Religion Community

There are plenty of reasons to criticize, judge, and even walk away from the church. Many of us have been hurt and rejected. We may see church as insular and irrelevant. Despite this, Kevin Makins believes that the church still matters - perhaps more than ever. If you've been burned or burned out by the church, if you've been silenced or misunderstood, if you've left or never even joined in the first place, this candid, hopeful audiobook is your invitation to consider what you miss out on when you give up on church - and what the church misses out on when it gives up on you.

Is there any hope for our country? Is our country doomed to forsake God and Biblical principles? What is the future for our children and grandchildren? Is it possible that our country can return to the gospel of Jesus Christ and embrace Biblical values? The Great Revivals in our past did exactly that and can show us the proper path for our future. Without the Great Revivals, we would be a completely different country today. And these revivals did not occur by chance, but by a mighty movement from God as his people preserved in prayer.

Lessons from History traces the Israelites from the covenant at Sinai, through Babylonian exile, Maccabean revival, and Roman dispersion. In parallel, the narrative follows the trajectory of Islamic civilization from the Prophetic era and Rightly Guided Caliphate to periods of fragmentation and modern reform movements. Dr. Ahmad identifies a recurring pattern: spiritual strength leading to political ascendancy, moral decline resulting in subjugation, and revival emerging from sincere repentance.

Everyone needs advice, and everyone gives advice. In a world of dysfunctional families, churches, and societies, professional counseling is in great demand as a solution to our problems. The weak link in this solution is the inability to determine a counselor’s qualifications apart from his professional accreditation. Academics can give you knowledge, but no learning or books can give you wisdom. There are no graduate degrees in love or compassion. You cannot get a PhD in virtue. However, these things are available to everyone freely through Christ.

Nearly all churches and ministries consider themselves dedicated to evangelism, and many explicitly include outreach in their mission statements. But few are actually bearing fruit. Kevin Harney diagnoses this problem and offers guidance for multiplying the outreach impact of churches. Organic...

Singleness isn't a problem to be solved. It's not a phase, a stage, or a season. It's just another route to togetherness. Because regardless of relationship status, we all have the same desire for nearness, understanding, and love. We all need friendships and dinner parties, celebrations and commiseration, lament and commitment. We all need community—and we all need Jesus.

Known affectionately as the Apostle of Love, evangelist and preacher R. C. Chapman was a good friend of missionary Hudson Taylor, the mentor of that famous man of faith George Müller, and the person Charles Spurgeon called “the saintliest man I ever knew.” Reminiscent of Samuel Rutherford’s The Loveliness of Christ, Chapman’s collection of brief meditations instructs and encourages listeners through the simple truths of Scripture.

Our culture is undergoing radical change. We see evidence of this cultural revolution all around us as values, norms, language, and laws all shift beneath our feet. But this revolution didn't come out of nowhere—and it isn't too late to stop it. The Progressive Miseducation of America is an eye-opening look at how our universities have polluted the cultural landscape we live in today—and how Christians can take strategic actions in response.

This book demonstrates how two overlooked ministry models—base ecclesial communities of the Global South in the late twentieth century and hush harbors of the US Deep South during antebellum times—offer proven strategies for the twenty-first-century church. These ministry models provide insight into the creation and sustenance of vital Christian community, particularly for those seeking indigenous culturally-rooted models, and show how to and show how to integrate vibrant Christ-centered faith and mission with world-changing social justice and political action.

A smart, irreverent, and accessible guide to thinking more deeply about how religion permeates and shapes the world around us –and why you need to understand the work it's doing Religion lurks in the floorboards of our daily lives, whether we want it to or not. A departure from more...

Driven by a passion for the body of Christ, Frank Viola has written some of today's most authoritative and celebrated works on the growing home, organic, and missional church movements. Now Viola shares practical keys to a healthy and successful church plant. Viola contends that many congregations today are struggling to survive, not because of bad planning, but poor planting. He presents an essential guide for starting and nourishing organic churches in any culture.

Our bodies are designed to heal. But while our skinned knees easily heal, it can sometimes feel like our emotional and relational wounds are left gaping open, broken beyond repair. If our bodies instinctively know how to heal physical injuries, could they also help us understand how to restore painful emotional and relational ruptures? Physician Jennie McLaurin and scientist Cymbeline T. Culiat present Designed to Heal: a fascinating look at how the restorative processes of the body can model patterns we may adapt to heal the acute and chronic wounds of our social bodies.

The Vanishing reveals the plight and possible extinction of Christian communities across Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Palestine after 2,000 years in their historical homeland. Some of the countries that first nurtured and characterized Christianity - along the North African Coast, on the Euphrates...

If you thought that–after believing in Christ–your salvation was then up to you, be prepared for a surprise. The Gospel 'is not a proposition, but an announcement’ and this book unpacks the wonder of its message. David Hewitt is the director of a contemporary church called Wellsprings Community, based in Newcraighall, Edinburgh, UK.

Like so many saints before him, Samuel Rutherford did his best work while he was imprisoned for the gospel. While in exile from his hometown, he wrote hundreds of letters to his friends and members of his congregation. Christians of all walks have drawn strength from Rutherford's letters, which were printed several years after his death in 1661 and have been called “the most remarkable series of devotional letters that the literature of the Reformed churches can show.” The Loveliness of Christ is a collection of short excerpts from these letters.

In Communities of Hope we discover how a Nottingham foodbank became more than just a resource, it became a community of hope. Christian-led social action ministries make a huge contribution to society. But how do we develop new communities where Jesus is known and loved from these activities? Tracing the story of his own experience working with a foodbank that expanded in many directions, author Nigel Adams shares how Hope House in Nottingham offers such an inclusive welcome to all that it has grown into a community of hope.

Would you believe that 86 percent of LGBT people - from the proud marcher at the Pride Parade to the quiet, closeted teen - spent their childhood in church? More than half of them left those religious communities as adults; three out of four would be happy to come back. For decades now, we have found ourselves caught up in a culture war: us versus them. Good news: There is no them. Our culture war has been a civil war: us versus us. And there is a path toward meaningful peace.

Revival starts with a choice to gaze at God — our Way Maker, Miracle Worker, Promise Keeper, and Light Bringer. Seeing God in these multifaceted ways helps us release His wonder into a broken world. It calls us higher to trust in His Promises, wider to discover His ways, and deeper to strengthen our faith. Way Maker, co-authored by mother and son, Debra Green OBE and Josh Green, is full of honest & inspiring stories of how God leads us through mountaintop miracles and dark valleys, walking with us every step of the way.

Dr. Clifford Brickman is an author and narrator of the acclaimed best seller, The Still, Soft Voice. Dr. Brickman is a healthcare practitioner and an individual and family therapist in Chicago at Millennium Park. Which script do or might you follow? A weakening script, or something else.

Muslims who come to Christ face momentous spiritual, psychological and social obstacles that drive many to abandon their faith. Often conversion and discipleship are framed by individualistic Western models that do not acknowledge the communal cultural forces that constrain and shape new believers. Effective discipleship requires a more relational, holistic process of Christian identity development and spiritual formation in community.