For The Sake Of The Bride, Second Edition eBook

The gown of the Bride of Christ is being shredded by sibling rivalry within the Christian community. The Church's life is weakened and its witness compromised. This is nowhere more evident than the issue of homosexuality. Dr. Steve Harper laments this sad state of affairs and offers a way of love through the dilemma. His pastoral spirit and practical counsel offer guidance and hope for the future.

“A dark picture is emerging—a contentiousness between professing Christians and a persecution of the homosexual community by professing Christians. In the season of Lent, the Holy Spirit broke my heart one morning by speaking into it these words, “My Bride, the Church, is being abused. Her gown is being torn to shreds by siblings who are trying to end up with the biggest piece of the cloth, and who would rather expose her nakedness than give up the fight. Enough is enough!" “I was stunned— so much so that I kept the experience to myself. I’m old enough to know the difference between a passing feeling and a sacred impression.” -- Excerpted from the introduction.

“Steve Harper writes as an evangelical who loves the United Methodist Church. He has written a thoughtful, helpful, and surprising book on the church he loves and the ways it might wrestle with the issues that divide it.” —Rev. Adam Hamilton, United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, Leawood, Kansas

“For The Sake of the Bride is a helpful reflection on the unity of the church concerning human sexuality. He risks moving deeply into the conversation, and he does so in a way that is evangelical (Christocentric) and mystical. His rediscovery of E. Stanley Jones's round-table discussion points a way beyond our tribalism. I hope you will read this book, for the sake of the bride--the church of Jesus Christ.” —Bishop Kenneth Carter, The Florida Annual Conference, The United Methodist Church

"Steve Harper has written a book for “just such a time as this.” He provides a balanced theological reflection on the crisis facing The United Methodist Church today. Reflecting upon Scripture, tradition, and the work of E. Stanley Jones, Harper lovingly proposes a way forward.” —Rev. Steve Manskar, Director of Wesleyan Leadership, Leadership Ministries, GBOD, The United Methodist Church

“For the Sake of the Bride sets aside the all-too-easy rhetoric of division and antagonism and invites the divided church to fully engage the greater way of love that Jesus models and bids us follow. Harper writes with pastoral courage, sensitivity and genuine humility, inviting us not to a particular position, but to generous dialogue on behalf of the chur...