When Helping Hurts



TITLE: When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself AUTHOR: Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert PUBLISHED: 2010 PURCHASE:When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor... and Yourself    CLASS: LEADER:

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:   Churches and individual Christians typically have faulty assumptions about the causes of poverty, resulting in the use of strategies that do considerable harm to poor people and themselves. When Helping Hurts provides foundational concepts, clearly articulated general principles and relevant applications. The result is an effective and holistic ministry to the poor, not a truncated gospel. A situation is assessed for whether relief, rehabilitation, or development is the best response to a situation. Efforts are characterized by an "assest based" approach rather than a "needs based" approach. Short term mission efforts are addressed and microenterprise development (MED) is explored. Show More Show Less

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A Faith of Your Own: Naming What Your Really Believe

A Faith of Your Own: Naming What You Really Believe by Ronald Allen

TITLE: A Faith of Your Own: Naming What You Really Believe AUTHOR: Ronald Allen PUBLISHED: 2010 PURCHASE:A Faith of Your Own: Naming What You Really Believe   CLASS: Friends In Faith (Fall 2012) LEADER: Sherard Edington

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:  A faith should be a living thing. What we believe necessarily evolves in response to insights into the Bible, to questions or doubts we face, to changes in life circumstances, or to things that happen in the larger world. Nevertheless, Christians often find it helpful to identify what they can most fully believe at a given moment. Such clarity empowers the present and leads us toward the future. Such moments can also be mile markers by which we measure our faith journey. In each chapter the first section lists the most common ways a certain topic is understood in the Bible. The second section identifies important ways the church has interpreted that topic since the Bible's inception. The third section introduces contemporary perspectives. With that foundational knowledge, readers can make a judgment as to which viewpoints seem more or less persuasive to them personally. Finally, each chapter ends with questions for reflection for individuals or small groups. Show More Show Less

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No Wonder They Call Him The Savior by Max Lucado

TITLE: No Wonder They Call Him The Savior AUTHOR: Max Lucado PUBLISHED: 1993 PURCHASE:  No Wonder They Call Him the Savior: Chronicles of the Cross CLASS: Women's Class (Spring 2012) LEADER: Class

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:  You've probably wrestled with this question. Maybe you've gone through the acts of religion and faith and yet found yourself at a dry well. Prayers seem empty, goals unthinkable. But resting on the time line of history is the part that really matters.

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Small Acts of Grace

TITLE: Small Acts of Grace AUTHOR: Alice Gray PUBLISHED: 2006 PURCHASE:  Small Acts of Grace: You Can Make a Difference in Everday, Ordinary Ways CLASS: Women's Class (Spring 2012) LEADER: Class

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:  Among the many wondrous ways of a woman is the inborn desire to make a difference in the world. For as long as she can remember there has been a deep longing to nurture, comfort, help, teach, and bless those around her. A woman's dreams can be as magnificent as training a child, as lofty as launching a corporation, as gentle as wrapping her arms around someone in need, or as innovative as a little girl opening a lemonade stand to raise money for charity. In Treasures for Women Who Make a Difference, best-selling author Alice Gray helps women celebrate the joy in touching someone else's life with help and hope. At the same time it is a guide for those still looking for their path of purpose. Show More Show Less

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Dependent Rational Animals: Why Human Beings Need the Virtues by Alasdair MacIntyre



TITLE: Dependent Rational Animals: Why Human Beings Need the Virtues AUTHOR: Alasdair MacIntyre PUBLISHED: 2001 PURCHASE:  Dependent Rational Animals: Why Human Beings Need the Virtues (The Paul Carus Lectures) CLASS: CrossRoads (Fall 2012) LEADER: George Gebhardt

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:  To flourish, humans need to develop virtues of independent thought and acknowledged social dependence. In this book, a leading moral philosopher presents a comparison of humans to other animals and explores the impact of these virtues. Show More Show Less

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James

James by Douglas Moo



TITLE: James AUTHOR: Douglas J. Moo PUBLISHED: 2009 PURCHASE:  James (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries) CLASS: Women's Class (Fall 2012) LEADER: Class

AMAZON DESCRIPTION:  "The Bible is being translated, commented on, read, studied, preached and analyzed as never before. But it is questionable whether it is being obeyed to a comparable degree," says Douglas Moo in the preface to his commentary on James. "All this suggests that the message of James is one that we all need to hear--and obey. No profound theologian, James' genius lied in his profound moral earnestness; in his powerfully simple call for repentance, for action, for a consistent Christian lifestyle. His words need to thrust through our theological debates, our personal preconceptions, our spiritual malaise and set us back on the road to a biblical, invigorating, transforming Christianity." The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries have long been a trusted resource for Bible study. Written by some of the world's most distinguished evangelical scholars, these twenty volumes offer clear, reliable, and relevant explanations of every book in the New Testament. These Tyndale volumes are designed to help readers understand what the Bible actually says and what it means. The introduction to each volume gives a concise but thorough description of the authorship, date, and historical background of the biblical book under consideration. The commentary itself examines the text section by section, drawing out its main themes. It also comments on individual verses and deals with problems of interpretation. The aim throughout is to get at the true meaning of the Bible and to make its message plain to readers today. The original, unrevised text of this volume has been completely retypeset and printed in a larger, more attractive format with the new cover design for the series. Show More Show Less

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Stories from the Backside

Old Testament Stories from the Backside by J. Kalas

TITLE: Old Testament Stories from the Backside AUTHOR: J. Ellsworth Kalas PUBLISHED: 1996 PURCHASE:  Old Testament Stories from the Back Side CLASS: Women's Class (Spring 2010) LEADER: Class

AMAZON DESCRIPTION: Using an approach similar to that in his book Parables from the Back Side, popular author J. Ellsworth Kalas brings a new perspective to selected Old Testament stories by approaching them from the back side through a unique starting point, a creative retelling, a new lens, or the eyes of a minor or unsympathetic character.

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In the Name of Jesus

          In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen

 

TITLE: In the Name of Jesus AUTHOR: Henri Nouwen PUBLISHED: 1989 PURCHASE:  In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership CLASS: Crossroads (Spring 2012) LEADER: George Gebhardt

AMAZON DESCRIPTION: Henri Nouwen was a spiritual thinker with an unusual capacity to write about the life of Jesus and the love of God in ways that have inspired countless people to trust life more fully. Most widely read among the over 40 books Father Nouwen wrote is In the Name of Jesus. For a society that measures successful leadership in terms of the effectiveness of the individual, Father Nouwen offers a counter definition that is witnessed by a "communal and mutual experience." For Nouwen, leadership cannot function apart from the community. His wisdom is grounded in the foundation that we are a people "called." This beautiful guide to Christian Leadership is the rich fruit of Henri Nouwen's own journey as one of the most influential spirtiual leaders of the 20th century.

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Jesus: A Very Short Introduction

Jesus: A Very Short Introduction by Richard Baukman

TITLE: Jesus: A Very Short Introduction

AUTHOR: Richard Bauckman

PUBLISHED: 2011

PAGES: 125

AMAZON

CLASS: Friends in Faith (Spring 2012)

LEADER: Sherard Edington

AMAZON DESCRIPTION: Award-winning religious scholar Richard Bauckham here explores the historical figure of Jesus, evaluating the sources and showing that they provide us with good historical evidence for his life and teaching. To place Jesus in his proper historical context, as a Jew from Galilee in the early first century of our era, Bauckham looks at Jewish religion and society in the land of Israel under Roman rule. He explores Jesus' symbolic practices as well as his teachings, looks at his public career and emphasizes how his actions, such as healing and his association with notorious sinners, were just as important as his words. Bauckham writes that Jesus was devoted to the God of Israel, with a special focus on God's fatherly love and compassion, and like every Jewish teacher he expounded the Torah, but did so in his own distinctive way. After a discussion about the way Jesus understood himself and what finally led to his death on a Roman cross, Bauckham concludes by considering the significance Jesus has come to have for Christian faith worldwide.

CLASS LEADER'S COMMENTS: This is a scholarly work which challenges the work of the Form Critics and views the gospels as eyewitness accounts of Jesus of Nazareth. The scholarship is sound. This was a tough book to teach because the information is extremely dense and the reading was a bit dry. Also, the print is VERY SMALL--almost too small. The book should come with reading glasses.
--Sherard

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In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen

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