The Living Church

Author: John Stott
Publisher: Inter-Varsity Press
ISBN: 1844747654
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 130

Book Description
What exactly is a living church? Author John Stott explains, 'We need more radically conservative churches: "conservative" in the sense that they conserve what Scripture plainly requires, but radical in relation to that combination of tradition and convention that we call 'culture'. Scripture is unchangeable, but culture is not.' 'The Living Church' brings together a number of characteristics of what the author calls 'authentic' or 'living' church. The marks, being clearly biblical, are timeless and need to be preserved. We are encouraged to become learning churches, caring churches, worshipping churches and evangelising churches. John Stott unpacks the Bible's wisdom rigorously with a teacher's skill and applies it faithfully with a pastor's heart. Becoming a living church is not an impossible goal.

The Meaning of Protestant Theology

Author: Phillip Cary
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 1493416677
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 351

Book Description
This book offers a creative and illuminating discussion of Protestant theology. Veteran teacher Phillip Cary explains how Luther's theology arose from the Christian tradition, particularly from the spirituality of Augustine. Luther departed from the Augustinian tradition and inaugurated distinctively Protestant theology when he identified the gospel that gives us Christ as its key concept. More than any other theologian, Luther succeeds in carrying out the Protestant intention of putting faith in the gospel of Christ alone. Cary also explores the consequences of Luther's teachings as they unfold in the history of Protestantism.

Understanding Homosexuality

Author: David N. Glesne
Publisher: Kirk House Publishers
ISBN: 9781886513952
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 196

Book Description
This book is born out of the experience of one ministering in a congregational setting to the joys and sorrows of people struggling with a variety of life issues— including homosexual experiences. The author addresses the critical questions regarding homosexuality from within the setting of the local church and seeks answers that are consistent with Scriptures and historic Christianity.

Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church (Foreword by Thomas R. Schreiner)

Author: Michael Lawrence
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433524635
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Book Description
Capitol Hill Baptist Church associate pastor Michael Lawrence contributes to the IXMarks series as he centers on the practical importance of biblical theology to ministry. He begins with an examination of a pastor's tools of the trade: exegesis and biblical and systematic theology. The book distinguishes between the power of narrative in biblical theology and the power of application in systematic theology, but also emphasizes the importance of their collaboration in ministry. Having laid the foundation for pastoral ministry, Lawrence uses the three tools to build a biblical theology, telling the entire story of the Bible from five different angles. He puts biblical theology to work in four areas: counseling, missions, caring for the poor, and church/state relations. Rich in application and practical insight, this book will equip pastors and church leaders to think, preach, and do ministry through the framework of biblical theology.

Missa Est!

Author: Eugene R. Schlesinger
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1506418597
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Book Description
The twenty-first-century church cannot afford to neglect mission. When church and culture no longer share a common outlook, the only way forward is mission. Pope Francis recognizes this in his call for a missionary conversion of the church. Responding to this invitation, is a constructive work in ecclesiology addressing the relationship between liturgy and mission in the church's life. It advances a notion of the church grounded in both liturgy and mission, where neither is subordinated to nor collapsed into the other. The church's liturgical rites disclose and enact the church's identity as a missionary community. Close examination of the sources at the heart of traditional communion ecclesiology: Trinitarian theology, the sacraments of initiation, and eucharistic theology, yields an ecclesiology in which the church is constituted by both liturgy and mission. These are two distinct ways of participating in the triune life of God, which is revealed in the paschal mystery. The church's pilgrimage to God's kingdom takes it through the world in mission. The church, as the body of Christ, is given away to God and to the world, for the world's salvation. The result is a contemporary restatement of traditional ecclesiology, transposed into a missional key.

The Three Conversions of the Christian Life

Author: Kevin E. Martin
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1666733792
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 74

Book Description
Christianity is a religion of conversion, but what is conversion? This book explores the fullness of the Christian life and the threefold turnings that it demands of Jesus’ followers. Starting with St. Paul while looking in detail at his Damascus Road experience and examining the remarkable lives of exemplary Christians, the authors unfold dynamics of conversion and call all followers to grow deeper in their discipleship.

Your Living Compass

Author: Scott Stoner
Publisher: Church Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 0819229407
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Book Description
If Barbara Brown Taylor and Steven Covey ever wrote a book together, this might be the book! Living Compass is a church-based faith and wellness program designed for individuals and small groups. Readers engage in a 10-week, self-guided wellness retreat, consisting of daily ten-minute readings, plus small, meaningful action steps designed for getting “your life, your relationships, and your work headed in a new direction,” according to the author. Deeply spiritual and exceedingly practical, this book joins the national Living Compass network, which includes a website, workshop series, wellness resources (including a free Living Well with Living Compass app), social media, and soon, a new multi-million-dollar wellness center to be located in the offices of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago. Structured holistic wellness program for individuals and groups based on a highly successful retreat model developed by priest-psychologist. Builds on the national network of Living Compass workshops, presentations, and publications, and soon, a multi-million faith and wellness center in Chicago. Each chapter includes questions for reflection.

The Household of God

Author: Lesslie Newbigin
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1606082221
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 157

Book Description
This book discusses the question that the author regards as central in the present ecumenical debate: the nature of the Church itself. He thus describes the plan of theÊbook: The First chapter sketches the present context of the discussion and touches on the Biblical meaning of the word Church. The next three chapters examine the three answers to the central question, which may be roughly categorizedÊ as Protestant, Catholic, Pentecostal. The last two chapters argue that the Church is only to be understood in a perspective that is at once eschatologicalÊand missionary, the perspective of the ends of the earth. Bishop Newbigin's evaluations are provacative, scholarly, and filled with profound passion and insight. He is concerned with the searching questions men today are asking: Is there in truth a family of God on earth to which I can belong, a place where all men can be truly at home? If so, where is it to be found and how is it that those who claim to be spokesmen of that holy fellowshipÊare themselves at war with one another as to the fundamentals of its nature? I think there is no more urgent theological task than to try to give plain and simple answers. This he does, drawing deeply upon biblicalÊsources.

Sacrificing the Church

Author: Eugene R. Schlesinger
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1978700016
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 211

Book Description
In a context of scandal and decline, the Christian church cannot afford to do business as usual. It must regain its bearings and clarify its nature and purpose. Sacrificing the Church provides this clarity by returning to the church’s foundation: Jesus Christ and him crucified. It presents an ecclesiological vision in which every aspect of the church’s life flows from and expresses the one sacrifice of Christ. This sacrifice is the basis of every ecclesial experience, the form and content of the church’s life, a life which shares in the eternal Trinitarian life of God. By and as Christ’s sacrifice we are introduced into the divine life. This participation plays out in three key areas, which set the church’s agenda in the contemporary world: its worship of God (Mass), mission to the world (mission), and efforts toward the unity of all people, beginning with divided Christians (ecumenism).

A Priest's Handbook

Author: Dennis Michno
Publisher: Church Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 0819217689
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Book Description
The newly updated and revised edition of the indispensable resource for Episcopal priests simplifies liturgical officiating and celebration of the rites of the Episcopal Church.