Create Worship Spaces Where Everyone Can ParticipateIf people with disabilities are to fully participate, worshiping communities must go beyond providing physical accessibility. In this groundbreaking book, a diverse group of authors provides resources for churches and individuals to center disability: to take seriously the lived experience of disabled people, learn from their wisdom, and transform how we pray, worship, and speak about faith.Centering D...

Including People with Disabilities Is Essential to Your Church's WitnessGod wants people of all abilities to be active participants in his kingdom. But churches have not always made it clear that people with disabilities are both part of God's story and fully welcome in their communities. If the church is to be a credible witness, it must reach and include people with disabilities within its evangelism, mission, and everyday life.In Disability and Evang...

Nearly twenty percent of adolescents have developmental disabilities, yet far too often they are marginalized within churches. Amplifying Our Witness challenges congregations to adopt a new, practice-centered approach to congregational ministry -- one that includes and amplifies the witness of adolescents with developmental disabilities. Replete with stories taken from Benjamin Conner's own extensive experience with befriending and discipling adolescents with developmental disabilities, Am...

In recent decades churches have accommodated people with disabilities in various ways. Through access ramps and elevators and sign language, disabled persons are invited in to worship. But are they actually enfolded into the church's mission? Havethe able-bodied come to recognize and appreciate the potential contributions of people with disabilities in the ministry and witness of the church?Benjamin Conner wants to stimulate a new conversation between disability studies and Christian theol...

Building on the work and legacy of Darrell L. Guder, Converting Witness: The Future of Christian Mission in the New Millennium, explores key questions and new possibilities in missiology in light of the world Christian context. The conversation around missional theology and the missional church has examined the gap between theology and mission with the intent of fostering renewal within North American Christianity. But this can only fully occur in relation to the reality of world Christian...

This interdisciplinary conversation combines educational theory with Bible scholarship to help teachers of the Bible move beyond conveying information to revealing the transformative power of the scripture.

Building on the success of his 1992 collection Foundations of Ministry (over 17,000 sold), Michael Anthony offers Introducing Christian Education to fill the need in the C.E. curriculum for an introductory foundations textbook--one that provides an overview and understanding of the broad range of subjects included in C.E.--for college and seminary use.Thirty-one chapters are offered under the following sections: 1) Foundations of C.E.; 2) Developmental Perspective...

For Christian education professors and students, Christian Formation provides a composite view of human development and learning from integrated theory, theology, and educational practices in the church. By design, the book integrates these elements into a cohesive foundational piece for Christian education. Contributors include:• James Estep - “Christian Anthropology: Humanity as the Imago Dei,” “Developmental Theories: Foe, Friend or Folly?” “Moral Development an...

Michael Beates's concern with disability issues began nearly 30 years ago when his eldest child was born with multiple profound disabilities. Now, as more families like his are affected by a growing number of difficulties ranging from down syndrome to autism to food allergies, the need for church programs and personal paradigm shifts is greater than ever.Working through key Bible passages on brokenness and disability while answering hard questions, Michael offers helpful principles...

Professor, mentor, author, disability advocate, seminar leader around the worldDr. David Anderson corralled his many talents and worldwide experiences to author this important book. The volume should prove invaluable to Christians concerned about disabilities, especially teachers. Without flinching, Dr. Anderson tackles the tough issues: How could a good and benevolent God permit disabled children? Are disabilities the result of sin? How does a Christian teacher of the disabled differ from...

Christian pastoral care is a narrative, ecclesial, theological practice (NET). As a narrative practice, pastoral care attends to the inseparable interconnection between our own lifestories, others’ stories, the larger cultural stories, and God’s story. As a ministry of the church, pastoral care is an ecclesial practice that derives its motivation, purpose, and identity from the larger mission of the church to bear witness to and embody God’s mission of love that extends beyond the church f...

Unspeakable probes the relationship between trauma theory and Christian theology in order to support preachers in the task of crafting sermons that adequately respond to trauma in the pews and the world at large. How might sermons contribute to resiliency and the repairing of wounds caused by traumatic experiences? This book seeks to provide a theological lens for preachers who wonder how their 'beautiful words' can address suffering amid traumatic wounding. Preaching is a healing discours...