Showing titles in Ecclesiology

In this compelling book, Scot McKnight shares his personal experience in the church as well as his study of the Apostle Paul to answer this significant question: What is the church supposed to be? For most of us the church is a place we go to on Sunday to hear a sermon or to participate in...

Read by the author. Acclaimed teaching pastor Daniel Grothe speaks to the sense of loneliness that many feel in today's age of hypermobility and noncommittal wandering. He reminds us of the ancient vow of stability and teaches us how to lead a richer life of friendship, community, and purpose...

Evangelism and missions are parts of the Christian life often accompanied by fears, insecurities, and cultural pressures. In this addition to the Union series, Daniel Hames and Michael Reeves argue that an individual's relationship with God influences their evangelism and missions more than anything else. Scripture clearly shows that a believer's responsibility is to make God known in the world, but this cannot be done without first knowing and enjoying God.

In our quest to renew the church, Christians have walked through seeker-friendly, emergent, missional, and other movements to develop new expressions of the body of Christ. Now, in the post-Christian world in North America, we're asking the question again: Is there a way to be the church that engages the world, not by judgment nor accommodation but by becoming the good news in our culture?

The feast of Epiphany and its following season are not as well observed as they should be. Many of us associate Epiphany with the visit of the Magi but don't know much more about it. In this short volume, priest and theologian Fleming Rutledge expounds the primary biblical texts and narrative arc of the season, inviting us to discover anew "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

Robin Meyers, a rising star of liberal Christianity, restores the true mission of the faith that captures the heart of Jesus's concern for people over "right belief." Saving Jesus from the Church will resonate deeply with those who enjoy the works of John Shelby Spong, Marcus Borg, and John Dominic Crossan. 

Every church, every organization, has experienced them: betrayal, deception, grumbling, envy, exclusion. They make life together difficult and prevent congregations from developing the skills, virtues, and practices they need to nurture sturdy, life-giving communities.

Does God invite women to fully participate in all the assemblies of God? Among churches of Christ, the voices of women are typically silent and excluded from visible leadership in assemblies gathered for prayer and praise. In this book, John Mark Hicks tells the story of his own journey to understand how women have served God throughout the unfolding drama of Scripture. John Mark describes his movement from the exclusion of the voices of women and their leadership in the assembly to a limited inclusion, and finally to the full inclusion of those voices and their leadership. Along the way, ...

In Becoming a True Spiritual Community (formerly titled The Safest Place on Earth), Larry Crabb explores such a place, where God can heal disconnected people and allow them to reconnect with each other and, ultimately, with Him. In today's frenetic society, people rarely develop intimate...

In all the discussion of women’s roles in the Church, we’ve ignored a pressing question: Why don’t men go to church anymore? Why are the most common traits of the modern Church doves and quilts and little old ladies? Dr. Leon Podles documents the current feminized state of the Western Church, the masculine traits that once characterized Christianity, and how they can be restored. While the masculine exodus from churches is dangerous for the Church, it is also dangerous for society as a whole. Masculinity will out.

This vision of and invitation to the work of global missions challenges Christians everywhere to cultivate a holy ambition to preach Christ where he has not yet been named.

Originally written in 1656 and endorsed by generations of leading pastors as an essential book on the work of ministry, this abridged version of The Reformed Pastor presents the best of Richard Baxter’s timeless advice in simple, modern language that’s more accessible to a new generation of church leaders.

The prophets of old were not easy to listen to because they did not flatter. They did not cajole. They spoke hard words that often chafed and unsettled their listeners. Like the Old Testament prophets, and more recent prophetic voices like Frederick Douglass, Dr. Eric Mason calls the evangelical church to a much-needed reckoning.

Christianity in Crisis: 21st Century, like its predecessor, is a book that is not as much about the Faith teachers themselves but about Faith followers who inevitably become distracted, disillusioned, and discouraged. Nearly two decades ago, Hank Hanegraaff's award-winning Christianity in Crisis...

The term evangelical is often poorly defined and frequently comes with cultural and political baggage. As the label has become more controversial, many Christians have begun to wonder if they should abandon it altogether. Michael Reeves argues from a global, scriptural, and historical perspective that, while it's not necessary to discard the label altogether, Christians must return to the root of the term—the evangel, or "gospel"—in order to understand what it truly means.

Who Stole My Church? is a fictional story that tells the all-too-real tale of many church communities today. In this audiobook, you can walk alongside an imaginary community, led by real-life pastor Gordon MacDonald and his wife, Gail, and discover how to meet the needs of all believers without abandoning the dreams and desires of any.

This is a book of wisdom and insight that explains how providential are the trials through which the Catholic Church is now passing. All these themes receive new clarity and depth from Cardinal Ratzinger.

For years, Douglas Wilson was a credobaptist, even after accepting Calvinism and Postmillennialism. However, when he sat down to write a book on baptism, he came to question his own views and to realize that the Biblical teachings point in exactly the opposite direction. The result of that study is this audiobook, To a Thousand Generations.

For nearly 2000 years, virtually every Christian woman wore a headcovering during worship. Today, the practice has nearly disappeared. What happened? Dale Partridge walks Christians verse by verse through 1 Corinthians 11: 2-16 to help them understand the doctrine of headcoverings and how these biblical symbols visually preserve God’s design for men and women. But more than that, he demonstrates that when these visual symbols are eliminated from the church, society's definitions of men and women are forgotten.

Trendy new missions strategies are a dime a dozen, promising missionaries monumental results in record time. These strategies report explosive movements of people turning to Christ, but their claims are often dubious and they do little to ensure the health of believers or churches that remain. How can churches and missionaries address the urgent need to reach unreached people without falling for quick fixes?