Russell Moore

Former Southern Baptist pastor and Christianity Today editor-in-chief Russell Moore calls for repentance and renewal in American evangelicalism American evangelical Christianity has lost its way. While the witness of the church before a watching world is diminished beyond recognition, congregations are torn apart over Donald Trump, Christian nationalism, racial injustice, sexual predation, disgraced leaders, and covered-up scandals. Left behind are millions of believers who counted on the church to be a place of belonging and hope. As greater and greater numbers of younger Americans bleed out from the church, even the most rooted evangelicals are wondering, “Can American Christianity survive?” In Losing Our Religion, Russell Moore calls his fellow evangelical Christians to conversion over culture wars, to truth over tribalism, to the gospel over politics, to integrity over influence, and to renewal over nostalgia. With both prophetic honesty and pastoral love, Moore offers a word of counsel for how a new generation of disillusioned and exhausted believers can find a path forward after the crisis and confusion of the last several years. Believing the gospel is too important to leave it to hucksters and grifters, he shows how a Christian can avoid both cynicism and complicity in order to imagine a different, hopeful vision for the church. The altar call of the old evangelical revivals was both a call to repentance and the offer of a new start. In the same way, this book invites unmoored and discouraged Christians to step out into an uncertain future, first by letting go of the kind of cultural, politicized, status quo Christianity that led us to this moment of reckoning. Only when we see how lost we are, we can find our way again. Only when we bury what’s dead can we experience life again. Only when we lose our religion can we be amazed by grace again.

An Altar Call for Evangelical America

Losing Our Religion

Todd R. Chipman

Why the Church Can and Must Care for Orphans

Until Every Child Is Home

Who should participate in the Lord's Supper? How frequently should we observe it? What does this meal mean? What happens when we eat the bread and drink from the cup? What do Christians disagree about and what do they hold in common? These and other questions are explored in this thought-provoking book. This new volume in the Counterpoints: Church Life series allows four contributors to make a case for the following views: * Baptist view (memorialism) * Reformed view (spiritual presence) * Lutheran view (consubstantiation) * Roman Catholic view (transubstantiation) All contributors use Scripture to present their views, and each responds to the others' essays. This book helps readers arrive at their own conclusions. It includes resources such as a listing of statements on the Lord's Supper from creeds and confessions, quotations from noted Christians, a resource listing of books on the Lord's Supper, and discussion questions for each chapter to facilitate small group and classroom use.

Understanding Four Views on the Lord's Supper

In this practical book, Moore highlights the importance of adoption for all Christians, encouraging readers to lead the way in adoption and orphan advocacy out of our identity as adopted children of God.

The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches

Adopted for Life

Bestselling author Russell Moore teaches readers--every one of whom is in a family in one way or another--that family is an echo of the gospel. Moore teaches us why family is so important, and so difficult at times.

How the Cross Reshapes the Home

The Storm-tossed Family

Owen Strachan

John Piper

Mark Dever

Jonathan Leeman

Timothy Larsen

Michael Haykin

Daniel Bays

Phillip Jensen

Bruce Kent

Mike Gilbert-Smith

Thomas Kid

Matt McCullough

Greg Cochran

What good is a church if it loses its distinctness? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.The growing opposition to the Christian faith in Western culture is heart breaking and worth challenging. That said, God has good purposes for letting the nations-even a so-called Christian nation-oppose his people. And one of them is to sharpen the church's distinctness. He is seeking a bride for his Son, and he means for her to radiate.The nature of our relationships inside a church should be distinct. Our ways of serving our employers and employees should be distinct. Our treatment of spouses and children should be distinct. Our loves and our laughter should be distinct. Our sexuality and family budgets and vacation plans should be distinct. And the more our culture opposes God and his people, the more the distinctness of our churches should shine. Yes, there should be points of commonality. We never stop being human, and our lives and loves should be deeply humane. But we are the new humanity. Our neighbors should find us both familiar and exotic.Notice, then, the further a nation moves away from Christian moral assumptions, the more its churches have occasion to radiate the life-changing power of God. Which means, cultural opposition shouldn't scare us. It sets a backdrop for the display for the glory of God in our lives.Not only that, our evangelistic power is tied to our distinctness. An old friend of mine known as a Christian who works deep in the heart of British politics recently affirmed gay marriage. He doesn't know it today, but a couple decades from now he just might look back and see that he lost all his prophetic power on the day he made that affirmation. He blended in. He became indistinct. His salt was no longer salty. Might as well throw it out.How precious for evangelism's sake are our doctrines of sin and conversion.As cultural opposition grows, in short, church leaders must not be all lament. Or all battle-cry. There might be places for both. But pastors must preach hope, recognizing divine purposefulness in that very opposition. God is behind it. We should not presume to know what God is specifically doing through any moment of opposition, but we can assume that all the purposes for his church are love.The goal of this 9Marks Journal is to help pastors adopt a fuller perspective regarding the growing cultural opposition all around us. How should we think? How should we speak and pray? They might subpoena our sermons or fine our florists. But the game is God's, and he moves about his opponents like pawns.

Seeking the Right Perspective As Opposition Grows

The Vanishing Church? - 9Marks Journal

Thomas Mills

An environmental guide to western surface mining

The doctrine of adoption--God's decision to adopt sinful men and women into his family--stands at the heart of Christianity. In light of this, Christians' efforts to adopt beautifully illustrate the truth of the gospel. In this popular-level and practical manifesto, Russell Moore encourages Christians to adopt children and to help other Christian families to do the same. He shows that adoption is not just about couples who have struggled to have children. Rather, it's about an entire culture within evangelicalism--a culture that sees adoption as part of the Great Commission mandate and as a sign of the gospel itself.

N. T. Wright

Paul Sanders

Les Isaac

Peggy Gish

Julia Chaney-Moss

Nathaniel Peters

Channah Ben-Eliezer

Chico Fajardo-Heflin

Robert Paeglow

The contributors to this issue of Plough Quarterly focus on what it means to bear witness to the gospel. Peggy Gish reports on the church's response to Boko Haram in Nigeria, where thousands of Christians have been killed. But in addition to witnesses who die for their faith, there are those who live for it, such as the families of those who died in Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. And in the wake of the US Supreme Court's move to redefine marriage, we can't talk about Christian witness without considering marriage and sexuality. With insights from Russell Moore, N. T. Wright, Amy Carmichael, Pope Francis, George Fox, Ivan Illich, Julia Chaney-Moss, Nathaniel Peters, Channah Ben-Eliezer, Chico Fajardo-Heflin, Les Isaac, Paul Sanders, and Robert Paeglow, this issue is sure to stimulate reflection and discussion. And as if that weren't enough, you also get world-class art by Caravaggio, August Macke, Eric Drooker, Denis Barsukov, Pablo Picasso, George Tooker, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Janice Earley, John Singer Sargent, Paul Sanders, Paul Klee, Ghislaine Howard, and others. Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to put their faith into action. Each issue brings you in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art to help you put Jesus' message into practice and find common cause with others.

Witness

Plough Quarterly No. 6

An Environmental Guide to Western Surface Mining: Federal leasable and locatable mineral regulations

The USS Hornet CV-12 was launched in 1943 and served throughout the second half of World War II in the Pacific. After various modifications, she was active during the Cold War and the Vietnam War. After this, she joined the Apollo Space Program, recovering the astronauts from the Apollo 11 and 12 moon missions. After being decommissioned for the final time, she rested for decades in the mothball fleet and was destined for the scrap yard until saved and turned into a floating museum. Today, eighty years after construction began, the Hornet is still serving this country with distinction, this time as an educational venue and community asset. This book tells the story of this ship over these eighty years, from design and construction to service in times of war and times of peace. The design was a pre-war design, before any of the lessons of World War II could be added, and yet this ship and its crew were able to meet every challenge they were faced with from 1943 until it was decommissioned in 1970 and then again as a museum ship starting in 1998 and continuing today.

Service in War and Peace

USS Hornet CV-12

The doctrine of adoption—God’s decision to adopt sinful men and women into his family—stands at the heart of Christianity. In light of this, Christians’ efforts to adopt beautifully illustrate the truth of the gospel. In this popular-level and practical manifesto, Russell Moore encourages Christians to adopt children and to help other Christian families to do the same. He shows that adoption is not just about couples who have struggled to have children. Rather, it’s about an entire culture within evangelicalism—a culture that sees adoption as part of the Great Commission mandate and as a sign of the gospel itself.

Adopted for Life (Updated and Expanded Edition)

Not everyone has the opportunity to attend a high profile murder trial. Attending such a trial held with a family member as the defendant brings trials of its own. Standing in support of the victims requires something from within that not everyone has. The headlines announced that the police in Grand Rapids were in search of a truck driver who was raping and killing young men. The news was alarming, but not unlike many other headlines of the day. The trucker was arrested and revealed to be my step father. I began to examine the past, taking notes and contacting media sources in Michigan. What I found would change my view of my step father, my family, and myself. Here I relay a gripping recount of his past crimes, his disguise as a straight family man, and his recent rampage that forever changed the lives of young men in western Michigan. His association to the Oakland County Child Killings (OCCK) are undenialble after reading this work.

Monster in the Closet: Raised by A Killer

In this scholarly work, Russell D. Moore relates the history leading up to the new "Kingdom" consensus among evangelicals from the time theologian Carl F. H. Henry called for it fifty years ago. He examines how this consensus offers a renewed theological foundation for evangelical engagement in the social and political realms. While evangelical scholars and pastors will be interested in this sharp, insightful book, all evangelicals interested in public policy will find it useful in discovering how this new Kingdom perspective works out in the public square.

The New Evangelical Perspective

The Kingdom of Christ

Joseph of Nazareth was a good and honorable man. The adoptive father of Jesus, he stood by his wife and raised her son—even when it appeared that she had betrayed him. Such is the love of adoption. But this love stands in stark contrast to what we see in our world today: on-demand abortion, unreported abuse, and widespread neglect. Adapted from Russell Moore’s influential book Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches, this short volume calls Christians to seriously consider adoption for their own families and thus take a stand for children—born and unborn.

What Joseph of Nazareth Can Teach Us about This Countercultural Choice

Adoption

Chris Colin

Allison Hopelain

A cookbook about the unique, fire-based cooking approach and ingredient-focused philosophy of Camino restaurant in Oakland, CA, with approximately 100 recipes. Russ and Allison first opened the doors to Camino restaurant in Oakland, California, just as recession forced would-be diners home. Faced with a walk-in refrigerator full of uneaten food and an idling staff, they got industrious—canning, preserving, brining. This efficiency borne out of necessity soon became the driver of innovation for Camino’s cooking and the marker of a truly waste-free kitchen. But Camino is not all prudence and grandmotherly frugality. There’s the smoldering fire at the heart of the restaurant, which likely has a whole lamb leg dangling from a string, turning as it roasts perfectly, its fat seasoning a pot of fresh garbanzo beans underneath. Or, eggplants grilling for a smoky and complex ratatouille. Or, fresh fig leaves browning over the hot embers for a surprising and unforgettable grilled fig leaf ice cream. The pared down approach to ingredients at Camino opens up a world of layered flavors and ingenuity—sophisticated but direct, revelatory and, in its own way, revolutionary. This Is Camino is an extension of the brilliance of the restaurant, full of deep knowledge, good humor, and delicious food.

[A Cookbook]

This Is Camino

Learn to reclaim the distinctiveness of the Christian faith that sets it apart from the surrounding culture.

Engaging the Culture Without Losing the Gospel

Onward

Although temptation is a common and well-acknowledged part of the human experience, few realize the truth behind temptation and fewer still know how to defeat it. Tempted and Tried will not reassure Christians by claiming that temptation is less powerful or less prevalent than it is; instead, it will prepare believers for battle by telling the truth about the cosmic war that is raging. Moore shows that the temptation of every Christian is part of a broader conspiracy against God, a conspiracy that confronts everyone who shares the flesh of Jesus through human birth and especially confronts those who share the Spirit of Christ through the new birth of redemption. Moore walks readers through the Devil’s ancient strategies for temptation revealed in Jesus’ wilderness testing. Moore considers how those strategies might appear in a contemporary context and points readers to a way of escape. Tempted and Tried will remind Christians that temptation must be understood in terms of warfare, encouraging them with the truth that victory has already been secured through the triumph of Christ.

Russell Moore

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