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Abingdon New Testament Commentaries: Romans (Abingdon New Testament Commentaries)
By Leander E. Keck. 2005
Like widely differing siblings raised by the same parents, each letter produced by Paul has its own distinguishing character. For…
the historically minded critic, each letter’s unique traits provide important clues for detecting the circumstances in which Paul wrote it as well as what he hoped to achieve with it. Scholars assume that by examining the content of the letter (the “answer”), they can infer the readers’ situation that Paul is addressing (the “question”)--a method sometimes called “mirror reading.” In the case of Romans, however, both the particular traits and the overall content are so unusual that scholars continue to debate why Paul wrote precisely this letter and what he hoped to achieve by it in Rome."So begins Leander Keck's seminal work on the New Testament book of Romans. Keck asserts that because Romans is part of the New Testament, we can compare it with the other letters ascribed to Paul, as well as with what Acts reports about his message and mission. But the first readers of Romans had only this letter; they could compare it only with what they may have heard about him. While this commentary does from time to time compare Romans with what Paul had said before, it concentrates on Romans itself; what Paul says in this text should not be conflated with--nor inflated into--what he thought comprehensively, though it is essential to understand that as well."We do not really need another major commentary [on Romans] that loses us in the minutiae of word studies, literary parallels, sociological and rhetorical hypotheses; we have such in plenty. The Abingdon series, however, by its limited size, forces the contributor to focus on the primary task of the commentator: to clarify the meaning (intended or potential) of the words of the text and to provide some basic reflection on its/their continuing significance. And that is where Keck excels." - James D. G. Dunn, Review of Biblical Literature 04/2006.
Groove: School Leader Guide (Groove)
By Michael Adkins. 2015
Nearly all youth are involved in school and educational pursuits for a majority of their day. Even if they are…
not attending a traditional school, there are ways to encourage them to live out their faith as they follow Jesus and at the same time grow in their academic knowledge.School is designed to help teenagers consider how their faith affects their lives at school. From the lessons studied each week, combined with the daily devotions found in the Groove: School Student Journal, teens will be encouraged to pause and reflectively engage as their academic and spiritual lives collide.Over the course of the series, youth will be encouraged to make a place of belonging for everyone in their school, to set and keep priorities that reflect their faith in Jesus, to find joy even at school, and to know that our worth ultimately lies in who Jesus is and what he has done for us.The Groove Bible study series invites teens to learn the essentials of their faith, own their story, and engage the world in serving Jesus. Each topical study consists of four weekly sessions that are easy to lead and relate to life issues teens face. With up to 48 weeks available, Groove is great for Sunday and mid-week gatherings for both large and small groups as well as retreats. The leader guide contains everything needed to lead teens through a Groove study, including teaching outlines, leader notes, Bible background, reflections, and parent communication.
Bible Stories for Grown-Ups Leader Guide: Reading Scripture with New Eyes
By Josh Scott. 2023
Read the Bible for the first time – again. In Bible Stories for Grown-Ups: Reading Scripture with New Eyes pastor…
Josh Scott looks at familiar Bible stories and reveals new details and interpretations for an adult audience. This six-week Bible study will consider stories many read as children including Noah's Ark, the binding of Isaac, Jonah and the big fish, Jesus and Zacchaeus, Jesus healing a blind man, and the parable of the talents. Scott reimagines these stories and opens new visions for readers to understand well known pieces of Scripture in our current cultural environment.The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the six-week study, including session plans, activities, discussion questions, and multiple format options. Additional components include the book, Bible Stories for Grown-Up, and video teaching sessions featuring Josch Scott, making this perfect as a group study throughout the year.
Luke: Jesus and the Outsiders, Outcasts, and Outlaws
By Adam Hamilton. 2022
From Birth to Resurrection in the Gospel of LukeJesus came to lift up the lowly. Throughout his ministry to his…
final days on the road to the cross, we find stories of his relationships with ordinary, flawed, and unexpected people. He met, dined, and traveled with people who were not perfect. Many of them were struggling, some were outsiders or even outlaws. Whoever they were, from those he healed to the outlaws with him at his crucifixion, Jesus brought the good news of God’s kingdom to those who most needed to hear it. In Luke: Jesus and the Outsiders, Outcasts, and Outlaws, pastor and bestselling author Adam Hamilton explores the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus as told in the Gospel of Luke. Through Luke’s stories we find Jesus’ care and compassion for all as he welcomes sinners and outcasts. As we study Luke and see Jesus’ concern for those who were considered unimportant, we hear a hopeful and inspiring word for our lives today.The book can be read alone or used for a group study and church-wide Lenten program. Additional components include video teaching sessions featuring Adam Hamilton, a comprehensive leader guide, free downloadable resources for children and youth, and a digital worship and sermon helps.The book includes a link to download the free teaching resources for children and youth.
Renovate or Die: 10 Ways to Focus Your Church on Mission
By Bob Farr, Kay Kotan. 2011
Be the Church Jesus calls us to be.Bob Farr asserts that to change the world, we must first change the…
Church. As Adam Hamilton says in the Foreword, “Read [this book] carefully with other leaders in your church…You’ll soon discover both a desire to renovate your church and the tools to effectively lead your church forward.” If we want to join Robert Schnase and claim radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk-taking mission and service, and extravagant generosity, we must also engage pastors and motivate churches. We must renovate and overhaul our churches and not merely redecorate and tinker with our church structure.With straight forward language and practical tips, this book will inspire and help you organize your church for new life on the mission field. Learn how to grow your church and discover the commitments that denominational leaders must make to guarantee the fruitfulness of local congregations.
The Making of the President, 1964 (The Landmark Political Series)
By Theodore H. White. 1965
“[White] revolutionized the art of political reporting.” —William F. BuckleyA national bestseller, The Making of the President 1964 is the…
critically acclaimed account of the 1964 presidential campaign, from the assassination of JFK though the battle for power between Lyndon B. Johnson and Barry Goldwater. Author Theodore H. White made history with his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Making of the President series—detailed narrative histories that revolutionized the way presidential campaigns were reported. Now back in print with a new foreword by fellow Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham, The Making of the President 1964 joins The Making of the President 1960, 1968, and 1972, as well as Theodore Sorensen’s Kennedy and other classics, in the burgeoning Harper Perennial Political Classics series.
If It Could Happen Here: Turning the Small-Membership Church Around
By Jeffrey H. Patton. 2002
Are small membership churches--as the conventional wisdom says--simply places where pastors bide their time while they wait for something better…
to come along? Are they places where long-standing family relationships are maintained, but little else? Are they places where attendance is dropping, the building is out of date, the programs are boring, and people don't want to change? If you believe this conventional wisdom, then this book is not for you. But if you see small-membership churches, especially those in rural areas, as opportunities for the radical message of Jesus to transform lives and communities, then this is a book you want to read. Jeff Patton knows from firsthand experience as pastor of a small-membership congregation whose life turned around under his leadership that small, rural churches can become explosive centers of witness and mission. In this informative book he describes 6 "levers" for transforming a small membership church : prayer, discerning a clear vision, indigenous worship, growth groups, membership recruitment, and lay pastoring. Includes a foreword by Bill Easum.
Guidelines Small Group Ministries
By Cokesbury. 2016
All small groups in the local church are, or could be, places of faith formation and disciple making. By offering…
a more intimate setting, small groups of every kind are uniquely able to welcome and nurture people in the church and in the faith. This Guideline is designed to help implement and guide the work of the ministry area.This is one of the twenty-six Guidelines for Leading Your Congregation 2017-2020 that cover church leadership areas including Church Council and Small Membership Church; the administrative areas ofFinance and Trustees; and ministry areas focused on nurture, outreach, and witness including Worship, Evangelism, Stewardship, Christian Education, age-level ministries, Communications, and more.
Is There a Future for God's Love?: An Evangelical Theology
By Henry H. Knight III. 2012
In Is There a Future for God's Love? Henry H. Knight III explains how evangelical theology’s historic commitment to revealed…
truth can still function in a world that is averse to truth claims and allergic to all forms of authority. Yet in addition to revealed truth, evangelicalism has always insisted on a direct, personal encounter with God in Christ and on personal involvement in God’s mission to redeem the world. How does evangelical Christianity’s understanding of a loving God life fit in a world suspicious of any claim to a normative encounter with the divine? How can one answer the call to love and serve in God's name when all such calls are viewed inherently intolerant? In this book Knight wrestles with these and other questions of how evangelical Christians can prayerfully discern while also contextualizing the gospel in order to live with faithful effectiveness while avoiding unfaithful compromise.
Witness at the Cross Leader Guide: A Beginner's Guide to Holy Friday
By Amy-Jill Levine. 2021
Place yourself as a witness of the cross and determine what your own testimony will be! Experience Holy Friday from…
the perspective of those who watched Jesus die: Mary his mother; the Beloved Disciple from the Gospel of John; Mary Magdalene and the other women from Galilee; the two men, usually identified as thieves, crucified with Jesus; the centurion and the soldiers; Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Jews and Romans, friends and strangers, the powerful and the powerless, the hopeful and the despairing. The story of Jesus’s death is not something we just read: we think about it, and we experience it; we hear the taunts of the soldiers, the priests, and the passersby even as we hear the famous “seven last words” from the cross.In Witness at the Cross, Amy-Jill Levine shows how the people at the cross each have distinct roles to play. Each Evangelist presents a distinct picture of the death of Jesus. Each portrays different individuals and groups of people at the cross, each offers different images and dialogues, and so from each, we learn how those meanings and messages cross the centuries to any who would come to the cross today. Each Gospel has its own story to tell, all the witnesses have their own memories, and every reader comes away with a new insight. The witnesses at the Crucifixion watch Jesus die, and we watch with them, and we watch them. And we come away transformed.The Leader Guide includes session outline for each group meeting with Scripture, prayer, opening activity, discussion questions, activity, and ending call to action.
Gardens in the Desert: How the Adaptive Church Can Lead a Whole New Life
By Kenneth H. Carter Jr., Michael Adam Beck. 2024
Your church can thrive in this strange new world!Many church people and leaders feel like exiles in their own land.…
We are facing tremendous challenges. And, just as for those who came before us, the challenges are also opportunities. If we adapt to our new environment, as people and as the body of Christ. Gardens in the Desert offers local and denominational church leaders a practical, inspired, scripture-rooted vision for how we can do this—how we can become God’s church now for God’s intended future. Michael Adam Beck and Ken Carter draw from Jeremiah 29 to provide wise guidance for leaders and churches seeking to adapt and thrive. Jeremiah’s imperatives resonate deeply today, compelling us to experiment, cultivate new relationships, prioritize faith-sharing with people of all ages, interact with others in humility, to “seek the wellbeing of the other,” and to move forward with confidence. The chapters are brief and packed with practical ideas and instruction. The authors include ideas from leaders inside and outside the Church, offering multiple ways for leaders to see and understand what it means to be an adaptive leader and how to shape an adaptive church. The book is rich with lists, diagrams, illustrations, clarifying questions, and frameworks, making the material easy to grasp. It is an excellent resource to share with leadership teams at every level of the local church and in denominational settings. Gardens in the Desert is for laity, leaders, and clergy who have been feeling lost, immobilized, powerless—as exiles—and who are ready to do something new.
James W. Moore says that just as Missouri is the "Show Me" state, this is a "show me" world, where…
talking a good game is not enough. Essentially, the world says to us, "If you're a Christian, then show me!"Moore contends that we, as Christians, must show the world that our faith is not only a way of believing but also a way of behaving - that it is not just something we celebrate on Sunday, but something we live out in the world every day.In his warm, conversational style Moore explores characteristics that must be visible in our daily lives if we are to be effective witnesses in this "show me" world - forgiveness, dedication, gratitude, love, compassion, a spirit of service, perseverance, strength, faith and vision. Only when these are evident in our lives will the world know that we are Christians.
Music for Your Heart: Reflections from Your Favorite Songs
By Ace Collins. 2013
Have you ever had a song stuck in your head for days? Something abut its tune or lyrics impacts us…
and holds our attention. Why? How did the song come to be? Why was it written? And what does the song really mean? In Music for Your Heart, best-selling and award-winning author Ace Collins takes you behind the scenes of your favorite songs to show how the lyrics and music began. Through insider stories, artist bios, and inspiration from Scripture, Collins weaves stirring reflections on our adored and popular classics. Whether the featured song is a holiday carol, children’s worship tune, or love song, each short chapter will inspire curious music enthusiasts as well as those seeking a book for a devotional meditation. Digging deep into the words and history of the music, these uplifting and informative reflections will warm the heart—like the songs themselves. Songs include: - Jesus Loves Me - You Are My Sunshine - How Great Thou Art - White Christmas - Amazing Grace - Sweet, Sweet Spirit - Blue Moon - Jingle Bells - You Raise Me Up - Deep and Wide - I Will Always Love You - Moon River
Finding Our Way: Love and Law in The United Methodist Church
By Rueben P. Job, Kenneth H. Carter Jr., Melvin G. Talbert, John K. Yambasu, J. Michael Lowry, Gregory V. Palmer, Hope Morgan Ward, Rosemarie Wenner, Neil Alexander. 2014
Questions and conflict about homosexual practice and the church abound. We encounter media reports ofsame-gender unions and clergy trials. This…
leads to talk in congregations and district preacher's meetings, in the hallways atdistrict, conference and general church gatherings, and in the deliberations of the Council of Bishops where we hear prayers,questions, and an outpouring of conviction or anguish.We observe The United Methodist Church grappling with issues of importance that divide and confound us. We hunger for our church to engage hard questions and decisions in a spirit of generosity, gracefulness, and mutual respect.This book could change the nature of the conversation. It encourages frank and constructive dialogue that will help us conference together and open ourselves to God's guidance. We seek faithful, fair, just, and loving resolution to issues that challenge our faith community.Finding Our Way: Love and Law in The United Methodist Church is authored by several United Methodist bishops. These writers enunciate and clarify pathways that represent faithful, responsible, and constructive ways forward through the current controversies. Each bishop articulates a prescription for moving through current conflict about homosexual practice, same-gender unions, qualifications for ordination, and maintaining the "good standing" of elders. Go to www.ministrymatters.com/FindingOurWay to read the introduction and to comment. Contents:Frame: An introduction about the guiding vision and theological framework as we seek together to be faithful to God and to our covenants. By Rueben P. Job, retired, from the Iowa Area, and by Neil M. Alexander, who is publisher for The United Methodist Church.Part One: OptionsEnforce (follow the Book of Discipline): The Discipline interprets scripture and contains the rule of law for UM congregations and elders. When sacred promises are violated, leaders must uphold the spirit and letter of the law and follow the process defined by the Discipline. By Gregory V. Palmer, who serves the Ohio West Area.Emend (work to change the Book of Discipline): The General Conference legislative process must be engaged to emend the Book of Discipline -- or not. This is the responsible and thoroughly United Methodist way ofmoving through disputes and reaching consensus. By Hope Morgan Ward, who serves the Raleigh Area.Disobey (biblical obedience): Scripture and the sanctity of love are a higher authority than the Book of Discipline.Therefore, the current impasse must be broken by loving acts of conscientious fidelity to higher principles. By Melvin G. Talbert,retired, from the San Francisco Area.Disarm (suspending conflict between personal and social holiness): In many kinds of conflicts, in marriage and in war, the conflicted parties drop their weapons or grievances, agree to a cease fire, and search for a peaceful way to resolve their disagreement. By Kenneth H. Carter Jr., who serves the Florida Area.Part Two: ResponsesOrder (supporting our covenant): Our sacred trust depends on keeping our promises. By J. Michael Lowry,who serves the Forth Worth AreaUnity (dwelling in God's church as a family of Christ followers): When two elephants fight, the grass suffers. By John K. Yambasu, who serves the Sierra Leone Area.Diversity (coexisting with differences). By Rosemarie Wenner, who serves the Germany Area and is current president of the Council of Bishops.Part Three: StepsTrust God (discernment): Immerse ourselves in an intense process of prayerful discernment. This approach pleads for the guidance of the Holy Spirit and asks all to open themselves without condition or pre-judgment to the insight and inspiration that comes through deep prayer and listening. By Rueben P. Job, retired, from the Iowa Area.
Parables Leader Guide: Putting Jesus's Stories in Their Place
By Josh Scott. 2025
Read the stories of Jesus in a new light.The Leader Guide contains discussion questions and session plans for a six-week…
study of Parables: Putting Jesus’s Stories in Their Place, by Josh Scott. It includes opening and closing prayers, optional activities, and session goals for each week and is designed to be used with the book and DVD.When Jesus taught in parables, he was doing more than telling simple morality tales. His stories were grounded in the world in which he lived and his vision of the Kingdom of God. This study explores six parables that give us a window into Jesus’s message and movement, and, once they are heard in their own context, ask what they might mean for us today. Parables include: the New Wine and Wineskins, the Mustard Seed, the Leaven, the Wedding Party, the Workers in the Vineyard, and the Wicked Tenants.
Make It Count: 180 Devotions for the School Year
By Sue Christian. 2012
During a school year, a student’s calendar is filled with term papers, homework, football games, play rehearsals, band concerts, and…
so much more. It’s easy to get caught up in all the activity and forget to take a deep breath. Make it Count: 180 Devotions for the School Year is a unique devotional that provides students with encouragement for each day, as they count down the 180 days until the end of their school year. Each devotion features a short inspirational thought or quotation, as well as a brief prayer that will help students focus on their daily faith walk.
A History of Preaching Volume 1
By O. C. Edwards JR.. 2004
A History of Preaching brings together narrative history and primary sources to provide the most comprehensive guide available to the…
story of the church's ministry of proclamation. Bringing together an impressive array of familiar and lesser-known figures, Edwards paints a detailed, compelling picture of what it has meant to preach the gospel. Pastors, scholars, and students of homiletics will find here many opportunities to enrich their understanding and practice of preaching. Volume 1 contains Edwards's magisterial retelling of the story of Christian preaching's development from its Hellenistic and Jewish roots in the New Testament, through the late-twentieth century's discontent with outdated forms and emphasis on new modes of preaching such as narrative. Along the way the author introduces us to the complexities and contributions of preachers, both with whom we are already acquainted, and to whom we will be introduced here for the first time. Origen, Chrysostom, Augustine, Bernard, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Edwards, Rauschenbusch, Barth; all of their distinctive contributions receive careful attention. Yet lesser-known figures and developments also appear, from the ninth-century reform of preaching championed by Hrabanus Maurus, to the reference books developed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the mendicant orders to assist their members' preaching, to Howell Harris and Daniel Rowlands, preachers of the eighteenth-century Welsh revival, to Helen Kenyon, speaking as a layperson at the 1950 Yale Beecher lectures about the view of preaching from the pew. Volume 2, available separately as 9781501833786, contains primary source material on preaching drawn from the entire scope of the church's twenty centuries. The author has written an introduction to each selection, placing it in its historical context and pointing to its particular contribution. Each chapter in Volume 2 is geared to its companion chapter in Volume 1's narrative history. Ecumenical in scope, fair-minded in presentation, appreciative of the contributions that all the branches of the church have made to the story of what it means to develop, deliver, and listen to a sermon, A History of Preaching will be the definitive resource for anyone who wishes to preach or to understand preaching's role in living out the gospel. "...'This work is expected to be the standard text on preaching for the next 30 years,' says Ann K. Riggs, who staffs the NCC's Faith and Order Commission. Author Edwards, former professor of preaching at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, is co-moderator of the commission, which studies church-uniting and church-dividing issues. 'A History of Preaching is ecumenical in scope and will be relevant in all our churches; we all participate in this field,' says Riggs...." from EcuLink, Number 65, Winter 2004-2005 published by the National Council of Churches
Just in Time! Funeral Services
By Rev Cynthia L. Danals. 2007
Ready-to-use funeral services for difficult situations. Each service is set in a ministry context and includes a sample sermon, Scripture…
text, and prayers. Miscarriage, Premature Delivery, Stillbirth, Infant Dies in Sleep, Infant is Fatally Injured, Infant Dies In Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Infant Dies Due to Mistreatment, Child Drowns, Child Dies of Serious Illness, Child Dies in Accident, Child Dies Due to Mistreatment, Youth Dies as Driver in Car Accident, Youth Dies as Passenger in Car Accident, Youth Dies of Serious Illness, Youth Murdered, Youth Dies Accidentally, Youth Commits Suicide, Youth Dies as Victim of School Violence, Student Dies in Hazing, Student Dies of Untreated Mental Illness, Student dies of accidental overdose, Adult Dies of a Serious Illness, Adult Dies in Prison, Adult Completes Suicide, Adult Dies in Random Act of Violence, Adult Dies in Work Accident, Older Adult Dies in Nursing Home, Older Adult Dies of Serious Illness, Older Adult Dies Alone The Just in Time! series offers brief, practical resources of immediate help for pastors at an affordable price.
All I Want For Christmas Youth Study: Opening the Gifts of God's Grace
By James W. Moore, Cindy Klick. 2016
From the time the Wise Men came to bring gifts, Christmas has been a time of giving gifts to our…
loved ones, to the less fortunate, to the church, to favorite charities, to family, to friends, and even to our pets. In the best spirit of Christmas we give and receive Christmas gifts, remembering the greatest Christmas gift of all…God's gift of the Christ Child, God's gift to us of a Savior. As we give and receive Christmas gifts, it is incredibly important to remember that the best Christmas gifts are wrapped in heaven. Unfortunately, sometimes we concentrate so much on the gifts we want to give to and receive from each other that we miss the special gifts Christmas has for us. Christmas has some amazing gifts for us, but the truth is that we need the miracle of God's grace to see them, feel them, hear them, wrap our arms around them, and celebrate them. This study asks a very personal question: "What are the gifts you would really like to receive from Christmas this year?" And that is what this book is all about: our thoughts and ruminations about the amazing, life-changing gifts Christmas has for us! This Advent study has five sessions: one for each Sunday of Advent and one for Christmas. Leaders and participants work from the same book, which includes readings for reflection, a host of age appropriate teaching-and-learning activities that groups can choose to fit their needs and setting, and a short devotional reading for each day of the Advent season.
Fulfilled: Living and Leading with Unusual Wisdom, Peace, and Joy
By Kirk Byron Jones. 2013
Leadership can be mentally, emotionally, and spiritually exhausting. The pace is relentless. The expectations are weighty. The challenges are daunting.…
But it is possible to live and lead a new way, with that deep sense of contentment that all leaders yearn for. It is possible to be fulfilled, even today. Fulfilled articulates a new approach for the exhausted leader. This Christian theology of leadership is based on three inner capacities, which every leader already possesses but which most of us simply ignore or disregard: the capacity for stillness, awareness, and playfulness. The author examines these capacities and shows the reader how draw upon them in daily life. Vibrant leadership taps into this wellspring of inner capacities, continually available to every leader. It is not the exclusive possession of the gifted, faithful few, but is a grace provided for all. The fulfilled leader lives in wisdom, peace and joy, and is successful in all the most important ways.