Bøger udgivet af Leafwood Publishers & Acu Press

We are in this together¿all ages practicing, all ages becoming God's people.Often, intergenerational initiatives are seen as the next new church trend, or another programming tool for church growth and revitalization. Ultimately, though, intergenerational practice is at the core of what it means for us to be the body of Christ. God intends for all ages to participate in faith formation together; we are formed in our practice of intergenerationallity as we participate in the formation of becoming God's people.All Ages Becoming brings theologians, practitioners, and ministry leaders, representing diverse denominations, generations, cultures, and geographical locations, together to help us explore this adventure of intergenerational Christian practice. As you consider intergenerational practice in your own faith community, each chapter provides "Theology in Practice" sections with questions designed to help your community reflect, discuss, discover, experiment, reinvent, redesign, and continue in your community of practice.

God the Creator reveals his true nature in the first five books of the Bible.While the broader story of the Bible-how God takes the first steps in reconciling the world-is known to many Christians, carefulreaders of the Pentateuch still have many questions. The first five books of the Bible are filled with violence, oppression, and humansuffering. The origin story of the Jewish nation is one of hardship and loss. The Transforming Word series doesn't shy away fromany of the details--it will encourage you to examine the Scriptures more closely and discover the God who sustains everything.This commentary series draws from the best in recent scholarship and is designed for the everyday student of the Biblewho is looking for an up-to-date, go-to resource as they read and study.

Maybe you didn't read the word on the front cover. Maybe you felt it. You're not alone. I feel it too.While most of us don't want to admit it, we crave attention. Our social media-obsessed society is proof that people everywhere want to be seen. But this self-promoting system leaves many women feeling overlooked. In Overlooked, Whitney Akin helps you discover how the human need for attention and approval is God's intentional design and encourages you to live seen by the God who loves you.Overlooked guides you into a deeper understanding of El Roi, the God Who Sees, through the stories of Hagar, Moses, Paul, and Jesus by uncovering the transformative power of living each day in the attention of a holy God. Overlooked offers practical ways to implement a lifestyle of living seen characterized by confidence, meekness, obedience, and a gospel perspective. You'll learn how to use these characteristics to interact with humility and strength in the real, and digital, world around you. When you feel forgotten and unseen, Overlooked will help you...Understand why you long to be seen.Get real about the ways social media is hard on your heart.Tap into the true source of the attention and approval you long for.Implement practical ways to trade feeling overlooked for a lifestyle of living seen.You don't have to live overlooked anymore.

Jess and Ryan blended their families after losing their spouses to cancer in 2010.In Lovin' with Grit and Grace, they offer a his-and-hers perspective on this unexpected marital journey with their eight children, seven of whom have lost a parent, including their eighteen-year-old son Lucas who is profoundly disabled. They address many tough topics, like grief, addictions, and intimacy, with a vulnerable honesty that is a breath of fresh air in an age when most would rather avoid these difficult issues, with the topics following the acronym HIS/HERS:¿ Health ¿ Intimacy ¿ Sex¿ Household tasks ¿ Excitement ¿ Romance ¿ SpiritualityMany of their personal stories offer a lesson learned, a tried-and-true recipe that applies to the situation, and questions or takeaways for the reader to consider; but above all else, they explain why a love like theirs is worth celebrating and fighting for.

A wonderfully intelligent, forceful book, bringing together masterful sermons by noted preacher Jerry Taylor and responses by world-renowned scholars. Starting with ten of Taylor's best sermons including "The Curse of Babel," "They That Wait upon the Lord," "Alive to God," and "Courageous Compassion," go behind the scenes to rehear the specific circumstances that occasioned each message. Then learn as respected theorists, biblical scholars, and denominational leaders respond to each sermon, providing Scriptural analysis, notes on Taylor's homiletic insights, and further reflections from the tradition of Black preaching." Few books take the reader back to Bible as powerfully as Courageous Compassion, especially in our today's politically divided landscape. Listen to Taylor and hear God speaking to you with clarity and conviction.

This brief commentary is intended to serve as a guide for those teaching Revelation in a Bible class or as a guide for personal study. Over the years, Dr. Fair has taught small group classes, congregational Bible classes, and university classes and has felt the need for a short commentary that bridges between some basic studies and the more scholarly and detailed commentaries. He has written this study guide with an eye on the reader who does not want to get bogged down in academic details and yet who wants something with meaning to it. He has stayed in contact with the latest research and publications in the field of Revelation. There are many perceptions of the story of Revelation, most of them having no basis in solid research. Dr. Fair approaches the study of Revelation with a practical and thoroughly researched point of view. The story of Revelation has little to do with the "end of the world," it is a story of deeply needed encouragement to struggling Christians living in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. As we read and study this wonderful manuscript, we glean much of value for us today. Finally, this work is offered with the prayer that it will encourage Christians and others to realize the triumphant victory we have in Christ over Satan and his forces of evil that challenge us on every front of our lives; that it will offer hope to those who struggle under the pressures of life, and ultimately bring glory to God our Father and his Son, Jesus Christ.

A simple invitation to play can open our eyes to joy and call us back to an intimate relationship with God.Do you remember when you first fell in love? When you fell in love with Jesus, was it much the same? Did you spend countless hours poring over Scripture? Did sleep suddenly seem mundane as you rose at pre-dawn each day to meet with him? Was every sunset an expression of his love and did every sermon hold a secret message just for you? Isn't this the place we all long to return to within our spiritual lives? We desire the bliss of an intimate, unrestrained love relationship with God.Playdates with God is a story of how God woos us back to our first love. Biblical and contemporary stories explore how God uses various human experiences and sensations to draw us closer into deeper intimacy with him. It's the story of how a simple invitation to play can open up the eyes to joy . . . even in difficult circumstances.

God is inviting us to join in the transformation of global poverty. It's time to act.Jesus's words, "Blessed are you who are poor," are the seeds of a new reality. So how can God's people participate in this transformation of how to live and serve? Development in Mission offers a way forward and encourages readers to embrace a holistic approach to poverty alleviation. Gathering their diverse perspectives on international development, the authors construct a solid theological foundation for global mission. They distill principles for effective Christian engagement in several key sectors, including education, income and poverty reduction, water and sanitation systems, creation care, healthcare delivery, disaster relief, peacemaking, sports ministries, and others. Congregations, missionaries, nonprofit leaders, and Christians in the Global North will find fresh perspectives for engaging global vulnerability, poverty, and injustice faithfully and effectively. Along the way, readers will find that they are being transformed themselves as they join God's mission in the world. "This is the definitive new resource for holistic, global mission¿a must-read for every aspiring world-changer and missionary. Weaving their own vast cross-cultural experience in with solid biblical foundations and practical insights, the authors have created the best book for transformation I have read in a long time." ¿Craig Greenfield,founder of Alongsiders International and author of How [not] to be a White Savior and Subversive Jesus "It's time for a radical shift in our approach to global development¿moving from short-term, quick fixes to relational and sustainable solutions. Development in Mission affirms Christ's call to go into all the world¿not as heroes, but as servants; not as problem solvers, but as active learners. The book unites theory and practice, biblical wisdom and global application, as we understand how to truly love our global neighbors." ¿Peter Greer, President and CEO of HOPE International and coauthor of Rooting for Rivals "Development in Mission is a tour de force into the complexity of poverty that confronts some two billion people in the world today. Lynn, Gailey, and Reese present an unvarnished look at the causes and implications of one of the world's greatest challenges, while guiding us toward proven solutions with a humility we must chase after in order to achieve results. This is more than a book; it's an invitation to participate in one of the greatest movements in history: ending poverty for millions in our lifetime." ¿Belinda Bauman,founder of One Million Thumbprints and author of Brave Souls; Stephan Bauman, former President and CEO of World Relief and author of Seeking Refuge

Through the centuries, marginalized Christian renewal movements have challenged the status quo of the religious establishment, often at great cost. These nonmainstream religious movements generally receive little attention in standard introductions, but Let Truth Prevail tells their story, surveying the history, beliefs, and practices of various medieval and post-Reformation European renewal movements:17th-century German Pietists18th-century Scottish restoration movementsHussitesHutteritesMagisterial Protestants and CatholicsMennonitesThe Moravian BrethrenThe Schwarzenau Brethren Swiss BrethrenTaboritesThe Unity of the BrethrenWaldensiansAllen Diles classifies these groups as restoration movements, calling attention to their enduring legacies. Each reacted against perceived corruptions in the church and sought to renew faithfulness to God's truth and his intended ideals as they applied Scripture to their historical context.Though Let Truth Prevail demonstrates the strengths of these renewal movements, the book also considers their limitations. Current readers can challenge their own self-understanding of history, God, faith, Scripture, and the practice of the Christian way by reflecting on these marginalized believers.

This new book is a training tool for people who want to live the way of Jesus. Centered on the entire contents of the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7, it unpacks the sermon in hard-hitting, easy-to-understand, and practical ways. G. K. Chesterton said Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried. Many people today view the Sermon on the Mount this way. They simply believe the teaching is too hard and give up in exasperation and guilt or confusion. The single most important interpretive key for the sermon, says Randy Harris, is to believe that Jesus really intended for us to live these teachings. Martin Luther said the Sermon on the Mount is so di!cult that we can only fall on the grace of God. The teachings are indeed di!cult, and we can only fall on the grace of God, but this doesn't mean the teachings cannot become a necessary guide for living the way of Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount, says Harris, is livable and this book is a guide to the greatest teaching of all time that will change your life forever.

Is faith simply a form of wishful thinking? Is belief in God merely a consoling illusion? So argued Sigmund Freud in The Future of an Illusion. And the force of Freud's argument continues to be felt as it features prominently among critics of religion such as the New Atheists. But was Freud right? Until now, few have directly examined the plausibility of Freud's argument. But here, in a groundbreaking analysis inspired by the religious types described by William James in his seminal The Varieties of Religious Experience, Richard Beck explores the motivational dynamics among "summer Christians" and "winter Christians." Further, across a variety of laboratory studies, Beck examines how Christians variously engage with art (exploring what Beck has dubbed "The Thomas Kinkade Effect"), doctrine (from the Incarnation to beliefs regarding the activity of the devil), and religious difference in a pluralistic world. In each instance, Beck analyzes the underlying motivations of the religious types, sifting through the varieties and illusions of religious experience.

Christian colleges expect faculty to clearly articulate an understanding of the impacts that Christian faith has on their teaching, research, and service. Many faculty find this dimension of their work-often labeled the integration of faith and learning-confusing and difficult to realize in practice, to assess, and to describe. This volume begins by clarifying two things. It summarizes the faith/learning discussion and offers a working conception of faith/integration specifically for Christian college faculty. It then outlines what deans, provosts, and tenure-promotion committees typically expect faculty in Christian colleges to know and do. Allen and Badley introduce the highly regarded framework of Ernest Boyer and the Carnegie Foundation (Scholarship Reconsidered, 1990). They then present both a framework for assessing faith/learning integration in the three dimensions of teaching, research, and service and step-by-step instructions for reporting and describing the individual faculty member's approach and success. The book closes by calling both the Christian college and the individual professor to the vocation of teaching, shaping, and sending.

Would you like to hear the voice of God more readily as you read the Bible? Have you heard of meditation on Scripture but don't know how to begin? Would you like a way to energize your small group study or your Bible class at church? If so, this meditative commentary series is for you. While there are many helpful commentaries and workbooks for Bible study, the series aims to help in a new way. Employing the classic Christian practice of holy reading, it provides a method and structure for meditating on the word of God.

Engage All Generations suggests how every church can build on its potential and become a more vibrant witness of God's Kingdom. Divided into three sections, the book focuses on key growth edges in the unfolding conversation about intergenerational ministry: Learning and Growing Together,Praying and Playing Together, and Leading and Changing Together.Practical, accessible, encouraging, and thought-provoking, this book provides the crucial next building block in our understanding of intergenerational ministry. It is sure to benefit congregations already engaged in fostering intergenerational approaches and those desiring to experiment with becoming intentionally intergenerational.Like good intergenerational ministry, Engage All Generations has something for everyone. Whether you're new to the party or you've been tearing it up on the intergenerational dance floor for years, the wise practitioners in this book invite you to more deeply consider the current state of all-age ministry and to try out some moves that they've been practicing in their contexts. So join the party-and don't be afraid to attempt something new as you make your way onto the dance floor.

Thin Places not only reveals the deeply scriptural, sacramental faith of the Celts, but also provides ways for us to learn from this ancient faith expression, applying fresh and lively spiritual disciplines to our lives today.