Did you know you can read online reviews of your church? How often have you talked about “reaching people where they are”—and realized that much of the time, they are on the Internet? We’ve been living in a digital world for quite a while now. Justin Wise speaks about social media as this generation's printing press—a revolutionary technology that can spread the gospel farther and faster than we can imagine. It’s time to take what we know (and admit what we don’t know) and learn together how to move forward as the church. Are you ready to think theologically about this digital age and reach people in a new way?
In this volume of The New Church’s Teaching Series, Harold T. Lewis surveys the teachings and witness of Anglicanism and the Episcopal Church concerning the Christian vision of a righteous social order, including the challenges of the new millennium. Beginning with the Bible’s understandings of social justice, Lewis summarizes the Anglican witness of theologians like F. D. Maurice and William Temple and goes on to discuss the Episcopal Church in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Later chapters discuss the challenges of a new social order that face the church today raised by liberation theology, third-world debt and economic justice, and questions of race, gender, and human sexuality. As with each book in The New Church’s Teaching Series, recommended resources for further reading and questions for discussion are included.
The Latina/o culture and identity have long been shaped by their challenges to the religious, socio-economic, and political status quo. Robert Chao Romero explores the "Brown Church" and how this movement appeals to the vision for redemption that includes not only heavenly promises but also the transformation of our lives and the world.
Terrace Crawford helps uncover reasons ministry leaders may resist the use of social media and dispels some of the myths surrounding it. With short, accessible chapters, Going Social: A Practical Guide for Church Leaders provides a step-by-step guide to getting started, crucial insights to help you develop an effective social media strategy, and gives real-life examples of ministries and leaders who are using media in powerful ways.
Social justice is not just a matter of applying well-known 'first principles' shared by all Christian traditions. As these papers by representatives of seven Australian Churches show, Christian approaches to social justice are star- tlingly distinctive, both in their starting points and in the positions arrived at on urgent matters of human rights, sexual ethics and economic justice. Led off by the well-known Jesuit human rights advocate, Professor Frank Brennan, the book includes contributions by: Fr Max Vodola (Roman Catholic), Revd Gerard Rose (Churches of Christ), Revd Geoff Pound (Baptist), Revd Raymond Cleary (Anglican), Mark Zirnsak (Uniting Church), Major Jenny Begent (Salvation Army) and Fr Shenouda Boutros (Coptic Orthodox Church), with concluding reflections by Margaret Coffey (ABC Radio National). This book is the work of the Yarra Institute for Religion and Social Policy, an independent ecumenical organisation promoting scholarship and research on Christian social traditions as they bear on current concerns. Launched in 2009 by Professor Brian Howe, the Yarra Institute is committed to engag- ing with our broader culture collaboratively to promote human wellbeing. The authors of these chapters come from seven of the Christian traditions which have theological Colleges comprising the University of Divinity in Melbourne.
"The infusion of social justice into the gospel may well be the most dangerous problem facing the church today. Yet, it is going unnoticed in far too many circles. Social Justice Goes to Church can serve as a wake-up call." —Samuel C. Smith, Ph.D. Chair and Graduate Program Director, Department of History, Liberty University In order to understand why so many evangelicals recently support left-leaning political causes, it is important to know a little history. In the 1970s, many campus radicals raised in Christian homes brought neo-Marxist ideas from college back to church with them. At first, figures like Jim Wallis, Ron Sider, and Richard Mouw made great gains for their progressive evangelical cause. But, after the defeat of Jimmy Carter, the religious right stole the headlines. Today, a new crop of mainstream evangelicals has taken up the cause of the New Left, whether they know it or not. As pro-life evangelicals rush to support movements like #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo, it is important to realize they are walking in footprints already laid down. Their mission may be more successful, but it is not new. To understand where the evangelical social justice movement is heading, it is vital to understand the origins of the movement. Social Justice Goes to Church: The New Left in Modern American Evangelicalism answers, from a historical perspective, the vital question, "Why are American evangelicals moving Left?" “The great injunction to the Church was to preach the Gospel to the world, while not being of the world. Social justice neatly reverses this trend, preaching the ways of the world into the church. That is not its only critical reversal. The Gospel is about freedom from guilt and sin and bondage. Social justice seeks above all to apportion guilt and sin and bondage, enslaving entire demographics and requiring that they kneel before man in attrition. How important that a book of this nature should enter the fray right now. I applaud Mr. Harris for his excellent work in providing the practical means of identifying and repelling this fraudulent force, this ideological interloper, this dangerous false teaching.” —Douglas Kruger Author of Political Correctness Does More Harm Than Good: How to Identify, Debunk, and Dismantle Dangerous Ideas
In their studies of social Christianity, scholars of American religion have devoted critical attention to a group of theologically liberal pastors, primarily in the Northeast. Gary Scott Smith attempts to paint a more complete picture of the movement. Smith's ambitious and thorough study amply demonstrates how social Christianity--which included blacks, women, Southerners, and Westerners--worked to solve industrial, political, and urban problems; reduce racial discrimination; increase the status of women; curb drunkenness and prostitution; strengthen the family; upgrade public schools; and raise the quality of public health. In his analysis of the available scholarship and case studies of individuals, organizations, and campaigns central to the movement, Smith makes a convincing case that social Christianity was the most widespread, long-lasting, and influential religious social reform movement in American history.
