Church Conflict

It turns out giving up your "right" to be offended can be one of the most freeing, healthy, simplifying, relaxing, refreshing, stress-relieving, encouraging things you can do. It's a radical, provocative idea: We're not entitled to get offended or stay angry. The idea of our own "righteous anger" is a myth. It is the number one problem in our societies today and, as Dallas Willard says, Christians have not been taught out of it. But what if Christians were the most unoffendable people on the planet?

As a child, Elias Chacour lived in a small Palestinian village in Galilee. When tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed and nearly one million forced into refugee camps in 1948, Elias began a long struggle with how to respond. In Blood Brothers, he blends his riveting life story with historical research to reveal a little-known side of the Arab-Israeli conflict, touching on questions such as: What behind-the-scenes politics touched off the turmoil in the Middle East?

You are invited to witness the enormous power of the early church when it connected to the ultimate power. Then you are invited to request and experience it for yourself. You will again witness the enormous power of the early church as you listen to The Acts of the Apostles, a remarkable commentary on the book of Acts. Then you are invited to request it and experience it for yourself and your church.

Throughout human history, certain drinks have done much more than just quench thirst. As Tom Standage relates with authority and charm, six of them have had a surprisingly pervasive influence on the course of history, becoming the defining drink during a pivotal historical period. A History of the World in 6 Glasses tells the story of humanity from the Stone Age to the 21st century through the lens of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola.

This book needs to be in the hands of every pastor, church leader, counselor, consultant, mediator, and leader in higher education, organizations, the workplace, and any other place where there are two or more people having two or more opinions. Its goal is to help a congregation or organization build inner resources that could stabilize life together and produce a more adequate and stable organization for the future.

Is religion a force for war, or a force for peace? Some of the most terrible wars in history have been caused and motivated by religion. Much of the violence that fills our screens today springs from the same source. Yet some of the bravest pacifists have also been deeply religious people, and many of the laws and institutions that work to soften or prevent war have deep religious roots. This Very Short Introduction provides an overview of the history of religion and war, and a framework for analyzing it.

Those who want to avoid simplistic partisan rhetoric and use words in a challenging, spirited way need practical strategies. This audiobook offers a range of them. Drawing upon the work of exemplary contemporary writers, Speaking Peace in a Climate of Conflict shows how to speak and write clearly and generously.

In today’s polarized context, Christians often have committed, biblical rationales for very different positions. How can Christians navigate disagreements with both truth and love? Tim Muehlhoff and Rick Langer provide lessons from conflict theory and church history on how to negotiate differing biblical convictions in order to move toward Christian unity.

Profiled on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, Iranian-born scholar Vali Nasr has become one of America's leading commentators on current events in the Middle East, admired and welcomed by both media and government for his "concise and coherent" analysis (Wall Street Journal). In this "smart, clear and timely" book (Washington Post), Nasr brilliantly dissects the political and theological antagonisms within Islam. He provides a unique and objective understanding of the 1,400-year bitter struggle between Shias and Sunnis, and sheds crucial light on its modern-day consequences—from the nuclear posturing of Iran's President Ahmadinejad to the recent U.S.-enabled shift toward Shia power in Iraq and Hezbollah's continued dominance in Lebanon.

Gay marriage, transgender rights, birth control - sex is at the heart of many of the most divisive political issues of our age. The origins of these conflicts, historian R. Marie Griffith argues, lie in sharp disagreements that emerged among American Christians a century ago. From the 1920s onward, a once-solid Christian consensus regarding gender roles and sexual morality began to crumble, as liberal Protestants sparred with fundamentalists and Catholics over questions of obscenity, sex education, and abortion.

April 13, 2006. A Jerusalem Post headline reads: "Jericho man murdered over home sale." The 42 year-old father of eight was kidnapped, shot seven times, thrown into his car, and set on fire, because he had sold his Jerusalem apartment to Jews. Radical Islam has long desired to seize Jerusalem and make it off limits to Christian and Jewish believers. In this revealing book, Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, reminds us that the war on terror is also a war on faith.

You hear about Israel in the news regularly, but beyond the many opinions and preconceptions, do you really know what to make of the conflicts and controversies in the Middle East? What Should We Think About Israel? exposes the main current issues and provides well-researched objective facts to help you learn the truth about Israel's past, present, and future. This compilation from experts including Walter Kaiser, Jr., David Brickner, Mitch Glaser, Michael Brown, Arnold Fructenbaum, and Steven Ger will help you answer the tough questions.

It has been famously pointed out that the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, but it was also not an empire in the sense people expect when hearing the term. In theory, the emperor was the highest prince in Christendom, and his dominion extended the length and breadth of Western Europe. The empire had been created by the papacy in 801 when Pope Leo III famously crowned the supposedly unwitting Charlemagne in Saint Peter’s Basilica, intending to recreate the Western Roman Empire. In truth, the imperial power did not extend beyond central Europe.

Christianity and Social Justice is everything Christians need to understand and answer the social justice movement in one audiobook. From its history, secular manifestations, and Christian variations, Jon Harris thoroughly describes the movement, shows how it threatens orthodoxy, and offers powerful responses.

God and spirituality are depicted and represented in different ways in the Christian Church versus the Twelve Step Program. If you are an addict attending both a Christian Church and a Twelve Step Program, each being entirely spiritual organizations, you might feel a significant conflict between how each one views the concepts of God and spirituality and what is likewise expected from you to belong. The Christian Church utilizes the Niacin Creed to state what it and all of its members are expected to believe, and the Twelve Step Program uses the "twelve steps" as a guide for each individual...

South Australia, 1914 When war against Germany erupts on the other side of the earth, a huge wave of suspicion, prejudice and persecution floods the community. There’s even a harsh concentration camp built for men branded as enemy aliens. Here in Adelaide, five diverse people are made vulnerable by the war. Elsie, gifted and ambitious child pianist, with German ancestry. Oskar, famous sportsman and businessman, also with German origins. Wilfred, a caring Anglican parish priest, opposed to the war. Pansy, an outsider by her very nature, but a fighter for justice to others. Little Neddy, a ...

American Zion is the story of the Bundy family, famous for their armed conflicts in the West. With an antagonism that goes back to the very first Mormons who fled the Midwest for the Great Basin, they hold a sense of entitlement that confronts both law and democracy. Today their cowboy confrontations threaten public lands, wild species, and American heritage.

"Bring My Sheep Back" presents a candid framework for the process of restoring Christians that stray. Most of the books that deal with this subject approach it from the standpoint of solving conflicts between Christians. "Bring My Sheep Back" is founded on Jesus’ teaching to put the interests of the straying Christian ahead of our own desire for immediate relief of pain caused by the one caught in sin. Personal observations along with much attention to biblical instruction produce a very useful and thorough resource for church leaders and lay people who desire to restore Christians ...

According to one song, “today is only yesterday’s tomorrow” - which means that tomorrow starts today! But we aren’t going to see our future by looking at the past. Yes, we need to celebrate and honor what has brought us to where we are. However, it will not be enough to get us to what God has in store. We need to let go of the old to receive the new.

Reader, There is hardly any subject in religion which is so much misunderstood as the subject of the “Church.” There is probably no misunderstanding which has done more harm to professing Chris-tians than the misunderstanding of this subject. There is hardly any word which is used in such a variety of meanings, as the word “Church.” It is a word that we hear constantly used, and yet we cannot help observing that different people use it in different senses. The English politician in our days talks of “the Church.” What does he mean? You will generally find he means the Episcopal ...