Almost A Christian

Download or read book Almost Christian written by Kenda Creasy Dean and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-07-16 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on the National Study of Youth and Religion--the same invaluable data as its predecessor, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers--Kenda Creasy Dean's compelling new book, Almost Christian, investigates why American teenagers are at once so positive about Christianity and at the same time so apathetic about genuine religious practice. In Soul Searching, Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton found that American teenagers have embraced a "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism"--a hodgepodge of banal, self-serving, feel-good beliefs that bears little resemblance to traditional Christianity. But far from faulting teens, Dean places the blame for this theological watering down squarely on the churches themselves. Instead of proclaiming a God who calls believers to lives of love, service and sacrifice, churches offer instead a bargain religion, easy to use, easy to forget, offering little and demanding less. But what is to be done? In order to produce ardent young Christians, Dean argues, churches must rediscover their sense of mission and model an understanding of being Christian as not something you do for yourself, but something that calls you to share God's love, in word and deed, with others. Dean found that the most committed young Christians shared four important traits: they could tell a personal and powerful story about God; they belonged to a significant faith community; they exhibited a sense of vocation; and they possessed a profound sense of hope. Based on these findings, Dean proposes an approach to Christian education that places the idea of mission at its core and offers a wealth of concrete suggestions for inspiring teens to live more authentically engaged Christian lives. Persuasively and accessibly written, Almost Christian is a wake up call no one concerned about the future of Christianity in America can afford to ignore.

Download or read book Sermons on Several Occasions written by John Wesley and published by . This book was released on 1829 with total page 672 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Almost Christian Discovered; Or, the False Professor Tried and Cast written by Matthew Mead and published by Legare Street Press. This book was released on 2023-07-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This slim volume is a reprint of a series of sermons preached in London in 1661, with the aim of exposing the hypocrisy of those who profess Christianity but do not truly follow its teachings. The author remains anonymous, but the book was popular in its day and went through multiple editions. Its message of religious sincerity resonated with Puritan audiences in England and America alike. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Download or read book The Almost Christian Discovered: Or, The False Professor Tryed and Cast written by Matthew Mead and published by . This book was released on 1742 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Near Christianity written by Anthony Le Donne and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2016-09-20 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique book is an exploration of Christianity alongside Jewish guides who are well-studied in and sympathetic to Christianity, but who remain “near Christianity.”Reflecting on his journeys within biblical studies and contemporary Jewish-Christian dialogue, Anthony Le Donne illustrates not only the value but also the necessity of continued Jewish friendship for the Christian life. With the help of Jewish friends and mentors, he presents a deeper and more complex Christian faith, offering readers a better vision of the beauty and genius of Christianity, but also an honest look at its warts and failings. Weaving his own story and personal conversations with Jewish friends, Le Donne, a respected scholar and published author, models how his fellow Christians can avoid blurring the differences between Christianity and Judaism on the one hand and exaggerating them on the other.

Download or read book Gay Girl, Good God written by Jackie Hill Perry and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2018-09-03 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “I used to be a lesbian.” In Gay Girl, Good God, author Jackie Hill Perry shares her own story, offering practical tools that helped her in the process of finding wholeness. Jackie grew up fatherless and experienced gender confusion. She embraced masculinity and homosexuality with every fiber of her being. She knew that Christians had a lot to say about all of the above. But was she supposed to change herself? How was she supposed to stop loving women, when homosexuality felt more natural to her than heterosexuality ever could? At age nineteen, Jackie came face-to-face with what it meant to be made new. And not in a church, or through contact with Christians. God broke in and turned her heart toward Him right in her own bedroom in light of His gospel. Read in order to understand. Read in order to hope. Or read in order, like Jackie, to be made new.

Download or read book The Good News We Almost Forgot written by Kevin DeYoung and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the sixteenth century Heidelberg Catechism, which focuses on the Apostle's Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer, and reinvents its teachings for a modern audience.