Gain an insight into the work of the pastor. It is based on the thesis that the pastor, being the shepherd of the flock, feeds the flock upon God?'s Word; the bulk of pastoral work is therefore through the ministry of the Word. This edition includes biographical information by Frank Lyall.

    Brooks treated the seductive influence and terrible power of Satan in a way 'greatly more full and suggestive than in the literature of the present day'.

    This is a fresh translation of the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostem and is published as a parallel Greek and Emglsih text. The Greek text is that published in Athens by the Apostoliki Diakonia in 1950 with reference to some other texts. The English translation is a new one undertaken by a committee of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain. The translation has for the first time adopted contemporary usage rather than the archaic forms used in earlier editions. This book is principally designed for use by members of the congregation but will also be employed by the priests and deacons celebrating the Liturgy.

    Each of the twenty-seven books, written by various authors, has its own theological emphasis and nuances. How do we elicit a coherent message from such theological diversity, especially given that some of the theological statements in the New Testament seem to be at odds with one another? Is such an endeavor achievable or even valid?Theology of the New Testament takes a balanced approach in response to these challenges. Frank Thielman presents a theology of the New Testament that is careful to take into account the cultural and historical circumstances surrounding each book and the New Testament as a whole. He not only examines each book’s theological content individually, but also in relation to the rest of the New Testament, particularly within each of the three theological units that comprise the New Testament: the gospels and Acts, the Pauline epistles, and the general epistles and Revelation. This canonical and synthetic approach honors both the theological diversity of the various books and the theological connections between the books. In the end, Thielman finds a unified theological vision of the New Testament, anchored in the centrality of Jesus Christ.Frank Thielman’s Theology of the New Testament is an outstanding achievement. The book is marked by scholarly depth, exegetical rigor, and theological profundity. Both students and professors will profit immensely from this lucid treatment of the theology contained in the New Testament documents. Thomas R. Schreiner Professor of New Testament, The Southern Baptist Theological SeminaryAn accessible presentation of the key theological points of the New Testament books by an accomplished New Testament scholar and teacher. Its clear style, lucid organization, and sound theological insight make it a prime resource for serious students in both the academy and the church. Karen H. Jobes, PhD Associate Professor of New Testament, Westmont College

    or run?The time has come for evangelicals to reclaim the forgotten faith. And this means doing something many are reluctant to do. It means reflecting on the past to rethink the present and inform the future. It means thinking not just biblically and theologically, but also historically.RetroChristianity challenges us to think critically and constructively about those who have come before us and how that informs our current beliefs, values, and practices. This book will adjust our attitudes about evangelicalism, and will lead us along a time-tested path toward a brighter future.

    Through battles with corrupt bankers and worldly cardinals, in turbulent meetings and on global trips, history’s first Latin-American pope has attempted to reshape the Church to evangelize the contemporary age. At the same time, he has stirred other leaders’ deep-seated fear that the Church is capitulating to modernity—leaders who have challenged his bid to create a more welcoming, attentive institution.Facing rebellions over his allowing sacraments for the divorced and his attempt to create a more "ecological" Catholicism, as well as a firestorm of criticism for the Church’s record on sexual abuse, Francis emerges as a leader of remarkable vision and skill with a relentless spiritual focus—a leader who is at peace in the turmoil surrounding him.With entertaining anecdotes, insider accounts, and expert analysis, Ivereigh’s journey through the key episodes of Francis’s reform in Rome and the wider Church brings into sharp focus the frustrations and fury, as well as the joys and successes, of one of the most remarkable pontificates of the contemporary age.

    For your study this school year, you will first complete reading assignments from the scripture text for this course—the Book of Mormon—and then you will complete the individual lessons. Once a week you will meet with a seminary teacher to submit your work and participate in a weekly lesson.Seminary is a daily religious education program. Prayerfully studying your scriptures should be a daily practice. You will need to work on your seminary assignments each school day, even though you will not attend a seminary class each day. There are 32 units to be completed during the course. The reading chart on page viii shows what you should study for each unit. Your teacher will help you understand when each unit is due. The lessons in this study guide should each take about 30 minutes to complete, in addition to your daily scripture study.You should have two scripture study journals (or two notebooks), separate from your personal journal, in which you will write the assignments from the study guide activities. Each week that you meet with your teacher, you should turn in the scripture study journal containing the completed assignments from the study guide activities you completed for that week. Your teacher will read and respond to the assignments and return that scripture study journal to you the following week. You could also write your responses on paper in a loose-leaf binder and turn in the pages you did that week. Then, when your teacher returns the pages, you could put them back into the notebook."

    

    Kent Edwards recalls a story that late pastor J. Vernon McGee told about seeing children in South Africa playing a game of marbles in the dust with real diamonds. The precious stones were being handled with no regard for their true worth. Edwards fears the same thing happens today when preachers offer Scriptural truth to listeners without being completely overwhelmed by its greatness themselves in the process.Deep Preaching is his call to "rethink" preaching. Edwards helps preachers learn to preach the word in ways that will powerfully change the lives of hearers. He contends that sermons "need not settle comfortably on the lives of the listeners like dust on a coffee table." He encourages preachers to join him in casting off the lines that moor their ministries to the status-quo and make every effort to steer their preaching out of the "comfortable shallows." He urges them to preach deep sermons rather than superficial ones, moving "beyond the yawn-inspiring to the awe-inspiring, from the trite to the transforming."

    You may think of this group as millennials—those born between 1980 and 2000—but millennials resist this label for good reason: the national narrative on them is pejorative, patronizing, and just plain wrong.Here's what we do know: Of Americans with a church background, 76 percent are described as "religious nones" or unaffiliated—and it's the fastest growing segment of the population. Close to 40 percent of millennials fit this religious profile. Roughly 80 percent of teens in evangelical church high school youth groups will abandon their faith after two years in college. It's unlikely that the evangelical church can survive if it is uniformly rejected by millennials, and yet: Millennial pastors and youth ministers are disempowered; their perspective is often not taken seriously by senior church leadership. Most millennial research is framed in categories rejected by millennials; that is, left-brained, analytical communication is lost on right-brained, intuitive millennials. Evangelicals' bias toward rational left-brained thinking makes the church seem tone-deaf. What's next? Read on. John Seel suggests survival strategies—communication on-ramps for genuine human connection with the next generation. It can be done.

    The Gospel-Centered Life will challenge you to develop authentic relationships as the gospel moves you to love and serve others. Each lesson is self-contained, featuring clear teaching from scripture and requires no extra work outside of the group setting. Developed by experienced church-planting pastors, the material is designed to promote transformational conversations among groups of mature Christians, new Christians, and even non-Christians. The self-explanatory The Gospel-Centered Life Leader's Guide contains directions and added material to help small group and discipleship leaders clearly explain and apply the material.

    The next section focuses on keeping God at the center of worship. Other sections of the book explore issues of taste, forming faith in children, word choices, hospitality in worship, and the challenges of "being church for the world." The book also includes nine Scripture-based sermons and questions for further discussion.In contrast to writers who advocate worship for utilitarian purposes, Dawn concentrates on worship's royal dimension, its God-ward focus. A Royal "Waste" of Time amplifies Dawn's earlier argument that churches need to wrangle seriously with the true purpose of worship in order to employ the tools and forms that best enfold participants in the splendor of worshiping God. Only worship filled with the splendor of God, Dawn writes, will lead to genuine adoration of God and faithful formation of his people.

    

    Many hold to premillennialism: that Christ's return will be followed by 1,000 years before the final judgement, a belief popularised in the popular Left Behind novels. However, premillennialism is not the only option for Christians. In this important new book, Sam Storms provides a biblical rationale for amillennialism; the belief that 1,000 years mentioned in the book of Revelation is symbolic with the emphasis being the King and his Kingdom.

    Yet polity remains as important now as it was in the New Testament.   What then is a right or biblical polity? The contributors to this volume make an exegetical and theological case for a Baptist polity. Right polity, they argue, is congregationalism, elder leadership, diaconal service, regenerate church membership, church discipline, and a Baptist approach to the ordinances.   Each section explores the pastoral applications of these arguments. How do congregationalism and elder leadership work together? When should a church practice church discipline? How can one church work with another in matters of membership and discipline?     To be read sequentially or used as a reference guide, Baptist Foundations provides a contemporary treatment of Baptist church government and structures, the first of its kind in decades.