Books published by Abingdon Press

How Christian is evangelism? How biblical is it? In Call and Response: Biblical Foundations of a Theology of Evangelism, Walter Klaiber seeks answers to such provocative questions. After reviewing the different understandings of evangelism abroad today (fundamentalist, charismatic, pietist, liberationist), he articulates the conviction that evangelism is a central part of the church's mission. At its most basic level, asserts Klaiber, evangelism is the announcement of the good news of salvation to those both outside and inside the church. This understanding of the nature of evangelism provides the basis for the two major themes of the work. The first is a discussion of evangelism in the New Testament in terms of its original contexts and meanings. Here Klaiber examines the rich variety of New Testament images for the task of evangelism, which range from the announcement of glad tidings to the poor, to the revelation of God's righteousness. The second is the question of the significance of personal decision in evangelism. Here the biblical evidence provides the foundation for the author's discussion of the nature and necessity of conversion.

Black Religious Experience is an examination of the role Christian education has played in the African American community, as seen in the work of one of its greatest interpreters, Grant Shockley. In 1903, W. E. B. DuBois coined the term "double consciousness" to refer to the fact that African Americans always view the world through two lenses. First, they see it from their own perspectives as members of an oppressed community, living out the consequences of a particular history. Second, they perceive life from the point of view of a dominant culture that seeks to impose on African Americans its own false understanding of their status and worth. Christian educators working in the African American community have often drawn on this idea as they seek to apply the gospel to the spiritual formation of members of that community. The heart of the work of Grant Shockley, the preeminent African American religious educator of the twentieth century, was combating the negative attitudes and perspectives that the larger society would dictate to African Americans, while providing positive and powerful images of their self-worth drawn from the Christian story. Charles R. Foster and Fred Smith, friends and colleagues of Shockley, seek in this book to interpret the significance of his work for Christian education, both in the African American community and beyond it, for the twenty-first century. They draw on personal encounters as well as Shockley's written and published materials to indicate how this seminal thinker continues to speak to the need for faith formation in Christian congregations today.

Contributors from diverse backgrounds in the United States and around the globe reflect on radical and liberation traditions in Methodism in their own context. In conversation with contemporary Methodism and the Wesleyan heritage, each chapter focuses on the question how radical and liberation traditions provide new visions for the present and future of the church. Contributors include: Ted Jennings Jr., John J. Vincent, Joerg Richer, Josiah Young Jr., Andrew Sung Park, Mercy Amba Oduyoye, Stephen Hatcher, Jose Miguez Bonino, Harold Recinos, Rebecca Chopp, Cedric Mayson, Jong Chun Park, and Jione Havea.

This groundbreaking book has given birth to new congregations, rejuvenated tired leaders, and transformed declining churches. By telling the story of thriving church life through the experience of the institutionally alienated, spiritually yearning public, Bandy provides the big picture of thriving church life in the postmodern world. "Desechando Habitos not only challenges the Hispanic church to rediscover faithfulness today, hut reveals that there is a better way to organize effectively as the body of Christ.

For more than a decade, Howard Clinebell's Understanding and Counseling the Alcoholic has been considered the standard work in the field. This updated edition of Clinebell's earlier book expands his work on counseling to encompass the care of persons with drug addiction, behavioral addictions, multiple addictions, and co-dependency. The volume includes a new annotated bibliography. "This is the most comprehensive summary on understanding and counseling persons with addictions of which I am aware. The book should be part of every counselor's library." --Anderson Spickard, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Vanderbilt Internal Medicine Associates "This invaluably revised work on addiction is inclusive and comprehensive. Building upon seminal research in alcoholism, this expansive explication of the etiology, treatment, and after-care of those afflicted and affected by addictions provides a pragmatic proposal of care for all practitioners. It gleans the best from the past, appropriates the research of the present, and provides a vision of what effective care might be in the future.--Robert H. Albers, Professor of Pastoral Theology at Luther Seminary and Editor of The Journal of Ministry

How is it that we come to know ourselves as Christians? What were the elements of John Wesley's work that contributed to spiritual formation for a Christian life, and how did these elements interrelate? Focusing on matters of formation and transformation in faith, Sondra Matthaei answers such questions in light of early Methodist practices of formation. Through research and dialogue with Wesleyan scholarship and constructive proposals related to the life of the church, this insightful study encourages faithful and imaginative approaches to spiritual formation in churches today. The focus of this book is on matters of formation and transformation in faith. The book answers the question "How do we come to know ourselves as Christian?" and analyzes this question in light of early Methodist practices of formation and an ecology of education within the Methodist movement. The reader will come to understand John Wesley's idea of character formation and moral transformation. The reader will understand how Christian and vocation are shaped through spiritual formation and will understand the role of structures and relationships (family, school, church, etc.) in spiritual formation.

Everyone knows about the rocky relationship between science and theology brought about by the revolutionary proposals of Copernicus and Darwin. Fewer people know about an equally revolutionary scientific innovation that is currently under way among neurobiologists. This revolution in brain research has completely rewritten our understanding of who we are. It poses fundamental challenges to traditional Christian theology. According to the sceintific worldview that now dominates, it is no longer necessary to speak of a soul or spirit as distinct from the functions of the brain. Nor is it possible from the scientific point of view to biologically distinguish humans from animals. How then, are we to answer the fundamental theological question? Who am I? What am I doing here? Why do I do what I do? In more classical theological terms, what does it mean to be saved? How am I responsible for my behavior? What is the meaning of resurrection? What happens when I die?

In a time when the United Methodist Connectional System is being questioned throughout the denomination, this volume explains the roots of the system, its rationale, and its success. Chapter essays: Connectionalism and Itinerancy; Constitutional Order in United Methodism and American Culture; African American Methodists; Methodist Identities and the Founding of Methodist Universities; Redesigning Methodist Churches: Auditorium Style Sanctuaries; Wesley's Legacy of Social Holiness; United Methodist Campus Ministry; The Effect of Mergers on American Wesleyan Denominations; Determinants of the Denominational Mission Funding Crisis; and others.

This volume contains the edited versions of the major presentations made to the second Consultation on Theology and Evangelism, sponsored by the Foundation for Evangelism and held at Wesley Theological Seminary, 9-12 March 1995. The theme of the Consultation was "Christ for the World: Evangelism in the Contemporary Church and World". Nineteen bishops of The United Methodist Church were invited by the Foundation for Evangelism to address this theme, and a number of seminary professors and church leaders were invited to attend and to serve as respondents to the presentations of the bishops. The contributions of thirteen of the bishops have been carefully edited for publication by Jim Logan. The bishops whose presentations are included are: Neil L. Irons, R. Sheldon Duecker, George W. Bashore, Ann B. Sherer, Richard B. Wilke, Bruce P. Blake, Hae-Jong Kim, Elias G. Galvan, Ruediger R. Minor, Woodie W. White, Kenneth L. Carder, Alfred L. Norris, and Arthur F. Kulah. Also included in a appendix is a sermon by Joseph H. Yeakel. The collection is introduced by James Logan. This book clearly and accessibly presents what the bishops of The United Methodist Church have to say about the church's evangelistic task in the modern world. It brings together the thought of a diverse group of denominational leaders and summarizes the theological and historical roots of the denomination's role in evangelism. By providing readers with easy access to this collection of presentations, this book enables readers to know what the denominational leaders see for the future of the evangelistic task of the church in the modern world.

In Starting Small Groups: Building Communities That Matter, Jeffrey Arnold discusses small groups and details step-by-step the method for designing a small-group ministry to fit a congregation's unique situations. Adapted from a workbook format that allows each congregation to identify its own particular needs and character, this resource includes ways to plan, envision, and strategize for the formation of small groups. The author looks at significant issues related to designing or revamping a small-group ministry, including group types; group structure; leadership training and support; marketing; recruiting people into groups; answering the why, when, how, and what of groups; and evaluating so that positive changes can be continually made. Ending each chapter is a series of workbook-style questions. The answers to these questions form the structure and content of each church's unique ministry design. While individuals, committees, and churches work their way through the questions, they may consult the sample strategy contained in an appendix at the end of the book. The writing style employed in this resource is simple, graphic, and easy to read. It is written so that both laypersons and pastors will be comfortable using it. Stories abound so that a process that may seem difficult comes to life in these pages.

Asserting that the "return to Wesley" that is represented in the Quadrilateral is "intellectually wrongheaded," William J. Abraham argues that the Quadrilateral is not, and should not be, United Methodist doctrine. Abraham's lively treatise makes a provocative appeal for a reasoned exploration of the significance of the UMC's doctrinal identity. He reveals how churches have faced incompatible doctrinal proposals within their midst and examines the specific issues facing the United Methodist church as a whole.

This handbook contains everything a congregation needs in order to plan, launch, and stabilize contemporary worship services. Three formats for contemporary worship are unwrapped: (1) spirited-traditional, (2) contemporary praise, and (3) contemporary seeker (or outreach-oriented) services. Brief defining articles-which work well as handouts with worship teams-precede each resource kit.

An introductory-level textbook from one of the best-known professors of preaching in the U.S., The Sermon: Dancing the Edge of Mystery offers a well-shaped, imaginative, and delightfully spry overview of the sermon. The reader will learn here of the revolution in homiletics of the past 25 years, and will be helped to understand the sermon in terms of the movement of time, place, shape, space, conflict, complication, and the "sudden shift" of the text.