Confronting the Controversies is a 7-session group study of "tough issues" based on Adam Hamilton's sermons on these topics. The study is designed as a "fishing expedition," with tools and helps that will enable congregations to make the study a church and community wide outreach event, including sermon starters and promotion aids. The seven sessions are: The Separation of Church and State Creation and Evolution in the Public Schools The Death Penalty Euthanasia Prayer in Public Schools Abortion Homosexuality The Leader's Guide gives tips on setting up and facilitating a group, getting the most out of each session, and coordinating with church-wide activities. Includes reproducible worksheets, brief summaries of session content, discussion questions, and activities.

For many people, skeptics and believers alike, the Old Testament is rife with controversial passages and events that make both belief and sharing our beliefs with others difficult. Often our solutions have tended toward the extremes--ignore problem passages and pretend they don't matter or obsess over them and treat them as though they are the only thing that matters. Now with clarity of purpose and fidelity to the message and spirit of Scripture as a whole, Tremper Longman confronts pressing questions of concern to modern audiences, particularly young people in the church: - the creation/evolution debate - God-ordained violence - the historicity of people, places, and events - human sexuality Pastors, leaders in the church, and thoughtful and troubled Christians in the pews will find here a well-reasoned and faithful approach to dealing with the Old Testament passages so many find challenging or disconcerting.

This collection of essays examines Yugoslavia's dissolution and the subsequent wars.

How clear are your windows? How biblical is your worldview? Discover Your Windows analyzes how you think about your involvement in the church. The way you see your world drives your behavior. In this dynamic book, Church Doctor Kent Hunter explores ten worldviews (windows) that greatly affect your life and your church. Based on research of over 18,000 church members, Hunter reveals that most tensions in churches are focused on symptoms rather than the issues that lie behind them--conflicting worldviews.

Is the 'Full Gospel Baptist Church' truly Baptist, or is it Pentecostalism in disguise? Is the growing trend towards women serving as preachers and pastors biblical? Is the 'mega-church mania' that is sweeping the country doctrinally sound? Dr. Burwell not only addresses these issues, but he also issues a stinging indictment against the leadership of the National Baptist Conventions for their failure to develop and adopt doctrinal stances on these and other controversies. Falling prey, he says, to the fear of another convention split, the leadership has chosen to hide behind the veil of autonomy, sacrificing doctrine on the altar of dollars. As such, the National Baptist church has lost its identity and its distinctiveness. In a call for doctrinal integrity, Sho Nuff offers a biblical examination of more than a dozen major and minor controversies from a uniquely National Baptist perspective. Dr. Bill Burwell is a former Black nationalist who was converted to Christianity in 1978, after serving as co-founder, professor, and chairman of the Afro-American Studies department at California State University, Northridge for ten years. Leaving his pursuit of the PhD degree at the University of Southern California, and resigning his tenured position at the university in 1981, Dr. Burwell became a full-time seminarian pursuing the Master of Divinity Degree at Talbot Theological Seminary in La Mirada California, where after assisting in the development of a Minority Ministers Program; he briefly joined the faculty teaching at both the graduate and undergraduate level. After organizing and serving as Pastor-Teacher of the First Berean Christian Church in Los Angeles for eight years, Dr. Burwell left the pastorate and embarked upon the unique ministry of a full-time teaching evangelist. In addition to serving as a commentary writer for the NBC, USA Sunday School Publishing Board, he was a regular lecturer for more than six years at the National Conference of Christian educators held each December at the World Baptist Center in Nashville, TN. Over the past seventeen years he, with his faithful wife Kathy at his side, has traveled more than a million miles in the USA, the Virgin Islands, and Germany serving as Christian education consultant and lecturer to dozens of local Baptist district associations, state and national conventions. He and his wife Kathy currently reside in Palm Springs, California where they play active roles in the lives of their eight children and thirteen grandchildren.

Although many people suggest that Christianity is declining, research indicates that it continues to be the world's most popular worldview. But even so, the Christian faith includes many controversial beliefs that non-Christians find hard to accept. This book explores 12 issues that might cause someone to dismiss orthodox Christianity—issues such as the existence of suffering, the Bible's teaching on gender and sexuality, the reality of heaven and hell, the authority of the Bible, and more. Showing how the best research from sociology, science, and psychology doesn't disagree with but actually aligns with claims found in the Bible, these chapters help skeptics understand why these issues are signposts, rather than roadblocks, to faith in Christ.

The book draws together, in one source, divergent perspectives on critical issues or questions confronting the field of special education. Each issue is addressed in a pro/con format. Each contributing author was requested to outline his/her position on a particular issue and to provide the strongest supporting arguments and evidence available.