|
Updated 06/20/07
What About Religion and Science? A Study of Reason and Faith
By Paul E. Stroble
This book invites us to consider ways to remain confident in our faith as we understand and appreciate the discoveries and advances of science. How can Christians integrate, believe, or accept all the teachings of science, the Bible, and Christian tradition? How can we believe in both the discoveries of science and the Bible? Are science and religion compatible or incompatible? Does the Christian understanding that God created the universe exclude the findings and discoveries of science? What is the role of faith in the world of education? What can we believe about intelligent design? If we believe in evolution, can we believe in God? Does the Big Bang theory exclude God? If we are Christians, can we suppo9rt stem-cell research and cloning? Can science help us understand the afterlife? Does science negate or support prayer? What is the difference between faith and reason? Do they exclude or complement one another? As Paul Stroble addresses these questions and others, he helps us examine different possible ways that religion and science relate to each others and ways that science and religion provide meaning and value in our lives.
*Dr. Glen P. Perram, a Professor of Physics at the Air Force Institute of Technology is currently leading a Sunday school class at Concord UMC using this curriculum. You can contact him at perram@sprintmail.com if you would like his assessment of this book.
 Committed to Doing Right
GREAT THEMES OF THE BIBLE: Commitment
By Sharilyn S. Adair
The Bible presents great themes that are universally relevant for the faith formation of all human beings in all times and places. Great themes such as call, creation, covenant, Christ, commitment, community, God, hope, worship, tradition, faith, and justice provide points of encounter between contemporary life and the times, places, and people in the Bible. As we reflect upon faith issues in our daily lives, we can engage biblical themes in order to learn more about God and to interpret what it means to live with faith in God. The great themes of the Bible are the great themes of life.
COMMITMENT: COMMITTED TO DOING RIGHT looks at several Old Testament prophets and the historical contexts for their messages in Second Kings and Second Chronicles. The messages of the prophets consistently pointed to the relationship with God and its requirements for God’s people.
 Our Community Now and in God’s Future
GREAT THEMES OF THE BIBLE: Community
By Timothy Merrill
Our Community Now and in God’s Future is another in the GREAT THEMES OF THE BIBLE series. This book interprets the meaning of God’s love for today, using First John for insight. It draws on passages from Revelation to explore the new community in Christ and how that community will live in God’s new world.
The Grace of It All: Reflections on the Art of Ministry
By F. Dean Lueking
As a parish pastor Lueking writes this book for parish pastors, speaking frankly about his joys and his trials. He uses graphic illustrations from his daily life-describing, for example, the time he unhesitatingly tackled a burglar outside the church; or the sermon he had to give only once to make a point, beginning it with 90 seconds of uncomfortable silence. He speaks of the temptations of plagiarism or the lack of full honesty for the preacher. He describes the joys of sabbaticals and the challenges of retirement, which he has mastered by taking the advice of a friend and filling it with new opportunities for ministry to the global church.
 Seeking His Mind: 40 Meetings with Christ
By M. Basil Pennington O.C.S.O.
A Hindu Ashram. A Buddhist meditation center. A Cistercian monastery. Today, thousands of people, hungry to live more balanced and spiritually centered lives, flock to these sources of ancient wisdom.. According to M. Basil Pennington, one of the spiritual masters of our age, seekers who visit his monastery want to know the Christian method of transformation. He replies that it is lection divina – an ancient practice of sacred reading. This book presents forty Scripture passages from the life of Christ, paired with a compelling meditation by Basil Pennington. By sharing the fruits of his own lection, Pennington provides an illumination daily guide to “seeking His mind.”
 A Doubter’s Guide to Heaven: Walking a Path from Doubt to Trust
By Terry Giles
Often a crisis in life will bring about a crisis of faith. Confronted with our own mortality, sometimes we find we no longer are sure about what we know, and our hoped-for-promise of heaven collides with our deepest fears and doubts. In this book, author Terry Giles tells how his wife’s cancer diagnosis and his own subsequent crisis of faith lead him on a journey for answers to his painfully honest questions about the nature of life, the reality of life after death, and the true character of God. This book serves as a traveling companion not just for those in the midst of crisis, but for all faith pilgrims on journey s of their own. The author explores biblical texts in search of answers and discovery, and he provides a reassuring voice that there is hope of be found in moving from doubt to trust.
 Making a Joyful Noisemaker
By Mark Burrows
Have you ever wanted to play a Kazzoka? What about a Shake-a-sauruws? Or maybe you’re yearning to pick a peck of Panpipes? Then Make a Joyful Noisemaker is for you. Author Mark Burrows has left out all the most obvious instruments and takes you on a musical adventure through the hardware and grocery store
Make a Joyful Noisemaker provides photographs of each instrument and step-by-step instructions on how to make and play over forty unique musical instruments. Each instrument is made from easy-to-find materials (and often recycled materials), such as cardboard tubes, PVC pipes, aluminum cans, plastic soda bottles, and wooden craft sticks. In addition, the book provides Bible stories and activities that will give the children a chance to use these instruments in the classroom, in children’s choir, or in worship.
 Worship Leader Magazine: More of What You Need to Lead
Wow, where to start with this amazing resource? Worship leaders, musicians and more will get a lot out of this magazine. Great articles like Ancient-Future Worship, Song Craft: Songwriting and Inspiration and Lyrical Poetry are just the beginning to making your worship experience reach out and touch others. In addition, each issues comes with a SongDISCovery CD. This CD has songs recorded by the original artists, a Lead Sheet Booklet in PDF form, Lyrics in PowerPoint and Media Shout, and Chord Charts. With Worship Leader Magazine, you worship can go to a whole new level.
 Intimacy: Pursuing Love
Living the Good Life Together: A Study of Christian Character in Community
By M. Garlinda Burton
DO YOU WISH YOU WERE CLOSER TO GOD? Many of us feel that way and long to do something about it. In this study, M. Garlinda Burton explores how, as Christians, we can experience intimacy with God, with ourselves, and with others.
Topics include:
-
Knowing Who You Are – And Whose You Are
-
Seeing God’s Love in Others
-
Connecting With a Community of Faith
-
Practicing Intimacy as a Spiritual Discipline
As part of the study, you will read from this book, reflecting on the ideas presented and recording your thoughts and responses. Then in weekly group meetings, you will share your thoughts and hear the insights of others.
The Kit, available through Abingdon Press includes a participant’s book, a leader’s guide and a DVD with weekly video clips to enhance the session. NewSource currently has only the Leader and Participant books.
 Why Small Christian Communities Work
By Msgr. Timothy O’Brien with Margaret Gunnell
“This book is my effort to answer the question a professor of systematic theology asked me when I told him of my interest in small Christian communities. He simply asked, “Why?””
Why is the small Christian Community (SCC) movement sweeping through the American church, and what are the reasons for it? What are its roots? This book seeks to explain the development of SCC’s in today’s church by examining today’s Christology and ecclesiology.
 Jesus’ Parables about Making Choices
By James W. Moore
Parables slip up on us. They flip our values. They run our world upside down. They surprise us. This is the great thing about the parables of Jesus: They are always relevant and always personal. They speak eloquently to you and me, here and now. In this book, we will examine some of Jesus’ thought-provoking parables, parables about making choices, to see if we can find ourselves and God’s truth for us in these magnificent “truth-stories.” They are, after all, truth-stories from the mind of Jesus that can change our lives as they proclaim God’s truth for you and me.
 Strong Was her Faith: Women of the New Testament
By J. Ellsworth Kalas
In this book, popular author J. Ellsworth Kalas (The Thirteen Apostles, Parables from the Back Side) focuses on several women of great faith who were crucial, in ways both obvious and understated, to the story of the New Testament. In twelve chapters, the author looks into the life and times of eleven different women, with Mary the mother of Jesus being the focus of two chapters. Kalas examines the Scriptures to see what we can learn about these women and what we can learn from them, and how each woman is part of and shaped the New Testament story.
Nooma Resources are Here at NewSource!
NOOMA is the new format!
It's short films with communicators that really speak to us. Compact, portable, and concise. Each NOOMA touches on issues that we care about, that we want to talk about, and it comes in a way that fits our world.
Rob Bell is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan, one of the fastest growing chruchs in American history. He lives with his wife, Kristen, and their two boys in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For more information about Rob and NOOMA, click here.
If you are interested in learning more about how to use the Nooma resources in your Adult/Young Adult/Youth Sunday school class, Rachel Spry of Lutheran Church of Our Savior has been using them a lot this spring. You can contact her as ras@oursaviordayton.org to get her reaction about Nooma resources.
Highlight on Periodicals at NewSource
|
