Social Ministry

This sharp commentary on the rise and current decline of Western Civilization touches on historical moments - including the building of early universities in the Middle Ages and the American Revolution - and figures - including Augustine, Acquinas, Edmund Burke, and Adam Smith - that exemplify the faith-reason synthesis at the heart of Western Civilization, as well as the modern villains that threaten to destroy it.

On a dusty hilltop, Jesus once kick-started his church with a ragtag group of fishermen who called themselves "The Way". Within a remarkably short time, The Way became the world's most influential religious faith. Against impossible odds, that group of nobodies astonished the world. Two thousand years later - by any measure - Christianity is retreating on all fronts. The Way has lost its way. In The Way Back, media and marketing experts Phil Cooke and Jonathan Bock take a hard look at Christians today and reveal that we, as a salesforce, have lost our faith in our product.

Radical Islam has been waging war against our global civilization throughout history. Dr. Michael Youssef, a Coptic Christian who was born in Egypt and now leads a megachurch in America, knows from firsthand experience that radical Islamists have goals that many American Christians believe are “unthinkable”. He warns Western Christians that a third jihad underway, and its goal is to take over the West. The Third Jihad is a call for Christians to defend their families, protect their nation, and boldly share the good news of Jesus with their communities.

What’s happening in our world today is moving Christians to return to the foundations of our spiritual existence. Believers everywhere must get back to what matters most. We must always remember that our battle, at its most basic level, is spiritual. Discover 10 spiritual tools the Bible relates directly to our preparation for the Lord’s coming - 10 biblical survival strategies to live out in these last days, so you and your family can prosper in an increasingly decaying, darkening world.

Commuters. Tract homes. Strip malls. Is this what you think of when you think of the suburbs? Or do you think of safety, beauty, comfort, and ease? What does it look like to live a full Christian life in the suburbs? Suburbs reflect our good, God-given desire for a place to call home. And suburbs also reflect our own brokenness. This book is an invitation to look deeply into your soul as a suburbanite and discover what it means to live holy there.

The notion that some might have it better than others, for no good reason, offends our sensibilities. Yet, until we talk about privilege, we’ll never fully understand it or find our way forward. Amy Julia Becker welcomes us into her life, from the charm of her privileged southern childhood to her adult experience in the Northeast, and the denials she has faced as the mother of a child with special needs. She tells us how a life behind a white picket fence can restrict even as it protects and how it can prevent us from loving our neighbors well.

If you’ve ever been discouraged by Christianity - whether you’ve been a lifelong churchgoer or someone who left religion a long time ago - this book will change your life. God only spoke twice while Jesus was on earth. (We should probably sit up and pay attention.) Both times he said: Jesus is “marked by my love.” No tattoo. No handshake. No team colors or logos or code words. The only thing that marked Jesus Christ and the only thing that would mark his followers - love.

In Blood-Bought World, Toby J. Sumpter pinpoints the raw spots where modern-day Christians have allowed respectability, comfort, fear, love, fitness, authenticity, or other idols to become "fig leaves" to shield us from the persons of the trinity.

In Letters to an American Christian, Bruce Riley Ashford, author of One Nation Under God, addresses overarching issues of the relationship of Christianity and politics, speaks to the way historic Christian belief informs specific hot-button political issues, and challenges listeners to take seriously both our heavenly and earthly citizenships. Written as a series of letters to "Christian" - a young college student who is a new believer - Letters to an American Christian will help every listener think about how Christianity informs what it means to be an American.

As parents face the difficult reality of a broken home, a sense of being completely overwhelmed can shut down the perspective they need to find restoration. Parents need to know that they can choose to define this season of their lives, instead of becoming defined by circumstances. They can deliberately look toward God and come to a deeper understanding of His true nature, power, and intimate care.

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.

If asked, most of us want to make a difference, to live and love generously. But we get caught in the crazy rush of household routines, work demands, cranky attitudes, difficult people, exhaustion, worry, and pride, and once again we fail to love the people around us at all - let alone well.

Divergent politics, immigration issues, bullying, redefining family, racism, terrorism, new ways of categorizing people, and multiple other issues are splitting today's society. Many people feel like the country they live in today isn't the same one they lived in 20 years ago. They wonder what and how to think about these divisive issues and how to face the future without fear. They aren't sure how to love difficult people or those with differing beliefs. God of Tomorrow unpacks how to move forward in confidence, knowing that the God you trust today has already prepared tomorrow.

Too often we think of the Beatitudes as an instruction manual for living a good life, or some kind of spiritual ladder to climb. But in these announcements, our teacher is saying so much more. He is speaking personally and profoundly to the deep ache we all face when life gets broken and doesn't work out as we think it should. Join Stu Garrard on an adventure to discover the surprising meaning of these words.

There's lots of bad religion out there. But the answer isn't no religion, it's true religion: living out - publicly and communally - what we say we believe privately and individually. At a time when most people practice their faith in the extremes - either extremely publicly, with a legalistic, combative tone that creates division, or extremely privately, to the point that our faith becomes functionally irrelevant - award-winning author Greg Paul offers a vision for religion that is good for us and good for the world.

We’ve been upside down for so long that wrong has become right and right is considered foolish. Cultural disorientation has become pandemic. Children act like adults and adults act like children. Mother Earth is worshiped but motherhood is despised. Free speech may get you free room and board in jail. Life is denied and death is affirmed. These contradictions are neither without precedent nor cure. We can reorient ourselves and once again discover that standing upright on our own two feet is normal and natural.

Levi Benkert was playing with his children in the park when he received an urgent phone call from a friend asking him to drop everything and fly to Ethiopia to help organize a rescue orphanage for children destined to be murdered as part of a tribal superstition known as "mingi". In tribal culture, children and infants with even the slightest defect are considered "cursed" and are killed by their own parents, who fear allowing the children to live will cause bad luck to descend on the village. Moved by his friend's story, Levi packed his bags and left.

Discover today the ultimate prescription from the Great Physician. Many of the diseases sending us to doctors’ offices, surgical suites, and early graves are preventable—and we don’t need to be overmedicated to cure them. Using scientific evidence and commonsense explanations, The Ultimate Prescription strips back the misinformation about what makes us sick.

Texas businessman Mike Fechner had it all. Money. Investments. Prestige. Until he did the unthinkable. He sold his company and poured his life's earnings into a ministry for the poor. With a strong faith in God at his core, this millionaire turned missionary envisioned a long future serving the urban Dallas poor and the people of poverty-stricken Africa.

Lasting Marriage is an encouraging and insightful book that will help your marriage grow and strengthen in love and service to each other. You will learn how your marriage can become one of those success stories you hear about. You will be more in love with your spouse at your 50th wedding anniversary than on your wedding day. By knowing and applying God's meaning and purpose of marriage into your relationship, you will have a lasting marriage.