Recommended by the Nazarene Organic Church NetworkThe people are starting to catch on. There’s this guy who has spent his life working in his dad’s wood shop, making beds, stools, and some real nice end tables. But, around the age of thirty he gets to thinking a career change is necessary. Only problem is he wants a position that is seemingly already filled, the job of priest. Doesn’t stop him. Call him an entrepreneur of sorts, cause he begins preaching and healing in ways no one has ever seenwithout the employment of the temple. And to top it all off, he starts collecting a good fan baselots of people begin showing up to all his public appearances.One day, he climbs up on a mountain and says there is a new kingdom at hand, and that this kingdom will be contradictory to everything they have known before.And the people get the feeling this is only the beginning. You see, they were expecting a king arriving in grand fashion, but instead they got a carpenter, turned speaker and healer, who was about to shake things up a bit.The Kingdom Experiment is a challenge to live this kingdom intentionally. It won’t be easy. And it may get uncomfortable. But if you commit to live what a carpenter started 2000 years ago, you too will experience the kingdom He spoke of.How it works:Read and discuss each chapter with your groupPick one of eight experiments (challenges to live intentionally) to do throughout the week.Journal your thoughts and experiencesShare your experiences as a group the following weekThe point of The Kingdom Experiment is community. And to share stories while we’re at it. To grapple with what ’good news’ means in the context of YNbeaRecommended by the Nazarene Organic Church

The Kingdom Experiment: A Community Practice on Intentional Living

Religion & Spirituality

Bruce Nuffer

Elizabeth Perry

Rachel McPherson

Christian Books & Bibles

The House Studio

Who begins reading a book from the middle? Or fast-forwards through the first half of a movie?And yet as Christians we have often skipped straight to the New Testament because we think the Old Testament is dry, dusty and outdated.But the truth is, the Old Testament is a living narrative of the same fierce and holy God that is changing us today.The Mosaic Experiment revisits some of the ancient practices that are still relevant to kingdom living in the 21st century—pilgrimage, scapegoats, cities of refuge, and a few others are a picture of what it looks like when old truths and current culture collide.Not your typical small group book, this 6-8 week journey will make you get down and dirty—Moses style.This book is available as an e-book! Click here to see other selections available electronically.

The Mosaic Experiment: Bringing Old Testament Practices Out of Retirement

Cole, Lucas

Brockhaus, Wendie

Ingle, Padraic

Schafer, Brian

We all have theories and ideas about things we haven’t experienced. But when life doesn’t work out like we expect, we are sometimes forced to reverse our opinions. This collection of stories will inspire you or your small group to consider, debate, and reflect on the wisdom of fellow believers who have changed significant opinions in their life. How does a fundamentalist become less conservative? What makes a person intent on marrying choose to remain celibate and enter the priesthood? How can a scientist give up believing in certainty? What makes an organ-playing pastor’s wife hit the road with a band and her bass guitar?Every now and then something comes along that challenges our strongly held beliefs: new information, new experiences, or disillusion. Because we’ve all been there, even when we disagree we respect the beliefs of those who come to their conclusions through careful consideration. And those who have completely reversed their opinions about deeply entrenched ideas are especially compelling. What can we learn from entrepreneurs, pastors, theologians, writers, grief counselors and others about the process of how we form our beliefs?From popular voices such as Leonard Sweet and Frederica Matthews-Green to many new and compelling writers, discover the difference an open mind makes in the lives of those courageous enough to confront their own deeply held beliefs.This book is available as an e-book! Click here to see other selections available electronically.

180: Stories of People Who Changed Their Lives by Changing Their Minds

Leonard Sweet

Multiple-Authors

Journey with your students through 8 weeks of the beatitudes. With both community and individual challenges each week, this study helps students engage the kingdom in every aspect of their lives.

The Kingdom Experiment: Youth Edition: A Community Practice on Intentional Living

Lindsey, Brooklyn

McPherson, Rachel

Nuffer, Bruce

Perry, Liz

We can recite them. We hang them on our walls and in our courtrooms. We use them as a measurement of our character. It is easy for us to go along ’knowing’ the Ten Commandments without ever taking the time to realize the great insight they possess for our lives. But they are so much more than commands-they are one of the foundations of the Christian faith, a centering force for God’s people.These ten words, ten statements, ten commandments allowed the Israelites to see the world from their Creator’s perspective. They provided Israel with a foundation on which to build God’s chosen people.Through The Sinai Experiment explores how God’s people have been shaped and formed by these commandments and discover how God is leading us- just as he led a poor, weak people out of slavery and into the Promised Land.

The Sinai Experiment: Ten Words for God's Chosen People

Scott, Ryan

America thrives on a simple message-that what we currently have is not enough. Not big enough, not nice enough, not fast or hip enough.The American dream is based on wanting more. But does God’s dream for the world look like the American Dream?In this five-week study, unpack what the patterns of God’s kingdom look like compared to the patterns of our world. What is the value of enough, and how do we become more like the God who is close to the poor, the hungry, the meek, and the merciful?Economy of Love will challenge individuals to join in community, journeying together as they begin to consider a new standard of living-a personal economic threshold oriented not around the size of a monthly paycheck, but around the value of enough.

Economy of Love: Creating a Community of Enough

Shane Claiborne

Relational Tithe

Isaac Anderson

America thrives on a simple message-that what we currently have is not enough. Not big enough, not nice enough, not fast or hip enough.The American dream is based on wanting more. But does God’s dream for the world look like the American Dream?In this five-week study, unpack what the patterns of God’s kingdom look like compared to the patterns of our world. What is the value of enough, and how do we become more like the God who is close to the poor, the hungry, the meek, and the merciful?Economy of Love will challenge individuals to join in community, journeying together as they begin to consider a new standard of living-a personal economic threshold oriented not around the size of a monthly paycheck, but around the value of enough.What’s included:5 video sessions with Shane ClaiborneCommentary and discussion questions to help you explore each topicThe story of Relational Tithe by co-founder Darin PetersonWeek 1: Tension Being the hands and feet of Jesus in a broken worldWeek 2: Enough- Christ’s demand to love our neighbor through redistributionWeek 3: Vulnerable- Living lives that collide with those of the marginalizedWeek 4: Filled- Is the Gospel we preach good news for the rich and poor alike?Week 5: Practice- Following Jesus with our hands, our feet, and our resources.

Economy of Love, DVD + Book: Creating a Community of Enough

Claiborne, Shane

We all live in a constant state of denial.Culture tells us all problems are solvable, or at least manageable; we simply need to try (or buy) the right solution. Our self-help, pop-a-pill culture is prone to masking symptoms and calling that mask a cure.But as long as we deny our pain, we lose the danger of the Gospel-the part where we give up control and allow God’s mystery to unfold in our lives-and in doing so, we lose the depth of its goodness.In Psalmist s Cry, Walter Brueggemann explores Psalms as scripts for lament-guides for how to express feelings honestly, in ways normally not permitted or expected within Christian community. In this 5-week study, discover the fullness of God when we allow our lives to become about him healing us and not about us controlling or managing our way through life.

Psalmist's Cry: Scripts for Embracing Lament

BRUEGGEMANN, Walter

We all live in a constant state of denial.Culture tells us all problems are solvable, or at least manageable; we simply need to try (or buy) the right solution. Our self-help, pop-a-pill culture is prone to masking symptoms and calling that mask a cure.But as long as we deny our pain, we lose the danger of the Gospel-the part where we truly lament, cry out, and feel-and in doing so, we lose the depths of its goodness.In Psalmist s Cry, Walter Brueggemann explores Psalms as scripts for lament-guides for how to express feelings honestly, in ways normally not permitted or expected within Christian community. In this 5-week study, discover the fullness of our humanity that lies beyond our pain.Small Group Edition Includes:5 video sessions with Walter BrueggemannIn depth discussion questions to help you explore each topicCommentary by Steve FrostWeek 1: DenialWeek 2: Status QuoWeek 3: Breaking the SilenceWeek 4: Leading into LamentWeek 5: The Juice of Emancipation

Psalmist's Cry, DVD + Book: Scripts for Embracing Lament

Walter Brueggemann

Steve Frost

We are citizens.Not of this world, but of a kingdom different from this world. A kingdom that causes us to see things through a whole new lens. So if we, the Church, are living out this kingdom, then why do the world’s culture and the Church’s culture look so similar?In this 5-week series, Stanley Hauerwas invites us to join a conversation--evaluating our role in culture and in our current church environment. Sunday Asylum will not only help you explore what it looks to be citizens of the kingdom, but will encourage you to reassess your own beliefs and motives.Week 1: Believe vs. Make BelieveWeek 2: Conflict vs. ComfortWeek 3: Despair vs. HopeWeek 4: Contemporary Worship vs. WorshipWeek 5: The System vs. the Kingdom

Sunday Asylum: Being the Church in Occupied Territory

Hauarwas, Stanley

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