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Liturgical Elements for Reformed Worship is a series of four liturgical resources: three consisting of liturgical elements for Years A, B, and C, and a fourth, the first such resource to support the implementation of Year D: A Quadrennial Supplement to the Revised Common Lectionary (Cascade Books). Each volume consists of a Call to Worship, Opening Prayer, Call to Confession, Prayer of Confession, and Words of Assurance, with Years A-C including additional elements (A Prayer in Preparation for Worship, The Offering, Prayer of Dedication, and a Blessing) suitable for Presbyterian, Reformed, and other Protestant worship. Each of these practical volumes is intended for use by pastors, liturgists, and other planners and leaders of worship.

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How do we undergird Christian enthusiasm with Christian substance? Brief Christian Histories combines biblical and ecclesial history in a single volume, taking readers through 4000 years of our religion's history using four themes of interest: WHO has led us? HOW have we been guided ethically? WHAT have been our faith practices and pieties? WHERE have we interacted with culture, and to what effect? Reading any one chapter will give readers a feel for the Christian narrative as a whole. Reading two or more narratives will broaden readers' understanding of where we have come from–all to help understand this big religion of ours, deepen ourselves in it, and keep our faith fresh and moving forward. We move for God's New Order (basileia)–about which Jesus taught, for which he taught us to pray, and into which he invites our enthusiastic, substantive sojourning.

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The Christian state church emerged from the religion of pagan Rome. A declining western empire gave the church political power, but provoked conflict between church and state. In the Scottish post-Reformation Stewart monarchy, the king claimed to control the church by divine right. Covenanters exchanged state control for a theocracy built on the idea that Scotland, like Israel, had a God-given destiny. As «the purest kirk in Christendom,» nation and kirk were the political and religious faces of one body. Like pre-Christian Israel, Scotland was one of the only two nations ever covenanted to the Lord. This idea owed more to political pressure than theological insight. Today, a mindset survives which still refuses to separate kirk from nation and thereby undermines the missionary calling. The urgent need is to recognize that God made a covenant with Israel alone, and to think in terms of «a second Israel» was to misunderstand the development of church history. Today's Kirk must see herself not as «the representative of the Christian faith of the Scottish people . . . to bring the ordinances of religion to the people in every parish of Scotland,» but as the representative of Christ with an apostolic mandate for evangelism.

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Narratives in Genesis 1-11 have been misunderstood in many ways, but they especially have been used to oppress women and African Americans and to present a God of wrath and judgment. This commentary seeks to explain the real message behind those narratives, which is one that speaks of human dignity and equality, that affirms monotheism, that criticizes kings and tyrants, that declares our oneness with the animal realm and nature, and that proclaims a powerful message of divine grace with a deity personally involved in the human world. Humor may also be found in some of these stories. These biblical passages can be best explicated by close reading as well as by knowledge of comparable stories from the ancient Near East and from the classical world, and finally by knowledge of the concomitant social and political values connected with those other myths and narratives.

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We need a whole new mind to thrive in the twenty-first century, says Daniel Pink. As theologians we cannot escape the transition from the information age to the conceptual age of the twenty-first century. In the information age the theologian could give answers based on the best information, but in the twenty-first century information is on hand. Empathy and understanding however are in scant supply today. In the information age there was no room for doubt; certainty was the hallmark of a successful information worker. But today uncertainty is a certainty, thanks to globalization, the information revolution and even quantum mechanics. Uncertainty has been grafted into our collective consciousness. It therefore cannot be theological business as usual. It cannot be about giving answers; it is more about finding the best questions to be answered. It cannot be about winning theological arguments; it is more about living in God's regenerative story while we find ourselves in the liminal space of uncertainty. It cannot be about holding strong opinions; it is more about creating space for life, to allow God's generosity to flow through us. Out of My Mind tells the story of such a transition.

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Tension in the Tank meets us where we are on a faith journey that includes doubt and pain. Here is a voice that speaks to the beauty and value of interfaith understanding and liberal social values while digging deep into the heart of Christian mysticism. If we are living a spirituality that matters, it will affect the way we treat ourselves and the way we treat each other. Tension in the Tank is about faith that is relevant, secure, and ever-evolving. It is a guidebook for building meaningful relationships with Spirit, self, and each other. Radically open to possibility and wonder, Tension in the Tank offers the opportunity and the challenge to live our faith in such a way that the walls between us come down and we become pursuers and enactors of universal justice.

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What does it mean to preach the gospel today? How do we shape vibrant congregations? How do we preachers not merely survive, but thrive?
For nearly a quarter century, Chris Neufeld-Erdman has preached the gospel–sustaining congregational life and emboldening Christian witness in the midst of this turbulence. He's also taught seminarians and mentored working pastors. His theology and practice of preaching is hammered out on the anvil of real life. It's tested. True. Useful.
In this book, a veteran pastor meditates on everything from exegesis and sermon preparation to the way preachers might preach after tsunamis, hurricanes, and earthquakes. He reflects on what it means, for example, to host the text in the midst of what feels like a terminal state of war and violence, both abroad and at home, as well as the task of preaching in the midst of the massive anxiety produced by economic uncertainty and political gridlock.
Here's a book that will inspire and guide you as a wise, empowered preacher–an ordinary agent of the extraordinary gospel.

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In Who Needs a Missionary? Robert Reese reviews his own missionary experiences in Zimbabwe and finds that the best results came from an indigenous leader who had the least contact with missionaries. Reese conducted interviews with this leader to let him speak for himself about his journey with God in ministry; these interviews form the heart of the book. Mostly without missionary guidance, this Zimbabwean Christian of humble origins journeyed from his conversion to Christ to arrive at a transformation of his home community. Reese draws lessons from the life of this remarkable leader, who has enjoyed so few earthly advantages, yet has been rich in faith and fruitfulness. God has determined that the gospel will work all by itself whenever and wherever it is planted in human hearts.

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The mission of the church to the Jews is a unique one. The biblical, theological and practical issues differ from those with other groups because Israel was, and is, the people to whom God gave his promises. However, the unbelief of many Jewish people and the persecution of Jewish people in the name of Jesus makes mission to the Jews uniquely difficult, requiring considerable sensitivity. But it is also full of hope, for there is promise of both a remnant and a fullness coming to faith in Jesus the Messiah. The lectures in this book were part of a series organized by Christian Witness to Israel in Australia to explore this unique challenge and to encourage an intelligent, heartfelt, and persevering interest in mission to the Jewish people. The studies focus on Biblical, theological, historical, and current issues. They were named the Edersheim Lectures after Alfred Edersheim, the well-known nineteenth-century Jewish Christian scholar and author who served in Romania as a missionary and in the United Kingdom as a pastor. Following in his example, The Gospel and Israel engages in an in-depth examination of themes relating to the Jewish people and the Christian faith.

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God Is Here to Stay offers new insights into one of humankind's most profound questions: Does God exist? During the past ten years, theists and new atheists have argued to prove or disprove God's existence. Examining the pros and cons of each side leads to one overarching conclusion: The existence of God can be neither proven nor disproven with complete certainty, even though both sides draw on modern science to support their views. Drs. Thomas R. McFaul and Al Brunsting approach the question of God's existence from an entirely fresh perspective. They examine scientific knowledge in several areas ranging across the physical sciences and human experience to explain how the universe operates within very narrow and highly structured boundaries. Most importantly, they create an innovative «L-M Confidence Scale» to establish confidence levels, not proofs, on how scientific discoveries impact belief in God. McFaul and Brunsting describe the three stages of scientific evolution. In stage 1, the world's religions developed divergent pre-scientific views. Modern science started with stage 2, during which atheists predicted that science would eventually eradicate religion. In stage 3, the authors show how science, evolution, and belief in God have become increasingly integrated and mutually supportive.

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