Showing titles in Ecclesiology

The third in Joe Thorn's series on the confession, nature, and expression of the Church, The Life of the Church explores what the church does because of who it is. Useful for training in membership class, discipleship groups, and elder boards, The Life of the Church is at once theological, practical, and experiential. Listeners will not simply be informed, but led to a deeper conviction about their role in the body of Christ.

Does the phrase church discipline sound like an oxymoron? The church’s message is about grace, we reason, while discipline feels like the opposite of grace. In fact, Jesus taught his disciples to practice church discipline because it’s one way congregations grow in holiness and imitate God’s own love. In this audiobook, Jonathan Leeman presents biblical answers to questions about the nature and application of church discipline, conveying that Scripture presents church discipline as both loving and necessary.

Believers display the greatness of God’s kingdom to a hostile world when we selflessly serve each other and those around us. In this short audiobook, Matthew Emadi explains the vital roles we play within the church. Through acts of service including hospitality, ministry, and evangelism, we bless our communities and long to hear Jesus one day say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) was England's best-known preacher for most of the second half of the 19th century. This sermon, delivered on February 4, 1855, is based on Matthew 12:20: "A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory". The message is one of encouragement, so that believers remain firm in the faith, trusting in God for strength.

Danny Steyne takes you through the questions that must be raised, and that most of us have. What truly defines the Church? An encounter with God changes your understanding of what He wants in a moment. All your training, opinions, and plans can be thrown away when you have an encounter that begins to reveal The Church that Jesus initiated and is building, particularly when it’s very different than what you might have been doing and experiencing. Using history and practical leadership experience, Danny lays before you some much needed truth and wisdom about where we go from here. Let the ...

The church today faces great challenges, from outside and from within. Popular culture tempts Christians to compromise truth in the name of relevance and to ignore sin under the guise of tolerance. At the same time, serious doctrinal errors threaten to undermine the authority of God's word, leading to all sorts of unbiblical practices. Right Thinking in a Church Gone Astray offers responses from trusted evangelical voices on 15 timely issues.

The viral upswing of the "spiritual but not religious" trend has cast religion as going rapidly out of style. Yet even in his own desert of deconstruction, Zach couldn't shake his desire for a spiritual home. His search ultimately led him to look behind the statistics, where Zach found an astonishing undercurrent subversively at work.

Current discussions about Church Planting Movements (CPMs) and Disciple Making Movements (DMMs) employ numerous terms not found in Edwards’ writings. Yet the Lord has not changed, the Bible has not changed, and the gospel has not changed. Edwards’ incisive and edifying analysis contains numerous insights that have endured through the centuries. The wisdom we glean from Edwards’ comments on the awakening of his time can shed helpful light on current discussions about movements taking place in our time.

Jesus lived with his disciples for three years and taught them life lessons in a relational atmosphere. After three years, he commanded them to "go and do likewise" (Matthew 28:18-20). Our God, the Trinity, is a relational God. He lives in perfect harmony with the other members of the Godhead. His word is full of exhortations to love and serve one another. This book will tell you how.

This is an improvisational book written by an improvisor about the improvisational nature of Jesus, reality, and an improvisational creation. Say that three times fast. This book is an amalgam of memoir, theology, and improv. Tanner is vulnerable, brutally honest, and a little silly as he conjures a portrait of an improvisational reality. Everything is the same, but exactly different (and it always will be) and this book considers how improv and Jesus provoke us towards eternal affirmations of difference.

Churches and their leaders have innovation fever. Innovation seems exciting—a way to enliven tired institutions, embrace creativity, and be proactive—and is a superstar of the business world. But this focus on innovation may be caused by an obsession with contemporary relevance, creativity, and entrepreneurship that inflates the self, lacks theological depth, and promises burnout. In this follow-up to Churches and the Crisis of Decline, leading practical theologian Andrew Root delves into the problems of innovation.

This book is the sixth of seven in the series that explores each of the seven principle metaphors God employed in defining the nature and functioning of the Church. Imagining the King's bride looks back to how key women in the pages of scripture serve as prophetic types of the character and heart God desires to wed to his Son as his bride.

After his resurrection, the Lord Jesus revealed how his suffering, glory, and mission plan for the nations are in fact central to the biblical story of redemption. After Emmaus shows how Christology and missiology are integrally connected throughout Scripture, especially in the teaching of Jesus and the apostles. Brian Tabb explains what Luke 24:46-47 reveals about God’s messianic promises in the Old Testament, their fulfillment in the New Testament, and the purpose of the church.

Uncover the transformative power of laughter with "The Laughing Pulpit - Using Humor to Enhance Preaching." This groundbreaking guide illuminates the profound yet often overlooked relationship between humor and preaching. With this essential resource, preachers can learn how to leverage laughter to communicate spiritual truths more effectively, create a deeper sense of community, and make their messages more memorable and impactful. A Harmonious Blend of Theology and Comedy: Explore how humor can illuminate spiritual truths, deepen religious understanding, and open hearts to profound ...

Like a fresh wind in the heat of a summer day, this masterpiece of a book will surely refresh the spirits of true disciples of Jesus and bring understanding to the body of Christ in this hour. As with many of Bert’s books, wisdom screams out to us from these golden pages and acts as another plumb line to those who cannot be bought by the religious systems of this world, which tend to be confined by its fleshly restrictions and the limitations of the mere wisdom of man, human thinking, and human agendas. The true disciples of Jesus are losing their taste for the shallow and superficial, ...

The Church Is Flat is the first significant, researched study into the ecclesiology of the emerging church movement. Research into eight congregations is put into conversation with the theology of Jürgen Moltmann, concluding with pragmatic proposals for the the practice of a truly relational ecclesiology. Tony Jones visited eight emerging church congregations (Cedar Ridge Community Church, Pathways Church, Vintage Faith Church, Journey Church, Solomon's Porch, House of Mercy, Church of the Apostles, and Jacob's Well), facilitating interviews, focus groups, and surveys. After interpreting ...

The Book of Revelation is viewed in light of both the current world stage and those historic events which have transpired since it was written. The seven churches of Asia-Minor (which prophetically depict the advancing Church Age) as well as those passages pertaining to the powerful world empire during the tribulation are given considerable attention. OT prophets addressed many of these events, but none revealed the whole picture. Daniel asked the Lord for further clarification, that he might better understand the end times; the Lord said, “the words are closed up and sealed till the time...

Jesus said, I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Yet, statistics show that Americans do not give much value to the church anymore! Perhaps American Christians don’t love to hate the church but research suggests that they sure do hate to love it! • Each year for every church started, four close their doors! • Research suggests that 2.7 million church members fall into inactivity each year, leaving churches as hurting, wounded victims of some kind of abuse, disillusionment, or neglect. • Between 1992 and 2002, 77% to 87% of Americans identified ...

The Popularity of False Prophecy One of the most concerning aspects of false prophecy is its enduring popularity. False prophets often tell people what they want to hear, appealing to their desires rather than confronting them with the truth. In 2 Timothy 4:3-4, Paul warned, "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." False prophecy often thrives in ...

Believers know the Bible is powerful—but how so? And how does God save people and transform lives through Scripture? Author and theology professor Jeremy M. Kimble integrates an evangelical doctrine of Scripture with a robust, coherent practice of engaging with Scripture. Behold and Become contends that the Bible, which is God's self-revelation, coupled with the Spirit, works to produce salvation and growth in godliness. Believers will see how sound beliefs about Scripture correspond with practices that allow for God's transforming work.