"The storied church focuses on church renewal that is born of the restorative, transformative, life-giving function that stories have for us as individuals and that can serve communities of faithful people. If stories help us survive as human creatures, why can't they help churches survive? This book is a tool to empower pastors and lay leaders to effect revitalizing change in their faith communites."--back cover.
In this thrilling narrative, Phillip Campbell, author of the best-selling Story of Civilization series, takes children on a journey through Church history, beginning at Pentecost when Peter and the other apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and preached in the streets of Jerusalem, all the way through the pontificate of John Paul II and into modern times. Campbell's storybook style brings the narrative to life for young readers, taking them back in time and awakening a love and appreciation for history.
Dive into the epic saga of faith, courage, and transformation that spans centuries—the story of the Christian Church. In this captivating narrative, Jesse Lyman Hurlbut weaves together the threads of history, theology, and human endeavor to illuminate the remarkable journey of Christianity. From the humble beginnings of a small band of disciples in Jerusalem to the global movement that shapes cultures and hearts today, The Story of the Christian Church unfolds with vivid detail. Hurlbut invites you to witness the struggles, triumphs, and pivotal moments that shaped the Church’s destiny.
Matthew Gorkos begins The Storied Church with this compelling statement: "I believe in the church--in the power of faithful people serving a good and gracious God--and I believe in the power of a good story. Moreover, I believe, as this book will argue, that church and story--harnessed together--could be an even more powerful force for goodness in our world." Neuroscientists, anthropologists, archeologists, and psychologists all agree. Story is how our brains and our communities make sense of things. Storytelling helps us cope with change and loss. Storytelling helps us transmit lessons and life-skills to the next generation. As human beings, it seems we can't do without story. This book--indeed, this whole idea of story-centered church renewal--was born of a suspicion that the restorative, transformative, life-giving function that stories have for us as individuals may serve communities of faithful people as well. If stories help us survive as human creatures, why can't they help churches survive? The problem that story-centered renewal seeks to remedy has only become more prevalent and urgent in the age of Covid-19. Our churches need hope now more than ever. Writing from a pastor's perspective, Gorkos hopes to encourage and empower other pastors and lay leaders with both the hope and the tools they need to effect revitalizing change in their faith communities. Each chapter includes questions for reflection to help readers listen to and tell the stories that will lead to renewal and transformation.
The instant New York Times bestseller and companion book to the PBS series. “Absolutely brilliant . . . A necessary and moving work.” —Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., author of Begin Again “Engaging. . . . In Gates’s telling, the Black church shines bright even as the nation itself moves uncertainly through the gloaming, seeking justice on earth—as it is in heaven.” —Jon Meacham, New York Times Book Review From the New York Times bestselling author of Stony the Road and The Black Box, and one of our most important voices on the African American experience, comes a powerful new history of the Black church as a foundation of Black life and a driving force in the larger freedom struggle in America. For the young Henry Louis Gates, Jr., growing up in a small, residentially segregated West Virginia town, the church was a center of gravity—an intimate place where voices rose up in song and neighbors gathered to celebrate life's blessings and offer comfort amid its trials and tribulations. In this tender and expansive reckoning with the meaning of the Black Church in America, Gates takes us on a journey spanning more than five centuries, from the intersection of Christianity and the transatlantic slave trade to today’s political landscape. At road’s end, and after Gates’s distinctive meditation on the churches of his childhood, we emerge with a new understanding of the importance of African American religion to the larger national narrative—as a center of resistance to slavery and white supremacy, as a magnet for political mobilization, as an incubator of musical and oratorical talent that would transform the culture, and as a crucible for working through the Black community’s most critical personal and social issues. In a country that has historically afforded its citizens from the African diaspora tragically few safe spaces, the Black Church has always been more than a sanctuary. This fact was never lost on white supremacists: from the earliest days of slavery, when enslaved people were allowed to worship at all, their meetinghouses were subject to surveillance and destruction. Long after slavery’s formal eradication, church burnings and bombings by anti-Black racists continued, a hallmark of the violent effort to suppress the African American struggle for equality. The past often isn’t even past—Dylann Roof committed his slaughter in the Mother Emanuel AME Church 193 years after it was first burned down by white citizens of Charleston, South Carolina, following a thwarted slave rebellion. But as Gates brilliantly shows, the Black church has never been only one thing. Its story lies at the heart of the Black political struggle, and it has produced many of the Black community’s most notable leaders. At the same time, some churches and denominations have eschewed political engagement and exemplified practices of exclusion and intolerance that have caused polarization and pain. Those tensions remain today, as a rising generation demands freedom and dignity for all within and beyond their communities, regardless of race, sex, or gender. Still, as a source of faith and refuge, spiritual sustenance and struggle against society’s darkest forces, the Black Church has been central, as this enthralling history makes vividly clear.
People in churches and in homes everywhere are experiencing God's word in a whole new way. The Story Church Campaign Kit provides all tools you need to draw your congregation, small group, and family into the grand, unfolding story of the Bible as one sweeping narrative, arranged chronologically from Genesis to Revelation.
In 1820, a young farm boy in search of truth has a vision of God the Father and Jesus Christ. Three years later, an angel guides him to an ancient record buried in a hill near his home. With God’s help, he translates the record and organizes the Savior’s church in the latter days. Soon others join him, accepting the invitation to become Saints through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. But opposition and violence follow those who defy old traditions to embrace restored truths. The women and men who join the church must choose whether or not they will stay true to their covenants, establish Zion, and proclaim the gospel to a troubled world. The Standard of Truth is the first book in Saints, a new, four-volume narrative history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Fast-paced, meticulously researched, Saints recounts true stories of Latter-day Saints across the globe and answers the Lord’s call to write history “for the good of the church, and for the rising generations” (Doctrine and Covenants 69:8).
God’s Great Love for You, written by #1 New York Times bestselling author and respected pastor Rick Warren, takes children on a whimsical and heartfelt journey that reminds them God’s love is with them wherever they go. Show children how big and wide God’s love is with this charming picture book. A family favorite for generations, Rick Warren approached the thoughtful message with the wonder of a child and encourages us all to rest in God’s peace and hope. God’s Great Love for You: Assures children that God’s love is big and unstoppable Inspires children with its warm and sincere message of acceptance and love Is well-loved by parents, grandparents, and their little ones as a perfect read aloud story for children ages 4-8 Makes a perfect gift for birthdays, christenings, dedications, Christmas or Valentine’s day, and more Features beautiful illustrations by Chris Saunders
Webber Institute Books, in association with Parson's Porch Books, is proud to release its inaugural volume, The Storytelling Church: Adventures in Reclaiming the Role of Story in Worship, by Jeff Barker. Barker, who is professor of theatre and speech at Northwestern College in Iowa and in the doctoral program at the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies has written superb, worthwhile, and transformative stories that will inspire, provoke, and encourage readers seeking to enhance their worship experience and deepen readers' capacity to faithfully serve God in their ministries.
From its fiery revivalists to socially conscious reformers, The Wesleyan Church is a movement with a rich tradition and inspiring history in America. Robert Black and Keith Drury trace the church's heritage from its roots in European and American Methodism, through the 1968 merger of the Wesleyan Methodist and Pilgrim Holiness Churches, all the way to recent historic events. With a contemporary, conversational style, The Story of the Wesleyan Church offers a reader-friendly narrative of the growth and development of the church. Photographs throughout the book, with detailed captions, provide a journalistic map for easy access. The coauthors each represent one of the merging denominations which formed the church in 1968, weaving Pilgrim Holiness and Wesleyan Methodist threads into a single, colorful tapestry that both represents the history and anticipates the future of The Wesleyan Church. Pastors, students, and others interested in what God is doing in the world will not want to miss this narrative history. Let God's past faithfulness inspire your work toward the future!
