Called to Bless: Finding Hope by Reclaiming Our Spiritual Roots

by Robert D. Cornwall, Grace Ji-Sun Kim (Foreword)

What does your spiritual DNA look like? In terms of your spiritual identity, where do you come from and where are you going? We live in an age when many Christians have experienced several denominational and religious communities. Many wonder what to do with these experiences. At the same time, many congregations are made up of people who come from different traditions, and the question is how to bring these diverse experiences into the life of the congregation in an enriching way. If we take as our starting point, the call of Abraham and Sarah to take a journey to an unknown land with the promise that their descendants would be a blessing to the nations, what might this look like in terms of our spiritual lives? Join with the author as he draws on his spiritual journey that has taken him into several denominational traditions, as well as his experiences as a pastor and historical theologian, to discern values and concepts that can help congregations and individuals make sense of their diverse spiritual experiences, so that together we might fulfill the Abrahamic calling, reaffirmed in Christ, to be a blessing to the nations.

122 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2021

About the author

Robert D. Cornwall is minister-at-large after his retirement as pastor of Central Woodward Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Troy, Michigan. . He holds a M.Div. and a Ph.D. in Historical Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary, and is a graduate of Northwest Christian University in Eugene, OR. He is the author/editor of several books including "Second Thoughts About the Second Coming: Understanding the End Times, Our Future, and Christian Hope" (Westminster John Knox Press) coauthored with Ronald J. Allen. Other books include the second edition of "Unfettered Spirit: Spiritual Gifts for the New Great Awakening" and "The Letters of John: A Participatory Study Guide" (Energion Publications), along with a wide variety of other books (see the author listing), including Visible and Apostolic: The Constitution of the Church in High Church and Nonjuror Thought (University of Delaware Press, 1993); Gilbert Burnet's Discourse on the Pastoral Care, (Edwin Mellen Press, 1997), A Cry from the Cross: Sermons on the Seven Last Words of Christ (CSSPublishing, 2008), Religion, Politics and Dissent, 1660-1832: Essays in Honour of James E Bradley, edited with William Gibson (Ashgate, 2010); Ultimate Allegiance: The Subversive Nature of the Lord's Prayer, (Energion Publications, 2010); and Ephesians: A Participatory Study Guide, (Energion Publications, 2010). He has contributed articles to a number of books, encyclopedias, and journals, including Religious Identities in Britain, 1660-1832, Events that Changed the Word in the Eighteenth Century, The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, The Encyclopedia of the Stone Campbell Movement, Encyclopedia of Protestantism, Church History, Anglican Theological Review, Christian Century Congregations, the Progressive Christian, and Anglican and Episcopal History. He served for many years as the editor of Sharing the Practice, the journal of the Academy of Parish Clergy.

Reviews

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that I wrote. It has its roots in work I did during my 2021 sabbatical and was completed during my 2019 sabbatical. It is part memoir as it is rooted in my own story as one who has traversed a variety of Christian traditions. I learned over time that each of these traditions contributed something to my identity and I share how I integrated those elements. At the same time, I wrote the book for churches as an invitation to explore founding visions, while also asking how a congregation might integrate the gifts that members bring from their own journeys as they face tomorrow. All of that is to say, we are, as children of Abraham, giving a calling to be a blessing to the nations due to our relationship with Jesus, our elder brother.

[Barbara Dunham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this short book, "Called to Bless: Finding Hope by Reclaiming Our Spiritual Roots by Dr. Bob Cornwall, talks about what I try to explain about my own faith journey. I believe there are many paths to the top of the same mountain. Cornwall describes how the 3 Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity all stem from one event, the covenant between God and Abraham and Sarah. From there we all have what he calls our own "Spiritual DNA" that conributes to our own faith journey which is unique, always changing and is never ending. This book is easy to follow in layman's language and I highly recommend it.