"We are currently experiencing the largest and fastest religious shift in US history. It is greater than the First and Second Great Awakening and every revival in our country combined but in the opposite direction. Yet precious little rigorous study has been done on the broad phenomenon of dechurching in America. Jim Davis and Michael Graham have commissioned the largest and most comprehensive study of dechurching in America by renowned sociologists...

"The life and teachings of Jesus changed the world forever--but what happened after the events of the Gospels? How did Christianity grow from a small group of followers to one of the largest religious movements in human history? How did the first Christians survive in an oppressive Roman Empire? What did the early church believe, and how did they worship? The World of the First Christians: A Curious Kid's Guide to the Early Church answers these questions...

Best-selling author and ministry leader Thom S. Rainer drew an exceptional response when he posted a 500-word declaration about church membership to his daily blog. "I Am a Church Member" started a conversation about the attitudes and responsibilities of church members — rather than the functional and theological issues — that previous new member primers all but ignored.
Thoughtfully expanded to book form, I Am a Church Member...

A lost history revealing that, for centuries, Christianity's center was actually in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, with significant communities extending as far as China.

Torn by the love for a handsome aristocrat, a young slave girl clings to her faith in the living God for deliverance from the forces of decadent Rome.

Written by a preeminent religious historian, this book provides an introduction to early Christian thought. Focusing on major figures such as St. Augustine and Gregory of Nyssa, as well as s host of less well-known thinkers, Robert Wilken chronicles the emergence of a specifically Christian intellectual tradition. In chapters on topics including early Christian worship, Christian poetry, and the spiritual life, the Trinity, Christ, the Bible, and...

Atretes, German warrior. Revered gladiator. He won his freedom through his fierceness ... but his life is changed forever when he learns his son is alive. Atretes vows to find his son and return to Germania. Only one thing stands in his way: Rizpah, the young widow who adopted his abandoned baby. But Atretes is undaunted. One woman should be no trouble at all. It doesn't take him long to find out just how wrong he is.

Shares accessible explanations of the biblical doctrines and historical traditions that underlie Catholicism's beliefs and practices, introducing basic tenets while sharing reflections on how to apply Catholic wisdom to everyday life.

Church membership is not just a status, it's an office. Leaders shouldn't fire members from the responsibilities given to them by Jesus—they should train them! When members are trained, the church grows in holiness and love, discipleship and mission. Complacency and nominalism are diminished.
Jesus gives every church member an office in the church's government: to assume final responsibility for guarding the what and the who...

"Witham's highly readable history of the American sermon strongly bolsters the contention that words change minds and alter the course of events." —Booklist
Pivotal moments in U.S. history are indelibly marked by the sermons of the nation's greatest orators. From colonial times to the present, the sermon has motivated Americans to fight wars as well as fight for peace. Sermons have provoked the mob mentality of witch hunts...