Evangelicals are known for their emphasis on conversion. But what about life after conversion and beyond justification? Desperately needed is a comprehensive theology of the Christian life from beginning to end, along with the means of formation and transformation. In Called to Be Saints, Gordon Smith draws on a distinguished lifetime of reflecting on these themes to offer us a theologically rich account of our participation in the life of Christ. Both profound and practical, this book is a trinitarian theology of holiness that encompasses both justification and sanctification, both union with Christ and communion with God. Smith unfolds how and why Christians are called to become wise people, do good work, love others and enjoy rightly ordered affections. If holiness is the ongoing journey of becoming mature in Christ, then there is no better guide than Smith. Christians in every walk of life will find this a rich resource for learning what it means to "grow up in every way... into Christ" (Ephesians 4:15).
5
教牧心靈健康的危機與建立 Crisis and Development in Pastoral Spiritual Well-being
From a rare insider’s point of view, Unveiling Grace looks at how Latter-day Saints are “wooing our country” with their religion, lifestyle, and culture. It is also a gripping story of how an entire family, deeply enmeshed in Mormonism, found their way out and what they can tell others about their lives as faithful Mormons.
7
Transformative Encounters The Intervention of God in Christian Counseling and Pastoral Care
What would it mean for Christian counseling and pastoral care to take seriously the idea that God intervenes in the world? What would it look like for therapists and pastors to see themselves as opening the door to a miraculous divine encounter? How would counseling change if the intervention of God was not merely a theoretical idea but a lived experience? Building on Gary Collins's classic work, The Rebuilding of Psychology, the essays in this volume explore what a God-centered model of Christian counseling or pastoral care would look like. The contributors share the conviction that God is able to bring about lasting psycho-spiritual change here and now. Some of the topics discussed in the book include:
Inner healing
Prayer ministry
Deliverance
Christian holism
Contemplative prayer
Cognitive-behavioral therapy
Emotion-focused therapy
Group therapy
Forgiveness
Visualization and EMDR
Addiction
Life coaching
This book seeks to encourage and aid counselors, pastors, church staff, clinical practitioners, academics and students in developing this kind of God-encountering, Christ-centered ministry of miraculous change.
8
Practicing Care in Rural Congregations and Communities
Pastoral care in rural communities is different from care in other locales. Despite these differences, rural churches and communities also hold a particular wisdom from which the rest of the church might benefit. Small towns and rural areas have particular challenges, and in seeking to live out the Christian life in the midst of those, local churches have unique and useful insights into what it means to care for one another.
Meditations that beautifully articulate a contemporary Christian wisdom
Through a series of short, thoughtful meditations, Learning to Dream Again shows what true wisdom -- wisdom shaped by Jesus' earthy humility, shameful suffering, and effervescent joy -- might look like for Christians today. Through the lens of this Christian wisdom, Samuel Wells addresses a number of difficult personal and social issues, including taxes, abortion, torture, hunger, and Christian engagement with broader culture in the arts, sciences, athletics, and medicine.
As he seeks to present a faithful rendering of the mind of Christ, Wells deftly ties abstract ideas to everyday Christian living. He groups his meditations thematically into these six chapters:
Learning to Love Again
Learning to Live Again
Learning to Think Again
Learning to Read Again
Learning to Feel Again
Learning to Dream Again
Beautifully written and extraordinarily insightful, Learning to Dream Again is both for Christians who have been to church for years but long to ponder the ambiguities and hard questions of faith and life and for new Christians who are just beginning to investigate how the gospel connects to their most searching questions