Religion Community

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.

Whether we know it or not, all of us have had heart trouble. The good news is that Jesus Christ is the best heart specialist of all time. In this collection, Bessie examines the Bible’s references to the heart: what God says about our condition, and what provision he has made for us in Jesus Christ. It is no-nonsense Bible teaching with an emphasis on practical application.

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.

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.

It is no secret that the moral fabric of Western culture has unraveled at breakneck speed during recent decades. And while we have made progress addressing some issues such as sexual harassment, many other cultural changes are leaving us anxious and concerned. Mass shootings. Drug addictions. Sexual confusion. While there may be no easy solutions to our complex social malaise, we are by no means powerless. Through prayer, the all-wise and all-powerful Creator of our universe has given otherwise ordinary people an amazing opportunity to reverse the negative tide.

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.

Questions about what the Bible says about the LGBT community abound in Christian circles. Pastors and ministry leaders are flooded with inquiries. Parents and loved ones ask how to respond to a son or daughter asking about reassignment surgery or struggling with same-sex attraction. And many individuals question their own LGBT lifestyle choices.

We were created for community. So why do we want to be alone? The Bible tells the story of the immense power of human relationships and God's love for the church. Douglas Bursch presents a timely, insightful and practical theology of community. He examines the relational implications of human existence, sin, salvation, discipleship, evangelism, and other key biblical concepts. Doug also shares unfiltered stories concerning his personal weaknesses and the relational struggles he has faced as a pastor.

When people live in community moved by the gospel and marked by the Spirit, great things happen. They commit to one another. They grieve together, sing together, eat, pray, and play together. They love, serve, honor, encourage, and provide for each other gladly. And they live on mission together. Hearts are healed, walls come down, and outsiders come in. No competition. No pretense. No vain conceit. Just full hearts breaking bread and giving freely.

Segundo Villanueva was born in 1927 in a tiny farming village perched in the Andes; when he was seventeen, his father was murdered and Segundo was left with little more than a Bible as his inheritance. This Bible launched Segundo on a lifelong obsession to find the true message of God contained in its pages. He found himself looking for answers outside the Catholic Church, whose hierarchy and colonial roots embodied the gaping social and racial inequities of Peruvian society.

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...

American life and politics are suffering from a raging knowledge crisis, and the church is no exception. In Untrustworthy, Bonnie Kristian unpacks this crisis and explores ways to combat it in our own lives, families, and church communities. Drawing from her extensive experience in journalism and her training as a theologian, Kristian explores social media, political and digital culture, online paranoia, and the press itself. She explains factors that contribute to our confusion and helps Christians pay attention to how we consume content and think about truth.

In every position of power—from executives and world leaders to church elders and parents—lies the potential for life-giving leadership or destructive corruption. Driven by sinful pride or opportunism, many people abuse their God-given authority, harming the ones they're called to lead and contributing to a skeptical attitude toward leadership. The answer to bad authority, however, is not no authority, but good authority—the kind that, according to Scripture, causes those under it to flourish.

The role of organized religion in our society is undergoing monumental changes. Church attendance is decreasing at unprecedented rates. At the same time, there is an increase in the number of people who identify as “spiritual but not religious.” Clearly, the need for religion remains as strong as ever, yet more and more, people are seeking spirituality elsewhere. Why? What accounts for these trends? Can organized religion still play a valuable role in today’s world?

The role of organized religion in our society is undergoing monumental changes. Church attendance is decreasing at unprecedented rates. At the same time, there is an increase in the number of people who identify as “spiritual but not religious.” Clearly, the need for religion remains as strong as ever, yet more and more, people are seeking spirituality elsewhere. Why? What accounts for these trends? Can organized religion still play a valuable role in today’s world?

It's been 2,000 years after most Jews were exiled from Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land, and two generations since the Holocaust led to the founding of modern Israel. Still, small yet resilient Jewish communities continue to endure and thrive around the world - sometimes in the most unlikely places, and often in the face of extreme persecution. Journalist Annika Hernroth-Rothstein has spent two years of her life uncovering the hidden beauty of these largely forgotten Jewish enclaves.

Activist Terence Lester knows it's hard to change the world. But mobilizing and acting together empowers us to do what we can't do as isolated individuals. Lester looks at the obstacles that prevent us from getting involved, and he offers practical ways that we can accomplish things together as groups, families, churches, and communities. He helps us find our place in the larger picture, discerning the unique ways we can contribute and make a difference. By connecting with our neighbors and discovering our own paths of service, we can drastically change how we follow Christ.

Whether your idea of camping is in a tiny tent, a luxury RV, or somewhere in between, nothing beats having fun with family and friends in the fresh air. Relive favorite memories of childhood vacations and get excited for future outdoor adventures with these humorous and heartwarming recollections from best-selling author and camping enthusiast Melody Carlson. Pack your gear and hit the road with Melody.

In Sticky Church, author and pastor Larry Osborne makes the case that closing the back door of your church is even more important than opening the front door wider. He offers a time-tested strategy for doing so: sermon-based small groups that dig deeper into the weekend message and tightly velcro members to the ministry. It’s a strategy that enabled Osborne’s congregation to grow from a handful of people to one of the larger churches in the nation - without any marketing or special programming.

The way Jesus tells it, if we give up on belonging in order to follow him, we'll find ourselves belonging anyway. We might not belong the way other people do, with normal homes and normal families and normal ways of fitting in. But we'll belong in a way that's a hundred times better. We'll be fully in place because we know we are out of place. We'll belong like aliens.