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Pre-order: This item is scheduled for release January 9, 2012. For an additional 20% discount on this item during the pre-order period, use the coupon code PRE at checkout.

When you hear the words “in the original text it says” or “in the original text this means,” it’s time to be wary. Those words often provide the introduction to misleading information. But how can the hearer discern just what is correct and what is misleading? How can pastors avoid giving their congregations misleading information?

“In the Original Text It Says” takes a look at word-study fallacies and how you can avoid them. Author Ben Baxter gives an introduction to word meaning and how word meaning differs between languages. He then examines a series of fallacies, errors that people make in assigning meaning to words in the original languages of the Bible.

But he doesn’t leave it with that theoretical examination. After providing the basis for how to understand Biblical words, he examines the discussion of specific words and phrases from passages in both the Old Testament and the New. He takes these examples from commentaries commonly used by pastors and teachers in sermon and lesson preparation. With each example, he shows how one might misunderstand the linguistic evidence provided, and also how one can properly apply this information.

This book is designed for readers who have had some contact with Greek or Hebrew, but will also be useful to those who have more language skill, but may not have studied linguistics or looked carefully at how to apply their knowledge in teaching.

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Pre-order: This title is on pre-order. Release is expected February 27, 2012. For a 20% discount on pre-orders, use the coupon code PRE4 on checkout.

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 public square. At the same time they are seasoned with a look at how the public square influences the spiritual life of a Christian living in mid-America. The 52 essays in this collection go well beyond one place and time. You will find yourself, your community, your state, your nation, and your world in each.

Can a person of faith be involved in the public square with integrity? Is public policy made better by this action? Can faith remain whole and genuine following the encounter? Read these essays to discover the answers, and perhaps find a new optimism for the future as you do.

Pre-order: This title is on pre-order. Release is expected February 13, 2012. For a 20% discount on pre-orders, use the coupon code PRE5 on checkout.

The cross has always been a scandal and sometimes a source of ridicule. At the same time, it is the central symbol of Christianity. Author William Powell Tuck believes that the cross has never been more relevant than it is today. It may be difficult to preach the cross, but it is the duty of Christians to do so. “As long as the church lifts up a hollow, aluminum foil cross instead of a heavy wooden cross, we will always be guilty of heresy in the message we present to the world,” he says.

In the pages of this book you will start by looking the cross as the central symbol of the gospel, a symbol that you cannot forget if you want to preach and live an authentic gospel. From there you will look at how the cross illuminates our understanding of God, and then to the way it guides the way we will teach and serve.

The cross is truly a difficult subject to preach, both because we stand amazed at what it represents and because of what it calls for each of us to do. But however difficult it is, we must not avoid it. Only if we become the church under the cross will we be the genuine body of Christ.

Pre-order: This item is scheduled for release January 23, 2012. For an additional 20% discount on this book during the pre-order period, use coupon code PRE2 at checkout.

A questioning approach lies at the heart of our relationship with God. That’s how God engages us. In fact, questioning (or free inquiry), is central to our being human. Yet the major monotheistic religions vary markedly on this matter. In The Questioning God, Dr. Greenham examines the three major monotheistic religions, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, to see how they relate to questioning, both the questions that God asks us, and the questions that we ask about God. His goal is to develop a biblical theology of questioning, avoiding a loss of direction and focus that results from selective questioning, and also a loss of humanity that results from bypassing our questions through an inappropriate submission.

The examination is wide ranging, including chapters on questioning in Islam, Judaism, evangelical and mainline Christianity, along with an examination of the consequences of a non-questioning culture. He ends the book with a proposal for a biblical theology and a look at the practical implications–just what does it mean to pursue this questioning culture.

The author finds that questions are not just valuable, they are essential for serious human interaction. “As questioning beings,” he concludes, “there is no limit to what we might ask, but our questions must always be anchored in the questioning God’s enduring concern to engage us.”

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The church in America has come to depend on professionals to “do ministry.” In many churches, the pastor, paid to do the job, is the one who is expected to carry out all functions of the church.

But it was not always this way. Jesus came as God-in-the-flesh. The pattern portrayed in the New Testament is that every Christian is part of the body of Christ, and the function of Christ’s body is to be incarnational, to be Jesus Christ for the world (John 20:21).

Author David Alan Black takes on this attitude of outsourcing our mission in his shortest book, yet one he has said might be the most important that he has written: Will You Join the Cause of Global Missions? If you expect here a call to go to seminary and become a professional missionary, you will be sorely disappointed. Instead, Dave calls for us to replace outsourcing with insourcing. Instead of looking for professionals to do the ministry while the rest of us fill the pews, he is pointing us back to the Gospel Commission and the call on every Christian life to fulfill that Commission.

It is not enough in the 21st century to put a little bit of money into the church and expect the pastor and paid staff to do the work. Each one of us is called to also give of our time and talents.

This little book might be dangerous. You may not be able to put it down without seeing your life radically changed. In fact, the book ends with a call to make precisely that promise.

So will you join the cause of global missions?

(Put me on a waiting list for this book! You will be notified when the book begins shipping.)