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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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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.
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Rethinking Incarceration : Advocating For Justice That Restores
$18.99Add to cartIntroduction
Part I: The Roots And Evolution Of Mass Incarceration
1. The War On Drugs
2. How Did We Get Here? From Black Codes To Neoslavery
3. Beyond Law And Order
4. Three Overlooked Pipelines: Mental Health, Private Prisons, And Immigration
5. The School-to-Prison PipelinePart II: The Church’s Witness And Testimony
6. Protestant Reformers: Prophetic Activism, Nonviolence, And God’s Wrath
7. The Prisoner’s Pastor: Chaplaincy And Theology’s Institutional Impact
8. The Spirit Of Punishment: Atonement, Penal Substitution, And The Wrath Of God
9. Atonement And Sanctifying Retribution
10. Divine Justice Is Inherently Restorative
11. Holy Interruptions: Dismantling Mass Incarceration
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
IndexAdditional Info
The United States has 5 percent of the world’s population but 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated. We have more people locked up in jails, prisons, and detention centers than any other country in the history of the world. There are more jails and prisons than degree-granting colleges and universities, and in many places more people live behind bars than on college campuses. Mass incarceration has become a lucrative industry, and the criminal justice system is plagued with bias and unjust practices. And the church has unwittingly contributed to these problems.In Rethinking Incarceration Dominique Gilliard explores the history and foundation of mass incarceration, examining Christianity’s role in its evolution and expansion. He assesses our nation’s ethic of meritocratic justice in light of Scripture and exposes the theologies that embolden mass incarceration. Gilliard then shows how Christians can pursue justice that restores and reconciles, offering creative solutions and highlighting innovative interventions.
God’s justice is ultimately restorative, not just punitive. Discover how Christians can participate in the restoration and redemption of the incarceration system.
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Secrets From A Prison Cell
$18.00Add to cartTony Vick is serving two life sentences for murder. After nearly twenty years in prison, Tony has literally taken to the pen to document firsthand what life is like behind bars. This book–handwritten by Tony and later transcribed by outside friends–indirectly challenges the reader to engage prison reform as one of the most important social issues of this generation, wondering if society can shift its emphasis from retribution to rehabilitation. Tony’s new book describes the violent, even horrific, incidents that occur in prison, incidents mostly hidden in the shadows, away from public awareness. It tells you the stories that those invested in incarceration would rather remain secret. As captivating as it is timely, Secrets from a Prison Cell shortens the distance between those outside and inside prison walls. Through personal stories, essays, and poetry, Tony Vick’s book pulls back the curtain on a world invisible to most people, dramatically revealing the realities of life in prison and the power of love to fight dehumanization.
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Upside Down Kingdom (Anniversary)
$18.99Add to cartSharing, not hoarding. Service, not status. Community, not competition. Basins, not swords. Loyalty to God, not nation.
Jesus turned everything upside down. When we follow him, we can too.This book calls readers to imagine and embody the reign of God on earth as it is in heaven. Since its publication in 1978, the Upside-Down Kingdom has become the most trusted resource on radical Christian discipleship. In this completely updated anniversary edition, author Donald R. Kraybill asks: What does it mean to follow the Christ who traded victory and power for hanging out with the poor and forgiving his enemies? How did a man in first-century Palestine threaten the established order, and what does that mean for us today? What would happen if Christians replaced force with service, violence with love, and nationalism with allegiance to Jesus?
Jesus turned expectations upside-down. The kingdom of God is still full of surprises. Are you ready?
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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Workbook (Workbook)
$19.99Add to cartPTSD is stealing far too much from the lives of trauma survivors. Many suffer in silence. This workbook provides transformational tools for working through:
Fear
Anxiety
Depression
Losses
Panic attacks
Low self-esteem
Triggers
Destructive patternsWriting down your feelings enables you to analyze your thoughts and behavior, reason them out, and effect change. Scientific research shows that by learning to think differently, we can change the brain. This book will empower you to initiate the necessary changes to restore order in your life.
This book includes an easily understood explanation of how trauma is stored in the brain and what trauma does to the brain. Inside this book there is a plan for overcoming the symptoms that hold you captive and a personalized path forward towards peace and freedom.
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Way Back : How Christians Blew Our Credibility And How We Can Fix It
$17.99Add to cartTwo thousand years ago, followers of Jesus utterly astonished their critics. Since then, Christianity s influence has been remarkable. Christian universities, hospitals, and orphanages are the largest social service outreaches in the world. Our faith has shaped the arts, law, science, and civic life.
Yet today particularly in the media Christians are dismissed as irrelevant. Cooke and Bock show the Christian community how we can once again astonish our critics, and in doing so, completely transform ourselves, others, and the world for good.
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I Pledge Allegiance
$28.99Add to cartWhat does it really mean for Christians to live as faithful kingdom citizens in today’s world?
Bitter partisan conflict. State-sanctioned torture. Economic injustice. Ethical corruption. Even a cursory glance over daily news headlines shows a stark contrast between the American political state and the kingdom of heaven. Where, then, does the Christian’s ultimate allegiance lie?
In I Pledge Allegiance David Crump issues a clarion call to Jesus’s twenty-first-century disciples, stirring them up to heed God’s word and live out their kingdom citizenship here on earth. Closely examining the ethical teachings of Jesus and his apostles in the New Testament and using real-world examples to illustrate the vital issues at stake, Crump challenges Christians to embrace the radical, counterintuitive, upside-down way of Jesus-a way of living and thinking that turns the world’s values on their head, smashes through stale political and cultural conventions, and welcomes God’s kingdom into the very heart of our shared society.
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Middle East On Fire In The 21st Century
$10.99Add to cartThe world events between the Christians and the Muslims that have been happening since December 1979 until now. One event and one war after another has led to the 10th crusade. Thinking this can’t be happening, well it is right in front of our eyes and in our lifetime.
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Sustainable Abundance For All
$55.00Add to cartWhat constitutes the good life and authentic Christian leadership in a high-speed technological society geared to perpetual economic growth? In a world of rapid change and heightened risks, how do we move beyond the tyranny of emergency and polarization toward a politics of engagement and time oriented to the long-term common good? Taking up key themes in the social teaching of Popes Benedict XVI and Francis, Sustainable Abundance for All argues that life in a risky, runaway world requires new forms of Christian praxis that are both forward-looking and rooted in tradition. Among the issues addressed are pathways toward sustainable development in the Anthropocene, automation and the transition to post-jobs society, the proactionary-precautionary debate over new technologies, and the dangers of becoming “”people of the device.”” Sustainable Abundance for All lays the groundwork for new kinds of Christian social action and prophetic witness in the twenty-first century.
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Sustainable Abundance For All
$35.00Add to cartWhat constitutes the good life and authentic Christian leadership in a high-speed technological society geared to perpetual economic growth? In a world of rapid change and heightened risks, how do we move beyond the tyranny of emergency and polarization toward a politics of engagement and time oriented to the long-term common good? Taking up key themes in the social teaching of Popes Benedict XVI and Francis, Sustainable Abundance for All argues that life in a risky, runaway world requires new forms of Christian praxis that are both forward-looking and rooted in tradition. Among the issues addressed are pathways toward sustainable development in the Anthropocene, automation and the transition to post-jobs society, the proactionary-precautionary debate over new technologies, and the dangers of becoming “”people of the device.”” Sustainable Abundance for All lays the groundwork for new kinds of Christian social action and prophetic witness in the twenty-first century.
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Tell Them Who We Are
$24.99Add to cartTell Them Who We Are: What You’ve Never Understood about the Homeless (But Must) is a wake-up call, a siren of hope for those who struggle to understand all the myths surrounding homelessness. Jeremy Reynalds explodes those myths and explores how each of us can invest ourselves in the lives of the homeless on an entirely new level.
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Tell Them Who We Are
$14.99Add to cartTell Them Who We Are: What You’ve Never Understood about the Homeless (But Must) is a wake-up call, a siren of hope for those who struggle to understand all the myths surrounding homelessness. Jeremy Reynalds explodes those myths and explores how each of us can invest ourselves in the lives of the homeless on an entirely new level.
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Scars Across Humanity
$25.99Add to cartAcross the globe, acts of violence against women produce more deaths, disability, and mutilation than cancer, malaria, and traffic accidents combined.
The truth is that violence on such a scale could not exist were it not structured in some way into the very fabric of societies and cultures themselves. It could not continue if it were not somehow supported by deep assumptions about the value of women, or some justification of the use of power. In many cultures such assumptions are reiterated every day in the absence of legal protection for women, or indifference toward issues of human rights.
In Scars Across Humanity, Elaine Storkey offers a rigorously researched overview of this global pandemic. From female infanticide and child brides to domestic abuse, prostitution, rape, and honor killings, violence against women occurs at all stages of life, and in all cultures and societies. How and why has this violence become so prevalent? It seems ambitious to hope that we can find an answer to this question, but if violence to women is ever to be eliminated, we need to know what we are up against.
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Hands On Life
$29.00Add to cartStressed out? Swimming in a sea of screens? Worried about our beloved, endangered earth yet uncertain how to work for change? If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. In this intelligent guide to mindfulness in the digital age, writer and teacher Amy Weldon describes how practicing life as an artist can help you wake yourself up and take back control of your attention, your money, your time, and the health of our society and our planet. Traveling from farm to protest march to classroom, and engaging a range of thinkers from Hannah Arendt to George Orwell, John Keats, and Henry David Thoreau, The Hands-On Life is a book for students and for everyone who dreams of building a better world.
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Love Undocumented : Risking Trust In A Fearful World
$15.99Add to cartWill you beware or be welcoming? As a young Christian, Sarah Quezada had a heart for social justice. She was also blissfully unaware of the real situations facing today’s immigrants. Until she met someone new. . . who happened to be undocumented. In Love Undocumented, Quezada takes readers on a journey deep into the world of the U.S. immigration system. Follow her as she walks alongside her new friend, meets with lawyers, stands at the U.S.-Mexico border, and visits immigrants in detention centers. With wisdom from Scripture, research, and these experiences, Quezada explores God’s call to welcome the stranger and invites Christians to consider how to live faithfully in the world of closed doors and high fences. Is it possible to abandon fear and cultivate authentic relationships with new arrivals? What if hospitality to immigrant and refugee neighbors puts us at personal risk? How can churches create safe spaces for those living at the precarious edge of our society? With Quezada as your guide, discover a subversive Savior who never knew a stranger. Get to know the God of the Bible, whose love and grace cross all borders. Respond to an invitation to turn away from fear and enter a bigger story.
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Upside Down Kingdom (Anniversary)
$31.99Add to cartSharing, not hoarding. Service, not status. Community, not competition. Basins, not swords. Loyalty to God, not nation.
Jesus turned everything upside down. When we follow him, we can too.This book calls readers to imagine and embody the reign of God on earth as it is in heaven. Since its publication in 1978, the Upside-Down Kingdom has become the most trusted resource on radical Christian discipleship. In this completely updated anniversary edition, author Donald R. Kraybill asks: What does it mean to follow the Christ who traded victory and power for hanging out with the poor and forgiving his enemies? How did a man in first-century Palestine threaten the established order, and what does that mean for us today? What would happen if Christians replaced force with service, violence with love, and nationalism with allegiance to Jesus?
Jesus turned expectations upside-down. The kingdom of God is still full of surprises. Are you ready?
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Still Evangelical : Insiders Reconsider Political Social And Theological Me
$24.99Add to cartIntroduction: Still Evangelical? (Mark Labberton)
1. Will Evangelicalism Surrender? (Lisa Sharon Harper)
2. Why I Am An Evangelical (Karen Swallow Prior)
3. A Way Forward: Recapturing Evangelical Identity And Mission (Mark Young)
4. Evangelical Futures (Soong-Chan Rah)
5. Theology And Orthopraxis In Twenty-First-Century Global Evangelicalism (Allen Yeh)
6. Looking For Unity In All The Wrong Places (Mark Galli)
7. Evangelicalism Must Be Born Again (Shane Claiborne)
8. The Importance Of Listening In Today’s Evangelicalism (Jim Daly)
9. Hope For The Next Generation (Tom Lin)
Notes
ContributorsAdditional Info
Evangelicalism in America has cracked, split on the shoals of the 2016 presidential election and its aftermath, leaving many wondering if they want to be in or out of the evangelical tribe. The contentiousness brought to the fore surrounds what it means to affirm and demonstrate evangelical Christian faith amidst the messy and polarized realities gripping our country and world. Who or what is defining the evangelical social and political vision? Is it the gospel or is it culture? For a movement that has been about the primacy of Christian faith, this is a crisis.This collection of essays was gathered by Mark Labberton, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, who provides an introduction to the volume. What follows is a diverse and provocative set of perspectives and reflections from evangelical insiders who wrestle with their responses to the question of what it means to be evangelical in light of their convictions.
Contributors include:
Shane Claiborne, Red Letter Christians
Lisa Sharon Harper, FreedomRoad.us
Soong-Chan Rah, North Park University
Jim Daly, Focus on the Family
Karen Swallow Prior, Liberty University
Mark Galli, Christianity Today
Tom Lin, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
Allen Yeh, Biola University
Mark Young, Denver SeminaryReferring to oneself as evangelical cannot be merely a congratulatory self-description. It must instead be a commitment and aspiration guided by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. What now are Christ’s followers called to do in response to this identity crisis?
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Christian Hospitality And Muslim Immigration In An Age Of Fear
$34.99Add to cartAn alternative, uniquely Christian response to the growing global challenges of deep religious differenceIn the last fifty years, millions of Muslims have migrated to Europe and North America. Their arrival has ignited a series of fierce public debates on both sides of the Atlantic about religious freedom and tolerance, terrorism and security, gender and race, and much more. How can Christians best respond to this situation?In this book theologian and ethicist Matthew Kaemingk offers a thought-provoking Christian perspective on the growing debates over Muslim presence in the West. Rejecting both fearful national-ism and romantic multiculturalism, Kaemingk makes the case for a third way-a Christian pluralism that is committed to both the historic Christian faith and the public rights, dignity, and freedom of Islam.
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How Neighborhoods Make Us Sick
$24.99Add to cartForeword By Dr. Keri Norris
Part 1: How We Get Sick
1. Two Journeys To The Inner City
2. What Is Making Us Sick? An Introduction To Social Determinants Of Health
3. The Trauma Of Poverty
4. Working To Death: Employment And Social Status
5. Kool-Aid In A Baby Bottle: Food Insecurity And Nutrition
6. Barriers To Learning: Education And Child Development
7. When Housing Hurts: Environmental Factors
8. The Challenge Of Getting Well: Health Care Access In The United States
9. The Unmaking: On Moving Out And RebuildingPart 2: How We Get Well
10. A New Approach: What Will Make Our Neighbors Healthy?
11. The Good Sam Story
12. Poverty: Addressing A Distant Disease
13. Hired And Healthy
14. Growing Health From The Ground Up
15. A Healthy Start
16. A Place To Call Home
17. Re-envisioning Health Care
18. Rx For Change: An Approach To Activism
Epilogue: Toward A Better Way
Acknowledgments
Discussion QuestionsAdditional Info
Our neighborhoods are literally making us sick.Buildings with mold trigger asthma and other respiratory conditions. Geographic lack of access to food and health care increases childhood mortality. Community violence traumatizes residents. Poverty, unemployment, inadequate housing, food insecurity, racial injustice, and oppression cause physical changes in the body, resulting in disease and death.
But there is hope. Loving our neighbor includes creating social environments in which people can be healthy. While working in community redevelopment and treating uninsured families, Veronica Squires and Breanna Lathrop discovered that creating healthier neighborhoods requires a commitment to health equity. Jesus’ ministry brought healing through dismantling systems of oppression and overturning social norms that prevented people from living healthy lives. We can do the same in our communities through addressing social determinants that facilitate healing in under-resourced neighborhoods.
Everyone deserves the opportunity for good health. The decisions we make and actions we take can promote the health of our neighbors.
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Faith On A Sticky Note
$10.23Add to cartDo you ever doubt your faith in God because you never had that one defining “salvation moment” that other Christians talk about – you know the one where you drop to your knees, plead to be saved, then receive a feeling, vision, or some other heavenly sign of confirmation? This is exactly how author Mark McKinney felt, until he faced the daunting task of going public with his Christian testimony. Enter: the sticky note.
Over the last several decades, the sticky note has become a hallmark of modern life. Reminders, schedules, even love notes have been relegated to these small paper squares, which we tack onto the computer monitor, the refrigerator, or the dashboard. Little do we know that in posting them, we leave veritable paper trails – mini-documentaries of what we do, what is important to us, and what defines us as people.
In Faith on a Sticky Note, McKinney uses this idea to relay how he discovered his faith, tracking down the “spiritual sticky notes” of his life, then piecing them together like a puzzle. “I never had my moment…” he writes. “I had many moments.”
Through the heartwarming, personal accounts of his father’s battle with alchoholism and eventual death, McKinney reminds us that faith, like life, in not made in a single defining moment, but rather in everyday situations attuned to God’s perfect timing.
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When Gay Comes Home
$24.99Add to cartWhen a person tells you they’re gay, what is your first reaction? How do you “see” them? What kind of “glasses” do you have on? Are you comfortably able to speak with confidence, using the right language, when this topic comes up? In When Gay Comes Home, you will learn about the redemptive power of God and it will guide you in how to put on your Jesus glasses, helping you to communicate in a loving and respectful way, thus building bridges instead of walls.
Study Guide Included. Recommended for parents, youth pastors, and teachers to educate and equip children from the age of nine and up. Also includes a section specifically developed for pastors.
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Why Did You Choose Me
$21.99Add to cartMost adoptive and foster children struggle at some point in their life with knowing who they are and where they belong. They want to ask questions, and parents need to be prepared with an answer that helps their child feel loved and secure.
After searching for adoption storybooks to read to her own adopted children, Katie Cruice Smith decided that there was a need for more books that parents could read at bedtime to connect with their adopted and fostered children.
In Why Did You Choose Me?, Katie Cruice Smith answers that question in a way that young children can understand. Drawing from her own experience as an adoptive mom to three children, Katie uses the questions her own children have asked to help them see there never really was a choice she knew right away that they were hers.
With beautiful illustrations by artist Sarah Strickling Jones, Why Did You Choose Me? lovingly demonstrates the uniqueness that each child brings to a family.
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Fear Plus Less Dialogues
$20.00Add to cartDrawing on all the community’s collective voices- from “doctors to drug dealers”-
Fearless Dialogues is a groundbreaking program that seeks real solutions to problems of chronic unemployment, violence, and hopelessness. In cities around the United States and now the world, the program’s founder, Gregory C. Ellison, and his team create conversations among community members who have never spoken to one another, the goal of which are real, implementable, and lasting changes to the life of the community.
These community transformations are based on both face-to-face encounters and substantive analysis of the problems the community faces. In Fearless Dialogues: A New Movement for Justice, Ellison makes this same kind of analysis available to readers, walking them through the steps that must be taken to find common ground in our divided communities and then to implement genuine and lasting change.
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Unlocking The Prophetic Mysteries Of Israel
$16.99Add to cartCould both Jews and Christians be blind to the truth?
Jonathan Bernis, host of the internationally popular television program Jewish Voice With Jonathan Bernis, unlocks a greater knowledge about the last days with this fascinating book, which explores questions such as:
*What crucial role does Israel play in the last days?
*Why is antisemitism on the rise worldwide, and what is at its root?
*What is the seed promise, and why is Satan so angry about it?
*What profound promise did God make to Abraham that applies to you today?We are witnessing things today that the prophets of Israel longed to see. God is fulfilling His Word in our generation!
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Redeemed Sexuality : Healing And Transformation In Community 12 Sessions
$18.99Add to cartAn Invitation To The Broken
Getting The Most Out Of Redeemed Sexuality
Group CovenantTheme 1: Vulnerability
1. Learning The Language
2. Telling Your Story
3. Wounds Of The Past
4. Truth And Lies
5. ConfessionTheme 2: Identity
6. The Wounded Self
7. Identity In Christ
8. Facing Temptation
9. Creating A Battle PlanTheme 3: Intimacy
10. Healthy Intimacy
11. Christlike Sexuality
12. Pursuing WholenessAppendix 1: How To Do Updates
Appendix 2: Prayers For The Journey
Appendix 3: Tips For Journaling
Leader’s Notes
NotesAdditional Info
Sexual brokenness permeates our culture and has found its way into the church. Even though Christians are called to value and celebrate sexuality as sacred and good, it is often a source of fear, shame, or secret sin.But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Healthy sexuality concerns what we pursue, not just what we avoid, so Redeemed Sexuality invites emerging adults to seek sexual maturity and discipleship in the context of community. As we experience love, joy, and intimacy with God and others, sexual shame and sin lose their power.
Integrating theology, psychology, and spiritual formation, participants engage the process of transformation by
practicing vulnerability
embracing their identity in Christ
learning healthy intimacyIncorporating peer-to-peer leadership, this field-tested small group curriculum is suitable for use in both men’s or women’s groups. The process is neither linear nor easy, but change is possible because Christ is able. The only question is, Do you want to be healed?
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Aint Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around
$27.95Add to cart* Second volume from Spiritual Directors of Color Network * Addresses the contemporary issues of racism and contemplation Following up on the popularity of the groundbreaking anthology Embodied Spirits: Stories of Spiritual Directors of Color, published by Morehouse in March 2014, this new book continues the work of filling a void in the world of contemplative spirituality in stories of the contemplative spiritual journeys of people of color. Like the first book, Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around incorporates stories from members “of their encounters with ‘othering’ and disparaging treatment across issues and their understandings of contemplative practice and the call to action that follows. This volume seeks to give voice to these issues from those whom have lived with them and to seek peace and healing for the unresolved trauma that continues to separate us.” In a world or resurgent racism and bias against those whose skin color, nationality, religion, gender, or sexuality are seen as “other,” these are voices that need to be heard.
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Adventures Of Pfreddy The Fetus
$10.99Add to cartThis is the story of Pfreddy the Fetus as he attempts to grow from a miracle in his mother’s tummy into a human being. The adventure takes Pfreddy through the dilemma of abortion. You will be surprised to see what happens as he travels to the Planning Parenthood Place.
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No Innocent Bystanders
$20.00Add to cartThe struggle for justice is ongoing. In answering the biblical call to act justly and love mercifully, can Christians cross lines of privilege to walk humbly not only with God but with their marginalized neighbors as well? No Innocent Bystanders looks at the role of allies in social justice movements and asks what works, what doesn’t, and why. It explains what allies legitimately can accomplish, what they can’t, and what kind of humility and clarity is required to tell the difference.
This book is a start-up guide for spiritual or religious people who are interested in working for social justice but don’t know how or where to begin, drawing on the lessons of history, the framework of Christian ideas, and the insights of contemporary activists. It offers practical guidance on how to meaningfully and mindfully advocate alongside all who struggle for a more just society.
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Mere Sexuality : Rediscovering The Christian Vision Of Sexuality
$16.99Add to cartWhat do Christians believe about human sexuality?
In Mere Sexuality, author and pastor Todd Wilson presents the historic Christian consensus about human sexuality, the Great Tradition of the church for centuries as taught in each of its major expressions – Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant. Wilson highlights the stunning shift of opinion on issues of sexuality in the evangelical church and why this break with the historic church is problematic for the future of Christianity. Along the way he provides ordinary believers with an introduction to the historic Christian vision of sexuality, yet does so in conversation with some of the twenty-first century’s leading challenges to this vision.
In a culture that is deeply confused about human sexuality, Wilson believes it is time for evangelicals to retrieve the historic Christian tradition and biblical teaching on the question of sexuality. Mere Sexuality seeks to guide readers back to the beauty and coherence of this vision of sexuality in the face of an aggressive and all-consuming pagan and secular worldview.
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Divergent Church : The Bright Promise Of Alternative Faith Communities
$18.99Add to cartNew faith communities are appearing across the U.S.. Many of them bear little resemblance-on the surface-to ‘church’ in its conventional form. But when we look a little deeper we see striking continuity with the most deeply rooted practices of the Christian faith in community. What are those practices? What do these unconventional, alternative faith communities look like? How are they, perhaps, indicators of a hopeful new future for the church? And what can we learn from them? Authors Kara Brinkerhoff and Tim Shapiro spent more than a year researching and exploring these questions, closely examining the life of a dozen alternative faith communities across the country. They include new monastic communities, food-oriented communities, affinity group communities, house churches, hybrid churches and others. They are creative, ingenious, innovative, clever, dynamic and transformative. But they represent human expressions of activities that have always been part of human religious congregations: hospitality, learning, storytelling, care, leadership, worship and honoring place. This fascinating book goes beyond simply analyzing current trends. It reveals how innovative Christians are engaging in time-honored practices, creating new types of communities, which will shape the church to come. Further, it shows us how we too might innovate while holding true to the essential practices of our gathered faith. This is an instructive picture of Christian community, past, present and future.
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Transforming Communities : How People Like You Are Healing Their Neighborho
$15.99Add to cartWhen everything’s a wreck around the country–and around the corner– it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless. What can one person do to make a difference? Here’s the good news. Millions of everyday people are waiting to step into their power to take action to heal their neighborhoods–and you are one of them. Equal parts inspiration, information, and do-it-yourself, Transforming Communities will give you the tools and encouragement to heal your own neighborhood, one step, one person at a time.
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Sabbath As Resistance (Expanded)
$18.00Add to cartIn this new edition that includes a study guide, popular author Walter Brueggemann writes that the Sabbath is not simply about keeping rules but rather about becoming a whole person and restoring a whole society. Brueggemann calls out our 24/7 society of consumption, a society in which we live to achieve, accomplish, perform, and possess. We want more, own more, use more, eat more, and drink more. Brueggemann shows readers how keeping the Sabbath allows us to break this restless cycle and focus on what is truly important: God, other people, all life. Perfect for groups or self-reflection, Sabbath as Resistance offers a transformative vision of the wholeness God intends, giving world-weary Christians a glimpse of a more fulfilling and simpler life through Sabbath observance.
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Pro Choice And Christian
$18.00Add to cartDespite the claim by many Christian leaders that the pro-life/antiabortion position is the only faithful response to the debate about reproductive rights, many people of faith find themselves in a murky middle of this supposedly black-and-white issue. Christians who are pro-abortion rights are rarely pro-abortion. However, they view the decision to carry a pregnancy to term as one to be made by the woman, her medical team, her family, or personal counsel rather than by politicians.
Pro-Choice and Christian explores the biblical, theological, political, and medical aspects of the debate in order to provide a thoughtful Christian argument for a pro-choice position with regard to abortion issues. Kira Schlesinger considers relevant Scriptures, the politics of abortion in the United States, and the human realities making abortion a vital issue of justice and compassion. By examining choice from a Christian perspective, Schlesinger provides a common vocabulary for discussing faith and reproductive rights.
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Forever Family For Antonio
$18.99Add to cartA beautifully written, wonderfully illustrated book about adoption through the lens of the gospel. The combination of the writing and imaginative illustrations gives any parent a foundation to navigate the complex nature of adoption–specifically adoption from the foster care system.
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Forever Family For Antonio
$15.99Add to cartA beautifully written, wonderfully illustrated book about adoption through the lens of the gospel. The combination of the writing and imaginative illustrations gives any parent a foundation to navigate the complex nature of adoption–specifically adoption from the foster care system.
