eBook PDF Download Digital Library
Author:
Publisher: Morehouse Publishing
Published: 2014-08-01
Total Pages: 112
ISBN-13: 0819229601
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Explores seismic shifts in American life and the opportunities and challenges each presents to the church today. And calls for a return to Episcopal basics and insist that faithfully engaging a changing world might be the most truly Anglican practice of all.
Author: Stephanie Spellers
Publisher: Church Publishing
Published: 2021-03-17
Total Pages: 161
ISBN-13: 1640654240
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →"This book will make a profound difference for the church in this moment in history." — The Most Reverend Michael B. Curry Sometimes it takes disruption and loss to break us open and call us home to God. It’s not surprising that a global pandemic and once-in-a-generation reckoning with white supremacy—on top of decades of systemic decline—have spurred Christians everywhere to ask who we are, why God placed us here and what difference that makes to the world. In this critical yet loving book, the author explores the American story and the Episcopal story in order to find out how communities steeped in racism, establishment, and privilege can at last fall in love with Jesus, walk humbly with the most vulnerable and embody beloved community in our own broken but beautiful way. The Church Cracked Open invites us to surrender privilege and redefine church, not just for the sake of others, but for our own salvation and liberation.
Author: Lenny Duncan
Publisher: Fortress Press
Published: 2019-07-02
Total Pages: 138
ISBN-13: 1506452574
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Lenny Duncan is the unlikeliest of pastors. Formerly incarcerated, he is now a black preacher in the whitest denomination in the United States: the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Shifting demographics and shrinking congregations make all the headlines, but Duncan sees something else at work--drawing a direct line between the church's lack of diversity and the church's lack of vitality. The problems the ELCA faces are theological, not sociological. But so are the answers. Part manifesto, part confession, and all love letter, Dear Church offers a bold new vision for the future of Duncan's denomination and the broader mainline Christian community of faith. Dear Church rejects the narrative of church decline and calls everyone--leaders and laity alike--to the front lines of the churchÂs renewal through racial equality and justice. It is time for the church to rise up, dust itself off, and take on forces of this world that act against God: whiteness, misogyny, nationalism, homophobia, and economic injustice. Duncan gives a blueprint for the way forward and urges us to follow in the revolutionary path of Jesus.
Author: Esther Hizsa
Publisher: Stories of an Everyday Pilgrim
Published: 2019-10-16
Total Pages: 196
ISBN-13: 9781999190705
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Seed Cracked Open is the second book in the Stories of an Everyday Pilgrim series. It contains 78 stories, poems and reflections about God's intimate and attentive love for us. Through the events of Esther's everyday life and her exploration of contemplative Christian spirituality, she is drawn deeper in love with God, her neighbour and creation. "The seed has cracked open," she says, "and I discovered, as the poet Hafiz did, that 'there are two of us housed in this body': God and me! Wherever we go, whatever we do, God is there-inspiring, transforming and enjoying me as I am. That's led to some delightful 'love-mischief' for the world." Seed Cracked Open also contains five prayer retreat outlines designed for individuals or groups. The contents were originally published as posts on her blog An Everyday Pilgrim from July 2013 to December 31, 2014.
Author: Miguel A. De La Torre
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Published: 2021-03-30
Total Pages: 195
ISBN-13: 1467461210
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →“How curiously different is this white God from the one preached by Jesus who understood faithfulness by how we treat the hungry and thirsty, the naked and alien, the incarcerated and infirm. This white God of empire may be appropriate for global conquerors who benefit from all that has been stolen and through the labor of all those defined as inferior; but such a deity can never be the God of the conquered.” Echoing James Cone’s 1970 assertion that white Christianity is a satanic heresy, Miguel De La Torre argues that whiteness has desecrated the message of Jesus. In a scathing indictment, he describes how white American Christians have aligned themselves with the oppressors who subjugate the “least of these”—those who have been systemically marginalized because of their race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status—and, in overwhelming numbers, elected and supported an antichrist as president who has brought the bigotry ingrained in American society out into the open. With this follow-up to his earlier Burying White Privilege, De La Torre prophetically outlines how we need to decolonize Christianity and reclaim its revolutionary, badass message. Timid white liberalism is not the answer for De La Torre—only another form of complicity. Working from the parable of the sheep and the goats in the Gospel of Matthew, he calls for unapologetic solidarity with the sheep and an unequivocal rejection of the false, idolatrous Christianity of whiteness.
Author: Christopher L. Webber
Publisher: Church Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2002-09
Total Pages: 109
ISBN-13: 0819218987
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →A rich collection of readings, from classic to contemporary authors and thinkers, for devotionals for Advent and throughout the year. “Easter Day is the center and crown of the Christian year, but no season of that year provides us with richer material for meditation than Advent and the twelve days of Christmas.” So writes Christopher Webber in this thoughtful and inspiring collection of meditations from the most gifted Anglican writers of the past six hundred years. Love Came Down draws on the best sermons, books, poems, and hymns by these writers, with a reading for every day in Advent and for each of the twelve days of Christmas. Writers include Christina Rossetti, R. W. Church, F. D. Maurice, John Donne, Jeremy Taylor, Madeleine L'Engle, Phillips Brooks, John Keble, William Temple, Thomas Traherne, William Law, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and many others. Brief biographies of the contributors are included.
Author: Dwight J. Zscheile
Publisher: Church Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2012-05-01
Total Pages: 161
ISBN-13: 0819220914
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →By exploring the Episcopal Church’s mission and precepts in the context of 21st century and its challenges, this thoughtful book deepens the Church’s relationship with its people and makes the faith more relevant. Society and culture are constantly evolving so must religion and its mission to remain meaningful. The legacies of establishment, benefactor approaches to mission, and the ‘national church’ ideal are no longer adequate for the challenges and opportunities facing the 21st century church. But if the Episcopal Church is no longer the Church of the Establishment and the benefactor model of church is dead, what is the heart of Episcopal mission and identity? Scholar and Episcopal priest Dwight Zscheile draws on multiple streams of Anglican thought and practice, plus contemporary experience to craft a vision for mission that addresses the church’s post-establishment, post-colonial context. With stories, practices and concrete illustrations, Zscheile engages readers in re-envisioning what it means to be Anglican in America today and sends readers out to build new relationships within their local contexts.
Author: Grace Ji-Sun Kim
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2018-08-28
Total Pages: 229
ISBN-13: 083087416X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →16th Annual Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year - Culture We live in conflicted times. Our newsfeeds are filled with inequality, division, and fear. We want to make a difference and see justice restored because Jesus calls us to be a peacemaking and reconciling people. But how do we do this? Based on their work with diverse churches, colleges, and other organizations, Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Graham Hill offer Christian practices that can bring healing and hope to a broken world. They provide ten ways to transform society, from lament and repentance to relinquishing power, reinforcing agency, and more. Embodying these practices enables us to be the new humanity in Jesus Christ, so the church and world can experience reconciliation, justice, unity, peace, and love. With small group activities, discussion questions, and exercises in each chapter, this book is ideal to read together in community. Discover here how to bring real change to a dehumanized world.
Author: Philip Brochard
Publisher: Church Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2022-09-20
Total Pages: 146
ISBN-13: 1640655212
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Twelve characteristics of healthy Christian communities and the congregational and personal practices that develop them. Congregations have been the bedrock of mainline Christian life and practice for centuries but in recent years many have dwindled in energy and impact. Leaders conclude that change is needed, that they can’t keep applying the same models and practices that have served in the past but no longer seem to work. At a time when all kinds of institutions are being buffeted by swift and strong cultural forces, Brochard and Newton believe the congregation to be a primary site for the transformation of individuals, communities, and the world and that the measures for congregational vitality begin with health, faithfulness, and effectiveness as local expressions of the Church. The authors offer readers insights into developing a sense of purpose, building trust, encouraging curiosity, becoming more collaborative, appreciating productive conflict, and other vital skills.
