Through twenty-five years of walking alongside those in conflict with their sexuality, Brad has come to understand what is at the heart of same-sex attraction: trauma. Little is understood about the concept of trauma and only recently has the method of trauma-informed care come to the forefront of helping others. People often react negatively to the concept of trauma being at the heart of any kind of gender identity or sexual confusion. Christia ...
Grounded in the narrative of the loss of his own wife, Ross Hastings seeks to provide insight into the universal human condition of loss and grief . . . and speaks comfort. All kinds of losses produce grief–loss of jobs, homes, friendships, health, losses through divorce, and loss through death of parents, children, and spouses–and we are often unprepared for it. Applicable to all who go through loss, this book will also offer skills for pastors ...
Abraham Joshua Heschel said that, «We are closer to God when we are asking questions than when we have the answers.» He believed that to be a Christian is not to be a person who knows all the answers but one who «lives in the part of the self where the question is constantly being born.» Most of us don't think very much about our questions. In our culture, we are accustomed to being able to find out answers to nearly any question ju ...
The Lent-Easter seasons cover one-fourth of the year, or 25 percent of the liturgical year. One of the many things we do as Roman Catholics is sing Lenten and Easter hymns. During Lent, we express our sorrow for sin as we pray, fast, and give alms. During Easter, we shout Alleluias at the end of many hymns to express our praise of God for having raised Christ from the dead. Thus, those who observe Lent and Easter sing religious hymns written for ...
Conflict over homosexuality in Christian churches is only intensifying. We can do better. We have to do better. The stakes are too high to do otherwise. Conflicts are difficult and ugly, but the good news reaches even here. It is possible to have healthy conflict, to disagree and struggle together in ways that make us better and that make the church stronger. By looking deeply into the nature of religious conflict, we can cultivate practices and ...
Once liberal Christianity was preached in ways that defined it in the public eye. Now Christianity is identified almost exclusively with its conservative expressions. Seasons of the Christian Life presents a series of sermons articulating a liberal Christianity over against its conservative neighbors. They were preached at the University Church (Marsh Chapel) at Boston University (save for one preached in Memorial Church at Harvard) during the 2 ...
The dimension of eternity has been lost from much contemporary religious consciousness. Liberals tend to focus on action within time, as do conservatives, who see history as a battleground for a war of good against evil. Spiritual life, however, also requires nurturing a sense of eternity within time. These sermons from Marsh Chapel at Boston University follow the lectionary in highlighting the places of temporal life within eternity, and the pl ...
Abiding Mission presents the discipline of abiding as the first priority of the Christian and the base methodology of mission. Based on an exegesis of John 15, Abiding Mission illustrates the definition of abiding by examining the abiding mission lives of seven key pioneers in mission to Muslims in North Africa, including Daniel Comboni (Catholic), Samuel Zwemer (Presbyterian), Oswald Chambers (YMCA/Pentecostal League), Lillian Trasher ( ...
The essays contained in this book provide an introduction to the history, challenges, and hopes of contemporary evangelical Arab Christians in Israel (and to a lesser degree in the West Bank). After opening with a general overview of Arab Christianity in the Holy Land, the following chapters treat different aspects of the evangelical Arab experience: the founding of the Convention of Evangelical Churches in Israel (CECI) as well as a theological ...
