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Everyone knows about the rocky relationship between science and theology brought about by the revolutionary proposals of Copernicus and Darwin. Fewer people know about an equally revolutionary scientific innovation that is currently under way among neurobiologists. This revolution in brain research has completely rewritten our understanding of who we are. It poses fundamental challenges to traditional Christian theology. According to the sceintific worldview that now dominates, it is no longer necessary to speak of a soul or spirit as distinct from the functions of the brain. Nor is it possible from the scientific point of view to biologically distinguish humans from animals. How then, are we to answer the fundamental theological question? Who am I? What am I doing here? Why do I do what I do? In more classical theological terms, what does it mean to be saved? How am I responsible for my behavior? What is the meaning of resurrection? What happens when I die?

In a time when the United Methodist Connectional System is being questioned throughout the denomination, this volume explains the roots of the system, its rationale, and its success. Chapter essays: Connectionalism and Itinerancy; Constitutional Order in United Methodism and American Culture; African American Methodists; Methodist Identities and the Founding of Methodist Universities; Redesigning Methodist Churches: Auditorium Style Sanctuaries; Wesley's Legacy of Social Holiness; United Methodist Campus Ministry; The Effect of Mergers on American Wesleyan Denominations; Determinants of the Denominational Mission Funding Crisis; and others.

This volume contains the edited versions of the major presentations made to the second Consultation on Theology and Evangelism, sponsored by the Foundation for Evangelism and held at Wesley Theological Seminary, 9-12 March 1995. The theme of the Consultation was "Christ for the World: Evangelism in the Contemporary Church and World". Nineteen bishops of The United Methodist Church were invited by the Foundation for Evangelism to address this theme, and a number of seminary professors and church leaders were invited to attend and to serve as respondents to the presentations of the bishops. The contributions of thirteen of the bishops have been carefully edited for publication by Jim Logan. The bishops whose presentations are included are: Neil L. Irons, R. Sheldon Duecker, George W. Bashore, Ann B. Sherer, Richard B. Wilke, Bruce P. Blake, Hae-Jong Kim, Elias G. Galvan, Ruediger R. Minor, Woodie W. White, Kenneth L. Carder, Alfred L. Norris, and Arthur F. Kulah. Also included in a appendix is a sermon by Joseph H. Yeakel. The collection is introduced by James Logan. This book clearly and accessibly presents what the bishops of The United Methodist Church have to say about the church's evangelistic task in the modern world. It brings together the thought of a diverse group of denominational leaders and summarizes the theological and historical roots of the denomination's role in evangelism. By providing readers with easy access to this collection of presentations, this book enables readers to know what the denominational leaders see for the future of the evangelistic task of the church in the modern world.

In Starting Small Groups: Building Communities That Matter, Jeffrey Arnold discusses small groups and details step-by-step the method for designing a small-group ministry to fit a congregation's unique situations. Adapted from a workbook format that allows each congregation to identify its own particular needs and character, this resource includes ways to plan, envision, and strategize for the formation of small groups. The author looks at significant issues related to designing or revamping a small-group ministry, including group types; group structure; leadership training and support; marketing; recruiting people into groups; answering the why, when, how, and what of groups; and evaluating so that positive changes can be continually made. Ending each chapter is a series of workbook-style questions. The answers to these questions form the structure and content of each church's unique ministry design. While individuals, committees, and churches work their way through the questions, they may consult the sample strategy contained in an appendix at the end of the book. The writing style employed in this resource is simple, graphic, and easy to read. It is written so that both laypersons and pastors will be comfortable using it. Stories abound so that a process that may seem difficult comes to life in these pages.

Asserting that the "return to Wesley" that is represented in the Quadrilateral is "intellectually wrongheaded," William J. Abraham argues that the Quadrilateral is not, and should not be, United Methodist doctrine. Abraham's lively treatise makes a provocative appeal for a reasoned exploration of the significance of the UMC's doctrinal identity. He reveals how churches have faced incompatible doctrinal proposals within their midst and examines the specific issues facing the United Methodist church as a whole.

This handbook contains everything a congregation needs in order to plan, launch, and stabilize contemporary worship services. Three formats for contemporary worship are unwrapped: (1) spirited-traditional, (2) contemporary praise, and (3) contemporary seeker (or outreach-oriented) services. Brief defining articles-which work well as handouts with worship teams-precede each resource kit.

An introductory-level textbook from one of the best-known professors of preaching in the U.S., The Sermon: Dancing the Edge of Mystery offers a well-shaped, imaginative, and delightfully spry overview of the sermon. The reader will learn here of the revolution in homiletics of the past 25 years, and will be helped to understand the sermon in terms of the movement of time, place, shape, space, conflict, complication, and the "sudden shift" of the text.

Drawing on a metaphor from Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi, Robert Dale claims that religious leaders must know, as never before, the "shape of the river" of religious and social change. Change, he argues, is the primary context in which Christian ministry now takes place. Pastors and other congregational leaders must embody the timeless values of the Christian message, yet do so in ways that are constantly flexible and open to revision. Fundamental to religious leaders in this new era will be adaptability rooted in character. Leadership for a Changing Church will enable readers to look ahead in anticipation, as they welcome the new challenges presented by ministry in an ever-evolving era.

The importance of Toward a Theology of Radical Involvement lies in its focus on the theological and ethical perspective of Martin Luther King Jr. By examining the multiple, competing images of King in both academia and the public square, Ivory argues that mass public confusion and ambiguity exist today about King's identity. Consequently, the more radical and prophetic thrust of his legacy of thought and action has been blunted.

Every clergyperson has a persona: the public role he or she assumes in performing ministry for a congregation or organization. For example, the roles of preaching, pastoring, and church administration "go with the territory" in most congregations. These tasks are part of the employment contract. Every clergyperson also has an anima: the true inner self, reflecting deeply held ideals of conduct. Because this inner core of being controls how a pastor lives out the details of ministry, anima determines how effectively he or she fits the needs of a particular congregation or ministry role. For example, a minister who relates poorly to youth is seldom productive as a youth minister. Listing twelve elements of the pastor's anima mix, Herb Miller asserts that clergy are effective to the extent that the conscious and unconscious choices they make in developing each of these elements fit the needs of the congregation or church organization they serve. In Leadership Is the Key, he offers practical ways to influence these choices and maximize effectiveness in ministry.

This companion to Practical Divinity, Volume 1: Theology in the Wesleyan Tradition enlivens and contextualizes the discussion of the Wesleyan theological tradition, from Wesley through the twentieth century, offering a group of landmark documents that allow readers to experience the very life-blood of the movement.

Stephen Breck Reid maintains that every reader of the biblical text views it through the lens of other contexts. That is to say, communal narratives, cultural myths and stories, and the reader's own experiences, influence what we bring to, and take away from, Scripture. Focusing on the Psalms--specifically what the Psalter has to say about what it means to be human--Reid demonstrates that many inadequate and harmful assumptions about the text, especially those drawn from the dominant culture, can be offset by readings from African American and Latino perspectives. Thus Reid draws on recent historical, critical, literary, and rhetorical scholarship of the Psalter, combined with an imaginative reading of African American, Latino, and other non-dominant cultural materials, to provide a compelling glimpse of a multicultural reading of Scripture.

In Who Comes in the Name of the Lord?, Harold J. Recinos advances the thesis that God has already prepared a future for mainline churches in Christ at the margins of society. That margin is the barrio -- a contemporary Nazareth -- judged by society as inferior, worthless, and productive of nothing good. Drawing on the biblical witness, Recinos develops a perspective that shows that God identifies with those who are poor, marginal, weak, and lowly in society. God's option for the lowly, he asserts, takes the form of incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth. God-in-Jesus is enfleshed in the history of an unimportant place known as Nazareth of Galilee. Nazareth, an inferior and worthless place, supports God on its barrio streets. Far from the Temple, on the town roads and with fisher-folk, Jesus first reveals in a fresh way the God of the poor and lowly. The cultural role of mainline Christians, argues Recinos, is not to be guardians of society; rather, mainline Christians and their churches are to shape and amend their culture in response to the work of God in human history. That work is imaged by feasting with the uninvited people who are kept isolated from mainstream society, yet presuppose the reality of God. Thus, Recinos argues for a missional ecclesiology suggesting that local congregations are instruments of a sacred love that renews the world of uninvited guests and forgotten people. The true church, he says, does not meet the anguished cry of people at the margins of life with silence but with dikaioma ("a just action") which assures shalom. The author then suggests several ways the local church can announce the reign of God and peace with justice, beginning in the barrio. "Once again, Harold Recinos opens up the gospel for us from the perspective of the barrio, and in particular of those recent immigrants who have arrived at the barrio as refugees from situations of unspeakable violence and dehumanization. This is a hard-hitting book about a hard-hitting Jesus. Not recommended for those who are looking for a soft, other-worldly word of inspiration. But certainly required reading for any who wish to be faithful to Jesus in our contemporary society!" --Justo L. González

Teresa of Avila, the sixteenth-century Spanish mystic, teaches you how to explore the interior castle that is your spiritual home. Room by room while praying, Teresa helps you explore these questions: Who is God? How can I communicate with God? and How can I shape my life so intentionally that I might embrace God? Dwight Judy is Teresa's assistant in this spiritual adventure, for he uses a variety of charts and exercises to help you inhabit your interior castle through prayer and meditation. Embracing God goes far beyond inspirational books on prayer; it requires a level of commitment to the spiritual life that is mature and deep. Teresa's approach will appeal to seasoned, introspective Christians, especially those who lead and nurture others who seek a greater intimacy with God.

A collection of essays by leading Wesleyan/Methodist scholars Richard Heitzenrater, Roberta Bondi, David Lowes Watson, Theodore Runyon, Jean Miller Schmidt, W. Stephen Gunter, and Randy L. Maddox. These essays demontrate the specific impact Wesley's Aldersgate had not only on his life and theology, but also on subsequent generations of Methodists.