Overturning Tables

Overturning Tables
Author: Scott A. Bessenecker
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2014-11-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0830896767

The history of Protestant mission in the world has unfolded in step with the history of the modern marketplace, defining missions success in marketplace terms. Scott Bessenecker points toward a view of missions freed of false attachments to material paradigms and tailored toward a kingdom vision.

When Christians Were Jews

When Christians Were Jews
Author: Paula Fredriksen
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2018-10-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0300240740

A compelling account of Christianity’s Jewish beginnings, from one of the world’s leading scholars of ancient religion How did a group of charismatic, apocalyptic Jewish missionaries, working to prepare their world for the impending realization of God's promises to Israel, end up inaugurating a movement that would grow into the gentile church? Committed to Jesus’s prophecy—“The Kingdom of God is at hand!”—they were, in their own eyes, history's last generation. But in history's eyes, they became the first Christians. In this electrifying social and intellectual history, Paula Fredriksen answers this question by reconstructing the life of the earliest Jerusalem community. As her account arcs from this group’s hopeful celebration of Passover with Jesus, through their bitter controversies that fragmented the movement’s midcentury missions, to the city’s fiery end in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, she brings this vibrant apostolic community to life. Fredriksen offers a vivid portrait both of this temple-centered messianic movement and of the bedrock convictions that animated and sustained it.

Flip It Like This!

Flip It Like This!
Author: David Hayward
Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers
Total Pages: 136
Release: 2022-06-24
Genre: Christianity
ISBN: 1506484727

Aggravated women disciples, Jesus hugging rainbow sheep, a man praying WTF?: the cartoons of David Hayward, the artist behind @NakedPastor, are graffiti on the walls of the church. This collection includes best-loved and never-before-seen cartoons that will challenge and inspire those grappling with the realities of the church as we know it.

The New Friars

The New Friars
Author: Scott A. Bessenecker
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2006-09-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0830836012

Have you been called by God to stick out, act out, speak out? Are you ready to set aside comfort and privilege for meaning and impact? Scott Bessenecker profiles young Christians who have done just that, making radical commitments to seek justice and mercy among the poor and suffering people of the world.

Subversive Jesus

Subversive Jesus
Author: Craig Warren Greenfield
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2016-04-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 031034624X

When Jesus left the most exclusive gated community in the universe to come live with the people he loved and gave his life for, he turned everything we know and believe about life on its head. Jesus said that he came to bring good news to the poor, but most Western Christians remain disconnected and isolated from the poor and their contexts of injustice. Even our churches echo society’s pressure to isolate ourselves from the margins (e.g. by moving to a better suburb) and instead teach us how to be “nice people” who worship a “nice Jesus” and don’t disrupt the status quo. Convinced that Jesus places love for the poor and the pursuit of justice central, Craig Greenfield has sought to follow in Christ’s footsteps by living among people at the edges of society for the last fourteen years. His quest to follow this Subversive Jesus has taken Craig and his young family from the slums of Asia to inner city Canada and back again. This is the story of how Jesus led them to the margins: initiating the Pirates of Justice flash mobs, sharing their home with detoxing crackheads, welcoming homeless panhandlers and prostitutes to the dinner table, and ultimately sparking a movement to reach the world’s most vulnerable children. This book is a strong and potentially controversial critique of the status quo too often found in our churches, but it offers an inspirational and hopeful vision of another way. While readers may not relocate to a slum, they will certainly come to view their lives and ministry through a fresh lens—reconsidering how they are uniquely called by Jesus to subversively love the poor and break down systems of injustice in their sphere of influence.

Mercy for Today

Mercy for Today
Author: Jonathan Parnell
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Total Pages: 84
Release: 2020-01-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1535959266

You cannot make it without God’s mercy. Do we just need God’s grace in dark and shameful moments? Are prayers for mercy only for those times when we really mess up? Jonathan Parnell says we need God’s mercy all the time. In fact, contrary to many church cultures, Parnell shows that asking God for mercy should be as regular as asking God for our daily bread. There’s no doubt that David was in a terrible predicament when he first prayed the words of Psalm 51. It was a dark and shameful moment in the Bible, and one so dark and shameful it seldom feels relevant to us today. But David’s most desperate prayer is really a prayer for all of us—and not just for our worst moments, but for our every moment. In these pages, you'll discover: how to pray a daily, memorable prayer derived from Psalm 51 how to practice daily repentance and soul care how to pursue God and experience his joy in the Christian life This is God’s mercy, and it’s Mercy for Today.

The Christian Identity, Volume 3

The Christian Identity, Volume 3
Author: Matt McMillen
Publisher:
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2020-10-20
Genre:
ISBN: 9780997153361

WHO ARE YOU, CHRISTIAN? This question is as old as the New Covenant itself. From the moment Christ died, all of humanity was given the opportunity to know God in a way unlike ever before. Jesus' death sealed the deal, but when He came back to life, every person on the planet now had the chance of God making His home inside of them-permanently. By grace through faith in what Jesus did for our sins, we Christians get a brand new identity from the moment we first believe. No longer living by rules, wasteful efforts, or people-pleasing, we now live and breathe by way of a supernatural relationship with the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, religious hierarchies who extort Christians, our main enemy, Satan, and the power of sin, all want nothing more than for us to not know what the Cross has truly done. The spiritual identity of every believer has become heaven-ready! On the inside, we are currently brand new creations! Not when our physical bodies die, but right now, we are new! My name is Matt McMillen, and over the next thirty days I'll take you on a daily devotional adventure of discovering who you really are as a child of God. Christian, you will be amazed at what the Cross has done to your identity! Thanks for joining me! Let's go!

Jesus Behaving Badly

Jesus Behaving Badly
Author: Mark L. Strauss
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2015-09-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0830824669

The Jesus everybody likes, says Mark Strauss, is not the Jesus found in the Gospels. He preached about hell far more than the apostle Paul. He told his followers to hate their families. Not one of his twelve apostles was a woman. When we unpack these puzzling paradoxes and more, we gain greater insight into Jesus' countercultural message and mission.