But with this book, you don't have to wonder any more.Author Mark Dever seeks to help believers recognize the key characteristics of a healthy church: expositional preaching, biblical theology, and a right understanding of the gospel. Dever then calls us to develop those characteristics in our own churches. By following the example of New Testament authors and addressing church members from pastors to pew sitters, Dever challenges all believers to do their part in maintaining the local church. What Is a Healthy Church? offers timeless truths and practical principles to help each of us fulfill our God-given roles in the body of Christ.

    He challenges several common but false assumptions about God, man, the church, salvation, and more that confuse discussions about baptism. He aims to offer a careful and simple discussion of all the central biblical texts that speak to us about baptism, the nature of signs and rites, the character of the church as the body of Christ, and the possibility of apostasy. In the end, he urges us to face up to the wonderful conclusion that Scripture attributes an astonishing power to the initiation rite of baptism.

    Experience a fully illustrated personal encounter with Bedouin shepherds whose life and work prompt us to think biblically about serving Christ. Here is your trail to become a shepherd leader: a compassionate provider, courageous protector and competent guide. Take this forty day journey and experience a life changing encounter with the Divine Shepherd. Become a shepherd after God's own heart by rediscovering true biblical leadership. An authentic classic endorsed by Billy Graham and a host of church and ministry leaders from across the globe.

    In A God-Centered Church, the Blackabys communicate the need for Christians to make the transition from doing God's will as individuals to knowing and doing God's will as a corporate body of believers. In paperback for the first time, this book shows churches how to accomplish His purposes by working together. It also helps churches experience the presence of God as a group while fostering the fullness of life intended for each community of believers. Blackaby and his son, Melvin, draw from their own firsthand experiences in global ministry and as a senior pastor.

    The authors, ministers and professors in the United Reformed Churches in North America, have carefully explained the duties and responsibilities of elders and deacons, including practical suggestions on topics ranging from how to conduct a meeting efficiently to why it is important for the elder to know and defend Reformed doctrine. This book includes an excellent historical overview of the development of the Reformed churches from the Reformation to today; specific advice on dealing with potential church members who do not yet understand covenant theology and infant baptism; and a study guide with coordinated lessons from Scripture, the confessions, and each chapter of this book. It is clear that the authors consider the calling of elders and deacons to be significant. They encourage diligence on the part of elders and deacons to fill worthily the offices Christ has ordained.Contributing authors: John A. Bouwers, Michael G. Brown, W. Robert Godfrey, Michael S. Horton, Daniel R. Hyde, Nelson Kloosterman, Randal S. Lankheet, Bradd L. Nymeyer, Ralph Pontier, Kim Riddlebarger, Derrick J. Vander Meulen, Cornelis P. Venema.

    Kent Hughes has shared the gospel with thousands of people and raised the standard of expository preaching in North America and beyond.To celebrate his legacy and pay tribute to his years of ministry, fifteen of Hughes's friends and colleagues from across the globe, including J. I. Packer, Wayne Grudem, John MacArthur, Peter Jensen, and D. A. Carson, examine what it means to be an expository preacher. Among the contributors are professors, a university chaplain, a college president, and urban church planters--living testimonies to Hughes's wide influence.These contributors address an array of themes for the ministry-minded, such as interpretive principles and practices, biblical and historical paradigms, expository preaching's contemporary aims and challenges, and the priority of training--all in the expectation that this one man's passion to preach the Word faithfully will enhance the understanding and practice of expository preaching in churches and seminaries around the world.

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    Such promises pose challenging questions with regard to our understanding of what it is to be human. Taking a Christian and theologically informed viewpoint, this book explores and challenges our concept of disability. This book will seek to explore the question: does our current attitude toward the use of genetic technologies in contemporary practice risks a slide into social habits which are implicitly evil and destructive of the humanness of our society?The central theological question that will be addressed by the book is: Is the image of humanness that underpins the implicit and explicit assumptions of new genetic technology compatible with Christian theological understandings of what it means to be human and to live humanly?This book aims to explore these questions within a multidisciplinary context with a view to developing an informed practical theological perspective which can guide the theory and practice of the church as it engages with the world around the complex issues that are emerging in response to new genetic technology.John Swinton, and Brian Brock have drawn together an international team of the top scholars from medicine, ethics and theology to produce a unique text which will lay out the complex problems genetic technology raises, and offer fresh understandings and solutions that are theoretically significant and practically vital.

    Stained glass windows, high altars, multi-purpose worship/gymnasium spaces, Plexiglas pulpits, padded pews--these and all other architectural elements say something about a congregation's theology and mission. They point to a faith community's beliefs about worship, identity, purpose, and more. From the stark simplicity of a Quaker meetinghouse to the splendor of a Romanesque Revival building, sacred spaces speak loudly. What they say can either reinforce a congregation's mission or detract from it. Holy Places is designed to be used by congregations who are involved in or are contemplating work on their facilities. This could include renovation, remodeling, expansion, or building. No matter how extensive the project, approaching the work with mission at the forefront is the key to having a final result that strengthens the congregation's ministry. The process outlined in this book--discern, decide, do--lets congregations begin where they are and provides the help they need to move to the next level.

    Beeke provides a short history of the origins of the HRC and more importantly he presents the vision and doctrinal standards of this relatively young denomination, that is however rich in a deep Reformed Heritage.

    Going back to the Bible and, above all, to the teaching of Jesus, he presents an approach to sexual morality that is profound, compassionate, and people-centered. He stresses the priority of the hierarchy of holiness over the hierarchy of power.He offers nothing less than a vision for a church of the third millennium 'a church that wants to see in its members the responsibility appropriate to adults rather than the obedience appropriate to children and wants to help all people to grow to become all they are capable of being.You will love or hate this book but not be ale to remain neutral.Through the story of sexual abuse and the church's response, I came to the unshakeable belief that within the Catholic Church there absolutely must be profound and enduring change. In particular, there must be change on the two subjects of power and sex. 'From the IntroductionBishop Geoffrey Robinson, who has degrees in philosophy, theology, and church law, was Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Sydney from 1984 until his retirement in 2004. In 1994, he was elected by the Australian Bishops to the National Committee for professional Standards, coordinating the response of the Catholic Church in Australia to revelations of sexual abuse, and from 1997 until 2003 he was cochairman of this committee.

    Based on speaking engagements surrounding his critical passion and conviction that the church in this moment must set itself in tension with the rest of the world, these essays call the church to courageously defy political polarization, consumerism, and militarism.

    His colorful history is inseparable from that of Irish Christianity and from major events transpiring simultaneously in England and Scotland. Ussher's range of achievements are outstanding, including ancient languages, patristics, ancient and Irish history, theology, and chronology. Though he is best known for his biblical chronology, I believe that his Body of Divinity is his most valuable legacy. This volume, long overdue to be reprinted, was once regarded as a classic in the field of Reformed systematic theology and deserves to be so regarded again. Here is pristine Irish Puritan theology, presented to us in a captivating question and answer format." --Joel R. Beeke, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan

    Therefore, holiness is a theological and ecclesial issue prior to being a matter of individual piety. Holiness and Ecclesiology in the New Testament offers serious engagement with a variety of New Testament and Qumran documents in order to stimulate churches to imagine anew what it might mean to be a publicly identifiable people who embody God's very character in their particular social setting.Contributors: J. Ayodeji Adewuya Paul M. Bassett Richard Bauckham George J. Brooke Kent E. Brower Dean Flemming Michael J. Gorman Joel B. Green Donald A. Hagner Andy Johnson George Lyons I. Howard Marshall Troy W. Martin Peter Oakes Ruth Anne Reese Dwight Swanson Gordon J. Thomas Richard P. Thompson J. Ross Wagner Robert W. Wall Bruce W. Winter