Letters from a Skeptic

Letters from a Skeptic

Author: Dr. Gregory A. Boyd

Publisher: David C Cook

Published: 2010-01-01

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1434766527

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Explore the profound dynamics between a Christian son and his skeptical father in this powerful book, as it delves into the big questions of Christianity with a compelling blend of intelligent answers and heartfelt faith. Greg Boyd and his father, Ed, were on opposite sides of a great divide. Greg was a newfound Christian, while his father was a longtime agnostic. So Greg offered his father an invitation: Ed could write with any questions on Christianity, and his son would offer a response. Letters from a Skeptic contains this special correspondence. The letters tackle some of today's toughest challenges facing Christianity, including: Do all non-Christians go to hell? How can we believe a man rose from the dead? Why is the world so full of suffering? How do we know the Bible was divinely inspired? Does God know the future? Each response offers insights into these difficult questions, while delivering intelligent answers that connect with both the heart and mind. Whether you're a skeptic, a believer, or just unsure, these letters can provide a practical, common-sense guide to the Christian faith.


Grace, Faith, Scripture

Grace, Faith, Scripture

Author: Daniel Paavola

Publisher: Concordia Publishing House

Published: 2019-06-18

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 9780758662422

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Grace, Faith, Scripture offers a clear explanation of the Lutheran faith, centered on the three solas - Scripture, grace, and faith - providing Lutherans and non-Lutherans with a better understanding of the unique Lutheran view. Grace, Faith, Scripture can be read devotionally by established Lutherans, and used in Bible studies and new member classes, home Bible studies, and high school youth group studies. It also can be a tool for pastors who want to explain the essence of the Lutheran faith to individuals or groups.


A Lay Preacher's Guide

A Lay Preacher's Guide

Author: Karoline M. Lewis

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published: 2020-05-05

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 150646274X

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In A Lay Preacher's Guide: How to Craft a Faithful Sermon, Karoline M. Lewis provides lay preachers with an essential and accessible guide to the basics of Sunday morning preaching. Laypeople are increasingly called to serve congregations and are preaching regularly. But often they do not have immediate, reliable, or trusted access to homiletical instruction or support for their preaching. As a result, these church leaders--feeling called to ministry and to preach, and affirmed by denominational leaders to do so--are left on their own to figure out how to preach. In A Lay Preacher's Guide, Lewis gives this unique subset of preachers the foundations of biblical preaching, so they can preach faithfully in their unique contexts. She lays out in a concise and clear format the steps to preaching a faithful sermon, a process that can be immediately applied to weekly sermon preparation. This book is a go-to resource for lay preachers, providing a basic course for faithful preaching.


Sensible Shoes

Sensible Shoes

Author: Sharon Garlough Brown

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2013-02-27

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0830843051

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Sharon Garlough Brown tells the moving story of four strangers as they reluctantly arrive at a retreat center and find themselves drawn out of their separate stories of isolation and struggle and into a collective journey of spiritual practice, mutual support and personal revelation.


Sealed

Sealed

Author: Katie Langston

Publisher: Thornbush Press

Published: 2021-04-06

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 1736013688

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Katie Langston is an unlikely convert to Christianity. She grew up in a devout, conservative Mormon family in Utah, served a proselytizing mission to Bulgaria when she was 21, married for "time and all eternity" in the Mormon temple when she was 23. From the outside, she had a typical Mormon life. Inside, she was coming apart at the seams. From childhood, she battled "The Questions"—obsessive-compulsive disorder, though she didn't have a diagnosis for it until much later—and lived inside a complex maze of anxiety and fear. This was compounded by Mormonism's emphasis on "worthiness," a designation of acceptability in Mormon practice, that brought her to the edge of despair as a young mother. Then, almost by accident, she had an encounter with the grace of Jesus Christ—and her world changed. In candid but not sensationalized ways, Langston explores little-understood Mormon practices and teachings while grappling with universal human questions such as the nature of faith, the complexity of family, the process of healing, and what it means to truly belong. This book is intended to be a bridge-builder, a way to help non-Mormons understand Mormonism and Mormons orthodox Christianity through the power of personal narrative. Most of all, it is a testimony of Jesus Christ, in the hopes that those who read it—Mormon, Christian, or neither—will catch a glimpse of the spectacular, life-changing grace of God.


Together by Grace

Together by Grace

Author: Kathryn A. Kleinhans

Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishing

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781506406381

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Who are the Lutherans? In this colorful volume, over two dozen gifted writers tell a story of Lutheran faith and mission that goes back 500 years while pointing to the future.


A Case for Character

A Case for Character

Author: Joel D. Biermann

Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 1451477910

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Equipped with a rich heritage detailing the content of human character, it would seem that Christianity is ideally positioned to address a culture where morality and personal character are set adrift. Contemporary Lutheranism has struggled with the place of morality and character formation, concerns often seen as at odds with the doctrine of justification. A Case for Character argues that Christian doctrine is altogether capable of encouraging character formation while maintaining a faithful expression of justification by grace alone.


One Coin Found

One Coin Found

Author: Emmy Kegler

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published: 2019-04-02

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 1506448291

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The stories of Scripture are for everyone. No exceptions. Emmy Kegler has a complicated relationship with the Bible. As a queer woman who grew up in both conservative Evangelical and progressive Protestant churches, she knows too well how Scripture can be used to wound and exclude. And yet, the stories of Scripture continue to captivate and inspire her--both as a person of faith and as a pastor to a congregation. So she set out to fall in love with the Bible, wrestling with the stories inside, where she met a God who continues to seek us out--appearing again and again as a voice, a presence, and a promise. Whenever we are pushed to the edges, our voices silenced, or our stories dismissed, God goes out after us--seeking us until we are found again. And God is seeking out those whose voices we too quickly silence and dismiss, too. Because God's story is a story of welcome and acceptance for everyone--no exceptions. Kegler shows us that even when we feel like lost and dusty coins--rusted from others' indifference, misspent and misused--God picks up a broom and sweeps every corner of creation to find us.


Dear Church

Dear Church

Author: Lenny Duncan

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published: 2019-07-02

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 1506452574

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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 church's 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. Dear Church also features a discussion guide at the back--perfect for church groups, book clubs, and other group discussion.