Under Pressure
By James Martin
James Martin, SJ, gifted storyteller, editor at large of America magazine, popular media commentator, and New York Times bestselling author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, brings the Gospels to life in Jesus: A Pilgrimage, and invites believers and seekers alike to experience Jesus through Scripture, prayer and travel.
Combining the fascinating insights of historical Jesus studies with profound spiritual insights about the Christ of faith, Father Martin recreates the world of first-century Galilee and Judea to usher you into Jesus's life and times and show readers how Jesus speaks to us today. Martin also brings together the most up-to-date Scripture scholarship, wise spiritual reflections, and lighthearted stories about traveling through the Holy Land with a fellow (and funny) Jesuit, visiting important sites in the life of Jesus of Nazareth.
The person at the heart of the Gospels can seem impossibly distant. Stories about his astonishing life and ministry—clever parables that upended everyone's expectations, incredible healings that convinced even skeptics, nature miracles that dazzled the dumbstruck disciples—can seem far removed from our own daily lives, hard to understand, and at times irrelevant. But in Jesus you will come to know him as Father Martin knows him: Messiah and Savior, as well as friend and brother.
By Howard Thurman
n this classic theological treatise, the acclaimed theologian and religious leader Howard Thurman (1900-1981) demonstrates how the gospel may be read as a manual of resistance for the poor and disenfranchised. Jesus is a partner in the pain of the oppressed and the example of His life offers a solution to ending the descent into moral nihilism. Hatred does not empower—it decays. Only through self-love and love of one another can God’s justice prevail.
by Jemar Tisby
The Color of Compromise is both enlightening and compelling, telling a history we either ignore or just don't know. Equal parts painful and inspirational, it details how the American church has helped create and maintain racist ideas and practices. You will be guided in thinking through concrete solutions for improved race relations and a racially inclusive church.
The Color of Compromise:
Takes you on a historical, sociological, and religious journey: from America's early colonial days through slavery and the Civil War
Covers the tragedy of Jim Crow laws, the victories of the Civil Rights era, and the strides of today's Black Lives Matter movement
Reveals the cultural and institutional tables we have to flip in order to bring about meaningful integration
Charts a path forward to replace established patterns and systems of complicity with bold, courageous, immediate action
Is a perfect book for pastors and other faith leaders, students, non-students, book clubs, small group studies, history lovers, and all lifelong learners
The Color of Compromise is not a call to shame or a platform to blame white evangelical Christians. It is a call from a place of love and desire to fight for a more racially unified church that no longer compromises what the Bible teaches about human dignity and equality. A call that challenges black and white Christians alike to standup now and begin implementing the concrete ways Tisby outlines, all for a more equitable and inclusive environment among God's people. Starting today.
by N.T Wright
“Simply outstanding. It will confirm, challenge, and deepen your grasp of Christian faith and practice.”—Christianity Today
Christian scholar and Anglican bishop N. T. Wright’s best-known work, written in the tradition of C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity but for today’s generation—a rigorous and mind-expanding explanation of the essence of Christianity and why people believe—is available in paperback for the first time.
For two thousand years, Christianity has claimed to answer the mystery of human existence. Renowned biblical scholar and Anglican bishop N. T. Wright—the award-winning author Newsweek hails as “the world’s leading New Testament scholar”—argues that the Christian faith still holds the answers today.
Like C. S. Lewis did in his classic Mere Christianity, Wright makes the case for Christian faith for modern readers, whether you are a believer, an agnostic, schooled in a different spiritual tradition, or are a skeptical atheist suspicious of organized religion. Using clear, simple language to convey a profound message, he walks you through the Christian faith step-by-step and question by question, and reveals how basic inquiries such as Why is justice fair? Why are so many people pursuing spirituality? Why do we crave relationship? And why is beauty so beautiful? take us into the mystery of God and his plan for us and leave believers with a reason for renewed faith.
Provocative and insightful, with a discussion guide for individuals and groups, Simply Christian offers answers to expand and guide all of our lives.
By BRENNAN MANNING
Are you bedraggled, beat-up, burnt-out?
Most of us believe in God’s grace—in theory. But somehow we can’t seem to apply it in our daily lives. We continue to see Him as a small-minded bookkeeper, tallying our failures and successes on a score sheet.
Yet God gives us His grace, willingly, no matter what we’ve done. We come to Him as ragamuffins—dirty, bedraggled, and beat-up. And when we sit at His feet, He smiles upon us, the chosen objects of His “furious love.”
Brennan Manning’s now-classic meditation on grace and what it takes to access it—simple honesty—has changed thousands of lives. Now with a Ragamuffin’s thirty-day spiritual journey guide, it will change yours, too.
By Jordan Seng
We are a supernatural people. Made in the image of God and called to follow a risen Lord through the world God made—we're anything but normal.
Given all that, it should not be surprising to us when miraculous things happen in our midst. Still, many of us are intimidated at the thought of it, and we stop short of trying so we won't disappoint God with our lack of faith, or—if we're being honest—so we won't be disappointed when God fails to deliver.
In Miracle Work Jordan Seng tells remarkable stories of physical healings and prophetic messages. He reflects on the possibility and limitations of a contemporary ministry that believes in the power of God, and helps us train and prepare ourselves for when God works through us in the lives of others. Read Miracle Work for a better understanding of what it means to be agents of grace, healing and even miracles in a world that desperately needs the good news of God’s loving, healing touch.
Pub Date: July 08, 2013
Physical Info: 0.65" H x 8.2" L x 5.59" W (0.64 lbs) 224 pages
By Steve Cuss
You Can Learn to Handle the Onslaught of Internal and External Pressures
Does anxiety get in the way of your ability to be an effective leader? Is your inability to notice when you and those around you are anxious keeping you "stuck" in chronic unhealthy patterns? In Managing Leadership Anxiety, pastor and spiritual growth expert Steve Cuss offers powerful tools to help you move from being managed by anxiety to managing anxiety.
You'll develop the capacity to notice your anxiety and your group's anxiety. You will increase your sensitivity to the way groups develop systemic anxiety that keeps them trapped. Your personal self-awareness will increase as you learn how self gets in the way of identifying and addressing issues.
Managing Leadership Anxiety offers valuable principles to those who are hungry to understand the source of the anxiety in themselves and in the people with whom they relate. Readers will be empowered to take back control of their lives and lead in mature and vibrant ways.
by Frederick Buechner
When pain is real, why is God silent? This brand new collection is the best of acclaimed author Frederick Buechner's essays on pain, loss, and the healing power of memories, including one chapter never before published, that explore God's tender grace and how to be stewards of the pain in our lives.
Though Easter is often trivialized by the culture at large, it is still the high point of the religious calendar for millions of people around the world. And for most of them, there can be no Easter without Lent, the season that leads up to it. A time for self-denial, soul-searching, and spiritual preparation, Lent is traditionally observed by daily reading and reflection. This collection will satisfy the growing hunger for meaningful and accessible devotions. Culled from the wealth of twenty centuries, the selections in Bread and Wine are ecumenical in scope, and represent the best classic and contemporary Christian writers. Includes approximately fifty readings on Easter and related themes by Thomas à Kempis, Frederick Buechner, Oswald Chambers, Alfred Kazin, Jane Kenyon, Søren Kierkegaard, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Christina Rossetti, Edith Stein, Walter Wangerin, William Willimon, Philip Yancey, and others.
By Richard J Foster
A newly repackaged and updated 40th anniversary edition of the timeless guide that has helped numerous seekers discover a richer spiritual life infused with joy, peace, and a deeper understanding of God, updated with a new introduction by the author and a new section: "Entering the Great Conversation about the Growth of the Soul."
Hailed by many as the best modern book on Christian spirituality, Celebration of Discipline explores the "classic Disciplines," or central spiritual practices, of the Christian faith. Along the way, Foster shows that it is only by and through these practices that the true path to spiritual growth can be found.
Dividing the Disciplines into three movements of the Spirit, Foster shows how each of these areas contribute to a balanced spiritual life. The inward Disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting, and study offer avenues of personal examination and change. The outward Disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service help prepare us to make the world a better place. The corporate Disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration bring us nearer to one another and to God.
Foster provides a wealth of examples demonstrating how these Disciplines can become part of our daily activities—and how they can help us shed our superficial habits and "bring the abundance of God into our lives." He offers crucial new insights on simplicity, demonstrating how the biblical view of simplicity, properly understood and applied, brings joy and balance to our inward and outward lives and "sets us free to enjoy the provision of God as a gift that can be shared with others." The discussion of celebration, often the most neglected of the Disciplines, shows its critical importance, for it stands at the heart of the way to Christ. Celebration of Discipline will help Christians everywhere to embark on a journey of prayer and spiritual growth.
By Fr. Jacques Philippe
It's not always possible to control external events. There are so many things that are outside our control: the past, what others think of us, chronic health issues, other peoples' actions, the weather, unforeseen events. This list goes on and on.
It is possible, though, to gain more control over our interior life.
In his book Interior Freedom, Fr. Jacques Phillipe shows us that we possess, each of us, inside of us a space of freedom that no-one can take away. Despite the most unfavorable outward circumstances, we can claim our freedom because God is its source and its guarantee. Without this, we will always be in search for something else to fulfill us, and we will never understand true happiness.
by Miroslav Volf
An exploration of how we can be transformed by the God who gives abundantly and who forgives unconditionally.
For the exhausted, the hurting, and the faithful, The After Party helps reframe our political identity away from the "what" of political positions and toward the "how" being centered on Jesus.
This paradigm-shifting book complements The After Party Project--a six-part, video-based, highly interactive curriculum that provides churches, small groups, and individuals with an on-the-ground, biblically based approach to a very complex topic.
The After Party: Toward Better Christian Politics helps readers who feel despair about political divisiveness:
Engage with others across political differences
Learn specific steps to reframe political identity outside of partisan divides
Focus on how we relate to one another as Jesus teaches before moving to the what of political topics
The After Party is ideal for:
Republicans, Democrats, and Independents looking for renewed hope and humility for our nation
Local leaders seeking to counter animosity toward political opponents, susceptibility to lies, and other practices that threaten the common good
Congregations, classes, and small groups watching The After Party video series
Pastors who want to encourage their congregants to trade their partisan mindsets for the mind of Christ
It's not too late. In today's political environment, faithfulness to a biblical how of political engagement shines as a radical challenge to both the Right and the Left. If you worry about what politics is doing to your community, your family, and your own well-being, The After Party will transform your political imagination.
It's time for us to go beyond party politics and--as Christians--believe in the true "party" yet to come.
Inspiring and authentic, this book reflects the profound effect Mother Teresa has had on the world at every level. Filled with anecdotes from her peace-making efforts with heads of state to her prayers for a dying child, this is the authoritative biography that reveals a life exemplified by inspiration, humility, and grace.
These powerful reflections on biblical themes by one of today's most popular religious writers point up the truth that the darkness of doubt is often necessary to provoke a hunger for God. The Hungering Dark towers as one of Fredrick Buechner's best statements on contemporary belief challenged by doubt.
Drawing on texts from the Old and New Testaments, The Hungering Dark invites us to discover the hidden face of God, the manifestation of his grace, revealed in stillness, in unexpected places, often "through a glass, darkly." It invites us to say yes to "the possibility of God", and to recover "this fantastic hope that the future belongs to God...that holiness will return to our world."
Is it possible to hold on to faith in an age of unbelief?
Intellectual certainty has long been a cornerstone of the Christian faith. But in an age of secularism, skepticism, and cynicism, our worldviews have been shaken. Various solutions exist—some double down on certainty, while others deconstruct their faith until there is nothing left at all. But Brian Zahnd offers a third way: what is needed is not a demolition but instead a renovation of faith.
Written with personal and pastoral experience, Zahnd extends an invitation to move beyond the crisis of faith toward the journey of reconstruction. As the world rapidly changes in ways that feel incompatible with Christianity, When Everything's on Fire provides much-needed hope. A stronger, more confident faith is possible when it is grounded in the beauty and truth of Christ. Zahnd permits us to risk the journey of deconstruction so that God can forge something more beautiful in its place.
By Timothy Keller
Timothy Keller, the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, addresses the frequent doubts that skeptics, and even ardent believers, have about religion. Using literature, philosophy, real-life conversations, and potent reasoning, Keller explains how the belief in a Christian God is, in fact, a sound and rational one. To true believers he offers a solid platform on which to stand their ground against the backlash to religion created by the Age of Skepticism. And to skeptics, atheists, and agnostics, he provides a challenging argument for pursuing the reason for God.
Life is always full of new and unexpected challenges, but each challenge is also an opportunity to draw closer to God. Fr. Jacques Philippe, a beloved author and renowned spiritual director, will show you how to maintain peace of heart through turbulent times and discern the choices that will be helpful for you and others. Written in a simple and inviting style, Trusting God in the Present is your spiritual direction manual to trusting God in the midst of difficult times. You’ll find that God is, indeed, with you, and he is inviting you to a new perspective, renewed hope, and a more abundant life.
By George Eldon Ladd
Ladd, whose work has included much technical study of the doctrine of the kingdom, here presents a practical and devotional scriptural study of the many aspects of the kingdom, based on the parables, the Sermon on the Mount, and other key passages.