What does it mean to be church? Is it spending an hour on Sunday with people who look, think, and act much as we do? Or is it something more incarnational that seeks out those who are different, the ones living on the margins? For centuries Christians have presumed that we are to take the gospel to the poor. Instead, Wendy McCaig invites us to receive the gospel from the poor. Through a series of encounters with incarcerated, homeless, and impoverished individuals, Wendy McCaig experienced the mysterious power of Christian hospitality that turns strangers into family. Her gift for storytelling brings this mysterious transformation to life. Inspired by the dreams of a homeless mother who wanted to help her neighbors, McCaig started a ministry that empowers formerly homeless individuals to live out their dreams. Together these dreamers are transforming their city one person, one community, and one church at a time. Her true stories of the least, the lost, and the forgotten in her community will show you the Good News becoming reality in the midst of injustice in ways that will inspire you and deepen your faith. These twenty stories-within-a-story about what ordinary people can do when they come together across racial, economic, and geographic divides to fight poverty will expand your vision of what it means to be the church. With your eyes opened to the needs and gifts of your neighbors, you too can begin to dream God-sized dreams for a hurting world. And as you pray "thy kingdom come on earth," you will be inspired to live in such a way as to make it happen in your own community.
Jesse O'Hara is profane, introverted, and not frequently sober – and has just lost another job. “A million-dollar brain and a ten-cent personality,” her last employer said. With nothing better to do, Jesse reluctantly accepts the gift of a luxury cruise around the Iberian Peninsula. She’s not sure she can drink enough to keep her boredom at bay, but that's the least of her problems. From the very first moment of the cruise, it's clear to Jesse that something is very wrong. Aided by her near-photographic memory, Jesse investigates a series of strange incidents on the ship and uncovers what looks like a terrorist plot in the works. But with each new layer uncovered, her perception shifts and broadens-- and someone doesn’t want her poking around. For Jesse, bruised and concussed is preferable to tan and relaxed, so she ignores the mounting danger even as she closes in on the villains, who have perfectly timed their grand finale... Murder on the Spanish Seas is a riveting, whip-smart, and smart-aleck debut thriller that will keep you on your toes just as frequently as it keeps you in stitches. A perfect read for fans of Ruth Ware and Janet Evanovich.
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." John 3:8Times are changing. All across the western world, Christians are waking up to a new song of the Spirit. He has grown his wheat and it is white unto harvest. He is calling his laborer's out into his field. Beyond the brick and mortar walls of the church, as we have always known it, a miracle is unfolding. It takes an oddity to hear his call. It takes a warrior to answer. This is the story of a little homemade church at the bottom of the world, a changed community, and a family that heard the hymn from the harvest field left convention and dared to obey.
Committed Christians may respond differently to gay and lesbian Christians. How can we engage those with whom we might disagree and navigate our journey together in a way that nurtures unity, hospitality, humility, and justice? Through her extensive experience in ministering to gay and lesbian Christians, Wendy VanderWal-Gritter has come to believe we need a new paradigm for how the church engages those in the sexual minority. She encourages generous spaciousness, a hope-filled, relational way forward for those in turmoil regarding a response to gay and lesbian Christians. This book offers a framework for discussing diversity in a gracious way, showing that the church can be a place that welcomes a variety of perspectives on the complex matter of human sexuality. It also offers practical advice for implementing generous spaciousness in churches and organizations.
Singles and the church may seem to go together like a grilled steak at a vegetarian party but God has a radically different plan . . . one where everyone truly belongs in the family of God.
Family. Home. Work. Church. It’s good, but is it as good as it gets? Find more at the intersection of God’s Word and our obedience to it. For many women, life can be full with family needs, home duties, work obligations, and church service. Does it feel like you’re doing everything you should be doing, yet something’s still missing? Does it feel like there should be more? In Yes, No, & Maybe, Proverbs 31 speaker and author Wendy Pope shares how women can find the God of “immeasurably more” at the intersection of the Bible and their obedience to it. Through reading this book, women will Hear truths from God about what’s missing in their lives, even if they are tough messages Learn how to trust God to reveal what’s missing in their lives Develop the discipline to be close to God and hear His guidance As a Bible study teacher, Wendy will walk women through her own journey and the power that she found through truly studying the Bible. She teaches readers how to say “yes” to God and “no” to self and to embrace the freedom of “maybe” that comes as a result of honing and filtering the commitments and priorities of life. This book is for any woman interested in Finding a meaningful way to study the Bible Letting the Holy Spirit work in their lives Learning to polish parts of themselves to better reflect God
In the Book of Acts in the Bible, the epic and supernatural experiences of God’s love, power, and guidance are powerful and tangible. This ACTS study of the Book of Acts is designed to equip and empower followers of Jesus today to become like the first disciples and to do the things that they did in that world-changing book. ACTS begins with a review of the Gospel and the resurrection of Jesus as His first followers would have understood them, and then moves through the historical accounts of the Book of Acts. Topic by topic, it reveals the dynamics of the life of the early church on and after the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out with power from Heaven. This study is written to the common believer in language that is easy to understand and apply to life today so that every follower of Jesus can enter into deep fellowship with the Holy Spirit and other believers, endure victoriously through the trials of life and opposition to the faith, and know our power and authority to work miracles, signs, and wonders in the name of Jesus. If your heart burns to experience the Book of Acts, then ACTS is the study for you and your church.
The difference between going to the dentist and going to church is... dentists have more comfortable chairs and expect less money. If you just smiled you would enjoy this book of hope written for everyone who has secretly suffered through Sundays and guiltily wondered Whats wrong with me? I hate church. Can vibrant Christianity and fellowship live outside the commercial, institutionalized church? Wendy Hamilton answers with a resounding yes! This is an account of a little homemade church on the bottom of the world, run by nobodies, who changed their neighbors forever, because they didnt fit into real church.
World health officials have identified several viruses that are progressing towards becoming a pandemic. Many expect a pandemic will happen in the next few years that could affect the entire worlds population. If a pandemic such as the one that occurred in 1918 were to take place, the healthcare system would be overwhelmed, and many people will die without the basics of lifes care essentials. This book provides in depth information on the circulating viruses and where they are today. Another section provides information for the Church to prepare individually and as a body to be set up as an alternative care facility in order to come beside the healthcare community. In addition, there are sections on learning the proper precautions and how to care for the sick. Such preparation would allow the Church to not fall victim but stand ready to provide care and minister to our neighbors and communities, thus allowing Her to bring the gospel message of our Lord Jesus Christ into the crisis situation.
In You Are a Prize to Be Won! CBN news anchor Wendy Griffith shares her personal story of falling in love, and then watching her happily-ever-after dreams disappear. In the aftermath of heartbreak, Wendy discovered the truth about who she is in God's eyes . . . and she invites you to make the same discovery about yourself--not just in your head--but deep down in your heart. In her warm, storytelling style, Wendy shares the heartbreaking experiences that have helped her define real love. You will learn--as she did--to guard your heart, avoid counterfeits, and enjoy being sensationally single until the right one comes along. God's love for you is extravagant and you shouldn't settle for emotional crumbs. You Are a Prize to Be Won! is for every woman who has ever doubted her incalculable value.
Spiritual Activities for Groups and ChurchesActivate is a book of spiritual exercises that will change the dynamic of your life with God. Each Activity is designed to help you draw closer to the heart of God, improve your ability to listen to and work with the Holy Spirit, and equip you with spiritual power for doing the works that Jesus did. The spiritual exercises in Activate include devotional meditations, soaking in God’s presence, prophesying, casting out demons, laying hands on the sick, sharing the Good News, loving your enemies, and many others. These exercises can accompany the chapters of ACTS, a Bible study on the Book of Acts, or be done independent of the ACTS study. You and your church group are led step by step through each Activity so that you can break through barriers of resistance and encounter God in ways that you never have before. If you desire to go deeper in your experiences with God, then it is time for you to be Activated!
Sister Wendy Beckett, adored and renowned art historian, has spent years in silence and contemplation in her calling as a nun. Her celebrated television specials and books about art have led her many admirers to ask about her own faith and practices. For the first time, in this thoughtful examination of the nature of prayer, she reveals her deeply held beliefs about her religion and her intimate understanding of God. What should I do during prayer? Can prayer really be as simple as a conversation? How do I let God enter my being? Do I need to belong to a religion in order to pray? Sister Wendy answers these and many other common questions, all the while imparting the importance of prayer in our daily lives.
Free Will, No Choice" is Wendy Buckingham’s first published work, a memoir which chronicles her childhood, adolescence, and how she came to meet and join The Unification Church of Rev. Sun Myung Moon. She was to be a faithful follower for half of her adult life before becoming disillusioned by it all after making a pilgrimage to Korea intended to further deepen her faith. The story opens with the recollection of a picture-perfect day with her and her playmates enjoying a carefree life in a wooded bedroom community in the northwest suburbs of Chicago in the mid-1950s. The tragic death of her older sister from leukemia at age 8 creates a tangible disturbance in the family, and as happens all too frequently when such a tragedy strikes a young married couple, her parents divorce not long after. Her mother decides to move back to her hometown of Denver with Wendy and her younger sister Georgia, just as the girls are reaching adolescence. Mother realizes that she cannot survive for long as a single mom with two daughters without an income, and sets her sights on well-to-do bachelors in the Denver social circles. Drugs and alcohol come to be convenient avenues of escape for the author as she is moved in and out of a variety of schools before finally graduating from high school back in Illinois. She has the opportunity to do some traveling with Georgia before the independent-minded Hitchcock sisters seemingly go their separate ways. In 1975, a letter from Georgia from a new age community outside of San Francisco gets Wendy’s attention. Sensing that Georgia may have been lured into a cult of some kind, the author decides to travel to the west coast to see for herself what sister has gotten herself into. Long story short, Georgia’s stay with the Creative Community Project (aka The Unification Church) ends within 3 months. Wendy’s is to last considerably longer. Positive changes in mind, body and spirit are immediately evidenced for our heroine, who begins to experience a most substantial presence of and relationship with God. The first seven years in the movement are spent on MFT (Mobile Fundraising Teams), raising money to support Rev. Moon in his vision of building the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth (even though Jesus very plainly said that The Kingdom of Heaven is within you...). Having laid the seven year foundation of fundraising to qualify to be matched (engaged) and blessed (married) by Sun Myung Moon, the scene shifts to New York City and the New Yorker Hotel (now the World Mission Center for The Unification Church), where Rev. Moon is preparing to match 1,500 men and women with unshakeable faith in him as the 2nd Coming of Christ. Wendy emerges from the ceremony with her fiancé, Francis Buckingham, and her foot-soldier days are behind her. As family life begins, they find in one another alternative sounding boards for what they really believe and why they are doing what they’re doing. With the arrival of their son in 1991, the demands on their time and the little money they have for themselves become more and more unreasonable and unbearable. Where is the messiah when you really need him? As the storm clouds loom in the distance, hope arrives in the form of a book they discover sitting on a shelf in the home of another church couple. It’s entitled A Course in Miracles. It begins by stating: Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the Peace of God. The story of the next leg of the journey is now in progress: the power of Faith guided by Wisdom.
This compelling story of personal healing is interwoven with scriptural proofs that God heals today. It is a testimony that Jesus’s death, resurrection, and present life have not only provided forgiveness of sin but have also allowed us to walk in wholeness as we are restored to the Father. In this supernatural realm, all things are made new!
Danny Hodges became the senior pastor of a young church fellowship known as Calvary Chapel in St. Petersburg, Florida, in April of 1984. Three years later when he was introduced to Pastor Chuck Smith and the Calvary Chapel movement, he felt an immediate sense of being at home and was grateful to God for leading him to this network of churches that upheld a simple, biblical philosophy of ministry and well-balanced doctrine. Calvary Chapel St. Petersburg soon became a fellowship of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, and since that time God has steadily grown the ministry from a handful of mostly young single adults to a large church full of families. It has been exciting to see God's Spirit bring many to salvation through Jesus Christ, see lives change and mature in the Lord, see relationships bloom and grow, see ministries evolve and prosper, see a hunger for the Word of God and see a passionate desire to win the lost to Jesus. Pastor Danny and his wife, Wendy, consider it an honor to serve this growing body of believers together with their four children, Tanner, Hayden, Jairus and Audra.
How to live happily ever after if your prince or princess never shows up There are more singles in--and out of--the church today than ever before. Wendy Widder knows the struggles of being single from the inside out, and she has something to say.While there is no shortage of books about singlehood on the market, Widder's approach is markedly different. In Living Whole Without a Better Half readers study the character in Hebrews 11. Widder uses these Biblical examples to show readers how to embrace singleness as an abundant life and a God-given gift, not as an unfortunate stage they should move past as quickly as possible. By examining the lives of biblical heroes such as Abraham, Moses, and Jacob, she reveals that trying to bargain with God to follow our plans and timing often keeps us from appreciating the opportunities he places in our path. Widder makes her case with wit and a wry humor that readers will appreciate and come back to again and again. Now with updated statistics, and a new preface, Living Whole Without a Better Half includes study questions that make it a great Bible study or small group resource.
There is a rich tradition of wonderful women and other contemplatives who are great resources for thinking differently about Christianity. They emphasized divine love, human compassion, and the radical possibilities of contemplative practices. They were not afraid to criticize the church and indeed thought of their challenge as crucial to their faith. We do not have to lose faith with the beautiful wisdom of this story of intimate and compassionate love, dwelling among us and within us, if we do not want to." from the acknowledgments and note to readers To those seeking a more open, progressive approach to Christian faith, the Christian past can sometimes seem like a desert, an empty space devoid of encouragement or example. Yet in the latter years of the Middle Ages a quiet flowering of a more accessible, positive approach to Christian belief took place among a group of female mystics, those who emphasized an immediate, nonhierarchical experience of the divine. In this enlightening volume, Wendy Farley eloquently brings the work of three female mysticsMarguerite Porete, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Julian of Norwichinto creative conversation with contemporary Christian life and thought. From alternatives to the standard, violent understandings of the atonement, to new forms of contemplation and prayer, these figures offer us relevant insights through a theology centered on God's love and compassion. Farley demonstrates how these women can help to refresh and expand our awareness of the depth of divine love that encompasses all creation and dwells in the cavern of every human heart.
Add depth and meaning your family's traditions with these basic Christian practices that nurture and enrich everyone’s faith at home. Home and parents are the key mechanisms by which religious faith and practice are transmitted inter-generationally. Recent studies indicate that the single most important factor in youth becoming committed and engaged in their religious faith as young adults is that the family talks about religion at home. However, for many parents in the United States, religious language is a foreign language. Faith at Home helps parents learn this "second language" and introduce it to their children in simple, meaningful, concrete ways. Parents often ask: How do we introduce prayer to our children if we do not necessarily believe prayer changes outcomes? How do we approach reading the Bible with our children when our own relationship with it is mixed or complicated? How do we talk about difficult things and where do we find God in the midst of them? How do we teach our children to make a difference in the world? How do we connect what happens at church to what happens at home? These questions and many more are addressed with talking points, practices, and resources provided for each subject.
What does the Bible actually say about women? This scripturally accurate book rejects harmful misinterpretations and reminds us of the dignity God places on His daughters, with a helpful guide for reflection and group discussion included. In the wake of the Me Too and Church Too movements, many of our loved ones are leaving the church or questioning Christianity because the Bible has at times been misused against them. How do we help our loved ones understand Scripture accurately? Apologetics for Women In this helpful look at God’s work of redemption from Creation to today, Wendy Alsup explores questions such as: • How does God view justice and equal rights for women? • What does it mean to be made in the image of God? • How have the centuries distorted our interpretation of how God views women? • How did Jesus approach the Old Testament and how does that help us read difficult passages today? • What is the difference between a modern view of feminism and the feminism that Scripture models? • How does the Bible explain the Bible to us? Using a Jesus-centered understanding to look at both God’s grand storyline and specific biblical passages, Alsup shows the noble ways God speaks to and about women in its pages. Most of all, she gives concrete tools for understanding Scripture to women who are questioning if the Bible is truly good for them.
Believe that healing and health is God’s will for you!Healing for all sickness was included in the work of Jesus on the cross. The question is: Are you experiencing God’s supernatural healing in your life? This book supplies Biblical insights about how God included healing for our bodies as a benefit of our redemption and how to freely obtain His healing by faith. Your questions and misbeliefs about healing will be replaced with simple truth and faith to believe and receive God’s healing for you.Be inspired by the sacrifice of Jesus and how we have been healed by His wounds. Build your faith to receive God’s healing and live in divine health. Receive God’s healing in your own life!
It started simply. The pastor would stand outside her church and greet the workers as they came in from the fields. She spoke to them in Spanish and they responded. And soon a bridge was forged.This is the true story of a rural community in Northern California who awakened to the migrant farm workers in their community--and chose to embrace them. Led by one extraordinary woman who was bolstered by her deep and abiding faith, the community offered “radical hospitality” to the strangers in their midst. And in doing so, they discovered an important truth--that our common humanity binds us all.
We all want to change in certain areas of our lives. At times we feel pressured and even condemned about it. In Renewing the Mind 2.0, you will find God’s amazing grace that helps you experience change but never forces or condemns you for it. Renewing the Mind 2.0 is a powerful yet practical message of change and renewal through God’s grace. You will be encouraged to new life as you walk with Pastors Casey and Wendy on this journey that has the potential to affect every area of your life. Pastor Treat’s personal story of change will inspire you to go for it and his practical approach to Biblical truths will empower you. God is looking for a way into your life to bring you to new and better things. This book will make that relationship happen and that renewal come to pass.
A comprehensive program designed to help participants discover their God-given spiritual gifts, personal style, and ministry passions, and to provide participants with connections to specific ministry opportunities where meaningful service can take place.
Acts of Giving examines issues surrounding donation-the giving of property, particularly landed property-in northern Spain during the tenth century. Exploring the place of giving within a broad complex of social and economic concerns, Wendy Davies highlights the centrality of Spain to some of the core themes of medieval European history.
Have you ever felt emotionally wrung out from an ongoing trial? Though suffering often leaves us feeling isolated, God invites us into the community of the Trinity and offers us many companions in Scripture. Journey in these pages with Wendy Alsup through her story of suffering, and more importantly, with the God who walks with us in the wilderness.
This is the story of how the Protestants in the GDR struggled to survive while striving to put their theology into practice and remaining true to their vision of what the role of the church should be - a 'church for others' as Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it. Having taken the reader from the foundation of the GDR, through the peaceful revolution, to the unification of Germany, the story ends with some reflections on the church's past as well as on the challenges it faces in present-day Europe. Protestants in Communist East Germany makes a unique contribution to existing literature by drawing not only on written sources but on a series of first-hand interviews with theologians, pastors and lay people of different ages whose experiences, views and analyses bring the story to life. The East German church's relationship to the state will probably always remain controversial and the vision for a different socialism in the GDR espoused by those involved in the peaceful revolution may now be considered illusory. Nevertheless, many of the issues raised by the Protestants in the GDR remain as vital challenges to the churches in Europe today. Foreword by Paul Oestreicher.
This is a record of a search - but what matters is the finding. “It began when the death of my husband, a priest, jolted me into recognising that the belonging I had always thought I had inside traditional Church doctrine and liturgy wasn’t there: no connection between it and the feeling quick of me. Urgent and hungry for understanding, with my back to the Church door, I found myself suddenly focusing on creativity: on the description of a creator God making man in his own image. That set me searching the work and words of some of the greatest creators - painters, sculptors, musicians, writers - and then scientists - for clues to the possibility - or not - of an over-arching creativity. What I’ve found has astonished me: extraordinary coherence of creative experiences across cultures and centuries: coherence that insists on both the breath-taking glories and mysteries of a physical world that is patterned - yet open. Rich feeding of my inside life - but more: creativity mirroring that of the adult Jesus in the Gospels, turning my sense of a possible God, of holiness and what it is to be human, inside out.”
The Rev Edward T. Taylor (1793–1871), better known as Father Taylor, was a former sailor who became a Methodist itinerant preacher in southeastern New England, and then the acclaimed pastor of Boston’s Seamen’s Bethel. Known for his colorful sermons and temperance speeches, Father Taylor was one of the best-known and most popular preachers in Boston during the 1830s–1850s. A proud Methodist, Father Taylor was active within the New England Annual Conference for over fifty years, and there was no corner of New England where he was unknown. His career mirrored the growth of Methodism and the involvement of New England Methodists in the social issues of the time. In Boston, the Seamen’s Bethel was nondenominational, and Unitarians were its primary supporters. Father Taylor was loyal to his benefactors at a time when Unitarianism was controversial. In turn, he was respected and admired by many Unitarians, including Ralph Waldo Emerson. Father Taylor was a sailors’ missionary and reformer, a lively and eloquent preacher, a temperance advocate, an urban minister-at-large, and a champion of religious tolerance. His story is the portrayal of a unique and forceful American character, set against the backdrop of Boston in the age of revival and reform.
The Lady of the Angels and Her City recounts Wendy Wright's visitations to her hometown's many Marian churches and shrines. But it is much more than a personal pilgrimage narrative. It offers important glimpses into the history of Los Angeles Catholicism, American Catholic culture, and Mary's place in Catholic theology and tradition. It peeks into the heroic labors of the religious orders that went on mission there and the waves of immigrants who have arrived on American shores. With Wright, readers will consider: Readers who know the geography of Los Angeles Catholicism will surely enjoy Wright's reflection on familiar places. But there is much here that will fascinate anyone interested in either the history of Christianity in America or devotion to Mary by those who love her today.
Have you ever wanted to understand the deep things of the Word but been put off by the intimidating vocabulary of theologians? Have you assumed that studying the attributes of God is for seminary students only? Or maybe "just for men"? Have heavy doctrinal themes felt beyond you and your everyday world? If so-if you've ever thought theology was too deep, too impractical, or too irrelevant for your life as a woman-this book is for you. As author Wendy Alsup explores fundamental theological issues you've always wondered about-minus the daunting vocabulary and complex sentence structure of academic tomes-she brings them into real life... into your world... and reveals the heart of true theology. It's really about "simple yet incredibly profound stuff that affects our daily lives," she says. Stuff like faith and gaining a right knowledge of God as the foundation for wise daily living. Alsup writes: "Truly, there is nothing like a good grasp of accurate knowledge about God to enable you to meet the practical demands of your life-the practical demands of being a daughter, mother, wife, sister, or friend." Let Practical Theology for Women show you the everyday difference that knowing God makes.
One week after Wendy Blight’s college graduation, she walked into her apartment to find a masked man holding a knife and waiting for her at the top of the stairs. The man spent an hour physically and sexually assaulting Wendy, leaving her changed forever. After this terrifying experience, she lived for years cocooned in a prison of fear, despair, and hopelessness. Finally, after years of searching and believing she had nowhere else to turn, she fell on her knees before God and poured out her tears, anger, and questions to Him. Wendy’s story is one of transformation from trauma to rebirth through the power of the Word of God. Through Hidden Joy in a Dark Corner, the reader will experience hope and the encouragement necessary to press forward to healing and restoration.
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