What is Hip Hop? Hip hop speaks in a voice that is sometimes gruff, sometimes enraged, sometimes despairing, sometimes hopeful. Hip hop is the voice of forgotten streets laying claim to the high life of rims and timbs and threads and bling. Hip hop speaks in the muddled language of would-be prophets--mocking the architects of the status quo and stumbling in the dark toward a blurred vision of a world made right. What is hip hop? It's a cultural movement with a traceable theological center. Daniel White Hodge follows the tracks of hip-hop theology and offers a path from its center to the cross, where Jesus speaks truth.

How do Christians grow? Few question the call of the Bible to grow in godliness, but the answer to exactly how this happens is often elusive.

In this book, Dane Ortlund points believers to Christ, making the case that sanctification does not happen by doing more or becoming better, but by going deeper into the wondrous gospel truths that washed over them when they were first united to him.

Drawing on wisdom from figures throughout church history, Ortlund encourages readers to fix their gaze on Jesus in the battle against sin, casting themselves upon his grace and living out their invincible identity in Christ.

Sensing Sacred is an edited volume that explores the critical intersection of "religion" and "body" through the religious lens of practical theology, with an emphasis on sensation as the embodied means in which human beings know themselves, others, and the divine in the world. The manuscript argues that all human interaction and practice, including religious praxis, engages "body" through at least one of the human senses (touch, smell, hearing, taste, sight, kinestics/proprioception). Unfortunately, body-and, more specifically and ironically, sensation-is eclipsed in contemporary academic scholarship that is inherently bent toward the realm of theory and ideas. This is unfortunate because it neglects bodies, physical or communal, as the repository and generator of culturally conditioned ideas and theory. It is ironic because all knowledge transmission minimally requires several senses including sight, touch, and hearing. Sensing Sacred is organized into two parts. The first section devotes a chapter to each human sense as an avenue of accessing religious experience; while the second section explores religious practices as they specifically focus on one or more senses. The overarching aim of the volume is to explicitly highlight each sense and utilize the theoretical lenses of practical theology to bring to vivid life the connections between essential sensation and religious thinking and practice.

Contemplative Youth Ministry is rooted in Mark Yaconelli's experience of co-directing the acclaimed Youth Ministry and Spirituality Project. Through this project, churches and youth ministers have explored contemplative prayer, discernment, spiritual direction, covenant community, spiritual practice and Sabbath-living as a way of resourcing ministries with youth. The results have been transformative, and this engaging book, richly illustrated with personal stories, provides refreshment and new ways of thinking for anyone who has grown weary or disillusioned with the vital tasks of working with and caring for young people.

The essays in this volume stress the legitimacy and importance of the role of administering comfort and reassurance to the terminally ill. This book is a practical guide for caring for the dying and those they leave behind, written especially for the clergy. The book is divided into three sections: an overview of the pastoral role; death and dying; and loss and grief. Among the topics covered are community resources, interdisciplinary care skills; education and research; working with health care professionals; loss as an experience in living; family issues in coping with change and loss resulting from surgery and chronic illness; and issues and strategies in managing anticipatory grief and bereavement.

Based on his work with young children at the Episcopal School of New York, teacher and storyteller Gordh offers a collection of stories from the Bible, arranged and told to create a meaningful childhood chapel for children ages 3-7 and their families. Originally conceived as a resource for use in day schools, it is also ideal for use in Sunday church schools in Episcopal and other mainline congregations.

This exciting resource contains: Advice and tips on creating a children's chapel, including challenges of using available space Techniques for retelling stories for young listeners, including the use of songs and artwork Suggestions for including parents in the chapel experience and for making chapel meaningful to families from many faiths and backgrounds More than 30 Bible stories, organized thematically, including the Creation, Noah, the GoodSamaritan, Abraham, Ruth, the Last Supper, David and Goliath, Moses and Passover, Easter, Hanukkah, the Three Wise Men, the Prodigal Son Collection of songs to support the story themes, with lyrics, musical notation, and easy-to-learn refrains

Interwoven into the threads of Hildegard Dehmel Jensen's life are incredible healings and divine interventions. In St. John 15:27, Jesus, speaking to His disciples, said, "And you also must testify" (NIV). Through her writings compiled in this book, Hilde testifies to the miracles she has witnessed in her life, and to the great God she has faithfully served. A Continuous Miracle shares the fascinating stories of Hilde's life growing up, from her childhood in Germany to her family's experiences in America. May they inspire the reader to a greater faith in God and remind us all of His enduring promises.