While searching for a model of preaching that is apt for our postmodern moment, Kay Northcutt respectfully eschews earlier models and suggests the what of preaching should consist in spiritual formation or the practice of spiritual direction. Taking an evocative, rather than how-to, approach, Northcutt notes the gaps created by earlier models and makes a case not only for framing preaching as an attractive art but also for understanding the preachers authority as religious in nature. The author provides readers with a new paradigm for developing their own homiletical discipline.

The hard work required to make God real, how it changes the people who do it, and why it helps explain the enduring power of faith How do gods and spirits come to feel vividly real to people—as if they were standing right next to them? Humans tend to see supernatural agents everywhere, as the cognitive science of religion has shown. But it isn’t easy to maintain a sense that there are invisible spirits who care about you. In How God Becomes Real, acclaimed anthropologist and scholar of religion T. M. Luhrmann argues that people must work incredibly hard to make gods real and that this effort—by changing the people who do it and giving them the benefits they seek from invisible others—helps to explain the enduring power of faith. Drawing on ethnographic studies of evangelical Christians, pagans, magicians, Zoroastrians, Black Catholics, Santeria initiates, and newly orthodox Jews, Luhrmann notes that none of these people behave as if gods and spirits are simply there. Rather, these worshippers make strenuous efforts to create a world in which invisible others matter and can become intensely present and real. The faithful accomplish this through detailed stories, absorption, the cultivation of inner senses, belief in a porous mind, strong sensory experiences, prayer, and other practices. Along the way, Luhrmann shows why faith is harder than belief, why prayer is a metacognitive activity like therapy, why becoming religious is like getting engrossed in a book, and much more. A fascinating account of why religious practices are more powerful than religious beliefs, How God Becomes Real suggests that faith is resilient not because it provides intuitions about gods and spirits—but because it changes the faithful in profound ways.

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” — 1 John 2:15 Those who struggle with habitual sin are keenly aware of the despair and fatigue that comes from trying harder and harder to control the desire to do what is wrong in the eyes of God. For this person, there be times of limited success in overcoming sin, but eventually he/she falls back again into unhealthy patterns. In "The Expulsive Power of a New Affection", Thomas Chalmers argues that no matter how hard we may try, we’ll never overcome habitual sin in our lives unless we switch our affections from the world to Jesus Christ. Thankfully Christ loved us first and is more than willing to set us free if we’d only realize the true Gospel power that we can all have in our lives today.

The purpose of this project is to discover effective ministry methods for cooperating with the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of followers of Jesus to nurture stronger affections of love, delight, and desire for God. The theological basis of the project is built from Old and New Testament passages that describe the role of these affections, especially the meaning of biblical words for love. Jonathan Edwards’s Religious Affections and the theological history around the theme of affections leading up to Edwards provide the key literature. More recent spiritual formation literature regarding affections and spiritual disciplines is considered in light of Edwards’s legacy. The project was conducted with ten participants around a series of eight meetings, utilizing a combination of biblically-based teaching curriculum and practical experiences of spiritual disciplines. Data was collected through individual opening and closing interviews, group discussions, and written responses from participants at the end and weekly throughout the study. Some adjustments were made for the COVID-19 health crisis. Meditating on God’s creation and candid spiritual conversations between followers of Jesus were identified as the two most consistently effective disciplines for nurturing spiritual affection. Other disciplines, including scripture memorization and lectio divina, had a mixed reception from different participants. Participant responses highlight the importance of building the believer’s affection for God on God’s love for the believer and of finding expressions of adoration appropriate to the believer. Some suggestions are made for implementing spiritual disciplines in the researcher’s congregation.

Much current literature on church worship rarely mentions preaching, and vice versa. Worship is often seen as restricted to music and liturgy while preaching is assumed to operate on different principles for different purposes. But veteran preacher Michael Quicke argues that preaching should be viewed as worship, as both worship and preaching belong within the same Trinitarian dynamic, serving the same purpose and marked by similar characteristics. Drawing on insights from wide-ranging literature and practitioners on both sides of the gap, this insightful book confronts and corrects ten characteristics of preaching that are disconnected from worship.

What Wild at Heart did for men, Captivating is doing for women. Setting their hearts free. This groundbreaking book shows readers the glorious design of women before the fall, describes how the feminine heart can be restored, and casts a vision for the power, freedom, and beauty of a woman released to be all she was meant to be.

THE PURSUIT OF PLEASURE IS NOT OPTIONAL. IT IS ESSENTIAL. This study guide companion to the DVD version of Desiring God—the classic explanation of Christian hedonism by John Piper—will help individuals and groups understand that the supreme calling of life is to "glorify God by enjoying Him forever." The DVD and this guide create an ideal package for adult and youth Sunday school classes, small groups, retreats, classrooms, families, as well as for individual study. Topics for this 12-session guided group study include: One Great Mission and Motivation A Summary of Christian Hedonism The Foundation of Christian Hedonism The Essence of Christian Hedonism The Grand Obligation (Part 1): Commanded to Rejoice The Grand Obligation (Part 2): An Essential Element of Faith and Worship The Grand Obligation (Part 3): Holy Hedonism Is Love The Grand Obligation (Part 4): The Strength for Sanctification and Service How Then Shall We Fight for Joy? (Part 1): Know Its Sources and Setbacks How Then Shall We Fight for Joy? (Part 2): Make Use of the Means of Grace Complete with Scripture, key quotations for reflection, penetrating questions, and five daily assignments per week, this study guide will help you understand why God’s pursuit of His glory and your pursuit of joy are not at odds—because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. Also includes a 6-session intensive track option. Leader’s Guide Included.

God is waiting. Our hearts are wanting. What must we do? F?r. William Barry, SJ, believes that God wants an intimate relationship with each one of us—and that the deepest desire of our own hearts is to have an intimate relationship with God. Yet while we pursue this desire and long for its satisfaction, we also resist it—which can lead to a painful stagnancy. How can we move forward? In God’s Passionate Desire, Fr. Barry serves as our spiritual director, leading us on a series of brief “retreats” to help us understand the foundations of our relationship with God, what threatens it, and how we can continuously move forward into a closer and more meaningful relationship with God. In his warm, conversational style, Barry offers meditations, poses questions, and gently encourages us to respond to God’s immeasurable love by following what is truly in each of our hearts—a longing to love him in return.