James K. Wellman JR.'s Books

High on God

How Megachurches Won the Heart of America

By: James Wellman Jr.,Katie Corcoran,Kate Stockly

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

High on God

How Megachurches Won the Heart of America

By: James Wellman Jr.,Katie Corcoran,Kate Stockly

God is like a drug, a high, [I] can't wait for the next hit." This direct quote from a megachurch member speaking about his experience of God might be dismissed as some sort of spiritually-induced drug riff. However, according to the research in this book, it was not only sincere, but a deeply felt, and sought-after sensibility. Megachurch attendees desire this first-hand experience of God, and many report finding it in their congregations. The book focuses on the emotional, social and religious dynamics that pull thousands of people into megachurches and how those churches make some feel like they are "high on God" and can't wait to get their next spiritual "hit." High on God gives the first robust and plausible explanation for why megachurches have conquered the churchgoing market of America. Without condescension or exaggeration, the authors show the genius of megachurches: the power of charisma, the design of facilities, the training of leaders, the emotional dynamics, and the strategies that bring people together and lead them to serve and help others. Using Emile Durkheim's concept of homo duplex, the authors plot the strategies that megachurches employ to satisfy the core human craving for personal meaning and social integration, as well as personal identity and communal solidarity. The authors also show how these churches can go wrong, sometimes tragically so. But they argue that, for the most part, megachurches help their attendees find themselves through bonding with and serving others.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

353

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190065109

ISBN 13

9780190065102

Rob Bell and a New American Christianity

By: James K. Wellman JR.

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Rob Bell and a New American Christianity

By: James K. Wellman JR.

The Christian message needs a new interpreter: one that is particular enough to know and interpret the tradition but broad enough to evoke thought and feeling from broader groups of people, including evangelicals, liberals, and those who are disenchanted with churched religion and who describe themselves as spiritual but not religious, yet are fond of the Jesus tradition. This book helps readers to understand the new landscape and its key figure, Rob Bell, by bringing a reasoned voice to the conversation and shedding light on the story, directions, and emotional power of the figure who Andy Crouch claims will be the main influence on Christians in this generation. While his theology is seen as a theo-political stage by church leaders, when Rob Bell tours and speaks, it is the unchurched, the people in the pew, the people who want to be in the pew, who are listening—by the thousands. His recent placement on the cover of Time magazine sealed his import on the American landscape for anyone interested in religion. Jonathan Nathan, a bookbuyer for the Harvard COOP, the largest booksellers in New England with a significant religion section says that no book has ever sold like Rob Bell’s to an audience that is young, thoughtful, and college-educated. Bell’s church has 10k members, and his influence has affected every sector of the American protestant church. Why? Because Rob Bell has caused the whole evangelical world to rethink the scope of SALVATION with one single question: who gets to be saved? With that short sentence Bell has initiated a whole new movement in rethinking what it means to be an evangelical. A movement that has only begun. Not only are heaven and hell at stake, but salvation itself. Is it meant for all or for only a small elect group—and if so, who gets to decide the parameters of that small group? If heaven and hell are not ultimate identifiers for a life of faith, can the passion to evangelize be maintained? If salvation is not either/or, but both/and, does the whole idea of world evangelism simply disappear? Rob Bell has created another question for Evangelicals: Will you decide to live in a closed world of your own making or an open world? Those most influenced by Rob Bell are younger Evangelicals who are dying to open up their worlds. Rob Bell just gave them permission. According to Andy Crouch, his is the voice that will most influence this current generation. For Liberals, Rob Bell gives them reason to be passionate about their faith and to think in big terms about it without giving up their minds and their questions. For the conservatives, he’s the voice that young Christians are looking to and admiring, and even if they disagree, they are trying to observe and imitate his approach and appeal. Rob Bell doesn’t have the personality to sink into some religious subculture: He is a new super religious brand, the Apple or Pixar of his generation. Evangelicals will buy it because they want to damn him, imitate him, or do both. Liberal religionists will buy it because they know that he is a Schleiermachian figure, making a case for faith to its cultured despisers with passion and a new aesthetic. Spiritual but not religious folks will buy it because Rob Bell has an invitation and appeal that is rare, and appeals well beyond holy huddles. As an authorized biography, that will allow for extensive interviews with Bell and his some of his congregants. This will include interviews with outside informed supporters and those that reject him and his theology. The book will reveal what makes him “tick,” how his Wheaton College background affected his work, and how he is dealing with accusations of being on the border of evangelical heresy. This book will be researched and written over the next two month, with a finish date of December 1. Half or more will be available by the fall AAR/SBL annual meeting, with the plan to have Rob Bell and the author presenting. The book will show how is he challenging orthodoxy and why theologians are upset. It will outline the key players in the debate. It will also argue that no matter what the theologians say, people are still attending Bell’s church, listening to him speak. This is in large part because the man has a pastor’s heart. He cares about his people. The theologians aren’t reclaiming the conversation; they are making themselves irrelevant as the people who want genuine faith and are coming to Rob Bell’s books and talks because, as Bell said, “when the woman coming to church tells me she has stopped cutting herself and that a life of faith makes a difference”--that’s where the real things are happening. Finally, people like him, he is a charismatic speaker that young people are listening to: He has something to say, and he is pastorally living the heart of what he is saying.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

169

Publisher

Abingdon Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

142674935X

ISBN 13

9781426749353

The Gold Coast Church and the Ghetto

Christ and Culture in Mainline Protestantism

By: James K. Wellman

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Gold Coast Church and the Ghetto

Christ and Culture in Mainline Protestantism

By: James K. Wellman

One of the nation's best known churches, Fourth Presbyterian is a thriving mainline church housed in an elegant Gothic building in Chicago's wealthy Gold Coast neighborhood. Less than a mile to the west is another world: the Cabrini-Green low- income housing projects. In this evenhanded account, James Wellman surveys the church's history of balancing its theological aims and its social boundaries and sheds light on the strengths and weaknesses of liberal Protestantism as a modern religious institution. Wellman shows how Fourth Presbyterian has moved from an establishment congregation to what he calls a lay liberal church working to overcome class and race inequality in its urban context while carving out its institutional identity in an increasingly pluralistic environment. By examining the church's four main leaders over the course of the century, Wellman tracks Fourth Presbyterian's gradual shift away from an evangelical role and toward the current focus on service, epitomized in the church's main outreach program, an extensive volunteer tutoring program that serves hundreds of Cabrini-Green residents each week. In documenting Fourth Presbyterian's struggle to meet the needs of its privileged congregants while challenging them to move beyond exclusive boundaries of race and class, The Gold Coast Church and the Ghetto opens a window into the past, present, and future of the Protestant mainline.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

294

Publisher

University of Illinois Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0252068041

ISBN 13

9780252068041

The Power of Religious Publics

Staking Claims in American Society

By: William H. Swatos Jr.,James K. Wellman

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Power of Religious Publics

Staking Claims in American Society

By: William H. Swatos Jr.,James K. Wellman

Currently, public religion is in a time of flux and the notion of the common good—once associated with the Protestant voice in America—is openly contested by new religious coalitions seeking to communicate their version of the truth and plant their stake in the public domain. This edited volume reflects on the changing tone and form of the public voice of religion, on its function in American society, and on its relationship to the private world of religion. It proposes that public religion, when exercised in a civil and accountable way, can be a responsible and prophetic voice in public life and enrich the American experiment in liberal democracy. The contributors—first-rate scholars including Martin Marty and Robert Belah—focus on public religion's influence on controversial issues such as multiculturalism, economic inequality, abortion, and homosexuality.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

246

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0313371326

ISBN 13

9780313371325

Church Planting in Post-Christian Soil

Theology and Practice

By: Christopher B. James

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Church Planting in Post-Christian Soil

Theology and Practice

By: Christopher B. James

Defying predictions of the inevitable decline of Christianity in the US, Church Planting in Post-Christian Soil presents the untold story of new churches springing up in Seattle, one of the most post-Christian cities in the nation.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

369

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190673648

ISBN 13

9780190673642

Rob Bell and a New American Christianity

By: James K. Wellman

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Rob Bell and a New American Christianity

By: James K. Wellman

Is Rob Bell the most important leader in the new American religious landscape?

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

169

Publisher

Abingdon Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1426748442

ISBN 13

9781426748448

Evangelical vs. Liberal

By: James K. Wellman

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Evangelical vs. Liberal

By: James K. Wellman

The cultural conflict that increasingly divides American society is particularly evident within Protestant Christianity. Liberals and evangelicals clash in bitter competition for the future of their respective subcultures. In this book, James Wellman examines this conflict as it is played out in the American Northwest. Drawing on an in-depth study of twenty-four of the area's fastest-growing evangelical churches and ten vital liberal Protestant congregations, Wellman captures the leading trends of each group and their interaction with the wider American culture. He finds a remarkable depth of disagreement between the two groups on almost every front. Where evangelicals are willing to draw sharp lines on gay marriage and abortion, liberals complain about evangelical self-righteousness and disregard for personal freedoms. Liberals prefer the moral power of inclusiveness, while evangelicals frame their moral stances as part of a metaphysical struggle between good and evil. The entrepreneurial nature of evangelicalism translates into support of laissez-faire capitalism and democratic political advocacy. Liberals view both policies with varying degrees of apprehension. Such differences are significant on a national scale, with implications for the future of American Protestantism in particular and American culture in general. Both groups act in good faith and with good intentions, and each maintains a moral core that furthers its own identity, ideology, ritual, mission, and politics. In some situations, they share similar attitudes despite having different beliefs. Attending church services and interviewing senior pastors, lay leaders and new members, Wellman is able to provide new insights into the convenient categories of "liberal" and "evangelical," the nature of the conflict, and the myriad ways both groups affect and are affected by American culture.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

328

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199885192

ISBN 13

9780199885190

The Power of Religious Publics

Staking Claims in American Society

By: William H. Swatos Jr.,James K. Wellman

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Power of Religious Publics

Staking Claims in American Society

By: William H. Swatos Jr.,James K. Wellman

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

246

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0313371326

ISBN 13

9780313371325

Book's by James K. Wellman JR.

High on God

High on God

Rob Bell and a New American Christianity

Rob Bell and a New American Christianity

The Gold Coast Church and the Ghetto

The Gold Coast Church and the Ghetto

The Power of Religious Publics

The Power of Religious Publics

Church Planting in Post-Christian Soil

Church Planting in Post-Christian Soil

Rob Bell and a New American Christianity

Rob Bell and a New American Christianity

Evangelical vs. Liberal

Evangelical vs. Liberal

The Power of Religious Publics

The Power of Religious Publics

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email