This beautiful, well-written hardcover volume (which is being shared by sponsors as a gift to military chaplains and others) is not being sold on the public market. Learn more at GoodFaithMedia.org.

This combination makes for compelling reading. The book could be an excellent resource for a weekly study for a team of musicians, a choir, a worship committee, or source of topics for a pastoral staff discussion. Each of the “windows on worship” in this book with one of the following objectives:

• to help you strengthen your personal devotional life

• to provide greater awareness of a biblical theology of worship

• to better prepare yourself as you come to worship

• to develop a deeper appreciation for the church year

• to help you recognize how our Triune God transforms lives through worship

Although the essays in this book could be read in one or two sittings, the author encourages you to read and meditate on one essay per week. Over the course of a single year, you will have completed a journey that will allow you to “connect some of the dots” in your own personal devotion to, application of, and participation in Christian worship.

Learn more at GoodFaithMedia.org.

Learn more at GoodFaithMedia.org.

As you read through these volumes, my hope is that you will take the time, not to simply read what I have written, but to reflect with me on what the ancients have written. Let me challenge you each morning to take a moment to read the suggested focus chapter from a trusted translation before you dive into the words I have written. Read and reflect. As you make your way through this book, and the other volumes in the set, you will discover a lot of my life story written into these pages. But more importantly, I hope you will discover a lot about God’s story... the one carefully crafted and preserved for you. For in hearing God’s story, you will hear the echoing refrain of God’s desire to know you, to love you, and to redeem you. Welcome to the conversation.

Learn more at GoodFaithMedia.org.

Some people adopt a religious position that they defend against all secular input. Other people do the opposite, casting their lot with the secular against everything religious. Raised on both sides of the cultural division into secular and sacred, Nichols internalized both, and chose the difficult path of reconciliation.

In these pages, Nichols presents the story of his faith, and faith rediscovered, in the hope that it will provide encouragement to others.

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Also, the accumulated work of formal theologians is massive to the point of being overwhelming to many people who attempt to delve into it. Its complexity can easily dissuade those with casual interest and even those required to study it.

But there is another level of theological thinking that goes on in the life and mind of every adherent to a faith. It usually does not lead to formal expression in a systematic way, but it becomes the working understanding of what one’s faith means and how it is lived in real time. It is to this kind of theological thinking and to those who engage in it that the author offers this “set of keys.”

These basic suggestions do not delve into the depths of the doctrines of the church or explore the nuances that have accompanied the Christian tradition. There are resources aplenty for anyone who wishes to explore those avenues and their many-faceted interpretations of the faith experience. This set of keys is more basic, but no less important. They provide helpful access to the rooms of theology and a perspective for dealing with what is found there, so that the encounters can be a healthy and wholesome part of the faith journey.

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Through careful, reverent, well-researched twenty-first-century flights of informed imagination, Maddox aims to fill in some of the historical blanks in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, this unique person, in the words of John Shelby Spong, “full of God.”

Volume one imagines the Αρχή (beginning) of Jesus of Nazareth. Volume two trumpets the call of Jesus to serve his beloved kingdom of weeds. As the late Marcus Borg had a way of saying, “It may not have happened exactly this way, but it’s true anyway.” Meet Jesus again for the first time as he grew and served among God’s beloved “weeds” in his own time.

This is the first of a three-part series. Book Two: The Kingdom of Weeds is available here. Book three has not yet been published.

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Believing that we have acceptance, love, and value gives us peace and contentment: “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1).

Believing that we have security, forgiveness, and guidance gives us assurance and confidence: “All things can be done for the one who believes” (Mark 9:23).

Believing that we have support, purpose, and hope gives us meaning and significance: “We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor for the soul” (Heb 6:19).

People today want more than creeds and platitudes. Discovering that there are logical reasons for the positive changes that take place when we become a Christian helps us understand how and why a conversion experience makes such a real difference in our lives.

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As we deal with the damage that these verses have done, we each have our own healing journey to walk. For some of you, the conversation this book provides will be a healing balm; for others, encountering these passages again may be too deep a reminder of the pain they’ve caused you. Your path to healing may not include revisiting these passages or reading this book, and that’s okay. Engage both God and your own inner wisdom before choosing to embark on this journey.

To the straight cisgender folks who may have picked this book up on a whim, you may feel like you’re “on the outside looking in” while reading the experiences of the queer folks who contributed to this book. I want to encourage you to read it anyway. Treat this as an opportunity to learn about your siblings in Christ and how you might be a better sibling for them. You might even find some healing for yourself within these pages.

If you—queer folk or cishet ally—choose to take this path, know that we are not starting at ground zero. Thanks to many fantastic theologians and pastors, we know that those verses have been used improperly for far too long, and we can examine them with new eyes. We can see lessons full of love instead of hate. We can see instruction instead of condemnation.

Together, we can discover a message around which people from all walks of life can talk, laugh, and be nourished.

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Easter is the most important day of the Christian year. Thus, it seems fitting that we should read and study the accounts on which Easter is based, namely the stories in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

The goal of this volume is to move beneath the surface of the stories to explore what the Resurrection means for our lives. This is the method of “spelunking scripture.” As we examine each passage, we move beyond the details of the narrative to probe how it speaks to us, and to seek connections with life today. Each resurrection narrative, or post-resurrection appearance, is interpreted by three sermons. The sermons are designed to bring the resurrection of Jesus into our time and circumstance, and to enable us to recognize the risen Christ in our midst.

Spelunking Scripture is a series of studies based on some of the most important passages of the Bible. Other volumes in this series include Christmas, The Letters of Paul, and Acts and the General Epistles of the New Testament. The Easter study focuses on the passages in the Gospels that tell about the Resurrection, just as the Christmas study focuses on the birth narratives. All scripture is inspired, but not every passage of scripture is of equal importance. These passages of scripture that tell the story of the Resurrection are among the most important ones in the Bible.

Learn more at GoodFaithMedia.org.

Learn more at GoodFaithMedia.org.

Special days often attract the greatest church attendance and thus offer the greatest opportunity for outreach. Unfortunately, many holiday and seasonal messages are shallow and sentimental. So, these sermons were developed with three goals in mind: appropriateness, depth, and psychological soundness. They are highly adaptable and require a minimum amount of preparation.

The authors hope this collection of their most meaningful and successful “celebration services” will be useful to others.

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Based on the Christian year, these brief reflections invite readers to enjoy the rhythms of the various seasons of the liturgical calendar so that they might align their lives with the broad redemption story of Scripture and make commitments that will promote faith’s flourishing, one day at a time all the way through to eternity, when faith will become sight and time will be a constraint no more.

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Morning Conversations on the Creation of a People and Place is the first volume of a set that follows the natural order of the Old Testament canon, and spans the Biblical narrative from the opening chapter of Genesis to the end of the book of Ruth.

As you read through these volumes, my hope is that you will take the time, not to simply read what I have written, but to reflect with me on what the ancients have written. Let me challenge you each morning to take a moment to read the suggested focus chapter from a trusted translation before you dive into my words. Read and reflect. As you make your way through this book, and those that will follow, you will discover a lot of my life story written into these pages. But more importantly, I hope you will discover a lot about God’s story… the one carefully crafted and persevered for you. For in hearing God’s story, you will hear the echoing refrain of God’s desire to know you, to love you, and to redeem you. Welcome to the conversation.

Learn more at GoodFaithMedia.org.

Perhaps, as someone has suggested, it’s not that things are getting worse: rather, they are just getting uncovered. Yet, there are moments when what is within us meets dilemmas and demands that are beyond us, moments when we must choose hope or wilt in despair. Today feels like one of those moments. And this is a book about this moment and that choice.

The book’s main title comes from scripture, specifically from the venerable 1611 King James translation of 1 Peter 1:3, which says God has “begotten us again unto a lively hope." So, this is a book about hope, but it is not intended to be an exhaustive treatise. These are but meditations upon chosen aspects of hope about which the author hopes will say something helpful to readers.

“I want to explore lively hope, the kind that sings songs in the night and stares down long odds in clear daylight, the kind that dares to dance before the fiddler has even picked up his bow and won’t stop talking until the right has been done," Day writes. "Anything less isn’t worth your time or mine.”

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Most of the classic theories of the atonement propose what the authors intended to be literal, often legal, explanations of what Jesus did for us on the cross. These theories proposed the idea that the cross of Christ provided "the atonement" -- an event that made it possible for God to forgive us and make us his children.

The New Testament shows that Jesus did not preach any "theory of the atonement." In fact, Jesus never used any word that could be translated "atonement," nor did he preach any concept that could be so construed. Jesus proclaimed the metaphor of the loving Father. Jesus taught how we are to reconcile (although he never used that word, either) with the Father, not how the Father reconciles himself to us.

The view presented here does not claim to be Jesus' theory of the atonement, for the New Testament evidence does not indicate that he had one. Instead, Spinks sets forth what Jesus proclaimed as his good news of the kingdom of God. Once we understand the gospel Jesus preached, we do not need any theory of the atonement because Jesus' message, as communicated through his favorite metaphor, stands sufficient on its own.

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Thinking about God in relation to the Bible includes numerous beliefs about God. Thinking about God in relation to philosophy involves an emphasis on human reason, usually reason apart from special revelation such as the Bible. Finally, thinking about God in relation to science considers some traditional beliefs about God in view of various scientific discoveries and accounts.

As we become more deeply involved in thinking about God, it would be good to remember that the thinking is about God but is done by humans. We should be careful. We should not have too high an opinion of our own thinking. We might recall the statement of Isaiah 55.8-9: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

With the reminder that human thinking about God has important limitations, we should still try to think about God as carefully as possible.

Learn more at GoodFaithMedia.org.

This book is part of the “Spelunking Scripture” series. You can find all of the published books in the series at GoodFaithMedia.org.

To understand such stories, we have to understand that the Bible must not only be read; it must be interpreted. So, how do we do that? I am convinced that a significant portion of the difficulties many people have with the Bible is due to a lack of understanding of the historical process by which we received these inspired scriptures—and I do believe they are divinely inspired.

We have not paid sufficient attention to the story of how the Bible came to be written. If we read the Bible as a technical treatise in which every word stands on equal footing, we distort the meaning of scripture. If, on the other hand, we read every sentence of the Bible through the lens of Jesus Christ, we come to see God in all the glory we earth-bound and time-bound creatures can stand.

Trust Jesus and let him show you how to read the record of God’s self-revelation. Read everything before Jesus and everything after him through the Jesus lens.

Learn more at GoodFaithMedia.org.

Learn more at GoodFaithMedia.org.

We quickly came to a shared agreement about what metrics don’t inform our under-standing of “healthy,” specifically: the number of members a church has, the size of its budget, and how “successful” it has been. We’ve seen too many large, “successful” churches that exhibit unhealthy behaviors. We’ve also worked with too many small churches that exhibit robust health and a vital mission.

After many drafts, we came up with a statement that we feel captures the heart of our work. It also mirrors our understanding of the church’s call to be the body of Christ in and for the world. This definition emerged from our discernment: A healthy church is a community of Jesus followers with shared vision, thriving ministry, and trusted leadership.

Learn more and purchase the book at GoodFaithMedia.org.

Another change is that denominational organizations are no longer the repository of all resources, services, and expertise that congregations need to be effective. Often, the true “experts” are not denominational organizations, but other congregations. The best denominational organizations see their task, primarily, as cultivating a network of churches and ministry partners and connecting them to one another as a community of mutual learning and resourcing.

With these changes in mind, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina (CBFNC) partnered with First Baptist Church Wilmington and others in 2010 to produce the first “Hopeful Imagination” conference. The centerpiece of the conference was telling the story of FBC Wilmington in the words of its leaders. It was a story of how an “Old First” church adapted to our changing times and managed not only to survive, but also to thrive. In addition to the resource of the FBC story, we brought in other leaders who made contributions to the corporate learning. Teams of congregational leaders attended the conference, listened to the stories, and returned home to apply their learning in their own congregations and communities.

There’s one thing I learned very soon in my process: Change is hard work. Intellectually and emotionally, it is hard work. If we were talking about something less emotionally charged—such as changing from cable to satellite TV—it would be so much simpler. But when the change has to do with what you think about God and everything south thereof, the stakes are much higher.

Second, I want to provide a written resource about God’s call that may be helpful to lay readers as well as to those called to the ministry. In church life, many persons other than clergy feel called to some form of non-ordained ministry or service. Many of the characteristics of God’s call are similar for both groups.

Third, I want this book to be a ready resource for professors, pastors, ministers, and mentors to have available to give to persons seeking their wisdom and counsel relative to God’s call. Many times I have wished I had such a volume at my fingertips to offer to inquiring persons. I hope this book will meet this need.

A theme of personal conviction will provide the foundation for this book. This conviction is that “it is worth a life” to answer God’s call. This is true for persons called to vocational ministry and equally true for those called to ministries not requiring ordination. The call of God is not exclusive to clergy, as special as that call is. God’s call can come to all, and it is worth a life to serve God, whether as an ordained servant or layperson.

The journal is filled with daily events, Mother’s pronouncements, family tales, and the author’s personal reflections on the toll dementia takes on both the patient and the caregiver. He shares with his audience the successes and failures of maintaining a close relationship with an elderly family member in decline.

Over time, Akin and his mother switch roles, with Akin becoming the parent and Mother the child. Writing about this slow change helps the author make sense of the stressful episodes and gives him a sense of purpose, even as he struggles to make sense of difficult situations and decisions.

“As I look back and remember my feelings of frustration, there are times when I regret my anger—even when I tried to see the humor. Wise advice from other writers prompted me to look for the self, the person that remained of the mother I loved. Often, I found it in her kindness and even, at times, in her words.”

The author’s goals for this book is to share the legacy of Mother, a woman who, without fame, wealth, or status, who deeply influenced the lives of her sons, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, extended family, church, neighbors, friends, and retirement home staff. It is also his hope that the book will give others who must travel this road some hope, practical advice, a feeling of camaraderie with fellow caregivers, humor, and the encouragement to write down the stories of their parents before the stories are lost forever.

Learn more and purchase the book at GoodFaithMedia.org

This manual begins with an introduction on the history of etiquette and why it matters. Part one provides an exegetical analysis of key passages of scripture that deal with preaching etiquette. Part two suggests that if greater attention is given to matters of preaching etiquette, the ministry of preaching will be done decently and in order, and those charged with proclaiming God’s word will be better equipped to serve in a spirit of excellence. Part three addresses matters of hospitality and honoraria viewed from studying 1 Corinthians 9:3-14, 3 John 5-8, and 1 Timothy 5:17-18. Following some personal reflection, I offer guide- lines on conducting a seminar on preaching etiquette.

Learn more and purchase the book at GoodFaithMedia.org.

It was a fascinating challenge. As I sat down to prepare a one-hour Sunday school lesson for Episcopalian adults, I realized I had a story to tell. My suspicion is that this story, regardless of how eloquently I have or have not told it, will resonate with many people. Too frequently I hear people speak of their "bad experiences" with the church, experiences often occurring in the formative years of childhood or adolescence. Sadly, too many of these folks leave organized religion, if not turn their backs altogether on a God they suspect has turned a blind eye or a judgmental whim against them.

I have managed to stay within the realm of organized religion. In fact, it is my life. I have not felt the need to abandon or reject God. In fact, God has become more important, more real, more central to my story. I understand those who leave, but because I believe so strongly in the church and the value of faith in one's life, I hope my experience might be an encouragement. One can question, doubt, reject much of what we learned in our childhood, and still remain faithful.

There is a "new way home." Maybe my experiences will help some of you find it.

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Readers come along as she collects a ragtag assortment of unlikely saints and sacred everyday things, each one earning a chapter and holy card of its own. Curious encounters with a silver haired prostitute and the ghost of Vincent Van Gogh, a bowl of cidre in a stranger’s garage and an éclair chocolat at Patisserie Antoinette, among others, whisper into her workaholic heart, revealing the wildness of God’s love, tempting her to let go of her striving to become God’s teacher’s pet and finally accept grace for herself.

Learn more at GoodFaithMedia.org.

I slowly discovered that much of what I had been taught did not make sense in that it was internally inconsistent and sometimes contradictory. My childhood theology could not answer even the simplest questions about prayer or how to know what was authoritative.

Jesus taught that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. Was my church in the forefront of advocating for social justice? Sadly no, but it didn’t really matter because all the church members believed they were saved regardless. This version of Christianity just didn’t make sense to me. I found it hard to believe that Jesus didn’t teach a coherent understanding of the nature of God, how God interacts with us, and what God expects of us in this life.

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I am making the assumption that my experience and subsequent thoughts will naturally address the mental and physical obstacles that have kept you from entering the yoga world, your local yoga studio, or your community center's yoga class. Some fellow novices will be astounded by the depth of my knowledge and commitment after having only practiced for one year. Longtime practitioners of yoga will probably smile and roll their eyes at my ignorance and naivete. Both reactions will be expressions of truth.

I want this book to be informative and fun. I want you to laugh with me and at me. I will transparently expose my worries, missteps, and fumbles so that you can either avoid them or fall fearlessly into them. I would suggest the latter.

I'll admit it: I want to entice you into a world-no, into a way of being in the world-that makes the world a better place for all of us.

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With each essay, reflection, and poetic writing I intend to speak of the need for our presence in community with the suffering. Even then there is more than a human presence, for in all such instances God is also present. This presence acting in the world is not dependent in any way on whether or not we see or acknowledge it. God spoke first; God will have the last word: “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1).

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The purpose of this book is to illustrate how it is possible. It is a case study in long-term pastoral ministry. Included are sermons from thirty-three years at the same church. Over the years I preached on some biblical texts many times. Yet I never repeated a sermon in thirty-three years, except for preaching basically the same sermon at the two Sunday morning worship services during the school year. The only difference is that I preached the sermon extemporaneously from the floor for the early contemporary service, and I stood behind the pulpit (with manuscript) for the traditional second service. Thus, the sermon wasn’t the same for the two services, but Dave Thompson said they were essentially the same.

Beyond that repetition on Sunday morning, however, no one ever came up to me and said, “I remember you preached that sermon before.” For thirty-three years I preached original sermons every Sunday, except for the Sundays we had a guest preacher or choir cantata or other special event. “Preaching for the long haul” requires commitment and study and creativity and prayer, but by God’s grace, it can be done.

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I will be sharing my experience of this transition as the mother who gave birth to this beautiful, brave, and wondrous child.

My hope is that by sharing my experience, the door will be opened to many other mothers to accept and not fear accompanying their child on this journey with love, grace, and respect. As mothers we are purveyors of grace for our children. We are conduits of God’s grace and mercy. Through our unconditional love we can move with our children as they find and reveal themselves, all the while easing their fears.

I share my experiences with this transition because I know there are others out there who might be needing some hope, some understanding, and some way of finding their faith in the midst of such a transition.

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And yet it is also a story for all people. God is still at work in this world, from one generation to the next, in a mission of liberation, healing, and redemption. We are invited to join with God in that holy enterprise. In joining God we also recognize our own need for healing and redemption as well as our call in and to a world of dislocation.

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Let these sermons serve as a guide. Adapt them as you see fit so that your group of children will grasp their meaning and grow in their understanding of spiritual themes. As you spend time with children in worship, count it a privilege to convey to your children a love of scripture, a passion for learning, a desire to know the heart of God, and a love for the wonderful stories of the Bible.

Learn more and purchase Nurturing Faith in Children at GoodFaithMedia.org

The goal of Christians and congregations in our context must be to know, love, and follow Jesus. A balanced understanding that finds the teaching of Jesus inseparable from the passion of Jesus is needed. Christians, congregations and the larger Christian community have the capacity to center their thoughts and actions around the thoughts and actions of Jesus. A gospel informed, Jesus-centered faith is both imminently possible and urgently needed.

Learn more and purchase Seeing with Jesus at goodfaithmedia.org

This volume is a collection of call stories from pastors representing a cross-section of Baptist life, offering a glimpse into the diversity of avenues by which individuals have felt a sense of divine calling to vocational Christian ministry. This book is part of the Healthy Church Resources series, which is a collaboration of the Center for Healthy Churches, the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation and Good Faith Media.

Phyllis Miller, M.D., has been a trailblazer for women in medicine. The number of firsts she has achieved—including first woman president of the Chattanooga Hamilton County Medical Society, first woman chief of staff at Erlanger Medical Center, and first woman president of the Tennessee Medical Association—opened the doors for many other women to follow suit. She has proved that gender is not a determinant in doing an excellent job.

Learn more and purchase Climbing Mountains at GoodFaithMedia.org.

The health cycle model offers an organic, inside-out approach for understanding church health and avoiding pathology. To root churches in redemptive health, we’ll identify and apply health cycle discoveries. By rooting life and witness in healthy purpose, we can cultivate new life and vitality in our churches. When congregations discern and then act on their fundamental reason for being, a purposeful dream awakens and empowers them.

This book is for leaders, both clergy and laity, who love their congregations and are committed to keeping their churches healthy and redemptive. The model and principles in this book fit most volunteer (and many for-profit) organizations. Applying this model to your church is your minis- try opportunity. Why? Because leaders like you are tenders of congregational health.

This book is part of the Healthy Church Resources series, which is a collaboration of the Center for Healthy Churches, the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation and Good Faith Media. Other books in the series are available here.

Our best leaders are anchored in clear values and considered beliefs. They have grown down. And, our best leaders have cultivated their own maturity. They have grown up and are comfortable in their skins. Growing down, growing up: In the pages ahead we trace and weave together these two master threads.

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So I went through Mark 1 with a fine-toothed comb, and what I found was some words and some deeds, but in the end seven distinct episodes from that action-packed chapter: 1) Jesus is baptized; 2) he begins to preach, 3) calls some disciples, 4) teaches in the synagogue, 5) heals the sick, 6) defines his mission, and 7) cures a leper. My hope is that by the end of it you will not only have a fuller appreciation of Mark 1, but also a brighter and clearer picture of the Christ he wants us to know.

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I’ve always been involved in bringing hope to our world. An initial little boy’s wish to be a wolf biologist has turned into a lifelong in-depth study of our natural world and involvement in environmental conservation, even though I missed a turn and didn’t quite make it onto Wild Kingdom. And, all these years of “people work” haven’t soured me. Instead, I’m more sure than ever that with one word, one deed at a time, we can do the better thing in our society and our world. It’s not “dog eat dog.” In taking care of those around us, we in turn take care of ourselves.

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Based on a partnership between the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, this toolkit offers concrete examples and tips from veteran advocates for leading a church or nonprofit to deeper engagement in advocacy and public witness. By firmly grounding advocacy in the mission work of the church, this toolkit helps pastors and members recognize advocacy as a natural extension of church ministry and includes examples of predatory lending, immigration, and racial justice work.

Learn more at https://goodfaithmedia.org/product/the-mission-of-advocacy-stephen-reeves/