Faithful Generations

Faithful Generations provides a hopeful and helpful guide to the different adult generations alive today, discussing the events that formed them and the issues important to them. Most importantly, it describes their spiritual distinctions the particular needs, gifts and concerns that drive these different generations. With a basic understanding of how other generations think and what drives them spiritually, ministers and congregations can not only avoid conflict, but also put those distinctions to work in order to minister more effectively and create harmony in our religious communities.

With rich description and insightful interviews, Russell Jeung uncovers why and how Chinese and Japanese American Christians are building new, pan-Asian organizations. Detailed surveys of over fifty Chinese and Japanese American congregations in the San Francisco Bay area show how symbolic racial identities structure Asian American congregations. Evangelical ministers differ from mainline Christian ministers in their construction of Asian American identity. Mobilizing around these distinct identities, evangelicals and mainline Christians have developed unique pan-Asian styles of worship, ministries, and church activities. Portraits of two churches further illustrate how symbolic racial identities affect congregational life and ministries. The book concludes with a look at Asian American-led multiethnic churches.

This book brings together selected lectures presented at the Education, Formation and the Church conference held in Kampen, August 2018. The key issue tackled by all contributors is how we can properly understand formation in the formative contexts of school and Church. The urgency of the topic is experienced by many people committed to the faith development of children and young people. Changes in society bring uncertainty and anxiety to churches, schools and families. Some Christian communities are inclined to protect their members from the perceived negative influences of the post-Christian age, while others equip them with tools to become virtuous disciples of Christ in modern society. These all are faithful efforts that seek the best for the future generation. Different responses to the challenges in society affect the various contexts in which formation is at stake, including schools, youth work, catechism and the training of pastors. The reflections in this book are intended to support people involved in these contexts in their future efforts. Scholars working in the domains of education and practical theology share their perspectives. Contributors are Bram de Muynck, Roel Kuiper, David I. Smith, Trevor Cooling, Bernd Wannenwetsch, Hans Schaeffer, Maarten Kater and Ferdi Kruger.

A brand-new year’s worth o f inspiring stories from the front lines of faith — 366 new devotions from missionaries around the globe. In these pages, you’ll hike mountain paths, jolt down rutted desert roads, and pick your way through teeming markets and crowded urban slums. You’ll meet boisterous children, worried parents, anxious teens, and curious seniors—all hungry, whether they know it or not, for the Good News. You’ll witness moments of looming danger and crushing heartache, moments of shining hope and pure miracle. You’ll be inspired anew by those who dare to obey God’s call to take His story to the ends of the earth. And you’ll be encouraged to pray for those who dare to open their hearts not only to the message but also to the One who calls and sustains them. The art of any story is the truth that it paints. I pray you’ll find this book chock-full of truth. I pray that every single entry causes words of Scripture to jump off the page and onto the pavement of authentic human experiences, causing you not only to see their lives differently but also to change the way you see your own. — from the Introduction by Beth Moore All royalties for the Voices of the Faithful series support the work of the International Mission Board.

In the wake of the clergy abuse scandal of the last decade, many media commentators predicted the “end” of the Catholic priesthood. Demands for an end to celibacy, coupled with calls for women’s ordination, dominated discussions on the effectiveness of the Catholic Church in America. Renewal argues that rather than a decline of the priesthood and a diminishing influence of the Catholic Church, we are living in a time of transformation and revitalization. The aging generation of progressives that continues to lobby Church leaders to change Catholic teachings on reproductive rights, same-sex marriage and women's ordination is being replaced by younger men and women who are attracted to the Church because of the very timelessness of its teachings.

Solving the Immigrant Church Crisis: The Biblical Solution of Parallel Ministry (Acts 6:1-7) addresses the crisis of the immigrant church in which complex cultural and linguistic factors create a reticence on the part of immigrants to transfer financial and decision-making authority to succeeding generations, and this results in a culturally irrelevant ministry to those generations, an exodus of believers from the church, a spiritually immature remnant, and an inability to reach the lost. The thesis of this book is that parallel ministry, based on Acts 6:1-7, is the biblical solution to the crisis in the immigrant church. While there are at least two main aspects of this crisis, a spiritual-relational and an ecclesiastical aspect, this book focuses on the ecclesiastical aspect of defining the biblical structure of church government. Specifically, this book is for immigrant churches primarily in the United States and offers them a biblical and practical solution to the problem plaguing them for over two centuries of how to minister effectively to the succeeding generations.

The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion offers a comprehensive exploration of the dynamics of religious conversion, which for centuries has profoundly shaped societies, cultures, and individuals throughout the world. Scholars from a wide array of religions and disciplines interpret both the varieties of conversion experiences and the processes that inform this personal and communal phenomenon. This volume examines the experiences of individuals and communities who change religions, those who experience an intensification of their religion of origin, and those who encounter new religions through colonial intrusion, missionary work, and charismatic and revitalization movements. The thirty-two innovative essays provide overviews of the history of particular religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, indigenous religions, and new religious movements. The essays also offer a wide range of disciplinary perspectives-psychological, sociological, anthropological, legal, political, feminist, and geographical-on methods and theories deployed in understanding conversion, and insight into various forms of deconversion.