During his first seven years ministering to a suburban Houston congregation (2003-9), Matt Soper wrote a weekly essay commenting on current events, culture and the Christian faith. These essays touched on some of the most dramatic events and pressings issues of that decade, such as the capture of Saddam Hussein, the Abu Ghraib prison debacle, Hurricane Katrina, the fallout from the Danish cartoons of Muhammed, the Enron implosion, sports steroid scandals, the same-sex marriage debate, Barack Obama's historic election, and the 2007-8 recession. They also addressed more prosaic but always challenging issues and events in the life of regular people striving to live faithfully as part of an American congregation of Christians. The essays were written in real time as events unfolded, and they chronicle a preacher attempting to lead a community of Christians in thoughtfully engaging the world through eyes of courageous, rigorous and hopeful faith. Dr. Matt Soper was born and raised in New Orleans, LA. He earned bachelor's degrees in Business from Rhodes College and Biblical Studies from Austin Graduate School of Theology, a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry from Abilene Christian University. He has served churches in New Milford, CT, Los Angeles, CA and Houston, TX. He is currently the Senior Minister of the West Houston Church of Christ. He and his wife, Angela, have two daughters.
The President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints discusses morality, testimony, being a missionary, service to others, profanity, personal journals, tithing, administration to the sick, and planning your life.
What should Christian witness look like in our contemporary society? In this timely book, Alan Noble looks at our cultural moment, characterized by technological distraction and the growth of secularism, laying out individual, ecclesial, and cultural practices that disrupt our society's deep-rooted assumptions and point beyond them to the transcendent grace and beauty of Jesus.
On August 14, 2011, when I was in Kandergrund in the Bernese Highlands in Switzerland an important connection became very clear to me. I recognized a spiritual cause for why we are losing part of our youth. I was very shocked. I thought of my children and grandchildren. Since then I have been intensively occupied with this subject.Now I believe that the same spiritual cause is behind many of our problems; specifically the personal problems, in the local churches and the world-wide church. It is the lack of the Holy Spirit. If this is the cause, then we should urgently address this issue. If the cause can be eliminated or considerably reduced, then many problems will become superfluous or will be resolved.
The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1970, volume 1, contains messages given by Brother Witness Lee from January through July 1970. During this period Brother Lee remained in Los Angeles for the first two weeks of January, after which he traveled to Sao Paulo, Brazil, and remained there until early February. There is no record of his speaking in Sao Paulo. On his return to the United States he stopped in Houston, Texas, where he gave a conference, and then returned to Los Angeles in the middle of February, where he remained until the end of March. He then visited Mesa, Arizona, for a weekend conference. He returned to Southern California and ministered in Los Angeles and Costa Mesa until the last week in June. He traveled to Toronto, Canada, for one week and proceeded to visit Akron, Ohio, until the middle of July. There is no record of his speaking in Toronto. Brother Lee then returned to Los Angeles and ministered there until the middle of August. The contents of this volume are divided into eleven sections, as follows: 1. Eleven messages given in Los Angeles, California, from January 1 through 4. These messages were previously published in a ten-chapter book entitled The Fulfillment of God's Purpose by the Growth of Christ in Us. Two of the spoken messages were combined. 2. One message given in Los Angeles, California, on January 18. This message was previously published in The Ministry magazine, volume 2, number 8, August/September 1998, as the first part of a chapter entitled "Migration in God's Move." It is included in this volume under the title Fellowship on Migration. 3. One message given in Los Angeles, California, on February 24. It is included in this volume under the title Bearing Fruit for the Manifestation of the Triune God and Standing Against the Opposition of the Religious World. 4. One message given in Los Angeles, California, on April 19. This message is included in this volume under the title Abiding in the Anointing. 5. Seven messages given in Houston, Texas, from February 8 through 14. They are included in this volume under the title Fulfilling God's Purpose by Growing in Life and Functioning in Life to Build Up the Church. 6. Seven messages given in Mesa, Arizona, on March 27 through 29. These messages are included in this volume under the title The Enjoyment of Christ in Our Spirit for the Building Up of the Church as Revealed in the Gospel of Matthew. 7. Fourteen messages given in Los Angeles, California, from March 31 through June 5. These messages were previously published under the title New Testament Service. Part of chapter 5 and all of chapter 6 were published as a booklet entitled Finding Christ by the Living Star. 8. Nine messages given in Los Angeles, California, from April 3 through May 29. These messages are included in this volume under the title The Way to Grow in Life. 9. Three messages given in Costa Mesa, California, on May 30 and 31. They are included in this volume under the title Crucial Points concerning Christ, the Church, and the Two Spirits in John's Gospel and Revelation. 10. Eight messages given in Akron, Ohio, on July 3 through 5. There is no record of the first message in this series. The remaining seven messages are included in this volume under the title Basic Lessons concerning the New Testament Service. The first recorded message was divided into two parts for publication in this section. 11. Eight messages given in Los Angeles, California, on July 17 through 25. These messages are included in this volume under the title The Spirit and the Church. Brother Lee also gave seven messages in Los Angeles, California, during a period of informal training from April 1 through May 13. These messages, together with sixteen messages given from February 5 through May 21, 1969, were previously published in a book entitled How to Meet. The twenty-three messages were included in The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1969, volume 1.
The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1970, volume 3, contains messages given by Brother Witness Lee from October 18 through December 1970. From the middle of October until the end of the year, Brother Lee was in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The contents of this volume are divided into eight sections, as follows: 1. Twenty-four messages given in Hong Kong in October and November. These messages were edited from audio recordings together with the notes taken by Brother K. H. Weigh and were previously published in Chinese as a book entitled The Church Life in Spirit and Truthfulness. They are included in this volume under the same title. 2. Eight messages given in Hong Kong on October 18 through November 14. They were compiled and edited from audio recordings together with the notes of Brother K. H. Weigh and are included in this volume under the title The Proper Attitude When Facing Turmoils. 3. A message given in Hong Kong on an unknown date in 1970. In 1971 this message was published in Chinese with some added material by the Taiwan Gospel Book Room under the title Concerning the Person of Christ. Later, a booklet by the same title was published in English. The English edition is included in this volume. 4. A message given in Hong Kong on an unknown date in 1970. It was previously published in Chinese under the title Concerning the Triune God--the Father, the Son, and the Spirit and was later published in English under the same title. The English edition of the booklet is included in this section. 5. Seventeen messages given in Taipei and Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in November and December. The first fourteen messages were originally published in Chinese in The Ministry of the Word magazine in January through August 1971. The entire series of seventeen messages was published in Chinese and English as a book entitled Being Delivered from Religious Rituals and Walking according to the Spirit and is included in this volume under the same title. 6. Four messages given in Taichung, Taiwan, on December 9 through 11. These messages were previously published in Chinese and English under the title The Ministry of the New Covenant and the Spirit. The contents of the published book are included in this volume. 7. Fourteen messages given in Taipei and Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in December. They were originally published in Chinese in The Ministry of the Word magazine in March through December 1971 and were also published as a book entitled Taking Christ as Our Person for the Church Life. They were subsequently published in English in a book under the same title and are included in this volume. 8. Three messages given in Taipei, Taiwan, from December 3 through 5. These messages are included in this volume under the title An Explanation of a Few Truths.
The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1953, volume 2, contains messages given by Brother Witness Lee in September through December 1953. Historical information concerning Brother Lee's travels and the content of his ministry in 1953 can be found in the general preface that appears at the beginning of volume 1 in this set. The contents of this volume are divided into three sections, as follows: 1. Thirty-six messages given in Taipei, Taiwan, on September 1 through October 30, 1953. These messages are included in this volume under the title Revelations in Ephesians: Seeing the Blessings and Position of the Church in Christ. 2. Twenty-two messages given in Taipei, Taiwan, on November 3 through December 8, 1953. These messages are included in this volume under the title Revelations in Ephesians: Seeing the Living and Responsibility of the Church in the Holy Spirit. 3. A summary report, which appears in the preface of this section, followed by fourteen messages given in Taipei, Taiwan, from September through December 1953. The report and messages are included in this volume under the title Messages and Fellowship Given during the Service Training in Taipei.
