Serious Times: Making Your Life Matter in an Urgent Day

by James Emery White

Overview

• A 2005 Evangelical Christian Publishing Association Gold Medallion finalist.

How can we make our lives matter?

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson lived in serious times. And, because they chose to live serious lives, they turned the course of history.

As the modern era transitions into postmodern turbulence, we, too, find ourselves in serious times. How can we make a difference in the world around us? How can we be an influence for Christ? Most important, how can we make our lives matter?

There is a a great movement of God set loose in the world. In this book, James Emery White explores what it means to be at the front lines of what God is doing. When serious times are met with serious lives, the kingdom of God is advanced.

Come and discover a life of significance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780830833801
Publisher:	InterVarsity Press
Publication date:	11/09/2005
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is also adjunct professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he previously served as the school's fourth president. Dr. White holds MDiv and PhD degrees from Southern Seminary, where he was awarded a Garrett Teaching Fellowship in both New Testament and theology. He has also done advanced university study at Vanderbilt University in American religious history, and continuing education at Oxford University in England. He currently serves on the Board of Reference at Union University, and as the adjunct professor of Christian Theology and Culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary/Charlotte. An international speaker and consultant, White is the author of over a dozen books, including such Gold Medallion nominees as Serious Times and A Search for the Spiritual,Christianity Today Book of the Year award-winner Wrestling with God, as well as The Prayer God Longs For and A Mind for God. White also served as the consulting editor as well as contributing author to The Holman Bible Handbook and The Holman Concise Bible Commentary.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Second Fall
2. The World That Lives in Us
3. The Ciy of Dreadful Delight
Interlude
4. Deepening Our Souls
5. Developing Our Minds
6. Answering the Call
7. Aligning with the Church
Conclusion
Illustration Credits
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

David S. Dockery

"James Emery White has done it again. In this new work, Serious Times, he has given us not only a thorough analysis of the cultural challenges we currently face but a skillfully developed response that calls for the church to deepen our souls and develop our minds as we seek to answer the call of our day. White's well-written and readable volume is indeed a serious mandate for these serious times. The theological depth and careful thinking displayed throughout the book will strengthen pastors, teachers and laypeople who engage in these important issues. I heartily commend this book."

Philip Yancey

"It is quite a feat to write a reflective, historically grounded book about urgency, but James White has accomplished exactly that."

Lon Allison

"My soul is quaking under the impact of this book. Rather than another yawning treatise on cultural demise, Jim White calls us to 'kick at the darkness till it bleeds light.' And the way we kick, he rightly assesses, is with 'deepened souls and developed minds.' Fill our churches, Lord, with such illumined saints, and start with me."

Editorial Reviews

"It is quite a feat to write a reflective, historically grounded book about urgency, but James White has accomplished exactly that."

Philip Yancey

"James Emery White has done it again. In this new work, Serious Times, he has given us not only a thorough analysis of the cultural challenges we currently face but a skillfully developed response that calls for the church to deepen our souls and develop our minds as we seek to answer the call of our day. White's well-written and readable volume is indeed a serious mandate for these serious times. The theological depth and careful thinking displayed throughout the book will strengthen pastors, teachers and laypeople who engage in these important issues. I heartily commend this book."

David S. Dockery

"A compelling charge to Christians regarding how they will seek to influence today's world."

Practical Homeschooling

"My soul is quaking under the impact of this book. Rather than another yawning treatise on cultural demise, Jim White calls us to 'kick at the darkness till it bleeds light.' And the way we kick, he rightly assesses, is with 'deepened souls and developed minds.' Fill our churches, Lord, with such illumined saints, and start with me."

Lon Allison

"A compelling charge to Christians regarding how they will seek to influence today's world."

--Practical Homeschooling, July/August 2005

"James Emery White has done it again. In this new work, Serious Times, he has given us not only a thorough analysis of the cultural challenges we currently face but a skillfully developed response that calls for the church to deepen our souls and develop our minds as we seek to answer the call of our day. White's well-written and readable volume is indeed a serious mandate for these serious times. The theological depth and careful thinking displayed throughout the book will strengthen pastors, teachers and laypeople who engage in these important issues. I heartily commend this book."

--David S. Dockery, President, Union University

From the Publisher

This book by pastor and professor White (Embracing the Mysterious God) is an antidote to complacency in the face of epochal change. Echoing church historian Christopher Dawson, White argues that we live "at the beginning of the seventh age" for the Christian church, a time of crisis that requires an innovative and determined response. After a brief survey of previous turning points, including the beginnings of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, White examines our "disenchanted world," which he characterizes as secularized, privatized and relentlessly pluralistic, mired in narcissism, relativism and hedonism. Yet even given this bleak picture, White sees hope in a renewed practice of Christianity that could still reshape and revitalize Western culture. The second half of the book, very different from the first, is devoted to exploring the essence of "serious lives." White draws on a commendably deep field of previous writers, from Teresa of Avila to Parker Palmer, offering a concise survey of topics from prayer to vocation. Of particular value are his thoughts on developing a "rule" of life, and his two-page portraits of Christians like St. Benedict, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Mother Teresa. While White's cultural analysis is neither new nor particularly encouraging, the wisdom and clarity of these latter chapters make this book a valuable, and hopeful, starting point for Christians who want their lives to matter. (July) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly