Transforming Conversion

Transforming Conversion PDF Author: Gordon T. Smith
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 1441212388
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume offers much-needed theological reflection on the phenomenon of conversion and transformation. Gordon Smith provides a robust evaluation that covers the broad range of thinking about conversion across Christian traditions and addresses global contexts. Smith contends that both in the church and in discussions about contemporary mission, the language of conversion inherited from revivalism is inadequate in helping to navigate the questions that shape how we do church, how we approach faith formation, how evangelism is integrated into congregational life, and how we witness to the faith in non-Christian environments. We must rethink the nature of the church in light of how people actually come to faith in Christ. After drawing on ancient and pre-revivalist wisdom on conversion, Smith delineates the contours of conversion and Christian initiation for today's church. He concludes by discussing the art of spiritual autobiography and what it means to be a congregation.

Transforming Conversion

Transforming Conversion PDF Author: Gordon T. Smith
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 1441212388
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume offers much-needed theological reflection on the phenomenon of conversion and transformation. Gordon Smith provides a robust evaluation that covers the broad range of thinking about conversion across Christian traditions and addresses global contexts. Smith contends that both in the church and in discussions about contemporary mission, the language of conversion inherited from revivalism is inadequate in helping to navigate the questions that shape how we do church, how we approach faith formation, how evangelism is integrated into congregational life, and how we witness to the faith in non-Christian environments. We must rethink the nature of the church in light of how people actually come to faith in Christ. After drawing on ancient and pre-revivalist wisdom on conversion, Smith delineates the contours of conversion and Christian initiation for today's church. He concludes by discussing the art of spiritual autobiography and what it means to be a congregation.

Transforming Conversion

Transforming Conversion PDF Author: Gordon T. Smith
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 0801032474
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book Here

Book Description
A comprehensive examination of conversion thinking across Christian traditions that recovers ancient wisdom for today's church.

Beginning Well

Beginning Well PDF Author: Gordon T. Smith
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 9780830822973
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Get Book Here

Book Description
Gordon T. Smith contends that a chief cause of spiritual immaturity in the evangelical church is an inadequate theology of conversion. Surveying Scripture, spiritual autobiographies and a broad range of theologies of conversion, he seeks to foster in the Christian community a dynamic language of conversion that leads to spiritual transformation and mature Christian living.

Convert!

Convert! PDF Author: Ben Hunt
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470616334
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 312

Get Book Here

Book Description
Solve your traffic troubles and turn browsers into buyers When web design expert Ben Hunt set out to quantify the difference between an ordinary web site and a great one, he expected to find the key in design simplicity. But when his team more than doubled the conversion rates for a wide range of sites, they identified simple yet powerful solutions involving design, copy, appropriate analysis, classic optimization techniques, and targeted testing. You'll find the fixes easy to implement, and they're all right here. Understand the essentials - your market, your proposition, and your delivery. Create a site that is seen by the right people, provides a compelling experience, and generates the desired action. Learn how to use testing to improve your site's conversion rate. Discover the holistic nature of web site optimization and why multiplicity matters. Examine dozens of simple techniques for building traffic, engaging your audience, and crafting effective calls to action. Combine creativity with analysis for the best possible results. Ben Hunt is Principal Consultant for Scratchmedia Ltd. He operates webdesignfromscratch.com, which provides tutorials and advice to over 120,000 web developers each month. Ben has been designing, coding, and producing web sites for clients worldwide for more than 15 years, and is considered a leader in the web usability industry. Forewords by Ken McCarthy, founder of the System Seminar, and Drayton Bird, Drayton Bird Associates.

Turning to God

Turning to God PDF Author: David F. Wells
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 9780801097003
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Does a person have to "convert" to be a Christian? Or can one merely "follow" Jesus by studying Scripture? Does the Bible ever say that conversion is necessary? Or is it a development of the church? Turning to God explores these fundamental questions about regeneration and conversion, distinguishing Christianity from every other faith as one in which conversion is unique, supernatural, and necessary for salvation. In it you will find a clear, thoughtful, balanced discussion of the Christian conversion experience, including its history, controversy, and scriptural basis. Anyone who has marveled at the mystery of how and why we turn to God, along with those skeptical of religious conversion, will find themselves challenged and encouraged by this thorough treatment of one of the fundamentals of the Christian faith.

Transforming Your Life: The Process of Conversion

Transforming Your Life: The Process of Conversion PDF Author: United Church of God
Publisher: United Church of God
ISBN: 0557949548
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 127

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Bible reveals that conversion is a process that begins with God's calling, followed by repentance, baptism and the receiving of the Holy Spirit—finally climaxing with the return of Jesus Christ, when the dead in Christ are resurrected to immortality and given eternal life. That is the ultimate transformation, being changed from a mortal to an immortal being! Inside this Bible study aid: - Praying for a Right Spirit and New Attitude - We Must Change Our Way of Thinking - What Is Sin? - What's Wrong With Our Human Nature? - What's So Bad About Sin? - Must We Obey God's Commandments? - Why Be Baptized? - The Holy Spirit: God's Transforming Power - Why Can't Theologians Explain the Trinity Doctrine? - Is the Holy Spirit a Person? - A High Priest Eager to Help Us - Growing to Spiritual Maturity - Why Bible Study Is Necessary for Spiritual Growth - How to Stir Up God's Spirit - The Prayer God Will Hear - Repentance Must Be With Faith - Does God Set Conditions on His Gift of Eternal Life?

The Most Reluctant Convert

The Most Reluctant Convert PDF Author: David C. Downing
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1666718939
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Get Book Here

Book Description
In his teens, a young man wrote, “I believe in no religion. There is absolutely no proof for any of them.” After serving in the trenches of WW1, the same young man said, “I never sank so low as to pray.” To a religious friend, he wrote impatiently, “You can’t start with God. I don’t accept God!” This young man was C. S. Lewis, the “foul-mouthed atheist” who would become one of the most eloquent Christian writers of the twentieth century. David C. Downing offers a unique look at Lewis’s personal journey to faith and the profound influence it had on his life as a writer and eventual follower of Christ. This is the first book to focus on the period from Lewis’s childhood to his early thirties, a tumultuous journey of spiritual and intellectual exploration. It was not despite this journey but precisely because of it that Lewis understood the search for life’s meaning so well.

A History of Christian Conversion

A History of Christian Conversion PDF Author: David W. Kling
Publisher:
ISBN: 0195320921
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 853

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this first in-depth and wide-ranging history of Christian conversion, David Kling examines the dynamic of turning to the Christian faith by individuals, families, and people groups. Global in reach and engaging recent methods and theories in conversion studies, the narrative progresses from early Christian beginnings in the Roman world to Christianity's expansion into Europe, the Americas, China, India, and Africa. Although conversion is often associated with a particular strand of modern Christianity (evangelical) and a particular type of experience (sudden, overwhelming), when examined over two millennia, it emerges as a phenomenon far more complex than any one-dimensional profile would suggest.

Language and Self-Transformation

Language and Self-Transformation PDF Author: Peter G. Stromberg
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521031363
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 172

Get Book Here

Book Description
Using the Christian conversion narrative as a primary example, this book examines how people deal with emotional conflict through language.

The Transformative Power of Faith

The Transformative Power of Faith PDF Author: Erin Elizabeth Dufault-Hunter
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739167839
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Transformative Power of Faith examines how and why some people, particularly those coming out of highly self-destructive, violent, and antisocial backgrounds who appear beyond repair, experience profound personal transformation through conversion to strong faith. Illustrated by stories of converts who came out of serious drug addiction, gangs, and poverty through adherence to a demanding faith, Erin Dufault-Hunter argues for a narrative approach to conversion. This holistic theoretical perspective offers an alternative epistemological stance to reductionistic models sometimes perpetuated among social scientists and religious ethicists alike. In this study, the narrative lens gives vision of the religious "Other" a depth and complexity too often lacking. Such an approach allows a deeper understanding of the dynamics of personal transformation in ways that make sense of psychological and social factors without ignoring so-called "spiritual" ones.