Is your congregation in its final days? Move your congregation from survival to revival, says the Rev. Dr. William Dopp. Congregations will not only survive, they will thrive when they enter the mission field. In his lively book Dopp illustrates how to move from the old chapel to the emerging missionary church. Back in 2000, Episcopal priest, William Dopp and his wife, Janet, were on their way to Kisoro, Uganda to be part of a special celebration at St. Andrew's Cathedral in that remote part of east Africa. They stopped over in London, where they had the opportunity to attend Sunday worship at St. John the Baptist Church in the Kensington section of London. The contrast between the two churches inspired this book. The old gothic church in London was nearly empty on Sunday morning. One week later, the Dopps took part in worship in rural Kisoro where the 1200-seat cathedral was not large enough to hold the crowd. The church in London had on its literature, Preserving Holy Worship. The church in Kisoro, Uganda proclaimed on a sign, Jesus is our living hope. One church lives in the past; the other is in mission proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ. These two churches are the symbols of what Dopp calls the old chapel church, the OCC, and the emerging missionary church, the EMC. Congregations of all denominations fall into these two categories. Through engaging ministry experiences backed up by current statistics, he illustrates how the emerging missionary church transforms the lives of people.

This book is designed as an instructional manual for anyone whoever said, “I do not understand what is happening in the churches. Why are pastors untrustworthy? Why are the members of churches acting worse than those who do not know God? And why is the church mundane and cold?” The author is taking a bold stand to address the elephant in the room. He reveals that there are two different churches on earth currently—the church of Jesus Christ and the counterfeit. Each church has chosen a platform to stand on. On the platform of holiness stands the church of Jesus, the true church. This church is managed by the Holy Spirit, just like the church of Pentecost. There are very few of them, but they remain holy and preach the true gospel of Jesus Christ. They show justice, righteousness, holiness, and confirm the love and power of God and the resurrection of Jesus by performing miracles. In contrast, the counterfeit church stands on a materialistic platform. This church pledges allegiance to a different master. It is selfish, lawless, and unjust. It rejects the power of God and has evicted the Holy Spirit. Its mission is to discredit the true Jesus. It has no ethics, no brotherly love. It prefers a feel-good, do-good gospel instead of the genuine gospel of Jesus and his apostles. It seeks power, prestige, and the love of the world. In the book, the author reveals that this rogue, materialistic, unjust, and unrighteous Christian church is the instrument of Satan, part of the false religion that will usher the days of the Antichrist. As its members infiltrate the true church, this book is a call reminding the true Christian to take a stand for justice and righteousness, to be sanctified, and to receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Go purchase oil for your lamp now because the window of opportunity is closing. Jesus is coming to take his own home soon, and those who do not have oil in their lamp and are not holy will not be allowed in the wedding chamber to see the king.

A Tale of Two Churches examines the complexities of resurrecting a congregation postmortem. While conflict is a natural occurrence in all communities, it can lead to organizational implosion. The warning signs become blaring sirens when mistrust goes viral, rumors escalate uncontrolled, and the people discontinue their participation. Pastor Ehlke attempts to generate new life in the corpse of a dying church through means of spiritual transformation. Using the Scripture as a guidepost for reform, the pastor starts a small group designed for the sole purpose of loving the people. Trusting this will spark a revolution of compassion, the leadership embarks on breathing new life into a community declared all but dead by many in observance. Having worked at St. John Lutheran Church in Winter Park, perhaps this paradigm will breathe life into other faith communities who are staring into the darkness of death.

Though a majority of commentators have admitted or naturally assumed that there were many divergences amongst the Pauline churches, many tend to concentrate on similarities more than dissimilarities (contra John M. G. Barclay; Craig de Vos). Especially, the previous scholarly treatments of divergences in the Pauline churches have shed little light on certain areas of study, in particular the early Christians’ socio-economic status. The thesis, therefore, underlines the conspicuous differences between the Thessalonian and Corinthian congregations concerning their socio-economic compositions, social relationships, and further social identities, while extrapolating certain circles of causality between them through socio-economic and social-scientific criticism. This study concludes Paul’s teachings of grace, community, and ethics were manifested and modified in different communities in different ways because of these different socio-economic contexts.

What do you do if you are an evangelical Christian, politically conservative AND transgender? Evangelical Christians are often attacked by the Left. People who are transgender are often attacked by the Right. It's human nature to align with those who share our world view, and dismiss those who don't. There is a struggle going on in our culture that produces more victims than champions--we all seem to agree on that. The growing divide between the political, ideological Left vs Right and Religious vs Secularist is so sharp that even attempting to bridge the gap is a perilous endeavor. But what happens to the people who are scorned by both sides? Shut out by the Left for their conservative views. Rejected by Christians for being transgender. Meet Laurie Suzanne Scott. She is, indeed, both an evangelical Christian and transgender. Raised in a devoutly Christian home, she endured the unbelievably difficult and complicated odyssey of finding her identity as a woman ...without losing her identity in Christ. A journey she barely survived. In "God Doesn't Make Mistakes: Confessions of a Transgender Christian" Laurie tells her story of growing up playing a role as unnatural to her as the body she was born with. She was a living, breathing dichotomy... and there was no one who could understand. She had no choice but to keep up the pretense and keep it a secret. She became a good son. A good Christian. And eventually even a good husband. She knew if her true identity became known, she would lose everything. E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. So, she kept her secret from everyone. But she knew there was no keeping it from God. Raised with a doctrine she believed condemned her, she decided the only way out of her constant misery was to end her life. "Who would even want to stop me?" "Wouldn't it be easier for everyone this way?" It was at that desperate crossroad she heard the voice of God simply say, "You're okay." Since that day, God has led her on a path to heal her deep wounds of rejection by family as well as other Christians, and make peace with the way she was created. "I thought God would be the first to reject me. But, in fact, He was the first to accept me." Now Laurie reaches out to Christians who are transgender, who are still struggling to believe God loves them for who they are... just as they are. It's a difficult and often emotionally exhausting ministry. Equally important are the efforts to help the Church see their Christian brothers and sisters who are transgender as simply, their Christian brothers and sisters. Nothing more, and nothing less. And finally, she shares the much needed message that God doesn't make mistakes, and it IS possible to be a conservative, a Christian, and transgender.

The instant New York Times bestseller and companion book to the PBS series. “Absolutely brilliant . . . A necessary and moving work.” —Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., author of Begin Again “Engaging. . . . In Gates’s telling, the Black church shines bright even as the nation itself moves uncertainly through the gloaming, seeking justice on earth—as it is in heaven.” —Jon Meacham, New York Times Book Review From the New York Times bestselling author of Stony the Road and The Black Box, and one of our most important voices on the African American experience, comes a powerful new history of the Black church as a foundation of Black life and a driving force in the larger freedom struggle in America. For the young Henry Louis Gates, Jr., growing up in a small, residentially segregated West Virginia town, the church was a center of gravity—an intimate place where voices rose up in song and neighbors gathered to celebrate life's blessings and offer comfort amid its trials and tribulations. In this tender and expansive reckoning with the meaning of the Black Church in America, Gates takes us on a journey spanning more than five centuries, from the intersection of Christianity and the transatlantic slave trade to today’s political landscape. At road’s end, and after Gates’s distinctive meditation on the churches of his childhood, we emerge with a new understanding of the importance of African American religion to the larger national narrative—as a center of resistance to slavery and white supremacy, as a magnet for political mobilization, as an incubator of musical and oratorical talent that would transform the culture, and as a crucible for working through the Black community’s most critical personal and social issues. In a country that has historically afforded its citizens from the African diaspora tragically few safe spaces, the Black Church has always been more than a sanctuary. This fact was never lost on white supremacists: from the earliest days of slavery, when enslaved people were allowed to worship at all, their meetinghouses were subject to surveillance and destruction. Long after slavery’s formal eradication, church burnings and bombings by anti-Black racists continued, a hallmark of the violent effort to suppress the African American struggle for equality. The past often isn’t even past—Dylann Roof committed his slaughter in the Mother Emanuel AME Church 193 years after it was first burned down by white citizens of Charleston, South Carolina, following a thwarted slave rebellion. But as Gates brilliantly shows, the Black church has never been only one thing. Its story lies at the heart of the Black political struggle, and it has produced many of the Black community’s most notable leaders. At the same time, some churches and denominations have eschewed political engagement and exemplified practices of exclusion and intolerance that have caused polarization and pain. Those tensions remain today, as a rising generation demands freedom and dignity for all within and beyond their communities, regardless of race, sex, or gender. Still, as a source of faith and refuge, spiritual sustenance and struggle against society’s darkest forces, the Black Church has been central, as this enthralling history makes vividly clear.

A challenging, innovative approach to a delicate subject. It’s sure to benefit church leaders and members of all ages who dream of a “reinvented” church. —Publishers Weekly Has your church been stolen out from under you? A storm hits a small New England town late one evening, but the pelting rain can’t keep a small group of church members from gathering to discuss issues that lately have been brewing beneath the surface of their congregation. They could see their church was changing. The choir had been replaced by a fl ashy “praise band.” The youth no longer dressed in their “Sunday best.” The beautiful pipe organ sat unused. How will this group overcome a deepening rift in their fellowship and nourish the relationship between the young and old? Can their church survive or even thrive? Who Stole My Church? is a fictional story that tells the all too real tale of many church communities today. In this book you can walk alongside an imaginary community, led by real life pastor Gordon MacDonald and his wife, Gail, and discover how to meet the needs of all believers without abandoning the dreams and desires of any.

WHAT DOES GOD EXPECT OF US? Is our faith just about going to church, studying the Bible and avoiding the most serious sins—or does God expect more? Have we embraced the whole gospel or a gospel with a hole in it? Ten years ago, Rich Stearns came face-to-face with that question as he sat in a mud hut in Rakai, Uganda, listening to the heartbreaking story of an orphaned child. Stearns’ journey there took much more than a long flight to Africa. It took answering God’s call on his life, a call that tore him out of his corner office at one of America’s most prestigious corporations—to walk with the poorest of the poor in our world. The Hole in Our Gospel is the compelling true story of a corporate CEO who setaside worldly success for something far more significant, and discovered the full power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to change his own life. He uses his journey to demonstrate how the gospel—the whole gospel—was always meant to be a world changing social revolution, a revolution that begins with us. ECPA 2010 Christian Book of the Year Award Winner! “Read this compelling story and urgent call for change—Richard Stearns is a contemporary Amos crying ‘let justice roll down like waters....’ Justice is a serious gospel-prophetic mandate. Far too many American Christians for too long a time have left the cause to ‘others.’ Read it as an altar call.” --Eugene H. Peterson, translator of The Message, Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology, Regent College, Vancouver, BC “Rich Stearns calls us to exhilarating obedience to God’s life-altering, world-changing command to reflect his love to our neighbors at home and globally. The Hole in Our Gospel is imbued with the hope of what is possible when God’s people are transformed to live radically in light of his great love." --Gary Haugen, President & CEO, International Justice Mission “Richard Stearns is quite simply one of the finest leaders I have ever known.... When he became president of World Vision I had a front row seat to witness the way God used his mind and heart to inspire thousands.... His new book, The Hole In Our Gospel will call you to a higher level of discipleship.... Now is the time...Richard Stearns has the strategy...your move!” --Bill Hybels, Founding and Senior Pastor, Willow Creek Community Church, South Barrington, IL “Rich Stearns has given us a book that makes absolutely clear what God hopes for and expects from each of us.... He reminded me of my personal responsibilities and the priority I must give them and also where life’s true rewards and fulfillment are to be found.” --Jim Morris, former executive director, United Nations World Food Program "World Vision plays a strategic role on our globe. As the largest relief organization in the history of the world, they initiate care and respond to crisis. Rich Stearns navigates this mercy mission with great skill. His book urges us to think again about the opportunity to love our neighbor and comfort the afflicted. His message is timely and needed. May God bless him, the mission of World Vision and all who embrace it." --Max Lucado, author of 3:16—The Numbers of Hope, Minister of Writing and Preaching, Oak Hills Church, San Antonio, TX “With passionate urging and earnestness, Rich Stearns challenges Christians to embrace the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ by embracing the neediest and most vulnerable among us. After reading the moving stories, the compelling facts and figures, and Stearns’ excellent application of scripture and his own experiences at World Vision, you will no doubt be asking yourself: What should I do?” --Chuck Colson, Founder, Prison Fellowship