Аннотация

Why are Americans of African descent, as a group, not flourishing like other racial groups in America? Dr. J. M. Sparrow, in Rebels with Insufficient Cause, proposes that value formation through the biblical model of the family is lacking. The secular world is redefining and reinterpreting the social structures that God created in order for humans to enjoy maximum human flourishing. Every person or social group that chooses to ignore God's designs for humanity will experience chaos, but every person and social group that submits to God's designs for humanity will experience order. Americans of African descent are experiencing that chaos in greater measure than any other racial group. Since this book holds to a biblical worldview that teaches that all humans are created equal, Americans of African descent are not inherently more debased than other races. However, since the out-of-wedlock birth rate is astronomically higher in black communities than in others, they are experiencing a greater share of the chaos. Yet all is not lost. When Americans of African descent begin to hold up the truths of the Bible as normative and encourage future generations to practice the same, things will begin to turn around. Americans of African descent must choose to reject the victim mentality, see themselves as part of the larger American culture rather than as outsiders, and inculcate biblical values on their children in the midst of loving, supportive, and God-honoring family units.

Аннотация

We tend to look for God in the grand and spectacular, but most of our lives are filled with ordinary moments and routines: drinking coffee, reading a book, driving to work. Can we find God in the banalities of everyday life? In Finding God in the Ordinary, the author shows that we can, and that we must. Our world is not an ordinary world. Because it was spoken into being and maintained by the word of God's power (Heb 1:3), everything around us is always revealing the nature and character of the triune God. Our world is extraordinarily ordinary, always calling our attention to the God of glory and his work in the commonplace.

Аннотация

Little Man is a clumsy little man. He is always bumping into walls, stepping on toys, tripping over his own feet, and knocking things on the floor. But through a series of short misadventures–and with the help of those who love him–he learns that making mistakes is an important part of being human and that laughing at those mistakes is what helps a little boy grow into a little man.

Аннотация

When the topic of homeschooling comes up, there often seem to be various assumptions as to why we homeschool our children, which are simply wrong, or, at the most, inadequate. Yes, the government schools have bullies; yes, the government schools might be bigger targets for armed shootings; and yes, the government schools (even the ones in good school districts) have kids or teachers who will teach our children language or experiences that we would rather them not learn that early in life (or at all).
And while all those things are true and good reasons to educate our children at home, even if those problems were corrected, we–and many other parents–would still be committed to homeschooling our children.
Why?
The purpose of this book is to answer that question–and to answer it from the Scriptures.

Аннотация

This book chronicles the intersection of chaplaincy, autopathography (illness narratives), and stigmatized illness through the observations and stories of a chaplain working at a facility for people with HIV and AIDS. Trained as both an ethnographer and a chaplain, Audrey Elisa Kerr uses memoir to bridge the relationship between caregiver and patient, and allows stories of marginality to frame both her patients' stories and her own.

Аннотация

Knowing when God is speaking to you is sometimes easier said than done. Indeed, many people question how God speaks to believers today or, in some cases, if he does at all. Yet, for the believer, hearing God's voice is vital for direction in one's life and for spiritual development. In this book, Peterson offers a practical guide for hearing God's voice by presenting numerous anecdotal accounts demonstrating how this has played out in his own life. At the same time, Peterson's instruction is securely anchored in the precedent of Scripture.

Аннотация

What is your hope for your first five years of ministry? Thousands of people graduate every year from seminaries and divinity schools in the United States and immediately encounter a whole range of possibilities, issues, and decisions. Many new pastors experience stymied creativity, an endless list of tasks, the intransigence of church systems, personal and professional isolation, and the pressure that comes with dealing with the expectations of other people. As a result, many do not remain in ministry. How new pastors navigate the transition into ministry can determine their temperament and patterns for the rest of their pastoral careers. In Like Stepping Into A Canoe, Kincaid seeks to help new pastors stay connected to their call, to understand change and transitions, to value both restlessness and resilience, and to find fulfillment in the early years of their ministry. Kincaid's five practices of nimbleness correspond to the common transition into ministry issues:
For the stymied creativity, the practice of curiosity. For the barrage of tasks, the practice of clarity. For the intransigence of church systems, the practice of agility. For the isolation and loneliness, the practice of proximity. For the expectations of others, the practice of temerity.

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Redemption and Relationship is an edited collection of essays written by Wycliffe College faculty, originating as homilies within the morning prayer chapel service. Each meditation follows the narrative in the book of Exodus, centering on two principal aspects of Israel's experience with Yhwh during this significant period in its national life: their redemption from Egypt and their discovery of Yhwh's identity through their relationship with him. At the end of each meditation the reader will find several questions which help facilitate further reflections for one's devotional life or a small group setting.

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The church's witness to the world falters in an age of doctrinal uncertainty, emerging experiments of life forms and behavior norms, and consequent cultural pressures. Against the disturbing influences that result, two questions demand response as the church's relation to conflicting intellectual fashions is brought under scrutiny. First, on the level of belief foundations, what is to be understood as the deposit of truth that has been entrusted to the church in the gospel it has historically been set to declare? Second, on the level of actual testimony and procedure, to what extent is the doctrinal foundations it professes reflected in the statements the church inserts into the competing complex of explanatory systems. What, it is to be asked, is the place, office, function, and authority of the church in the cultural nexus into which the divine mandate that defines the church has placed it?
In Belief and Evangelism Douglas Vickers addresses insightfully many of the relationships that result from the bearing of those questions on the integrity of the church in its professed belief and evangelism. Numerous questions that arise from those relationships demand expanded consideration in a full-orbed statement of the gospel.

Аннотация

The «summer sermons» have been delivered in the Presbyterian Church of Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania, over a period of fifteen years. When someone first arrives in Eagles Mere for the summer, people ask how their «winter» has been–winter meaning the whole time that has elapsed since the previous summer. In the author's case, «winter» means Nashville, Tennessee, where he has lived since 1965 when he joined the faculty of Vanderbilt Divinity School, retiring after thirty-eight years.
"Winter Thoughts" consists of autobiographical reflections on three topics: lives, theologies, and politics. The lives are those of Peter and Eva Hodgson. The longest section, «Theologies,» describes the various influences and directions the author's work has taken in systematic and historical theology. «Politics» reflects on the decline of the liberal democratic consensus. The whole is loosely held together by an underlying question: How is God efficaciously present in history without violating the fabric of history?