John Mark Hicks

As evangelicals and other Christians continue the renewal and deepening of their practice of the sacraments, "Enter the Water, Come to the Table" provides an accessible study. It explores the meaning and practice of baptism and the Lord's supper through the lens of the biblical story's movement from creation to new creation. Rooting this sacramental journey in the Exodus of Israel, this book shows how Jesus inaugurates a new Exodus from old creation into new creation. Jesus' own baptism and table fellowship with his disciples embody the kingdom of God as new creation realities. And in light of Jesus' death and resurrection, baptism and the Lord's supper not only promise a future but they mediate a transforming experience of new life now.

Baptism and Lord's Supper in the Bible's Story of New Creation

Enter the Water, Come to the Table

MOVING FROM A "BLUEPRINT HERMENEUTIC" TO A THEOLOGICAL ONE In this book, John Mark Hicks tells the story of his own hermeneutical journey in reading the Bible. Lovingly and graciously, he describes his transition from a "blueprint hermeneutic" to a theological one. Some suggest that moving away from a patternistic command-example-and-necessary-inference approach for understanding what God requires leaves no other alternative, or at least none that both respects biblical authority and seeks to obey the gospel of Jesus the Messiah. In Searching for the Pattern, John Mark offers just such an alternative. His theological hermeneutic is deeply rooted in the way the Bible presents itself as a dramatic history of God's plan to redeem the world as well as his own experience of growing up among Churches of Christ. Seeing the gospel of Jesus as the center of the biblical drama reorients us to what provides our Christian identity and unites us as disciples of Jesus. ********** I pray this book is received with open hearts and open minds because I believe this work could go a long way in helping to bring unity to our fractured fellowship. --Wes McAdams, Preaching Minister for the church of Christ on McDermott Road, Plano, Texas This excellent book helps us understand the inner workings of Bible interpretation among Churches of Christ and provides a persuasive proposal for Bible interpretation that is built on the story of God we find in Scripture--a story into which God calls us. --James L. Gorman, Associate Professor of History, Johnson University Knoxville, Tennessee Finally, a trellis across the chasm! Throughout this book, Hicks does not compromise his high regard for both the church and the Scriptures; and through the grace found therein, he composes this urgent invitation back to the Table, where obedience cooperates with mystery, and we--estranged or conflicted--can find our place as one within God's magnificent story. --Tiffany Mangan Dahlman, Minister at Courtyard Church of Christ, Fayetteville, North Carolina John Mark Hicks is Professor of Theology at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. He has taught for thirty-eight years in schools associated with the Churches of Christ. He has published fifteen books and lectured in twenty countries and forty states and is married to Jennifer. They share six children and six grandchildren.

My Journey in Interpreting the Bible

Searching for the Pattern

Christine Parker

Bobby Valentine

Broken trust is not the end. Have you ever felt like Job, watching God cure, calm, and care for others, while you remain crumpled on the floor looking for God in the darkness? In Surrendering to Hope, you’ll find fifteen stories of heartbreak and tragedy told with unflinching honesty—brutal deaths of loved ones, chronic illness, mental and sexual abuse, divorce, as well as struggles with same sex attraction, dealing with the trauma of combat loss, and living under racial oppression. But the real story of Surrendering to Hope is that every story is God’s story. Despite brokenness and suffering, God is lovingly, powerfully present in every life. He invites each of us to lean on him in trust and begin a journey towards peace.

Guidance for the Broken

Surrendering to Hope

A biblically rich and engaging invitation to a deeper understanding of and the participation in the Lord's Supper.

Revisioning the Lord's Supper

Come to the Table

1 & 2 Chronicles

How can wounded people come to believe that God deeply loves them? Many have enjoyed William Young's The Shack, even if they puzzled over the book's actual meaning and theology. While some were quick to dismiss it as fiction, The Shack isn't really fiction at all. It's a modern day parable. Meeting God at The Shack shows hurting people how to read this story with profit and come to know God more fully.

A Journey into Spiritual Recovery

Meeting God at the Shack

Yet Will I Trust Him will challenge you to look at God's providence and human suffering from a new perspective. If you have struggled with suffering and personal pain versus God's goodness, this book will be a blessing to you. When events seem painful or evil, you must know and trust that God still has a plan. This book will help you be assured that He is still in control, and the confidence and peace that comes with that realization will become the tool to help you face the storms life brings your way.

Understanding God in a Suffering World

Yet Will I Trust Him

Mark E. Powell

Greg McKinzie

Jesus said, “Go and make disciples.” So, what exactly are we doing? Western churches face a difficult future marked by numerical decline and evident signs of shrinking cultural influence. But Discipleship in Community wisely asks the church to go back to basics. What does it mean to follow Jesus? What does a life of discipleship look like? Trusted scholars Mark Powell, John Mark Hicks, and Greg McKinzie invite you to consider how good theology can lead to better, more intentional discipleship. In Discipleship in Community you will learn • how the language of Trinity matters to everyday disciples; • how God’s plan and mission is unfolding and how, as disciples, we can participate in that mission; • how the Bible is more than a book of facts and how it guides us into a relationship with God; • how baptism and the Lord’s Supper allow us to experience God’s saving power; and • how local churches can encourage intentional discipleship.

John Mark Hicks

Books

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