Author: Brett McCracken
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 1441242759
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 266
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Book Description
Culture is in right now for Christians. Engaging it, embracing it, consuming it, and creating it. Many (younger) evangelicals today are actively cultivating an appreciation for aspects of culture previously stigmatized within the church. Things like alcohol, Hollywood's edgier content, plays, art openings, and concerts have moved from being forbidden to being celebrated by believers. But are evangelicals opening their arms too wide in uncritical embrace of culture? How do they engage with culture in ways that are mature, discerning, and edifying rather than reckless, excessive, and harmful? Can there be a healthy, balanced approach--or is that simply wishful thinking? With the same insight and acuity found in his popular Hipster Christianity, Brett McCracken examines some of the hot-button gray areas of Christian cultural consumption, helping to lead Christians to adopt a more thoughtful approach to consuming culture in the complicated middle ground between legalism and license. Readers will learn how to both enrich their own lives and honor God--refining their ability to discern truth, goodness, beauty, and enjoy his creation.
Author: Tommy Tighe
Publisher: Ave Maria Press
ISBN: 1594717087
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224
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Book Description
Winner of a 2019 Catholic Press Association Award: Backlist Beauty (First Place). Being a Catholic Hipster is all about an attitude—an attitude grounded in being part of a countercultural community of believers dedicated to something bigger than themselves in a world dominated by self-centeredness. It’s about yearning to learn more about the faith by seeking out “Catholic cool”—overlooked saints, forgotten prayers and feast days, and traditional practices long set aside by mainstream believers. The Catholic Hipster podcaster Tommy Tighe will help readers rediscover everything awesome about the Catholic faith. The Catholic Hipster started out in 2014 with a little bit of fun—the Catholic Hipster of the Year contest—on Tighe’s blog. But Twitter is where—in all its 140-character glory—that Tighe’s “The Catholic Hipster” movement really took root. That’s where a group of cool and funky countercultural Catholics gather to swap one-liners, hilarious hipster memes, and all things authentically Catholic. Tighe even met comedienne Jeannie Gaffigan, who wrote the foreword for The Catholic Hipster Handbook, on Twitter. She said what drew her to the feed was that Tighe was “an embarrassingly Catholic dude who knew he was embarrassingly Catholic and was not embarrassed by it” and that he was “not preachy or judgey or divisive.” Catholic hipsters in a nutshell. Tighe and a group of hipster friends—including Sarah Vabulas, Anna Mitchell, Fr. Kyle Schnippel, and Lisa M. Hendey—explore the beautiful weirdness of the Catholic Church and invite others along for the journey. They share their love for extraordinary saints, offer up obscure prayers, provide short reflections on something quirky and Catholic they’ve rediscovered, and dare readers to put their faith into action with some cool and challenging practices they can do on their own. Discover what’s awesome about: Wearing a scapular Applying Laudato Si’ at your local farmer’s market Hanging with priests, monks, and nuns Learning to see Christ in making beer Praying the Rosary everywhere you go Loving the Latin Mass Making the Liturgy of the Hours a daily part of your routine The Catholic Hipster Handbook will help readers realize the only way to go against what’s normal and accepted in the culture is to be authentically Catholic.
Author: Joanna Shenk
Publisher: MennoMedia, Inc.
ISBN: 0836197003
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 273
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Book Description
Contributing Authors Vincent Harding is Professor Emeritus of Religion and Social Transformation at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. He is chairperson of the Veterans of Hope Project, which he founded in 1997 with his late wife, Rosemarie Freeney Harding. As longtime activists and teachers, the Hardings began their work in the Mennonite Church in Chicago, Illinois, in the late 1950s and moved to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1961 to join with Martin Luther King Jr. and others in the southern freedom movement. In ensuing years, the Hardings served as scholars, advisors, and encouragers for a wide variety of movements, organizations, and individuals working for compassionate social change in the United States and internationally. Before coming to Iliff, Vincent had taught at Spelman College, Temple University, and the University of Pennsylvania. His essays, articles, and poetry have been published in books, journals, and newspapers. Three of his most recent books are: Hope and History: Why We Must Share the Story of the Movement; Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero; and We Changed the World, a history of the freedom movement for young people. There is a River, his classic history of the early black struggle for freedom in America, has been in print for three decades. For over forty years, in national and international contexts, Rosemarie Freeney Harding was an activist for peace, justice, and racial reconciliation. Beginning in the southern freedom movement in the early 1960s as an associate of the Mennonite Central Committee, Rosemarie worked as an organizer, educator, historian, social worker, and counselor for a wide range of religious, community, and educational organizations. In her later years, as she continued to organize and teach, she also maintained a private bodywork and counseling practice that integrated Feldenkrais, Therapeutic Touch, and traditional African American spiritual healing modalities. Rosemarie held a master's degree in women's history, a master's degree in clinical social work, and, with her husband Vincent, was cofounder and cochairperson of the Veterans of Hope Project at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. Rosemarie passed on in 2004. "Mennonite House" is a chapter from her memoir, Remnants, cowritten with her daughter, Rachel Elizabeth Harding. Rachel Elizabeth Harding is a historian and writer whose work focuses on religions of the Afro-Atlantic diaspora. She holds a PhD in history and an MFA in creative writing, and is author of numerous published essays and a book on Afro-Brazilian religion, A Refuge in Thunder: Candomblé and Alternative Spaces of Blackness. Rachel served as a consultant and featured scholar in the PBS series This Far by Faith, on African American spiritual traditions. She is also a poet and has published work in Callaloo, Chelsea, Feminist Studies, The International Review of African American Art, Hambone, and several anthologies. She teaches in the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Colorado Denver. Sally Schreiner Youngquist is a current community leader of Reba Place Fellowship, where she has been a covenant member since 1973. She has worked as a high school English teacher, a Mennonite Central Committee administrator, a conference planner, communications manager for the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE), and a Mennonite pastor at Reba Place Church and Living Water Community Church. Besides nurturing community, she enjoys reading, walking, and being a grandparent. Celina Varela directs the intern program at Reba Place Fellowship in Evanston, Illinois, and occasionally preaches at Reba Place Church, a member of the Illinois Conference of Mennonite Church USA. She moved to Evanston in 2006 after graduating from Truett Theological Seminary in Waco, Texas. Celina enjoys gardening, singing, and theological discussions with her husband, Peter. Regina Shands Stoltzfus was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, and currently lives in Elkhart, Indiana. She and Art Stoltzfus are the parents of four children: Matthew, Danny, Rachel, and Joshua. Regina has served as an associate pastor at Lee Heights Community Church in Cleveland, and as a campus pastor at Goshen College. She currently teaches at Goshen College in the Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies and the Bible, Religion, and Philosophy departments. She has a BA in English from Cleveland State University, an MA in Bible from Ashland Theological Seminary, and is currently a doctoral student at Chicago Theological Seminary. Regina is one of the cofounders of Damascus Road, an antiracism education and organizing program. Hedy Sawadsky lives in the midst of fruit orchards in the picturesque village of Vineland, Ontario. She enjoys hiking and biking, even to the First Mennonite Church, where as a child she first learned the Beatitudes. Half a lifetime ago, while living near Shepherds' Fields in Bethlehem, she began creating petal cards with Holy Land flowers. It's still one of her favorite hobbies. André Gingerich Stoner and his wife, Cathy, have four school-aged children. They live in the Near Northwest Neighborhood of South Bend, Indiana, as intentional neighbors with several other households gathering regularly for meals and prayers and sharing cars, tools, childcare, and daily life. André worked with Mennonite Central Committee from 1984 to 1991 on two peace assignments in West Germany, including relating to U.S. military personnel at a large nuclear weapons base. He served as Pastor of Missions at Kern Road Mennonite Church in South Bend for sixteen years. He presently serves as Director of Holistic Witness and Interchurch Relations for Mennonite Church USA. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary. Since 1979, Peter and Mary Sprunger-Froese have been Mennonite peace activists with an ecumenical community in Colorado Springs. They work with homeless people, refugees, and nonviolence seekers. They find the Anabaptist story deeply sustaining in their Christianized military setting. Dawn Longenecker was born in 1958 into a Mennonite family. She married Jim Rice in 1982 and they have two children, Jessica (age 25) and Adam (age 22). Dawn attends Hyattsville Mennonite Church in Maryland and lives in Mt. Rainier, Maryland. She works with the Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C., directing their Discipleship Year Program. She is a member of a Spiritual Support Group focused on dismantling racism and founded by Church of the Saviour. Tim Nafziger enjoys gathering with people who share values to work and talk together. One such gathering of people is Christian Peacemaker Teams, where he works as Outreach Coordinator. Another is the blog Young Anabaptist Radicals, where he is administrator. He also designs websites, writes, and takes photographs of small and beautiful corners of creation. He lives with his wife, Charletta, beside Lake Michigan in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, where they attend Living Water Community Church. Since its founding in 1989, James Nelson Gingerich has provided medical care and helped lead the staff at Maple City Health Care Center, a communitybased, not-for-profit organization working with neighbors to enhance the health of people in north-central Goshen, Indiana (for more, see www.mchcc.com). This chapter is distilled from a talk James gave in 2008 as Theological Center Guest at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana; it is available at www.mchcc.com/en/talk/jamess-seminary-talk-2. In 2006 he received the Dorothy Richardson award for resident leadership from NeighborWorks America, for his work with the health center. James is a 1980 graduate of Goshen College, a 1985 graduate of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, and a 1988 graduate of the family medicine residency program at St. Francis Hospital, Beech Grove, Indiana. He and his wife, Barbara Nelson Gingerich, are the parents of two young adult sons, Jonathan and Daniel. James is a member of Eighth Street Mennonite Church in Goshen. He enjoys praying with neighbors every weekday morning from Take Our Moments and Our Days: An Anabaptist Prayer Book, and sharing a weekly eucharistic meal with friends. His interests include beekeeping, baking bread, weaving, singing from shape-note songbooks, typesetting music, leading congregational singing, and bookbinding. Sarah Thompson is a 2002 graduate of Bethany Christian High School, the Mennonite high school in Goshen, Indiana. Resisting church community pressure to attend a Mennonite college, she chose Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, and subsequently got involved in a range of Anabaptist faith-inspired activities (such as eco-feminist anti-war mobilization) while deepening her identification as a U.S. American woman of color. Church involvements include her six years of volunteer work as the North American representative to Mennonite World Conference's Youth and Young Adult Executive Committee and Global Youth Summit Planning Group, as well as service with Mennonite Central Committee and Christian Peacemaker Teams. She returned home to Elkhart to participate in local community organizing and attain a Master of Divinity degree from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, which she completed in 2011. Bert Newton is one of the founding members of the Urban Village community in Pasadena, California. By day he works in a public mental health program that houses and stabilizes mentally ill adults who have ended up homeless or in jail. By night he organizes for peace and justice and writes liberationist biblical reflections. Mark Van Steenwyk is a cofounder of Missio Dei, a Mennonite intentional community in Minneapolis. Mark is a writer, speaker, and grassroots educator. Mark has traveled around North America, nurturing and networking with radical Christian communities. He is the general editor of JesusRadicals.com and cohost and producer of the Iconocast podcast. Andrea Ferich is the Director of Sustainability at the Center for Environmental Transformation in Camden, New Jersey, where she has lived since 2003. Having grown up Mennonite and now Catholic, she finds great hope within polydenominationalism. Andrea is an avid writer and filmmaker in Camden, where she lives beside her greenhouse. She makes peace by encouraging sustainable community development and food system security, as well as expressing herself through the arts and loving fiercely. She is the recipient of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Quality Award and serves as a cochair for the Camden City Food Security Advisory Board and the Waterfront South Network. She enjoys gardening with children and growing imaginations. Visit her blog at aferich.blogspot.com for a free environmental justice garden curriculum and to view her fun and educational garden films. Seth McCoy was born in Hollywood, California, in the early 70s and is married to Jennifer. They have three children: Judah (16), Glory (11), and Silas (9). He has spent fourteen years in ministry ranging from youth ministry to ministry consultant to church planting in churches ranging from Pentecostal to "seeker sensitive" to Anabaptist. Most recently, Seth has planted a Mennonite church with friends along the University Corridor of St. Paul, Minnesota. Jamie Arpin-Ricci, is a writer, pastor, and missional church planter living in the inner city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, with his wife, Kim, and adopted Ethiopian son, Micah. Pastor of Little Flowers Community (www.littleflowers.ca), a Franciscan-Anabaptist faith community in Winnipeg's downtown West End, he is also the director of Chiara House (www.chiarahouse.ca), a new intentional Christian community that shares life "on the margins." As a writer, he has contributed to several books and is the author of The Cost of Community: Jesus, St. Francis & Life in the Kingdom (IVP Books, 2011) and blogs at www.missional.ca. Jamie is also a third order Franciscan with The Company of Jesus, an ecumenical order under the Anglican rite. Anton Flores-Maisonet is the cofounder of Alterna, a Christian missional community based in Georgia and comprised of U.S. citizens and Latin American immigrants. In 2006, Flores-Maisonet left his tenure-track faculty position at a private college to follow a call to a life of solidarity with newcomers from Latin America, especially unauthorized and unwelcomed immigrants. Anton and his wife, Charlotte, have been married since 1994 and have two wonderful sons, Jairo and Eli. Anton is a past chair of the steering committee of Christian Peacemaker Teams. He has also served on the boards of directors of DOOR (a ministry of Mennonite Mission Network) and Jubilee Partners and has taught courses at the Central America Study and Service program (CASAS) of the Latin American Anabaptist Seminary (SEMILLA) in Guatemala. Calenthia S. Dowdy is a cultural anthropologist who specializes in urban youth culture(s) and Afro-Brazilian life. She teaches youth ministry and cultural anthropology at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. Calenthia was born, raised, and continues to reside in the city of Philadelphia. She's a Philadelphia Mennonite affiliate and has a keen interest in intentional discipleship community living and various expressions of the emerging church movement. Since 2003, Calenthia has been an antiracism trainer with Damascus Road, an antiracism education and organizing program. Jesce Walz is an artist and relational movement-builder. She has been a networker amidst the Christian community movement since 2001. Currently based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Jesce is a member of Circle of Hope (Brethren in Christ) and has been part of The Simple Way. Her creative work includes design, performance art, drawing, writing, event organizing, sculptural installation, and hospitality from her home. She hopes to foster community, creativity, and empowerment as alternatives to structures of oppression. www.Jesce.net
Author: Rebecca McLaughlin
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433564262
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 177
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Book Description
Although many people suggest that Christianity is declining, research indicates that it continues to be the world's most popular worldview. But even so, the Christian faith includes many controversial beliefs that non-Christians find hard to accept. This book explores 12 issues that might cause someone to dismiss orthodox Christianity—issues such as the existence of suffering, the Bible's teaching on gender and sexuality, the reality of heaven and hell, the authority of the Bible, and more. Showing how the best research from sociology, science, and psychology doesn't disagree with but actually aligns with claims found in the Bible, these chapters help skeptics understand why these issues are signposts, rather than roadblocks, to faith in Christ.
Author: Kenda Creasy Dean
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199758662
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 266
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Book Description
Based on the National Study of Youth and Religion--the same invaluable data as its predecessor, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers--Kenda Creasy Dean's compelling new book, Almost Christian, investigates why American teenagers are at once so positive about Christianity and at the same time so apathetic about genuine religious practice. In Soul Searching, Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton found that American teenagers have embraced a "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism"--a hodgepodge of banal, self-serving, feel-good beliefs that bears little resemblance to traditional Christianity. But far from faulting teens, Dean places the blame for this theological watering down squarely on the churches themselves. Instead of proclaiming a God who calls believers to lives of love, service and sacrifice, churches offer instead a bargain religion, easy to use, easy to forget, offering little and demanding less. But what is to be done? In order to produce ardent young Christians, Dean argues, churches must rediscover their sense of mission and model an understanding of being Christian as not something you do for yourself, but something that calls you to share God's love, in word and deed, with others. Dean found that the most committed young Christians shared four important traits: they could tell a personal and powerful story about God; they belonged to a significant faith community; they exhibited a sense of vocation; and they possessed a profound sense of hope. Based on these findings, Dean proposes an approach to Christian education that places the idea of mission at its core and offers a wealth of concrete suggestions for inspiring teens to live more authentically engaged Christian lives. Persuasively and accessibly written, Almost Christian is a wake up call no one concerned about the future of Christianity in America can afford to ignore.
Author: Brett McCracken
Author: Brett McCracken
Author: Brett McCracken
Author: Juliet Benner
Author: Brett McCracken
Author: Jon Acuff