What happens when people begin to practice love? This collection of stories explores a remarkably simple idea. What would it look like to practice love? What would happen if we actively chose to engage a deep sense of love even in hard places? The possibilities include a love for God, a love for the self, a love for a neighbor, and even a love for an enemy. What emerges will inspire and challenge the reader to reconsider what it means to live out the practice of love in our lives. Jesus invited people to engage love as a way of living. It was the defining act of what it meant to live. And in doing so, he opened up a world that revealed something extraordinary: the Kingdom of God. To live a life based on the practice of love requires courage and conviction. It often means facing fears that are not easily overcome. But in the end, the practice of love invites us to discover something deeper about what it means to be human.

The Practice Of Love: Real Stories of Living into the Kingdom of God

Religion & Spirituality

Brink, Jonathan

Christian Books & Bibles

Civitas Press

THE BODY OF CHRIST NEEDS HEALING This is my journey to a real and engaging relationship with Jesus. It’s how I became born again among Evangelicals, was empowered by the sacrament among Catholics, received the baptism of the Spirit among Pentecostals, and was transformed by social justice ministries among Oldline Reformers. But it’s also about how the Church has divided by these four very ways people meet Jesus, sabotaging both its credibility and mission. In fact, this division in the Body of Christ reflects the same shame-based spirit of religion that fueled both the Pharisees and the 9/11terrorists. Above all, this book is about how Jesus is battling to heal His broken Body unto today, and through it, this broken world. It's time we joined Him. His victory--and ours--demands it. GOD HAS A PLAN—ARE YOU READY? Chapters: 1. “Are You a Christian?” Toward a Spiritual Ecumenism 2. Platypus Christian: A Strange but Holy Mixture 3. From Blah to “Aha!” Rediscovering a Whole Faith The Evangelical Witness 4. A Time to Die, A Time to Be Born—Again The Sacramental Witness 5. Nothing but the Blood: Getting Ready for Communion 6. A Protestant Confession: Power in the Sacrament The Pentecostal Witness 7. Faith Encounters of the Third Kind: God’s Larger Reality 8. Who Is Holy Spirit? Meeting the Active Presence of God Today 9. Healing Emotional Wounds: Seeing the Past as Jesus Sees It 10. Cleaning Lady to the Rescue: Power to Heal Bodies The Social Justice Witness 11. From Pier to Ocean: Adventuring into the World with Jesus 12. Of Jogging and Cat Food: Meeting Jesus Where It Hurts 13. The Mirror of Prejudice: Overcoming Personal &amp; Corporate Racism 14. Jesus Is Our Peace: The Alternative to Warmaking Healed by God 15. Blackmailed by Shame, Freed by Grace and Truth Epilog - Rise and Jog SOUND BITES * I found myself sneaking from camp to camp, learning from Catholics, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and Oldline social reformers, yet being careful not to reveal in any one church my sympathies for the others. * Most people don't want to be healed--at least, not as badly as they want to cover their shame. * God’s love is not a zero-sum game. There’s plenty to go around. You don't have to condemn someone different in order to affirm yourself. You just have to know how much your Father loves you. * To look forward to communion with excitement--as my friend looked forward to being with his wife again--you must believe that Jesus will actually be there at the table with you, alive and active, even in your behalf. * Biblical faith redefines safety--indeed, peace itself--not as the absence of threat, but the presence of Jesus. * Those who have little of the world’s resources reflect the deeper reality that we all have nothing except what God has graciously given us. * Material comfort and security are good insofar as they are seen as the undeserved gifts of a graceful, loving God, and evil insofar as they separate us from the needs of others and make us unresponsive to their suffering. * Christians are not called to fit into this world, but to change it. * Moses came to tell us what to do; Jesus came to show us Who does it.

Broken By Religion, Healed by God: Restoring the Evangelical, Sacramental, Pentecostal, Social Justice Church

Dalbey, Gordon

CREATING MISSIONAL COMMUNITY Down We Go is a practitioner’s guide for creating and cultivating missional community. It’s based on the idea of living into the Beatitudes, and explores what it means to follow Jesus into the hard places of suffering, inequality, and injustice in order to cultivate, hope, beauty, justice, equality, generosity and healing. The dream of living out the upside-down ways of Jesus is in our hearts, but many don’t know how to make “what could be” really be. We need practical, tangible ideas to make dreams reality. We need to hear how it can work, from people on the margins and practitioners living in the trenches. We need real stories of practice that will fan our hopes and dreams for justice, mercy, equality, and healing in the kingdom of God into flame. Down We Go fleshes out practicing the ways of Jesus in action, personally and through life in community. Endorsements "Page after page in Down We Go, I feel the crazy sanity of the kingdom of God seeping back into me. I'm so thankful for Kathy Escobar, the Refuge, the TransForm Network, and everyone who dares to switch directions and become more profane - in the holiest sense of the word." - Brian D. McLaren, author of Naked Spirituality and A New Kind of Christianity. "Kathy Escobar explores how to move from 'doing' ministry for others into creating sacred spaces where all can be a part of the Kingdom of God. Those desiring something beyond “comfy church” will find inspiration in Kathy’s downwardly mobile journey" - Becky Garrison, author of Jesus Died For This? “Kathy Escobar leads us on a guided tour of the wild ways of Jesus. She is one of my favorite leaders. I hope to continue to learn from her example for years to come" - Jim Henderson, D. Min, Author of Jim and Casper Go To Church and The Resignation of Eve. "Kathy takes us down into the trenches where ordinary hurting people live and where we too need to live out our faith. Her personal faith journey from mega-church pastor to ministry with the destitute and marginalized is a compelling and convicting read." - Christine Sine, Author and Executive Director of Mustard Seed Associates.

Down We Go: Living Into the Wild Ways of Jesus

Escobar, Kathy

“I wish my dad and I were closer….”
“When your first child was born, did your father reach out to you with support, encouragement, or helpful advice?” Only five hands out of 350 dads at the conference went up. 
“When you were around 11 or 12,” I asked another gathering of 150 men, “did your dad talk to you—in a helpful way--about girls and sex?” Only two hands. 
It’s the same everywhere I’ve ministered around the world--regardless of nationality, race, age, education, or social status.
We men today are abandoned and left unequipped for manhood. The father of Lies capitalizes on our shame and blackmails us into isolation, denial, and a host of bogus cover-ups—from money and guns to alcohol, sex, and performance religion. 
Meanwhile, the true Father of all men has come in Jesus to draw us back to Himself and to the man He created you to be. 
Here’s the map to get you there.
Father God wants to be closer to you. It’s time to let Him.
*The man who does not honor his father will dishonor his own manhood.
*“We wanted men to get sensitive” she said, “but we didn’t want them to get passive.”
*A little boy cries from his father’s wounds; a real man cries for his father’s wounds.
*Knowing your father is more important than getting his apology.
*”Jesus, show me my dad the way you see him.”
*Have you ever said to another man, “I need you”?
*A man meets Father God not by trying to do it right, but by confessing he can’t.
***
A pioneer in the Christian men’s movement, Gordon Dalbey has blazed the trail not only to the heart of the wound, but to the heart of the Healer.
If you’re ready to face your wound, seek your true Father’s healing, and trust His call to manhood, Sons of the Father is for you.

Sons of the Father: Healing the Father-Wound in Men Today

Fight like a Man is not about how to be a man, but knowing the One who rescues and restores men. It's not even about how to be a warrior, but surrendering to the Commander of the Lord's Army. You won't learn a technique here; you'll remember your longing for a relationship. You won't be exhorted to obey; you'll be invited to trust. You won't be commanded to do right; you'll be freed to be real. You won't be warned to be strong; you'll be promised your Father's strength. And if you're honest, you'll be battling for your life. Both refreshing and upending, Gordon Dalbey’s books take us to the depths of authentic manhood where we’re humbled by its mystery and engaged by its call. Fight like a Man completes his men’s trilogy by focusing on the crippling byproduct of fatherlessness in men, namely, shame--too often fostered by religion, always overcome by Jesus.

Fight Like A Man: A New Manhood for a New Warfare

This book is not about running. It’s not even about dogs. It is, however, a little bit about poo, or rather, the mess we unnecessarily carry around in our own lives. Though Jennifer Luitwieler started running with one singular and significant goal in mind, to train The Dog to stop laying pipe under her sewing machine, she found herself running not just a half marathon, but away from the poo that she’d been unwittingly holding onto. Approaching her 40th birthday, Jennifer thought running was stupid and running marathons was downright crazy. She thought the church had failed her. She thought she lacked worth because she couldn’t meet everyone’s expectations, let alone her own. She thought putting a writing career aside in favor of full-time mothering for over a decade meant she was no longer a writer. At first, running was merely a training vehicle for The Dog, to keep his mess out of her house. Running stopped being about The Dog the day she realized she was stronger than she ever imagined, more capable than she had dreamed. Then running stopped being about Jennifer’s feet hitting the ground, eyes roaming the horizon. Running became space to think, to wonder, and to examine her own mess. Down-to-earth, hilarious and thoughtful, this is a story of redemption told in a voice that is both deeply spiritual and slightly-irreverent. Anything but tidy and cliché, this wise and refreshingly-honest and hilarious book is about what it means to be human. Jennifer invites her readers to “Run With Me” as she chronicles a journey that is deeply inspiring: coming face-to-face with who we are, learning to value what we find within and calling forth the yet-unplumbed strength and potential that was there all along.

Run With Me: An Accidental Runner and the Power of Poo

Biographies & Memoirs

Luitwieler, Jennifer

Memoirs

Monday Motivations is an inspiring way to start your week, providing just the right touch to get you motivated. In just 15 minutes a week, these quick and easy reads will help you create a positive outlook &amp; a possibility mindset. What to expect from reading Monday Motivations: 
• Increased awareness of what YOU CAN DO with your current situation • Greater sense of empowerment • Fears, doubts and worries will vaporize • More possibilities will surface every day • Inspired action • Greater confidence • Improved self image • The life you always wanted Begin your week with inspiration and get motivated.

Monday Motivations: 52 Weeks To A More Purposeful You

March, Corry Ann

IS RESTORATION POSSIBLE FOR THOSE WHO ONCE LED IN MINISTRY? 
With one in three pastors admitting to an affair, churches are now facing a problem of epidemic proportions. Over 1,500 pastors each month leave their church due to some kind of moral failure. And when it happens, the effects are devastating to everyone involved. With so many pastors experiencing the same problem, it’s time to bring the issue to light. Is restoration even possible when someone in leadership fails? 
Fallen Pastor takes an unflinching look into the problems and perils facing so many pastors. It dives into the stories of those who have fallen and asks and answers the hard question of, “Why?” Author Ray Carroll takes a deep look into his own story of adultery and the stories of so many pastors like him, who lost so much in the wake of their decisions. Ray identifies the common decisions and cultural issues that continuously lead to the exact same outcome, issues like isolation, the church mistress, judgmentalism, and idolatry. Ray offers no justification for what happened, instead seeking understanding that leads to a Biblical response of restoration. 
Fallen Pastor offers perspective and hope for those seeking answers and healing in the wake of these failures. It takes a deep look at why it happens. It also take the next step and offers solutions to those wanting to prevent the problem from happening in the first place. Churches could actually begin to change and even stop the problem.

Fallen Pastor: Finding Restoration In A Broken World

Carroll, Ray

In the contemporary church, women are held back from positions of authority and leadership simply because they are women. Gender matters instead of gifting or calling. From the pulpit to the home front of marriage, women of faith are taught that men lead and women assist. But is this biblical? Has God created women for helper roles? In her book, Unladylike: Resisting the Injustice of Inequality in the Church, author Pam Hogeweide confronts the patriarchal view of women that has been mistaken as God’s divine will. Not so, writes Pam, who dismantles the discrimination of women in churches by reexamining her beliefs. Pam tells how she changed from being neutral about the roles of women in the church when she realized it was an issue of justice rather than theology. Combining history, theology and vivid storytelling, Unladylike is a call to women and men of faith to join Pam in resisting the injustice of inequality in the church.

Unladylike: Resisting the Injustice of Inequality in the Church

Hogeweide, Pam

Spirit-Led Parenting Over the years, a mainstream approach to Christian parenting has emerged, and it’s one that promotes sleep training and feeding schedules for infants, warns that spoiled children and marital discord are certain by-products of homes where newborns are over-indulged, and promotes these methods as the Biblical way to care for a new baby. Unfortunately, the message of mainstream parenting advice preys on the universal fear of new parents everywhere: the fear that if they stray from the program, their babies and their marriages will suffer. In Spirit-Led Parenting: From Fear to Freedom in Baby's First Year, two mothers share their stories. They tell of a journey that began in fear-soaked, tear-stained days marked by an overwhelming fear of failure that eventually found redemption in discovering the freedom to ignore the wisdom of man and follow the direction of the Spirit. · This gentle path looks toward the example of God the Father, seeks after Christ's unequivocal call to servanthood, and leans upon the wisdom of the Holy Spirit in determining and meeting the individual needs of each unique child. · Spirit-Led Parenting doesn’t encourage a methodology, but rather a mindset. This outlook on parenting is radically different from what has become the trend in Christian circles, and yet the authors believe that it is firmly rooted in and supported by Scripture. · Throughout the book, the authors show how parenting with a spirit-led approach has allowed them to become more peaceful, happy mothers, more intimately connected to their husbands, and closer and more surrendered to Christ. Sharing from their unique experiences as well as their shared philosophy, Megan and Laura play the role of big sisters, wrapping their arms around the shoulder of the new mother trying to navigate the confusing world of life with a baby and answering those important questions: “What if the ‘right’ way doesn’t feel ‘right’?” and “Could there be more than one way to honor God as I care for my baby?” There is another way. That's what they wish they had been told as new mothers. And it's the message they are passionate about sharing with new parents everywhere.

Spirit-Led Parenting: From Fear to Freedom in Baby’s First Year

Parenting & Relationships

Tietz, Megan

Oyer, Laura

Parenting

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