Social Ministry

Not a day goes by without our being called upon to help one another - at home, at work, on the street, on the phone. We do what we can. Yet so many questions come up to complicate this natural response. In this practical helper's companion, the authors explore a path through these confusions and provide support and inspiration for us in our efforts as members of the helping professions, as volunteers, as community activists, or simply as friends and family trying to meet each other's needs.

The light of the Christian faith is flickering out all over the West. American churches are beset by a rapidly secularizing culture, the departure of young people, and watered-down pseudo-spirituality. Political solutions have failed, as the self-destruction of the Republican Party indicates, and the future of religious freedom has never been in greater doubt. The center is not holding. The West, cut off from its Christian roots, is falling into a new Dark Age.

You are being hunted. Like a seasoned angler, our enemy opens his tackle box and selects the lure most likely to attract his intended prey - usually the one you and I are least likely to consider harmful. Each lie we bite on causes us to feel pain, lose or injure relationships, and miss out on the abundant life God wants us to have. Lies Men Believe exposes the lies men most commonly believe and shows you how to combat those lies with the truth.

In this compelling new book - drawn from conversations with and narrated by award-winning Vatican journalist John L. Allen Jr. - Barron, founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, proclaims in vivid language the goodness and truth of the Catholic tradition. Through Barron's smart, practical, artistic, and theological observations - as well as through personal anecdotes about everything from engaging atheists on YouTube to his days as a young die-hard baseball fan from Chicago - To Light a Fire on the Earth covers prodigious ground.

Alfred Edersheim (1825-1889), a Jewish convert to Christianity, was a Biblical scholar and author. The Alfred Edersheim Box Set includes his three most popular works "The Temple - Its Ministry and Service", "Prophecy and History in Relation to the Messiah", and "Sketches of Jewish Social Life". In these books on the life and times of Jesus, the author discusses the temple, the priesthood and the Jewish festivals, and examines the customs and traditions of everyday Jewish life in first century Palestine.

Raw, intimate, and timely, Bolz-Weber’s latest book offers a full-blown overhaul of our harmful and antiquated ideas about sex, gender, and our bodies. This is a journey of holy resistance. Along the way, as antidotes to shame, heresy, and all-too-familiar injustice, Bolz-Weber shares stories, poetry, and scripture, cultivating resilient hope and audacious love rooted in good news that is “powerful enough, transgressive enough, and beautiful enough to heal not only the ones who have been hurt but also those who have done the hurting.”

Though it first aroused anger and controversy rather than admiration and acceptance, A Theologico-Political Treatise was a landmark in the analysis of theology (with particular reference to the Bible and its Jewish and Christian interpretations) and its relationship to philosophy and politics. Spinoza’s scholarly analysis, based on careful study, demonstrated that the Bible was composed by many writers over the centuries - and that even the Pentateuch, the first five books, were not the work of Moses, as was generally assumed at the time.

Our culture is locked in a battle between two opposing worldviews on abortion. How should Christians advise those who are considering or being pressured into an abortion? How can we help those who are struggling with the emotional and spiritual fallout from abortion? In this short book, Dr. Lizzie Ling and Vaughan Roberts survey the Christian worldview and help us to think biblically, speak wisely, and act compassionately as we engage with the people, the questions, and the heartache surrounding abortion, in a society with very different values.

Compiled after his death in 1662, Pascal's "pensées" (thoughts) are his ideas for a book in defense of faith in a rational world. These fragments give evidence of a profoundly original thinker who had resolved the conflict between his scientific mind and heart-felt faith. This audiobook begins with an analysis of the difference between mathematical and intuitive thinking and goes on to consider the value of skepticism, contradictions, feeling, memory, and imagination.

In a culture with an ever-narrowing definition of tolerance, Christians can no longer stay silent about the divide between the Bible's truth and the world's lies. From bestselling author Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer, No Reason to Hide examines the toxic roots behind the alarming symptoms of a nation in spiritual freefall—and why your faith must empower you to engage rather than hide. This is a rallying reminder that will ready Christians everywhere to have the courage to proclaim Scripture's truth to a culture in desperate need of what only God can offer.

Morality. Relativity. Right and Wrong. The issues we face are complicated and everyone has an opinion. But who has the answer when it comes to sexual issues? Sex dominates our popular culture to a degree we've never seen before and unrestricted sex is being touted as a shortcut to personal fulfillment and satisfaction - but it's a counterfeited and cheapened imitation of the real thing. Respected pastor Tony Evans refuses to let the voice of God be drowned out amidst the clamor of the crowd.

What Heaven is for Real did for near-death experiences, Miracles does for the miraculous - provides undeniably compelling evidence that there's something real to be reckoned with, whatever one has thought of this topic before. It provides a wide range of real stories of the miraculous and will engage the listener in the serious discussion that this fascinating and rich subject deserves.

From the clamor of the evening news to the hush of a judge's courtroom, there is a battle raging for marriage. The implications for society are profound. Yet many people of faith are confused, asking: Is it really that big of a deal?

The perfect guide for husbands who want to love their wives and strengthen their marriages in a way like never before. In this revised and updated edition of his classic best seller, Gary Smalley explains a woman's deepest needs, shows men how to meet those needs, and gives 10 simple steps to strengthen any marriage. He helps men to understand not only how to respond to a woman's feelings, but also how to make her feel important. Gary Smalley maps a blueprint to a better marriage that will have a deep and lasting impact on men and their wives.

Pornography may seem inescapable, but God can free us from its destructive power. The gospel replaces the dehumanizing lies of pornography with this surprising truth: God created us as royalty. How then can we reclaim our God-given identity to take a stand against - and ultimately starve - the predatory porn industry? In The Death of Porn, Ray Ortlund writes six personal letters, as from a father to his son.

This is your wake-up call to resist the Hustle culture and embrace the slowness of Jesus. Our culture makes constant demands of us: Do more. Accomplish more. Buy more. Post more. Be more. In following these demands, we have indeed become more: More anxious. More tired. More hurt. More depressed. More frantic. What we are doing isn't working! In a society where hustle is the expectation, busyness is the norm and information is king, we have forgotten the fundamentals that make us human, anchor our lives, and provide meaning.

1984 isn't just a novel; it's a key to understanding the modern world. George Orwell's final work is a treasure chest of ideas and memes - Big Brother, the Thought Police, Doublethink, Newspeak, 2+2=5 - that gain potency with every year. Particularly in 2016, when the election of Donald Trump made it a best seller ("Ministry of Alternative Facts", anyone?).

The Christian culture that has underpinned Western society for centuries has been eroded. We're now at the point where to disagree with people on issues such as marriage and sexuality is seen as hateful. Christians are no longer seen as honorable, but as bigots. But history testifies that the more people try to destroy Christianity, the more it grows. So we are entering an exciting period of time because we're back in the place where Christ's church can thrive - at the margins of society. In this stirring, passionate book, Matt Chandler tells us we need Christian courage like never before.

In the COVID crisis, the beloved shepherd of over one billion Catholics saw the cruelty and inequity of our society exposed more vividly than ever before. He also saw, in the resilience, generosity, and creativity of so many people, the means to rescue our society, our economy, and our planet. In direct, powerful prose, Pope Francis urges us not to let the pain be in vain.

In Love Is a Choice, best-selling doctors Robert Hemfelt, Frank Minirth, and Paul Meier walk you through their 10 proven stages to recovery from codependency that results from external circumstances. Humans are susceptible to codependency because of our sinful tendency to use defense mechanisms to fool ourselves. In codependent relationships, deceitful games are played, and important Christian principles are often taken out of context and abused.