Presence [Volume 1, Issue 2]
A Journal for Servants and Leaders in the Public Square
Welcome to the second issue of Presence!
First, a word.
For the past year, our President and his wife have been dealing with the life-threatening health concern of a close family member. This has produced long periods of distraction from matters that required their full attention. As a result, the release of new content experienced unavoidable delays. Recently, the outlook for this situation has moved from critical to stable and, now, hopeful. We are encouraged and optimistic that this recovery trajectory will allow the production of new content to resume on a regular schedule.
We are making all the content of Faithful Presence resource catalog available in full-access until the end of the year as a thank you for your prayers and understanding.
To that end, the next issue of Presence will focus on "Expectation & Anticipation in the Public Square," to harmonize with its mid-Advent release in December.
In this edition of Presence, we focus on The Church in the Public Square. Several years ago, a Barna study found that the majority of non-Christians in America consider Evangelical Christians as irrelevant and/or extreme. This raises several important questions. How did that happen? Is that an accurate assessment? What is the impact? Where do we go from here?
To be sure, it seems that the church suffers from all the problems facing our culture today. First, we have poorly equipped leaders who are poorly equipping their members for life anywhere, let alone the public square. Second, our concerns about the present cultural moment are eliciting unhelpful responses that further distance the Christians from meaningful contributions. Third, we seem to have lost our sense of what Jesus is actually calling us to, namely, participation in Christ's mission of making all things new. This if course, requires whole-life discipleship, in the whole of life, in the whole of the public square.
Christian Nationalism: Shibboleths for a Social Media Age In his first of, hopefully many essays in Presence, Dr. Timothy Padgett presents a deep-dive into the issue of Christian Nationalism, its allure, and its danger, in our present cultural moment.
Narcissism in Leadership and the Church Pastor and licensed therapist, Rev. Michael Coggin offers an excerpt from his forthcoming book on narcissism and its prevalence amongst leaders in the church, entitled On Spiritual Abuse, due out next year.
The Important Contrast of Our Values: Lessons on Faithful Presence from 1 Peter. Founder and President of Faithful Presence, Rev. Michael Langer explores how the message of 1 Peter can help us avoid the perils of narcissism, Christian Nationalism, and other less than beneficial ramifications of misplaced cravings.
Excellent Leadership: The 4C Profile. This brief exposition on the importance of properly evaluated and equipped leadership marks Dr. Charlie Self's second contribution to Presence.
[From the Archives] Soft Difference: Theological Reflections on the Relation Between Church and Culture in 1 Peter. Miroslav Volf has graciously allowed us to reprint his classic essay on rethinking the role of the church and its members in the public square.
[Book Review] "Dedication and Leadership," by Douglas Hyde. In our closing piece, we look at Douglas Hyde's brief but transformative missiological work that has shaped a number of church leaders - for better or worse.
We are working hard to get more all-access and premium content published so keep your eyes open.
Scroll down and let the joy of reading begin!
P.S. Please let us know if you encounter any issues with access, as we are still ironing out some behind-the-scenes tech matters.
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