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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Real : The Surprising Secret To Deeper Relationships
$15.99Add to cartIntroduction
1. Finsta And Rinsta
2. The Way We Were
3. True To Yourself?
4. The Joy Of Repentance
5. Your Roots Are Showing
6. Dealing With Sirens
7. True Authenticity
Epilogue: A Land Without RepentanceAdditional Info
Every woman longs for authentic friendships with others-but in a world of carefully-curated social media, most of us are merely keeping up appearances. Both online and offline, we’re all prone to only presenting the best side of ourselves.This book shows us that the secret to growing the relationships we crave is in developing a biblical habit of repentance. By being honest about our sin before God and receiving his forgiveness, we’re freed be honest about our sin with others. When we drop the act and allow ourselves to be vulnerable by sharing our struggles, not only are we strengthened in our fight against sin, but we experience authentic fellowship and real friendship.
Catherine Parks empowers women to fight side by side against their sin, and shows how by getting real about our struggles, we can create genuine community in an “I’m fine” culture.
This book is great for reading with your book group, women’s group, accountability partner, or one-to-one mentor-discussion questions are included for every chapter.
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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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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. -
Dignity Revolution : Reclaiming Gods Rich Vision For Humanity
$16.99Add to cartIntroduction: A Person’s A Person
1. With Glory And Honor
2. Losing Our Humanity
3. Dignity Rediscovered
4. Race And The Nations
5. The Start Of Life
6. Justice, Prisons, And Immigration
7. Death, Disease, And Healthcare
8. Work And Poverty
9. Identity, Sexuality, And Marriage
10. Technology And Our Digital Age
11. Religious Liberty
12. Politics
Outro: Learning From The Zong-What Will Be Our Legacy?Additional Info
As Christians, we want to make a difference in this world. 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 movement-a human dignity revolution that our societies need, and that we-you-are uniquely placed as Christians to be join.
This compelling book shows you how to join the dignity revolution.
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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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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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Hat Girl : A Sequel To A Box Of Hats
$14.99Add to cartNan’s hair is just starting to grow back after her chemo treatments. To keep her head from feeling cold, she wears a hat to school every day. She has a problem, though-some of the children tug her hats off and tease her about not having hair. After telling Nan to take her hat off in class, the substitute teacher realizes why Nan is wearing it, but not before the teasing starts again. When Nan tells her mother about it, they talk about Nan’s courage when dealing with her illness and how she could use that courage to work out a solution.
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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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Not Alone : How God Helped Me Battle Depression
$11.99Add to cartAngry and hurt, Andrea didn’t want to have anything to do with God. How could she when, one day shy of her eighteenth birthday, she had to watch her mother being wheeled into the operating room of Toronto General Hospital to receive a liver transplant? How could a God that “loved” His people allow them to suffer so badly? Why did she have to spend so much time in and out of hospitals, watching the strongest woman she knew endure test after test? Watching this happen, Andrea came to the conclusion that no god would do that.
Then, on April 27, 2011, it was time to say goodbye. After ten long months of waiting for a second organ donation, Andrea’s mother made the decision to let go-it was the hardest thing Andrea had ever dealt with up to that point. The loss of her mother led her into a downward spiral of depression, PTSD, and anxiety. Andrea lost years of her life and still battles to this day with keeping her depression under control.
Jesus reached down and opened Andrea’s eyes at the darkest point of her depression. Searching for a way to deal with her pain, she called out to Jesus, who answered her prayers and called her back into His loving arms. What He has done in her life is nothing short of amazing-Jesus gave her purpose again!
This is her story…
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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.
