Leon McBeth's 'The Baptist heritage' is a definitive, fresh interpretation of Baptist history. Based on primary source research, the book combines the best features of chronological and topical history to bring alive the story of Baptists around the world.

    Pastors are often pulled in multiple directions and must "become all things to all people" (1 Cor. 9:22). What does the New Testament say (or not say) about the pastoral calling? And what can we learn about it from the apostle Paul?According to popular New Testament scholar Scot McKnight, pastoring must begin first and foremost with spiritual formation, which plays a vital role in the life and ministry of the pastor. As leaders, pastors both create and nurture culture in a church. The biblical vision for that culture is Christoformity, or Christlikeness. Grounding pastoral ministry in the pastoral praxis of the apostle Paul, McKnight shows that nurturing Christoformity was at the heart of the Pauline mission. The pastor's central calling, then, is to mediate Christ in everything. McKnight explores seven dimensions that illustrate this concept--friendship, siblings, generosity, storytelling, witness, subverting the world, and wisdom--as he calls pastors to be conformed to Christ and to nurture a culture of Christoformity in their churches.

    It is different in a number of ways, all of which commend this volume to wide use by pastors whose task it is to introduce the members of their inquirers classes to an Orthodox way of life which will touch their lives in a full and complete way (Fr. Stanley Harakas). Chapters include: What We Believe About the One Apostolic Church, the Nicene Creed, Jesus, the Holy Trinity, the Divine Liturgy, Salvation, the Church Fathers, the Church Year, Symbols, the Sacraments, the Saints and the Theotokos, Life After Death, the Bible, Icons, Prayers for the Dead, and Prayer. Recently translated in Korean and Romanian.

    

    He lives in Canberra. In 1858, fourteen-year-old French cabin boy Narcisse Pelletier was aboard the trader Saint-Paul when it was wrecked off the eastern tip of New Guinea. Scrambling into a longboat, Narcisse and the other survivors crossed almost 1000 kilometres of the Coral Sea before reaching the shores of Far North Queensland. If not for the local Aboriginal people, Narcisse would have perished. For seventeen years he lived with them, growing to manhood and participating fully in their Uutaalnganu world. Then, in 1875, his life was again turned upside down.Drawing from firsthand interviews with Narcisse after his return to France and other contemporary accounts of exploration and survival, and documenting the spread of European settlement in Queensland and the brutal frontier wars that followed, Robert Macklin weaves an unforgettable tale of a young man caught between two cultures in a time of transformation and upheaval.

    God-Sized Vision challenges us to pray expectantly to see his work in our own day. God can bring revival again to our community, our country, and our world. Our faith grows stronger when we learn how God worked in the past. The historical stories of worldwide revivals in this book enlarge our hearts and expand our minds as we see God at work in human history with a power that is still available to the faithful today. Here scholars Collin Hansen and John Woodbridge recount the fascinating details of world-changing revivals, beginning with biblical events and continuing through the Reformation, the Great Awakenings, the Welsh and Korean revivals, the East Africa Revival of the 1930s, and more recent revivals in North America and China. What did these revivals have in common? How can we prepare for and expect revival in our own culture? With accessible language and gripping examples, Hansen and Woodbridge explore these questions and more, strengthening our understanding of God s work while deepening our faith in the possibility of revival right where we are."

    Yet many Christians don’t know how to pray both effectively—in a way that gets results—and humbly—in a way that aligns with God’s will. Prayer is a powerful weapon against the true adversaries of God’s people: principalities, powers, dark rulers and spiritual wickedness in high places. These forces are the perpetrators of all kinds of evil: Addiction, abuse, poverty and spiritual bondage run rampant through families, churches, cities and nations. What can believers do to battle these forces? They can pray.Not just any prayer: the prayer of petition, known throughout Christian history as the prayer that gets results. Prayer of Petition explores this powerful prayer in detail, from the many examples found in God’s Word to more recent instances of incredible miracles ushered in by this prayer. Readers will learn the biblical definitions of petition and supplication, and examine the key components of preparation, thanksgiving and humility. As readers learn to petition the Ruler of All, their confidence that God will prevail—no matter what—will grow, and as they learn to rest in His promises, peace will reign over their hearts through the coming revival.

    The book of Isaiah is an enormous collection of prophecies described as “The Vision.” It is not simply a teaching or a historical record; it is the overarching vision of the heart of God revealed to His seer-prophet. This vision spans the ages and touches every nation on earth, becoming a collective overview of all that God has planned. The prophecies are vast and their grand themes are unrivaled in all of Scripture. With panoramic insight, Isaiah preaches about the virgin birth of Christ, the Bride of Christ, and the New Jerusalem. These prophecies also present a description of the cataclysmic judgments, the survival of a holy remnant emerging in Zion, and the canopy of glory that is coming to earth. The poetic message of Isaiah is one of victory, hope, comfort, and restoration of all things. Explore the vision of a man who saw the glory of God and spoke with burning lips, for true prophetic ministry flows from this “vision” until it grows into a burden.

    Arrington was historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1972 to 1982. The first professional historian and the first noncentral authority to occupy this position, Arrington opened archival resources and presided over an unprecedented era of enlightenment in Mormon scholarship. Arrington's appointment came at a crucial point in LDS history -- as the institution was being transformed from a regional church whose ecclesiastical hierarchy presided directly over its congregants into a modern, worldwide church with an elaborate bureaucracy. Riveting chapters on the actions of the controversial Historical Department reveal details of his release and replacement as the old system gave way to the new.

    Francis de Sales' heroic efforts to bring Calvinists back to the Faith comes this succinct, eloquent defense of the age-old Catholic practice of making the Sign of the Cross, which 16th century Calvinists denounced as a Popish invention and many Protestants scorn even today. Along with St. Francis's other lucid explanations of the Catholic Faith and his undaunted love even for those who hated him, this modest book helped restore to their native Catholic faith tens of thousands of people who not long before were intent on killing him.As they did for the Calvinists in St. Francis's day, so in our day these ably translated pages will bring you a better understanding of and a renewed love for the Sign of the Cross, that brief and lively exterior prayer by which, from time immemorial, God has been invoked by serious Christians before all of their endeavors.

     But who were its leaders? And how did it survive through waves of hostility and oppression? George Hodges, in this fascinating history, explains how the early Church developed from its lowly and persecuted origins of the first century through to becoming the main religion of the Roman Empire and the various kingdoms that succeeded it. Hodges provides a full picture of the Roman Empire and its religion at this time, explaining how the Church was able to gain a foothold, how heresy nearly tore it apart and how many men and women sacrificed their own lives to protect the faith. He uncovers why by the third century the Church began to develop into a settled and definite organisation, with leaders, like Cyprian and Cyril, who assisted their followers, convened at gatherings like the Council of Nicaea to agree on doctrinal matters and how monasticism developed in both the East and West. Finally, Hodges explains how the Church was able survive the collapse of the Roman Empire, a state that had begun to protect and support the Church after Constantine’s conversion in 312. The Church was forced to contend with the power vacuum of the tumultuous fourth and fifth centuries and to make allies and convert the pagans who were threatening them. The Early Church: From Ignatius to Augustine is a brilliant history of the late Roman Empire and how the Christian Church developed within it. George Hodges was an American theologian and dean of the Episcopal Theological School at Cambridge Massachusetts. The Independent stated that many of his works were reissued during his lifetime due to “the high esteem in which his religious messages are held by the reading public." This work was first published in 1915 and he died in 1919.

    Dr. Timothy Paul Jones gives easy-to-understand answers to popular questions on the Bible's reliability and accuracy.

    This book shows that these doctrines did not originate in a vacuum but were rather prompted and informed by the religious culture from which Mormonism arose. Early Mormons, like their early Christian and even earlier Israelite predecessors, brought with them their own varied culturally conditioned theological presuppositions (a process of convergence) and only later acquired a more distinctive theological outlook (a process of differentiation).In this first-of-its-kind comprehensive treatment of the development of Mormon theology, Charles Harrell traces the history of Latter-day Saint doctrines from the times of the Old Testament to the present. He describes how Mormonism has carried on the tradition of the biblical authors, early Christians, and later Protestants in reinterpreting scripture to accommodate new theological ideas while attempting to uphold the integrity and authority of the scriptures. In the process, he probes three questions: How did Mormon doctrines develop? What are the scriptural underpinnings of these doctrines? And what do critical scholars make of these same scriptures? In this enlightening study, Harrell systematically peels back the doctrinal accretions of time to provide a fresh new look at Mormon theology.“This Is My Doctrine” will provide those already versed in Mormonism’s theological tradition with a new and richer perspective of Mormon theology. Those unacquainted with Mormonism will gain an appreciation for how Mormon theology fits into the larger Jewish and Christian theological traditions.

    In Know How We Got Our Bible, scholars Ryan Reeves and Charles Hill trace the history of the Bible from its beginnings to the present day, highlighting key figures and demonstrating overall the reliability of Scripture.Reeves and Hill begin with the writing of the Bible's books (including authorship and dating), move into the formation of the Old and New Testaments (including early transmission and the development of the canon), and conclude with several chapters on Bible translation from the Latin Vulgate to the ongoing work of translation around the world today.Written simply and focused on the overarching story of how the Bible came to us today, Know How We Got Our Bible is an excellent introduction for formal students and lay learners alike. Each chapter includes reflection questions and recommended readings for further learning.

    Each position Erickson examines includes (1) a brief overview, (2) its history, (3) a more thorough examination of its major concepts and of the arguments offered in support of them, and (4) an evaluation of both its positive and negative aspects.