The Story Of The Church Textbook

In this thrilling narrative, Phillip Campbell, author of the best-selling Story of Civilization series, takes children on a journey through Church history, beginning at Pentecost when Peter and the other apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and preached in the streets of Jerusalem, all the way through the pontificate of John Paul II and into modern times. Campbell's storybook style brings the narrative to life for young readers, taking them back in time and awakening a love and appreciation for history.

Dive into the epic saga of faith, courage, and transformation that spans centuries—the story of the Christian Church. In this captivating narrative, Jesse Lyman Hurlbut weaves together the threads of history, theology, and human endeavor to illuminate the remarkable journey of Christianity. From the humble beginnings of a small band of disciples in Jerusalem to the global movement that shapes cultures and hearts today, The Story of the Christian Church unfolds with vivid detail. Hurlbut invites you to witness the struggles, triumphs, and pivotal moments that shaped the Church’s destiny.

This text begins with God's definitive intervention into human history in the Person of his Son and continues to the present day. It shows how God has acted through the Church to further his salvific mission. It examines the lives of the saints and how they - by cooperating with God's grace - helped to shape the life of the Church as well as Christian society and culture.

A comprehensive history of the Catholic Church from its beginnings in Jesus' ministry to its current status in an increasingly secular world.

Our culture is changing at a dizzying rate. But the church seems to be left behind, caught in subcultural backwaters that have little or no impact on mainstream society. Based on the quantitative research of his group, Percept, Regele analyzes the forces in our culture and discusses how the church can fulfill its mission in the face of them.

From Calvinist to Catholic, from Charismatic to AmaZioni, the Rainbow Nation has one of the most colourful, variegated, and bewildering array of Christian churches in the world. Where on earth did they all come from? How did they develop? What do they believe? How are they related to one another? In this clear and readable history of Christianity in South Africa, Kevin Roy answers these questions with comprehensive, succinct and rigorous historical analysis with sympathy and honesty. Dr Roy does not shy away from the failures and sins of the participants in this story that intertwines with the history of the peoples and tribes in South Africa. This book is a testimony of divine love and patience in the midst of human folly and frailty, of successes and faithful service to God.

Biblical scholar Robert Wall and pastoral leader Anthony Robinson here join forces to bring the Acts of the Apostles forward to our time as a resource for congregational renewal and transformation.Featuring both careful exegetical study and exciting contemporary exposition, the fifteen chapters of Called to Be Church each first interpret the text of Acts as Scripture and then engage Acts for today's church. The book dives into many of the most vexing issues faced by the church then and now -- such issues as conflict resolution, pluralism and multiculturalism, sexuality, money, church and state, the role of the Holy Spirit, and more.Enhanced by study questions at the end of each chapter, Called to Be Church will lend itself especially well to small-group study within congregations. Pastors, lay readers, students, and ordinary believers alike will find the book helpful and inspiring.

From Roman persecution to the early creeds, from the monastic movement to the Reformation, from the rise of liberalism to missionary expansion, Jeffrey Bingham chronicles the ups and downs of a people and a faith.

In a narrative that has urgent significance for every church congregation facing the racial dilemma of mid-twentieth century America, Howard Thurman tells the dramatic story of the founding of the first fully integrated church in the United States--the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. Dr. Thurman, cofounder and long time minister, gives a complete and intimate picture of the beginnings of Fellowship Church, its early problems, experiments, and successful attainment of complete interracial unity. In simple, moving terms he describes the everyday events of church life--worship services, choir practice, church school, etc. - against the background of a multiracial congregation. Through his genius the reader experiences the anxious moments of forming new patterns of organization, the thrill of new and unexpected allies, of vistas opening into the future.

The instant New York Times bestseller and companion book to the PBS series. “Absolutely brilliant . . . A necessary and moving work.” —Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., author of Begin Again “Engaging. . . . In Gates’s telling, the Black church shines bright even as the nation itself moves uncertainly through the gloaming, seeking justice on earth—as it is in heaven.” —Jon Meacham, New York Times Book Review From the New York Times bestselling author of Stony the Road and one of our most important voices on the African American experience comes a powerful new history of the Black church as a foundation of Black life and a driving force in the larger freedom struggle in America. For the young Henry Louis Gates, Jr., growing up in a small, residentially segregated West Virginia town, the church was a center of gravity—an intimate place where voices rose up in song and neighbors gathered to celebrate life's blessings and offer comfort amid its trials and tribulations. In this tender and expansive reckoning with the meaning of the Black Church in America, Gates takes us on a journey spanning more than five centuries, from the intersection of Christianity and the transatlantic slave trade to today’s political landscape. At road’s end, and after Gates’s distinctive meditation on the churches of his childhood, we emerge with a new understanding of the importance of African American religion to the larger national narrative—as a center of resistance to slavery and white supremacy, as a magnet for political mobilization, as an incubator of musical and oratorical talent that would transform the culture, and as a crucible for working through the Black community’s most critical personal and social issues. In a country that has historically afforded its citizens from the African diaspora tragically few safe spaces, the Black Church has always been more than a sanctuary. This fact was never lost on white supremacists: from the earliest days of slavery, when enslaved people were allowed to worship at all, their meetinghouses were subject to surveillance and destruction. Long after slavery’s formal eradication, church burnings and bombings by anti-Black racists continued, a hallmark of the violent effort to suppress the African American struggle for equality. The past often isn’t even past—Dylann Roof committed his slaughter in the Mother Emanuel AME Church 193 years after it was first burned down by white citizens of Charleston, South Carolina, following a thwarted slave rebellion. But as Gates brilliantly shows, the Black church has never been only one thing. Its story lies at the heart of the Black political struggle, and it has produced many of the Black community’s most notable leaders. At the same time, some churches and denominations have eschewed political engagement and exemplified practices of exclusion and intolerance that have caused polarization and pain. Those tensions remain today, as a rising generation demands freedom and dignity for all within and beyond their communities, regardless of race, sex, or gender. Still, as a source of faith and refuge, spiritual sustenance and struggle against society’s darkest forces, the Black Church has been central, as this enthralling history makes vividly clear.