Tex Sample
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Earthy Mysticism : Spirituality For Unspiritual People
$19.99Add to cartThis book, says the author, is “a testimony of narratives where [a] strange God appears. Such appearances supply the mystical states that have come to shape my life. I am not helped much by conventional approaches to spirituality. I find it almost impossible to do ‘devotions.’ Daily Bible study in the sense of devoting twenty to thirty minutes a day never worked for me. I cannot get around to scheduled times for prayer on my knees with head bowed. I find labyrinths and prayer beads boring. I am ever and again distracted in silent meditation. I simply cannot sustain a spirituality based in such things.
“I do not regard myself as unusual or special. My hunch, and it is more than that, is that a host of people will recognize themselves in what I describe here. What is here is, clearly, my story, but it is not about me. It is about a God of surprises, of One who comes in the ordinary and the seamy. It is about a God who will goose you. It is about mystical moments when clearly the only thing that finally matters is this God who will never leave us alone, especially in the ordinary and angular places of life. It is, I hope, a spirituality for unspiritual people.” -
Loyal Opposition : Struggling With The Church On Homosexuality
$22.99Add to cartNo issue more polarizes American Protestants today than the church’s stance on homosexuality. In recent years, a number of denominations have engaged in prolonged and divisive debates on the subject, and it appears that these debates will continue to occupy their attention. The contributors to this volume call for the formation of a “loyal opposition” that is serious in its commitment to the difficult process of reconciliation and forgiveness. Faithfulness to the gospel, they remind readers, requires nothing less than that Christians will be committed to the full inclusion of all persons in the body of Christ-not least of all those who disagree theologically and ethically.
The book offers readers a multifaceted argument that the gospel requires a commitment to the full inclusion of all persons in the body of Christ. It focuses on how members of mainline denominations can respond to official denominational positions with which they disagree. Readers are offered an alternative response besides staying in the denomination and remaining silent or leaving the denomination because one disagrees with its official position on this issue.
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White Soul : Country Music The Church And Working Americans
$22.99Add to cartWhite Soul examines the social, political and religious foundations of country music as the soul music of the white, working-class Americans. Country music gives voice to an economically battered subculture of hard-living and hard-working people who find self-expression in the music of honky-tonks and heartaches. It celebrates the “wild side of life” as a form of populist anarchism and escapist festivity. This unusual medley of sociology, theology, and country music history is also a compelling critique of the elitism of “good taste” in the dominant culture. Tex Sample challenges the church to reach out to working-class people, who have often been ignored and demeaned by churches held captive to the tastes and lifestyles of the upper middle class.
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Hard Living People And Mainstream Christians
$22.99Add to cartIf you can’t stand four-letter words, you shouldn’t read this book. This book contains expletive language used by hard living people, so that readers will better understand the hard living culture and discover ways to minister within it. “Through stories of hard-living people and pastors who minister with them, Tex Sample challenges mainline churches to break the yoke of middle-class captivity and join with the Christ who lives among the poor and marginalized. The book is inspirational, analytical, and practical in its treatment of an issue too long ignored by contemporary church leadership.” – Kenneth L. Carder, Resident Bishop, Nashville Area, The United Methodist Church
