Eerdmans Marva J. Dawn Collection (11 vols.)

Why do churches fight “Worship Wars?” Why do discussions about how to conduct worship often split into two vitriolic polarities over “traditional” versus “contemporary” styles or into two opposing camps, such as organists/ guitarists, baby boomers/elders, returnees/loyalists or clergy/musicians? These worship wars prevent us from being the church.

In Reaching out without Dumbing Down, Marva Dawn writes to help local parishes and denominations think more thoroughly about worship and culture so that they can function effectively in contemporary society. She roots her discussion of worship issues in a careful assessment of significant aspects of the present technological, boomer, post-modern society, and names criteria by which to judge the various cultural influences. She then sketches essential attributes of worship. Dawn recognizes that the vitality and faithfulness of our personal and corporate Christian lives and the effectiveness of our outreach to the world depend on the character that is formed in individuals and communities.

How can churches best reach out to society without “dumbing down” this essential character formation? Dawn discusses music, preaching, and all the accouterments of worship and offers practical suggestions for choosing the best tools and forms to deepen worship life, nurture faith development, and increase believers’ outreach throughout the universal church and to the world.

Following up on her best-selling Reaching Out without Dumbing Down, Marva Dawn offers biblically grounded, experienced insights to help churches navigate beyond today’s destructive worship wars and to stimulate renewal in the worship and life of congregations.

The first major section of the book examines the postmodern, media-saturated, consumerist culture that makes worship difficult yet absolutely essential. The next section focuses on keeping God at the center of worship. Other sections of the book explore issues of taste, forming faith in children, word choices, hospitality in worship, and the challenges of “being church for the world.” The book also includes nine Scripture-based sermons and questions for further discussion.

In contrast to writers who advocate worship for utilitarian purposes, Dawn concentrates on worship’s royal dimension, its God-ward focus. A Royal “Waste” of Time amplifies Dawn’s earlier argument that churches need to wrangle seriously with the true purpose of worship in order to employ the tools and forms that best enfold participants in the splendor of worshiping God. Only worship filled with the splendor of God, Dawn writes, will lead to genuine adoration of God and faithful formation of his people.

Is there a difference between children who have grown up in the church and those who have not? Why does it seem that many of the church’s young people make the same choices as the rest of the world about their sexuality, their use of money and time, their attitudes toward work, and their flippancy and cynicism? Are churches helping parents nurture and raise children with Christian faith and moral character?

Marva Dawn raises these questions in this book. Dawn challenges congregations, pastors, youth leaders and parents to take a hard look at what is happening to today’s youth. In a society where Christianity is no longer the dominant culture, the task of raising children with Christian life habits, integrity, and faith is far more demanding than ever before.

Is it A Lost Cause? is a wake-up call. Drawing on 30 years of experience working with young people, Dawn encourages congregations, pastors, and parents to embrace the church’s children with the moral authority, motivation, love, healing, hope, and home for which everyone searches. Dawn insists that we can indeed raise our children to look, act, talk, and think like people who are shaped by faith and offers specific suggestions for the necessary formation process.

Neither a commentary on the book of Revelation nor a devotional work—though it offers aspects of both—Joy in Our Weakness is instead a theological and practical guide that ushers readers into the very presence of Christ and his lordship over the powers of evil. Marva Dawn writes compassionately for those who suffer, for this book was born out of her own struggles with physical limitations and chronic illness, and it is intended to help the whole church learn how to find joy in every circumstance of life, especially in trials and sufferings.

After outlining some important foundational principles in three introductory chapters, Dawn guides readers through the whole book of Revelation, pointing out the errors of those who try to calendarize the end of the world and instead delineating how Revelation reveals Christ’s lordship, exposes the workings of the powers, and sustains those who suffer until evil is ultimately defeated. Now thoroughly revised for a wider readership, Joy in Our Weakness highlights Revelation’s original purpose—to comfort afflicted, suffering believers—and spells out a biblically grounded “theology of weakness,” offering a rare gift to the Church today. A wealth of insight and encouragement truly awaits the readers of these pages.

“But I don’t wanna go to church!”

Marva Dawn has often heard that cry—and not only from children. “What a sad commentary it is on North American spirituality,” she writes, “that the delight of ‘keeping the Sabbath day’ has degenerated into the routine and drudgery—even the downright oppressiveness—of ‘going to church.’”

According to Dawn, the phrase “going to church” both reveals and promotes bad theology. It suggests that the church is a static place when in fact the church is the people of God. The regular gathering together of God’s people for worship is important—it enables them to be church in the world—but the act of worship is only a small part of observing the Sabbath.

Combining sound biblical theology and research into Jewish traditions with many practical suggestions, Keeping the Sabbath Wholly offers a healthy balance between head and heart: the book shows how theological insights can undergird daily life and practice, and it gives the reader both motivation and methods for enjoying a special holy day.

As we embark on the new millennium, uncharted challenges await the church. This volume by one of today’s most valued voices on modern church life offers a wealth of insight into the role of local churches in the twenty-first century.

Rooted in solid biblical research and extensive experience, Marva Dawn’s newest book will help churches and their leaders avoid falling to the temptations of contemporary secular culture, including the popular “success” models of church management. Dawn offers groundbreaking scholarship—from the first significant critique of Walter Wink’s work on “the powers” to a relevant new translation of 2 Corinthians 12:9—and challenges readers to rethink the goals and mission of the congregation, to develop practices that follow God’s “hidden” way of weakness, and to expand their sense of what it means to be a faithful church.

Complete with discussion questions, this book provides the trustworthy theological and biblical foundations necessary for building strong churches—and keeping them strong—in today’s world.

Why is it so hard to serve God these days? Church workers suffer from low morale, while Christians of all stripes struggle to find their way in a culture fixated on sexuality, violence, and wealth. Expanding on her ideas in Keeping the Sabbath Wholly, Marva Dawn expands these into a way of life for serving God and the kingdom every single day of the week.

A Sabbath way of life, Dawn asserts, consists of resting in the kingdom’s grace, ceasing by grace those attitudes and actions that hinder the kingdom, feasting so as to radiate the gracious splendor of the Kingdom, and embracing the kingdom’s gracious purposes. To this end Dawn teaches skills such as learning to rest in prayer, saying no to busyness, enjoying one’s body as God’s temple, and embracing the cost of living as a Christian disciple.

Both frank and compassionate, The Sense of the Call will guide Christian servants into a more restful, joyful life of trust in God.

Aiming to combat the widespread confusion today regarding sexual issues, Marva Dawn offers here a clear biblical understanding of human sexuality. Her fresh perspectives in Sexual Character will challenge and encourage persons living in our sex-saturated society.

To establish the necessary foundations for new thinking about sexual issues, Dawn explains the importance of distinguishing between social and genital sexuality, discusses the forces in our technological society that jeopardize true intimacy, and outlines the “ethics of character” that forms the basis for discussion in the rest of the book.

Holding to a positive biblical vision for sexual character leads Dawn to raise many provocative questions that apply in very practical, relevant ways to such issues as friendship, marriage, divorce, teenage dating, homosexuality, and abortion. Dawn ends the book by putting forth a hopeful vision of “sexual shalom” for individuals and Christian communities.

Written in an engaging style, Sexual Character will benefit all thoughtful Christian adults—ministers, parents, youth group leaders, college students—and provide solid material for church discussion groups.

Completely revised more than 15 years after its first printing, To Walk and Not Faint is Marva J. Dawn’s popular first book. Her devotional reflections examine Isaiah 40 as it deals with many of the critical issues of daily life. Dawn’s meticulous study opens up each verse of Isaiah 40 to challenge us with significant insights for faith and profound motivation for growth in discipleship.

The structure of the book bridges head and heart: it offers both exegetical depth and personal involvement for a month of devotional reflection. Each meditation observes the text carefully, considers some of the nuances and implications of the original Hebrew, and identifies how our lives fit into the bigger story of the biblical narrative. Thus, the book both supplies skills for biblical meditation and invites readers to contemplate God’s relation to all the cries of human existence, to realize how a relationship with the Trinity gives us the unusual ability to handle all the dimensions of life.

Originally published in 1992 as The Hilarity of Community, this edition includes a new title, preface, and entirely new cover design. Truly the Community continues to be one of the best sources for understanding what it means to live together as the church of Christ.

Many writers, both secular and religious, have decried the lack of intimacy and community in our contemporary culture. Few of them, however, offer practical suggestions for counteracting the isolation and alienation felt by so many people today. But Marva Dawn does this and more in Truly the Community. Through an intensive study of Romans 12, Dawn offers specific guidance for building vital Christian community life.

Pastors are strategically placed to counter the culture. No other profession looks so inoffensive but is in fact so dangerous to the status quo. Their weapon? A gospel that is profoundly countercultural. But standing firm in today’s world isn’t easy. Powerful forces, both subtle and obvious, attempt to domesticate pastors, to make them, in a word, unnecessary.

In this book, two of today’s most respected authors help pastors recover their gospel identity and maintain a pure vision of Christian leadership. Marva Dawn and Eugene Peterson reconnect pastors with the biblical texts that will train them as countercultural servants of the gospel. Marva Dawn looks to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians for instruction for churches seeking to live faithfully in today’s world. In turn, Eugene Peterson explores Romans, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus, drawing from them the correct view of pastoral identity.