Called To Be The One Church

“Scot and Laura do an amazing job of teaching us what a good church looks like.” —Beth Moore What is the way forward for the church? Tragically, in recent years, Christians have gotten used to revelations of abuses of many kinds in our most respected churches—from Willow Creek to Harvest, from Southern Baptist pastors to Sovereign Grace churches. Respected author and theologian Scot McKnight and former Willow Creek member Laura Barringer wrote this book to paint a pathway forward for the church. We need a better way. The sad truth is that churches of all shapes and sizes are susceptible to abuses of power, sexual abuse, and spiritual abuse. Abuses occur most frequently when Christians neglect to create a culture that resists abuse and promotes healing, safety, and spiritual growth. How do we keep these devastating events from repeating themselves? We need a map to get us from where we are today to where we ought to be as the body of Christ. That map is in a mysterious and beautiful little Hebrew word in Scripture that we translate “good,” the word tov. In this book, McKnight and Barringer explore the concept of tov—unpacking its richness and how it can help Christians and churches rise up to fulfill their true calling as imitators of Jesus.

The breadth, depth, and vibrancy of ecumenical discussion - The historic ecumenical journey of the Commission on Faith and Order toward the goal of visible unity in one faith and in one eucharistic fellowship led them to the island of Crete in 2009 and to a fresh appreciation of many facets - historical, doctrinal, social, spiritual - of what it means to be called to be one Church today. This stimulating volume gathers a rich array of presentations and reports from the Crete meeting, focused especially on the doctrine of the Church and the changing shape of the "visible unity" that Christians seek. Chief among its study projects, and the central focus of this volume, is rethinking the nature and mission of the Church in light of new contextual insights from around the world, deeper appreciation of the early Church's ecclesial legacy, and highlighting the prophetic and missional roles of the Church today. John Gibaut, Director of the Commission on Faith and Order in the World Council of

Vatican II represents a watershed in the history of Catholic ecclesiology. Although it stands in organic continuity with previous magisterial teaching, distortions of its teaching have proliferated since the time of the Council, leading many to conclude that the Catholic Church changed her position regarding the identity that exists between the One Church of Christ and the Catholic Church. Stephen A. Hipp’s The One Church of Christ: Understanding Vatican II refutes that conclusion and explains the Catholic understanding of how Christ’s indivisible Church relates to the Catholic Church, to non-Catholic Christian communities, and to other religious societies. Hipp thoroughly examines the controversial statement that “the Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church” from terminological, historical, and theological perspectives, showing that Vatican II introduces nothing doctrinally new to the Church’s self-understanding, but provides a more nuanced way of speaking about the unicity and universality that define Christ’s Church. He reveals that Vatican II thereby establishes ecumenism and interreligious dialogue on fruitful ground, while calling Catholics to a greater appreciation of the extraordinary gift of the Church’s subsistence.

Biblical scholar Robert Wall and pastoral leader Anthony Robinson here join forces to bring the Acts of the Apostles forward to our time as a resource for congregational renewal and transformation.Featuring both careful exegetical study and exciting contemporary exposition, the fifteen chapters of Called to Be Church each first interpret the text of Acts as Scripture and then engage Acts for today's church. The book dives into many of the most vexing issues faced by the church then and now -- such issues as conflict resolution, pluralism and multiculturalism, sexuality, money, church and state, the role of the Holy Spirit, and more.Enhanced by study questions at the end of each chapter, Called to Be Church will lend itself especially well to small-group study within congregations. Pastors, lay readers, students, and ordinary believers alike will find the book helpful and inspiring.

What is the church, and what is it for? For all the remarkable advances in understanding and cooperation among the churches, such questions remain at the heart of the ecumenical movement today. And they are central to the work of Faith and Order, as perhaps the most inclusive and diverse church-based theological forum in the world. Building on the churches' and other reactions to earlier ecumenical work -- this Faith and Order study document is a substantial, new text offered for discussion and response. Reflecting what the churches can say together about the nature of the church; identifying honestly the issues which still divide the churches; offering a framework for the churches in their common confession, life and witness -- this book will be an important resource for all who care about the nature and mission of the church today.

This book is devoted to understanding the confessional foundations of church unity in the earlier theology of Karl Barth. This book follows Barth’s academic and ecclesiastical career from the years 1921 to 1938 as he moves from a nonconfessional pastor in Switzerland prior to his first teaching post in Göttingen to articulating, in his first volume of Church Dogmatics, the critical and essential authority of the church’s confession in its public witness at the start of his final teaching post in Basel. During these years, each academic placement and public ecclesiastical assignment is crucial for understanding the development of Barth’s confessional theology in order to make sense of his mature dogmatic understanding of the authority of the church’s confession in CD I/2.

“A perceptive and practical book about why our calendars so rarely reflect our priorities and what we can do to regain control.”—ADAM GRANT “Carey’s book will help you reorganize your life. And then you can share a copy with someone you care about.”—SETH GODIN You deserve to stop living at an unsustainable pace. An influential podcaster and thought leader shows you how. Overwhelmed. Overcommitted. Overworked. That’s the false script an inordinate number of people adopt to be successful. Does this sound familiar: ● Slammed is normal. ● Distractions are everywhere. ● Life gets reduced to going through the motions. Tired of living that way? At Your Best gives you the strategies you need to win at work and at home by living in a way today that will help you thrive tomorrow. Influential podcast host and thought leader Carey Nieuwhof understands the challenges of constant pressure. After a season of burnout almost took him out, he discovered how to get time, energy, and priorities working in his favor. This approach freed up more than one thousand productive hours a year for him and can do the same for you. At Your Best will help you ● replace chronic exhaustion with deep productivity ● break the pattern of overpromising and never accomplishing enough ● clarify what matters most by restructuring your day ● master the art of saying no, without losing friends or influence ● discover why vacations and sabbaticals don’t really solve your problems ● develop a personalized plan to recapture each day so you can break free from the trap of endless to-dos Start thriving at work and at home as you discover how to be at your best.