Preaching has fallen on hard times with many questioning its relevance and even its validity as a New Testament practice. This symposium of specially commissioned essays draws together an international team of thirteen scholars and pastors to address the importance of textual preaching in the history and life of the early church, the historic church, and the contemporary church. Contributions include essays on Old Testament preaching; preaching in Eastern Orthodoxy; gender-sensitive preaching; and preaching in the theology of Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It also includes essays on a range of homiletical challenges that textual preaching raises for the contemporary preacher, including genre, preaching without notes, inhabiting the text, and preaching without platitudes. A final reflection by Dave Hansen on the state of textual preaching rounds out the collection. The preaching of the gospel stands at the heart of Christian praxis. These essays make a vital contribution to the recovery of the importance of preaching, focused on the text of Scripture. Written with an eye to the pastor and practitioner as well as those in the pews and in the classroom, this is a book that is appealing to a wide range of readers.

The Day Is Yours is a protest against the culture of speed both in society at large but also, more ominously, in the church itself. Rooted in the monastic liturgy of the hours, The Day is Yours argues that in order for Christians to act as a truly prophetic witness, in a time of cultural decadence, they must recover a more biblical rhythm in which work, rest, relationships, worship and prayer are held together in creative tension. Written by a pastor, the central thrust of The Day Is Yours is that living one day at a time with gratitude and contentedness is vital, lest the church capitulates to the distractedness of modern life.

Description: Preaching has fallen on hard times with many questioning its relevance and even its validity as a New Testament practice. This symposium of specially commissioned essays draws together an international team of thirteen scholars and pastors to address the importance of textual preaching in the history and life of the early church, the historic church, and the contemporary church. Contributions include essays on Old Testament preaching, preaching in Hebrews, gender-sensitive preaching, preaching in the theology of Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and in Eastern Orthodoxy. It also includes essays on a range of homiletical challenges that textual preaching raises for the contemporary preacher, including genre, preaching without notes, inhabiting the text, and preaching without platitudes. A final reflection by Dave Hansen on the state of textual preaching rounds out the collection. The preaching of the gospel stands at the heart of Christian praxis. These essays make a vital contribution to the recovery of the importance of preaching, focused on the text of Scripture. Written with an eye to the pastor and practitioner as well as those in the pews and in the classroom, this is a book that should appeal to a wide range of readers.

In Primitive Piety Ian Stackhouse takes us on a journey away from the safe world of suburban piety, with its stress on moderation and politeness, and into the extreme and paradoxical world of biblical faith. As someone who has pastored churches in suburbia for the last twenty years, the author is convinced that so much that passes off as Christian faith falls short of the radicalism or primitivism that we see in the pages of scripture: a primitivism that includes honest lament, dogged prayer, raw emotions and heart-felt desire. In a culture in which there is every danger that we all look the same and speak the same, Stackhouse argues for a more gritty kind of faith - one that celebrates the oddity of the gospel, the eccentricity of the saints, and the utter uniqueness of each and every church.

The first in the Deep Church series, this book is an enquiry into the culture of revivalism and the urgent need to retrieve core ministry practices of the church. Charismatic Renewal has at the core of its ideology an aspiration for revival. This is a laudable aspiration, but in recent years, in the absence of a large-scale evangelistic impact, it has encouraged a faddist mentality among church leaders. The Gospel Driven Church documents this development and the numerous theological and pastoral distortions that take place when genuine revival fervour transmutes into revivalism. Moreover, Stackhouse aims to show how a retrieval of some of the core practices of the church, such as preaching, sacraments, the laying of hands and prayer is essential at this crucial stage in the trajectory of the renewal movement in the UK. He commends to church leaders a recovery of these means of grace - including Spirit baptism - as a way of keeping the church centred on gospel rather than mere pragmatic concerns about size and numbers. - A constructive critique of present-day Evangelicalism. - Mounts a powerful attack on many of the fads found within the church today.- Paints a picture of what the gospel driven church should look like.