On first publication in the 1960s, "Honest to God" did more than instigate a passionate debate about the nature of Christian belief in a secular revolution. It epitomised the revolutionary mood of the era and articulated the anxieties of a generation.

Brent A. Strawn focuses on the importance of honesty in preaching, especially around three challenging Old Testament themes: sin, suffering, and violence. He makes the case that preaching honestly about these topics is critical in the church today. Without honesty regarding them, there is no way forward to reconciliation, health, and recovery. He frames this work specifically for working preachers, to help them speak to these thorny themes with depth and clarity.

This is the fortieth anniversary edition of John Robinson's classic text. Honest to God is a bracing and engaging call to re-examine outdated and troublesome images of God.

Is hypocrisy eroding your trust in relationships, the church, or even yourself? We long to know there is a God-and, yes, a community-who is big enough to accept us for who we are and loving enough not to leave us that way. Imagine how our relationships and witness would change if Christians everywhere began to live in a more authentic manner. Throughout the Bible, we find heroes of the faith who lived with daring, messy honesty before God and others. Honest to God is a practical and riveting study of biblical honesty. Follow next generation author, Josh Weidmann, as he takes the reader on a journey toward true Christian authenticity. Both biblical and contemporary examples will give you practical principles and tools for self-examination that will lead to the freedom and transformation that come only through honesty.

Church planting has become a cottage industry. National conferences, hip planting organizations, and all-in-one resource kits celebrate the thrill of pioneering a church and inspire visions of glorious victories. Yet few who respond to the call are warned what they'll actually encounter: the relentless opposition they'll endure; the eventual scattering of their entire core group; the failure of their tried-and-true, field-tested system. Here's the dirty little secret of church planting: the roadside is strewn with casualties. Many have closed their churches. Some left ministry permanently. Others abandoned the faith altogether. Church planting is at once the greatest and most grueling ministry work on earth. This book is for those toiling in the trenches, those about to bail out, and those considering jumping in. It's for the church planters laboring and struggling, seeing little movement, and wondering what they're doing wrong or why God is failing them. It's also for mother churches, planting organizations, and denominations, as a challenge to rethink and re-calibrate the way they approach and measure planting endeavors. The Honest Guide to Church Planting is a fresh and candid conversation about the challenges and joys of planting new churches. Tom Bennardo speaks the truth so that those involved in church planting can embrace a more accurate and realistic picture of what planting a church is really like; one that not only enables them to survive, but to thrive in this wondrous work.

Doug Bixby knows that many of us have had enough of the liberal vs. conservative battles in the church. In The Honest to God Church, Bixby demonstrates how these extremes have distracted us from our true calling as conduits for God's grace--both individually and as congregations. Many churches see themselves as "okay," while everyone outside the church is "not okay." These churches embrace an ethic of perfection rather than love. Often they are very judgmental and rigid; little room exists for grace after a person is converted. Legalism, rather than love, becomes the primary defining characteristic; people pretend to be perfect even though they are not. In reaction to this approach, many churches have replaced judgmentalism with an ethic of tolerance. But tolerating someone is not the same thing as loving them. Tolerance demands only that we give people space. Love is deeper and more significant and demands that we enter into their space. Besides, if on our own we are okay, then why do we need God and one another? Bixby recommends we embrace the teaching of Martin Luther that we all are saints and sinners simultaneously. Churches that do this raise disciples who readily admit their sin and brokenness and see God's grace as the only means for straightening out their lives. Bixby encourages all congregations to live this way--authentically and transparently--so that we do not have to pretend that we are okay when we are not. Bixby challenges us to respond to Jesus's call to come as we are, not as we think we ought to be.

This analysis of the inconsistencies in the lifestyle of today's Christians is accompanied by specific examples and discussion of how Christians can restore authentic Christianity in their personal lives and thus nurture a troubled world.

Robert Ingersoll (1833—1899) is one of the great lost figures in United States history, all but forgotten at just the time America needs him most. An outspoken and unapologetic agnostic, fervent champion of the separation of church and state, and tireless advocate of the rights of women and African Americans, he drew enormous audiences in the late nineteenth century with his lectures on “freethought.” His admirers included Mark Twain and Thomas A. Edison, who said Ingersoll had “all the attributes of a perfect man” and went so far as to make an early recording of Ingersoll’s voice. The publication of What’s God Got to Do with It? will return Robert Ingersoll and his ideas to American political discourse. Edited and with a biographical introduction by Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Page, this new popular collection of Ingersoll’s thought – distilled from the twelve-volume set of his works, his copious letters, and various newspaper interviews – promises to put Ingersoll back where he belongs, in the forefront of independent American thought.

If we're honest, most of us feel bored, distracted, or discouraged in prayer. We look for resources to give us the "right" words or teach us the "right" technique and are disappointed when they don't seem to help. What we fail to realize is that prayer isn't a place for us to be good or right, and it isn't a place for us to perform or prove our worth. It's a place for us to be honest, present, and known--a place for us to offer ourselves and receive God. Spiritual formation experts Kyle Strobel and John Coe want to show you what you've been missing when it comes to prayer. In this down-to-earth book, they show you how to fearlessly draw near to a holy God, pray without ceasing (and without posturing), and delight in the experience of being fully known and fully loved. Each chapter ends with prayer projects or practices to help you see a difference in your prayer life, starting now.

"In Honest to Jesus, Robert Funk, one of the preeminent biblical scholars of our time, embarks on a radical investigation into the transformation of Jesus the social rebel and iconoclast into Jesus the religious icon. Founder of the Jesus Seminar - the group of writers, philosophers, and theologians spearheading new research into the historical Jesus and the authenticity of the gospels - Funk has never before articulated his own bold and fearless vision of who Jesus truly was and how his legacy should be approached by the modern world." "Funk's investigation concludes with an explosive call to arms. In twenty-one theses, Funk articulates a revolutionary new vision of Jesus and Christianity for the next millennium. Freed from religious and political propaganda, liberated from the cobwebs of orthodoxy, this is a Jesus restored to the roles of social critic, dissident, and sage. Funk envisions a revitalized Christianity - shaped by history rather than orthodoxy and based not on the Christ of the creeds but on the teachings of Jesus in all their original power. Forthright, penetrating, and as radical as the mysterious figure it investigates, Honest to Jesus is a new classic in the debate over the search for the real Jesus and its implications for modern Christianity."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved