You go to church on a Sunday morning. It's Communion Sunday and when it comes time for Communion, the presider issues an invitation on behalf of Jesus because it's Jesus' table, not the church's table. However, this invitation includes qualifiers. Are you baptized? Are you a member of the denomination? Do you affirm the church's doctrinal statement? Have you repented of your sins? In other words, are you worthy? In Eating with Jesus, Robert Cornwall asks whether these fences around Christ'...

What happens when a newspaper editor gives his primary editorial slot on Sundays to a pastor?In the case of Bob Cornwall, a pastor in Troy, Michigan, the result is a series of relevant, interesting, and challenging essays that go well beyond the local scene while still managing to be relevant to Americans in their local situation. Now extensively revised and organized as to theme, these essays form a coherent statement of progressive Christianity at work in the pub...

Christians can accept evolution without dumping God.Worshiping with Charles Darwin: Sermons and Essays Touching on Matters of Faith and Science, shows why and how we can logically and religiously embrace both. Dr. Robert D. Cornwall uses mind and heart, empirical evidence and Scripture to cogently guide pastors, theologians, lay leaders, and congregants through the troubling waters of one of the most controversial topics plaguing Christianity today. When t...

Robert Cornwall’s revision of Visible and Apostolic, which brings the original book up to date, demonstrates how High Church Anglican and Nonjuror ecclesiology underlay many important controversies that faced church and state during the period 1688 to 1745, a period that ran from the Glorious Revolution to the final Jacobite rebellion in 1745. High Churchmen and Nonjurors—the latter being High Churchmen deprived of their positions because they refused to renounce allegiance to Jam...

2nd Expanded EditionAll too frequently studies of the gifts of the Spirit consist largely of answering two questions: "What are the gifts?" and "Which ones do I have?" In many cases studies go on to a third question: "How can I get more?"In response, institutional churches and theologically and intellectually respectable Christians often tend to avoid the work of the Holy Spirit in the church entirely. It's much easier to simply close the doors and windows ...

What does your spiritual DNA look like? In terms of your spiritual identity, where do you come from and where are you going? We live in an age when many Christians have experienced several denominational and religious communities. Many wonder what to do with these experiences. At the same time many congregations are made up of people who come from different traditions, and the question is how to bring these diverse experiences into the life of the congregation in an enriching way. If we ta...

This is a study guide on marriage. Discussions include: covenant vs contract, concepts of biblical marriage, loneliness and looking for a mate, the realities of divorce, and family in the larger community. I titled the study guide "Marriage in Interesting Times," because we are living at a time when profound changes in the way marriage is understood.Not that long ago, it was assumed by many in American society that traditional marriage not only involved a man and a woman, but the m...

In an age of decreasing denominational loyalty, questions of identity have become important. Both church members and inquirers wonder what to make of a denomination's core values, mission, and common practices. Because the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) was born as a movement of reform on the American frontier during the early nineteenth century, it is marked by the time and place of its birth. The message it offered at the time was one of Christian unity rooted in theological simp...

Are you looking for an exceptional Lenten study? This study guide may be your answer!Since its publication, Ultimate Allegiance: The Subversive Nature of the Lord's Prayer by Robert D. Cornwall has been used frequently for Lenten studies. Now the author presents a short study guide, six or seven weeks in length, to help you get the most out of your study.This book is useful for a small group or church-wide study.

Theology is often seen as a discussion of dry doctrines, suitable mostly for academic institutions, but separated from the practice of faith. In this third volume of the Academy of Parish Clergy's Conversations in Ministry series Dr. Bob Cornwall, church historian, theologian, and pastor, shows the ways in which one's theology shapes one's ministry in the church and in the world.Besides discussing the theological roots of ministry and mission, this book is firmly placed in the 21st...

"Prayer changes things."It's a common saying, and too often Christian discussion of prayer deals only with how we can change other things and other people through prayer. But what if prayer is much more than we imagine? What if it is also the means of correcting our relationship to the Creator and at the same time of changing our relationships with one another? Perhaps prayer can ultimately help transform our theology, what we believe about God, into character and ...

What do the letters of John, tucked away near the end of the New Testament, tell us other than that we ought to love one another? That's a good message but can we put some muscle into it?With the help of Dr. Robert D. Cornwall and his new study guide on the Letters of John in the Participatory Study Series, we certainly can Cornwall guides us through a historical, theological and practical study of these three little letters, taking 1st century material, helping us...