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There are some things we just don't talk about.Things like sex, particularly when our sexuality is a matter of personal struggle.Things like the vulnerabilities of our pastors, who must maintain a façade not merely of respectability but of moral and psychological superiority.We don't talk about things that make us feel insecure, that make us feel unsettled. But the nature of spiritual growth, even ...
When asked by his son why some churches have smoke machines, worship pastor Manuel Luz found himself responding, "Well, technically, you need smoke machines to see the lasers." But when you take down the smokescreen, what do you have left? Where do we encounter the Holy in the midst of all this? Where can we worship with our full selves—heart, soul, mind, and body—in Spirit and truth?Drawing from ...
Sex pervades our culture, going far beyond the confines of the bedroom and spilling over into the workplace, the church and the media. Yet despite all the attention and even obsession devoted to sex, human sexuality remains confusing and even foreboding. What, after all, is authentic human sexuality?That is the question Judith and Jack Balswick set out to answer in this wide-ranging and probing ...
Christianity Today Book Award Finalist—Missions/Global Church
Reader's Choice Award Winner
Throughout China's rapidly growing cities, a new wave of unregistered house churches is growing. They are developing rich theological perspectives that are both uniquely Chinese and rooted in the historical doctrines of the faith. To understand ...
Jesus didn't give his followers a fixed set of statements defining everything they needed to know about the kingdom of God in a neat package. Rather he told stories, made comparisons, drew contrasts. He talked of a mustard seed, of yeast and of ahidden treasure to communicate some of the most important truths of the faith.Jesus didn't fall back on parables because he lacked the right words. Parables ...
The early church fathers were great theologians--though they did not think of themselves as such. They were working pastors, involved in the daily life and leadership of their congregations. Yet they were wrestling with many of the great and formative questions of the Christian faith, such as the Trinity, the incarnation, the providence of God and the nature of the church. These beliefs were defined ...
The shadow of David Hume, the eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher, has loomed large against all efforts to prove the existence of God from evidence in the natural world. Indeed from Hume's day to ours, the vast majority of philosophical attacks against the rationality of theism have borne an unmistakable Humean aroma. The last forty years, however, have been marked by a resurgence in Christian ...
The book of Esther tells the dramatic story of how the destruction of the Jews was averted through the bravery of Esther, the wisdom of Mordecai, and the unity of the Jewish people. Yet Esther is a rather strange book to find in the Bible. Not only is it set entirely outside of the Promised Land, it also shows no interest in that land. More than that, Esther is the only book in ...
These five Old Testament books, traditionally known simply as "the Scrolls," are among the most neglected parts of the Christian Bible. In Judaism, the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther were eventually adopted as lectionary readings for five of the major festivals. In Christian tradition, however, no consensus has emerged about their proper use. Each book presents particular ...
Genesis 12–50 recounts the history of the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. From their mentors Paul, Peter, Stephen, and the author of the letter to the Hebrews, the early fathers learned to draw out the spiritual significance of the patriarchal narrative for Christian believers. The Alexandrian school especially followed Paul's allegorical use of the story of Sarah ...