Here is Biblical narrative preaching that transforms. John W. Wright presents a new model of preaching that aims to connect the biblical text with a congregation so that they are formed into a true Christian community. Such formation calls for interpretative engagement with both the biblical narrative and the cultural narrative that shapes our society. Wright critically surveys current theories ...

Much preaching today begins with the hearer's "felt needs" and then moves to how Christianity can solve those problems. But this approach often results in trite Christologies that merely use Jesus as a means to an end or a vehicle for self-improvement. While preachers might not dispense with Christ altogether, other things subtly take center stage and become more important than Christ himself. ...

Most literature and many aid efforts concerned with poverty relief and development function on mathematical assumptions. Those who have more should share with those who have less, thus creating equality. Some would add a moral component saying that those having more are morally wrong and must have gained their surplus from outright theft or unfair trade. But on the side of the needy, religious ...

"As the Father has sent me, I am sending you" (John 20:21). With the reality of broad-scale secularization in the West and the attendant cloud of insignificance hanging over the church, is there any hope for the re-evangelization of the West? In this comprehensive theology of mission, Ross Hastings directs the fretful gaze of the church to the trinitarian commission of John 20. There we find ...

Most of us would rather have a root canal than ask for money. Raising support is one of the most difficult challenges facing Christians in ministry. Fears of rejection, concerns about biblical validity, feelings of not being deserving, anxiety about limited resources can all block us from obtaining the means to fulfill our calling. This book both affirms that God uses the Christian community to ...

We hear plenty of discussion about missional theology, missional leadership and missional church planting. But what about missional preaching? Now that the church in the West lives within a post-Christendom context, how should preaching look different? What homiletical assumptions arose within Christendom but are no longer relevant for a missionary church? In The Mission of Preaching, ...

Missional House Churches examines the impact and effect that house churches are having in the United States in evangelizing, discipling, and church planting in local communities. Based on the author's first-hand research and interviews with over thirty missional house churches as well as his own experiences, this insightful work offers an inside look at, and analysis of the workings of ...

"If you have faith as small as a mustard seed," Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew, "nothing will be impossible for you." That sounds good, but does it work in a world where seeds are genetically altered by an impatient few and hard to come by for countless others? In a world where the gulf between the very rich and the profoundly poor is constantly growing, can a mustard-seed faith make any ...