In this his third book of poetry, the author begins with a short story that describes one simple act of obedience to God. The author has included over 100 poems to encourage the reader in their walk with Christ and prays they are called to one act of obedience themselves.

Sow It Is

Richard Groff

Masthof

Fierce Love: Balancing God's Love & Justice

Religion & Spirituality

Eshleman, J. David

Christian Books & Bibles

A the true story of a young woman who lived a century ago on a Pennsylvania farm and how her life was interrupted by the incurable disease of tuberculosis. Drawing from the richly detailed letters of Fianna and her family, the author relates the family’s tale of love, grief, and enduring faith.

Fianna's Story

Bieber, Nancy L.

Biographies & Memoirs

God’s Word is packed with amazing scriptures for all who will accept them by faith. This book contains more than 1,600 scripture references plus hundreds of biblical allusions. As you meditate on them your life will move to a new level. This book is easily adaptable for individual or small group study. The essays are self-contained, therefore, you can begin reading in any section and find them beneficial.

75 Scriptures That Will Amaze You: Living on a Higher Plane

Eshleman DMin., J. David

God's call to prison ministry came to Nelson Zeiset at twelve years old. From that time, the Lancaster County Mennonite boy ordered his life accordingly, with a singular purpose to take the Gospel into a shadowy world among criminals. In Behind Fences, Nelson and his wife, Esther, alternately share their perspectives of Nelson's thirty-three years in a chaplaincy career that spanned two states and seven prisons. Learn of God's faithfulness through the 1980s AIDS hysteria, a prison riot that nearly upended the call, of lawsuits, and an inmate's calculated scheme to frame Nelson. Marvel as the prison church grows, racial walls crumble, and despairing men find hope and forgiveness through Jesus. Be inspired to pursue your own life calling and to view God's faithfulness on every step of the journey.

Behind Fences: A Prison Chaplain's Story

Zeiset, Nelson

Zeiset, Esther

Leaders & Notable People

Kannscht Du Verschteh Pennsilvania Deutsch? Can You Understand Pennsylvania Dutch?

Sherdell A. Snyder

Product Description Written during Covid-19, with the author facing his own "dismantling" by Parkinson's Disease, these personal and prophetic essays consider the declines in the American church as the "dismantling" work of God's Spirit. Kanagy urges that God dismantles for one purpose—that we might see Jesus anew and in the process be converted by the love of Jesus all over again! Book 1 in a new series. Review I would label the writing style of this book as "breezy." In that mode Conrad Kanagy is able to say things and cross many boundaries not possible in a more sober mode. As a result he is able to juxtapose odd partners, push the extremities of exposure, and do a broad sweep of scripture. The subtext of his writing is the scriptural account wherein the biblical community of faith, in its distortion and obduracy, was dismantled in order to make way for an authentic community of mission. Kanagy's subject is the church, in all of its failure and in all its possibility, governed by the Spirit of God. Those who care about the church and its witness will be nourished and guided by this wise book.--Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological SeminaryAbout four years ago Kanagy learned that he had Parkinson's disease. This difficult but liberating experience brought a personal dismantling that transformed his life...The Parkinson's dismantling gave Kanagy the courage, the guts, and the grit to strip off his masks and speak the truth. It empowered him to say and write things that most of us might think but would never say. Setting aside his inhibitions, freed him to reveal his innermost thoughts and struggles. These essays mingle the voice of a prophet, the eye of a sociologist, the heart of a pastor, the wisdom of an educator, and above all the candid confessions of a child of God. Whatever your identities—religious, skeptic, political, racial, gender, class—you will find his essays provocative. His unvarnished honesty and his picturesque language are refreshing. Kanagy invites us to see things in new ways that jolt our spiritual complacency. You may not agree with him on every point, but you will admire his courage to say it as he sees it. He may stir your ire or light your fire, annoy you or compel you to compassion. Prophetic voices do that. But you will keep on reading. His poignant stories, evocative phrases, and frank confessions will entice you to read on and on to the very last line. I promise!--Donald B. Kraybill, author of The Upside-Down Kingdom, 1978, revised edition 2018.An excellent book for church leaders and congregants who intuitively understand that "returning to normal" is not a realistic or compelling vision for the future. Kanagy writes from many years of pastoral ministry, as a sociology professor, and from challenging personal experiences. Having been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease at a relatively young age, he models a depth of vulnerability not often seen in pastors or professors. He writes with hope while being painfully honest about his personal struggles and the failures of the church to fully represent the Jesus many claim to follow.--Loren Swartzendruber, President Emeritus, Eastern Mennonite University From the Author To receive ongoing updates of the forthcoming books in the A Church Dismantled series, as well as periodic blog posts, subscribe at achurchdismantled.com. Thank you! About the Author Conrad L. Kanagy is Professor of Sociology at Elizabethtown College, PA and as a sociologist of religion and ordained Mennonite minister, has been writing about American Christianity for three decades. Dr. Kanagy is a graduate of Wheaton College, IL and Penn State University.

A Church Dismantled—A Kingdom Restored: Why Is God Taking Apart the Church?

Politics & Social Sciences

Conrad Kanagy

Social Sciences

How to Change the World One Penny at a Time: The Story of Claude Good and the Worm Project

Dawn Ruth Nelson

Beverly Benner Miller

From Sight to Insight: A Mennonite Farm Boy's Adventures Through Blindness to Living and Seeing Without Vision

Daniel L. Bowman

Are you a church leader who is tired, frustrated, or disillusioned with the endless promises of experts and authors that if we as church leaders just do the right things, address the right challenges and opportunities, and take the right steps, we can determine the future of our congregations? As a sociologist of religion for three decades and a pastor of a local congregation for fifteen years, I make no such promises. Instead, I am cautious about the idea that rebuilding, fixing, changing, or transforming American congregations is the right question or approach. For if “the Spirit is dismantling the church” as I suggest (see my previous book A Church Dismantled—A Kingdom Restored—Why is God Taking Apart the Church?), have we as leaders taken enough time to discern whether we are working with or against God’s Spirit? The 38 short essays in this book were written during the Covid-19 pandemic, and in part document my own journey as a church leader in the midst of the tensions felt by so many congregations. These essays reflect my resistance to the church and mission “industrial complex” and the commodification of the mission of God. Gimmicks, programs, and rational strategies do not seem to be making an impact on the American church in terms of the metrics that matter most in the Kingdom. The Biblical story is so clear that destruction, “plucking down,” and lowering mountains are often part of what God is up to in the divine eschatology that leads to the new heaven and new earth. I have received plenty of resistance to this message, perhaps because for some it seems so “unGod-like.” But if I cannot believe that the desolation I see all around me in the church and the world does not include the providential hand of God, then frankly, I am left without hope. And so are you. But if we can claim and even glimpse the Almighty’s shadow in the midst of everything crumbling around us, then once again hope returns!

Ministry in a Church Dismantled: To Tear Down or Build Up?

Kanagy, Conrad L.

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Masthof publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Masthof