Michael Kruger
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Bully Pulpit : Confronting The Problem Of Spiritual Abuse In The Church
$25.99Add to cartWhat if churches have been looking for the wrong kind of leaders?
The last decade has witnessed a rising number of churches wrecked by spiritual abuse–harsh, heavy-handed, domineering behavior from those in a position of spiritual authority. And high-profile cases are only a small portion of this widespread problem. Behind the scenes, there are many more cases of spiritual abuse that we will never hear about. Victims suffer in silence, not knowing where to turn.
It seems that some of the leaders we are producing–and, if we are honest, some of the leaders we are wanting–have characteristics that are either absent from, or even the very opposite of, the list of leadership characteristics laid down in Scripture.
Of course, most pastors and leaders are godly, wonderful people that don’t abuse their sheep. They shepherd their flocks gently and patiently. But we can’t ignore the growing number who do not.We need gentle shepherds now more than ever, and in Bully Pulpit, seminary president and biblical scholar Michael J. Kruger offers a unique perspective for both church leaders and church members on the problem of spiritual abuse, how to spot it, and how to handle it in the church.
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5 Things To Pray For Your Spouse
$6.99Add to cartA happy and healthy marriage is one of God’s sweetest gifts to us. And one of the best ways to nurture that is through the power of prayer.
This guide will help you to pray bold, Scripture-based prayers for your husband or wife that will strengthen and enrich your marriage. It covers 21 prayer themes, with each one including five prayer prompts from a particular passage of Scripture. You’ll be equipped to pray deep and effective prayers for your spouse’s character and spiritual walk, for your life together as a couple and through challenging seasons.
You can use this book to help you to pray on your own or as a couple, and it makes a great wedding, anniversary or Valentines Day gift.
As Nancy Guthrie says in her foreword:
There is a great deal we can do for our spouses. But there is so much that only God can do, so much that only he can develop, and so much that only he can provide. So we pray. And as we pray instead of worry, pray instead of complain, pray instead of strategize, we find that God is not only doing a work in our spouse; he’s doing a work in us too. -
Hebrews For You
$17.99Add to cartApplied expository guide to Hebrews-a book that shows us how and why Jesus is better than anything else.
We are all tempted to drift away from Jesus, but in the book of Hebrews God gives us an anchor: a detailed understanding of how and why Jesus is better than anything else.
Seminary professor Michael J. Kruger unpacks this rich book verse by verse. He explains the Old Testament background, gives plenty of application for our lives today, and shows us how Jesus is the fulfilment of all God’s work on earth. He encourages us to live by faith in Jesus-the only anchor for our souls.
This expository guide can be read as a book; used as a devotional; and utilized in teaching and preaching.
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Hebrews And Anchor For The Soul
$8.99Add to cartEight Bible studies which explore the book of Hebrews, stirring us to live by faith in Jesus.
Michael J. Kruger helps groups to unpack the rich book of Hebrews, section by section. He shows us how Jesus is the fulfilment of all God’s work on earth, encouraging us to live by faith in him-the only anchor for our souls.
Features close attention to the text, a focus on real-life application.
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10 Commandments Of Progressive Christianity
$7.99Add to cartA cautionary look at ten dangerously appealing half-truths.
In 1923, J. Gresham Machen, then a professor at Princeton Seminary, wrote his classic text, Christianity and Liberalism. The book was a response to the rise of liberalism in the mainline denominations of his own day. Machen argued that the liberal understanding of Christianity was, in fact, not just a variant version of the faith, nor did it represent simply a different denominational perspective, but was an entirely different religion. Put simply, liberal Christianity is not Christianity.
What is remarkable about Machen’s book is how prescient it was. His description of liberal Christianity–a moralistic, therapeutic version of the faith that values questions over answers and being “good” over being “right”–is still around today in basically the same form. For this reason alone the book should be required reading, certainly for all seminary students, pastors, and Christian leaders.
Although its modern advocates present liberal Christianity as something new and revolutionary, it is nothing of the sort. It may have new names (e.g., “emerging” or “progressive” Christianity), but it is simply a rehash of the same well-worn system that has been around for generations.
The abiding presence of liberal Christianity struck me not long ago when I came across a daily devotional from Richard Rohr that listed ten principles he thinks modern Christianity needs to embody. These ten principles are actually drawn from Philip Gulley’s book, If the Church Were Christian: Rediscovering the Values of Jesus. In that devotional series, ironically titled “Returning to Essentials,” Rohr sets forth the ten principles as a kind of confessional statement of modern liberalism (while at the same time pretending to deplore confessional statements). They are, in effect, a Ten Commandments for progressive Christianity.
Indeed, these ten sound like they were gathered not so much on the mountaintop as in the university classroom. They are less about God revealing his desires and more about man expressing his own–less Moses, more Oprah.
But take note: each of these commandments is partially true. Indeed, that is what makes this list, and progressive Christianity as a whole, so challenging. It is a master class in half-truths that sound appealing on the surface until you dig down deeper and really explore their foundations and implications. Benjamin Franklin was right when he quipped, “Half the truth is often a