Good Faith Reads

The Alliance of Baptists has been a progressive voice for thirty-five years, pushing the boundaries of Christianity towards anti-racism, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and gender equity in ministry. In Taking on the Cross, the Alliance gathers a diverse group of Baptist pastors, writers, and theologians who critically question substitutionary atonement theology—that Jesus died on the cross for humanity’s sins—...

Welcome to Volume 2 of a 5-volume collection of devotional thoughts from the Old Testament. Morning Conversations on The Rise and Fall of Kings and Kingdoms takes the reader through nine books of biblical history. Once again, I invite you to join with me in a fresh devotional read through the pages of the Old Testament text. My goal in writing is not to exhaustively interpret, translate, or provid...

Twelve years ago, Larry began a project of putting together excerpts from Samuel H. Miller's first three books—The Life of the Soul (1951), The Life of the Church (1953), and The Great Realities (1955)—that he hoped would become a collection of spiritual meditations. Larry felt the need to lift nuggets out and make them available for people who had read Miller in the past and had forgotten his boo...

Steve Nichols grew up in church and in the modern world outside of church. By his late teens, he was trying to integrate his religious and secular lives into a unified whole. How would he fashion a worldview consistent with his religious heritage and modern science? And how would he recognize God’s Presence in his everyday secular life? Some people adopt a religious position that they defend again...

People of faith sometimes hesitate at the suggestion that they are by definition “theologians.” The word tends to conjure up an image of an ordained church leader or an academic professional with formal training in the field. And, to be sure, such persons have carried the discipline of theology in a formal way through the generations, providing a structure and basis for the church’s understanding...

The Gospels are magnificent, classic, world-shaping, reverent sketches of Jesus of Nazareth, who, to his followers, became the Christ. The Gospels have many tantalizing gaps in the story of the Jesus who lived, walked, and loved among family members, Galilean friends, and tyrannical religious and political systems. The Gospels are essentially memories of memories of a cadre of devoted followers of...

This book presents a psychological explanation of the gospel. It deals with the nine basic human needs that salvation fills. Believing that we have acceptance, love, and value gives us peace and contentment: “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1). Believing that we have security, forgiveness, and guidance gives us assurance and confidence: “All things can be done for the...

For many LGBTQIA+ Christians and allies, the infamous “clobber” passages (the handful of passages used by religious conservatives to demonize LGBTQIA+ people) elicit a similar response: stay far, far away. These verses haven’t been used to make us uncomfortable; they’ve been used to cause us deep harm. As we deal with the damage that these verses have done, we each have our own healing journey to...

The resurrection of Jesus is the lynchpin of the Christian faith. As Paul wrote, “If Christ hasn’t been raised, then your faith is worthless” (1 Cor. 15:17a CEB). Without Easter, there would be no church. All four gospels present the Resurrection as historical occurrence, and most of the other books of the New Testament allude to or elucidate the meaning of the Resurrection. That Jesus died for ou...

A good story contains between five and ten components that help readers understand what is happening, why they should care about the characters, and how the story will ultimately end. In The Gospel According to Broadway, Terrell Carter examines the characters, setting, plot, conflict, and resolution in various Broadway plays while interweaving biblical stories and scriptural lessons. By delving in...

Enjoy this collection of 51 sermons written by husband and wife team, Maralene and Miles Wesner. These sermons are written for holidays throughout the year, from New Years Day to Christmas. Special days often attract the greatest church attendance and thus offer the greatest opportunity for outreach. Unfortunately, many holiday and seasonal messages are shallow and sentimental. So, these sermons w...

Time is a form of currency that each of us is afforded a set amount. No one has any more or any less time. Everyone is granted the same 1,440 minutes in a day. How we use them, however, is our decision. This book of devotions recognizes that reality and offers a resource to make those moments we carve out of our busy schedules the most meaningful. Based on the Christian year, these brief reflectio...

Those of us who write, do so armed with wisdom, commentary, and insights gleaned from a lifetime of study and influence. Most of what is presented in each day’s devotion is simply my personal reflection on the text, hopefully inspired through the work of the Spirit, and my musings on how to best apply the wisdom of God’s word to daily life. Morning Conversations on the Creation of a People and Pla...

Exploring hope through thoughtful meditations that distinguish between our life-hopes and our hopes for the world, Day guides the reader through understanding the phenomenon of hope, hope’s many challenges, and our literary view of hope. Many of the anxieties racing through us are not wed to current events or twenty-first-century novelties. Apprehensions have always been nibbling at our peace, dan...

Spinks rethinks atonement by giving careful attention to the words of Jesus, abandoning entirely the concept of "the atonement" held as the most popular view among conservative evangelicals today. Most of the classic theories of the atonement propose what the authors intended to be literal, often legal, explanations of what Jesus did for us on the cross. These theories proposed the idea that the c...

This book considers three ways of thinking about God: in relation to the Bible, in relation to philosophy, and in relation to science. Thinking about God in relation to the Bible includes numerous beliefs about God. Thinking about God in relation to philosophy involves an emphasis on human reason, usually reason apart from special revelation such as the Bible. Finally, thinking about God in relati...

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 autho...

The Bible is a record of and witness to divine-human encounter and relationship—period! To understand such stories, we have to understand that the Bible must not only be read; it must be interpreted. So, how do we do that? I am convinced that a significant portion of the difficulties many people have with the Bible is due to a lack of understanding of the historical process by which we received th...

In the first book of the “Spelunking Scripture” series, Spelunking Scripture: Christmas—Exploring Important Passages of the Bible, author Bruce Salmon digs into the story of Jesus’ birth as told in the Gospel of Luke. He briefly introduces each pertinent scripture passage related to the Christmas story then illustrates each passage with studies gleaned from the more than 1,500 sermons he preached...

At one of our Center for Healthy Churches semiannual gatherings, we decided to come up with a definition of “healthy church” that would help us articulate our understanding of what lies at the heart of the Center’s work. We spent several hours crafting a definition. We wanted it to reflect both our own long years of experience in creating healthy churches in congregations we had served as pastors...

God created space from chaos. He chose to carve out space for all living things. He created space for the sun, moon, and stars. He created space for the oceans to form and for the dry land to appear. He created space for plants to flourish, for animals to roam, and yes, even for man to dwell. And in his image we are gifted with the ability to create space for all living things, including people wh...

Christian congregations, like just about everything else in our culture, are undergoing tremendous change. That’s not a huge revelation. Almost everyone involved with congregations agrees with that statement, because we live with that reality. One of the central changes for congregations today is that they are no longer the center of social and cultural life in most communities. Today, depending o...

Finding the Gospel is a book about changing one’s mind. Or, more accurately, it is a book about how I have changed my mind about some portions of the Christian faith—especially its central message. Apparently, I am not the only one caught up in this rethinking endeavor. Some people suggest Christianity itself is undergoing one of its every 500-year “rummage sales” when all manner of doctrines and...

This book is designed to reach multiple audiences. First, I hope it will be a resource for beginning classes in formal theological education. For students interested in church ministry, I believe an appropriate starting point for theological studies is with a study of God’s call. Such a study at the beginning of an undergraduate or graduate theological degree could serve to inspire students and in...

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 jou...