Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time has captured the imagination of millions - from literary sensation to timeless classic and now a major motion picture starring Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Storm Reid, and Mindy Kaling. A Light So Lovely tells the story of the woman at the center of it all - her imagination, her faith, her pattern of defying categories, and what readers today can learn from her legacy.
Bestselling and beloved author Madeleine L'Engle, Newbery winner for A Wrinkle in Time, was known the world round for her imaginative spirit and stories. She was also known to spark controversy - too Christian for some, too unorthodox for others. Somewhere in the middle was a complex woman whose embrace of paradox has much to say to a new generation of readers today.
A Light So Lovely paints a vivid portrait of this enigmatic icon's spiritual legacy, starting with her inner world and expanding into fresh reflections of her writing for readers today. Listen in on intimate interviews with L'Engle's literary contemporaries such as Philip Yancey and Luci Shaw, L'Engle's granddaughter Charlotte Jones Voiklis, and influential fans such as Makoto Fujimura, Nikki Grimes, and Sarah Bessey, as they reveal new layers to the woman behind the stories we know and love. A vibrant, imaginative read, this book pulls back the curtain to illuminate L'Engle's creative journey, her persevering faith, and the inspiring, often unexpected ways these two forces converged.
For anyone earnestly searching the space between sacred and secular, miracle and science, faith and art, come and find a kindred spirit and trusted guide in Madeleine - the Mrs Whatsit to our Meg Murry - as she sparks our imagination anew.

A Light So Lovely: The Spiritual Legacy of Madeleine L'Engle, Author of A Wrinkle in Time

Biographies & Memoirs

Arthur, Sarah

Arts & Literature

Zondervan

A mysterious manor house hides the keys to shocking family secrets--and rapidly fading portals to other worlds--in the richly woven opener to bestselling author Sarah Arthur's young adult fantasy series. When fourteen-year-old American Eva Joyce unexpectedly finds herself spending the summer at the mysterious manor house of the English grandmother she's never met, troubling questions arise: Why have her parents been so long estranged from her grandmother? What secrets are the manor staff--and the house itself--hiding? When odd things start happening in the gardens at night, Eva turns to the elderly housekeeper, the gardener, and the gardener's grandson, Frankie, for answers. Astonishingly, they all seem to believe that Eva's favorite childhood fairy tales are true--and that her grandmother was once a queen in another world. But her grandmother's heart is closed to the beauty and pain of the past. Now it's up to Eva to discover what really happened.&nbsp; Can Eva's family's relationships be restored? Do portals to other worlds exist, or are they closed for good? As she seeks answers, Eva finds herself unraveling dangerous secrets and wrestling with grief for a vanishing childhood, all while facing the fear that growing up means giving up fairy tales forever.

Once a Queen: A Novel

Children's Books

WaterBrook

This brand-new series will help you encourage your senior highs to think theologically about personal choices and such serious (sometimes controversial) issues as money, the human body, relationships, popular culture, sexuality and violence. The Thinking Theologically About... series empowers students to develop skills in thinking critically rather than just working from opinion. Each volume includes six Scripture-based sessions with options for customizing, plus worship ideas (for use in the final session). The leader guide features everything from the student book, as well as detailed plans and background material.

Thinking Theologically About Money Student

Religion & Spirituality

ABINGDON PRESS *

From the Thinking Theologically Series which empowers senior-highs to develop skills in thinking rather than just working from opinion. Students will look at serious (and sometimes controversial) issues from four perspectives. * Scripture * Reason * Tradition * Experience Each volume includes six scripture-based sessions with options for customizing, plus worship ideas. This book is designed for the group leader.

Thinking Theologically About Pop Culture Leader

From the Thinking Theologically Series which empowers senior-highs to develop skills in thinking rather than just working from opinion. Students will look at serious (and sometimes controversial) issues from four perspectives. * Scripture * Reason * Tradition * Experience Each volume includes six scripture-based sessions with options for customizing, plus worship ideas.

Thinking Theologically About Pop Culture Student

This book will explore and define biblical and contemporary images of prayer. All the sessions exploring prayer will be based upon God’s relationship with humans as the ground of all prayer and the essential human need to reach toward God that leads to prayer. Readers will explore definitions of prayer, a variety of scriptures that show Jesus’ teachings and practices related to prayer, methods of prayer, aids to prayer, the varieties of individual and communal words, needs, and emotions that form the content of prayer, ways people interpret answered or unanswered prayer, and the unity between prayer and human action. The book will invite readers to reflect upon questions like: Why do we pray? What is God’s role in prayer? the human role? How is God’s grace involved in prayer? What is prayer? What did Jesus teach about prayer? How do we pray? What do we pray? What is an attitude of prayer? How does God answer prayer? What difference does prayer make in our lives? Have I been praying all along? What happens in the quiet times of my week? in the busy times? Is prayer possible in both quiet and busy times? Why do I feel like I don’t have time to pray? Do I need to make time for prayer? How? The book will affirm persons and groups who struggle with an understanding of prayer or with a style of prayer. It will provide opportunities for transforming encounters with God.

20/30 Bible Study for Young Adults Prayer: Living in God's Power and Presence

Claim the Life is a six-year, comprehensive spiritual formation plan for youth Sunday school. The annual themes are Journey, Word, and Faith for younger youth; Promise, Story, and Call for older youth. Each year is divided into two 16-week semesters.   Each lesson begins with Tending, an intentional ritual that helps youth develop closer relationships through tending to one another and tending to God at work in their lives and the world.   The planned Teaching content is focused on one word (or phrase) that is significant to the Christian faith (Commitment, Suffering, Simplicity, Blessing, Peace, Abundant Life, for example).   Each lesson concludes with Sending, an intentional ritual that helps youth create SMART goals, ways in which they will practice some element of being a disciple.    * The weekly pattern of Tending, Teaching, and Sending is an intentional plan for spiritual formation, learning, and discipleship.  * Churches, parents, teachers, and youth will have a sense of progression and intentionality in teaching material that is important to the faith. In six years students will encounter 192 words and Scriptures.   * Sunday school classes will be able to complete the annual material and still have weeks they can fill with seasonal, timely (LinC, for example), or local-interest lessons. * Youth will experience Christian community and participate in practices of the faith. * Each youth will make the lessons relevant to him- or herself through the practice of developing his or her own SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Revealed, and Time-Limited).  * Teachers will have access to images, additional activities, training, denominationally specific material, additional background, and links to music at www.abingdonpress.com/claimthelife *Teachers will be able to choose a lesson plan that suits them from the two provided.   Claim the Life: Journey In this first year of study for younger youth, the words (topics) focus on loving God, making faithful decisions, loving others, dealing with life’s difficulties, and developing Christian character—all hallmarks of the Christian journey. Semester 1 and Semester 2 have the same categories, but use different words and Scriptures. Sample words: Worship, Commitment, Temple, Forgiving, Disciple, Love, Generosity, Courage, Simplicity, Light.  Claim the Life: Word In this second year of study for younger youth the focus will be on “words for life.” Of all the Bible passages, these 32 Scriptures are ones youth should understand and know “by heart.” In Semester 1 the words are from the Old Testament and include the Ten Commandments, the Shema, Psalm 23, and other memorable passages. Semester 2 words come from the New Testament and include the Beatitudes, the Lord’s Prayer, the Great Commandment, the Fruit of the Spirit, for example. Sample words: God, Sabbath, Choose, Shepherd, Steadfast, Justice, Prayer, Good Shepherd, Believe, Abide.  Claim the Life: Faith These two volumes of the third year for younger youth introduce them to the nature of faith, God, in whom we have faith, being saved by faith, living as a community of faith, living faithfully, and faith eternal. These categories are the basis of both semesters, but the words and Scriptures are different from one semester to the next. Sample words: Authority, Doubt, Trinity, Confession, Salvation, Communion, Kingdom, Lord, Second Mile, Eternal Life.  Claim the Life: Promise In this first year of study for older youth, the words come from the categories of the nature of promise, God’s promises, Jesus’ promises, and our promises. Both semesters follow this structure, but the words and Scriptures are different for Semester 1 and Semester 2. Sample words: Belonging, Judgment, Providence, Blessing, Abundant Life, Hope, Community, Incarnation, Vow, Test.  Claim the Life: Story The second year of study for older youth will be an encounter with the larger biblical story as told in the Old Testament (Semester 1) and New Testament (Semester 2). Through the telling of the stories that move along The Story, youth will put together bits and pieces of Bible stories they have learned in the past into a coherent and grand story of God’s amazing love for humanity. Sample words: Creation, Sin, Grace, Deliverance, Exile, Savior, Remember, Resurrection, Church, New Jerusalem.  Claim the Life: Call The third year of study for older youth challenges them to respond by who they are and what they will do with their lives. The categories are the nature of God’s call, gifted and called, called to follow, and called to bring change. The categories remain the same for both semesters; the words and Scriptures are different. Sample words: Vocation, Ministry, Spiritual Gifts, Obedient, Freedom, Serve, Countercultural, Prophetic, Righteousness, God’s Will.

Claim the Life - Journey Semester 2 Leader

Thomas, Mark

Jenkins, John

Penner, Will

Barrett, Janice

Rouse, Ciona

Abingdon Youth

Allow imagination and story to take center stage in your youth ministry! The Bible is full of stories. From the ""In the beginning..."" narrative to Jesus' parables, stories embody biblical and theological content in ways that sink into the imagination, take root and grow. Ministry pundits refer to our culture today as having ""lost its story."" Through neglect or rejection, generation next seems unplugged from the church's core beliefs. For the most part, young people simply do not feel part of the ongoing, communal story. Paradoxically, this has occurred when youth have fully embraced social networks that connect the world in self-obsessed ""I"" narratives. This world is starving for a story bigger than what you find on MySpace and YouTube. ""...Young people are bombarded on all sides by voices claiming to have something they need,"" Arthur writes. ""Sophisticated consumers, they're naturally resistant to anything that appears to be manipulating them into certain behaviors or beliefs - Christianity included. Somehow, we must 'steal past watchful dragons' in articulating the gospel. That's the task I explore in this book."" She shows how youth ministry can be planned as a transforming series of story moments instead of programming and worship as storytelling instead of a familiar form that's lost its ability to enchant. Furthermore, Arthur suggests that faith is an ongoing story arc in which the postmodern church is another chapter. Ministry that interconnects the heart, mind, soul, spirit and story will invite youth (anyone, really) into a larger story - the Story - and into God's waiting arms. Through Arthur's guidance, offering ""a splash of theological artistry"" as one reviewer writes, your church can reclaim the imagination's role in spiritual formation and reclaim the church as the living story. What kind of story is your church telling?

The God-Hungry Imagination: The Art of Storytelling for Postmodern Youth Ministry

Upper Room

2005 Logos Bookstores Award winner for Best Youth Book The author of Walking with Frodo takes readers on an adventure of faith with this devotional that relates themes from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit to living the Christian life. Unlike the fateful quest Frodo was asked to carry out, Bilbo's journey came as an unexpected adventure. Readers will be reminded that God chooses us to be unlikely heroes in the adventure of life.

Walking with Bilbo: A Devotional Adventure through the Hobbit

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Fantasy

Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Any girl who has seen Pride and Prejudice or read the Jane Austen novel knows that the much misunderstood Mr. Darcy is the ideal gentleman. But is it possible to find your own Mr. Darcy in today's world of geeks and goons? With smart tips, spiritual insights, and discussions of Jane Austen's popular stories and movies, best-selling author Sarah Arthur equips young women to gauge a guy's Darcy Potential (DP) according to his relationships with family, friends, and God.

Dating Mr. Darcy

Parenting & Relationships

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Books by Arthur, Sarah