Exploring the concept of church as refuge, offers a way to bridge the gap between black theology, with its social and political concerns, and black churches, with their emphases on pastoral care and piety.
In a world that is more culturally diverse than ever, pastors and lay leaders need skills and competencies to serve in multicultural contexts. This rich blend of astute analysis and practical guidance offers a praxis of paying attention, study, and discernment that leads to genuine reconciliation and shared life empowered by the gospel.
Two white pastors share the best practices they have discovered from their years of ministry with the black church and relationships among African-American Christian leaders. Contributors include Sheila Bailey, Cynthia Hale, Donald Hilliard, A. Louis Patterson, Gina Stewart, and Ralph Douglas West.
Respond to God's unfolding drama to bring healing and reconciliation. In this major revision of his classic book, Dr. Edward Wimberly updates his narrative methodology by examining current issues in African American pastoral care and counseling.
"When the church embraces the responsibility of living as faith managers of God's vast resources [as Psalm 24:1 teaches], the community of faith will prosper." So begins this practical and theological study of stewardship, both in the context of the African-American church tradition and beyond. After all, a systematic approach to stewardship undergirds the ministry and mission of the church universal. A stewardship consultant, Amerson draws upon his experience to help churches develop a theology of generosity; define stewardship leadership roles; celebrate the offering each week; and establish endowment giving. While recognizing still-relevant traditions, he also points to newer tactics and strategies convenient to both members and congregations--including electronic giving, contribution statements, and year-end giving. A highlight of the book is Amerson's explanation of the development of a narrative budget/narrative spending plan. He also writes about stewardship education at multiple levels. This book is a solid resource for financial stewardship education.
Capitol Hill Baptist Church associate pastor Michael Lawrence contributes to the IXMarks series as he centers on the practical importance of biblical theology to ministry. He begins with an examination of a pastor's tools of the trade: exegesis and biblical and systematic theology. The book distinguishes between the power of narrative in biblical theology and the power of application in systematic theology, but also emphasizes the importance of their collaboration in ministry. Having laid the foundation for pastoral ministry, Lawrence uses the three tools to build a biblical theology, telling the entire story of the Bible from five different angles. He puts biblical theology to work in four areas: counseling, missions, caring for the poor, and church/state relations. Rich in application and practical insight, this book will equip pastors and church leaders to think, preach, and do ministry through the framework of biblical theology.
Ruth Tucker recounts a harrowing story of abuse at the hands of her husband—a well-educated, charming preacher no less—in hope that her story would help other women caught in a cycle of domestic violence and offer a balanced biblical approach to counter such abuse for pastors and counselors. Weaving together her shocking story, stories of other women, and powerful stories of husbands who truly have demonstrated Christ’s love to their wives, with reflection on biblical, theological, historical, and contemporary issues surrounding domestic violence, she makes a compelling case for mutuality in marriage and helps women and men become more aware of potential dangers in a doctrine of male headship.
Postcolonializing God examines how African Christianity especially as a practical spirituality can be truly a postcolonial reality. The book offers thoughts as to how African Christians and by that token others who were colonial subjects, may practice a spirituality that bears the hallmarks of their authentic cultural heritage, even if that makes them distinctly different from Christians from the colonizing nations. There are themes in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Scriptures in which God's activities result in shattering hegemony, overthrowing the powerful, diversifying communities and affirming pluralism. These have by and large been ignored or downplayed in the formation of Christian communities by western and westernized Christians in Africa. The effect of this is that much of the practice of African Christians imitates that of a European Christianity of bygone times. Postcolonializing God charts a different course uplifting these ignored readings of scripture and identifying how they are expressed again by Africans who courageously seek through the practices of mysticism and African culture to portray a God whose actions liberate and diversify human experience. Postcolonializing God seeks to express the human diversity that seems to be the Creator's ongoing desire for the world and thereby to continue to manifest the manifold and diverse nature and wisdom of God. It is only as humans refuse to be created in the image of any other human beings, that the richness and complexity of the divine image will be more closely viewed throughout the world.