Second Edition, 141 pages.Practically Christian offers a fresh and insightful application of the ancient Christian epistle of James to the contemporary American Evangelical world. Against the Antinomian backdrop of a Christianity shaped by the Church Growth Movement, Practically Christian puts teeth into Christianity, pressing for a practical realism in order to restore some theological balance and sanity to the practice of the faith.The gospel, James reminded his readers, is a practical way of life. And where the actual living of that way of life is not demonstrated in the lives of Christians, the Holy Spirit must be presumed to be absent and the faithfulness of such people called into question. The gospel is not just a head belief, nor a heart-felt experience. It is primarily a way of life. Initiated through the grace of God alone, the gospel is not the gospel apart from its actual, behavioral manifestation in the lives of believers. Phillip A. Ross has pastored churches in Berkeley, California; St. Louis, Missouri, Evansville, Indiana; Bellefonte, Pennsylvania; and Marietta, Ohio. With a B.S in Philosophy from the University of Colorado, an M.Div. from Pacific School of Religion, California, and as a doctoral student at Whitefield Seminary, Florida, Ross has aquired a broad-based perspective that understands Scripture, history, logic, emotion, people and values. As a reformed student of Liberalism, Eastern religions, New Religious Movements and the Church Growth movement, he understands both the pressing need for and the innate fear of church renewal, revival, restoration, reformation — whatever you prefer to call it. Following his post-ordination conversion to biblical Christianity, he has labored for Gospel renewal through radio, music, counseling, and writing.