Church Theology

Three decades after leaving the Mormon faith, Latayne Colvett Scott looks back to her original journey out of Mormonism and the reasons why she left. Revised and updated, this third edition of The Mormon Mirage presents both a fascinating inside look at Mormonism and new and formidable evidence against its claims and teachings.

In this six-session Bible study, Kat offers a fresh perspective of encouragement that aligns with scripture from beginning to end: “Don’t be afraid. Give me your everything.” She urges women to wholeheartedly love the lord beyond our heart and soul, as well as with our mind and strength. If you have ever felt challenged or insecure following your dreams, or in your career, or in your personal pursuit of God, this is your study. Dare to answer his invitation to show up daily, holding nothing back.

Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year. We live in conflicted times. Our newsfeeds are filled with inequality, division, and fear. We want to make a difference and see justice restored because Jesus calls us to be a peacemaking and reconciling people. But how do we do this? Based on their work with diverse churches, colleges, and other organizations, Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Graham Hill offer Christian practices that can bring healing and hope to a broken world.

Joy Unspeakable focuses on the aspects of the Black church that point beyond particular congregational gatherings toward a mystical and communal spirituality not exclusive to any denomination. This mystical aspect of the black church is deeply implicated in the wellbeing of African American people but is not the focus of their intentional reflection. Moreover, its traditions are deeply ensconced within the historical memory of wider society and can be found in Coltrane's riffs, Malcolm's exhortations, the Black Lives Matter Movement and the presidency of Barack Hussein Obama.

We are living in historic times. Not since the Civil Rights Movement of the '60s has our country been as vigorously engaged in the reconciliation conversation. There is a great opportunity right now for culture to change, to be a more perfect union. However, it cannot be done without the church, because the faith of the people is more powerful than any law government can enact.

Está creciendo el interés, la conciencia y la demanda por el conocimiento de que la justicia social es algo que sale de la fe cristiana. Pero esto no es algo nuevo. Por quinientos años la cultura e identidad latina han sido moldeadas por sus desafíos al statu quo religioso, socioeconómico y político, ya sea en oposición al colonialismo español, las dictaduras latinoamericanas, el imperialismo estadounidense en Centro América, la opresión de los trabajadores de campo o la explotación actual de inmigrantes indocumentados.

This illuminating and insightful audiobook analyzes problems with the culture's underlying worldviews and suggests how Christians can offer solutions to current problems as a way to rebuild culture and faith.

The viral upswing of the "spiritual but not religious" trend has cast religion as going rapidly out of style. Yet even in his own desert of deconstruction, Zach couldn't shake his desire for a spiritual home. His search ultimately led him to look behind the statistics, where Zach found an astonishing undercurrent subversively at work.

In this groundbreaking, inspiring book, Robin R. Meyers, the senior minister of Oklahoma City’s Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ, shows how listeners can move from a theology of obedience to one of consequence. He argues that we need to stop seeing our actions as a means for pleasing a distant God and rediscover how God has empowered us to care for ourselves and the world. Drawing on stories from his decades of active ministry, Meyers captures how the struggles of ordinary people hint at how we can approach faith as a radical act of trust in a God who is all around us.

Bad Guys of the Bible examines how anger, bitterness, greed, pride, an unforgiving spirit, and a desire for vengeance led these men down dark paths that ultimately shipwrecked their lives. As a remedy for such errant emotions, the book explains how we can apply the Gospel to critical times in our lives when our feelings tend to lead us away from the Lord.

From Genesis to Revelation, a unified thread unfolds that teaches us what clothing means. In Beyond Modesty, Scott Brown traces the biblical theology of clothing from Adam and Eve in the Garden to the white-robed saints in Revelation.

For five hundred years, Latina/o culture and identity have been shaped by their challenges to the religious, socio-economic, and political status quo, whether in opposition to Spanish colonialism, Latin American dictatorships, US imperialism in Central America, the oppression of farmworkers, or the current exploitation of undocumented immigrants. Christianity has played a significant role in that movement at every stage. Robert Chao Romero, the son of a Mexican father and a Chinese immigrant mother, explores the history and theology of what he terms the "Brown Church."

One of the most fiercely debated topics in modern Christianity centers on the inclusion of sexual and gender minorities into the full life of the church. Dozens of scholars have stepped forward, seeking to make a compelling case for LGBT+ inclusion based on their contextualized reading of the six traditional passages that refer to homosexuality in Scripture. But these arguments alone fall short of providing a comprehensive framework for radical inclusion of LGBT+ people.

Does the phrase church discipline sound like an oxymoron? The church’s message is about grace, we reason, while discipline feels like the opposite of grace. In fact, Jesus taught his disciples to practice church discipline because it’s one way congregations grow in holiness and imitate God’s own love. In this audiobook, Jonathan Leeman presents biblical answers to questions about the nature and application of church discipline, conveying that Scripture presents church discipline as both loving and necessary.

Religious traditions in the United States are characterized by ongoing tension between assimilation to the broader culture and defiant rejection of cultural incursions. However, legal theorist and Catholic theologian Cathleen Kaveny contends there is a third possibility - a culture of engagement - that accommodates and respects tradition. It also recognizes the need to interact with culture to remain relevant and to offer critiques of social, political, legal, and economic practices.

The Bible is filled with stories of people who walked away from face-to-face encounters with Jesus thinking he was a total jerk. This book explores the premise that if Jesus were to return today as he did two thousand years ago, he (or she!) would meet the same fate. That is, his own people would fail to recognize who he is, they would argue with him incessantly, and seek to have him destroyed. Written by a seasoned atheist turned Christian, this book seeks to help non-Christians have a better understanding of Christianity, including why we don't always do as we should.

Il existe plusieurs livres pour nous aider avec l’étude de la Bible, la prière, le service ou l’évangélisation, mais peu pour nous aider à chanter. Ce domaine mérite de recevoir autant d’attention ; il est même lié à l’épanouissement de ces autres sphères de notre vie spirituelle. Keith et Kristyn Getty présentent le chant comme un aspect vital de notre communion avec Dieu. Ils nous donnent des conseils bibliques, pratiques et centrés sur l’Évangile pour promouvoir le chant et l’adoration dans l’Église ainsi que dans notre vie personnelle et familiale.

America has become a beautiful mosaic filled with many colors and ethnicities - but does your church reflect this change? Are you longing to be a cross-cultural leader who can guide the church into a multicolored world for the sake of the gospel? Best-selling author and pastor Dr. Derwin Gray calls all churches and their leaders to grow out of ignorance, classism, racism, and greed into a flourishing, vibrant, and grace-filled community of believers.

Sustainable Church is a thorough Bible-based exposition of how the ministry of every church should be organically built around all of the Spirit-gifted followers of Jesus within that local body. It critiques the shallow pragmatism and unsustainability of nonorganic churches and biblically showcases the sustainability of the organic church.

Lyn Brakeman was among the first women to enter the ordination process in the Episcopal Church just after the General Convention voted in 1976 that women could be priests. The bishop of her diocese had voted against ordaining women priests, and hospitality toward female aspirants was guarded at best. So why would a 40-year-old institutional naïf, suburban housewife, and mother of four enter such unfriendly territory to seek priestly ordination at a time when her personal life was in chaos?