught God hated gambling. But I decided to make wagers with God for my life anyway. What could I possibly lose? After several 'spiritual head injuries' my wagers lead me to the brink of spiritual insanity. I wanted to give up on God and church and everything. None of it made sense-growing up as a preacher boy, at seminary or in the seeker friendly mega-churches. To my total surprise I experienced the holy ground of the burning bush, Jacob's midnight wrestler, the slaying of my Goliaths, the love of Hosea for the whore-Gomer, the burning coal that touched Isaiah's unclean lips, the fearful thunder and gentle dove at Jesus' baptism, the angelic earthquake that broke the prison doors of the apostles, the beauty, healing and the inexplicable mystery of God's all burning love flickering like Pentecostal tongues of fire in an ancient and unexpected tradition. I lost all my wagers. I would have to unlearn God and everything I thought I knew about the Bible, salvation, the Church and what it meant to be a Christian. Turned out God was a better gambler than me...figures.

Download or read book Farewell to God written by Charles Templeton and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2011-01-14 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than twenty years, Charles Templeton was a major figure in the church in Canada and the United States. During the 1950s, he and Billy Graham were the two most successful exponents of mass evangelism in North America. Templeton spoke nightly to stadium crowds of up to thirty thousand people. However, increasing doubts about the validity of the Old Testament and the teachings of the Christian church finally brought about a crisis in his faith and in 1957 he resigned from the ministry. In Farewell to God, Templeton speaks out about his reasons for the abandonment of his faith. In straightforward language, Templeton deals with such subjects as the Creation fable, racial prejudice in the Bible, the identity of Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus’ alienation from his family, the second-class status of women in the church, the mystery of evil, the illusion that prayer works, why there is suffering and death, and the loss of faith in God. He concludes with a positive personal statement: “I Believe.”

Download or read book A Life of Unlearning written by Anthony Venn-Brown and published by . This book was released on 2015-09-28 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A life of denial, exorcisms, gay conversion therapy and 16 years of marriage, crashed to a humiliating end for this high-profile Pentecostal preacher. A chance meeting propels him through a devastating maze of public scandal, rejection and isolation. Can he rebuild his life? Read this brutally honest story of one man's journey to authenticity.

Download or read book Living the Quaker Way written by Philip Gulley and published by Convergent Books. This book was released on 2013-09-17 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Publishers Weekly “Top 10 in Religion” selection. “This is nothing less than the gospel itself…a much-needed book.” —FR. RICHARD ROHR, OFM, Center for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque, New Mexico “Living the Quaker Way is a treasure trove of practical wisdom about what it means to bear witness to our hope for a better world.” —Parker J. Palmer, author of Let Your Life Speak Philip Gulley invites us into a bracing encounter with the rich truths of Quakerism—a centuries-old spiritual tradition that provides not only a foundation of faith but also vision for making the world more just, loving, and peaceable by our presence. In Living the Quaker Way, Gulley shows how Quaker values provide real solutions to many of our most pressing contemporary challenges. We not only come to a deeper appreciation of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, and equality, we see how embracing these virtues will radically transform us and our world. Living the Quaker Way includes a 30-day spiritual practice that applies the Quaker tradition of Queries.

Download or read book UnLearning Church written by Rev. Dr. Mike Slaughter and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2010-09-01 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How many things does your church do just because that's the way it's always been done? Does your congregation value tradition over passion and stability over creativity? If so, it's time to unLearn. Leading congregations into a dynamic and prophetic future requires unLearning what you thought you knew about the church, leadership, and life. Pastor Michael Slaughter casts a vision for innovative and authentic congregations, and for the kind of leadership that can bring congregations to greater vitality and impact in today's postmodern culture. Readers will be challenged to gaze boldly beyond franchised church models to a dynamic embodiment of God's unique vision for each leader and each congregation. UnLearning congregations embrace new media and cultural trends, value transformation over information, and create a safe space for the tough and unanswerable questions of life. These are churches that lovingly dare to shoulder spiritual and prophetic leadership in our rapidly changing culture, re-articulating God's ancient purposes to create high-tech, high-touch environments in which people can become radical followers of Jesus Christ. Informed by Slaughter's thirty years of leadership at the innovative and mission-driven Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church, UnLearning Church offers readers guidance and insight into setting aside old identities, old expectations, and old ways of “doing church,” and inspires readers with examples of congregations already living out their mission to be creative and outwardly-focused communities of faith.

Download or read book If Grace Is True written by Philip Gulley and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2004-11-23 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argues the theological stance that all people will be saved through God's grace, offering a message of hope that explains how Christians can reconcile a love for non-Christian people.

Download or read book If the Church Were Christian written by Philip Gulley and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2010-02-02 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[Philip Gulley’s] vision of Christianity is grounded, gripping, and filled with uncommon sense. He is building bridges instead of boundaries, and such wisdom is surely needed now.” —Richard Rohr, O.F.M, author of Everything Belongs Quaker minister Philip Gulley, author of If Grace Is True and If God Is Love, returns with If the Church Were Christian: a challenging and thought-provoking examination of the author’s vision for today’s church… if Christians truly followed the core values of Jesus Christ. Fans of Shane Claiborne, Rob Bell, and unChristian will find much to discuss in If the Church Were Christian, as will anyone interested in the future of this institution.

Download or read book Becoming All Things written by Michelle Reyes and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2021-04-27 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE 2022 ECPA CHRISTIAN BOOK AWARD FOR NEW AUTHOR Healthy relationships across cultures are possible. Dr. Michelle Reyes takes a close look at the concept of cultural accommodation found in Scripture—and especially in the letter of 1 Corinthians—to redefine how Christians interact with cultural narratives that are different from their own. Christians—whose standard of living is oneness in Christ, whose gospel is radically nonexclusive—should be at the frontlines of justice and of cross-cultural unity. But many of us struggle to reach outside of our own cultural bubbles and form real relationships that move beyond stereotypes and lead to understanding, healing, and solidarity across cultural lines. Why is that? Why is it so difficult to reconcile our call to be united in Christ with a celebration of different cultural expressions? What are the reasons for cultural differences and how do they so often lead to stereotyping, appropriation, gentrification, racism, and other forms of injustice? What does the Bible say about human beings as cultural image bearers? How do we reevaluate our awareness of culture identity in a healthy and constructive way? These are just some of the questions that Dr. Reyes explores as she faces the challenges surrounding cross-cultural relationships in America today and her thoughts on the way forward. Spoiler Alert! The way forward does require willingness to change. It requires embracing cultural discomfort. But by engaging with this book, you will be empowered to learn how to become all things to all people—that is: how to reflect Jesus' love in a multicultural, multiracial body of Christ and to share that love with a hurting world.

Download or read book The Evolution of Faith written by Philip Gulley and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-06-07 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Noone raises provocative questions about Christianity more kindly than PhilipGulley. " —Diana Butler Bass,author of Christianity for the Rest of Us “Everyserious Christian ought to read this book, ponder it,wrestlewith it, but above all, be grateful for its presence in today's urgentconversation about what we are and are becoming as a people of God.” —Phyllis Tickle, author of The GreatEmergence RenownedQuaker minister Philip Gulley, bestselling author of If the Church WereChristian, delivers a practical, insightful guide to developing aliving, flexible, personal Christianity—a faith that allows you to confront theprofound challenges facing every believer in today’s difficult world.

Download or read book Growing Down written by Michael Kelley and published by B&H Books. This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Growing Down, Michael Kelley wrestles with Jesus' words that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the likes of little children.