Organizations and Institutions Books

This book and the other three in the series will give you a new appreciation for hymns that you probably learned a few years ago. Besides background on the hymn, the authors have also supplied a CD with a nice choral arrangement of each song. The art work, print quality, and music is all excellent.

I am listening to my copy of the CD as I order three more copies of this fabulous book and CD to give away. What a deal! Easter is only a week away and the hymns in it are most appropriate to express our joy at Christ's redeeming work on the Cross and His glorious resurrection. Today's modern "worship" music can NEVER compare to rich and beautiful hymns of better days.

I heard about this series of three books with their accompanying CDs from from a radio interview with Joni. She was expressing concern over how Christian music is losing its depth of meaning and its doctrinal reinforcement.

Joni has succeeded in selecting and rendering some of Christendoms most relevant hymns to encourage and edify the Church and the Lord jesus Christ. The reader/listener will find him or herself elevated and singing along with these classic hymns (words and music are included in the book). If you have never been moved to tears over a hymn, these renditions may do it!

"What Wondrous Love Is This" captures in a very powerful and moving way what Christ has done for mankind.

Vocals range from solos to choral music accompanied by the humble piano or full orchestra. The tone is not loud or brash. Joni's humble character comes through in the way the book was designed and the way the music is performed.

I highly recommend adding all three books in the series to your library. I give copies away to encourage others spiritually.

This set of books was an interesting combination of a history of the author, his actual sermon's, hymns, etc. This recopied and compacted set has all the detail and exactness of the original set, with the minor flaw of a random missing letter in the midddle of the text, intermittently. I have not found this to cause any great difficulty. The set is very informative regarding the thought of early Puritan Christianity. It is also a handsome set and well worth the price. echance

Great Value! These seven volumes are actually fourteen volumes, re-issued as seven, with two "volumes" in each book. These are nicely bound
If you contrast the content in these volumes with Christian books which are enjoying popularity today, you might wonder why you wasted your time on the popular stuff. Wesley changed the English-speaking world, especially the working class. His sermons are awesome. When you read his sermon "Against Evil Speaking," you may find yourself carefully guarding your tongue, and thoughts. Wesley's sermon against bigotry may help you become more tolerant of others -- this from the most prominent teacher and preacher of holiness in modern times.
You'll have to work at some of the reading, but it is well worth the effort. This set of books lends itself well to browsing. You don't have to read huge chunks at a sitting. There is a wide variety of writings in these volumes. You'll get more than your money's worth in pleasure and intellectual/spiritual profit
If you enjoy these books, you would probably enjoy William Wilberforce's "A Practical View of Christianity." Wesley's fans credit him and the Methodist movement (not today's United Methodist Church) with averting the kind of bloody revolution experienced by France. Wilberforce is rightly credited with bringing down slavery in Great Britain. Together, these English giants revived Christianity in the English-speaking world: relying upon the Bible, they showed Christians what God expects of us. If you compare them to the prophets of the Old Testament, you may be amazed at the success of these two Englishmen.

This is a great value for the money! I am a seminary student (and a Methodist), so having John Wesley's works at my finger-tips is a blessing. It is a beautiful set and very affordable.

I don't think they could pack much more info into one book. It has refernces and shows how the author backs up his information. If you have people willing to really make thier church grow this book will help.

This book is perfect for those members of the church body who want to help but aren't sure where to begin. It's also perfect for pastors who want to teach on spiritual gifting, and also encourage church members to exercise their spiritual gifts with benefit to the church.

Wagner's writing is succinct, humorous, and clear. This book sheds light not only on different spiritual gifts, but theories surrounding them (the book draws from several lists in the Bible, none of which completely mention every spiritual gift), common misconceptions, as well as a test in the back of the book to help each person begin to get a sense of what his or her spiritual gifts might be.

The book is geared toward using spiritual gifts to help the church grow, and therefore focuses on some spiritual gifts more than others (to my disappointment, the ones barely touched upon seemed more relevant to me than the ones greatly expounded upon -- ah well, another book perhaps). I appreciated Wagner's candor and openness to other scholar's theories about spiritual giftings, as well as his standpoints on misuses of spiritual gifts.

This book is highly recommended as a place to begin your studies on spiritual giftings, especially in the context of gifts within the church body.

Having taught many seminars over the past seven years on Spiritual Gifts and having helped hundreds of people to find thier unique call to ministry through their giftedness, I found this little book to be a treasure of information. It succinctly describes the value of helping church members discover thier gifts and function out of them, leading to fulfilling and enthusiastic service for the Kingdom of God. Church leaders who have read this book in our setting have stopped looking for just "warm breathing bodies" to fill a position, but instead look for a person whose giftedness qualifies them for it and therefore classic burn-out is kept at a minnimum. Peter Wagner is easy to read and speaks clearly to the lay person.

I puchased this book for my wife as a birthday present. Ironically I read it once she was done, based on her flowering recomendation. It was fantastic, well written, and inspirational. The pictures of the original texts are beutiful. I will read a page or two when ever I need a quick pick me up. In these times, thats probably going to be often.

This is a condensed version of the Psalms as editted by the Venerable Bede (c. 673-735). It is illustrated by plates of the Latin and translated well by a professor of Classics at the University of Illinois (Urbana). The translation is very readable.

The condensations may be as long 11 or 12 verses or a short as a phrase. Often they trigger a memory of the Psalm from which they come; this would be even more common among those who regularly pray the Psalms. Reading the condensations gives an overview of the Psalms as a whole, that is difficult to observe when reading the entire Psalter. This overview helps place the various psalms in their literary and theological context.

One oddity in Bede's abridgment; Psalm 50 not only prefigures Jesus but refers directly to him! The brief introduction explains this and the single line from Psalm 136 which in no way implies the well-known "By the waters of Babylon".

If you are interested in the early Church in England, liturgy, or a devotional version of the Psalms, this version is well worth exploring.

As a man instinctively suspicious of feminism and feminist theology, I was delightfully surprised by this collection. I can't say much for the poems, but I found the prayers masterfully written and touching. Morley has a genius command of the scriptural themes and how they connect with everyday life. Her prayers are direct, poetic and inspiring and have a wide variety of potential uses. These aren't just great inclusive language prayers, they are great prayers period.

Janet Morley has responded to the growing need of women and men for inclusive collects and prayers. This book does not just replace the prayer book's use of He with She, but rather it develops a thoughtful alternative to traditional male centered prayers. THis book has something for both men and women seeking inclusive worship. I cried with joy and relief when I first used these prayers. Thank you, Janet!

What can I say? I love the song Amazing Grace and I love how Judy Collins sings it. Though there are two verses in the book I don't recall and one verse I love is missing, the true worth of the book; however, is in Collins' introduction. Therein she writes: "Religion is for those who are afraid of going to Hell, ... and the spiritual is for those who have already been there." Don't know if I've ever read a more profound thought. If the song means something to you, buy this book, you'll treasure it for a lifetime.

Beautiful rendition of the hymn.


Blessings to Amazon!

I've read this book at least 5 times - more for some chapters - and I've thoroughly enjoyed it evey time. Rob has a way of capturing stories that take you there. As a family, he, our baby daughter, and I served in Guyana six months Feb 2001-Aug 2001. It was a tremendous experience and the aviation service saved many lives. I hope that he will keep writing and that you'll look for those stories about our next project in Guatemala!

No, really, it is. You should read it.

If you, as I, graduated from a Jesuit university (in my case, Fordham), you simply have to add this volume to your collection. I had the added incentive of living in Lake George, NY, and having cherished as my personal hero for many years Father Isaac Jogues, Jesuit missionary to the Algonquin and Iroquois and the first white man to see the body of water he named Lac du Saint Sacrement in 1646. Father Schroth is a solid writer who presents both a scholarly and well-balanced treatment of his subject matter, entirely unafraid to consider both the splendid triumphs and undoubted failings of the order in America. He does a particularly good job on the founding and early trials of the Jesuit institutions of higher learning. In sum, a fine read.

In his book "The American Jesuits: A History" Raymond Schroth recounts the long history of the Society of Jesus from its genesis as a small group of followers of a Spaniard named Ignatius Lopez of Loyola to the greatest teaching order this world has known. But unlike many previous works on Jesuits, Fr. Schroth extolls both the noble and ignoble facets of the order. From stories of men willing to be martyred "For the Greater Glory of God" to a disgraceful exclusion from the order of those of Jewish ancestry. An order consisting of men working in the service of others and men in pursuit of power, often concurrently.

Fr. Schroth is a master storyteller as well as a thorough historian. This book is well worth reading.

Dr Wicks lives up to his reputation as an excellent writer of books that nourish the soul. This is a must for those in ministry to others.

If you want to truly know how to make your availability to others real, then this is the book for you. Robert Wicks writes in a easy to read style. As you read this book, you say, "I can do this. There are many very good ideas presented in this book and you can't help but see yourself as a better person for it.

This book is great if you're serious about meditation - it provides both context and techniques for improving your meditation in terms of both results and motivation. It's extremely interesting that again and again in the Cayce readings concerning meditation, it is stated that one of the main purposes of meditation is to able to help, to heal others. Again and again, those who questioned Cayce about their meditation experiences were told that what was happening to them was so that they could help and heal others - meditation is not just for the experience one has, but for its transformative capacity for both self and others.

An excellent book to own, but be aware that it's available new from the A.R.E. site for about ten dollars (sellers linked to Amazon are charging over a hundred dollars for this item!).

This book does not talk about crystal healing, or pendulum healing, or any of the sort. This book goes back to the Source of all things, which is God. Using God's Power to heal others as well as yourself. This is a well written book with plenty of Mr. Cayce's readings about Jesus Christ, and how He healed many people through His attunement with God. This book is very short (106 pages) and straight to the point (no dragging). It discusses the effects of group prayer, how healing could help others who truely believe (not just the healer), how to meditate using The Lord's Prayer, precautions in healing, and the list goes on. Yes, this is a must have!