Christian communities are no exception. Why do so many of our relationships suffer from alienation, indifference, and even hostility?Author Sam Crabtree believes that often at the heart of these breakdowns is a lack of affirmation. He observes in Scripture that God grants mercy to those who refresh others, and in life that people tend to be influenced by those who praise them. Crabtree shows how a robust "God-centered affirmation ratio" refreshes others and honors God.Practicing Affirmation sounds a call to recognize and affirm the character of Christ in others. When done well, affirmation does not fuel pride in the person, but refreshes them and honors God. All who are discouraged in relationships will find wisdom and practical insight in this book.

    We're three mothers from three faiths -- Islam, Christianity, and Judaism -- who got together to write a picture book for our children that would highlight the connections between our religions. But no sooner had we started talking about our beliefs and how to explain them to our children than our differences led to misunderstandings. Our project nearly fell apart.""After September 11th, Ranya Idliby, an American Muslim of Palestinian descent, faced constant questions about Islam, God, and death from her children, the only Muslims in their classrooms. Inspired by a story about Muhammad, Ranya reached out to two other mothers -- a Christian and a Jew -- to try to understand and answer these questions for her children. After just a few meetings, however, it became clear that the women themselves needed an honest and open environment where they could admit -- and discuss -- their concerns, stereotypes, and misunderstandings about one another. After hours of soul-searching about the issues that divided them, Ranya, Suzanne, and Priscilla grew close enough to discover and explore what united them."The Faith Club" is a memoir of spiritual reflections in three voices that will make readers feel as if they are eavesdropping on the authors' private conversations, provocative discussions, and often controversial opinions and conclusions. The authors wrestle with the issues of anti-Semitism, prejudice against Muslims, and preconceptions of Christians at a time when fundamentalists dominate the public face of Christianity. They write beautifully and affectingly of their families, their losses and grief, their fears and hopes for themselves and their loved ones. And as the authors reveal their deepest beliefs, readers watch the blossoming of a profound interfaith friendship and the birth of a new way of relating to others.In a final chapter, they provide detailed advice on how to start a faith club: the questions to ask, the books to read, and most important, the open-minded attitude to maintain in order to come through the experience with an enriched personal faith and understanding of others.Pioneering, timely, and deeply thoughtful, "The Faith Club"'s caring message will resonate with people of all faiths.For more information or to start your own faith club visit www.thefaithclub.com

    Jonathan and Wynter Pitts did. Until the reality of married life spilled into their expectations.Jonathan and Wynter invite you on a journey to explore a different approach to your happily-ever-after marriage. Join them for an honest look at the lessons learned as they navigated the ups and downs of early marriage while raising four daughters.Here you will...be encouraged to remove the pressure of a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses marriagelearn to let go of assumptions and embrace your role as servant-leader to your spouseexperience how God can pour His purpose, passion, and fullness into your relationshipEmptied is a way of life. It’s not about trying harder, it’s about thinking differently. Only when you are emptied of your own self-focused motivations can God pour new life into you for the abundant marriage and satisfying relationship you long for. Are you ready to approach your marriage poured out, ready to be filled up?

    Consider even the simplest action you take, for your lives matter beyond measure…and they matter forever.”Jones speaks to that part in everyone that is yearning to understand why things happen and what we can do about it.Like The Traveler’s Gift, The Noticer is a unique narrative is a blend of fiction, allegory, and inspiration.  Gifted storyteller Andy Andrews helps us see how becoming a “noticer” just might change a person’s life forever.

    But the "happiness" of the world will never offer the wholeness that makes one content and satisfied. Dr. Robert Schuller believes the answer to this cycle of disappointment, frustration, and regret can be found in one of the most famous passages in scripture - Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

    They can go on forever with no resolution. Or they can rush along without consensus just to get through the agenda. What if there was another way?Church boards and other Christian leadership teams have long relied on models adapted from the business world. Ruth Haley Barton, president of the Transforming Center, helps teams transition to a much more suitable model--the spiritual community that discerns God's will together.In these pages you will discover personal and group practices that will lead you into a new way of experiencing community and listening to God together.

    Everyone had a story.Permission to Speak Freely is the unique new project and movement of author AnneJackson, who is finished with keeping brokenness in the dark. Bringing to lightthe original intent of God’s sanctuary as a place of help and healing, Annereveals that through confession, both to God and to others, we can live livesthat are whole and healed.Told with disarming transparency, Anne shareswhat led to her own addictions and the ensuing lifestyle that left her woundedand withdrawn, but ultimately rescued and redeemed. She includes dramaticstories of others who also learned to abandon their fear, pride, and masks; toidentify their hurts; and to find the courage to speak freely.Their confessions, submitted as mixed mediapieces, photography, and sketches, were collected from people across the world,and are included throughout the book. Readers will share in the opportunity tofind their own path to redemption and freedom.

    In Die Broke, you'll learn that life is a game where the loser gives his money to Uncle Sam at the end. There are four steps to the process:Quit TodayNo, don't tell your boss to shove it...at least not out loud. But in your head accept that from this day on you're a free agent whose number one workplace priority is your personal bottom line.Pay CashYou should be as conscious of spending as you are of saving. Credit should be a rarely used tool for those few times (buying homes and cars) when paying cash is impossible.Don't RetireYour work life should be a journey up and down hills, rather than a climb up a sheer cliff that ends with a jump into the abyss.Die BrokeIt sounds terrifying, the one intolerable outcome to your financial life. And yet, in truth, dying broke might be your best option for a life without fear: fear of failure and privation now, fear of impoverishment in the long run.

    I used to be happy, but then life took its toll.”Only one-third of Americans surveyed said they were happy. How can this be? Education is accessible to most. We’ve made advancements in everything from medicine to technology, yet 66 percent of us can’t find an adequate reason to check the “yes” box on the happiness questionnaire.Worldwide, people profess that happiness is their most cherished goal. Marketers get this. “Want to be happy?” they ask. Eat at this restaurant, drive this car, wear this dress. Happiness happens when you lose the weight, get the date, find the mate, or discover your fate. It’s wide, this way to happiness. Yet, for all its promise, it delivers a fragile joy; here one day, tomorrow scattered by the winds of comparison, disappointment, or unmet expectations.Max writes, “There is another option. It requires no credit card, monthly mortgage, or stroke of fortune. Age and ethnicity aren’t factors...an unexpected door to joy.” In this book Max shares the unexpected path to a lasting happiness, one that produces reliable joy in any season of life. Based on the teachings of Jesus and backed by modern research, How Happiness Happens presents a surprising but practical way of living that will change you from the inside out.  Also available in Spanish.

    Whether books are your addiction or your phobia, Lit! offers up solid advice to help you think about reading in fresh ways.With all the practical suggestions built on a firm gospel foundation, this book will help you flourish in the essential skills necessary for a balanced reading diet of Scripture, serious works of theology, and moving devotional works, but without overlooking the importance of how-to books from expert practitioners, the storytelling genius of historians, and rich novels written by skilled artists of fiction.Literature scholar Leland Ryken calls Lit! “a triumph of scholarship,” but mostly it’s a practical and unpretentious book about the most urgent skills you need to enjoy a luminously literate life in honor of God.

    A coincidence—sometimes a silly little thing—changes the course of your day or even your life. Is it chance, or is God communicating with you?A surprising answer to prayer comes at just the right moment. Could God be showing you that He cares about the details of your life? Bestselling author SQuire Rushnell says these silent little miracles are godwinks—messages of assurance that no matter what is happening in your life or how uncertain things may seem at the moment, God is with you and will help you move toward certainty.When God Winks at You is packed with true stories demonstrating that God does communicate with us, making incredible things happen in our lives every single day.As you read the riveting accounts of everyday and famous people—including Tim Conway, Billy Graham, and Don Knotts—you will begin to recognize the godwinks in your own life, both past and present. Through these tangible signposts from God, we receive personalized messages that reassure us, stop us from worrying, chart our path in life, and help us keep the faith.Contains uplifting, engaging, and encouraging true stories of everyday miraclesEnjoy Bite-size stories perfect for morning motivation or at any point in your dayAttain an unshakable confidence that you are never alone . . . and never have beenProvides a great gift for anyone seeking reassurance that God is with usWith delightful warmth and familiarity, SQuire has masterfully crafted a timeless collection of inspiring and faith-building stories that can be enjoyed again and again.

    and the devestating reality of stage-four cancer. In The Hardest Peace, Kara doesn't offer answers for when living is hard, but she asks us to join her in moving away from fear and control and toward peace and grace. Most of all, she draws us back to the God who is with us, in the mundane and the suffering, and who shapes even our pain into beauty.Winner of the 2015 Christian Book Award® in the Inspiration category.

    Nouwen, one of the greatest of all spiritual writers, invites us to search deeply for the well-springs that nourish true ministry in his classic The Way of the Heart. Interweaving the solitude, silence, and prayer of the fifth-century Egyptian Desert Fathers and Mothers with our contemporary search for an authentic spirituality, The Way of the Heart not only leads us to a fuller encounter with God, but to a more creative ministry with our fellow human beings. Here is one of the most profound works from a writer known for his fresh and perceptive insights—and who stands alongside C.S. Lewis and Thomas Merton as an essential Christian scholar and thinker.

    I don’t know Jesus anywhere near as well as I would like to know him. The desire is there, but life gets in the way. There are times when I seem to be making great progress, and other times when I wonder if I know him at all. But I always arrive back at the same inspiring and haunting idea: If there is one person that we should each get to know in a deeply personal way, it is Jesus – the carpenter from Nazareth, the itinerant preacher, the Son of God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Lamb of God, the new Adam, the Messiah, the Alpha and the Omega, the Chosen One, the Light of the World, the God-Man who wants good things for us more than we want them for ourselves, the healer of our souls.

    You're likely among an increasing number of post-evangelicals: Christians growing restless within the bounds of the evangelical orthodoxy they were raised in or trained in---especially its culturally-influenced precepts and mores---and thirsting for something deeper. Something that makes sense.Author Dave Tomlinson encountered these same issues in Great Britain as he approached the writing of The Post-Evangelical. He quickly discovered that many in the church are hungering for a safe place to express their questions, doubts, and insights without being branded 'liberals' or---worse yet---'heretics.'Far from skewering its subject, The Post-Evangelical actually endorses steps toward rather that away from the roots of evangelicalism---while stridently challenging its man-made rules and regulations that have, for all intents and purposes, become 'gospel.'A best-seller and paradigm-buster in the U.K. for several years, we now present the expanded and updated North American edition of The Post-Evangelical. It includes: *A forward by Dallas Willard and an updated introduction.*Sidebar commentary from Mark Galli, Timothy Keel, Doug Pagitt, Mike Yaconelli, and Holly Rankin Zaher.*A completely new chapter on the history of evangelicalism in the U.S.If you've wandered from the evangelical fold---publicly or privately---you're not necessarily a backslider. Spend some time with The Post-Evangelical and be encouraged.