The 12 Days Before Christmas Book Giveaway: Day 5

Publisher’s Description: Christian Leadership Essentials finds university president David S. Dockery assembling a great wealth of tried and true insights on the distinctive methods of leading Christian organizations and institutions. No matter how much experience a faith-based leader may already have, there are plenty of fresh thoughts and indispensable guiding principles here on topics including finance and budget planning, mission and vision, employee relations, theological foundations, mentoring, crisis management, and more.

A majority of the nineteen contributors are active academic presidents, including Robert B. Sloan (Houston Baptist University; “A Biblical Model of Leadership”), Judson Carlberg (Gordon College; “Managing the Organization”), Jon Wallace (Azusa Pacific University; “Financial Oversight and Budget Planning”), Evans Whitaker (Anderson University [South Carolina]; “Development, Campaigns, and Building Projects”), Carl Zylstra (Dordt College; “Accreditation and Government Relations”), Jim Edwards (Anderson University [Indiana]; “Relationships with Multiple and Various Constituencies”), Phil Eaton (Seattle Pacific University; “Employee Relations in a Grace-filled Community”), Barry Corey (Biola University; “Engaging the Culture”), and Randall O’Brien (Carson-Newman College; “The Leader as Mentor and Pastor”).

Learn more atBHPublishingGroup.com.

Publisher’s Description: Throughout her history America has possessed a rich religious component largely comprised of different traditions of the Christian faith. This tide of personal religious devotion connected to government observances and policies has ebbed and flowed through time, but it has always been a part of American identity””one that is full of social and political debate. As such, Christian America? presents a hearty point-counterpoint discussion about the nature of the relationship Christianity has had to American politics and culture throughout the country’s existence, aiming to determine which of these four differing opinions is most appropriate. David Barton (WallBuilders) supports the idea that America is distinctly Christian based on centuries of authoritative government declarations. Jonathan D. Sassi (College of Staten Island) believes America is distinctly secular based on the nation’s religiously eclectic and secular beginning (particularly the emphasis on “the complete separation of church and state”). William D. Henard (The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) sees America as essentially Christian, making his case for the nation’s crucial faith component while exploring varied interpretations of comments like one made in 2009 by President Barack Obama: “Although… we have a very large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation…” Daryl C. Cornett, the book’s editor, argues that America is partly Christian, a nation that was shaped by a blend of religious and non-religious tendencies. He writes, “After the Civil War steady decline in religious adherence was the impetus for evangelicals to mythologize American history and pine for a return to a golden age of Christian faith and virtue at its founding that never existed.”

Learn more at BHPublishingGroup.com.

Publisher’s Description: Seminarians spend countless hours mastering biblical languages and learning how the knowledge of them illuminates the reading, understanding, and application of Scripture. But while excellent language acquisition resources abound, few really teach students how to maintain their use of Greek for the long term. Consequently, pastors and other former Greek students find that under the pressures of work, ministry, preaching, and life, their hard-earned Greek skills begins to disappear. Con Campbell has been counseling one-time Greek students for years, teaching them how to keep their language facility for the benefit of those to whom they minister and teach. He shows how following the right principles makes it possible for many to retain””and in some cases regain””their Greek language skills. Pastors will find Keep Your Greek an encouraging and practical guide to strengthening their Greek abilities so that they can make linguistic insights a regular part of their study and teaching. Current students will learn how to build skills that will serve them well once they complete their formal language instruction.

Learn more at Zondervan.com.

Publisher’s Description: The World and the Word is a fresh introduction to the Old Testament driven largely by the fact that so much Christian preaching and teaching today increasingly ignores what is eighty percent of the Bible. Authors Eugene Merrill, Mark Rooker, and Michael Grisanti work through the world and text of the Old Testament always making three major points:

• The Old Testament is a rich source of theology and doctrine that is presupposed by the New Testament. Without it, Christian theology would be seriously deficient.
• Mastery of the Old Testament is crucial to an understanding of the New Testament.
• The Old Testament offers, by teaching and example, practical principles of belief and behavior for contemporary times. Who God was and what He did then can be replicated in the lives of men and women today.

Separating the verifiable biblical and extra-biblical data from the various interpretations of that same information, the book further shows how the Old Testament forms the platform and matrix from which sprang the life, ministry, and teachings of Jesus and the church. The World and the Word will help students see an entry point into the very heart and design of God who loves them and wishes to make them the special object of His grace.

Learn more at BHPublishingGroup.com.

Publisher’s Description: “As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “˜Take and eat it; this is My body.'” -Matthew 26:26 (HCSB)

A follow-up to Believer’s Baptism in the New American Commentary Studies in Bible & Theology series, The Lord’s Supper explores the current Baptist view of the communion sacrament. Contributors include Andreas Köstenberger (“The Lord’s Supper as a Passover Meal”), Jonathan Pennington (“The Last Supper in the Gospels”), Jim Hamilton (“The Lord’s Supper in Paul”), and Michael Haykin (“Communion in the Early Church”). Adding a helpful perspective, chapters are also provided on the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, and Zwinglian views of communion.

Learn more at BHPublishingGroup.com.

Publisher’s Description: Seminarians spend countless hours mastering biblical languages and learning how the knowledge of them illuminates the reading, understanding, and application of Scripture. But while excellent language acquisition resources abound, few really teach students how to maintain their use of Greek for the long term. Consequently, pastors and other former Greek students find that under the pressures of work, ministry, preaching, and life, their hard-earned Greek skills begins to disappear. Con Campbell has been counseling one-time Greek students for years, teaching them how to keep their language facility for the benefit of those to whom they minister and teach. He shows how following the right principles makes it possible for many to retain””and in some cases regain””their Greek language skills. Pastors will find Keep Your Greek an encouraging and practical guide to strengthening their Greek abilities so that they can make linguistic insights a regular part of their study and teaching. Current students will learn how to build skills that will serve them well once they complete their formal language instruction.

Learn more at Zondervan.com.

For a more personal look at this book, read my own book review or Shaun’s review from BibleGeekGoneWild.com.

Publisher’s Description: The best scholarship. The most up-to-date information. Useful. Fascinating. Easy. Now for the Macintosh using the Accordance system from OakTree Software. Other CD-ROM reference libraries today make you pay for dozens of out-of-date, public domain books that do not give you the best and most recent scholarship–the timely and reliable information you want and need. By contrast, The Essential IVP Reference Collection includes only work from the best of today’s biblical and theological scholars.

You’ll have instant access to IVP’s award-winning New Testament dictionary series (Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Developments, Dictionary of New Testament Background), the immensely popular Bible background commentaries (IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament, IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament), and the New Bible Dictionary and New Bible Commentary, which have set the standard for Bible reference books for over a generation. And that’s just the beginning! Does a particular verse trouble you? Hard Sayings of the Bible gives in-depth explanations of over 500 of the most difficult passages in the Old and New Testaments. Are you interested in the meaning of recurring images in Scripture? The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery will aid your exploration of the themes, metaphors, imagery and patterns of Scripture. New Bible Atlas, New Dictionary of Biblical Theology and New Dictionary of Theology will help round out your study of the places, peoples, interpretations and implications of biblical teaching. Finally, four convenient “pocket” dictionaries offer a quick-reference resource covering biblical studies, the study of New Testament Greek, theological terms, and apologetics and the philosophy of religion.

On this single CD for the Macintosh you’ll find:

• over a dozen of IVP’s award-winning reference books
• the equivalent of over 12,000 pages of printed material
• over 10 million words of the most up-to-date information on the Bible, Bible history, cultural background and theology
• the authoritative work of hundreds of today’s leading biblical and theological scholars from all over the world
• a money-saving package that includes the equivalent of over $450 worth of printed books
  easy-to-use software that will have you up and going in minutes
• a free KJV Bible
• complete user’s manual included right on the CD-ROM for easy access
• every book interconnected to work as a single reference source

This exclusive collection includes works you’ll find nowhere else on CD-ROM, including many published during 2000-2002. The Essential IVP Reference Collection is ideal for pastors, scholars, students, Sunday school teachers and anyone who is serious about studying the Bible!

System requirements: Macintosh System 7.1 to OS X (Not compatible with OSX Lion). (or PC with Macintosh Emulator). Runs on Accordance software from OakTree.

Learn more at AccordanceBible.com.