English Church

Animals are the direct product of their environment. They reactively evolve over time based on external circumstances. The process of their evolution is slow and random. Human beings are the indirect product of their environment. Although the environment is the medium through which humans adapt and evolve, our choices determine our environments. This is the fundamental difference. We get to decide the course and intensity of our personal evolution by intelligently designing our environments.

In a bold and moving book that is sure to spark heated debate, the novelist and cultural critic James Carroll maps the profoundly troubling 2,000-year course of the Church’s battle against Judaism and faces the crisis of faith it has provoked in his own life as a Catholic. More than a chronicle of religion, this dark history is the central tragedy of Western civilization, its fault lines reaching deep into our culture.

“Don’t ask too many questions. Just go with the flow.” This is the mantra of legalistic religion. It leaves many of us wallowing in confusion as we still have burning questions about our faith. Sometimes, these questions almost seem off-limits: Is there actually an unforgivable sin? Can we lose our salvation? Is masturbation always a sin? Am I really supposed to give 10 percent of my income to the church? Is divorce and remarriage wrong for a Christian?

When Rose DuLoe is forced to leave her comfortable city life for a mansion in the middle of nowhere, she feels out of control. Worse, the estate is owned by the man who drives her crazy—but when tensions boil over and they have the hottest hate-sex of her life, she's left feeling more confused than ever. Blake is controlling, arrogant and a player but being stuck together for their own protection means Rose can't help but see what's been staring her in the face all along.

Cooper Lee is at a crossroads. Her boyfriend of five years just left her for another woman, she's living in an apartment above her parents' garage, and her job as a copier repairperson is feeling a little, well, repetitious. Hoping for a fresh start and a new outlook on life, she joins the Bible study group at Hope Street Church. The last thing she expects while studying the Bible is a lesson in murder.

What was it like to be a woman in the biblical period? It depended, in part, on who you were: a queen, a judge, a primary wife, a secondary wife, a widow, a slave, or some other kind of "ordinary woman". In Women in the Bible, Jaime Clark-Soles investigates how women are presented in Scripture, taking into account cultural views of both ancient societies as well as our own. Most of Christendom still excludes women from religious leadership, and many Christians invoke the Bible to circumscribe women's leadership in the public square and in the home as well. 

The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVue) Audio Bible is now available on audio, ready for you to start hearing Scripture today. This audio Bible includes the entire Old Testament and New Testament, as well as the Apocrypha. The NRSVue is intended to be as literal as possible so that the meaning of Scripture can be as clear to the lay audience as it is to the dedicated biblical scholar. The NRSV translation has become known as the most accurate of English-language translations, based on available manuscript evidence, textual analysis, and current philological understanding.

Whether you are on a church staff or leading a small group, you will find that the insights from the enneagram that have helped many grow in self-awareness can be applied to life in our faith communities. The enneagram can help us to become better teachers. It can influence how we develop worship and Christian education. And it can guide us in building and leading teams. It's time to take the enneagram to church - and to allow it to shape our life together.

Saiph must kill the mortal queen. Sent to the mortal plane by her mother, Saiph finds herself caught in a bargain with one of the people she has been told to destroy—Auren, the rebel queen's guard. After a string of magick users disappear, Saiph is forced to work with Auren to uncover the culprit. But when new evidence comes to light, Saiph must re-evaluate everything she thought she knew about the Kingdom of Stars.

The loss or disaffiliation of young adults is a much-discussed topic in churches today. Many faith-formation programs focus on keeping the young, believing the youthful spirit will save the church. But do these programs have more to do with an obsession with youthfulness than with helping young people encounter the living God?

Should we actually practice church discipline today? Is it unloving? Once an ordinary part of church life, churches gradually stopped practicing church discipline in the 20th century. But Jesus commands it. Paul practiced it. And churches benefit from it. Why practice church discipline? It shows love for the individual caught in sin, love for the whole church, love for non-Christian neighbors, and love for the glory of Christ.

One of the most fiercely debated topics in modern Christianity centers on the inclusion of sexual and gender minorities into the full life of the church. Dozens of scholars have stepped forward, seeking to make a compelling case for LGBT+ inclusion based on their contextualized reading of the six traditional passages that refer to homosexuality in Scripture. But these arguments alone fall short of providing a comprehensive framework for radical inclusion of LGBT+ people. 

This no-compromise biblical clarion call to revival is timeless. Leonard Ravenhill clearly shows how the church can be brought from where it is to where it ought to be. The church still needs his message, first published in 1983, for as Ravenhill said, "We live in a generation which has never known revival God's way." The message is drastic, fearless, and often radical. His goal for the church is nothing less than full restoration to the glory, power, holiness, and dignity that Christ intended for it. 

Tressie faithfully prays every night that God will send her a thug. It isn't long before her prayers are answered, and she meets a handsome ex-convict named Payce Boyd. He is a fine roughneck, everything Tressie imagined and more - that is until Tressie experiences firsthand the reality of being a thug's girl. Seeking solace and comfort in the sanctuary, Tressie soon learns valuable lessons and shocking truths about herself and others.

Church Revitalization guides current and future leaders through the often-complex process of bringing a church to a place of vibrancy. This book demonstrates how the overarching goal of seeing people come to faith in Christ and develop into Christlikeness can—and must—inform the most foundational to the most fleeting aspects of revitalizing a struggling church.

The growth of information makes for an ever-changing world. However, the importance of Scripture remains unchanged. To ensure the enduring value of inspired sacred texts, Friendship Press, together with the National Council of Churches and in partnership with the Society of Biblical Literature, has undertaken the careful task of updating the NRSV Edition of the Bible. We are pleased to present you with what we can in full confidence call the world’s most meticulously researched, rigorously reviewed, and faithfully accurate English-language Bible translation.

Many Christians know they should be passionate about evangelism, but in reality they often find it daunting. In this concise version of God Shines Forth, Daniel Hames and Michael Reeves urge Christians to grow in their knowledge and enjoyment of God—as they know God more, they will be spurred on to authentic service through missions and evangelism. To illustrate how the nature of God influences evangelism and missions, Hames and Reeves address biblical themes such as the glory of God, Christ's sacrifice, the fallenness of man, and the church's future hope.

Black churches in America have long been recognized as the most independent, stable, and dominant institutions in Black communities. Drawing on interviews with more than 1,800 Black clergy in both urban and rural settings, combined with a comprehensive historical overview of seven mainline Black denominations, C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya present an analysis of the Black church as it relates to the history of African Americans and to contemporary Black culture. 

When a skeleton is discovered in the hidden crypt of a deconsecrated church, everyone is convinced the bones must be those of Conor Devitt, a local man who went missing on his wedding day six years previously. But the postmortem reveals otherwise.

The average Christian in America does not know what his own religion teaches, nor does he care. He may call himself “Christian”, but he lives his life exactly as he wishes, making no attempt to conform his conduct to the commands and tenets of his religion. Daily Wire writer Matt Walsh confronts his fellow Christians in this bold, clear-eyed book that serves as an urgent reminder of Matthew 7:13 - "For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it."