Stressful. Overwhelming. Too much. If these words describe the tone of your everyday life, it's time for a change. In the midst of a fast-paced world we need strong friends and family relationships more than ever. The digital devices used to connect us often inhibit even the best efforts to communicate effectively, pulling us into more remote exchanges that isolate us rather than bring us together. This book addresses these challenges head-on. With stories from Scripture and real life, the author helps readers find help and inspiration for love and friendship that flourish rather than simply survive.

This collection of 52 devotionals (one per week for a full year) is designed for college or university professors, so all entries are connected to some aspect of faculty life: the classroom experience, research, or participation in the academic community (either intra- or extramural). Readers will be challenged to think of new ways to live out their God-given calling in their teaching, research, and leadership lives. They will be invited to meditate on reflections from some of the most thoughtful and spiritually sensitive members of their profession, both youthful and seasoned. Also, readers will understand ways to become godly mentors...

The American evangelical church today faces profound political and cultural challenges. It is vitally important for the church to understand these challenges more fully and to think about them more theologically. It is also important for the church to repent of how we have failed to be the edifying and countercultural influence we ought to be, and craft an approach to public and political life that bears authentic and life-giving witness to who our God is and what he is like. In this book, the author shows how Justin Martyr, a prominent second-century church leader, provides a useful and powerful...

Since the publication of Mark Noll's The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (1994) and George Marsden's The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship (1997), Christian educators have worked to challenge anti-intellectualism within American evangelicalism and to demonstrate how religious and theological commitments can deepen our understanding of the world. Yet questions remain about the lasting impact of these efforts: How much progress has been made? To what extent does anti-intellectualism still hinder evangelical thought? And what new challenges and opportunities face faith-informed scholars today? From the Outrageous to the Scandalous explores these questions through a rich and wide-ranging collection of essays....

In this updated and expanded version of Dr. Spencer's classic offering, we are treated to new insights and expressions of wisdom. Big, colorful virtues like courage and decisiveness in crisis easily get our attention. But sometimes it's those everyday values that shape us much more profoundly. Lost in our noisy, flashy, gaudy world are the quiet virtues that work behind the scenes--molding our character, guiding our actions, enriching our lives. Greg Spencer unfolds the beauty and nature of each, showing us how to take notice of discernment, innocence, generosity, authenticity and more. In this book you'll discover how far from...

In this updated and expanded edition, the author invites professors of communication and media to reflect on each chapter in light of our current cultural challenges and technological advancements over the past two decades. The collection of voices and conversations offer a discerning introduction to communication theory that guides readers through an interesting, creative, and biblical study of communication. Thoroughly grounded in a Christian worldview, Communicating for Life explores the implications of individual human communication and the influence of communication on community.

Why does the family matter? How can the family truly flourish with so many different opinions about what family means and what role it plays in society? How can we strengthen the family to reflect God's design for it? Family Communication and the Christian Faith: An Introduction and Exploration provides answers to these questions. This book examines the family from a biblical worldview while integrating theories and practices from diverse academic disciplines (psychology, theology, family studies, sociology) with special emphasis on how communication creates and sustains healthy, rewarding, and godly families. Instructor's Resource and Teaching Guide available. Published by Integratio...

God's claim on the life of a Christian theater artist is no different than God's claim on the life of a preacher, teacher, plumber, carpenter, or bank clerk. But the call to the world of theater can be a dilemma for those who follow Christ. The siren song of theater is alluring and powerful. To survive in and influence the theater world, it takes a Christian whose heart, mind, and soul are well focused on the Lord of the Cosmos. This slim volume is an effort to encourage those who want to celebrate Christ in and through the world of...

At a time when Christian voices in higher education are facing increased persecution and marginalization, the Christian authors of this collection who teach in public universities share their faith-learning integration journeys including their practical, theoretical, and biblically based strategies for teaching, administration, and doing research. Authors explain how they actively subvert secular worldviews that marginalize biblical truth, promote incivility, and discourage love of neighbor. At the same time, they explore pro-active, bridge-building and transformational methods for cultivating biblical absolutes and Christian virtue in ways that prompt evangelistic encounters. The book adds to ongoing and robust faith-learning conversations in higher education...

This book aims to change the Christian conversation regarding civility, from techniques about achieving civility to the conditions necessary for civility to exist. As such, the authors in this volume explore the work of Dr. Calvin Troup, president of Geneva College, and his insights regarding humility and hospitality--presented at a keynote address at a conference--and interrogate the ideas that serve as its foundation. The goal of the book is to create a conversation across the broad spectrum of Christian experience and voices from within secular culture in order to explore, in a robust fashion, the possibilities for hospitality, humility, and...