Faithful and Fractured

Faithful and Fractured
Author: Rae Jean Proeschold-Bell
Publisher: Baker Books
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2018-05-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1493410733

Clergy suffer from certain health issues at a rate higher than the general population. Why are pastors in such poor health? And what can be done to help them step into the abundant life God desires for them? Although anecdotal observations about poor clergy health abound, concrete data from multiple sources supporting this claim hasn't been made accessible--until now. Duke's Clergy Health Initiative (CHI), a major, decade-long research project, provides a true picture of the clergy health crisis over time and demonstrates that improving the health of pastors is possible. Bringing together the best in social science and medical research, this book quantifies the poor health of clergy with theological engagement. Although the study focused on United Methodist ministers, the authors interpret CHI's groundbreaking data for a broad ecumenical readership. In addition to physical health, the book examines mental health and spiritual well-being, and suggests that increasing positive mental health may prevent future physical and mental health problems for clergy. Concrete suggestions tailored to clergy are woven throughout the book.

Fractured Faith

Fractured Faith
Author: Lina AbuJamra
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Total Pages: 155
Release: 2021-09-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0802499430

After your faith has fractured, let what takes its place be the real thing . . . at last. Somewhere along the way, the Christianity you knew began to crumble. You began to suspect your faith was misplaced. Disillusionment set in. Churches hurt you. Their people failed you. Christian institutions were exposed as fake. And in it all, God was silent. Is He gone? Or is God really there, waiting for you to find Him instead of the counterfeits? If you’re walking this difficult spiritual path, Lina AbuJamra understands you. After experiencing the near deconstruction of her own faith, Lina had to rebuild something more solid when the faith she once knew let her down. With her diagnostic style that comes from her training as an ER doc, Lina helps you grapple with questions like: Where is God in my pain? Is this how Christians are supposed to act? Why did my story end up this way? Is this the normal Christian life? Why is it so hard for Christians to love? Let Fractured Faith help you find your way back to God. You just might discover that the real God has been waiting for you all along.

Crazy Faith

Crazy Faith
Author: Michael Todd
Publisher: WaterBrook
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2023-09-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0593239210

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Relationship Goals . . . Will you be remembered as a person who claimed to follow God but liked to play it safe? Or as a person who lived your life out on the limb and trusted God enough to live in crazy faith? Noah looked crazy when he started building the ark . . . until it started raining. It was crazy for Moses to lead a nation of people into the desert away from Egypt . . . until the Red Sea parted. It was crazy to believe that a fourteen-year-old virgin would give birth to the Son of God . . . until Mary held Jesus in her arms. There are many things that seem normal or average today that at one point in time seemed absolutely crazy. Smartphones, Wi-Fi, and even the electric light bulb were all groundbreaking, history-making inventions that started out as crazy ideas. Our see-it-to-believe-it generation tends to have a hard time exercising true faith—one that steps out, takes action, and sees mountain-moving results. Many of us would rather play it safe and stand on the sidelines, but it’s crazy faith that helps us see God move and reveals His promises. In Crazy Faith, Pastor Michael Todd shows us how to step out in faith and dive into the purposeful life of trusting God for the impossible. Even if you have to start with baby faith or maybe faith, you can become empowered to let go of your lazy faith, trust God through your hazy faith, and learn to live a lifestyle of crazy faith. With powerful stories of modern-day faith warriors who take their cues from biblical heroes, Michael Todd equips you to • believe for the impossible • choose hope over fear • be alert to the voice of God • cope with loss and doubt • develop a deeper level of trust in God • speak faith-filled declarations • inspire crazy faith in others God’s not looking for somebody to give Him all the reasons why His plans can’t happen. He’s looking for somebody to believe they will happen. In fact, He has so much He wants to do through you. The question is, Are you crazy enough to believe it?

Washed and Waiting

Washed and Waiting
Author: Wesley Hill
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2010-11-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1458723941

Yet many who sit next to us in the pew at church fit that description, says author Wesley Hill. As a celibate gay Christian, Hill gives us a glimpse of what it looks like to wrestle firsthand with God's ''No'' to same-sex relationships. What does it mean for gay Christians to live faithful to God while struggling with the challenge of their homosexuality? What is God's will for believers who experience same-sex desires? Those who choose celibacy are often left to deal with loneliness and the hunger for relationships. How can gay Christians experience God's favor and blessing in the midst of a struggle that for many brings a crippling sense of shame and guilt? Weaving together reflections from his own life and the lives of other Christians, such as Henri Nouwen and Gerard Manley Hopkins, Hill offers a fresh perspective on these questions. He advocates neither unqualified ''healing'' for those who struggle, nor their accommodation to temptation, but rather faithfulness in the midst of brokenness. ''I hope this book may encourage other homosexual Christians to take the risky step of opening up their lives to others in the body of Christ,'' Hill writes. ''In so doing, they may find, as I have, by grace, that being known is spiritually healthier than remaining behind closed doors, that the light is better than the darkness.

A Loving, Faithful Animal

A Loving, Faithful Animal
Author: Josephine Rowe
Publisher: Catapult
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2017-09-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 193678758X

"I found myself considering those rare things only books can do, feats outside the purview of film or fine art . . . Gorgeous." —Samantha Hunt, The New York Times Book Review It is New Year’s Eve 1990, in a small town in southeast Australia. Ru’s father, Jack, one of thousands of Australians once conscripted to serve in the Vietnam War, has disappeared. This time Ru thinks he might be gone for good. As rumors spread of a huge black cat stalking the landscape beyond their door, the rest of the family is barely holding on. Ru’s sister, Lani, is throwing herself into sex, drugs, and dangerous company. Their mother, Evelyn, is escaping into memories of a more vibrant youth. And meanwhile there is Les, Jack’s inscrutable brother, who seems to move through their lives like a ghost, earning both trust and suspicion. A Loving, Faithful Animal is an incandescent portrait of one family searching for what may yet be redeemable from the ruins of war. Tender, brutal, and heart–stopping in its beauty, this novel marks the arrival in the United States of Josephine Rowe, the winner of the 2016 Elizabeth Jolley Prize and one of Australia’s most extraordinary young writers.

Handbook of Religion and Health

Handbook of Religion and Health
Author: Harold G. Koenig
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 1113
Release: 2023-05-12
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0190088850

"The 2001 edition (1st) was a comprehensive review of history, research, and discussions on religion and health through the year 2000. The Appendix listed 1,200 separate quantitative studies on religion and health each rated in quality on 0-10 scale, followed by about 2,000 references and an extensive index for rapid topic identification. The 2012 edition (2nd) of the Handbook systematically updated the research from 2000 to 2010, with the number of quantitative studies then reaching the thousands. This 2022 edition (3rd) is the most scientifically rigorous addition to date, covering the best research published through 2021 with an emphasis on prospective studies and randomized controlled trials. Beginning with a Foreword by Dr. Howard K. Koh, former US Assistant Secretary for Health for the Department of Health and Human Services, this nearly 600,000-word volume examines almost every aspect of health, reviewing past and more recent research on the relationship between religion and health outcomes. Furthermore, nearly all of its 34 chapters conclude with clinical and community applications making this text relevant to both health care professionals (physicians, nurses, social workers, rehabilitation therapists, counsellors, psychologists, sociologists, etc.) and clergy (community clergy, chaplains, pastoral counsellors, etc.). The book's extensive Appendix focuses on the best studies, describing each study in a single line, allowing researchers to quickly locate the existing research. It should not be surprising that for Handbook for the past two decades has been the most cited of all references on religion and health"--

Mended

Mended
Author: Blythe Daniel
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2019-04-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0736973516

“An amazing resource for anyone who desires to deepen their mother-daughter relationship in a biblical, healthy, and healed way.” —Lysa TerKeurst, New York Times bestselling author and president of Proverbs 31 Ministries You can be restored even when your relationship is frayed Ever wonder why mothers and daughters can be so different and even seem to speak different languages? Mended gives you conversation starters to speak life into your relationship with your mother or daughter. Discover powerful words that usher in healing for wounded hearts and rebuild, restore, and reconcile your connection. Set new patterns going forward as you… find common ground and put your relationship ahead of your differences learn what to say when you don’t know what to say grow closer when you do hard things together If you have a difficult history with your mother or daughter, you don’t have to continue patterns of brokenness. No matter how worn you feel, you don’t have to become unthreaded. God wants to mend your heart to His and to hers.

Tentmakers

Tentmakers
Author: James W. Watson
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 147
Release: 2022-09-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666739995

Tentmaking is a growing reality in Western society that necessitates more reflection and relevant response from pastoral and mission leaders. The need to consider bivocational or multivocational ministries is catalyzed by established congregations wrestling with decline in attendance, by new immigrant communities looking for sustainable ways to minister, and by misunderstanding or lack of information on the nature of this ministry approach. This need is also triggered by the urgency to address biblical, theological, and pragmatic issues of tentmaking that can forge a way forward for the Canadian church in the midst of an uncertain future. This volume seeks to forge a way forward as a result of the Canadian Multivocational Ministry Project (CMMP), a qualitative and community-based research project among tentmaking pastoral leaders across Canada. This research partnered with the Wellness Project @ Wycliffe, which uses online questionnaires to assess wellness in congregational ministry. The CMMP research report and the wellness findings form the basis of the multifaceted reflections in the book by Canadian scholars, researchers, and multivocational practitioners. This book offers an accurate pulse of the challenges, opportunities, and future of tentmaking in relation to Christianity and the church in these uncertain times.

Stripped

Stripped
Author: Lina AbuJamra
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2013-09-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0802488714

Do you want to live a life that is greatly used by God? Do you long to make a difference in the world? In Stripped, Lina explains the process that God uses to transform you into a person who is ready to receive all that God has planned. You will learn: 1. Pain is not the enemy—it’s the very road God uses to make you stronger. 2. The Christian life isn’t easy, but God’s presence is your guarantee for joy no matter what you’re going through. Lina helps you to think biblically about your calling and dreams and uncovers the truth about the transformational power of the gospel. Stripped is a book for every person who longs for more but is often surprised that the road usually begins with pain—the pain of being stripped. Stripped is about the broken and surrendered life, about understanding the stripping process that must take place for sold out Christians to be used by God to build His kingdom. In it you will: Be equipped to endure the stripping process Learn what must be stripped from the Christian's life Be inspiried by Biblical and real life examples who were victoriously stripped

A Preach Well Church

A Preach Well Church
Author: Josh Taylor
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 97
Release: 2023-04-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666768197

Thirty-eight percent of pastors have given serious thought to leaving full-time ministry in the last year. Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the unpredictable, never-done work of the ministry, is it any wonder that many pastors have contemplated resigning? Add to this church members' unrealistic expectations and a knack for criticism, and we see the toll this has taken on pastors and in one area in particular: preaching. Empty preachers are filling pulpits. Is there anything church members can do to help their pastors with burnout and the essential stress of preaching week-in, week-out? After extensive research on the subject, ninety-seven pastors were asked: What can your church members do to help you preach well? Each chapter in this book is a commitment--a clear, concrete action--developed from the study that church members can take to help their pastors preach well. Each chapter also includes a section entitled "A Word to Pastors" that offers encouragement to those in ministry to help reduce their stress and become better preachers.