Saving Jesus from the Church

Saving Jesus from the Church
Author: Robin R. Meyers
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2009-02-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 006156821X

Countless thoughtful people are now so disgusted with the marriage of bad theology and hypocritical behavior by the church that a new Reformation is required in which the purpose of religion itself is reimagined. Meyers takes the best of biblical scholarship and recasts these core Christian concepts to exhort the church to pursue an alternative vision of the Christian life: Jesus as Teacher, not Savior Christianity as Compassion, not Condemnation Prosperity as Dangerous, not Divine Discipleship as Obedience, not Control Religion as Relationship, not Righteousness This is not a call to the church to move to the far left or to try something brand new. Rather, it is the recovery of something very old. Saving Jesus from the Church shows us what it means to be a Christian and how to follow Jesus' teachings today.

Jesus Wants to Save Christians

Jesus Wants to Save Christians
Author: Rob Bell
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2009-03-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310295319

There is a church not too far from us that recently added a $25 million addition to their building. Our local newspaper ran a front-page story not too long ago about a study revealing that one in five people in our city lives in poverty. This is a book about those two numbers. Jesus Wants to save Christians is a book about faith and fear, wealth and war, poverty, power, safety, terror, Bibles, bombs, and homeland insecurity. It's about empty empires and the truth that everybody's a priest. It's about oppression, occupation, and what happens when Christians support, animate and participate in the very things Jesus came to set people free from. It's about what it means to be a part of the church of Jesus in a world where some people fly planes into buildings while others pick up groceries in Hummers.

Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart

Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart
Author: J.D. Greear
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2013-02-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1433679183

“If there were a Guinness Book of World Records entry for ‘amount of times having prayed the sinner’s prayer,’ I’m pretty sure I’d be a top contender,” says pastor and author J. D. Greear. He struggled for many years to gain an assurance of salvation and eventually learned he was not alone. “Lack of assurance” is epidemic among evangelical Christians. In Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart, J. D. shows that faulty ways of present- ing the gospel are a leading source of the confusion. Our presentations may not be heretical, but they are sometimes misleading. The idea of “asking Jesus into your heart” or “giving your life to Jesus” often gives false assurance to those who are not saved—and keeps those who genuinely are saved from fully embracing that reality. Greear unpacks the doctrine of assurance, showing that salvation is a posture we take to the promise of God in Christ, a posture that begins at a certain point and is maintained for the rest of our lives. He also answers the tough questions about assurance: What exactly is faith? What is repentance? Why are there so many warnings that seem to imply we can lose our salvation? Such issues are handled with respect to the theological rigors they require, but Greear never loses his pastoral sensitivity or a communication technique that makes this message teachable to a wide audience from teens to adults.

Saving Power

Saving Power
Author: Peter Schmiechen
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2005
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780802829856

Jesus' death and resurrection are undeniably central to the Christian faith. But how, precisely, is their significance to be understood? Concerned to reinvigorate the church's teaching on the cross, the resurrection, and salvation -- the atonement -- Peter Schmiechen here invites readers to rediscover the wealth of the Christian tradition. In "Saving Power he makes ample use of primary sources to unpack ten distinct theories of atonement, welcoming aspects of each rather than championing only one. Along the way, he demonstrates that while most Christians assume the basic theme of atonement to be sin and forgiveness, other powerful themes -- liberation from oppressive powers, reconciliation in the face of division, and the hope of resurrection in the face of death, for instance -- also deserve to be studied and preached. Affirming orthodox teaching while offering a positive take on marginal views, "Saving Power is a crucial resource for anyone who seeks a fuller understanding of Christ's work.

Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys

Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys
Author: Richard Twiss
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2015-06-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0830898530

The gospel of Jesus has not always been good news for Native Americans. But despite the far-reaching effects of colonialism, some Natives have forged culturally authentic ways to follow Jesus. In his final work, Richard Twiss surveys the complicated history of Christian missions among Indigenous peoples and voices a hopeful vision of contextual Native Christian faith.

Tweet If You Heart Jesus

Tweet If You Heart Jesus
Author: Elizabeth Drescher
Publisher: Church Publishing, Inc.
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2011-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0819224235

Social media has ushered in a dramatic global shift in the nature of faith, social consciousness, and relationships. How do churches navigate the Digital Reformation? Tweet If You Heart Jesus brings the wisdom of ancient and medieval Christianity into conversation with contemporary theories of cultural change and the realities of social media, all to help churches navigate a landscape where faith, leadership, and community have taken on new meanings.

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.

Saving Jesus from Those who are Right

Saving Jesus from Those who are Right
Author: Carter Heyward
Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1999
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780800629663

In this theological resource for spiritual transformation and social change, Carter Heyward rethinks the figure and import of Jesus for church, academy, and society. Rather than focus on the endlessly variable pictures of Jesus in contemporary biblical scholarship, and in radical opposition to the Jesus of the Christian Right, Heyward presents Jesus as our brother, infused with a sacred power and passion for embodying right (mutual) relation, and ourselves with him in this commitment. She goes on to explore, concretely, how we might live this way.Wonderfully clear-sighted, this brief, faithful, and intelligent Christology offers reconstructions of incarnation, atonement, evil, suffering, and fear. It also sheds light on the significance of Jesus for ecological, racial, economic, and gender justice. Heyward's book envisions a mighty counter-cultural force, which she names christic power, that can help save American culture from its greed and domination and save the figure of Jesus from culture-generated distortions. In short, Heyward's book will help people come to terms with the life-changing implications of Jesus' person and ethic. To a generation in search of the transforming potential of Christian commitment, Heyward's most important work offers both spiritual depth and unwavering commitment to the human good. A study guide to this book is available here on fortresspress.com. Click on the tab Letter from the Author.

The Underground Church

The Underground Church
Author: Robin Meyers
Publisher: SPCK
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2012-11-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0281069425

A new way to follow Jesus that draws on old ways of following him. Prominent progressive writer, speaker, and minister Robin Meyers proposes that the best way for the faithful to recapture the spirit of the early Christian church is to recognize that Jesus-following was - and must be again - subversive in the best sense of the word because the gospel taken seriously turns the world upside down. No matter how the church may organize itself or worship, the defining characteristic of the church of the future will be its Jesus-inspired countercultural witness.

If the Church Were Christian

If the Church Were Christian
Author: Philip Gulley
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2010-02-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0061968226

“[Philip Gulley’s] vision of Christianity is grounded, gripping, and filled with uncommon sense. He is building bridges instead of boundaries, and such wisdom is surely needed now.” —Richard Rohr, O.F.M, author of Everything Belongs Quaker minister Philip Gulley, author of If Grace Is True and If God Is Love, returns with If the Church Were Christian: a challenging and thought-provoking examination of the author’s vision for today’s church… if Christians truly followed the core values of Jesus Christ. Fans of Shane Claiborne, Rob Bell, and unChristian will find much to discuss in If the Church Were Christian, as will anyone interested in the future of this institution.