As a pastor and as a person with beloved family members living a gay lifestyle, Caleb had to face this issue with courage and grace. Messy Grace shows us that Jesus’s command to “love your neighbor as yourself” doesn’t have an exception clause for a gay “neighbor”—or for that matter, any other “neighbor” we might find it hard to relate to. Jesus was able to love these people and yet still hold on to his beliefs. So can you. Even when it’s messy.

    Our local newspaper ran a front-page story not too long ago about a study revealing that one in five people in our city lives in poverty. This is a book about those two numbers.Jesus Wants to save Christians is a book about faith and fear, wealth and war, poverty, power, safety, terror, Bibles, bombs, and homeland insecurity.It's about empty empires and the truth that everybody's a priest. It's about oppression, occupation, and what happens when Christians support, animate and participate in the very things Jesus came to set people free from.It's about what it means to be a part of the church of Jesus in a world where some people fly planes into buildings while others pick up groceries in Hummers.

    Whether responding to the church alarm mysteriously and repeatedly going off in the middle of the night, firing a kitchen assistant with a habit of buying drugs from parishioners, or interacting with the Chicken-Eatin' Preacher from West Greenville, pastor Deb Richardson-Moore quickly admits that there is a great deal they do not teach you in seminary.In this frank and engaging account of answering a call later in life, Richardson-Moore brings the reader into the world of her work at the Triune Mercy Center in Greenville, South Carolina. The result is an honest look at the complications and difficulties surrounding her first years of ministry to homeless men and women suffering from mental illness, crack addictions, and alcoholism. At the same time, it is a humorous and deeply touching account of God's grace manifested in the most remarkable of ways, whether in the inadvertent befriending of a mugger or in the unexpected witnessing of an addict tenderly washing another's wounded foot.In The Weight of Mercy, Richardson-Moore weaves a story that is difficult to forget, due both to its engaging characters and also its radical vision of what the Christian church could look like if it truly lived out Christ's command to welcome the stranger.

    Fast cars. Fast and furious. Fast forward. Fast . . . church? The church is often idealized (or demonized) as the last bastion of a bygone era, dragging our feet as we're pulled into new moralities and new spiritualities. We guard our doctrine and our piety with great vigilance. But we often fail to notice how quickly we're capitulating, in the structures and practices of our churches, to a culture of unreflective speed, dehumanizing efficiency and dis-integrating isolationism. In the beginning, the church ate together, traveled together and shared in all facets of life. Centered as they were on Jesus, these seemingly mundane activities took on their own significance in the mission of God. In Slow Church, Chris Smith and John Pattison invite us out of franchise faith and back into the ecology, economy and ethics of the kingdom of God, where people know each other well and love one another as Christ loved the church.

    S. Lewis. "His whole vision of life was such that the natural and the supernatural seemed inseparably combined."It is precisely this pervasive Christianity which is demonstrated in the forty-eight essays comprising God in the Dock. Here Lewis addresses himself both to theological questions and to those which Hooper terms "semi-theological," or ethical. But whether he is discussing "Evil and God," "Miracles," "The Decline of Religion," or "The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment," his insight and observations are thoroughly and profoundly Christian.Drawn from a variety of sources, the essays were designed to meet a variety of needs, and among other accomplishments they serve to illustrate the many different angles from which we are able to view the Christian religion. They range from relatively popular pieces written for newspapers to more learned defenses of the faith which first appeared in The Socratic Digest. Characterized by Lewis's honesty and realism, his insight and conviction, and above all his thoroughgoing commitments to Christianity, these essays make God in the Dock very much a book for our time.

    In this book, John MacArthur laments the drift of American Christianity towards compromise with culture and issues a call for the church to recover its prophetic, unadulterated voice in order to have a renewed impact on society.

    We want to have an impact not only on our immediate family and community, but on wider social issues. We want to protect the vulnerable and engage with the issues that really matter. But how?This book shoes us how wonderful, liberating and empowering it is to be made in God's image and how this changes how we see ourselves and all other humans, and how we treat them and advocate for them.Some will feel the call to run for office]] others will roll up their sleeves and join the good work of non-profit ministry]] and others might simply find little ways to incorporate this vision of human dignity into their everyday lives, and change their community one word, one action, one person at a time.Each one of us can be, and are called to be, part of this new movementa human dignity revolution that our societies need, and that weyouare uniquely placed as Christians to be join.This compelling book sh

    Drawn from a rich heritage, "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life" will guide you through a carefully selected array of disciplines, including:Scripture readingPrayerWorshipScripture meditationEvangelismServingStewardship of time and moneyScripture applicationFastingSilence and solitudeJournalingLearningBy illustrating why the disciplines are important, showing how each one will help you grow in godliness, and offering practical suggestions for cultivating them, "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life" will provide you with a refreshing opportunity to become more like Christ and grow in character and maturity.

    Our pace is too frenetic to be in union with God, and we don't know how to quiet our hearts and minds to be present. Our emotions are unhealthy and compartmentalized. We feel unable to love well or live differently from the rest of the world--to live as people of the good news.New York pastor Rich Villodas says we must restore balance, focus, and meaning for our souls. The Deeply Formed Life lays out a fresh vision for spiritual breakthrough following five key values:- Monastic Value: unplug from this noisy world to care for your soul- Emotional Health Value: why deep love can't come from shallow wells- Healthy Sexuality Value: how our bodies connect with our spirituality- Multiracial Value: a spiritual, internal approach to pursuing racial justice- Missional Value: how to be the hands and feet of Jesus in a consumerist worldThe Deeply Formed Life is a roadmap to live in the richly rooted place we all yearn for: a place of communion with God, a place where we find our purpose.

    Gornik'sTo Live in Peace shows how the life of the church, the strategies of community development, and the practices of peacemaking can make a transformational difference. Centering the book is the story of Baltimore's New Song Community Church, a church that stands as a witness to what can happen when the risks of the gospel are taken. Engaging with a wide range of theological and missiological perspectives, Gornik demonstrates how placing blame for the current conditions of life in the inner city on the residents themselves fails the test of critical analysis and the witness of Scripture. Yet his proposals also show ways that the church can work with the community to overcome structural obstacles to human flourishing.

    Countless people are invisible to us. We overlook the poor and homeless, partly because we don't share much space with them. More seriously, we often choose not to see the realities around us. We hold misconceptions about who is deserving or not, or make false assumptions about people's poverty being their own fault. Terence Lester calls us to see the invisible people around us. His personal encounters and real-life stories challenge Christians to become more informed about poverty and homelessness, and to see the poor as Jesus does. When we see people through God's eyes and hear their stories, we restore their dignity and help them flourish. And when we recognize our own inner spiritual poverty, we have greater empathy for others, no matter their circumstances. Let love open your eyes. Discover how seeing leads us to act with compassion and justice--as God intends.

    Edwin H. Friedman shows how the same understanding of family process that can aid clergy in their pastoral role also has important ramifications for negotiating congregational dynamics and functioning as an effective leader. Clergy from diverse denominations, as well as family therapists and counselors, have found that this book directly addresses the dilemmas and crises they encounter daily. It is widely used as a text in courses on pastoral care, leadership, and family systems.

    By looking anew at the way God's transcendence and immanence have been taken captive by modern appetites, Wells argues convincingly for a reform of the evangelical world.

    Why has Christianity, a religion premised upon neighborly love, failed in its attempts to heal social divisions?  In this ambitious and wide-ranging work, Willie James Jennings delves deep into the late medieval soil in which the modern Christian imagination grew, to reveal how Christianity’s highly refined process of socialization has inadvertently created and maintained segregated societies.   A probing study of the cultural fragmentation—social, spatial, and racial—that took root in the Western mind, this book shows how Christianity has consistently forged Christian nations rather than encouraging genuine communion between disparate groups and individuals.Weaving together the stories of Zurara, the royal chronicler of Prince Henry, the Jesuit theologian Jose de Acosta, the famed Anglican Bishop John William Colenso, and the former slave writer Olaudah Equiano, Jennings narrates a tale of loss, forgetfulness, and missed opportunities for the transformation of Christian communities.  Touching on issues of slavery, geography, Native American history, Jewish-Christian relations, literacy, and translation, he brilliantly exposes how the loss of land and the supersessionist ideas behind the Christian missionary movement are both deeply implicated in the invention of race.Using his bold, creative, and courageous critique to imagine a truly cosmopolitan citizenship that transcends geopolitical, nationalist, ethnic, and racial boundaries, Jennings charts, with great vision, new ways of imagining ourselves, our communities, and the landscapes we inhabit.

    In this remarkable book, Hugh Halter and Matt Smay two missional leaders and church planters outline an innovative model for creating thriving grass-roots faith communities.