How a church lost everything and gained what matters most.In 1763, George Washington visited The Falls Church and declared its building "rotten and unfit for repair." A fine brick colonial church was soon built on the spot. It witnessed key moments of American history, but by 1979 the church had become a sleepy place. A young pastor and a renewed focus on Jesus changed that. Within a decade, the church was building a new sanctuary to host thousands on its historic property....

Over 200 ,000 copies sold!Have you ever wondered why we Christians do what we do for church every Sunday morning?Why do we "dress up" for church? Why does the pastor preach a sermon each week? Why do we have pews, steeples, and choirs? This ground-breaking book, now in affordable softcover, makes an unsettling proposal: most of what Christians do in present-day churches is rooted, not in the New Testament, but in pagan cult...

“Between Heaven and Mirth will make any reader smile. . . . Father Martin reminds us that happiness is the good God’s own goal for us.” —Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New YorkFrom one of America’s most beloved spiritual leaders and the New York Times bestselling author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything and Jesus: A Pilgrimage Father James Martin, SJ, comes a revolutionary guide to Christian living that looks at how you...

Brush up on the people, places, and events every Christian should know about with this fascinating, accessible guide. Ideal for pastors and speakers.

The church of today did not appear on the earth fully formed but developed over the centuries through historical events that, while they may seem distant, have a direct effect on our everyday lives. Following Jesus's command to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth, the apostles and their spiritual descendants have grown the church through times of peace and times of war, through persecution and pilgrimage. The church that began as a rag-tag group of Middle Eastern fishermen, tax coll...

The Church exists today in its current form because of the people who have come before us. Who were those people? Staid and dour scholars? Cultural movers and shakers? How does their contribution to history affect us today?From a consummate storyteller comes this collection of inspiring biographical sketches of people who played pivotal roles in advancing the Kingdom of God on earth. In rich prose and spanning twenty centuries of church history, these engaging narratives range from...

Christianity has long been criticized as a patriarchal religion. But during its two-thousand-year history, the faith has been influenced and passed down by faithful women. Martyrs and nuns, mystics and scholars, writers and reformers, preachers and missionaries, abolitionists and evangelists, these women are examples to us of faith, perseverance, forgiveness, and fortitude.With gracious irreverence, Ruth Tucker offers engaging and candid profiles of some of the most fascinating wom...

“It would be difficult to imagine anyone reading this book without finding some new insight or inspiration, some new and unexpected testimony to the astonishing breadth of Christianity through the centuries.” — Philip Jenkins, author of The Lost History of Christianity“Interesting, insightful, illuminating, and remarkably relevant.” — Marcus Borg, author of The Heart of ChristianityIn the tradition of Howard Zinn comes a new kind of church history that rev...

In their zeal for reform, early Protestant leaders tended to throw out Saint Benedict with the holy water. That is a mistake, writes Dennis Okholm, in Monk Habits for Everyday People. While on retreat in a Benedictine abbey, the author, a professor who was raised as a Pentecostal and a Baptist, observed how the meditative and ordered life of a monk lifted Jesus' teachings off the printed page and put them into daily practice. Vital aspects of devotion, humility, obedience, hospita...

Many people have questions about the Catholic faith, both non-Catholic and Catholic alike. In A Minute in the Church Volume II, Gus Lloyd answers common questions to and objections about the Catholic faith - and in just a minute!If you or someone you know has questions or misunderstandings about the Church's teachings on annulment, euthanasia, capital punishment, receiving Communion, the clergy sex abuse scandal and many other things, this book is for you!

Could you spare five minutes per day to get acquainted with some truly fascinating people and events? If so, you'll love The Christian History Devotional, where each day you'll learn more about your "spiritual family," people who are as much a part of the rich Christian heritage as the people of the Bible.In these 365 vignettes you'll meet some names that will be familiar: Billy Graham, Martin Luther, C. S. Lewis, John Wesley, Mother Teresa, Francis of Assisi, Augustine, C...

The legendary Episcopal Bishop tells of his lifelong struggle to champion an authentic christianity based on love, not hatred.