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...

Reuben V. "Uncle Bud" Robinson, born a moonshiner's son in Tennessee and converted under the preaching of a traveling circuit rider while working as a Texas ranch hand, persevered to become the Mark Twain of the early twentieth-century holiness movement. And, at the height of his ministry, he was dubbed the "the most popular man in America." This book explains how a man who originally came from nothing eventually came to personify an entire subset of American Christianity and what it means for Christianity and evangelicalism today. The author examines how "Uncle Bud's" preaching brought together people from all walks...

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....

Sermons preached before a congregation are only one way people hear messages of faith. Whether the listener is seated in a pew or listening to a podcast or a book about faith, most of the faith-talk people hear is shaped by a speaker's faith sensibility. And those faith sensibilities can generally be distinguished as four distinctly different "voices" of preaching. Understanding what these voices are, how they differ in purpose as well as design, and how excellence in each voice can make for greater authenticity in communicating faith is what this book is about. The author canvases the tradition of...

Unwrapping the Gift of Communication provides readers with theoretically sound principles and guidelines for relational communication. God created human beings with the gift of language which allows us to communicate and build relationships. Unfortunately, this "gift" can often cause problems and strain relationships. Fortunately, God was aware of the challenges communication could create and we have been given Scripture to help us figure out how to unwrap the gift and use it in a positive way. This book takes several contemporary communication concepts and uses Scripture to illustrate what that theory means and how to apply it to your everyday...

A university professor and two young middle school English teachers weave recent educational research on humor with examples from C.S. Lewis's Narnia Chronicles to make a compelling case for teaching teachers how to relax and enjoy the wild things in the classroom. Using Lewis's foundational ideas on the four sources of laughter--Joy, Fun/Play, the Joke Proper, and Flippancy--they illustrate how children begin to lose their gentle and affiliative laughter through the middle school years, often becoming mean, cruel, and cynical, and then suggest ways to counter the downward trajectory and revive the joy and fun of learning. What makes the...

The author brings a career of academic and professional directing experience to inform readers how to select, prepare, and mount a production for the stage. At the same time, he expresses the disciplines, joys, and rigors of the faith-based walk as a framework for this creative journey. The aesthetic requisites for stage directing are combined with an exploration of what it means to be a practicing artist under God's creative mandate. The author demonstrates how one's worldview as a Christian finds reflection in a world of visual and aural metaphors within a stage production.

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.

In this updated and expanded edition, Schultze and invited guests consider the moral and social costs of today's sophisticated technology, arguing that the benefits of a cyberculture can be better appreciated by refocusing on the traditional Judeo-Christian values of discernment, moderation, wisdom, humility, authenticity, and diversity. Contributors reflect on Schultze's original offering --first published more than 20 years ago--and evaluate its arguments in light of today's fast-paced, ever-changing technological landscape. Contributors suggest ways in which Schultze's original arguments and critiques offer continued hope and a clear path forward in digital environs filled with personal and institutional burdens. Theoretical connections between...

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...

This book provides an approach to writing playscripts for the theatre by the Christian writer. In part one, it establishes the aesthetics of story and situates the faith-based writer within a more theoretical context. Part two examines story structure elements and tools that will equip the writer to continue her journey in realizing her full creative potential through the written word. Throughout, the author reflects on why the preponderance of students he taught over 40 years who classify themselves as Christians rarely try and integrate their faith experience into their written creative work. In response, before concluding the author offers...

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...