Christians share a commitment to the inerrancy of Scripture, but have we slipped on our commitment and understanding of sufficiency? We believe the Bible is true, but do we believe it is enough for every matter of faith and practice? Rob Rienow allows us to reexamine this vital doctrine and understand the foundation it sets for all future ministry. This book asks the reader to go beyond the knowledge of the authority of God's Word and let it shape and determine how ministry is carried out in the life of the church. Rienow gives a concise explanation of the sufficiency of Scripture. He also goes beyond that foundation to examine how it impacts all of ministry. Discover not only what God is calling you to do, but how He wants you to do it.

Reclaiming the Center is a valuable contribution to the study of contemporary evangelicalism. It is a guide for how evangelicals can move forward with wisdom and discernment without succumbing to the spirit of this age.

Today, many believe the gospel is nothing more than the basics of Christianity – the first of many steps toward a victorious life of joy. The gospel of Christ is believed, accepted, and then laid aside as the believer searches for the abundant life. Do you remember the joy you felt when Jesus first saved you from your sin? Before you knew it, ministry programs, self-help principles, and moral mandates drew you away from the very gospel that first captivated you. Since then you have struggled to recapture that victory for living. Far too many believers experience this loss of vitality in their spiritual lives. In fact, this decline is so common that many say a declining passion is to be expected as a Christian matures! Even worse, because of our inept view of the gospel, many non-believers disregard the Bible's evidences of salvation, joining the millions of unfulfilled believers in a fruitless search for peace. In Reclaiming Victory: Living The Gospel, author Jason R. Velotta dispels the idea that salvation is just the doorway on the road toward victorious living. With an informative yet captivating style, Reclaiming Victory brings God's Word to the forefront, showing that the gospel itself is the victorious Christian life! Believers will find that the life of fulfillment is waiting at Calvary, exactly where we left it. Disregard the 'recovery' mindset, which has led to helplessness and apathy, for the gospel is not just the door to salvation...It is the source of the victorious Christian life! Your Savior is waiting...your fulfillment has always been in Him...Victory is already yours!

God is radically dedicated to our ongoing growth in spiritual maturity and holiness. This is both glorious and terrifying. It is glorious because the Lord of heaven and earth is for us. But it is terrifying because we are idolaters. This means that when God brings greater redemption into our lives he also brings a death sentence to our fallen desires. In love, God will do whatever it takes - even tearing us to shreds if necessary - to replace our feeble pleasures with lasting desire for himself. Sadly, in our culture two false responses to suffering have become deeply embedded in the Church: deadly dualism and shallow stoicism. Each can effectively hijack God's good purpose in suffering. Torn to Heal equips us to understand and reject these false and self-defeating approaches to suffering, and to embrace God's good purpose in our trials.

When the organization and structure of the church in America was altered in the early 1900s to meet modern demands, the role of the pastorate became more specialized to adapt to the burdens of the new, "efficient" structure. In 1920, Gaines Dobbins utilized the business efficiency model at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary to formulate a distinct ecclesiology. Discontent with traditional methods of instruction in theological education, Dobbins sought to implement theories and methodologies from modern educationalists. He adopted a psychologized educational methodology and utilized the psychology of religion as an empirical measure of the soul, human nature, and human behavior. Use of the social sciences seemed to grant Dobbins, as a practitioner, academic respectability within the realm of theological education. Both the professionalization that resulted from Dobbins's efficiency standards, and a working theory of human nature derived from psychological models, were synthesized into a specialized system of pastoral care. Dobbins followed the new shape of pastoral theology in America, adopting Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) as the model for pastoral training. As a result, CPE became an integral part of the curriculum at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for over sixty years, and spread to influence many other SBC entities.

What impact is the Calvinist/non-Calvinist debate having on the Southern Baptist Convention today? This book holds a theological conversation between followers of Christ about issues on which they often disagree. And while such controversial points of doctrine cannot be ignored, neither should they put up impenetrable walls between groups that are committed to the same essential Christian beliefs. Calvinism: A Southern Baptist Dialogue brings together new presentations from noted Southern Baptists including Daniel Akin, Tom Ascol, David Dockery, Charles Lawless, and Ed Stetzer that address misperceptions, stereotypes, and caricatures of the debate over Reformed theology. Each strives to speak the truth in love and humility while seeking clarity in the presentation of the Gospel, improving the health of our churches, and seeking the kingdom of Christ above all. Endorsements: "What do we have to agree on? The doctrines of what it means for us to be lost, and of how we are saved could not be more important. This book explores how much we can disagree over these things and still work together. If you care about both evangelistic cooperation and doctrinal integrity, this book is a book for you." —Mark Dever, pastor, Capitol Hill Baptist Church and president of 9Marks.org

Have you ever had the experience of getting angry, upset, or worried about something—only later to discover some crucial fact you hadn’t known? Or have you ever been delighted with something or someone, and later found out you’d been had? Something you had not taken into account explained everything in a different way. You had no reason at all ...