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Crystal Downing brings the postmodern theory of semiotics within reach for today's evangelists. Following the idea of the sign through Scripture, church history and the academy, Downing shows you how signs work and how sensitivity to their dynamics can make or break an attempt to communicate truth.
Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling is a comprehensive guide that will equip God’s people to use biblical truth to change lives. More than that, this book will increase people’s confidence in the sufficiency and relevancy of God’s Word to address real-life issues in a multitude of counseling situations. Readers of this book will: Understand clearly why they should embrace biblical counseling Be encouraged to trust God’s Word to provide rich insight for living in the midst of even the most difficult challenges Enjoy the relevant, pastoral, and theological teaching they have come to appreciate from such noted authors as James MacDonald, John Piper, Mark Dever, and Elyse Fitzpatrick The 28 chapters blend theological wisdom and practical expertise. The first half of the book emphasizes a practical theology of biblical counseling; the second half highlights a practical methodology of biblical counseling. Though accessible to all Christians, the book will especially appeal to pastors and church leaders, counseling practitioners, students, and educators.
Search for the Truth shares one method of tearing down the gates of deceit that grip our world. This book is a compliation of articles which have been printed in dozens of public newspapers and church newsletters showing how well the evidence from science supports a Biblical creation viewpoint. Permission is granted for others to do the same. Also included is a sample of the many letters to the editor that resulted and the impact upon readers. This book is divided into six sections corresponding to the different scientific disciplines dealing with the evidence for, or relevance of, creation. Each section contains individual articles about evidence for creation from these varied scientific disciplines. Anything in this book can be copied and shared with others or put to use as suggested in the last section by printing it in local newspapers. The short chapters between the Searcharticles provide a running narrative of how this book came to be, how God has used my life and this material in miraculous ways, and how you can put the same information to use.
Incivility among Christians has been referred to as a cannibal culture, venomous, pandemic, and anything but Christlike. Why is it so hard for Christians to have a civil conversation anymore? We need the humility to open our hands and ask for help, the boldness to lift up our hand to incivility and say, Enough, and the confidence to hold out our hand to offer help and guidance to others. Thats hard to do with a clenched fist. Hand Over Fist provides the Christian community with tools to recognize various forms of conflict, interpret those conflicts appropriately, and engage those conflicts through a process that equips and empowers Christians to participate in civil discourse. And the solution to all of it is in the palm of your hand.
The United States is currently undergoing the most rapid demographic shift in its history. By 2050, white Americans will no longer comprise a majority of the population. Instead, they'll be the largest minority group in a country made up entirely of minorities, followed by Hispanic Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans. Past shifts in America's demographics always reshaped the county's religious landscape. This shift will be no different. Soong-Chan Rah's book is intended to equip evangelicals for ministry and outreach in our changing nation. Borrowing from the business concept of "cultural intelligence," he explores how God's people can become more multiculturally adept. From discussions about cultural and racial histories, to reviews of case-study churches and Christian groups that are succeeding in bridging ethnic divides, Rah provides a practical and hopeful guidebook for Christians wanting to minister more effectively in diverse settings. Without guilt trips or browbeating, the book will spur individuals, churches, and parachurch ministries toward more effectively bearing witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Good News for people of every racial and cultural background. Its message is positive; its potential impact, transformative.
What if Goliath had beheaded David? Daniel had been attacked by the lion? Jonah eaten by the whale? What if God isnt just the rescuer you were taught about in Sunday School? Francine is hiding from God. Mike is running from God. Theirs is a mid-life romance that led to passion, marriage and a blended family of seven children. This book puts flesh and blood on loss and takes the hands of readers and shows how to place everything - including life itself - into the hands of their maker. The Truth Swing pierces the Sunday School illusion that God always spares his children from suffering. Instead the story demonstrates that God is with us through our suffering even to the end.
Nothing embodies the mystery of faith quite like prayer. Although sometimes an elusive practice that may baffle and confuse, prayer is not otherworldly, for it is in prayer, in talking and listening to our infinite, loving creator, that we truly find our way in this world. In the twenty-first issue of The Other Journal, contributors consider the transformative mystery of prayer in all its questions and practicalities. They carefully think through intercessory prayer and prayerful political theology and what it means to commune with God and one another. They dance, laugh, and pray like fools. The issue features essays and reviews by Emmanuel Katongole, Erin Lane, Timothy McGee, L. Roger Owens, Andrew Prevot, Carl Raschke, and Lauren Smelser White; interviews by Kate Rae Davis, Ashleigh Elser, Jen Grabarczyk, and SueJeanne Koh with Sarah Coakley, Peter Ochs, Dominique Ovalle, and Richard Twiss; and fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry by Mary M. Brown, Kate Rae Davis, Denise Frame Harlan, Katie Manning, Tania Moore, Jillena Rose, Nicholas Samaras, and Robert Vander Lugt.
As leaders, our capacity to hear is often muddied by an inability to acknowledge our own insufficiencies and emotions. Jesus knew his God-given purpose and emotional character so deeply that he was able to operate out of these foundations boldly and instinctively. Jesus's infallible Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Emotional Quotient (EQ) allowed him to focus on a third concept called "Audience Quotient" (AQ): an individual's ability to focus consistently, completely, and effectively on others. As a church, we are failing a twenty-first-century culture that is defined by an unprecedented interconnectedness and speed of information. We are witnessing a scramble to manipulate and manage information that demands renewed integrity, and yet the church is seen as hypocritical, judgmental, and irrelevant. If we are going to earn a voice, the future church cannot be about the components of church at all, but instead the individual souls within the church--pastors included. The better we ground ourselves in the truth of who we were created to be (IQ, EQ, and AQ), the better able we will be to love God fully and love those around us as we love ourselves. That, after all, is what Jesus commanded us to do.
