GARY DENNIS, PASTOR
Spiritual Autobiography: Discovering and Sharing Your Spiritual Story by Richard Peace
Excerpt: I first learned about the power of sharing our stories while an undergraduate at Yale. During my final year I became a member of what was called a Senior Society. THey consisted of small groups of men (Yale was not yet coed) who met together regularly. The activities of each group were kept private. In our group one of the things we did was tell our life stories to one another. This was a powerful experience for me. It was a time of self-discovery and a time when I began to discover the humanity of others outside my own circle.
About the Author
As an M.Div. student at Fuller in the 1960s, Richard Peace and his wife, together with four other Fuller students, founded African Enterprise, an evangelistic ministry that resulted in an eight-year ministry in South Africa. An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, Dr. Peace is a consultant in church growth and small-group training. As a former free-lance documentary filmmaker, he serves as a consultant in media productions and educational design for groups ranging from the Navigators in Colorado Springs to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. He is also the author of numerous publications including Small Group Evangelism published by InterVarsity, and the Learning to Love and Spiritual Disciplines series published by NavPress. His most recent book is Conversion in the New Testament: Paul and the Twelve.
Christian Doctrine by Shirley Guthrie
Excerpt: Sex, politics, and theology — these are the only things worth talking about. This old saying is an exaggeration, perhaps, but it is an atempt to express a deep truth. Sex forces the question, Who am I? Politics asks, How can we learn to live together? Theology, which means literally “a word about God,” asks questions like these: What is your only comfort in life and in death? What is the chief end of human life? What are we by nature? In whom do you believe? To risk carrying the exaggeration even further, of the three topics mentioned, theology is the most important and most interesting because it includes the question raised by sex and politics! No theology is interested only in God. The study of theology is by definition the quest for the ultimate truth about God, about ourselves, and about the world we live in. What else is there to talk about?
About the Author
The Rev. Shirley C. Guthrie, who taught theology at Columbia Theological Seminary for nearly 40 years passed away from cancer on October 23, 2004, at his Avondale Estates in Georgia. “The teaching of his fatih matched the living of his faith,” said Walter Brueggemann of Decatur, an internationally known Old Testament scholar. Guthrie’s 1968 book Christian Doctrine has become a seminary standard. Guthrie earned his doctorate from the University of Basel in Switzerland, where he wrote his dissertation under the direction of Karl Barth, one of the 20th century’s top theologians.
A Peace to End All Peace by David Fromkin
About the Author
Professor Fromkin is the Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. He has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 1976.
Professor Fromkin has spent most of his professional life as a practitioner attorney and a private investor. After a varied career in law, business, and politics, he turned to writing works of history and studies of world politics. He is the author of several books, including: The Question of Government: An Inquiry into the Breakdown of Modern Political Systems (1975), The Independence of Nations (1981), In the Time of the Americans: FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Marshall, MacArthur, The Generation That Changed America’s Role in the World (1995). His 1989 book, A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East 1914-1922 (1989), was a national bestseller, was chosen by the editors of the New York Times Book Review as one of the dozen best books of the year, and was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize. His most recent book, published in March 2004, is Europe’s Last Summer: Who Started the Great War in 1914?
Editorial Reviews:
“Wonderful…No book published in recent years has more lasting relevance to our understanding of the Middle East.”-Jack Miles, Los Angeles Book Review
“Extraordinarily ambitious, provocative and vividly written…Fromkin unfolds a gripping tale of diplomatic double-dealing, military incompetence and political upheaval.”-Reid Beddow, Washington Post Book World
“Ambitious and splendid…An epic tale of ruin and disillusion…of great men, their large deeds and even larger follies.”-Fouad Ajami, The Wall Street Journal
Acts of Faith by Philip Caputo
About the Author
Philip Caputo worked nine years for the Chicago Tribune and shared a Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for his reporting on election fraud in Chicago. He is the author of six other works of fiction and two memoirs, including A Rumor of War, about his service in Vietnam. He divides his time between Connecticut and Arizona.
Editorial Reviews:
Critics gave kudos to the author for writing a big, sprawling, old-fashioned novel with diverse characters and serious moral themes. Caputo has painted a portrait of Africa that avoids stereotype or cliché. His eye for detail is unmatched (he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for his reporting work at the Chicago Tribune). Acts of Faith is a timely book about attempted heroism in the face of war, and a warning, noted in the epigraph from the 17th-century philosopher Blaise Pascal, that “Whoever tries to turn angel turns beast.” From Bookmarks Magazine, Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.
“Caputo, a Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter turned novelist, writes with astonishing authority, launching several complex plot lines and an enormous, vibrant cast of characters — aid workers, soldiers, militants, mercenaries, missionaries and corrupt officials. The plot threads join in a propulsive, satisfying finish, inevitably inching demon and deity ever closer together.” –Michael Ollove, The Baltimore Sun
“There is plenty to admire about Philip Caputo’s new novel but its grandest attraction may be the author’s unbridled ambition. This is a huge book . . . And it tells a big, complicated story. He resembles Graham Greene. . . Acts of Faith should be required reading at the service academies, not to mention our various war colleges and other military schools, because Caputo tells us a secret that seems to have escaped even the military’s attention. . . He knows something that the geniuses running the Pentagon and CIA haven’t learned . . .
Acts of Faith is Caputo’s best novel yet.” –Lucian K. Truscott IV, The New York Times Book Review, June 19th
KRISTIN LEUCHT, ASSOCIATE PASTOR, CHILDREN’S MINISTRY
Joining Children on the Spiritual Journey by Catherine Stonehouse
Excerpt: Sarah’s parents and grandparents stood before the pastor, and the whole congregation stood behind them, pledging our support to this young family. The pastor held Sarah in his arms as he prayed, “May Sarah Jane become a woman of God.” My heart responded, “Yes, Lord.” Later I wondered how that would happen. How could we as members of Sarah’s church contribute to the answering of that prayer? What did Sarah need from us? What did her parents need? How could we know? Most churches minister to children in some way. Too often, they simply perpetuate what they have done for many years without questioning whether or not those approaches are effective in forming the faith of children. Some children’s workers invest great energy in providing creative, interesting programs. But do they have a reason for the activities that goes beyond holding the children’s interest? Do they understand how a child’s faith forms and how adults on the spiritual journey with children can most significantly enhance the child’s spiritual development? Spiritual formation during childhood is too important to simply perpetuate programs and hpoe for the best; it is too important to experiment with approaches without having a way to judge their effectiveness.
About the Author
Dr. Stonehouse has extensive experience in the area of Christian Education. Before coming to Asbury Seminary in 1987, she served the Free Methodist Church of North America as the general director of Christian Education. She worked with the Free Methodist Publishing House for 15 years as a publication and curriculum consultant, editor and director of curriculum ministries. On the local church level, she has served as a director of Christian Education, associate pastor, volunteer director of children’s ministries and children’s worship leader. Dr. Stonehouse has authored Patterns in Moral Development (1980) and Joining Children on the Spiritual Journey (1998). She has contributed articles to The Christian Educator’s Handbook on Adult Education, In the Church and In Jesus Christ, and Nurture that is Christian, as well as articles for Christian Education Journal and Counseling and Values.
Postmodern Children’s Ministry by Ivy Beckwith
About the Author
Ivy grew up in southern Connecticut, living about 90 miles outside of New York City. She attended Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts receiving a B.A. in English. After graduation Ivy spent a year doing denominational lay ministry and then attended Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts where she received an Masters of Religious Education degree. Ivy later earned a Ph.D. in education from Trinity International University, where her dissertation explored the arena of experiential education and psycho-social growth. During her years at Gordon-Conwell Ivy interned in educational ministries at historic Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts. After graduation she moved to Chicago, Illinois where she worked as the Director of Christian Education at Northwest Baptist Church. After six years in Chicago Ivy moved back to the Boston area where she became the Director of Children’s Ministries at Grace Chapel in Lexington, Massachusetts. From Grace Chapel she moved to Eden Prairie, Minnesota to take a job as the Director of Children’s Ministries at Wooddale Church. While at Wooddale, Ivy was adjunct faculty in Christian Education at both Crown College in Waconia, Minnesota and Bethel Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. When Ivy ended her tenure at Wooddale Church she worked as a Christian Education representative for Gospel Light Publications working with churches all over the Midwest consulting with them about their educational ministries. She moved from Gospel Light Publications to Group Publishing in Loveland, Colorado where she was the Senior Editor for Curriculum. She supervised the age level curriculum editors, worked on the development of Group’s FaithWeaver curriculum and edited numerous church education resources. From Group Ivy returned to Gospel Light Publications where she worked in the corporate office in Ventura, California developing marketing workshops for Vacation Bible School curriculum and teaching training workshops. Ivy, then, moved by to the Midwest to become the Minister to Children and Families at Colonial Church, Edina, Minnesota where she served until the end of 2004.
Editorial Review:
You’ll learn that preschoolers can learn to worship, how to develop family and intergenerational worship, and how to include children fully in the church community. This is a great study for church leadership. Youth Worker Journal
JIM MILLEY, ASSOCIATE PASTOR, OUTREACH & EQUIPPING
Spiritual Autobiography: Discovering and Sharing Your Spiritual Story by Richard Peace
Excerpt: I first learned about the power of sharing our stories while an undergraduate at Yale. During my final year I became a member of what was called a Senior Society. THey consisted of small groups of men (Yale was not yet coed) who met together regularly. The activities of each group were kept private. In our group one of the things we did was tell our life stories to one another. This was a powerful experience for me. It was a time of self-discovery and a time when I began to discover the humanity of others outside my own circle.
About the Author
As an M.Div. student at Fuller in the 1960s, Richard Peace and his wife, together with four other Fuller students, founded African Enterprise, an evangelistic ministry that resulted in an eight-year ministry in South Africa. An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, Dr. Peace is a consultant in church growth and small-group training. As a former free-lance documentary filmmaker, he serves as a consultant in media productions and educational design for groups ranging from the Navigators in Colorado Springs to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. He is also the author of numerous publications including Small Group Evangelism published by InterVarsity, and the Learning to Love and Spiritual Disciplines series published by NavPress. His most recent book is Conversion in the New Testament: Paul and the Twelve.
Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America by Darrell L. Guder and Lois Barrett
Excerpt: As we move toward the end of the century, more and more commentators are proposing their versions of the “great new fact of our time.” Among the many great new facts suggested, Christians in North American would likely point to two. On the one hand, during the 20th century Christianity has become a truly worldwide movement, with churches established on every continent and among every major cultural group. The great modern missionary movement has been, despite all the controversy and debate, a truly successful enterprise. On the other hand, while modern missions have led to an expansion of world Christianity, Christianity in North American has moved (or been moved) away from its position of dominance as it has experienced the loss not only of numbers but of power and influence within society. It is not the purpose of this book to duplicate the many studies of the changing religiosity of North American society. For our purposes, the result of the process is important.
About the Author
Darrell Guder is Princeton Theological Seminary’s Dean of Academic Affairs and the Henry Winters Luce Professor of Missional and Ecumenical Theology. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Hamburg. As an ordained Presbyterian minister, he served as a student outreach pastor and as a faculty member of the Karlshohe College in the German Lutheran Church. His writing and teaching focus on the theology of the missional church, especially the theological implications of the paradigm shift to post-Christendom as the context for Christian mission in the West. He has served as secretary-treasurer of the American Society of Missiology and is currently the second vice president of that organization.
Permission Evangelism: When to Talk, When to Walk by Michael L. Simpson
Excerpt: When was the last time that a non-believer actually asked you to share your faith? Now you can learn to engage unbelievers in a way that honors God, and that helps you move past the guilt, fear, and failure that so often thwarts evangelism! Author Michael Simpson, a former atheist who used to attack and attempt to disprive the beliefs of Christians, today has a powerful vision and passion for rreaching the lost for Christ. In this daring new way of looking at evangelism, Simpson will equip you to recognize the powerful work of grace in your own life, and to understand the right and wrong ways to appraoch a seeker. You’ll learn to articulare your personal story of salvation as the amazing, compellling adventure that it really is! Evangelism was never like this ! Experience the joy and freedom that Permission Evangelism offers!
About the Author
Michael Simpson has more than 16 years in high-tech, holding positions from Strategic Market Planner to Chief Marketing Officer. Michael is recognized worldwide as a leading industry strategist, public speaker and contributing author to several books. As president of 5thLine, Inc, he assists companies like POLO/Ralph Lauren and Sage Software, Inc., plan for the future. Focused on evangelism in the workplace since abandoning atheism in 1992, he has developed a course using cutting edge “1:1 marketing ” concepts that have been proven to help Christians reach those seeking spirituality, but that reject the traditional church. He sits on the board of directors for Spy in the Land ministries and has been involved in several successful church plants.
CHUCK OSBURN, ASSOCIATE PASTOR, CONGREGATIONAL CARE & SMALL GROUPS
Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene Peterson
About the Author
Eugene was born in E. Stanwood, Washington. He soon moved to Kalispell, Montana, where he grew up. He is married to Janice Stubbs, and has three adult children: Karen, Eric, and Leif. Eugene has written and contributed to more than thirty books, including The Contemplative Pastor and Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity. Although Eugene is best known in theological pastoral circles, several of his books, such as A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, have extended his influence to a much broader audience. He has been a regular contributor to magazines read by pastors and scholars as well as popular religious publications. Eugene Peterson earned degrees at New York Theological Seminary and Johns Hopkins University. In 1962, he founded Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland. He left there recently to teach at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He is the author of over a dozen books, including Run With the Horses, Psalms: Prayers of the Heart and Answering God.
Editorial Review
One of Peterson’s early books, long before his blockbuster Bible paraphrase The Message, was titled A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. This pastor, professor and writer has lived up to the promise of that title, consistently producing books of uncommon eloquence that explore the Christian life through the lens of scripture. In this volume, the first of a projected five, Peterson lays the foundation for “spiritual theology.” Following the biblical languages, he asks readers to consider “how our perceptions would change if we eliminated the word ‘spirit’ from our language and used only ‘wind’ and ‘breath.’ Spirit was not ‘spiritual’ for our ancestors; it was sensual.” Beginning with an account of Gerard Manley Hopkins’s vivid poem “As Kingfishers Catch Fire,” Peterson goes on to employ his own considerable gifts as a writer to uncover the sensual, concrete realities behind biblical texts from Genesis to Revelation. These nuanced and convincing readings help frame the three areas where Peterson sees Christ at “play”: the beauty of creation, the tragedy of history and the beloved, bewildering community of the church. “The single most important thing to understand in spiritual theology is that it is not about theology… it is a cultivated disposition to live theology.” Rich, generous and wise, Peterson’s “conversation” will help readers at every stage of faith to live their faith more deeply. (Mar.) Publishers Weekly, Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Excerpt: This is a book that begs to be seen in its historical context, as a bold act of storytelling and healing in a world gone mad. In 1942, just twenty-four years after the end of a brutal war that had destroyed an entire generation of its young men, Great Britain was at war again. Now it was ordinary citizens who suffered, as their small island nation was bombarded by four hundred planes a night, in the infamous “blitz” that changed the face of war, turning civilians and their cities into the front lines.
About the Author
Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentiety century and arguably the most influential Christian writer of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English literature at Oxford University in 1954 when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. His major contributions in literary criticism, childrne’s literature, fantasy literature, and popular theology brought him international renown and acclaim. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include The Chronicles of Narnia, Out of the Silent Planet, The Four Loves, The Screwtape Letters, and Mere Christianity. www.cslewis.com.
Who Is This Jesus? by Michael Green
Excerpt: Jesus Christ! Today these words are most frequently used as swear words. We utter them in order to vent our anger or frustration. Fifty years ago it would have been seen as blasphemy to use His name that way. But now it is commonplace. Isn’t it remarkable that the name of the Man who founded the world’s largest religion should be most familiar as a term of abuse? That does not happen to Muhammad or Buddha, or, for that matter, to Lenin or Mao.
About the Author
The Revd. Canon Dr Michael Green is a British theologian, Anglican priest, Christian apologist and author of more than fifty Christian books. He is serving as the Canon Missioner of Holy Trinity Church in Raleigh, NC through 2007.
Michael Green has been a prolific writer, with much of his work written for a popular reading audience, although he has also contributed to academic studies. Many of his best known books discuss the twin topics of evangelism and apologetics.
One of Green’s objectives has been to equip lay Christian believers in their grasp of the gospel message, and to then have confidence to converse with others about faith matters.
His apologetic work has generally focussed on popular misconceptions and objections held by non-Christians. In books such as You Must Be Joking, World on the Run and Why Bother With Jesus, Green deals with attitudes of religious indifference and scepticism. He also addresses a variety of objections concerning religious hypocrisy, religious pluralism, and popular questions of doubt and unbelief.
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