Social Ministry

Redeeming How We Talk explores what the Bible has to say about that central aspect of life and relationships - conversation. The Scriptures show us that words have remarkable power - to create, to bless, to encourage, to forgive. Imagine how we could spark change in our families, churches, and communities if we learned to use words like Jesus did. By weaving together theology, history, and philosophy, Ken Wytsma and A. J. Swoboda help us reclaim the holiness of human speech and the relevance of meaningful conversation in our culture today.

Is real friendship too risky? We live in a world where real friendship is hard to find. Suspicious of others and insecure about ourselves, we retreat into the safety of our small, self-made digital worlds. Tragically, even the church can become a place that reinforces this isolation. Jesus models a much richer vision of friendship. Scott Sauls, pastor and teacher, invites you to see the breadth of Christ's love in this audiobook, Befriend.

From Gene Robinson, the Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church, the first openly gay person elected (in 2003) to the historic episcopate and the world's leading religious spokesperson for gay rights and gay marriage, comes a groundbreaking book that lovingly and persuasively makes the case for same-sex marriage. It establishes a commonsense, reasoned, religious argument, made by someone who holds the religious text of the Bible to be holy and sacred.

There is a church not too far from us that recently added a $25 million addition to their building. Our local newspaper ran a front-page story not too long ago about a study revealing that one in five people in our city lives in poverty. This is a book about those two numbers. It's a book about faith and fear, wealth and war, poverty, power, safety, terror, Bibles, bombs, and homeland insecurity, It's about what happens when Christians support, animate, and participate in the very things Jesus came to set people free from.

From one of Iran’s most acclaimed and controversial contemporary writers, his first novel to appear in English - a dazzlingly inventive work of fiction that opens a revelatory window onto what it’s like to live, to love, and to be an artist in today’s Iran. The novel entwines two equally powerful narratives. A writer named Shahriar - the author’s fictional alter ego - has struggled for years against the all-powerful censor at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

Politics are being transformed by religion, namely in China - within the next 30 years, one-third of this potential superpower could be Christian. If this religious transformation occurs, China would be one of the largest Christian nations in the world.

Pastor Kevin Wiebe grew up below the poverty line, with his mother hunting for change in the couch to buy food for the baby. Wiebe now pastors a “low resource” church of mostly immigrants - a congregation that transcends definitions of the helper and the helped and that doesn’t fit neatly into any stereotype of poverty. In Faithful in Small Things, Wiebe shows listeners that writing big checks isn’t the only - or even the best - way to alleviate poverty.

Affluence, autonomy, safety, and power. These are the central values of the American dream. But are they actually compatible with Jesus' command to love our neighbor as ourselves? In essays grouped around these four values, D. L. Mayfield asks us to pay attention to the ways they shape our own choices, and the ways those choices affect our neighbors. Where did these values come from? How have they failed those on the edges of our society? And how can we disentangle ourselves from our culture's headlong pursuit of these values and live faithful lives of service to God and our neighbors?

The hour is critical. The American republic is suffering its gravest crisis since the Civil War. Conflicts, hostility, and incivility now threaten to tear the country apart. Competing visions have led to a dangerous moment of cultural self-destruction. This is no longer politics as usual, but an era of political warfare where our enemies are not foreign adversaries, but our fellow citizens. Yet the roots of the crisis are deeper than many realize. Os Guinness argues that we face a fundamental crisis of freedom, as America's genius for freedom has become her Achilles' heel.

¿Buscas defender el evangelio de forma exitosa? ¿Te sientes falto de preparación para mantener una conversación con un desconocido acerca de la biblia? Tácticas: Un plan de acción para debatir tus convicciones cristianas es perfecto para ti. Koukl busca prepararte de forma diplomática y sencilla para que estés listo para defender la palabra de Dios cuando sea necesario. En un mundo cada vez más indiferente a las verdades cristianas, los seguidores de Cristo necesitamos estar preparados para comunicarnos con aquellos que no hablan el lenguaje bíblico o no aceptan su fuente de autoridad.

Depression and addiction run rampant when joy is lacking. And yet most of us are never shown healthy ways to deal with our emotions, to express them well, and to build the joy we need in order to endure the hardships of life. This is precisely what this book intends to do.

Published to coincide with Pope Francis' Year of Mercy and the Vatican's canonization of Mother Teresa, this new book of unpublished material by a humble yet remarkable woman of faith whose influence is felt as deeply today as it was when she was alive offers Mother Teresa's profound yet accessible wisdom on how we can show mercy and compassion in our day-to-day lives.

Many people today talk about justice, but are they living justly? They want to change the world, but are they being changed themselves? Eugene Cho has a confession: "I like to talk about changing the world but I don't really like to do what it takes." If this is true of the man who founded the One Day's Wages global antipoverty movement, then what must it take to act on one's ideals? Cho does not doubt the sincerity of those who want to change the world.

As the pressures of health warnings, economic turmoil, and partisan politics continue to rise, the influence of gospel-focused Christians seems to be waning. In the public square and popular opinion, we are losing our voice right when it’s needed most for Christ’s glory and the common good. But there’s another story unfolding too - if you know where to look. In Gospelbound, Collin Hansen and Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra counter these growing fears with a robust message of resolute hope for anyone hungry for good news.

[Un]Intentional shows how our obsession with screens often takes us - unintentionally - to places we regret. It reveals the way many apps, games, and videos are designed to entice us to make decisions and form harmful habits that profit the creators at our expense.

Fears. Faults. Failures. Frailties. Every woman at some point wonders, "Do I have to get past all my weaknesses before God can use me?" Wendy Pope is happy to tell listeners: No! You don’t have to overcome, correct, rise above, or get strong before you are qualified to be part of God’s plan. He can use you right now. You are a worthwhile possibility. In Hidden Potential, listeners see that they can be faithful, even in fear; included in God’s plans, even in weaknesses; worth something, even in failure; and valuable, even in pain.

As founding pastor of St. Lydia’s in Brooklyn, New York, where worship takes place over a meal, Emily Scott spent eight years ministering to a scrappy collective of people with different backgrounds, incomes, and levels of social skills. Each week they broke bread, sang hymns, made halting conversation with strangers, then did the dishes. But in a city where everyone lives on top of one another yet everyone is lonely, these gatherings filled a longing that most people - even Scott - didn’t realize they felt.

While Christians love to focus on a gentle, tender Jesus, Harlow offers an unforgettable reintroduction to the true character of Jesus and invites us to get to know the savior who was gracious but also blunt, sometimes sarcastic, and wildly passionate about bringing people to the heart of God.

What’s happening in our world today is moving Christians to return to the foundations of our spiritual existence. Believers everywhere must get back to what matters most. We must always remember that our battle, at its most basic level, is spiritual. Discover 10 spiritual tools the Bible relates directly to our preparation for the Lord’s coming - 10 biblical survival strategies to live out in these last days, so you and your family can prosper in an increasingly decaying, darkening world.

Homosexuality is one of the most controversial moral issues of our day. Headlines teem with stories of athletes "coming out", politicians changing positions, and courts handing down same sex marriage rulings. Sadly, the church has often been afraid to talk about homosexuality. Many Christians feel confused and divided between the call to love and the call for truth. The time is ripe for God's people to think and speak about same sex attraction in a way that is both biblical and beneficial. Love into Light is designed to move the church toward that end.