Social Issues
Showing 301–400 of 1191 resultsSorted by latest
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Europe And The Refugee Crisis
$160.00Add to cartAn I. B. Tauris And Company Title
Since 2014, more than 60 million people have been displaced from their homes across the Middle East and Africa. The European Refugee Crisis, as it has come to be known, is now the largest such crisis since the aftermath of World War II. How have local communities reacted to the influx of asylum seekers? And what can we learn from their responses?
Frances Trix here offers a wide-ranging ethnographical and anthropological study of local, individual responses to refugees, from Macedonia to Germany. Based on extensive interviews and field work in Europe, Trix focuses for the first time on the ways that refugees have been welcomed – or not, as the case may be – by various individuals and communities. Her work ranges from Macedonians who established an NGO and lobbied to allow the refugees to use the train, to the police charged with border management; from a German organic food store owner who by her actions set the positive tone in her village, a retired IT manager who coordinates refugee volunteers for his entire town, to the district work organisation director who deems refugees unsuitable for multiple reasons. The material is measured throughout against Trix’s anthropological experience, as well as reference to the historical and political contexts in which events are unfolding. This book is essential reading for all those working on the refugee crisis and the prospects – both local and global – for the future.
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Common Ground : Talking About Gun Violence In America
$18.00Add to cartEvery time a shooting makes national headlines, the same debates erupt: Is the problem guns or mental health? Why is the United States unique in its gun violence problem? Can we reduce this violence while protecting the right to bear arms?
Newtown, Connecticut, native and Disciples of Christ minister Donald V. Gaffney brings a calm and compassionate voice to these complex questions, offering a guide for individuals and groups to reflect on and discuss guns and gun violence. Common Ground explores the place of guns in our individual and national histories, violence in Scripture, the legal issues surrounding gun rights, and ways in which we as moral, life-valuing people can bridge the divide to help solve the problem of gun violence in the United States. To move beyond the talking points and rhetoric dominating gun violence discussions, Gaffney concludes chapters with questions for reflection and discussion to encourage self-examination, exploration, and evaluation of potential solutions to gun violence.
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Raising White Kids
$19.99Add to cartWith a foreword by Tim Wise, Raising White Kids is for families, churches, educators, and communities who want to equip their children to be active and able participants in a society that is becoming one of the most racially diverse in the world while remaining full of racial tensions. For white people who are committed to equity and justice, living in a nation that remains racially unjust and deeply segregated creates unique conundrums. These conundrums begin early in life and impact the racial development of white children in powerful ways. What can we do within our homes, communities and schools? Should we teach our children to be “colorblind”? Or, should we teach them to notice race? What roles do we want to equip them to play in addressing racism when they encounter it? What strategies will help our children learn to function well in a diverse nation? Talking about race means naming the reality of white privilege and hierarchy. How do we talk about race honestly, then, without making our children feel bad about being white? Most importantly, how do we do any of this in age-appropriate ways? While a great deal of public discussion exists in regard to the impact of race and racism on children of color, meaningful dialogue about and resources for understanding the impact of race on white children are woefully absent. Raising White Kids steps into that void.
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Terrorism In Pakistan
$110.00Add to cartAn I. B. Tauris And Company Title
Since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, Pakistan has faced the threat of terrorism in different forms and shapes. Yet in recent years the threat has taken on a new dimension. After 9/11 the US campaign against Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan led to a surge in unrest and violence in Pakistan. Al-Qaeda gained a foothold in tribal regions of Pakistan via their local supporters, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), currently led by Mullah Fazlullah, who unleashed a new wave of terror across Pakistan. Since then, more than 60,000 Pakistanis have been killed as the result of TTP-orchestrated insurgency and terrorist attacks and Pakistan’s society, economy and its international image have suffered at the hands of TTP and its affiliated groups. As a result of several military operations many TTP leaders have taken refuge in Afghanistan where they have joined hands with the terrorist group ISIS, the so-called Islamic State, or Daesh by its local name. Pakistan’s nascent democratic set-up, in the form of the government of Nawaz Sharif, is struggling to curb this menace. This is the first book to cover all aspects of terrorism in Pakistan and to reveal the composition, ideology, approaches and strengths of TTP and its affiliates. It is essential reading for policy-makers, strategists, security experts and students to understand the intricate contours and dimensions of insurgency and terrorism within Pakistan.
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Color Of Life
$18.99Add to cartCara Meredith grew up in a colorless world. From childhood, she didn’t think issues of race had anything to do with her. A colorblind rhetoric had been stamped across her education, world view, and Christian theology.
Then as an adult, Cara’s life took on new, colorful hues. She realized that her generation, seeking to move beyond ancestral racism, had swung so far that they tried to act as if they didn’t see race at all. But that picture neglected the unique cultural identity God gives each person. When Cara met and fell in love with the son of black icon, James Meredith, she began to listen to the stories and experiences of others in a new way, taking note of the cultures, sounds and shades of life already present around her. After she married and their little family grew to include two mixed-race sons, Cara knew she would never see the world through a colorless lens again.
A writer and speaker in an interracial marriage and mixed-race family, Cara finds herself more and more in the middle of discussions about racial justice. In The Color of Life, she asks how do we navigate ongoing and desperately-needed conversations about race? How do we teach our children a theology of reconciliation and love? And what does it mean to live a life that makes space for seeing the imago Dei in everyone? Cara’s illuminating memoir paints a beautiful path from white privilege toward racial healing, from ignorance toward seeing the image of God in everyone she meets.
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Church And Foster Care
$16.99Add to cartWith roughly 500,000 children and growing in America’s foster care system, the new mission field for the church is clear. The Church & Foster Care shows how to simply engage in life-giving ministry to an underserved community. From real-life situations, foster care parent, educator, and advocate Dr. John DeGarmo lays out why God is calling the church to become involved. Sharing from the decades of support he received from his local church, this book is filled with practical and manageable suggestions on how to meet practical needs while planting seeds of faith.
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Making A Difference
$18.00Add to cartThe great challenge for the Christian in a post-Christian context is how to impact this fallen world with our faith. In Making a Difference, beloved theologian R. C. Sproul shows readers how to confront today’s moral and social issues with an effective biblical response. Dr. Sproul first examines the major philosophies that affect the way Americans think and act:
–secularism, existentialism, humanism, and pragmatism–and then presents ideas on how to apply a biblical perspective to spheres of public life that need the Christian’s influence today: economics, science, art and literature, and government. -
12 Lies That Hold America Captive
$17.99Add to cartIntroduction: The Lies That Bind
Lie 1: We Are A Christian Nation
Lie 2: We Are All Immigrants
Lie 3: We Are A Melting Pot
Lie 4: All Men Are Created Equal
Lie 5: We Are A Great Democracy
Lie 6: The American Dream Is Alive And Well
Lie 7: We Are The Most Prosperous Nation In The World
Lie 8: We Are The Most Generous People In The World
Lie 9: We Are The Land Of The Free
Lie 10: We Are The Home Of The Brave
Lie 11: America Is The Greatest Country On Earth
Lie 12: We Are One Nation
Conclusion: Leaving Our Nets To Follow Jesus
Acknowledgments
Appendix 1: Poem Exercise
Appendix 2: Ethnic Identity Interview
Appendix 3: Lament, Confess, Repent, Reconcile
NotesAdditional Info
“America is a Christian nation.”“All men are created equal.”
“We are the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Except when we’re not.
These commonly held ideas break down in the light of hard realities, the study of Scripture, and faithful Christian witness. The president is not the messiah, the Constitution is not the Bible, and the United States is not a city on a hill or the hope for the world. The proclaimed hope of America rings most hollow for Native peoples, people of color, the rural poor, and other communities pressed to the margins.
Jonathan Walton exposes the cultural myths and misconceptions about America’s identity. Focusing on its manipulation of Scripture and the person of Jesus, he redirects us to the true promises found in the gospel. Walton identifies how American ideology and way of life has become a false religion, and shows that orienting our lives around American nationalism is idolatry. Our cultural notions of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are at odds with the call to take up our cross and follow Jesus.
Ultimately, our place in America is distinct from our place in the family of Jesus. Discover how the kingdom of God offers true freedom and justice for all.
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Healing Racial Divides
$19.99Add to cartCan the church help America emerge from its racist shadows empowered to heal racial divides? Church pastor and former police officer Terrell Carter says yes.
While our faith inarguably calls Christians to unity, the hard fact remains: we’re still tragically divided when it comes to race, even – and especially, many say — in our churches. Racism pervades our faith, our relationships, and our institutions in deep, often imperceptible ways. In Healing Racial Divides, Terrell Carter, a pastor, professor and former police officer takes us on a revelatory journey into the abyss of the racial divide and shows us how we’ve arrived at this divisive place. Understanding racism’s roots – and our place in it – we surface more committed and empowered to defeat racism once and for all.
Drawing from the Bible, scholarly research, and personal experience as a both a former police officer and a black pastor serving white congregations, Carter unpacks the deep roots of racism in America, how it continues to be perpetuated today, and practical strategies for racial reconciliation. Looking forward, he shapes a bold and faithful vision for healing racial division through multicultural communities focused on relationship, listening, and learning from each other.
With a pastor’s heart and an academic’s head, Carter invites us to look at where we’ve been-and where God calls us as spiritually mature Christians, seeking healing and true unity on earth.
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Spiritual Practices In Community
$20.99Add to cartNtroduction: Going Deeper Together
1. Leading Spiritual Practices
2. Practicing Silence With Others
3. Exploring Scripture Together
4. Simple Prayers That Transform Community
5. Processing Life Together
6. Active Prayer With One Another
7. Sharing Life On Life
8. The Rhythm Of Life In Community
9. Corporate Discernment
Conclusion: Getting Started
Acknowledgments
Helpful BooksAdditional Info
Spiritual practices don’t have to be scary.Diana Shiflett has been leading groups of all descriptions in spiritual practices for many years, and she understands the difficulties involved: the potential for awkwardness and self-doubt, the nagging question of whether anyone’s getting anything out of this at all. But more than that, she understands the value of spiritual practices: their deep roots in the history and worship of God’s people, and their ability to calm our distracted minds and hearts so we are ready to hear the voice of Jesus.
In this personal, hands-on guide, Shiflett walks us through a wide array of spiritual practices, from communal silence and Scripture meditation to active prayer and corporate discernment. She proves a reliable guide, offering step-by-step instructions, pointing out hazards and pitfalls, and sharing her own experiences with honesty and humor.
With this book as a guide, these spiritual practices can become life-giving resources in your ministry setting for years to come.
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Preaching About Racism
$24.99Add to cartHelping pastors preach about racism to white congregations.
Of all the activities that come with being a minister, sermon preparation can loom largest – especially when racism is the subject. You’ve got to address racism with your white congregation from the pulpit. But, truthfully, you can’t wrap your head around how to preach about this topic thoughtfully and sensitively.
In Preaching about Racism, preaching professor and pastor Carolyn Helsel speaks directly to other white preachers about how to address racism from the pulpit. In her first book, Anxious to Talk about It: Helping White Christians Talk Faithfully about Racism, Helsel addressed the anxiety white Christians experience around conversations about race. In this follow-up, Helsel provides strategies and a theoretical framework for crafting biblical and theological sermons that incorporate insights from social sciences and psychology, gleaned from more than a decade of writing and teaching about racism.
Written for the busy pastor, several chapters are quick reads – helpful reminders as you prepare a thoughtful and sensitive sermon – while others dig deeper on the theory behind the crucial work of dismantling racism.
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Resurrection Shaped Life
$17.99Add to cartCan we begin to experience the resurrection in our ordinary life on earth? Bishop Jake Owensby says yes as he re-examines the biblical concept of resurrection and how Jesus’ resurrection influences his followers every day
A resurrection-shaped life:
Finds hope through honest reflection on the past.
Discovers meaning in suffering.
Moves beyond shame and blame toward self-acceptance and compassion.
Emerges from loss and regret to find contentment and joy.
Develops forgiveness as a habitual way of life.
Transcends “us-them” divisions to form inclusive community.
Draws strength from the hope of life after life.
A Resurrection Shaped Life explains how we begin to experience resurrection in Christian practices such as repentance and forgiveness and discusses how new life emerges from our small deaths: suffering, shame, regret, and loss. -
Modern Technology And The Human Future
$30.99Add to cartPreface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Machine Technology And Human Being
2. The Momentum And Inertia Of Modern Technological Development
3. The Technological World View
4. Remembering Where We Are And Who We Are
5. What On Earth Shall We Do?
A Personal Conclusion
Epilogue: On Eucharistic Embodiment
Author Index
Subject Index
Scripture IndexAdditional Info
Technology is not neutral.From the plow to the printing press, technology has always shaped human life and informed our understanding of what it means to be human. And advances in modern technology, from computers to smartphones, have yielded tremendous benefits. But do these developments actually encourage human flourishing?
Craig Gay raises concerns about the theological implications of modern technologies and of philosophical movements such as transhumanism. In response, he turns to a classical affirmation of the Christian faith: Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God, took on human flesh. By exploring the doctrine of the incarnation and what it means for our embodiment, Gay offers a course correction to the path of modern technology without asking us to unplug completely.
The doctrine of the incarnation is not neutral either. It presents us an alternative vision for the future of humanity.
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Jesus Economy : A Biblical View Of Poverty The Currency Of Love And A Patte
$16.99Add to cartYou know people around the world are struggling. A homeless man holds a sign that reads, “Anything helps.” A poor child lives in a slum swarming with flies. A refugee mother is on the brink of starvation. You ask yourself, “But what can I do about such big problems?”
You’re looking for long-term solutions. John D. Barry shares incredible, and often shocking, stories about working among the impoverished and unchurched in the U.S. and abroad. And since Barry is a Bible scholar, Jesus’ Economy is also deeply rooted in the Scriptures. It is a personal, sometimes funny, often heartbreaking account that presents a revolutionary pattern for lasting change.
Jesus’ Economy is based on self-sacrifice. His currency is love. It’s called Jesus’ Economy because it’s about creating a spiritual and physical economy for those who need it most. Here is a thoroughly biblical and compassionate pattern for addressing issues of poverty and offering the hope of the gospel. Jesus’ Economy
– Shows how you as an individual can best encourage renewal in your community.
– Demonstrates how your church community or any group can alleviate poverty.
– Presents a unified plan for creating jobs, spreading the gospel, and meeting basic needs.
– Focuses on community development and sustainability– lasting change, globally and locally.Jesus’ Economy is a call to address our own spiritual poverty–as people who can too easily become distant from Christ–and it is a call to address the physical poverty all around us in a smart and sustainable way. Jesus’ teachings show that with simple, everyday choices, you can make the world a better place and create enduring change. Here’s how to live Jesus’ economy–a currency of love.
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Can White People Be Saved
$40.99Add to cartNo one is born white. But while there is no biological basis for a white race, whiteness is real. What’s more, whiteness as a way of being in the world has been parasitically joined to Christianity, and this is the ground of many of our problems today. It is time to redouble the efforts of the church and its institutions to muster well-informed, gospel-based initiatives to fight racialized injustice and overcome the heresy of whiteness.
Written by a world-class roster of scholars, Can “White” People Be Saved? develops language to describe the current realities of race and racism. It challenges evangelical Christianity in particular to think more critically and constructively about race, ethnicity, migration, and mission in relation to white supremacy.
Historical and contemporary perspectives from Africa and the African diaspora prompt fresh theological and missiological questions about place and identity. Native American and Latinx experiences of colonialism, migration, and hybridity inspire theologies and practices of shalom. And Asian and Asian American experiences of ethnicity and class generate transnational resources for responding to the challenge of systemic injustice. With their call for practical resistance to the Western whiteness project, the perspectives in this volume can revitalize a vision of racial justice and peace in the body of Christ.
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You Welcomed Me
$16.99Add to cart1. Are We For Or Against?
2. That Could Be Me
3. Real Concerns
4. This Is Our Story
5. Getting Practical
6. Form A Human Chain
7. Here Is Life
Acknowledgments
Appendix A: Organizations For Next Steps
Appendix B: Resources For Next Steps
NotesAdditional Info
“Wait, Dad. Are we for them or against them?”Kent Annan was talking with his eight-year-old son about the immigrant and refugee crises around the world. His son’s question, innocent enough in the moment, is writ large across our society today. How we answer it, Annan says, will reveal a lot about what kind of family, community, or country we want to be.
In You Welcomed Me, Annan explores, in his usual compelling way, how fear and misunderstanding can motivate our responses to people in need. Instead, he invites us into stories of welcome-stories that lead us to see the current refugee and immigrant crisis in a new light. He also lays out simple practices for a way forward: confessing what separates us, listening well, and partnering with, not patronizing, those in need. His stories draw us in, and the practices send us out prepared to cross social and cultural divides.
In this wise, practical book, Annan invites us to answer his son’s question with confident conviction: “We’re for them”-and to explore with him the life-giving implications of that answer.
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Uncommon Love : God’s Heart For Christian Parents Of Gay Kids
$16.99Add to cartUncommon Love is a landmark Bible study and the first of its kind. In a culture where gay rights, gay marriage, and a surplus of gender issues have recently exploded in the media, more and more kids are coming out–and many of these are from Christian homes with Christian parents who don’t know what to do, how to respond, where to draw boundaries or if they even should. Scripture, which is the foundational basis for how to live the Christian life, has even been brought into question, further confusing the hearts and minds of Christian parents. Mary Comm presents a comprehensive navigational map for Christian parents whose kids (whether minor or adult) have Same-Sex Attraction or are living the LGB lifestyle. The primary purpose of Uncommon Love is to help parents maintain a loving, mutually respectful relationship with their LGB children and shows parents how to offer compassionate understanding and unconditional love without compromising their own identity, faith, and values.
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Braving The Future
$16.99Add to cartHumanity is nearing a technological tipping point. Futurists tell us that the blistering pace of technological, scientific, and social change is ushering in an era in which human bodies merge with devices, corporations know everything about us, and artificial intelligence develops human and even godlike potential. In possession of the most powerful tools history has ever seen, we will be faced with questions about wisdom, authority, faith, desire, and what it means to be human.
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Reciprocal Church : Becoming A Community Where Faith Flourishes Beyond High
$20.99Add to cartIntroduction: Reciprocal Church
Part 1: A Theological Vision For The Reciprocal Church
1. Eating Melon On Tuesdays: Young People And Faith
2. Galloping Mares: The Gospel Without Christ’s Church
3. A Vital Identity: God Gathers A People
4. A Vital Purpose: Christ Is Reconciling Relationships
5. A Vital Avenue: The Spirit Transforms You, Me, And UsPart 2: Values And Practices For Flourishing Communities
6. Tetherballs And Floodlights: Valuing Memory
7. The Oxpecker’s Gift: Valuing Mutuality
8. Seeing Beyond The Epidemic: Recognizing Potential
9. Moving Beyond The Epidemic: Valuing Contribution
10. Windmills Of Hope: Valuing MaturityEpilogue: Faith Flourishes With Practice
Acknowledgments
Discussion Questions
NotesAdditional Info
The church faces an unprecedented loss of rising generations. Young adults who were active and engaged in the local church are leaving the community behind after high school. What can we do? Responding to these concerning statistics, Sharon Galgay Ketcham reflects theologically on the church community and its role in forming faith. She exposes problems in the way leaders conceive of and teach about the relationship between individual faith and the local church, and offers fresh solutions in the form of values and practices that can shape a community into a place where faith will flourish in those both young and old. -
Welcoming Justice : Gods Movement Toward Beloved Community (Expanded)
$18.99Add to cartWe have seen progress in recent decades toward Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of beloved community. But this is not only because of the activism and sacrifice of a generation of civil rights leaders. It happened because God was on the move.
Historian and theologian Charles Marsh partners with veteran activist John Perkins to chronicle God’s vision for a more equitable and just world. Perkins reflects on his long ministry and identifies key themes and lessons he has learned, and Marsh highlights the legacy of Perkins’s work in American society. Together they show how abandoned places are being restored, divisions are being reconciled, and what individuals and communities are now doing to welcome peace and justice.
Now updated with a new preface to reflect on current social realities, this book reveals ongoing lessons for the continuing struggle for a just society. Come, discover your part in the beloved community. There is unfinished work still to do.
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Church Forsaken : Practicing Presence In Neglected Neighborhoods
$22.99Add to cart“There are no God-forsaken places, just church-forsaken places.” -Jon Fuller, OMF International
Jonathan Brooks was raised in the Englewood neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. As soon as he was able, he left the community and moved as far away as he could. But through a remarkable turn of events, he reluctantly returned and found himself not only back in Englewood but also serving as a pastor (“Pastah J”) and community leader.
In Church Forsaken, Brooks challenges local churches to rediscover that loving our neighbors means loving our neighborhoods. Unpacking the themes of Jeremiah 29, he shows how Christians can be fully present in local communities, building homes and planting gardens for the common good. His holistic vision and practical work offers good news for forgotten people and places. And community stakeholders and civic leaders will rediscover that churches are viable partners in community transformation in ways that they may never have considered.
God has always been at work in neglected neighborhoods. Join Pastah J on this journey and discover new hope for your community.
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1 By One
$24.99Add to cartApollo Publishers
A passionate and heartrending memoir of tragedy and perseverance from a former opioid addict in an opioid addicted community, and an up-close look at America’s new health crisis.
Behind closed doors, thirty-six million people around the world abuse opioids, three million of them are in the US. Nick Bush was one of them. Forty-five thousand people in the US die annually from the disease, two lives lost to it were Nick’s sister and brother, five were his friends. Opioid addiction is recognized as the nation’s worst health crisis. Because of it, the average American lifespan is decreasing.
Incredibly, the stories of the people suffering from opioid addiction rarely get told. In One by One, Nick steps out of the opioid shadows to share his page-turning true story. He is remarkably candid about how he became an addict, as well as the stories of those around him, in a community ravaged by the disease. Nick, though, is a survivor. Here he tells how, and inspires us to know that the war against opioid addiction is one that we can win if only we are willing to bring humanity to the disease, faces to the addiction.
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Insider Outsider : My Journey As A Stranger In White Evangelicalism And My
$17.99Add to cartGod boldly proclaims throughout the book of Acts, “There is no ethnic home team when it comes to Christianity.” But the minority experience in America today–and throughout history–too often tells a different story.
When Pastor Bryan Loritts wrote an op-ed piece in Christianity Today about this “evangelical gentrification” in the American church, he received an overwhelming response of more than one million views and sparked a provocative national conversation. In Insider Outsider, Loritts dives deeper into what it’s like to be a person of color in predominantly white evangelical spaces today and where we go from here. Drawing on insightful snapshots through history, eye-opening personal experiences, and biblical exposition, Loritts awakens both our minds and hearts to the painful reality of racial divides as well as the hope of forgiveness.
As Loritts writes, “It is impossible to do theology devoid of cultural lenses and expressions. Like an American unaware of their own accent, most whites are unaware of the ethnic theological accent they carry.” Insider Outsider bears witness to the true stories that often go untold–stories that will startle, enlighten, and herald a brighter way forward for all seeking belonging in the family of God.
This seminal book on race and the church will help Christians discover how they can learn the art of listening to stories unlike their own, identify the problems and pitfalls that keep Sunday morning the most segregated hour of the week, and participate in an active movement with God toward a holy vision of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls “life together.”
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Lens Of Love
$22.00Add to cartIn order to engage the Bible in the spirit of justice, compassion, and love, Jonathan L. Walton suggests reading the Bible in its world for our world. Perfect for individual or group study, A Lens of Love helps Christians to read and interpret the Bible morally and confidently as they engage society’s pressing issues. Walton provides interpretive tools to help understand the context of the Scriptures along with the Scriptures themselves in order to engage the richness of the Bible as they strive to live in the world in a biblically grounded, theologically sound, and socially responsible way.
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Finding Holy In The Suburbs
$16.99Add to cartIntroduction
1. Worshiping Granite Countertops
2. When Your Worth Is Measured In Square Footage
3. Circling The Suburbs In My Minivan
4. Beyond The Gated Community
5. Where The Sidewalk Ends
6. You’re Not A Barbie, You Belong
7. This Isn’t Pinterest-Worth Entertaining
8. Open Hearts And Open Hands
9. The Opportunity Of Cul-De-Sacs
10. Paper Birds And Human Flourishing
Conclusion
Discussion QuestionsAdditional Info
Commuters. Tract homes. Strip malls.Is this what you think of when you think of the suburbs? Or do you think of safety, beauty, comfort, and ease?
More than half of Americans live in the suburbs. Ashley Hales writes that for many Christians, however: “The suburbs are ignored (‘Your place doesn’t matter, we’re all going to heaven anyway’), denigrated and demeaned (‘You’re selfish if you live in a suburb; you only care about your own safety and advancement’), or seen as a cop-out from a faithful Christian life (‘If you really loved God, you’d move to Africa or work in an impoverished area’). In everything from books to Hollywood jokes, the suburbs aren’t supposed to be good for our souls.”
What does it look like to live a full Christian life in the suburbs? Suburbs reflect our good, God-given desire for a place to call home. And suburbs also reflect our own brokenness. This book is an invitation to look deeply into your soul as a suburbanite and discover what it means to live holy there.
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Amazing Grace Abounding Love
$19.99Add to cartFeeling alone and afraid, six-year-old Darlene hides under the porch, crying. When her sister finds her, Darlene is unable to explain the fear she faces at nighttime.
Later, as a wife and a mother, she processes the impact of the sexual abuse while struggling with depression. Through this deep emotional pain, she recognizes that Christ has already won the victory over Satan. But can she forgive her father? And can she find peace as she sets out to learn the truth about her biological mother?
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Placemaking And The Arts
$32.99Add to cartWe are, each one of us, situated in a particular place.As embodied creatures, as members of local communities and churches, as people who live in a specific location in the world, we all experience the importance of place. But what role does place play in the Christian life and how might our theology of place be cultivated?In this Studies in Theology and the Arts volume, Jennifer Allen Craft argues that the arts are a significant form of placemaking in the Christian life. The arts, she contends, place us in time, space, and community in ways that encourage us to be fully and imaginatively present in a variety of contexts: the natural world, our homes, our worshiping communities, and society. In so doing, the arts call us to pay attention to the world around us and invite us to engage in responsible practices in those places.Through this practical theology of the arts, Craft shows how the arts can help us by cultivating our theological imagination, giving shape to the Christian life, and forming us more and more into the image of Christ.
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Not Your White Jesus
$20.00Add to cartJesus is not white. Jesus is not American. Jesus does not want to make America great. While many of us grew up looking at gleaming portraits of Jesus with blond, flowing hair and hearing sermons reaffirming that we have the answers to save a fallen world, the real Jesus-a Middle Eastern Jew preaching radical, humble, self-emptying love-calls us to a different life.
As we see oppression and hate run rampant in our nation, it’s as if Christianity has lost sight of the red letters altogether. Sheri Faye Rosendahl takes a look at important social issues in our society, the responses of American Christians, and the true ways behind the red letters. Not Your White Jesus addresses the need to reexamine the true ways of Jesus that we find clearly in the red letters, enabling readers to discover what it truly means to follow the ways of Jesus in contrast to following the ways of the American Christian elite.
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Gay Girl Good God
$16.99Add to cart“I used to be a lesbian.”
In Gay Girl, Good God, author Jackie Hill Perry shares her own story, offering practical tools that helped her in the process of finding wholeness. Jackie grew up fatherless and experienced gender confusion. She abused marijuana, loved pornography, and embraced both masculinity and homosexuality with every fiber of her being. She knew that Christians had a lot to say about all of the above. But was she supposed to change herself? How was she supposed to stop loving women, when homosexuality felt more natural to her than heterosexuality ever could?
At age 19, Jackie came face-to-face with what it meant to be made new. And not in a church, or through contact with Christians–God broke in and turned her heart towards Him right in her own bedroom in light of His gospel.
Read in order to understand. Read in order to hope. Or read in order, like Jackie, to be made new.
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Opening The Doors 2nd Edition Enhanced
$29.95Add to cartWaterside Press
Ideal for outsiders, volunteers and others helping out with prisoners, Opening the Doors contains wise advice based on years of experience. It places imprisonment in a Christian context and captures the essence of why some people end up in prison. -
Jericho Unmasked : An Entrapped Lesbian’s Journey To Freedom
$12.99Add to cartGod’s word never returns void.
Before she was six years old, Cari Gintz found salvation in Christ, but childhood abuse, trauma sustained through legalistic religion, and an ongoing struggle with her sexual identity took a steep toll on her relationship with God. A wall of brokenness surrounded her life, encasing her within a fortress where depravity and darkness reigned.
But even as Cari struggled through decades of pain and searching, a scarlet cord tethered her to God, leading to one miraculous moment that would collapse the walled fortress that kept her from realizing His full purpose for her life.
Tracing her journey through darkness and back into the light of God’s never-ceasing love, Cari’s memoir showcases the redemptive power of the God who never lets his children go. Sensitively told, this story offers encouragement to those with family members or friends struggling with issues of sexual identity, by underscoring the power of divine possibility, the necessity of showing love to the broken, and the importance of relational, believing prayer.
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Minority Experience : Navigating Emotional And Organizational Realities
$20.99Add to cartPreface
Introduction: What Is A Minority?Part 1: Understanding The Minority Experience
1. Self-Doubt: Understanding Pain
2. Pain, Power, And The Past: Three Distinctives Of The Minority Experience
3. Domestication: Understanding Power
4. Weariness: Understanding The PastPart 2: Redeeming The Minority Experience
5. Challenges In Organizational Development: How To Diversify Your Organization
6. Seeing Pain With Eyes Of Compassion
7. Stewarding Power With Hands Of Advocacy
8. Reframing The Past With A Heart Of Wisdom
9. The Challenge And The OpportunityAcknowledgments
Study Guide
Notes
Author Index
Subject Index
Scripture IndexAdditional Info
It’s hard to be in the minority.If you’re the only person from your ethnic or cultural background in your organization or team, you probably know the challenges of being misunderstood or marginalized. You might find yourself inadvertently overlooked or actively silenced. Even when a work environment is not blatantly racist or hostile, people of color often struggle to thrive-and may end up leaving the organization.Being a minority is not just about numbers. It’s about understanding pain, power, and the impact of the past. Organizational consultant Adrian Pei describes key challenges ethnic minorities face in majority-culture organizations. He unpacks how historical forces shape contemporary realities, and what both minority and majority cultures need to know in order to work together fruitfully. If you’re a cultural minority working in a majority culture organization, or if you’re a majority culture supervisor of people from other backgrounds, learn the dynamics at work. And be encouraged that you can help make things better so that all can flourish. -
Love The World
$15.99Add to cartThis beautifully written book aims to increase our love for the world through reflecting on what we have discovered about it, and using this as a basis for further meditation and spiritual enrichment. It opens by looking at the beginning of the universe and the mystery of being, then moves on to our world, its atmosphere, the miracle of water and things we often take for granted but are essential to our health and happiness. Finally, it focuses on our relationship to the earth. Each section offers a short introduction, based on scientific discovery, a meditation, and an exercise in awareness and sensitivity.
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Urban Ministry Reconsidered
$50.00Add to cartChristian ministries often struggle to account for urbanization’s growing force, complexities, and reach-and to formulate theologically and sociologically appropriate responses. Urban Ministry Reconsidered features a collection of original essays by leading scholars and practitioners that explores current issues and challenges in urban communities.
Together these articles consider how cultural and structural frameworks have led to new conceptualizations and configurations of urban ministry. In addition, they examine the degree to which the social, spiritual, and organizational priorities of urban ministries have been reconceived in response to these shifts.
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Thing With Feathers
$9.99Add to cartEmilie Day believes in playing it safe: she’s homeschooled, her best friend is her seizure dog, and she’s probably the only girl on the Outer Banks of North Carolina who can’t swim
Then Emilie’s mom enrolls her in public school, and Emilie goes from studying at home in her pj’s to halls full of strangers. To make matters worse, Emilie is paired with starting point guard Chatham York for a major research project on Emily Dickinson. She should be ecstatic when Chatham shows interest, but she has a problem. She hasn’t told anyone about her epilepsy.
Emilie lives in fear her recently adjusted meds will fail and she’ll seize at school. Eventually, the worst happens, and she must decide whether to withdraw to safety or follow a dead poet’s advice and “dwell in possibility.”
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Healing Our Broken Humanity
$24.99Add to cartForeword By Willie James Jennings
Introduction: Nine Practices That Heal Our Broken Humanity
1. Reimagine Church
2. Renew Lament
3. Repent Together
4. Relinquish Power
5. Restore Justice
6. Reactivate Hospitality
7. Reinforce Agency
8. Reconcile Relationships
9. Recover Life Together
Epilogue: A Benediction And Prayer
Acknowledgments
Appendix One: Questions For Discussion And Engagement
Appendix Two: The Nine Transforming Practices Accountability Form
Appendix Three: Resources For Healing Our Broken Humanity
Notes
IndexAdditional Info
We live in conflicted times. Our newsfeeds are filled with inequality, division, and fear. We want to make a difference and see justice restored because Jesus calls us to be a peacemaking and reconciling people. But how do we do this?Based on their work with diverse churches, colleges, and other organizations, Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Graham Hill offer Christian practices that can bring healing and hope to a broken world. They provide ten ways to transform society, from lament and repentance to relinquishing power, reinforcing agency, and more. Embodying these practices enables us to be the new humanity in Jesus Christ, so the church and world can experience reconciliation, justice, unity, peace, and love.
With small group activities, discussion questions, and exercises in each chapter, this book is ideal to read together in community. Discover here how to bring real change to a dehumanized world.
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Woke Church : An Urgent Call For Christians In America To Confront Racism A
$14.99Add to cartWe sometimes forget that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a pastor.
Woke Church will not only help Christians understand the times they live in, but also how to take their place in it. Those who marched with King had to sign a commitment to non-violence which included 10 promises. The first: to “Meditate daily on the teachings and life of Jesus.” The Civil Rights Movement was led by the church. And today with escalating racial tensions and fresh examples of injustice in nearly every news cycle, the world needs the church now more than ever. But the church in America seems to be sleeping rather than leading.
Eric Mason offers a penetrating commentary on our cultural moment and gives tangible suggestions for how we can walk forward together and be the church in a country of segregated Sunday mornings and widening racial divides.
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Cry For Help
$15.00Add to cartHuman hurt, abuse, and neglect are as real as the next breath that you will take. Rape, molestation, and sexual predators that strike from close range are often possessed with spirits of evil that can do damage that last a lifetime. But God, will always hear and respond to the cry of His people.
The transparency of NaTausha Clark is a blessing to the body of Christ. Her willingness to couple her personal pain with the truth of the printed promises of scripture are nothing short of amazing. This book is a must read for every Pastor who seeks to do effective ministry to those who have been wounded by sexual abuse; it is a healing balm for those who have suffered the indignity of being violated yet refuse to be victims but, have decided to be victors!
Clark is a victor and the journey that you will take in this text will prove to be life changing as she reveals her pain for the benefit of those who lack empathy, seek apathy and have refused pity to those that have been wounded but have seen the hand of God grant restoration like never before. Thank you Minister NaTausha Clark for allowing God to use your bruises to heal the brokenness of others.
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Reclaim Restore And Rebuild Includes Leaders Guide
$19.99Add to cartIf sexual brokenness–homosexuality or transgenderism–has touched your family, you’re on a painful and challenging journey. But you’re not alone.
Although Nehemiah lived more than two thousand years ago, he would have understood what you’re going through. He dealt with brokenness, weakness, and powerlessness in the face of his circumstances. His heart was broken over unfulfilled dreams. He is a role model for the challenges you face because he endured so much, yet he obeyed God and fulfilled God’s purposes for his life. His life reminds us that we often do not choose the circumstances God allows in our lives, but we can learn to make the best of them.
As you study portions of Nehemiah and the armor of God, you’ll learn to apply principles from these passages to help you reclaim and rebuild your relationship with a sexually broken family member or friend.
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Disabling Mission Enabling Witness
$24.99Add to cartIn recent decades churches have accommodated disabled people in various ways. Through access ramps and elevators and sign language, disabled persons are invited in to worship. But are they actually enfolded into the church’s mission? Have the able-bodied come to recognize and appreciate the potential contributions of people with disabilities in the ministry and witness of the church?Benjamin Conner wants to stimulate a new conversation between disability studies and Christian theology and missiology. How can we shape a new vision of the entire body of Christ sharing in the witness of the church? How would it look if we “disabled” Christian theology, discipleship, and theological education? Conner argues that it would in fact enable congregational witness. He has seen it happen and he shows us how.Imagine a church that fully incorporates persons with disabilities into its mission and witness. In this vision, people with disabilities contribute to the church’s pluriform witness, and the congregation embodies a robust hermeneutic of the gospel. Picture the entire body of Christ functioning beyond distinctions of dis/ability, promoting mutual flourishing and growing into fullness. Here is an enlargement of the church’s witness as a sign, agent, and foretaste of the kingdom of God.Here is a fresh and inspiring look at the mission of the church when it enfolds people with disabilities as full members.
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Raise Your Voice
$17.99Add to cartIntroduction: The Risk Of Silence Versus The Risk Of Raising Your Voice
Part I: Why We Stay Silent
1. Seen But Not Heard
2. Who Am I? How Imago Dei Gives Us Agency And A Voice
3. Learning To Speak
4. Fear And FailurePart II: How To Speak Up
5. IRL (In Real Life)
6. When You Post It: Everyone And No One Will Care
7. Everyone Has A PartEpilogue
Acknowledgments
Discussion Questions
NotesAdditional Info
You have a voice. And you have God’s permission to use it.In some communities, certain voices are amplified and elevated while others are erased and suppressed. It can be hard to speak up, especially in the ugliness of social media. Power dynamics keep us silent and marginalized, especially when race, ethnicity, and gender are factors. What can we do about it?Activist Kathy Khang roots our voice and identity in the image of God. Because God created us in our ethnicity and gender, our voice is uniquely expressed through the totality of who we are. We are created to speak, and we can both speak up for ourselves and speak out on behalf of others. Khang offers insights from faithful heroes who raised their voices for the sake of God’s justice, and she shows how we can do the same today, in person, in social media, in organizations, and in the public square.Be silent no more. If you have wondered when and how to speak, hear God’s invitation to you to find and steward your authentic voice, whether in word or deed, to communicate the good news in a messed-up world. As you discern God’s voice calling you to speak, you will discover how your voice sounds as you express God’s heart to others. And the world will hear you loud and clear. -
Sacred Look Becoming Cultural Mystics
$23.00Add to cartHow should a follower of Christ engage the popular media culture? By becoming a mystic! Sr. Nancy challenges Christians today to delve deep into the rich theological tradition of the church as the root and foundation for recognizing the beauty of God present in all that is truly human. The artists of popular culture sometimes unwittingly seek transcendence while grappling with some of humanity’s most profound existential longings. The cultural mystics of today point out those needs of humanity in the culture’s artifacts in order to enter into dialogue with those who seek something beyond what this world satisfies. The anthropological-sacramental-incarnational paradigm presented gives us this ability to take a sacred look of the culture and offer the joy of the Gospel, Christ who is the answer of all humanity’s yearnings!
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In 27 Days
$10.99Add to cartFrom award-winning Wattpad author Alison Gervais comes In 27 Days, a story of redemption, first love, and the strength it takes to change the future.
Hadley Jamison is shocked when she hears that her classmate, Archer Morales, has committed suicide. She didn’t know the quiet, reserved guy very well, but that doesn’t stop her from feeling there was something she could have done to help him. Hoping to find some sense of closure, Hadley attends Archer’s funeral. There, Hadley is approached by a man who calls himself Death and offers her a deal. If Hadley accepts, she will be sent back twenty-seven days in time to prevent Archer from killing himself. But when Hadley agrees to Death’s terms and goes back to right the past, she quickly learns her mission is harder than she ever could have known.
Hadley soon discovers Archer’s reasons for being alone, and Archer realizes that having someone to confide in isn’t as bad as he’d always thought. But when a series of dangerous accidents starts pushing them apart, Hadley must decide whether she is ready to risk everything–including her life–to keep Archer safe.
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Welcoming The Stranger
$22.99Add to cartForeword By Leith Anderson
1. The Immigration Dilemma
2. “Aliens” Among You: Who Are Undocumented Immigrants?
3. Nation Of Immigrants: A Historical Perspective On Immigration To The United States
4. Immigrating The Legal Way: Our Immigration System Today
5. Thinking Biblically About Immigration
6. Concerns About Immigration
7. The Value Of Immigrants To The United States
8. Immigration Policies And Politics
9. Immigration And The Church Today
10. A Christian Response To The Immigration Dilemma
Acknowledgments
Appendix 1: Discussion Questions
Appendix 2: Evangelical Statement Of Principles For Immigration Reform
Appendix 3: Ministries And Organizations Serving Refugees And Other Immigrants In The United States
Appendix 4: Ministries And Organizations Addressing The Root Causes Of Immigration
Appendix 5: Selected Resources For Learning More About The Immigration Issue
Appendix 6: Tools For Political Advocacy
Notes
IndexAdditional Info
Immigration is one of the most complicated issues of our time. Voices on all sides argue strongly for action and change. Christians find themselves torn between the desire to uphold laws and the call to minister to the vulnerable.In this book World Relief immigration experts Matthew Soerens and Jenny Yang move beyond the rhetoric to offer a Christian response to immigration. They put a human face on the issue and tell stories of immigrants’ experiences in and out of the system. With careful historical understanding and thoughtful policy analysis, they debunk myths and misconceptions about immigration and show the limitations of the current immigration system. Ultimately they point toward immigration reform that is compassionate, sensible, and just as they offer concrete ways for you and your church to welcome and minister to your immigrant neighbors.This revised edition includes new material on refugees and updates in light of changes in political realities. -
When Darkness Seems My Closest Friend
$18.99Add to cart1. The Mask
2. The Volcano
3. The Cave
4. The Weight
5. The Invisibility Cloak
6. The Closing
7. The Way
8. The Fellow-traveller
9. The GiftAppendix 1: Managing The Symptoms
Appendix 2: Unexpected Friends In The Cave
Appendix 3: Some Words From Inside The CaveAdditional Info
When Mark Meynell spoke in a central London church, more than 1,500 people hung on to his every word. What they couldn’t have known was that their minister was terrified of being laid bare in public.Fear of shame and exposure is crippling, even if, as in Mark’s case, the sufferer is innocent. And it’s one of the most devastating elements of depression, although certainly not the only one.
Mark invites us into the darkness of his cave. We relive significant moments from boarding school, Uganda, Berli, and London. We visit the Psalms, Job, and The Pilgrim’s Progress.
If you’re after neat conclusions and a fair-weather faith, this is not for you. This book serves up gritty reality and raw honesty, but also the heartfelt hope that the author’s brokenness “can somehow contribute to another person’s integration” and “inspire their clinging while beset by darkness or fog or blizzards.”
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Ecologies Of Faith In A Digital Age
$30.99Add to cartTechnological innovation has changed nearly everything about human life, including how we teach and learn.
Many Christian professors and institutions have embraced new technologies, especially online education. But as followers of Jesus Christ, we face the same call to grow in our faith. So how should we think about and approach Christian education in light of new technologies? Is it possible for us to grow spiritually through our digital communities?
Steve Lowe and Mary Lowe, longtime proponents of online education, trace the motif of spiritual growth through Scripture and consider how students and professors alike might foster digital ecologies in which spiritual growth-even transformation-can take place.
IVP Instructor Resources forthcoming.
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Who Is My Neighbour
$15.99Add to cartFollowing Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, and with increasing division, xenophobia, and confusion over future national and international relationships, this thought- and action-provoking book considers the crucial question: Who is my neighbor?
What does the Christian injunction to “love your neighbor as yourself” actually mean in practice today? Contributions by renowned theologians and practitioners reflect on this subject in relation to issues of poverty, ecology, immigration, fear, and discrimination, and the recent political upheavals both in Europe and the United States.
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Walking With Domestic Abuse Sufferers
$11.99Add to cartTragically, the police receive a call about domestic abuse every minute. This is a hidden and terrifying phenomenon, sadly prevalent in churches as well as the wider community. Spouses, partners, parents, and (older) children are the perpetrators. The aim of this book is to bring victims to a place of freedom, peace, and hope. There is a way out, and they can find real hope in Christ.
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Free At Last
$10.99Add to cartGods Life Publishing
What is one of the most stubborn problems permeating America churches today? Racism! It divides Christian’s brothers and sisters and hinders the spreading of the gospel. Free at Last! Is a concise, in-depth study that reveals the malignancy hampering the Body and gives a biblical antidote to address this spiritual hindrance.
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Faith Among The Faithless
$18.99Add to cartAcclaimed writer and pastor Mike Cosper provides Christians with a surprising guide for living in a secular culture by looking at the story of Esther–a tale of evil, awakened faith, and hope of good in a world where God seems absent.
How can Christianity survive in a secular world? How can Christians live without compromise in an increasingly hostile society? And what if we have already been shaped by the culture around us in harmful, soul-destroying ways?
Faith Among the Faithless provides answers by drawing parallels between our world and the story of Esther. Far from the gentle cartoon stories we heard in Sunday school, the book of Esther is a brutal tale of people assimilated into a pluralistic, pagan society who discover its murderous underbelly and turn to God in a moment of courage and crisis. A story of sex, ego, and revenge, the book of Esther reveals a world where God seems absent from everyday life–a world not unlike our own.
Faith Among the Faithless helps readers see themselves in the very human character of Esther, discovering that like her we have an enemy who plots against us. A call to spiritual awakening and to faith and courage in an age of malaise and apathy, Faith Among the Faithless is an invitation to remembrance and presence, knowing that in our dark times God may be hidden, but he is never absent.
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31 Days Of Prayer For My Nation
$16.99Add to cartJesus is praying for this country and He invites you to join Him!
Recall an image of Jesus you’ve likely seen–Jesus, on His knees, praying. Imagine leaning in to listen to what He is praying and you hear Jesus speaking our country’s name.
Experience Jesus’ heart for America and:
– Declare freedom and passion to love the Lord.
– Claim Bible promises for the country’s future.
– Intercede for spiritual growth and witness.
– Become an answer to your own prayers.31 Days of Prayer for My Country provides:
– True stories from people praying for their country to help you understand common challenges and opportunities.
– A powerful, Scripture-based prayer strategy for better loving the Lord, living God’s Word, loving people, and living His mission.
– Scriptures, prayers, and promises to declare over your country.
– A practical resource for personal devotions, small group studies, and other ministries.God has given put you in this country for a purpose. Support it through prayer and see the benefits in your own life.
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Plantation Jesus : Race Faith And A New Way Forward
$29.99Add to cartNot long ago, most white American Christians believed that Jesus blessed slavery. God wasn’t bothered by Jim Crow. Baby Jesus had white skin. Meet Plantation Jesus: a god who is comfortable with bigotry, and an idol that distorts the message of the real Savior. That false image of God is dead, right? Wrong, argue the authors of Plantation Jesus, an authoritative new book on one of the most urgent issues of our day. Through their shared passion for Jesus Christ and with an unblinking look at history, church, and pop culture, authors Skot Welch and Rick Wilson detail the manifold ways that racism damages the church’s witness. Together Welch and Wilson take on common responses by white Christians to racial injustice, such as “I never owned a slave,” “I don’t see color; only people,” and “We just need to get over it and move on.” Together they call out the church’s denials and dodges and evasions of race, and they invite readers to encounter the Christ of the disenfranchised. With practical resources and Spirit-filled stories, Plantation Jesus nudges readers to learn the history, acknowledge the injury, and face the truth. Only then can the church lead the way toward true reconciliation. Only then can the legacy of Plantation Jesus be replaced with the true way of Jesus Christ.
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Hillbilly Elegy : A Memoir Of A Family And Culture In Crisis
$16.99Add to cartFrom a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class.
Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis–that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.
The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.’s grandparents were “dirt poor and in love,” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually their grandchild (the author) would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of their success in achieving generational upward mobility.
But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that this is only the short, superficial version. Vance’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, sister, and, most of all, his mother, struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, and were never able to fully escape the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. Vance piercingly shows how he himself still carries around the demons of their chaotic family history.
A deeply moving memoir with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.
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Plantation Jesus : Race, Faith, And A New Way Forward
$16.99Add to cartNot long ago, most white American Christians believed that Jesus blessed slavery. God wasn’t bothered by Jim Crow. Baby Jesus had white skin. Meet Plantation Jesus: a god who is comfortable with bigotry, and an idol that distorts the message of the real Savior.
That false image of God is dead, right? Wrong, argue the authors of Plantation Jesus, an authoritative new book on one of the most urgent issues of our day.
Through their shared passion for Jesus Christ and with an unblinking look at history, church, and pop culture, authors Skot Welch and Rick Wilson detail the manifold ways that racism damages the church’s witness. Together Welch and Wilson take on common responses by white Christians to racial injustice, such as “I never owned a slave,” “I don’t see color; only people,” and “We just need to get over it and move on.” Together they call out the church’s denials and dodges and evasions of race, and they invite readers to encounter the Christ of the disenfranchised.
With practical resources and Spirit-filled stories, Plantation Jesus nudges readers to learn the history, acknowledge the injury, and face the truth. Only then can the church lead the way toward true reconciliation. Only then can the legacy of Plantation Jesus be replaced with the true way of Jesus Christ.
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Soul Force : Seven Pivots Toward Courage, Community, And Change
$16.99Add to cartHow can we harness the energy for change that lives in each of us? How can we maximize our power to pivot from fear to freedom and from hurt to hope? How can we bring fullness of life to our communities and our souls?
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Resist And Persist
$20.00Add to cartOver the past few decades, the roles women play in public life have evolved significantly, as have the pressures that come with needing to do it all, have it all, and be all things to all people. And with this progress, misogyny has evolved as well. Today’s discrimination is more subtle and indirect, expressed in double standards, microaggressions, and impossible expectations. In other ways, sexism has gotten more brash and repulsive as women have gained power and voice in the mainstream culture.
Patriarchy is still sanctioned by every institution: capitalism, government, and even-maybe especially-the church itself. This is perhaps the ultimate irony-that a religion based on the radical justice and liberation of Jesus’ teachings has been the most complicit part of the narrative against women’s equality. If we are going to dial back the harmful rhetoric against women and their bodies, the community of faith is going to have to be a big part of the solution.
Pastor and author Erin Wathen navigates the complex layers of what it means to be a woman in our time and place-from the language we use to the clothes that we wear to the unseen and unspoken assumptions that challenge our full personhood at every turn. Resist and Persist reframes the challenges to women’s equality in light of our current culture and political climate, providing a new language of resistance that can free women and men from the pernicious power of patriarchy.
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Disarming The Church
$42.00Add to cartIf Christians follow the Prince of Peace, why do they often behave so violently? What can be done to transform the church so that it looks more like Jesus? Eric Seibert explores these questions in this important and timely study. He builds a biblical and practical case for living nonviolently in all areas of life and urges Christians to reexamine their most fundamental attitudes toward violence, warfare, and killing. Through true stories and careful analysis, Seibert demonstrates that it is possible to resolve conflict, correct injustice, and stop oppression without resorting to violence. Many nonviolent alternatives are discussed throughout the book, alternatives that can be used in a wide range of situations, from dealing with an unwanted intruder at home to removing a dictator from power. In a world filled with so much violence, hate, and fear, alternatives like these are desperately needed. This book offers hope that a better way is possible, one that has the potential to transform the church and change the world. So read on and join in!
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House United : How The Church Can Save The World
$27.99Add to cartIntroduction
1 The Divided States Of America
2 A Tale Of Two Prayers
3 Righteous Minds
4 The Perils Of Echo Chambers
5 The Dividends Of Difference
6 Meeting Through Mission
7 Christian Mingle
8 Courageous Conversations
9 Mission 4.0: How The Church Can Save The WorldAdditional Info
By entering the culture wars, churchgoers in the United States have ushered the Left and the Right to even greater extremes. Battles over moral issues like abortion rights and homosexuality have now widened to include taxation and size of government, so that specific church affiliation has become an accurate predictor of political party affiliation. The extremists in American politics rely on Christians to be the engine that pushes the culture farther right or left.Allen Hilton believes that religion isn’t inherently divisive, and he suggests a new role for Christianity. Jesus prayed that his disciples might all be one, and this book imagines a proper answer to that prayer in the context of American polarization.
Rather than asking people to leave their political and theological beliefs at the church door, Hilton promotes a Christianity that brings people together with their differences. Through God’s transforming work, he writes, we can create a house united that will help our nation come back together.
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Disarming The Church
$67.00Add to cartIf Christians follow the Prince of Peace, why do they often behave so violently? What can be done to transform the church so that it looks more like Jesus? Eric Seibert explores these questions in this important and timely study. He builds a biblical and practical case for living nonviolently in all areas of life and urges Christians to reexamine their most fundamental attitudes toward violence, warfare, and killing. Through true stories and careful analysis, Seibert demonstrates that it is possible to resolve conflict, correct injustice, and stop oppression without resorting to violence. Many nonviolent alternatives are discussed throughout the book, alternatives that can be used in a wide range of situations, from dealing with an unwanted intruder at home to removing a dictator from power. In a world filled with so much violence, hate, and fear, alternatives like these are desperately needed. This book offers hope that a better way is possible, one that has the potential to transform the church and change the world. So read on and join in!
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Poverty : Responding Like Jesus
$16.99Add to cartThe poor will always be with you, Jesus said – but that doesn’t mean Christians have ever figured out how to be with the poor.
Pope Francis has emphasized a vision of a “Church that is poor and for the poor.” But growing economic inequality continues to spread across the globe. This book takes a fresh look at the role of churches, and individual Christians, in relating to poverty and the poor among them. A strong focus is placed on the biblical and theological roots of the Church’s commitment to care for the poor.
At times praised as a virtue and blessed as a condition, poverty easily confuses us, and we are often left doing little to nothing to make a difference with and for the poor. As a social evil and a burden, poverty has elicited many kinds of reactions among the followers of Christ. It is time for Christians to figure out what to do about it.
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Sacred Look Becoming Cultural Mystics
$45.00Add to cartHow should a follower of Christ engage the popular media culture? By becoming a mystic! Sr. Nancy challenges Christians today to delve deep into the rich theological tradition of the church as the root and foundation for recognizing the beauty of God present in all that is truly human. The artists of popular culture sometimes unwittingly seek transcendence while grappling with some of humanity’s most profound existential longings. The cultural mystics of today point out those needs of humanity in the culture’s artifacts in order to enter into dialogue with those who seek something beyond what this world satisfies. The anthropological-sacramental-incarnational paradigm presented gives us this ability to take a sacred look of the culture and offer the joy of the Gospel, Christ who is the answer of all humanity’s yearnings!
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Dream With Me (Reprinted)
$15.99Add to cartAccording to recent surveys and studies, race relations in the United States are the worst they’ve been since the 1990s, and many would argue that life for most minorities has not significantly improved since the civil rights era of the 1960s. For so many, the dream of true equality has dissolved into a reality of prejudice, fear, and violence as a way of life.John M. Perkins has been there from the beginning. Raised by his sharecropping grandparents, Perkins fled Mississippi in 1947 after his brother was fatally shot by a police officer. He led voter registration efforts in 1964, worked for school desegregation in 1967, and was imprisoned and tortured in 1970. Through it all, he has remained determined to seek justice and reconciliation based in Christ’s redemptive work. “Justice is something that every generation has to strive for,” he says. And despite the setbacks of recent years, Perkins finds hope in the young people he has met all across the nation who are hard at work, bringing about reconciliation in God’s name and offering acceptance to all. Dream with Me is his look back at a life devoted to seeking justice for all God’s people, as well as a look forward to what he sees as a potentially historic breakthrough for people of every race.
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Rethinking Incarceration : Advocating For Justice That Restores
$18.99Add to cartIntroduction
Part I: The Roots And Evolution Of Mass Incarceration
1. The War On Drugs
2. How Did We Get Here? From Black Codes To Neoslavery
3. Beyond Law And Order
4. Three Overlooked Pipelines: Mental Health, Private Prisons, And Immigration
5. The School-to-Prison PipelinePart II: The Church’s Witness And Testimony
6. Protestant Reformers: Prophetic Activism, Nonviolence, And God’s Wrath
7. The Prisoner’s Pastor: Chaplaincy And Theology’s Institutional Impact
8. The Spirit Of Punishment: Atonement, Penal Substitution, And The Wrath Of God
9. Atonement And Sanctifying Retribution
10. Divine Justice Is Inherently Restorative
11. Holy Interruptions: Dismantling Mass Incarceration
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
IndexAdditional Info
The United States has 5 percent of the world’s population but 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated. We have more people locked up in jails, prisons, and detention centers than any other country in the history of the world. There are more jails and prisons than degree-granting colleges and universities, and in many places more people live behind bars than on college campuses. Mass incarceration has become a lucrative industry, and the criminal justice system is plagued with bias and unjust practices. And the church has unwittingly contributed to these problems.In Rethinking Incarceration Dominique Gilliard explores the history and foundation of mass incarceration, examining Christianity’s role in its evolution and expansion. He assesses our nation’s ethic of meritocratic justice in light of Scripture and exposes the theologies that embolden mass incarceration. Gilliard then shows how Christians can pursue justice that restores and reconciles, offering creative solutions and highlighting innovative interventions.
God’s justice is ultimately restorative, not just punitive. Discover how Christians can participate in the restoration and redemption of the incarceration system.
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Secrets From A Prison Cell
$18.00Add to cartTony Vick is serving two life sentences for murder. After nearly twenty years in prison, Tony has literally taken to the pen to document firsthand what life is like behind bars. This book–handwritten by Tony and later transcribed by outside friends–indirectly challenges the reader to engage prison reform as one of the most important social issues of this generation, wondering if society can shift its emphasis from retribution to rehabilitation. Tony’s new book describes the violent, even horrific, incidents that occur in prison, incidents mostly hidden in the shadows, away from public awareness. It tells you the stories that those invested in incarceration would rather remain secret. As captivating as it is timely, Secrets from a Prison Cell shortens the distance between those outside and inside prison walls. Through personal stories, essays, and poetry, Tony Vick’s book pulls back the curtain on a world invisible to most people, dramatically revealing the realities of life in prison and the power of love to fight dehumanization.
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Upside Down Kingdom (Anniversary)
$18.99Add to cartSharing, not hoarding. Service, not status. Community, not competition. Basins, not swords. Loyalty to God, not nation.
Jesus turned everything upside down. When we follow him, we can too.This book calls readers to imagine and embody the reign of God on earth as it is in heaven. Since its publication in 1978, the Upside-Down Kingdom has become the most trusted resource on radical Christian discipleship. In this completely updated anniversary edition, author Donald R. Kraybill asks: What does it mean to follow the Christ who traded victory and power for hanging out with the poor and forgiving his enemies? How did a man in first-century Palestine threaten the established order, and what does that mean for us today? What would happen if Christians replaced force with service, violence with love, and nationalism with allegiance to Jesus?
Jesus turned expectations upside-down. The kingdom of God is still full of surprises. Are you ready?
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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Workbook (Workbook)
$19.99Add to cartPTSD is stealing far too much from the lives of trauma survivors. Many suffer in silence. This workbook provides transformational tools for working through:
Fear
Anxiety
Depression
Losses
Panic attacks
Low self-esteem
Triggers
Destructive patternsWriting down your feelings enables you to analyze your thoughts and behavior, reason them out, and effect change. Scientific research shows that by learning to think differently, we can change the brain. This book will empower you to initiate the necessary changes to restore order in your life.
This book includes an easily understood explanation of how trauma is stored in the brain and what trauma does to the brain. Inside this book there is a plan for overcoming the symptoms that hold you captive and a personalized path forward towards peace and freedom.
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Way Back : How Christians Blew Our Credibility And How We Can Fix It
$17.99Add to cartTwo thousand years ago, followers of Jesus utterly astonished their critics. Since then, Christianity s influence has been remarkable. Christian universities, hospitals, and orphanages are the largest social service outreaches in the world. Our faith has shaped the arts, law, science, and civic life.
Yet today particularly in the media Christians are dismissed as irrelevant. Cooke and Bock show the Christian community how we can once again astonish our critics, and in doing so, completely transform ourselves, others, and the world for good.
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I Pledge Allegiance
$28.99Add to cartWhat does it really mean for Christians to live as faithful kingdom citizens in today’s world?
Bitter partisan conflict. State-sanctioned torture. Economic injustice. Ethical corruption. Even a cursory glance over daily news headlines shows a stark contrast between the American political state and the kingdom of heaven. Where, then, does the Christian’s ultimate allegiance lie?
In I Pledge Allegiance David Crump issues a clarion call to Jesus’s twenty-first-century disciples, stirring them up to heed God’s word and live out their kingdom citizenship here on earth. Closely examining the ethical teachings of Jesus and his apostles in the New Testament and using real-world examples to illustrate the vital issues at stake, Crump challenges Christians to embrace the radical, counterintuitive, upside-down way of Jesus-a way of living and thinking that turns the world’s values on their head, smashes through stale political and cultural conventions, and welcomes God’s kingdom into the very heart of our shared society.
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Middle East On Fire In The 21st Century
$10.99Add to cartThe world events between the Christians and the Muslims that have been happening since December 1979 until now. One event and one war after another has led to the 10th crusade. Thinking this can’t be happening, well it is right in front of our eyes and in our lifetime.
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Sustainable Abundance For All
$55.00Add to cartWhat constitutes the good life and authentic Christian leadership in a high-speed technological society geared to perpetual economic growth? In a world of rapid change and heightened risks, how do we move beyond the tyranny of emergency and polarization toward a politics of engagement and time oriented to the long-term common good? Taking up key themes in the social teaching of Popes Benedict XVI and Francis, Sustainable Abundance for All argues that life in a risky, runaway world requires new forms of Christian praxis that are both forward-looking and rooted in tradition. Among the issues addressed are pathways toward sustainable development in the Anthropocene, automation and the transition to post-jobs society, the proactionary-precautionary debate over new technologies, and the dangers of becoming “”people of the device.”” Sustainable Abundance for All lays the groundwork for new kinds of Christian social action and prophetic witness in the twenty-first century.
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Sustainable Abundance For All
$35.00Add to cartWhat constitutes the good life and authentic Christian leadership in a high-speed technological society geared to perpetual economic growth? In a world of rapid change and heightened risks, how do we move beyond the tyranny of emergency and polarization toward a politics of engagement and time oriented to the long-term common good? Taking up key themes in the social teaching of Popes Benedict XVI and Francis, Sustainable Abundance for All argues that life in a risky, runaway world requires new forms of Christian praxis that are both forward-looking and rooted in tradition. Among the issues addressed are pathways toward sustainable development in the Anthropocene, automation and the transition to post-jobs society, the proactionary-precautionary debate over new technologies, and the dangers of becoming “”people of the device.”” Sustainable Abundance for All lays the groundwork for new kinds of Christian social action and prophetic witness in the twenty-first century.
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Tell Them Who We Are
$24.99Add to cartTell Them Who We Are: What You’ve Never Understood about the Homeless (But Must) is a wake-up call, a siren of hope for those who struggle to understand all the myths surrounding homelessness. Jeremy Reynalds explodes those myths and explores how each of us can invest ourselves in the lives of the homeless on an entirely new level.
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Tell Them Who We Are
$14.99Add to cartTell Them Who We Are: What You’ve Never Understood about the Homeless (But Must) is a wake-up call, a siren of hope for those who struggle to understand all the myths surrounding homelessness. Jeremy Reynalds explodes those myths and explores how each of us can invest ourselves in the lives of the homeless on an entirely new level.
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Scars Across Humanity
$25.99Add to cartAcross the globe, acts of violence against women produce more deaths, disability, and mutilation than cancer, malaria, and traffic accidents combined.
The truth is that violence on such a scale could not exist were it not structured in some way into the very fabric of societies and cultures themselves. It could not continue if it were not somehow supported by deep assumptions about the value of women, or some justification of the use of power. In many cultures such assumptions are reiterated every day in the absence of legal protection for women, or indifference toward issues of human rights.
In Scars Across Humanity, Elaine Storkey offers a rigorously researched overview of this global pandemic. From female infanticide and child brides to domestic abuse, prostitution, rape, and honor killings, violence against women occurs at all stages of life, and in all cultures and societies. How and why has this violence become so prevalent? It seems ambitious to hope that we can find an answer to this question, but if violence to women is ever to be eliminated, we need to know what we are up against.
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Still Evangelical : Insiders Reconsider Political Social And Theological Me
$24.99Add to cartIntroduction: Still Evangelical? (Mark Labberton)
1. Will Evangelicalism Surrender? (Lisa Sharon Harper)
2. Why I Am An Evangelical (Karen Swallow Prior)
3. A Way Forward: Recapturing Evangelical Identity And Mission (Mark Young)
4. Evangelical Futures (Soong-Chan Rah)
5. Theology And Orthopraxis In Twenty-First-Century Global Evangelicalism (Allen Yeh)
6. Looking For Unity In All The Wrong Places (Mark Galli)
7. Evangelicalism Must Be Born Again (Shane Claiborne)
8. The Importance Of Listening In Today’s Evangelicalism (Jim Daly)
9. Hope For The Next Generation (Tom Lin)
Notes
ContributorsAdditional Info
Evangelicalism in America has cracked, split on the shoals of the 2016 presidential election and its aftermath, leaving many wondering if they want to be in or out of the evangelical tribe. The contentiousness brought to the fore surrounds what it means to affirm and demonstrate evangelical Christian faith amidst the messy and polarized realities gripping our country and world. Who or what is defining the evangelical social and political vision? Is it the gospel or is it culture? For a movement that has been about the primacy of Christian faith, this is a crisis.This collection of essays was gathered by Mark Labberton, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, who provides an introduction to the volume. What follows is a diverse and provocative set of perspectives and reflections from evangelical insiders who wrestle with their responses to the question of what it means to be evangelical in light of their convictions.
Contributors include:
Shane Claiborne, Red Letter Christians
Lisa Sharon Harper, FreedomRoad.us
Soong-Chan Rah, North Park University
Jim Daly, Focus on the Family
Karen Swallow Prior, Liberty University
Mark Galli, Christianity Today
Tom Lin, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
Allen Yeh, Biola University
Mark Young, Denver SeminaryReferring to oneself as evangelical cannot be merely a congratulatory self-description. It must instead be a commitment and aspiration guided by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. What now are Christ’s followers called to do in response to this identity crisis?
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Hands On Life
$29.00Add to cartStressed out? Swimming in a sea of screens? Worried about our beloved, endangered earth yet uncertain how to work for change? If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. In this intelligent guide to mindfulness in the digital age, writer and teacher Amy Weldon describes how practicing life as an artist can help you wake yourself up and take back control of your attention, your money, your time, and the health of our society and our planet. Traveling from farm to protest march to classroom, and engaging a range of thinkers from Hannah Arendt to George Orwell, John Keats, and Henry David Thoreau, The Hands-On Life is a book for students and for everyone who dreams of building a better world.
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Love Undocumented : Risking Trust In A Fearful World
$15.99Add to cartWill you beware or be welcoming? As a young Christian, Sarah Quezada had a heart for social justice. She was also blissfully unaware of the real situations facing today’s immigrants. Until she met someone new. . . who happened to be undocumented. In Love Undocumented, Quezada takes readers on a journey deep into the world of the U.S. immigration system. Follow her as she walks alongside her new friend, meets with lawyers, stands at the U.S.-Mexico border, and visits immigrants in detention centers. With wisdom from Scripture, research, and these experiences, Quezada explores God’s call to welcome the stranger and invites Christians to consider how to live faithfully in the world of closed doors and high fences. Is it possible to abandon fear and cultivate authentic relationships with new arrivals? What if hospitality to immigrant and refugee neighbors puts us at personal risk? How can churches create safe spaces for those living at the precarious edge of our society? With Quezada as your guide, discover a subversive Savior who never knew a stranger. Get to know the God of the Bible, whose love and grace cross all borders. Respond to an invitation to turn away from fear and enter a bigger story.
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Upside Down Kingdom (Anniversary)
$31.99Add to cartSharing, not hoarding. Service, not status. Community, not competition. Basins, not swords. Loyalty to God, not nation.
Jesus turned everything upside down. When we follow him, we can too.This book calls readers to imagine and embody the reign of God on earth as it is in heaven. Since its publication in 1978, the Upside-Down Kingdom has become the most trusted resource on radical Christian discipleship. In this completely updated anniversary edition, author Donald R. Kraybill asks: What does it mean to follow the Christ who traded victory and power for hanging out with the poor and forgiving his enemies? How did a man in first-century Palestine threaten the established order, and what does that mean for us today? What would happen if Christians replaced force with service, violence with love, and nationalism with allegiance to Jesus?
Jesus turned expectations upside-down. The kingdom of God is still full of surprises. Are you ready?
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Christian Hospitality And Muslim Immigration In An Age Of Fear
$34.99Add to cartAn alternative, uniquely Christian response to the growing global challenges of deep religious differenceIn the last fifty years, millions of Muslims have migrated to Europe and North America. Their arrival has ignited a series of fierce public debates on both sides of the Atlantic about religious freedom and tolerance, terrorism and security, gender and race, and much more. How can Christians best respond to this situation?In this book theologian and ethicist Matthew Kaemingk offers a thought-provoking Christian perspective on the growing debates over Muslim presence in the West. Rejecting both fearful national-ism and romantic multiculturalism, Kaemingk makes the case for a third way-a Christian pluralism that is committed to both the historic Christian faith and the public rights, dignity, and freedom of Islam.
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How Neighborhoods Make Us Sick
$24.99Add to cartForeword By Dr. Keri Norris
Part 1: How We Get Sick
1. Two Journeys To The Inner City
2. What Is Making Us Sick? An Introduction To Social Determinants Of Health
3. The Trauma Of Poverty
4. Working To Death: Employment And Social Status
5. Kool-Aid In A Baby Bottle: Food Insecurity And Nutrition
6. Barriers To Learning: Education And Child Development
7. When Housing Hurts: Environmental Factors
8. The Challenge Of Getting Well: Health Care Access In The United States
9. The Unmaking: On Moving Out And RebuildingPart 2: How We Get Well
10. A New Approach: What Will Make Our Neighbors Healthy?
11. The Good Sam Story
12. Poverty: Addressing A Distant Disease
13. Hired And Healthy
14. Growing Health From The Ground Up
15. A Healthy Start
16. A Place To Call Home
17. Re-envisioning Health Care
18. Rx For Change: An Approach To Activism
Epilogue: Toward A Better Way
Acknowledgments
Discussion QuestionsAdditional Info
Our neighborhoods are literally making us sick.Buildings with mold trigger asthma and other respiratory conditions. Geographic lack of access to food and health care increases childhood mortality. Community violence traumatizes residents. Poverty, unemployment, inadequate housing, food insecurity, racial injustice, and oppression cause physical changes in the body, resulting in disease and death.
But there is hope. Loving our neighbor includes creating social environments in which people can be healthy. While working in community redevelopment and treating uninsured families, Veronica Squires and Breanna Lathrop discovered that creating healthier neighborhoods requires a commitment to health equity. Jesus’ ministry brought healing through dismantling systems of oppression and overturning social norms that prevented people from living healthy lives. We can do the same in our communities through addressing social determinants that facilitate healing in under-resourced neighborhoods.
Everyone deserves the opportunity for good health. The decisions we make and actions we take can promote the health of our neighbors.
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Faith On A Sticky Note
$10.23Add to cartDo you ever doubt your faith in God because you never had that one defining “salvation moment” that other Christians talk about – you know the one where you drop to your knees, plead to be saved, then receive a feeling, vision, or some other heavenly sign of confirmation? This is exactly how author Mark McKinney felt, until he faced the daunting task of going public with his Christian testimony. Enter: the sticky note.
Over the last several decades, the sticky note has become a hallmark of modern life. Reminders, schedules, even love notes have been relegated to these small paper squares, which we tack onto the computer monitor, the refrigerator, or the dashboard. Little do we know that in posting them, we leave veritable paper trails – mini-documentaries of what we do, what is important to us, and what defines us as people.
In Faith on a Sticky Note, McKinney uses this idea to relay how he discovered his faith, tracking down the “spiritual sticky notes” of his life, then piecing them together like a puzzle. “I never had my moment…” he writes. “I had many moments.”
Through the heartwarming, personal accounts of his father’s battle with alchoholism and eventual death, McKinney reminds us that faith, like life, in not made in a single defining moment, but rather in everyday situations attuned to God’s perfect timing.
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When Gay Comes Home
$24.99Add to cartWhen a person tells you they’re gay, what is your first reaction? How do you “see” them? What kind of “glasses” do you have on? Are you comfortably able to speak with confidence, using the right language, when this topic comes up? In When Gay Comes Home, you will learn about the redemptive power of God and it will guide you in how to put on your Jesus glasses, helping you to communicate in a loving and respectful way, thus building bridges instead of walls.
Study Guide Included. Recommended for parents, youth pastors, and teachers to educate and equip children from the age of nine and up. Also includes a section specifically developed for pastors.
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Why Did You Choose Me
$21.99Add to cartMost adoptive and foster children struggle at some point in their life with knowing who they are and where they belong. They want to ask questions, and parents need to be prepared with an answer that helps their child feel loved and secure.
After searching for adoption storybooks to read to her own adopted children, Katie Cruice Smith decided that there was a need for more books that parents could read at bedtime to connect with their adopted and fostered children.
In Why Did You Choose Me?, Katie Cruice Smith answers that question in a way that young children can understand. Drawing from her own experience as an adoptive mom to three children, Katie uses the questions her own children have asked to help them see there never really was a choice she knew right away that they were hers.
With beautiful illustrations by artist Sarah Strickling Jones, Why Did You Choose Me? lovingly demonstrates the uniqueness that each child brings to a family.
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Fear Plus Less Dialogues
$20.00Add to cartDrawing on all the community’s collective voices- from “doctors to drug dealers”-
Fearless Dialogues is a groundbreaking program that seeks real solutions to problems of chronic unemployment, violence, and hopelessness. In cities around the United States and now the world, the program’s founder, Gregory C. Ellison, and his team create conversations among community members who have never spoken to one another, the goal of which are real, implementable, and lasting changes to the life of the community.
These community transformations are based on both face-to-face encounters and substantive analysis of the problems the community faces. In Fearless Dialogues: A New Movement for Justice, Ellison makes this same kind of analysis available to readers, walking them through the steps that must be taken to find common ground in our divided communities and then to implement genuine and lasting change.
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Unlocking The Prophetic Mysteries Of Israel
$16.99Add to cartCould both Jews and Christians be blind to the truth?
Jonathan Bernis, host of the internationally popular television program Jewish Voice With Jonathan Bernis, unlocks a greater knowledge about the last days with this fascinating book, which explores questions such as:
*What crucial role does Israel play in the last days?
*Why is antisemitism on the rise worldwide, and what is at its root?
*What is the seed promise, and why is Satan so angry about it?
*What profound promise did God make to Abraham that applies to you today?We are witnessing things today that the prophets of Israel longed to see. God is fulfilling His Word in our generation!
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Redeemed Sexuality : Healing And Transformation In Community 12 Sessions
$18.99Add to cartAn Invitation To The Broken
Getting The Most Out Of Redeemed Sexuality
Group CovenantTheme 1: Vulnerability
1. Learning The Language
2. Telling Your Story
3. Wounds Of The Past
4. Truth And Lies
5. ConfessionTheme 2: Identity
6. The Wounded Self
7. Identity In Christ
8. Facing Temptation
9. Creating A Battle PlanTheme 3: Intimacy
10. Healthy Intimacy
11. Christlike Sexuality
12. Pursuing WholenessAppendix 1: How To Do Updates
Appendix 2: Prayers For The Journey
Appendix 3: Tips For Journaling
Leader’s Notes
NotesAdditional Info
Sexual brokenness permeates our culture and has found its way into the church. Even though Christians are called to value and celebrate sexuality as sacred and good, it is often a source of fear, shame, or secret sin.But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Healthy sexuality concerns what we pursue, not just what we avoid, so Redeemed Sexuality invites emerging adults to seek sexual maturity and discipleship in the context of community. As we experience love, joy, and intimacy with God and others, sexual shame and sin lose their power.
Integrating theology, psychology, and spiritual formation, participants engage the process of transformation by
practicing vulnerability
embracing their identity in Christ
learning healthy intimacyIncorporating peer-to-peer leadership, this field-tested small group curriculum is suitable for use in both men’s or women’s groups. The process is neither linear nor easy, but change is possible because Christ is able. The only question is, Do you want to be healed?
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Aint Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around
$27.95Add to cart* Second volume from Spiritual Directors of Color Network * Addresses the contemporary issues of racism and contemplation Following up on the popularity of the groundbreaking anthology Embodied Spirits: Stories of Spiritual Directors of Color, published by Morehouse in March 2014, this new book continues the work of filling a void in the world of contemplative spirituality in stories of the contemplative spiritual journeys of people of color. Like the first book, Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around incorporates stories from members “of their encounters with ‘othering’ and disparaging treatment across issues and their understandings of contemplative practice and the call to action that follows. This volume seeks to give voice to these issues from those whom have lived with them and to seek peace and healing for the unresolved trauma that continues to separate us.” In a world or resurgent racism and bias against those whose skin color, nationality, religion, gender, or sexuality are seen as “other,” these are voices that need to be heard.
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Adventures Of Pfreddy The Fetus
$10.99Add to cartThis is the story of Pfreddy the Fetus as he attempts to grow from a miracle in his mother’s tummy into a human being. The adventure takes Pfreddy through the dilemma of abortion. You will be surprised to see what happens as he travels to the Planning Parenthood Place.
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No Innocent Bystanders
$20.00Add to cartThe struggle for justice is ongoing. In answering the biblical call to act justly and love mercifully, can Christians cross lines of privilege to walk humbly not only with God but with their marginalized neighbors as well? No Innocent Bystanders looks at the role of allies in social justice movements and asks what works, what doesn’t, and why. It explains what allies legitimately can accomplish, what they can’t, and what kind of humility and clarity is required to tell the difference.
This book is a start-up guide for spiritual or religious people who are interested in working for social justice but don’t know how or where to begin, drawing on the lessons of history, the framework of Christian ideas, and the insights of contemporary activists. It offers practical guidance on how to meaningfully and mindfully advocate alongside all who struggle for a more just society.
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Mere Sexuality : Rediscovering The Christian Vision Of Sexuality
$16.99Add to cartWhat do Christians believe about human sexuality?
In Mere Sexuality, author and pastor Todd Wilson presents the historic Christian consensus about human sexuality, the Great Tradition of the church for centuries as taught in each of its major expressions – Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant. Wilson highlights the stunning shift of opinion on issues of sexuality in the evangelical church and why this break with the historic church is problematic for the future of Christianity. Along the way he provides ordinary believers with an introduction to the historic Christian vision of sexuality, yet does so in conversation with some of the twenty-first century’s leading challenges to this vision.
In a culture that is deeply confused about human sexuality, Wilson believes it is time for evangelicals to retrieve the historic Christian tradition and biblical teaching on the question of sexuality. Mere Sexuality seeks to guide readers back to the beauty and coherence of this vision of sexuality in the face of an aggressive and all-consuming pagan and secular worldview.
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Divergent Church : The Bright Promise Of Alternative Faith Communities
$18.99Add to cartNew faith communities are appearing across the U.S.. Many of them bear little resemblance-on the surface-to ‘church’ in its conventional form. But when we look a little deeper we see striking continuity with the most deeply rooted practices of the Christian faith in community. What are those practices? What do these unconventional, alternative faith communities look like? How are they, perhaps, indicators of a hopeful new future for the church? And what can we learn from them? Authors Kara Brinkerhoff and Tim Shapiro spent more than a year researching and exploring these questions, closely examining the life of a dozen alternative faith communities across the country. They include new monastic communities, food-oriented communities, affinity group communities, house churches, hybrid churches and others. They are creative, ingenious, innovative, clever, dynamic and transformative. But they represent human expressions of activities that have always been part of human religious congregations: hospitality, learning, storytelling, care, leadership, worship and honoring place. This fascinating book goes beyond simply analyzing current trends. It reveals how innovative Christians are engaging in time-honored practices, creating new types of communities, which will shape the church to come. Further, it shows us how we too might innovate while holding true to the essential practices of our gathered faith. This is an instructive picture of Christian community, past, present and future.
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Transforming Communities : How People Like You Are Healing Their Neighborho
$15.99Add to cartWhen everything’s a wreck around the country–and around the corner– it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless. What can one person do to make a difference? Here’s the good news. Millions of everyday people are waiting to step into their power to take action to heal their neighborhoods–and you are one of them. Equal parts inspiration, information, and do-it-yourself, Transforming Communities will give you the tools and encouragement to heal your own neighborhood, one step, one person at a time.
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Sabbath As Resistance (Expanded)
$18.00Add to cartIn this new edition that includes a study guide, popular author Walter Brueggemann writes that the Sabbath is not simply about keeping rules but rather about becoming a whole person and restoring a whole society. Brueggemann calls out our 24/7 society of consumption, a society in which we live to achieve, accomplish, perform, and possess. We want more, own more, use more, eat more, and drink more. Brueggemann shows readers how keeping the Sabbath allows us to break this restless cycle and focus on what is truly important: God, other people, all life. Perfect for groups or self-reflection, Sabbath as Resistance offers a transformative vision of the wholeness God intends, giving world-weary Christians a glimpse of a more fulfilling and simpler life through Sabbath observance.
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Pro Choice And Christian
$18.00Add to cartDespite the claim by many Christian leaders that the pro-life/antiabortion position is the only faithful response to the debate about reproductive rights, many people of faith find themselves in a murky middle of this supposedly black-and-white issue. Christians who are pro-abortion rights are rarely pro-abortion. However, they view the decision to carry a pregnancy to term as one to be made by the woman, her medical team, her family, or personal counsel rather than by politicians.
Pro-Choice and Christian explores the biblical, theological, political, and medical aspects of the debate in order to provide a thoughtful Christian argument for a pro-choice position with regard to abortion issues. Kira Schlesinger considers relevant Scriptures, the politics of abortion in the United States, and the human realities making abortion a vital issue of justice and compassion. By examining choice from a Christian perspective, Schlesinger provides a common vocabulary for discussing faith and reproductive rights.
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Forever Family For Antonio
$18.99Add to cartA beautifully written, wonderfully illustrated book about adoption through the lens of the gospel. The combination of the writing and imaginative illustrations gives any parent a foundation to navigate the complex nature of adoption–specifically adoption from the foster care system.
