In many churches, the work of evangelism and social justice is relegated to clergy, staff, or special committees. Rarely do most members of the laity believe they should or even want to engage in the tasks of evangelism and social justice. In this volume, LaBoy contends that participation in baptism and Eucharist mandates for all Christians–and those who are Wesleyan in their orientation, in particular–that evangelism and social justice are not ...
When a fire severely burned a small boy and displaced his family, it left lingering marks on the entire neighborhood. As a community pastor, Dr. Kevin Yoho not only witnessed the visible signs of despair but also came to understand the pain hidden in the flames. He will be your guide as you step outside your organizational structures through the practice of what he calls reneighboring. Crayons for the City is about training leaders to be a new k ...
"In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed" (Mark 1:35). Jesus taught by his words and actions. He went by himself to pray when he was tired, when faced with upcoming trying events, or when he just wanted to be alone in the presence of his Lord. He gave us guidance about what to pray, how to pray, and why to pray, and was very familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures. Thus, if w ...
Rebelling against a century of Old Testament scholarship, Isaac M. Kikawada and Arthur Quinn persuasively argue that the first eleven chapters of Genesis are not a literary patchwork by different editors as widely supposed, but are the work of one author of extraordinary subtlety and skill. Comparing Genesis 1-11 with primeval histories from the ancient Near East, Kikawada and Quinn urge their readers to appreciate the ingenuity of Genes ...
How do you imagine the unimaginable or touch the untouchable? Through the characteristic use of teaching methods identified in Wisdom Literature, Adrian Hinkle discusses how religious training is described within the Hebrew Bible. Through her vivid discussion of the biblical texts, readers gain insight into teaching methodologies that stimulate new discussions and impact modern church leaders and educators. ...
What does it look and feel like to be worshipful? Can we find a way to worship in such a robust, thoughtful way that when we aren't in worship, the worship might linger and invigorate us? Is it possible to live in the world–doing the dishes, listening to music, being stuck in traffic, enmeshed in a thicket of meetings at work–with a serene, abiding sense of God's presence despite all the racket, that we might do whatever we do for Go ...
The telling of Mark's story of Jesus as the Messiah of peace in the decades following the Roman-Judean war announced a third way forward for Diaspora Judeans other than warfare against or separation from «the nations.» Mark's Gospel was the story of the victory of a nonviolent Messiah who taught and practiced the ways of a new age of peace and reconciliation in contrast to the ancient and modern myth of redemptive violence. Th ...
In Augustine's Leaders, Peter Iver Kaufman works from the premise that appropriations of Augustine endorsing contemporary liberal efforts to mix piety and politics are mistaken–that Augustine was skeptical about the prospects for involving Christianity in meaningful political change. His skepticism raises several questions for historians. What roles did one of the most influential Christian theologians set for religious and political leader ...
