Liquid Church

Liquid Church
Author: Tim Lucas
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2019-09-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310100119

In today's fluid culture, many churches are adrift--longing to reach spiritually thirsty people, but failing to make an impact. Have you noticed? Congregations are stuck or declining. Millennials and Gen Z are walking away. Volunteers and their generosity are drying up. Is your city, town, or neighborhood spiritually dry? Do you long to see more of the living water of Jesus flowing freely through your community, generating a fresh wave of ministry momentum? Buckle up: you're in for a whitewater ride! Liquid Church tells the fascinating story of a New Jersey church that began "on accident" and grew into one of America's 100 Fastest-Growing Churches, with over 5,000 in weekly attendance and more than 2,400 baptisms to date. Their secret? They harnessed the power of six powerful ministry currents sweeping across North America including: special needs, creative communication, ministry mergers, compassionate cause, radical generosity, and leadership development. With powerful stories and scriptural insights, backed by national research, Tim Lucas and Warren Bird describe dozens of fresh ideas, new ministry wineskins, and hard-won leadership learnings that resonate with rising generations in today's "show-then-tell" culture. Each chapter includes practical tools, real-life examples, and links to "Other Churches Making Waves" with cutting-edge ministry ideas designed to help saturate your city for Christ. Ready to dive deeper? Whether you serve a brand-new church plant, fast-growing congregation, or an aging ministry ready for reinvention, Liquid Church is an inspiring and practical guide for leaders ready to reach their spiritually thirsty neighbors--those who have given up on church, but haven't given up on God.

The Christian Vision of Humanity

The Christian Vision of Humanity
Author: John Randall Sachs
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Total Pages: 116
Release: 1991
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780814657560

The incredible technical achievements of recent history may make us feel little less than gods," but we also find much that cuts us down. When we face our own limits and failures, upon what or whom can we rely? The biblical "answer" to questions about the ultimate nature and meaning of human life begins with the experience of Semitic slaves led out of Egyptian slavery beautifully recounted in Deuteronomy 26:5-11. The New Testament presents Jesus as the culmination of God's Old Testament promise. Christian faith has a particular Vision of the world and of humanity founded upon the relationship between God and creation. Its key elements are found in the inviolable dignity of every person, the essential centrality of community, and the significance of human action. These are the main themes of a Christian anthropology developed in this book.

Creation and Humanity

Creation and Humanity
Author: Ian A. McFarland
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Total Pages: 496
Release: 2009-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0664231357

This major sourcebook provides significant primary readings from the history of Christian theology on the topics of creation and humanity. Beginning with an extended introduction, McFarland fleshes out the topics of creation and humanity in sections such as "God as Creator," "The Human Creature," "Evil and Sin," and "Providence," and provides a brief introduction to each selection that demonstrates its importance and establishes its historical context. This collection will be of special value in classrooms, allowing students to experience firsthand some major works that shaped efforts to forge a sound Christian understanding of creation and humanity.

The Christian Doctrine of Humanity

The Christian Doctrine of Humanity
Author: Zondervan,
Publisher: Zondervan Academic
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2018-11-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310595487

Engaging with the Complex Subject of Theological Anthropology. Theological anthropology is a complicated doctrinal subject that needs to be elaborated with careful attention to its relation to other major doctrines. Among other things, it must confess the glory and misery of humanity, from creation in the image of God to the fall into a state of sin. It must reckon with a holism that spans distinctions between body, soul, and spirit, and a unity that encompasses male and female, as well as racial and cultural difference. The Christian Doctrine of Humanity represents the proceedings of the sixth annual Los Angeles Theology Conference, which sought, constructively and comprehensively, to engage the task of theological anthropology. The twelve diverse essays in this collection include discussions on: Human thought and the image of God. The relevance of biblical eschatology for philosophical anthropology. Living and flourishing in the Spirit. Vocation and the "oddness" of human nature. Each of the essays collected in this volume engage with Scripture as well as with others in the field—theologians both past and present, from different confessions—in order to provide constructive resources for contemporary systematic theology and to forge a theology for the future.

Christianity and Human Rights

Christianity and Human Rights
Author: John Witte, Jr
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 403
Release: 2010-12-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1139494112

Combining Jewish, Greek, and Roman teachings with the radical new teachings of Christ and St. Paul, Christianity helped to cultivate the cardinal ideas of dignity, equality, liberty and democracy that ground the modern human rights paradigm. Christianity also helped shape the law of public, private, penal, and procedural rights that anchor modern legal systems in the West and beyond. This collection of essays explores these Christian contributions to human rights through the perspectives of jurisprudence, theology, philosophy and history, and Christian contributions to the special rights claims of women, children, nature and the environment. The authors also address the church's own problems and failings with maintaining human rights ideals. With contributions from leading scholars, including a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, this book provides an authoritative treatment of how Christianity shaped human rights in the past, and how Christianity and human rights continue to challenge each other in modern times.

The Universal Christ

The Universal Christ
Author: Richard Rohr
Publisher: Convergent Books
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2019-03-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1524762105

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From one of the world’s most influential spiritual thinkers, a long-awaited book exploring what it means that Jesus was called “Christ,” and how this forgotten truth can restore hope and meaning to our lives. “Anyone who strives to put their faith into action will find encouragement and inspiration in the pages of this book.”—Melinda Gates In his decades as a globally recognized teacher, Richard Rohr has helped millions realize what is at stake in matters of faith and spirituality. Yet Rohr has never written on the most perennially talked about topic in Christianity: Jesus. Most know who Jesus was, but who was Christ? Is the word simply Jesus’s last name? Too often, Rohr writes, our understandings have been limited by culture, religious debate, and the human tendency to put ourselves at the center. Drawing on scripture, history, and spiritual practice, Rohr articulates a transformative view of Jesus Christ as a portrait of God’s constant, unfolding work in the world. “God loves things by becoming them,” he writes, and Jesus’s life was meant to declare that humanity has never been separate from God—except by its own negative choice. When we recover this fundamental truth, faith becomes less about proving Jesus was God, and more about learning to recognize the Creator’s presence all around us, and in everyone we meet. Thought-provoking, practical, and full of deep hope and vision, The Universal Christ is a landmark book from one of our most beloved spiritual writers, and an invitation to contemplate how God liberates and loves all that is.

Our Deepest Desires

Our Deepest Desires
Author: Gregory E. Ganssle
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2017-08-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0830890955

As human beings, we are created with universal longings. Where can our restless hearts find fulfillment? Philosopher and apologist Greg Ganssle argues that our widely shared human aspirations are best understood in the light of the Christian story, and that the good news of Jesus Christ makes sense of—and fulfills—our deepest desires.

Cold-Case Christianity

Cold-Case Christianity
Author: J. Warner Wallace
Publisher: David C Cook
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2013-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1434705463

Written by an L. A. County homicide detective and former atheist, Cold-Case Christianity examines the claims of the New Testament using the skills and strategies of a hard-to-convince criminal investigator. Christianity could be defined as a “cold case”: it makes a claim about an event from the distant past for which there is little forensic evidence. In Cold-Case Christianity, J. Warner Wallace uses his nationally recognized skills as a homicide detective to look at the evidence and eyewitnesses behind Christian beliefs. Including gripping stories from his career and the visual techniques he developed in the courtroom, Wallace uses illustration to examine the powerful evidence that validates the claims of Christianity. A unique apologetic that speaks to readers’ intense interest in detective stories, Cold-Case Christianity inspires readers to have confidence in Christ as it prepares them to articulate the case for Christianity.

Christianity and Human Rights Reconsidered

Christianity and Human Rights Reconsidered
Author: Sarah Shortall
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-11-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781108440851

This is the first global examination of the historical relationship between Christianity and human rights in the twentieth century. Leading historians, anthropologists, political theorists, legal scholars, and scholars of religion develop fresh approaches to issues such as human dignity, personalism, religious freedom, the role of ecumenical and transatlantic networks, and the relationship between Christian and liberal rights theories. In doing so they move well beyond the temporal and geographical limits of the existing scholarship, exploring the connection between Christianity and human rights, not only in Europe and the United States, but also in Africa, Latin America, and China. They offer alternative chronologies and bring to light overlooked aspects of this history, including the role of race, gender, decolonization, and interreligious dialogue. Above all, these essays foreground the complicated relationship between global rights discourses - whether Christian, liberal, or otherwise - and the local contexts in which they are developed and implemented.

The Doctrine of Humanity

The Doctrine of Humanity
Author: Charles Sherlock
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1997-01-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 083081535X

Debates over race, gender, ethnicity, culture, social status, life-style, and sexual preference cloud our notions of universal "human nature" or "human condition." Charles Sherlock offers a timely and engaging look at what it means to be human—created in the image of God and re-created in the image of Christ.