Community Theology

Every church, every organization, has experienced them: betrayal, deception, grumbling, envy, exclusion. They make life together difficult and prevent congregations from developing the skills, virtues, and practices they need to nurture sturdy, life-giving communities.

The role of personal prayer, worship in common, everyday work, and Christian service is treated in simple, almost biblical, words. Life Together is bread for all who are hungry for the real life of Christian fellowship.

In True Community, best-selling author Jerry Bridges guides you through koinonia and its implications for today’s church. With discussion questions at the end of each chapter, this book will help you dig deeper into what Christian community in the 21st century should look like. You will come away with a new appreciation for fellowship, the church, and what God intended the body of Christ to be.

We know that Urban isn't just a place but a culture now. Followers of Jesus face many challenges to their faith, among them the rising influence of contemporary cults, alternative theologies, and ethical issues that challenge traditionally held beliefs and practices. Urban Apologetics: Cults and...

It is woven into the fabric of modern evangelicalism. The subject of numerous books, conferences, and sermons every year, it’s promoted as essential for a vibrant relationship with Christ, and a measure of the maturity of your faith. What is it? Hearing God speak personally, outside of Scripture.

In a time of compromise and disillusionment, God is calling his people to a movement of beautiful resistance. We live in a time when our culture is becoming increasingly shallow, coarse, and empty. Radical shifts in the areas of sexuality, ethics, technology, secular ideologies, and religion...

Winner of The Gospel Coalition Award of Distinction in Theological Studies Recipient of the Southwestern Journal of Theology's award of Honorable Mention in Theological Studies What Does it Mean to Live a Christian Life? Is Christian life mostly a matter of distinct morals, or does Christian...

The local church is more than just a structure or a weekly gathering; it is a thriving community of believers. It is a place where hearts are united, lives are transformed, and relationships are strengthened. We find a family in the local church that loves, supports, and challenges us to grow in our faith. We discover a sanctuary of grace within these walls, where brokenness is met with compassion and forgiveness flows freely. It is a place where we learn to worship together by raising our voices in unison and surrendering to the One who is worthy of all honour and praise. However, the ...

Researchers have uncovered the following three trends: First, distrust of institutions, including the church, is at an all-time high. Second, young people raised in the church are leaving at alarming rates and not returning. Third, loneliness and social isolation are at pandemic levels. What’s the connection? It appears that an entire generation is starving for the very thing the church is called to provide but has chosen to look for it elsewhere. Why is this happening?

Unique among most debates on homosexuality, this book presents a constructive dialogue between people who disagree on significant ethical and theological matters, and yet maintain a respectful and humanizing posture toward one another. Few topics are more divisive today than homosexuality. Two...

Muslims who come to Christ face momentous spiritual, psychological and social obstacles that drive many to abandon their faith. Often conversion and discipleship are framed by individualistic Western models that do not acknowledge the communal cultural forces that constrain and shape new believers. Effective discipleship requires a more relational, holistic process of Christian identity development and spiritual formation in community.

Today, many of us have lost our appreciation of the beauty of covenant theology and covenant community, and this has had dire consequences for us, resulting in misunderstandings of theology and individualism and isolationism in the church. Author Sarah Ivill believes that a key solution to this problem is a robust understanding of covenant theology, which will deepen our knowledge of Scripture and enable us to truly serve our sisters by pointing them to Christ.

Hyper-individualism and consumerism are failing to satisfy our hunger for meaning. We face an identity crisis in which real community is increasingly hard to find. The culture wars have been painful and polarizing and have proved a poor way to agree any kind of moral standards. Is it even possible to find a vision for goodness that can bring us together? Rumors of a Better Country addresses our hunger for justice and a better way of living by awakening our moral imagination to the potential of a trusting community.

In this study Wilmer Estrada-Carrasquillo constructs a Pentecostal lived ecclesiology by exploring how lived faith informs the way people interact in their lived spaces. Because of their eschatological vision, Pentecostals have been caricatured as detached from surrounding culture and unconcerned about contemporary events. Yet this study uncovers the Pentecostal voices and churches that are thinking seriously about the ways their spirituality impacts the public sphere. Estrada-Carrasquillo argues that Pentecostalism needs to ‘revision’ itself constantly and that the topic of theology ...

An exploration of Paul's role as a pastoral theologian in the early church.​ Through a close exegetical reading of Paul's letters, this volume shows how Paul prioritized moral formation and community-building in his pastoral ministry and placed the practice of communal discernment in churches...

FAIRACRES PUBLICATIONS 035 In this paper, read in 1974 at the York Conference of Anglican Religious Communities, Lampe discusses the Holy Spirit as the Christian experience of God’s activity in manifesting Christ to us and uniting us with Christ. Who and what is the Spirit? What does it say to us, what does it represent, and how can we observe the Spirit at work? The subject of the Holy Spirit could well embrace the whole range of Christian faith and practice, but this brief discussion focusses upon when and why Christians use ‘Holy Spirit’ language in their thinking about God and his...

How can we love our neighbors amid so much division and hurt? Loving your neighbor as yourself would be easy if your neighbors were all people you understood, people you agreed with, people like you. But what about playground bullies, colleagues, refugees, online adversaries? They're all our...

From one of America’s most prominent ministers comes an inspiring, provocative reflection on the necessity of community, the inevitability of conflict, and the transformative power of radical love. “I so love and admire the work and witness of Pastor Amy Butler.”—Anne Lamott “Here is...

FAIRACRES PUBLICATIONS 098 Amidst the conflicts and concerns of modern life our zeal and hope for Christian Unity has flagged. We need a fresh vision and this requires growth in prayer. 'It is the purpose of this essay to seek to root our prayer for unity more deeply in the life of God himself, in the unceasing intercession of the Praying Christ, in the Blessed Trinity who is life-in-communion,' writes Bishop Tomkins, whose prayerful, scholarly examination of the High Priestly Prayer in John 17 and the Rublev icon of the Trinity will surely enlarge our vision of the circulating life of the ...

In this book psychologist Kelly Flannagan shows how each of us has within ourselves, exactly the way we are, the gifts that are needed to cultivate the life-long relationship we are longing for, whether it is within marriage or friendship. He shows us how self-knowledge leads the way to growing in love for both God and others.