Uncomfortable
Uncomfortable

Author: Brett McCracken

Publisher: Crossway

Published: 2017-09-15

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 1433554283

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Does your church make you uncomfortable? It’s easy to dream about the “perfect” church—a church that sings just the right songs set to just the right music before the pastor preaches just the right sermon to a room filled with just the right mix of people who happen to agree with you on just about everything. Chances are your church doesn’t quite look like that. But what if instead of searching for a church that makes us comfortable, we learned to love our church, even when it’s challenging? What if some of the discomfort that we often experience is actually good for us? This book is a call to embrace the uncomfortable aspects of Christian community, whether that means believing difficult truths, pursuing difficult holiness, or loving difficult people—all for the sake of the gospel, God’s glory, and our joy.

Christian Community in History Volume 1
Christian Community in History Volume 1

Author: Roger Haight

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2004-09-16

Total Pages: 449

ISBN-13: 0826416306

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Drawing upon the methodology developed in his Dynamics of Theology (1990) and exemplified in Jesus Symbol of God (1999), Roger Haight, in this magisterial work, achieves what he calls an historical ecclesiology, or ecclesiology from below. In contrast to traditional ecclesiology from above, which is abstract, idealist, and ahistorical, ecclesiology from below is concrete, realist, and historically conscious. In this first of two volumes, Haight charts the history of the church's self-understandings from the origins of the church in the Jesus movement to the late Middle Ages. In volume 2 Haight develops a comparative ecclesiology based on the history and diverse theologies of the worldwide Christian movement from the Reformation to the present. While the ultimate focus of the work falls on the structure of the church and its theological self-understanding, it tries to be faithful to the historical, social, and political reality of the church in each period.

Christian Community
Christian Community

Author: Rob Suggs

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2002-01-18

Total Pages: 68

ISBN-13: 9780830830718

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In this ten-session LifeGuide® Bible Study, Rob Suggs leads us to grow in community--in loving and nurturing one another, and in reflecting Christ's love to the world around us.

Community That Is Christian
Community That Is Christian

Author: Julie A. Gorman

Publisher: Baker Books

Published: 2002-06-01

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 158558553X

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Over the past thirty years there has been a boom in small groups, both in society at large and within the church. From Bible studies to MOPS to Alcoholics Anonymous, it is estimated that four out of ten Americans belong to a small group that meets regularly for the care and support of its members. But are these groups creating true, biblical community, or do they settle for self-focus and personal gain? Julie Gorman has studied small groups for decades and presents her analysis, insights, and suggestions in Community That Is Christian, an essential resource for building community in church-based small groups. This comprehensive book serves both as a text for those who equip leaders or lead small groups and as an interactive manual for small-group members, helping them transform their relationships into Christ-centered community. The book begins with biblical support for coming together, contrasting it with our often individualistic mind-set that undermines community. Gorman then sets forth the goals of community and describes the process of transformation. She draws from extensive research to address the why and the how of small-group ministry, giving special attention to gender and cultural distinctions. Community That Is Christian provides readers with charts, discussion questions, and inventories to further help them establish community within their small groups.

Life Together
Life Together

Author: Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 1978-10-25

Total Pages: 134

ISBN-13: 0060608528

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After his martyrdom at the hands of the Gestapo in 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer continued his witness in the hearts of Christians around the world. His Letters and Papers from Prison became a prized testimony to Christian faith and courage, read by thousands. Now in Life Together we have Pastor Bonhoeffer's experience of Christian community. This story of a unique fellowship in an underground seminary during the Nazi years reads like one of Paul's letters. It gives practical advice on how life together in Christ can be sustained in families and groups. The role of personal prayer, worship in common, everyday work, and Christian service is treated in simple, almost biblical, words. Life Together is bread for all who are hungry for the real life of Christian fellowship.

Making Neighborhoods Whole
Making Neighborhoods Whole

Author: Wayne Gordon

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2013-08-26

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 0830895779

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Civil rights leader John Perkins and CCDA president Wayne Gordon revisit the founding principles of the Christian Community Development Association, seeking to provide the terms for a new discussion around the emerging priorities of Christian community development today. Includes profiles of thriving urban ministries.

Living in Christian Community
Living in Christian Community

Author: Art Gish

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 1998-09-29

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 1579101593

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This book is a description of what the church ought to be. Gish purposes to deal with the concrete issues of what it really means to be a Christian community, the body of Christ.

Body Politics
Body Politics

Author: John Howard Yoder

Publisher: MennoMedia, Inc.

Published: 2001-03-01

Total Pages: 105

ISBN-13: 0836197313

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Binding and loosing, baptism, eucharist, multiplicity of gifts, and open meeting; these five New Testament practices were central in the life of the early Christian community. Some of them are still echoed in the practice of the church today. But the full social, ethical, and communal meaning of the original practices has often been covered by centuries of ritual and interpretation. John Howard Yoder, in his inimitably direct and discerning style, uncovers the original meaning of the five practices and shows why the recovery of these practices is so important for the social, economic, and political witness of the church today.

Paul's Idea of Community
Paul's Idea of Community

Author: Robert J. Banks

Publisher: Baker Academic

Published: 2020-01-21

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 1493421581

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This highly readable investigation of the early church explores the revolutionary nature, dynamics, and effects of the earliest Christian communities. It introduces readers to the cultural setting of the house churches of biblical times, examines the apostle Paul's vision of life in the Christian church, and explores how the New Testament model of community applies to Christian practice today. Updated and revised throughout, this 40th-anniversary edition incorporates recent research, updates the bibliography, and adds a new fictional narrative that depicts the life and times of the early church.

Beyond Charity
Beyond Charity

Author: John M. Perkins

Publisher: Baker Books

Published: 1993-07-01

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1585582115

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A powerful call to action to bring reconciliation and restoration to broken communities.