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The Juvenilization of American Christianity
Pop worship music. Falling in love with Jesus. Mission trips. Wearing jeans and T-shirts to church. Spiritual searching and church hopping. Faith-based political activism. Seeker-sensitive outreach. These now-commonplace elements of American church life all began as innovative ways to reach young people, yet they have gradually become accepted as important parts of a spiritual ideal for all ages. What on earth has happened? In The Juvenilization of American Christianity Thomas Bergler traces the way in which, over seventy-five years, youth ministries have breathed new vitality into four major American church traditions -- African American, Evangelical, Mainline Protestant, and Roman Catholic. Bergler shows too how this "juvenilization" of churches has led to widespread spiritual immaturity, consumerism, and self-centeredness, popularizing a feel-good faith with neither intergenerational community nor theological literacy. Bergler s critique further offers constructive suggestions for taming juvenilization. Watch the trailer:
From Here to Maturity
Expert guidance on how to grow up in Christ This book is a follow-up to Thomas Bergler’s acclaimed work The Juvenilization of American Christianity, which documents how church youth ministries over the past several decades have contributed to a process of adolescent spiritual traits becoming accepted and even celebrated by Christians of all ages. This “juvenilization” in the church is a real problem that must be addressed, says Bergler, and in his new book he addresses it head-on. Bergler’s From Here to Maturity is an accessible guide for helping both individuals and whole faith communities to grow spiritually. Bergler claims that spiritual maturity -- defined as “basic competence ...
Our True Beloved
C. S. Lewis’s masterpiece The Four Loves, published in 1960, provided the world with a Christian exploration of four dimensions of human love: extolling the divine blessings and warning of the idolatrous distortions in familial belonging (storge), friendship as a common quest (philia), romantic desire for personal union (eros), and concluding with the perfection of divine, unconditional love (agape). Whiting uses the four loves as a framework to interpret the Christian love of God in historical movements across Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Pentecostal/Charismatic churches. He illuminates the often reactionary and competing tensions swinging between emphases on loving God in liturgical ritual and worship (storge), the active moral life (philia), personal spiritual experience (eros), and approaches of faith to suffering (agape). Synthesizing a panoramic view of Christian history with philosophy, literature, and biblical reflection, Whiting shows how the love of God is diminished when the loves become fractured. He advocates for an integrated, holistic love of God that both avoids excesses and challenges the modern narrative of secular progress.
Story, Formation, and Culture
Story, Formation, and Culture brings together a myriad of scholars, researchers, and ministry leaders into conversation about how we can effectively nurture the spirituality of children. Built around the three themes of story, formation, and culture, this volume blends cutting-edge research and insights with attention to how we can bring theory into practice in our ministries with children. The work of children’s spiritual formation is often a marginalized component in the church’s overall ministry. This volume seeks to equip pastors, leaders, and scholars with cutting-edge research and practices that effectively strengthen their ministries with children.
Wonderful Words of Life
While many evangelical congregations have moved away from hymns and hymnals, these were once central fixtures in the evangelical tradition. This book examines the role and importance of hymns in evangelicalism, not only as a part of worship but as tools for theological instruction, as a means to identity formation, and as records of past spiritual experiences of the believing community. Written by knowledgeable church historians, Wonderful Words of Life explores the significance of hymn-singing in many dimensions of American Protestant and evangelical life. The book focuses mainly on church life in the United States but also discusses the foundational contributions of Isaac Watts and other British hymn writers, the use of gospel songs in English Canada, and the powerful attraction of African-American gospel music for whites of several religious persuasions. Includes appendixes on the American Protestant Hymn Project and on hymns in Roman Catholic hymnals. Contributors: Susan Wise Bauer Thomas E. Bergler Virginia Lieson Brereton Esther Rothenbusch Crookshank Kevin Kee Richard J. Mouw Mark A. Noll Felicia Piscitelli Robert A. Schneider Rochelle A. Stackhouse Jeffrey VanderWilt
Measuring Spiritual Maturity
Jesus commissioned His apostles""and, by extension, the church""to make disciples. Many church leaders have come to the conclusion that attending worship services and Bible study classes will result in making disciples. A review of statistical reports indicates a majority of church members and attenders do not believe this process will work, or they have come to the conclusion they do not want to become disciples. The 2010 US Religion Census report indicated 79% of the 150,686,156 members, children, and other attenders did not attend worship services. It also reported over 60% of the same group did not attend Bible study classes. In 2014 one of the major denominations in the United States re...
Religion
A groundbreaking new theory of religion Religion remains an important influence in the world today, yet the social sciences are still not adequately equipped to understand and explain it. This book advances an innovative theory of religion that goes beyond the problematic theoretical paradigms of the past. Drawing on the philosophy of critical realism and personalist social theory, Christian Smith explores why humans are religious in the first place—uniquely so as a species—and offers an account of secularization and religious innovation and persistence that breaks the logjam in which religious scholarship has been stuck for so long. Certain to stimulate debate and inspire promising new avenues of scholarship, Religion features a wealth of illustrations and examples that help to make its concepts accessible to readers. This superbly written book brings sound theoretical thinking to a perennially thorny subject, and a new vitality and focus to its study.
Hungry for Worship
Hungry for Worship takes a provocative look at ten specific worship challenges facing churches—regardless of church size—over the next decade. Through a balance of historical perspective, theological truth, and practical experience, pastor Frank Page and associate music dean L. Lavon Gray encourage pastors and those responsible for leading worship to evaluate their worship in light of these challenges. With these practical ideas, pastors and worship leaders can ensure their church is positioned to weather the changes of pop culture and experience healthy worship.
Worship with Teenagers
This book addresses the vital role of public Christian worship in adolescent spiritual formation and shows how important youth ministry and worship ministry are to each other. Despite numerous research projects, books, articles, and resources that have been published about teenagers and about worship in recent years, the relationship between the two has been addressed only peripherally if not altogether overlooked. Drawing on his extensive experience in worship ministry and youth ministry, Eric Mathis offers insights into the worship practices of teenagers, corrects common misperceptions about worship, and critically examines four prominent worship models in current practice. Mathis invites youth pastors, worship leaders, ministerial students, and congregations to elevate the voices of young people in the worshiping community and enhance worship for all ages. The book includes a foreword by Kenda Creasy Dean.
Evangelical Worship
"Almost invariably, media stories with the word evangelical in their headlines are accompanied by a familiar stock photo: a mass of middle-class worshippers with eyes closed, faces tilted upward, and hands raised to the sky. Yet, despite the fact that worship has become symbolic of evangelicalism's identity in the twenty-first century, it remains an understudied locus of academic inquiry. Historians of American evangelicalism tend to define the movement by its political entanglements (the "rise of the religious Right"), and academic trajectories (the formation of the "evangelical mind"), not its ecclesial practices. Theological scholars frequently dismiss evangelical worship as a reiteration...
