This book is a memoir of my journey in faith. That journey began in the home of my childhood, but the chapters cover experiences extending from some of my earliest memories until just a few years ago. I had already begun reflecting on these experiences, theologically, as the later ones were occurring, but it was not until a friend invited me to speak to his congregation that I connected them. "You're not what most of our people think of when they hear the word Baptist," the priest of a local Episcopal church said. "Come talk to us about how you got where you are from where you started." It was a fascinating challenge. As I sat down to prepare a one-hour Sunday school lesson for Episcopalian adults, I realized I had a story to tell. My suspicion is that this story, regardless of how eloquently I have or have not told it, will resonate with many people. Too frequently I hear people speak of their "bad experiences" with the church, experiences often occurring in the formative years of childhood or adolescence. Sadly, too many of these folks leave organized religion, if not turn their backs altogether on a God they suspect has turned a blind eye or a judgmental whim against them. I have managed to stay within the realm of organized religion. In fact, it is my life. I have not felt the need to abandon or reject God. In fact, God has become more important, more real, more central to my story. I understand those who leave, but because I believe so strongly in the church and the value of faith in one's life, I hope my experience might be an encouragement. One can question, doubt, reject much of what we learned in our childhood, and still remain faithful. There is a "new way home." Maybe my experiences will help some of you find it. Each chapter includes a sermon I have preached over the course of the last eighteen years as co-pastor of the Park Road Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, with my wife, Amy Jacks Dean. I include these sermons as a testimony to the faith that has been developing and changing. I have enjoyed the privilege of being a "professional proclaimer" of Christianity, and although I did not write the sermons for this book, it should be clear in reading them that the faith which is very real to me continues to be a "work in progress." Each chapter also begins with several "Questions to Consider." Unlike many books that conclude chapters with similar reflection/study questions, I have included these questions as a prelude to each chapter. I hope they will whet your appetite and get your wheels turning in the right direction for the chapter and sermon that follow. To get the most out of these questions, you might reflect on them briefly before you read and then come back to them before starting the next chapter. There is room for you to make notes about your own experience and any deepened insight you may have gained by reading my story and relating it to your own faith experience. Finding a New Way Home is not just a book; it really is the experience of my life. I am glad to have this opportunity to share it with you. Especially if you have strayed from the path and have considered leaving it all behind, I welcome you. It's a journey worth taking, because even if you are surprised where you find yourself along the way today, you can be sure that home is where your heart is-and where God is-and there's just no place like it. Welcome to the journey. Welcome home!

Finding a New Way Home

Religion & Spirituality

Dean, Russ

Christian Books & Bibles

Nurturing Faith

In Abba, Father: Viewing Atonement through the Jesus Lens, I set out to rethink atonement in a departure from what is possibly the most popular theory among conservative Christians. This book reexamines atonement by giving careful attention to the words of Jesus. It abandons entirely the concept of "the atonement" held as the most popular view among conservative evangelicals today. Most of the classic theories of the atonement proposed what the authors intended to be literal, often legal, explanations of what Jesus did for us on the cross. One of the older popular theories dating back to the third and fourth centuries proposed the literal, legal explanation that Jesus paid a ransom to the devil for our souls. Several centuries later Anselm proposed the literal, legal theory that Jesus made satisfaction (paid God compensation or reparations) for our offense to God's honor. Several centuries after that, the Reformer John Calvin proposed that Jesus paid our sin debt for our offense to God's justice. (Chapters 7, 8, and 9 will trace the history of these theories.) Mention of the classical theories of the atonement refers to these three theories (plus another discussed briefly in chapter 7). These theories proposed the idea that the cross of Christ provided "the atonement"-an event that made it possible for God to forgive us and make us his children. The New Testament shows that Jesus did not preach any "theory of the atonement." In fact, Jesus never used any word that could be translated "atonement," nor did he preach any concept that could be so construed. Jesus proclaimed the metaphor of the loving Father. Jesus taught how we are to reconcile (although he never used that word, either) with the Father, not how the Father reconciles himself to us. In addition, the message of all the New Testament authors following Jesus continued this theme while also offering many other metaphors illustrating how Jesus brings us back to God. The view presented here does not claim to be Jesus' theory of the atonement, for the New Testament evidence does not indicate that he had one. Instead, the following chapters will develop what Jesus proclaimed as his Good News of the kingdom of God. Once we understand the gospel Jesus preached, we do not need any theory of the atonement. Jesus' message as communicated through his favorite metaphor stands sufficient on its own.

Abba Father

Spinks, Leroy

I am not an authority on the practice of yoga. I am, in many ways, deciding to be the proverbial blind leading the blind. I am a beginner offering insight to other beginners. I am a novice sharing my embryonic experiences and pitifully sophomoric thoughts in order to get you past whatever anxieties and fears you hold with regard to yoga. Some may seem simple: What equipment do I need? How will I ever learn the poses? Will my body really do that? Other concerns may be deeper: Will this conflict with my faith? Do I have to be vegan? How will yoga affect my life? I am making the assumption that my experience and subsequent thoughts will naturally address the mental and physical obstacles that have kept you from entering the yoga world, your local yoga studio, or your community center's yoga class. Some fellow novices will be astounded by the depth of my knowledge and commitment after having only practiced for one year. Longtime practitioners of yoga will probably smile and roll their eyes at my ignorance and naivete. Both reactions will be expressions of truth. I want this book to be informative and fun. I want you to laugh with me and at me. I will transparently expose my worries, missteps, and fumbles so that you can either avoid them or fall fearlessly into them. I would suggest the latter. I'll admit it: I want to entice you into a world-no, into a way of being in the world-that makes the world a better place for all of us.

Namaste, Newbie!

Dant, Jim

After being asked by the associate pastor of his church to write a weekly blog post, author Jeff Hampton jumped at the opportunity to offer up his thoughts on matters of faith-which he has now done for the past ten years. This act of deliberate writing has forced him to explore what he believes, and to consider whether or not he practices what he preaches. At his wife LeAnn's suggestion, Hampton collected these blog posts into a book. It was then that LeAnn noticed that most of the writings were about community- not "community" as defined by the census bureau and the chamber of commerce, but rather all the different types of community in which we live. That includes family, friends, neighbors, churches, workplaces, towns, states, countries, races, and humankind. At different times we all live and interact in these communities-usually in several simultaneously. Jeff Hampton explores through his weekly personal writings how we all fit into and contribute (or not) to the communities to which we belong.

Together: Thoughts and Stories About Living in Community

Hampton, Jeff

Idolatry is a sin, but can music actually be an idol? And is musical idolatry only found outside the church, or can it also be a temptation for Christian believers? As a lifelong church instrumentalist and music educator, author Brian Hedrick explores the dynamics of this phenomenon in our modern culture, then proposes a prescription to restore music to its proper biblical perspective. While Hedrick enjoys the beauty and challenge of secular classical music, he has noticed over the years that the attitude of church musicians toward the higher ideal of music is strikingly similar to the way we revere Jesus Christ in worship. In the same way that we might say, "It's all about Jesus," Hedrick has heard church musicians say with equally great conviction, "It's all about the music." In Music of Darkness, the author urges individuals to put music back in its proper perspective and rightful place, both inside and outside the church.

Music of Darkness

Hedrick, Brian L.

Do not doubt God, who made you who you are. Do not compare yourself to anyone, and do not covet another's gifts. Stir up the gifts God has given to you. You are unique and special. Why am I writing My Story? Over the years the women around the world who have blessed my life, my former students and friends, have been asking me who I really am. I did not feel worthy. I am who I am because of God's grace. Someone defined grace as "getting what you don't deserve. Mercy is not getting what you deserve." I have prayed and sought God's will, and from his Word he confirmed. So here I go with it: "Things we have heard and known, things our ancestors have told us. We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done" (Ps 78:3-4). The story of my life is not about my accomplishments. The choice I made in the year 1947, when I turned my life over to Jesus, has made all the difference. A man of God prayed, "Lord, get me out of the way and let the instrument be forgotten and you get all the glory." This is my prayer as I write my story.

My Story

Biographies & Memoirs

Rao, Mercy Jeyaraja

Memoirs

Staring at Dementia is a tender journal recollection of the author's time spent with his mother during the last decade of her life. Danny E. Akin journals their many visits together in an attempt to capture and record the rapid and extreme changes Mother experiences as she transitions over the years from an independent living apartment to a Personal Care setting and finally to Memory Care. The journal is filled with daily events, Mother's pronouncements, family tales, and the author's personal reflections on the toll dementia takes on both the patient and the caregiver. He shares with his audience the successes and failures of maintaining a close relationship with an elderly family member in decline. Over time, Akin and his mother switch roles, with Akin becoming the parent and Mother the child. Writing about this slow change helps the author make sense of the stressful episodes and gives him a sense of purpose, even as he struggles to make sense of difficult situations and decisions. "As I look back and remember my feelings of frustration, there are times when I regret my anger-even when I tried to see the humor. Wise advice from other writers prompted me to look for the self, the person that remained of the mother I loved. Often, I found it in her kindness and even, at times, in her words." The author's goals for this book is to share the legacy of Mother, a woman who, without fame, wealth, or status, who deeply influenced the lives of her sons, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, extended family, church, neighbors, friends, and retirement home staff. It is also his hope that the book will give others who must travel this road some hope, practical advice, a feeling of camaraderie with fellow caregivers, humor, and the encouragement to write down the stories of their parents before the stories are lost forever.

Staring at Dementia: Lessons from Mother

Akin, Danny E

In Tension: Empowering Christian Thought and Life, author Gerald L. Borchert wrestles with the many ways in which Christians experience tension both in the church and in real life. The very nature of choice is a source of tension, and all humans are confronted daily with choices that can have significant impacts on themselves and those around them. Borchert examines what it means to live with freedom and to engage with our choices in a meaningful way. Pulling from personal experience, Borchert recalls how, as a young child, he first encountered tension in the ongoing debate over the timing of creation and the dichotomy of how science and Bible handle the origin of the universe. "Our task as humans," he writes, "is to recognize what is science and what it is not. The task likewise is to recognize what the Bible claims to be hard truth or reality and what it does not. Our further task, therefore, is to recognize what is true biblical exegesis (interpretation) and what is merely an assumption concerning statements in Scripture. Our task is to work at understanding what statements are rooted in observable fact and what are theological or scientific reflections. In this pursuit of understanding, it is not a question of truth but the kind of truth that is present in an issue." Borchert continues to reflect on a number of areas inherent with tension: Christian salvation; our personal mindset; the ancient understanding of "time"; the nature of human failure and suffering; and what it means to be Christ-like. "I trust these and other preliminary reflections will set your thoughts into high gear. Hopefully they will stir your mind and challenge you to reflect more on the tensions and polarities that may be present in your theologies and the way you approach life. Some of these tensions may be easily discernible, while others may not be so evident in your thinking. Wherever you are on the spectrum, I suggest that there is a need to reconsider the issues concerning tension as we look to the challenges of the future." Borchert's goal is to encourage the reader to think about tension as an instructive force that makes us look at both sides of an issue and learn to deal with the uncomfortable feeling that our current perspective might by in need of updating. "I think we need repeatedly to ask: Is our theology ready to deal better with old tensions and accept the fact that new tensions loom in the future? Perhaps, seeing the incredible power that is present in dealing more effectively with both sides of tensions may be more productive. Dynamic power may be present if we are a people who are willing to accept and creatively integrate such tensions into new combinations. Will we be among the new explorers of Christianity?"

Tension

Borchert, Gerald L.

There wasn't much to do in my hometown of Mt. Gilead, North Carolina, when I was growing up. Mostly we were dependent on our imaginations. Usually that was more than enough.\nI read somewhere about a man saying his hometown was so small that "temptations were harder to find than resist." It wasn't quite that bad for us, but the one theater-creatively named the Gilmont-closed in 1954 when I was fourteen years old. That sad day marked the end of our places of entertainment.\nBut, like I said, we had our imaginations, so on Friday or Saturday night-and sometimes both-when there were no football or basketball games, my good friends, Wayne Dunn and David Warner, and our young basketball coach/teacher James Walton and I would pile into Walton's 1953 dark green Dodge sedan. Occasionally we would ride in Wayne's white 1952 Chevy.\nOur conversation was always the same. "Well, where are we going tonight?" was always met with "I don't know" and "I don't care." So the familiar response would follow: "Okay, we'll just start out and see where the road takes us."\nBack in the late 1950s, that was cheap entertainment since gasoline averaged around fifteen cents a gallon. When service stations engaged in a gas war, the price would drop even lower-sometimes into single digits.\nSince our journey had no planned destination, we would sometimes end up in a strange town, searching for a sign telling us where we were. But that only added another dimension to our adventure. If you don't care where you are going, any road is okay, and any destination will do. If you care where your journey ends, however, the roads you choose to travel are crucial.\nMy first book, Going to Mullinix, grew out of my Pa-Pa's reply when anyone called out, "Where're you goin', Arthur?" Pa-Pa's answer was always a cheerful, "Goin' to Mullinix," followed by his signature big laugh.\nPa-Pa was my maternal grandfather with whom I shared the cab of a 1950 green Ford pickup as we made farm trips delivering chickens and chicken feed and then transporting the resulting eggs and fryers to processing plants in Rockingham or Hamlet. Most of that took place in the years between my tenth and twelfth birthdays.\nPa-Pa never told me where Mullinix was located, so it became, in my imagination, that mysterious safe place where everything fit and life was as it should be. Later, when I became a pastor, I almost subconsciously adapted Mullinix as a metaphor for that place of maximum kingdom living in which I take on the likeness of Christ to the degree my fallible discipleship is capable.\nSo Mullinix is not heaven. It is as close as I can get to heavenly citizenship while still living as a citizen of this world.\nI told stories in that first volume of people, critters, and events, which I called "signs," giving direction to my journey. A pilgrimage like this is a step-by-step process and a lifelong challenge. Disappointment, discouragement, and failure hide around every curve, lurk in every valley, and poise atop every mountain.\nTherefore, in this book, I tell the stories of a new collection of people, critters, and events that have "put heart back into me." Sometimes these "signs" were gentle nudges easy to miss unless I carefully exercised the "discipline of noticing." At other times they were dramatic, unmistakable road markers along the journey toward the "full stature of Christ." All of them together, however, revealed God's presence in such a way that it took my breath away.\nSo, with bated breath, the journey to Mullinix continues.

Still Going to Mullinix

Haywood, Jerry

In the second book of the "Spelunking Scripture" series, Spelunking Scripture: The Letters of Paul-Exploring Important Passages of the Bible, author Bruce C. Salmon digs into the thirteen letters of the New Testament attributed to Paul. Although some scholars believe some of the letters may have been written, or edited, by Paul's followers, all of the letters begin by identifying Paul as the author. Most of the letters were addressed to specific churches (or groups of churches), although a few were addressed to specific individuals. Probably, most of the letters were intended to be read aloud to assembled congregations, and most were written to address particular needs within the churches. As such, Paul's counsel about certain situations was not meant to be applied universally to all the churches. The passages from Paul's letters identified for this study have a universal application, and Salmon focuses on the way in which Paul's letters convey the truth about God's intentions for our lives.

The Letters of Paul: Exploring Important Passages of the Bible (Spelunking Scripture)

Salmon, Bruce

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