Are you addicted to love? Author Frank Thomas shoots straight from the hip about what the popular notions of love, romance, power, and sex have to do with God. In tackling some of the most uncomfortable and taboo topics of relationships, Thomas will help you discover what love has got to do with your own life.

What's Love Got to Do With It: Love, Power, Sex, and God

Thomas, Frank A.

Parenting & Relationships

Judson Pr

Book by Frank A. Thomas, Jini Kilgore Ross

What's Love Got to Do With It?: Love, Power, Sex and God

Religion & Spirituality

Ross, Jini Kilgore

Christian Books & Bibles

"The prayer Jesus gave to believers two thousand years ago still engenders hope and promise in these times of terrorist attacks, war, and other global conflicts," says Frank Thomas. These are the messages of hope and meaning that Thomas found as he prayed during the days and weeks following September 11, insights to help any of us facing all types of crises, suffering, or injustice.

The Lord's Prayer in Times Such As These

Chalice Pr

Here is a book that will impact the course of preaching in the twenty-first century. Through the lens of African American preaching, Frank Thomas sheds light on what "good" preaching is and what methods can be employed to achieve it. Celebration is an important component of any preaching that can be considered "good." Thomas explores the theology, dynamics, design, and guidelines for celebrative preaching and provides sample sermon illustrations as well.

They Like to Never Quit Praisin' God: The Role of Celebration in Preaching

United Church Pr

The promise of America has always been creative potential: enterprise, industry, optimism, idealism, and hope. This promise, known since the beginning of the New World and named since the Great Depression as the “American Dream”, is what makes immigrants cry at the base of the Statue of Liberty. But there is a dark side to the American Dream, too—one that we don’t talk about much in polite company. A side characterized by the exploitation and domination of subjugated people. The national climate has caused many to question the validity of the American Dream, and whether it even offers a viable vision for the nation. There are few greater questions to ask. Our collective future depends on a common vision. If the American Dream is dead, then what happens next? This book evaluates the American Dream, establishes its roots, gives reasons for its decline, and offers solutions to reclaim the promise of the American Dream that is more aligned with Jesus’ vision of the kingdom of God and Martin Luther King Jr’ s vision of the “Beloved Community”. Our challenge is to develop a redesigned American Dream, a sustainable future for all, free from exploitation and domination of subjugated people.

American Dream 2.0: A Christian Way Out of the Great Recession

History

World

ABINGDON PRESS *

The Introduction to African American Preaching is an important, groundbreaking book. This book acknowledges African American preaching as an academic discipline, and invites all students and preachers into a scholarly, dynamic, and useful exploration of the topic. Author Frank Thomas opens with a “bus tour” study of African American preaching. He shows how African American preaching has gradually moved from an almost exclusively oral to an oral/written tradition. Readers will gain insight into the history of the study of the African American preaching tradition, and catch the author’s enthusiasm for it. Next Thomas traces the relationship between homiletics and rhetoric in Western preaching, demonstrating how African American preaching is inherently theological and rhetorical. He then explores the question, “what is black preaching?” Thomas introduces the reader to methods of “close reading” and “ideological criticism.” And then demonstrates how to use these methods, using a sermon by Gardner Calvin Taylor as his example. The next chapter considers the question, “what is excellence in black preaching?” The next chapter seeks to create bridges and dialogue within the field of homiletics, and in particular, the Euro-American homiletic tradition. The goal of this chapter is to clearly demonstrate connections between the African American preaching tradition and the field of homiletics. Thomas next turns to questions about the relevancy of the church to the Millennial generation. Specifically, how will the African American church remain relevant to this generation, which is so deeply concerned with social justice?

Introduction to the Practice of African American Preaching

Learn to use four characteristics of "preaching with moral imagination" to proclaim freedom for all. The author describes the four characteristics using examples like Robert F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Prathia Hall, and the Moral Monday Movement, along with musicians and other artists of today. Moral imagination helps the hearer to see what they cannot see, to hear what they cannot hear--to inhabit the lives of others, so that they can embody Christ and true freedom for those others. This book equips and empowers preachers to transcend their basic skills and techniques, so that their proclamation of the Word causes actual turnaround in the hearts and lives of their hearers, and in their communities. "Frank Thomas has written a passionate summons: amid the current destructive chaos of our society there is an urgent need for moral imagination. Such imagination is the antithesis of “diabolic” and “idolatrous” imagination that is all to the fore in our public discourse and practice. Thomas fleshes out “moral imagination” with close reflection on the practice of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Before he finishes Thomas shows how the urgency of “moral imagination” belongs peculiarly to the work of the preacher. This book is a welcome call for gospel-grounded courage and truth about the neighbor issued in a way that refuses the self-serving fakery that dominates our public life." --Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary "Timely and prophetic, How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon presents a homiletic essential for our churches today. Thomas insists that it is up to the preacher to recapture and reclaim the moral imagination of our nation so that the Gospel’s message of freedom is true for all people. With attention to specific figures whose witness models the qualities and characteristics of moral imagination, Thomas inspires the preacher toward powerful proclamation that both challenges and critiques any speech that subjugates or subordinates. How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon is must read for preachers to recover and reimagine the leadership role of the church for the sake of justice for all." --Karoline M. Lewis, Associate Professor of Biblical Preaching and the Marbury E. Anderson Chair of Biblical Preaching, Luther Seminary; author of She: Five Keys to Unlock the Power of Women in Ministry. "In this lucid and compelling book, Frank Thomas plumbs the depths of American moral rhetoric for insights that will help preachers. How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon provides new and dramatic ways in which the moral imagination in a democratic society can be nurtured by visionary, empathic, wise, and artistic preachers."--John S. McClure, Charles G. Finney Professor of Preaching and Worship, Vanderbilt Divinity School "Warning: Preachers, if you are comfortable with the status quo of white privilege, patriarchy, hetero-normativity, and classism, do not read this book. If you are comfortable with sermon series that reduce the gospel to self-help acronyms, don’t read this book. But if you have the courage to look honestly at our landscape and bring the moral imagination of the Christian tradition to bear on it, open these pages and your sermons may never be the same again. But then again neither will the church--or the world--be the same anymore, if enough of us follow Thomas’s advice." --O. Wesley Allen, Jr., Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University

How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon

Preachers increasingly see the need to deliver sermons that are"dangerous" in a variety of ways: the way they challenge hearers'comfort levels and challenge established powers and hierarchies. Author Frank Thomashelps readers understand those dangers--especially the forces of powerand hierarchy that are so intrinsic in our everyday lives and in societyas a whole. He teaches how to anticipate and navigate those forces, toopen opportunities for dangerous preaching, and to mitigate negativeimpact on congregants, the preacher, and the preacher-congregationrelationships. Surviving a Dangerous Sermon is a logical follow-up to Thomas's previous book, How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon.It equips preachers to say what must be said, in a way that it isheard, so that the sermon has a chance to do its work on human hearts,without negative consequences.

Surviving a Dangerous Sermon

Learn to engage with a dangerous God, to preach the sermons your community needs today.Every sermon has a theology, and a god of that theology behind it. Preaching is more effective, and has more integrity when preachers understand the god behind their theology. Specifically, whether the god is a universal God, like the one expressed by Christ and the Christian faith, or a tribal god, which is sometimes dressed up to resemble Christianity but is something else entirely. Frank A. Thomas culminates his exploration of the Dangerous Sermon with this book, which leads readers through the process of identifying and understanding the gods behind theology, and their connection to preaching. The reader is equipped to discern the metaphors, symbols, and rhetorical indicators which point to the god a preacher is serving and calling others to serve.Praise for The God of the Dangerous SermonEnlightening, vibrant, and memorable. A vital resource for anyone who seeks to preach substantive sermons. -Donyelle McCray, Associate Professor of Homiletics, Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CTWith dexterous and definitive argument, Thomas compels preachers to be accountable for the God behind their rhetoric.-Karoline M. Lewis, Marbury E. Anderson Chair of Biblical Preaching, Professor of Biblical Preaching, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MNThe God of the Dangerous Sermon and its two companion books will raise up the next wave of preachers who simultaneously nurture faith communities and bear witness to the God of justice we know in the face of Jesus Christ.-Gregory V. Palmer, Resident Bishop of the Ohio West Episcopal Area, United Methodist ChurchWarning to all preachers: Do not open this book by Frank Thomas unless you are ready to be changed. No one else lays out the promise and perils of preaching with such clarity and compassion. I know I do not live up to the call of the God of the Dangerous sermon every single Sunday, but Frank Thomas sure makes me want to. Great teachers and preachers will do that. -Lillian Daniel, senior pastor of First Congregational Church in Dubuque, IA; author of Tired of Apologizing for a Church I Don't Belong ToIn God of the Dangerous Sermon, Frank Thomas refines his theoretical vision of celebration in African American preaching and demonstrates how and why theological content is at the heart of his project. For Thomas, celebration is rhetorical theology made possible because of the actions and character of a God whose divine performance consists of healing the brokenhearted, liberating the oppressed, and refusing to be tribal. A legend in his time, this is Thomas at the height of his native genius and creative powers. -Kenyatta R. Gilbert, professor of homiletics, Howard University School of Divinity, Washington, DC; author of Exodus Preaching: Crafting Sermons about Justice and Hope from Abingdon Press

God of the Dangerous Sermon

How to Heal Our Divides: A Practical Guide

Claiborne, Shane

McLaren, Brian D.

PALMER, PARKER J.

Bass, Diana Butler

Becker, Amy Julia

Fujimura, Makoto

Allain, Brian

Waters, Michael W.

Independently published

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Thomas, Frank A.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Thomas, Frank A.