The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert


Book Description

"Rosaria, by the standards of many, was living a very good life. She had a tenured position at a large university in a field for which she cared deeply. She owned two homes with her partner, in which they provided hospitality to students and activists that were looking to make a difference in the world. In the community, Rosaria was involved in volunteer work. At the university, she was a respected advisor of students and her department's curriculum. And then, in her late 30s, Rosaria encountered something that turned her world upside down -- the idea that Christianity, a religion that she had regarded as problematic and sometimes downright damaging, might be right about who God was. That idea seemed to fly in the face of the people and causes that she most loved. What follows is a story of what she describes as a train wreck at the hand of the supernatural. These are her secret thoughts about those events, written as only a reflective English professor could."--Back cover.




Preaching to Convert


Book Description

Preaching to Convert offers an intriguing new perspective on the outreach strategies of U.S. evangelicals. Author John Fletcher frames these activities, from door-to-door proselytizing to the spirited sermons of superstar televangelists, as examples of activist performance, broadly defined here as acts performed before an audience in the hopes of changing hearts and minds. Most writing about activist performance has focused on left-progressive causes, events, and actors, and if evangelicals have appeared at all, they often appear as one-dimensional forces of ignorance or bigotry against which brave (left-leaning) activists must fight. Preaching to Convert argues against such a constricted view of activism and for a more nuanced understanding of U.S. evangelicalism as a movement defined by its desire to win converts and spread the gospel. In other words, evangelicals are activist performers par excellence. The book positions evangelicals as a diverse, complicated group confronting the loss of conservative Christianity’s default status in twenty-first–century U.S. culture. In the face of an increasingly secular age, evangelicals have been reassessing models of outreach. In acts like handing out Bible tracts to strangers on the street or going door-to-door with a Bible in hand, in elaborately staged horror-themed morality plays or multi-million-dollar creationist discovery centers, in megachurch services beamed to dozens of satellite campuses, and in controversial “ex-gay” ministries striving to return gays and lesbians to the straight and narrow, evangelicals are redefining what it means to be deeply committed in a pluralist world. The book’s engaging style and careful argumentation make it accessible and appealing to scholars and students across a range of fields.




A Way with Words


Book Description

Social media was made to bring us together. But few things have driven us further apart. Sadly, many Christians are fueling online incivility. Others, exhausted by perpetual outrage and shame-filled from constant comparison, are leaving social media altogether. So, how should Christians behave in this digital age? Is there a better way? Daniel Darling believes we need an approach that applies biblical wisdom to our engagement with social media, an approach that neither retreats from modern technology nor ignores the harmful ways in which Christians often engage publicly. In short, he believes that we can and should use our online conversations for good.




The Gospel Call and True Conversion


Book Description

The apostle Paul gave the gospel the first place in his preaching, endeavored with all his might to proclaim it clearly, and even went so far as to pronounce a curse upon all those who would pervert its truth. Yet how sad it is that many, even among those considering themselves evangelicals, have reduced the gospel message to a few trite statements to be repeated, and view conversion as a mere human decision. In The Gospel Call and True Conversion , Paul Washer challenges such easy believism as he examines the real meaning of things like faith, repentance, and receiving Christ. He also deals extensively with the effects of saving grace that God promises in the new covenant; namely, the creation of new hearts and new people. Table of Contents: PART ONE: The Gospel Call 1. A Call to Repentance 2. A Call to Faith 3. Believe and Confess 4. Receiving Christ 5. Christ at Heart’s Door PART TWO: New Hearts and the Nature of True Conversion 6. The Great Motive and End of Salvation 7. The Author of Salvation 8. Separation and Cleansing 9. A New Heart 10. The Effectual Spirit PART THREE: New People and the Nature of True Conversion 11. The Glory of the New Covenant 12. The Making of New People 13. The Christian’s Sure Knowledge of God 14. The Heart and Way of God’s People 15. The Everlasting Covenant 16. God’s Goodness to His People Series Descriptions Although the Recovering the Gospel Series does not represent an entirely systematic presentation of the gospel, it does address most of the essential elements, especially those that are most neglected in contemporary Christianity. It is the hope of the author that these words might be a guide to help you rediscover the gospel in all its beauty, scandal, and saving power. It is his prayer that such a rediscovery might transform your life, strengthen your proclamation, and bring the greatest glory to God.




The Overcoming Life


Book Description

D. L. Moody writes, “It is like this. When a man enters the army, he is a member of the army the moment he enlists; he is just as much a member as a man who has been in the army ten or twenty years. But enlisting is one thing, and participating in a battle another.” Originally published in 1894, The Overcoming Life is one of those little books you just have to read. It is quintessential D.L. Moody. Its blunt edge drives hard at the ways in which Christians are overcome in this life (spiritual warfare, sin, distraction, etc.) and then gives ample assistance as to how we might begin to live a life in Christ that overcomes the things that once took hold of us.




Book of Mormon Student Manual


Book Description




Sermons on Conversion


Book Description

The burgundian reformer abbot draws a picture of the perfect frontier bishop, and holds him up as a model for bishops everywhere. Conversion is used here not in the modern sense of transferring from one ecclesiastical body to another, but in the patristic and monastic sense of metanoia, turning one's entire being wholly to God.




Reformation Study Bible-ESV


Book Description

More than fifty scholars, under R. C. Sproul, collaborated to produce this study Bible to help readers understand the great doctrines of the Christian faith. Published by Ligonier Ministries, trade distribution by P&R Publishing.




The Foolishness of God


Book Description

An examination of what it means to "preach the Word" in the context of Anglican ministry.




Sermons of George Whitefield


Book Description

A total of 57 lectures of George Whitefield, one of the most celebrated preachers of England and the American colonies in the 18th century, are presented here. Together, these lectures offer a profound insight into an innovative and often controversial preacher. A man of immense gifts for expression, George Whitefield would commonly drive an audience to tears with his sincere expressions of faith. Pushing the boundaries of his era, Whitefield rebelled against church authority and claimed that God himself permitted that he preach itinerant indoors and in the open air. Whitefield rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most pivotal Christians of his era. Too poor to afford tutelage, the young Whitefield managed to avoid tuition by acting as a servant to other students; assisting them to wash; cleaning their quarters; and carrying their books and satchels. Such menial work appeared to fire George Whitefield's spirit; he converted to Christianity and fervently attended to his studies thereafter.