Hope for the one who is weary, wandering, and wondering where things went wrong In the wake of the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s, many young evangelical Christians found themselves untethered, disillusioned, and--ultimately--orphaned as they grappled with the legalistic, politically co-opted churches of their youth. Perhaps you are one of them. Perhaps, like Sara Billups, you have felt alone, misunderstood, and maligned in the American church, longing for a more loving, more biblical expression of the faith and discipleship taught by Jesus. Part spiritual memoir of an apocalyptic childhood and part commentary on growing up as an evangelical kid during the culture wars, Orphaned Believers follows the journey of a generation of Christian exiles reckoning with the tradition that raised them and searching for a new way to participate in the story of God. Because for all the baggage, we still belong, and a bigger, more beautiful story awaits. "As American Christianity changes, and as we change along with it, we need guides to remind us who we are and who we're not. Sara has been one such guide for me. She's brutally honest and hilarious, and her heart is wide open to the radical possibility that belonging to Jesus is identity enough for Christians. I couldn't be more grateful for her."--Jon Guerra, singer-songwriter and producer "Billups reminds us that no matter who we are or where we come from, God can move us from a place on the margins to a community of faith."--Foxy Davison, educator and activist "Sara helped me feel more 'found' than I did before--orphaned but also anchored in a much better story than the one the world's been selling me over the past decades. I needed this book more than I knew."--Chuck DeGroat, author, therapist, and professor of pastoral care and Christian spirituality at Western Theological Seminary

Christians are clearly called to care for orphans, a group so close to the heart of Jesus. In reality, most of the 153 million orphaned and vulnerable children in the world do not need to be adopted, and not everyone needs to become an adoptive parent. However, there are other very important ways to help beyond adoption. Indeed, caring for orphaned and vulnerable children requires us to care about related issues from child trafficking and HIV/AIDS to racism and poverty. Too often, we only discuss or theologize the issues, relegating the responsibility to governments. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. Based on his own personal journey toward pure religion, Johnny Carr moves readers from talking about global orphan care to actually doing something about it in Orphan Justice. Combining biblical truth with the latest research, this inspiring book: • investigates the orphan care and adoption movement in the U.S. today • examines new data on the needs of orphaned and vulnerable children • connects “liberal issues” together as critical aspects or orphan care • discovers the role of the church worldwide in meeting these needs • develops a tangible, sustainable action plan using worldwide partnerships • fleshes out the why, what, and how of global orphan care • offers practical steps to getting involved and making a difference

A Passion for the Fatherless is written to help believers develop a God-centered ministry to the orphan. It exposes believers to the Scriptural mandate to care for orphans, helps them understand why God has issued that call, and equips them to joyfully respond to that call. It strives to achieve this purpose by developing a vibrant theology of orphan ministry for the church. Each chapter is accompanied with study questions so that it can be used in both personal study or with a small-group.

Feasting on the Gospels follows up on the success of the Feasting on the Word series with all new material on the most prominent and preached-on New Testament books, the four Gospels. With contributions from a diverse and respected group of scholars and pastors, Feasting on the Gospels covers every single passage in the Gospels, making it suitable for both lectionary and nonlectionary use. Moreover, these volumes incorporate the unique format of Feasting on the Word, with four perspectives for preachers to choose from for each Gospel passage: theological, pastoral, exegetical, and homiletical.

'Two Romes have fallen. The third stands. And there will be no fourth.' So spoke Russian monk Hegumen Filofei of Pskov in 1510, proclaiming Muscovite Russia as heirs to the legacy of the Roman Empire following the collapse of the Byzantine Empire. The so-called 'Third Rome Doctrine' spurred the creation of the Russian Orthodox Church, although just a century later a further schism occurred, with the Old Believers (or 'Old Ritualists') challenging Patriarch Nikon's liturgical and ritualistic reforms and laying their own claim to the mantle of Roman legacy. While scholars have commonly painted the subsequent history of the Old Believers as one of survival in the face of persistent persecution at the hands of both tsarist and church authorities, Peter De Simone here offers a more nuanced picture. Based on research into extensive, yet mostly unknown, archival materials in Moscow, he shows the Old Believers as versatile and opportunistic, and demonstrates that they actively engaged with, and even challenged, the very notion of the spiritual and ideological place of Moscow in Imperial Russia.Ranging in scope from Peter the Great to Lenin, this book will be of use to all scholars of Russian and Orthodox Church history.

How do the Greco-Roman views of ethnicity inform our reading of the Spirit in the Fourth Gospel? This study not only reviews the role of ethnicity and race in the ancient world; it also proposes a bold new understanding of Johannine pneumatology. From an ethnocritical perspective, this study argues that the Spirit was articulated for an ethnically diverse Johannine community that was dealing with the issues of race relations. The Spirit is the divine breath of God that commissions Jesus for the redemption of all ethnicities. The Spirit is involved in the maternal birth of all ethnic members who are in the family of God. The Spirit draws all people despite their ethnic lineage and heritage. And the Spirit is actively involved as an advocate for the minoritized community undergoing synagogue violence. Will the members of the Johannine community still hold onto ethnic ideologies of dehumanization that were prevalent of their age? Can the Johannine community still have the Spirit and support ideologies of ethnic division and hate? This study seeks to answer these questions.

In his section-by-section commentary Stevick gives careful attention to the literary, structural, and theological features of the text, pointing also to how and where the Revised Common Lectionary incorporates passages from John 13-17. The distillation of a senior seminary professor's lifelong study and reflection, Jesus and His Own will be especially valuable for pastors preparing to teach or preach from John's Gospel. --Book Jacket.

In recent years, we've seen an increase in the number of Christians who are "deconstructing" their faith, critically analyzing Christianity and finding that it falls short. Many end up leaving behind the beliefs and commitments they formerly held. While many have written on how to reverse this trend, Scot McKnight and Tommy Preson Phillips believe that rather than dismissing these concerns we need to listen more carefully. Deconstructors are uncovering serious weaknesses in today's church--a renewed fundamentalism, toxic leadership, and legalistic thinking among them. Utilizing the results of recent studies by Pew, Gallup, and others, McKnight and Phillips take a careful look at what deconstructors are really saying, seeking to better understand why many are shedding elements of the faith and church of their youth but also engaging in a reconstruction process, finding Jesus afresh. They are losing their religion, but not losing Jesus. Filled with stories of those who have walked the path of deconstruction without losing their faith, Invisible Jesus is a prophetic call to examine ourselves and discern if the faith we practice and the church we belong to is really representative of the Jesus we follow. Each chapter looks at a different topic and offers biblical reflections that call for us to not only better listen, but to change how we live out our faith as followers of Jesus today.