Good Faith Reads

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 on where you live, churches are somewhere between slightly off center and all the way at the margins of centers of social influence in their communities. Perhaps no group of churches has experienced this shift more dramatically than “Old First” churches.

Another change is that denominational organizations are no longer the repository of all resources, services, and expertise that congregations need to be effective. Often, the true “experts” are not denominational organizations, but other congregations. The best denominational organizations see their task, primarily, as cultivating a network of churches and ministry partners and connecting them to one another as a community of mutual learning and resourcing.

With these changes in mind, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina (CBFNC) partnered with First Baptist Church Wilmington and others in 2010 to produce the first “Hopeful Imagination” conference. The centerpiece of the conference was telling the story of FBC Wilmington in the words of its leaders. It was a story of how an “Old First” church adapted to our changing times and managed not only to survive, but also to thrive. In addition to the resource of the FBC story, we brought in other leaders who made contributions to the corporate learning. Teams of congregational leaders attended the conference, listened to the stories, and returned home to apply their learning in their own congregations and communities.

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 practices are dragged out to the driveway for disposal. I don’t know if that’s true—and I will be long dead before the historians settle the question—but what I do know is that as I enter the fourth quarter of my life, my own faith doesn’t look like it did in the first quarter, or, for that matter, in any previous quarter. It is still a work in progress. Perhaps it is so for you, too. If so, I’d like for this book to be my way of sharing notes with you.

There’s one thing I learned very soon in my process: Change is hard work. Intellectually and emotionally, it is hard work. If we were talking about something less emotionally charged—such as changing from cable to satellite TV—it would be so much simpler. But when the change has to do with what you think about God and everything south thereof, the stakes are much higher.

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 increase their hunger for greater biblical and theological learning. Students tend to be full of questions regarding God’s call at the beginning of formal theological education, whether undergraduate or graduate.

Second, I want to provide a written resource about God’s call that may be helpful to lay readers as well as to those called to the ministry. In church life, many persons other than clergy feel called to some form of non-ordained ministry or service. Many of the characteristics of God’s call are similar for both groups.

Third, I want this book to be a ready resource for professors, pastors, ministers, and mentors to have available to give to persons seeking their wisdom and counsel relative to God’s call. Many times I have wished I had such a volume at my fingertips to offer to inquiring persons. I hope this book will meet this need.

A theme of personal conviction will provide the foundation for this book. This conviction is that “it is worth a life” to answer God’s call. This is true for persons called to vocational ministry and equally true for those called to ministries not requiring ordination. The call of God is not exclusive to clergy, as special as that call is. God’s call can come to all, and it is worth a life to serve God, whether as an ordained servant or layperson.

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 journal is filled with daily events, Mother’s pronouncements, family tales, and the author’s personal reflections on the toll dementia takes on both the patient and the caregiver. He shares with his audience the successes and failures of maintaining a close relationship with an elderly family member in decline.

Over time, Akin and his mother switch roles, with Akin becoming the parent and Mother the child. Writing about this slow change helps the author make sense of the stressful episodes and gives him a sense of purpose, even as he struggles to make sense of difficult situations and decisions.

“As I look back and remember my feelings of frustration, there are times when I regret my anger—even when I tried to see the humor. Wise advice from other writers prompted me to look for the self, the person that remained of the mother I loved. Often, I found it in her kindness and even, at times, in her words.”

The author’s goals for this book is to share the legacy of Mother, a woman who, without fame, wealth, or status, who deeply influenced the lives of her sons, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, extended family, church, neighbors, friends, and retirement home staff. It is also his hope that the book will give others who must travel this road some hope, practical advice, a feeling of camaraderie with fellow caregivers, humor, and the encouragement to write down the stories of their parents before the stories are lost forever.

Learn more and purchase the book at GoodFaithMedia.org

God has entrusted preachers with his sacred word, his church and the sacred desk. Preachers have an obligation to offer back to God excellence in Christian ministry by conducting the ministry of preaching “decently and in order.” Likewise, churches are entrusted with honoring the time and energy that preachers — especially guest ministers — spend in preparation for speaking/preaching engagements by providing hospitable treatment and proper payment.

This manual begins with an introduction on the history of etiquette and why it matters. Part one provides an exegetical analysis of key passages of scripture that deal with preaching etiquette. Part two suggests that if greater attention is given to matters of preaching etiquette, the ministry of preaching will be done decently and in order, and those charged with proclaiming God’s word will be better equipped to serve in a spirit of excellence. Part three addresses matters of hospitality and honoraria viewed from studying 1 Corinthians 9:3-14, 3 John 5-8, and 1 Timothy 5:17-18. Following some personal reflection, I offer guide- lines on conducting a seminar on preaching etiquette.

Learn more and purchase the book at GoodFaithMedia.org.