After Doubt

After Doubt PDF Author: A. J. Swoboda
Publisher: Brazos Press
ISBN: 1493429590
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Is there a way to walk faithfully through doubt and come out the other side with a deeper love for Jesus, the church, and its tradition? Can we question our faith without losing it? Award-winning author, pastor, and professor A. J. Swoboda has witnessed many young people wrestle with their core Christian beliefs. Too often, what begins as a set of critical and important questions turns to resentment and faith abandonment. Unfortunately, the church has largely ignored its task of serving people along their journey of questioning. The local church must walk alongside those who are deconstructing their faith and show them how to reconstruct it. Drawing on his own experience of deconstruction, Swoboda offers tools to help emerging adults navigate their faith in a hostile landscape. Doubt is a part of our natural spiritual journey, says Swoboda, and deconstruction is a legitimate space to encounter the living God. After Doubt offers a hopeful, practical vision of spiritual formation for those in the process of faith deconstruction and those who serve them. Foreword by pastor and author John Mark Comer.

Before You Lose Your Faith

Before You Lose Your Faith PDF Author: Ivan Mesa
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780999284377
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Being Christian

Being Christian PDF Author: Rowan Williams
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 1467442305
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
In this simple, beautifully written book Rowan Williams explores four essential components of the Christian life: baptism, Bible, Eucharist, and prayer. Despite huge differences in Christian thinking and practice both today and in past centuries, he says, these four basic elements have remained constant and indispensable for the majority of those who call themselves Christians. In accessible, pastoral terms Williams discusses the meaning and practice of baptism, the Bible, the Eucharist, and prayer, inviting readers to really think through the Christian faith and how to live it out. Questions for reflection and discussion at the end of each chapter help readers to dig deeper and apply Williams's insights to their own lives.

Faith After Doubt

Faith After Doubt PDF Author: Brian D. McLaren
Publisher: St. Martin's Essentials
ISBN: 125026278X
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
From the author of A New Kind of Christianity comes a bold proposal: only doubt can save the world and your faith. ONE of the Best Spiritual Books of 2021—Spirituality & Practice "Will help you live fuller and breathe easier..” —Glennon Doyle Sixty-five million adults in the U.S. have dropped out of active church attendance and about 2.7 million more are leaving every year. Faith After Doubt is for the millions of people around the world who feel that their faith is falling apart. Using his own story and the stories of a diverse group of struggling believers, Brian D. McLaren, a former pastor and now an author, speaker, and activist shows how old assumptions are being challenged in nearly every area of human life, not just theology and spirituality. He proposes a four-stage model of faith development in which questions and doubt are not the enemy of faith, but rather a portal to a more mature and fruitful kind of faith. The four stages—Simplicity, Complexity, Perplexity, and Harmony—offer a path forward that can help sincere and thoughtful people leave behind unnecessary baggage and intensify their commitment to what matters most.

Out of Sorts

Out of Sorts PDF Author: Sarah Bessey
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476717591
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
From the popular blogger and provocative author of Jesus Feminist comes a riveting new study of Christianity that helps you wrestle with—and sort out—your faith. In Out of Sorts, Sarah Bessey—award-winning blogger and author of Jesus Feminist, which was hailed as “lucid, compelling, and beautifully written” (Frank Viola, author of God’s Favorite Place on Earth)—helps us grapple with core Christian issues using a mixture of beautiful storytelling and biblical teaching, a style well described as “narrative theology.” As she candidly shares her wrestlings with core issues—such as who Jesus is, what place the Church has in our lives, how to disagree yet remain within a community, and how to love the Bible for what it is rather than what we want it to be—she teaches us how to walk courageously through our own tough questions. In the process of gently helping us sort things out, Bessey teaches us how to be as comfortable with uncertainty as we are with solid answers. And as we learn to hold questions in one hand and answers in the other, we discover new depths of faith that will remain secure even through the storms of life.

Sacred Pathways

Sacred Pathways PDF Author: Gary Thomas
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310361184
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Sacred Pathways reveals nine distinct spiritual temperaments--and their strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies--to help you improve your spiritual life and deepen your personal walk with God. It's time to strip away the frustration of a one-size-fits-all spirituality and discover a path of worship that frees you to be you. Experienced spiritual directors, pastors, and church leaders recognize that all of us engage with God differently, and it's about time we do too. In this updated and expanded edition of Sacred Pathways, Gary Thomas details nine spiritual temperaments and--like the Enneagram and other tools do with personality--encourages you to investigate the ways you most naturally express yourself in your relationship with God. He encourages you to dig into the traits, strengths, and pitfalls in your devotional approach so you can eliminate the barriers that keep you locked into rigid methods of worship and praise. Plus, as you begin to identify and understand your own temperament, you'll soon learn about the temperaments that aren't necessarily "you" but that may help you understand the spiritual tendencies of friends, family, and others around you. Whatever temperament or blend of temperaments best describes you, rest assured it's not by accident. It's by the design of a Creator who knew what he was doing when he made you according to his own unique intentions. If your spiritual walk is not what you'd like it to be, you can change that, starting here. Sacred Pathways will show you the route you were made to travel, marked by growth and filled with the riches of a close walk with God. A Sacred Pathways video Bible study is also available for group or individual use, sold separately.

Fractured Faith

Fractured Faith PDF Author: Lina AbuJamra
Publisher: Moody Publishers
ISBN: 0802499430
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 155

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Book Description
After your faith has fractured, let what takes its place be the real thing . . . at last. Somewhere along the way, the Christianity you knew began to crumble. You began to suspect your faith was misplaced. Disillusionment set in. Churches hurt you. Their people failed you. Christian institutions were exposed as fake. And in it all, God was silent. Is He gone? Or is God really there, waiting for you to find Him instead of the counterfeits? If you’re walking this difficult spiritual path, Lina AbuJamra understands you. After experiencing the near deconstruction of her own faith, Lina had to rebuild something more solid when the faith she once knew let her down. With her diagnostic style that comes from her training as an ER doc, Lina helps you grapple with questions like: Where is God in my pain? Is this how Christians are supposed to act? Why did my story end up this way? Is this the normal Christian life? Why is it so hard for Christians to love? Let Fractured Faith help you find your way back to God. You just might discover that the real God has been waiting for you all along.

What Would Jesus Deconstruct? (The Church and Postmodern Culture)

What Would Jesus Deconstruct? (The Church and Postmodern Culture) PDF Author: John D. Caputo
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 9781441200365
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
This provocative addition to The Church and Postmodern Culture series offers a lively rereading of Charles Sheldon's In His Steps as a constructive way forward. John D. Caputo introduces the notion of why the church needs deconstruction, positively defines deconstruction's role in renewal, deconstructs idols of the church, and imagines the future of the church in addressing the practical implications of this for the church's life through liturgy, worship, preaching, and teaching. Students of philosophy, theology, religion, and ministry, as well as others interested in engaging postmodernism and the emerging church phenomenon, will welcome this provocative, non-technical work.

The Cross in Our Context

The Cross in Our Context PDF Author: Douglas John Hall
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 9781451407167
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
In this small gem of theological reflection, North America's foremost "theologian of the cross" offers a profound and compelling contemplation on the relevance of the church's most fundamental confession. Hall ponders what confessing Jesus as crucified means in today's context, one that is postmodern, pluralistic, multicultural, and in some respects post-Christian. A digest of his monumental trilogy, this book lays out in brief compass the heart of Hall's theology of the cross, contrasting it sharply with the theology of established Christianity, showing how it reframes classical Christology and soteriology, and drawing the implications for what it means to be human, for Christian ethics, and for the church.

The Doubters' Club

The Doubters' Club PDF Author: Preston Ulmer
Publisher: NavPress
ISBN: 1641583371
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
The closer we get to the heart of God, the closer we should grow toward the doubter, the skeptic, the differing perspective, even the atheist. And that should make us wonder: Is it possible to grow in our Christian faith without engaging the doubter or the skeptic? And if growing in our faith means growing closer to the doubter, how do we do that without compromising what we believe to be true? The Doubters Club is a guide for people who want to live in friendship with those who think differently than them. In The Doubters Club, youll learn how to: (1) rebuild the impression the other person has of us as Christians; (2) renovate the intention we have with the nonbeliever; (3) rely on an invitation into real life (not a church service); (4) reexamine our views through initiating conversations that matter; and (5) redefine progress as imitation, not just immersion. Youll get practical steps and tools to help you navigate relationships and conversationsbut not foolproof methods (because there arent any). Maybe youre ready to take a chance because its your mom or dad who is the skeptic, a sibling, an old friend, a coworker, or a neighbor. Maybe youre just ready to embrace the adventure of your faith. If you are open to the mystery of doubt, The Doubters Club invites you to bring your uncertainties as common ground for relationship with skeptics and see what God does.