“T’is a gift to be simple, t’is a gift to be free…” 19 th century Shaker song Money has great power in our lives. Used wisely, it is one key to accomplishing our goals, providing for our needs, and fulfilling our life purpose. In recent years, many of us ignored the wisdom of the past when it came to managing and spending our money. Credit card debt soared, savings rates plummeted, and our home equity became something to be tapped into and spent rather than a source of security in retirement. We felt an insatiable desire for more. And we found ourselves spending tomorrow’s money today in order to have what we hoped would satisfy. The result of all of this was not greater happiness and satisfaction, but greater stress and anxiety. Enough is an invitation to rediscover the Bible’s wisdom when it comes to prudent financial practices. In these pages are found the keys to experiencing contentment, overcoming fear, and discovering joy through simplicity and generosity. This book could change your life, by changing your relationship with money. “We Americans love our stuff. We’re living in a fast-paced, me-first, instant-gratification world, and it’s finally catching up to us. Debt is out of control, homes are in foreclosure  ... even banks are going out of business. What the world needs today is the message of contentment and simplicity, and that’s exactly what Pastor Adam Hamilton delivers in Enough .” Dave Ramsey, New York Times Best-Selling Author and Nationally Syndicated Radio Talk Show Host “Once again, Adam Hamilton is leading the church; ‘Enough is enough’ was once a Wesleyan watchword. Adam breathes new life into the Wesleyan commitment to simplicity. Amid a culture of greed and conspicuous consumption Adam calls us to a biblically based, evangelical joy of having the faith to say ‘enough is enough.’” Bishop Will Willimon United Methodist Church, Birmingham Area “I pay close attention to whatever Adam Hamilton writes. His books are marked by extraordinary pastoral insight, biblical and theological depth, courage to speak the truth, and down-to-earth practicality. Enough comes like an antidote in the middle of a pandemic. I hope that classes, groups, couples, and individuals will use this book—and the economic crisis it addresses—as a challenge to get healthy again by deepening our discipleship in the vital area of money and possessions.”   Brian McLaren, Author/Networker (brianmclaren.net < http://brianmclaren.net >)  Each week participants will: - Reassess their values, desires and needs - Learn how to begin using simple tools to evaluate their financial situation - Develop a values-based view of managing their money - Consider ways to find contentment in simpler living This book and DVD are suitable for individual reading or for small-group study in five sessions. Adam Hamilton is the Senior Pastor of the 15,000 member United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. He is a sought after speaker on leadership, ethics, marriage and the spiritual life. He is the author of ten books from Abingdon Press including Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White, Making Love Last a Lifetime: Biblical Perspectives on Love, Marriage and Sex and the upcoming, Twenty-Four Hours That Changed the World . Chapters include: Introduction: Faith in the Midst of Financial Crisis When Dreams Become Nightmares Wisdom and Finance Cultivating Contentment Defined By Generosity Epilogue...

This stewardship program guide offers a simple campaign plan based on Adam Hamilton's book, Enough:Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity. Lead the congregation through a study program, sermon series and thoughtful consideration together of financial values, contentment and giving. Video clips of interviews and graphics Adam used in his own series are included.

Enough is an invitation to rediscover the Bible s wisdom when it comes to prudent financial practices. In these pages are found the keys to experiencing contentment, overcoming fear, and discovering joy through simplicity and generosity....

In this book, Adam Hamilton presents a welcoming, inspiring vision of eight Christian denominations and faith traditions. Comparing the Christian family to our own extended families, he contends that each denomination has a unique, valuable perspective to offer on the Christian faith.

The traditions he examines are Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Lutheranism, Presbyterianism, Anglicanism, Baptists, Pentecostalism, and Methodism. For each group, Hamilton gives a brief history, outlines major beliefs, and describes some things we can learn from that tradition to strengthen our own Christian faith....

Adam Hamilton's best-selling Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White prompted persons of faith into more thoughtful conversations on the political, moral, and religious issues that divide us.

Now, created as a companion piece to the Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White DVD, the Participant Study Guide features five sessions based on the sermons of Adam Hamilton from that DVD. Each session will include discussion questions that will help participants delve deeper into the topics:

• Where Faith and Politics Meet
• Christ, Christians, and Culture Wars
• How Should We Live? The Ethics of Jesus
• Spiritual Maturity and Seeing Gray
• What Would Jesus Say to America?

View video from Seeing Gray in a World of Black & White DVD...

Everyone agrees that America is polarized, with ever-hardening positions held by people less and less willing to listen to one another. No one agrees on what to do about it. One solution that hasn't yet been tried, say Adam Hamilton, is for thinking persons of faith to model for the rest of the country a richer, more thoughtful conversation on the political, moral, and religious issues that divide us.

Hamilton writes: I don't expect you to agree with everything I've written. I expect that in the future even I won't agree with everything I've written here. The point is not to get you to agree with me, but to encourage you to think about what you believe. In the end I will be inviting those of you who find this book resonates with what you feel is true, to join the movement to pursue a middle way between the left and the right --to make your voices heard-- and to model for our nation and for the church, how we can listen, learn, see truth as multi-sided, and love those with whom we disagree.

Newsweek:
How Would Jesus Choose?
By Lisa Miller April 14, 2008

Adam Hamilton does not call himself pro-choice. He prefers pro-life with a heavy heart. What that means, as he explains in his new book Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White, is that he believes abortion should be available and legal, that there are instances in which it might be necessary and that those instances should be very rare. Further, he says, the abortion debate has been too hot for too long, and that, as a Christian minister, his job is to try to support people no matter what decision they make. As an evangelical megachurch pastor in Kansas, a man educated at Oral Roberts University, Hamilton speaks carefully, aware that he's staking out a controversial position.

Or maybe not. About a third of white evangelicals say that abortion should sometimes or always be legal, according to the Pew Research Center a number that hasn't changed in a decade. In recent election seasons, however, these moderate voices have been drowned out by hard-line shouting on both sides. In the past, an evangelical who might condone abortion in the case of his ailing wife or 14-year-old daughter would never say so in public. Now, the abortion rhetoric has faded somewhat as evangelicals turn their attention to other things: AIDS, the environment, Darfur. In 2004, megapastor Rick Warren announced that abortion was a nonnegotiable for evangelical voters. This year, he's been silent. What's new, then, is not that a pastor like Hamilton would take a softer approach to abortion, but that he would feel comfortable enough to say so from the pulpit and in print.

Hamilton wants pro-choice and pro-life advocates to join forces to reduce the number of abortions and he enumerates seven areas where they could find common ground. Let both sides agree that adequate information about birth control can help prevent pregnancy, he says. And let both sides agree that the longer a pregnancy progresses, the more morally problematic an abortion becomes.

As for his heavy heart, Hamilton comes by it honestly. Seven years ago he received a letter from a parishioner describing her own teenage pregnancy in the years before Roe, the pressure from her parents to abort and her refusal to do so in spite of the cost. That letter was from his mother....

DVD with Leader Guide   A Video Journey Through the Last Day of Christ’s Life   Based on Adam Hamilton’s powerful book 24 Hours That Changed the World   No single event in human history has received more attention than the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. In his inspiring book 24 Hours That Changed the World, Adam Hamilton guided us, step by step, through the last day of Jesus’ life.   Now, in a companion DVD that also functions beautifully on its own, we travel to the Holy Land with Adam Hamilton to visit the sites where those earth-shaking events took place. We walk where Jesus walked and see what he may have seen, along the road that led to the pain and triumph of the cross.   1. The Last Supper (0:00) 2. The Garden of Gethsemene (0:00) 3. Condemned by the Righteous (0:00) 4. Jesus, Barabbas, and Pilate (0:00) 5. The Torture and Humiliation of the King (0:00) 6. The Crucifixion (0:00) 7. Christ the Victor (0:00)    The enclosed Leader Guide is designed to facilitate small group discussion about the content in the printed resource and the companion DVD. In addition to the questions and exercises keyed to each session, the Leader Guide features two format options (60-minute and 90-minute) and suggestions of ways to make the study a meaningful experience for any group.   Adam Hamilton is pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, one of the fastest growing, most highly visible churches in the country. Named by PBS’s Religion and Ethics Newsweekly as one of the top “Ten People to Watch,” Hamilton is the author of Enough, Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White, Selling Swimsuits in the Arctic, Confronting the Controversies, Making Love Last a Lifetime, Unleashing the Word, Leading Beyond the Walls, Christianity and World Religions, and Christianity’s Family Tree, all published by Abingdon Press. For an additional resource click here                            ...

A grand-scope view of implementing effective evangelism strategies. For pastors and church leaders who are looking to reach people with the love of Jesus Christ....