Joseph Hellerman (PhD, UCLA) is Professor of New Testament at Biola University. He also currently serves as Team Pastor at Oceanside Christian Fellowship Church. Hellerman's other publications include The Ancient Church as Family, Reconstructing Honor in Roman Philippi, When the Church Was Family, and Jesus and the People of God.

Many of us long to experience the fullness of God and his purpose for our lives. Not a whole lot of us ever do. The reason is that we have departed in some significant ways from the biblical view of Christian life and growth. The New Testament highlights the communal, missional, and eschatological aspects of our walk with God. We grow in our faith as individual Christians to the degree that we are (a) deeply rooted relationally in a local church community that is (b) passionately playing its part in God's grand story of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration, and (c) intently anticipating the summing of all things in Christ when Jesus returns. In recent decades, American evangelicals have traded away community, outreach, and the Bible's teaching about eternity future for the pursuit of individual religious experience in the here-and-now. Why We Need the Church to Become More Like Jesus traces this departure from biblical Christianity through recent decades of popular evangelical trends and reminds us that faith centered on community, mission, and the story line of Scripture remains the key to the spiritual formation of the individual Christian.

A study of the early Christian church in the Mediterranean region and its emphasis on collective good over individual desire clarifies much about what is wrong with the American church today.

The Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament (EGGNT) closes the gap between the Greek text and the available lexical and grammatical tools, providing all the necessary information for greater understanding of the text. The series makes interpreting any given New Testament book easier, especially for those who are hard pressed for time but want to preach or teach with accuracy and authority. Each volume begins with a brief introduction to the particular New Testament book, a basic outline, and a list of recommended commentaries. The body is devoted to paragraph-by-paragraph exegesis of the Greek text and includes homiletical helps and suggestions for further study. A comprehensive exegetical outline of the New Testament book completes each EGGNT volume.

Embracing Purpose is a Bible study and small group process designed to satisfy a God-given longing that most people experience at some point in their lives: we want to make a difference. We want to give our lives away to something beyond ourselves. But we don't know how. The Embracing Purpose package, which includes a workbook, a 10-message DVD series and Leader's Guide, offers everything a church needs to equip women to find, love and live their God-given purpose (and everything an individual needs to discover her purpose). Participants who complete the course will come away with answers to two key questions -Who am I? and What am I to do with the time, talents and treasures God has given me? They will have discovered and labeled their unique design from God, written a purpose statement and developed a purpose plan for walking out their purpose.Embracing Purpose self-discovery workbook has four components--a narrative of the author's own journey toward purpose, a Bible study to explore the biblical foundation for pursuing a life of purpose, self-discovery exercises and stories of women who are living out their God-given purpose. The video messages do not repeat the content found in the workbook but supplement it with additional concepts, primarily focusing on barriers or roadblocks that are common to women.

How can you share your faith with confidence and joy?

Plan for beginning an effective women's ministry.