"When did Christianity become cool? How did an Australian church conquer the world and expanded into Brazil, a country with its own crop of powerful megachurches? In her exciting new book, anthropologist Cristina Rocha analyses the creation of a transnational Pentecostal field between Brazil and Australia, two countries that have been peripheral in the history of Pentecostalism but which more recently have been at the forefront of new forms of global Pentecostalism. She shows how new and reconfigured forms Christianity in both the Global North and South are increasingly digitally mediated, engaged with youth and popular cultures, and involve new forms of consumption, branding and identity. The Australian megachurch Hillsong has expanded globally through a Cool Christianity style which embraces pop music, digital media, spectacle, branding, and celebrity culture. Rocha follows young Brazilians from their budding Hillsong fandom, to their journey to Australia to join the church and study at its College, and on their return to Brazil. She argues that Brazilian middle-class youth join Hillsong to become cosmopolitan and to distinguish themselves from the Pentecostalism of the Brazilian poor. Notwithstanding Hillsong's recent scandals, the megachurch offers them an alternative geography of belonging, where pastors speak English and Christianity is about love, ethics, rationality, autonomy, and more equal relations between congregants and pastors. Rocha makes a strong argument for the importance of the local in globalization studies, and the key roles of class, affect and aesthetics for an understanding of the formation of religious subjectivities and communities"--

Insider twentysomething Christian journalist Brett McCracken has grown up in the evangelical Christian subculture and observed the recent shift away from the "stained glass and steeples" old guard of traditional Christianity to a more unorthodox, stylized 21st-century church. This change raises a big issue for the church in our postmodern world: the question of cool. The question is whether or not Christianity can be, should be, or is, in fact, cool. This probing book is about an emerging category of Christians McCracken calls "Christian hipsters"--the unlikely fusion of the American obsessions with worldly "cool" and otherworldly religion--an analysis of what they're about, why they exist, and what it all means for Christianity and the church's relevancy and hipness in today's youth-oriented culture.

This book offers a novel approach to considering Brazilian Christianity's interplay with global processes from its inception to the present day. It adopts a multi-scalar approach to Brazilian Christianity, linking local grassroots practices and beliefs with processes at the various spatio-temporal levels. These include regional (rural-urban diversification), national (secularization, the radical pluralization of the Christian field, and intensified detraditionalization and retraditionalization) and transnational. Sílvia Fernandes also identifies longue durée dynamics that connect colonial Christianity with current events, including the rise, crisis, and resurgence of Progressive Catholicism, and the election of right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro with support from a sizable number of Evangelical Protestants and Charismatic Catholics, as well as “traditionalist” Catholics. This book demonstrates that as Christianity enters its third millennium, it is increasingly shaped by churches and movements based in the “Global South” that have transnational and diasporic reach through the circulation of migrants, religious entrepreneurs, pilgrims, and tourists, as well as by the expert use of electronic media.

The funniest book ever written about why your religion is false!Whether you're a Christian or a Jew, a Muslim or a Hindu, a Rasta or a Jain, an Environmentalist or a Cheondoist, a Scientologist or a Giant Stone Head Worshipper, your religion is false.But don't feel bad -- so is everyone else's! When you want to know what not to believe, this is the only book you need.In addition, you'll learn* Why "god" doesn't exist* Why there's no such thing as a "soul"* How to find "meaning" in a religion-less world* Which of your religious heroes are pedophiles* Why "religious tolerance" is a terrible ideaAnd, as a bonus, the greatest religious joke ever told. You can't afford not to read this book!

In Baptists and the Emerging Church Movement, David Rathel examines the major ecclesiological proposals of the emerging church movement. Though many theologians argue that the emerging church movement emphasizes epistemology, Rathel contends that its primary concern is ecclesiology. Emerging church leaders offer a number of important ecclesiological proposals, including restructuring traditional church leadership models to accommodate the rise of postmodernity, changing the mission of the church so that the church may strike a more "missional" tone in contemporary culture, removing the categories of "in" or "out" within the church body, and adopting the multi-site church model. In assessing these proposals, Rathel draws upon historic Baptist convictions about the nature of the church, using Baptists' ecclesiological distinctives and long history of ecclesiological thought as a helpful reference point. This book will not only serve as a guide for those who wish to learn of emerging church ecclesiology, it will also be an aid to Baptists who wish to evaluate recent trends in ecclesiology in light of their denominational distinctives.

Paisley (or Leigh, as she prefers to be called) is a high school junior living in Grand Rapids and facing a variety of challenges. Her father left her family, her mom tries to escape her hardships through drinking, and Paisley has had to shoulder much of the responsibility of caring for her younger sister. With a broken home, rejection from the church, and a lot of tough questions, faith has never been an important part of Paisley’s life. That all changes the day she accidentally punches a cop.

The third millennium. It's a time of tremendous opportunity for the church--and tremendous challenge. More than ever, pastors need a model for ministry that can equip them for the rigors of a restless, increasingly secularized culture. In the 21st Century Pastor, David Fisher explores the apostle Paul's concept of ministry to offer a paradigm that is both biblical and relevant. Paul's view is fleshed out with examples from Fisher's own twenty-five years of pastoral experience, presenting a roadmap for today's pastor that is scholarly, practical, dynamic, and inspiring. The 21st Century Pastor first addressees crucial issues of pastoral identity, the significance of geography, time, and ecclesiology. It then explores Paul's metaphors for ministry (jars of clay, farmers and builders, servants and stewards, and others) to reveal an accurate portrait of an effective, biblical pastor--the kind who will speak to the heart of modern culture rather than languish on its fringes. Filling the rare role of a pastor to pastors, Fisher's sage insights help pastors answer their own identity questions, empowering them to minister to a deeply needy society. Says Fisher, "Pastors who know what time it is will, in the name and power of God, create communities of faith where the values of the Gospel are embraced, taught, and lived out."

The church today is poised on a precarious balance between culture and content, between cultural relevance and doctrinal integrity. Like a seesaw, the church swings back and forth, compelled both to reach an entertainment-driven culture and to remain true to the Gospel.In Future Church, Jim Wilson presents 7 clear principles which become "fulcrum points," principles that will give the Church real leverage to reach people and push them upward toward the hand of God. These 7 Fulcrum Points are illustrated in real-life settings, as Wilson takes us on visits to churches that are utilizing them. This is the way of ministry in a post-seeker age. This is Future Church!

This book introduces David H. C. Read to a new generation, through sermons that are not merely elegantly worded and biblically grounded, but packed with life experience that included a five year stint as a prisoner of war during World War II. From amongst the almost 1500 sermons that Read preached during his ministry in Manhattan, John McTavish has selected forty enduring messages that show David Read, justifying Time magazine's assessment that "Read is not merely elegant and literary; his words carry authority... through his thought runs a strain of deep feeling and faith capable of convincing others."