"David Champlin is a black man born into poverty in Depression-era New Orleans who makes his way up the ladder of success, only to sacrifice everything to lead his people in the civil rights movement. Sara Kent is the white girl who loves David from the moment she first sees him, and who struggles against his belief that a marriage for them would be wrong in the violent world he has to confront. And the "five smooth stones" are those the biblical David carried against Goliath."--Amazon.com website

Whereas much of the current literature on pastoring stresses up-to-date training and new techniques stemming from the behavioral sciences, Eugene Peterson here calls for returning to an "old" resource--the Bible--as the basis for all of pastoral ministry. Originally published in 1980 and now being reprinted to meet continuing demand, Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work shows how five Old Testament books provide a solid foundation for much of what a pastor does: Prayer-Directing: Song of Songs Story-Making: Ruth Pain-Sharing: Lamentations Nay-Saying: Ecclesiastes Community-Building: Esther Pointing to the relevance of ancient wisdom, adapting Jewish religious tradition to contemporary pastoral practice, and affirming a significant link between pastoral work and the act of worship, this book opens up to pastors a wealth of valuable practical-theological insights.

A veteran pastor and university president urges ministries to center themselves entirely on five princples: the Bible, the Congregation, the Spirit, the Plan of Redemption, and the Lord Jesus.

Being a collection of sentences, illustrations, and quaint sayings, from the works of that renowned Puritan, Thomas Brooks.

Street-level apologetics for everyday Christians. This book was written for two reasons: First, too many people think believing in Christianity means blind faith, against all evidence, the way a child believes in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Second, every few years a new book intended to undermine Christianity becomes a best seller and shakes the faith of many. Yet the arguments in these books are rarely compelling. Jesus likened faith in God to a house built on a foundation. If built on sand, storms of doubt will tear the house apart. But if we build on a solid foundation, we will stand. In these pages, Joe Coffey inspects our foundation -- so we can know why we believe, and so we can speak of our faith to others with greater confidence and clarity. The conclusion? The Christian faith is built on a tremendous amount of credible evidence. You don't need to be a scientist, an historian, an archeologist, or a philosopher to understand why belief in Jesus makes perfect sense. Think of the last time an unbeliever asked you a seemingly unanswerable question as a way of supporting their unbelief. Did you feel thwarted in your attempt to "give an account for the hope that is in you"? Smooth Stones answers six of the toughest of these questions: How do you know God exists? How can you be sure the Bible is authentic and true? If God exists, why is there evil and suffering? Doesn't science disprove the Bible? Aren't all religions the same? How can you be sure the claims of Christ are true? Joe Coffey writes in a style that is clear, winsome, and compelling. Smooth Stones will equip you with answers to some of the toughest apologetics questions a Christian can face. There is plenty of evidence to support the claims of Christianity. Smooth Stones puts much of that evidence at your fingertips and offers practical guidelines for how to unpack it in ways that are "gentle and reverent."