Church Women

Included in Christ offers the scriptural basis held by those who believe that the premise is wrong. Many influential Christian leaders believe that someone within the LGBTQ community cannot be a Christian without renouncing their LGBTQ identity. But is that true?

Loveday Cardew prefers books to people. If you look carefully, you might glimpse the first lines of the novels she loves most tattooed on her skin. But there are some things Loveday will never, ever show you. Into her hiding place - the bookstore where she works - come a poet, a lover, and three suspicious deliveries. Someone has found out about her mysterious past. Will Loveday survive her own heartbreaking secrets?

This book deals with 10 of the most powerful women in the Catholic Church of yesterday and today, showing how they suffered rejection and discrimination because of their sex and how they overcame difficulties to make vital contributions.

In 1994, the most Christianized country in Africa became the site of its worst genocide. The tragedy was in Rwanda, but what happened was a mirror reflecting the deep brokenness of the church in the West. Yet by looking at what happened and why, we can find hope for the global body of Christ.

Clover hasn’t said “No” a day in her life. Until today. Normally a woman who tips her hairdresser even when the cut is hideous, is endlessly patient with her horrendous mother, and says yes every time her boss asks her to work late—today, things are going to be very different. Because Clover is taking the day off. Today, she’s going to do and say whatever she likes, even if it means her whole life unravels. What made Clover change her ways? Why doesn’t she care anymore? There’s more to this day than meets the eye.

The amazing life story of Britain's world conquering triathlete, Chrissie Wellington. Chrissie Wellington is the world's No 1 female Ironman triathlete, the current quadruple World Champion and World Record holder. In 2009 she was voted 'Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year' and in 2010 was awarded the MBE. She is the undefeated champion of Triathlon, having won nine Ironman titles from nine races.

Alice has been lying to herself for years, holding fast to the belief that the needs of her family far outweigh her own. But her outwardly successful marriage hides dark secrets, and for much of her life the children were the only reason she stuck around. These days, though her successful banker son lives nearby, his young wife seems to do everything she can to keep Alice at bay. As for Alice's other son, he has always been something of a stranger and has been traveling for so long that Alice isn't even sure what continent he is on anymore.

Desperate to be reunited with her husband, Daniel, Elica walks into the dreaded den of the ruthless Gestapo. She's ready to sacrifice anything for their love. Anna and her family find themselves at the mercy of Anna's heart-throb, Ulf. Ulf's obsession with Anna puts him in a quandary—between his loyalty to the Fuhrer and his burning desire for the forbidden fruit.

Every female minister knows, deep within her heart, she has a special calling to serve God's people. Your passion and your servant’s heart have led you to this point, and you have only just begun to step into your power in service to the church you love so much. But the church's patriarchal roots run deep. With one hand, the institutional church raises you up, lauding your leadership and praising your calling, and with the other hand, it tears you down, silencing your voice and breaking your heart.

The girls of St John the Divine, an elite English boarding school, were notorious for flipping their hair, harassing teachers, chasing boys, and chain-smoking cigarettes. They were fiercely loyal, sharp-tongued, and cuttingly humorous in the way that only teenage girls can be. For Josephine, now in her 30s, the years at St John were a lifetime ago. She hasn’t spoken to another Divine in 15 years, not since the day the school shuttered its doors in disgrace. Yet now Josephine inexplicably finds herself returning to her old stomping grounds.

On a hot and dusty December day in 1980, the bodies of four American women - three of them Catholic nuns - were pulled from a hastily dug grave in a field outside San Salvador. They had been murdered two nights before by the US-trained El Salvadoran military. News of the killing shocked the American public and set off a decade of debate over Cold War policy in Latin America. The women themselves became symbols and martyrs, shorn of context and background.

Kate Rafter is a successful war reporter. She's the strong one. The one who escaped Herne Bay and the memories it holds. Her sister Sally didn't. Instead she drinks. But when their mother dies, Kate is forced to return to the old family home. And on her first night, she is woken by a terrifying scream. What secret has Kate stumbled upon? And is she strong enough to uncover the truth...and make it out alive?

Carl Weber is the New York Times best-selling author of such fan favorites as So You Call Yourself a Man. The First Lady is the tale of a preacher's wife who learns she's dying and vows to find her husband another woman. There is no shortage of ladies who want her man, but will she be able to find a suitable replacement among the conniving church women?

This radical book examines the historical formation of Catholic theology from the perspective of the spiritual abuse of women. Debra Flint defines spiritual and political power abuse before considering female influence in the Church from New Testament times to date. She clearly demonstrates how women, who were respected by Jesus and authoritative in the early Church, were gradually eliminated from positions of influence by patriarchy and the growing development of misogyny.

The Holy Spirit wrote the vision of Recovery Church on the hearts of strangers from across the country and then formed this rag-tag group into a family. The story of Recovery Church is His Story. The story of how a Holy God went through extravagant measures to reach junkies, drunks, crackheads, outcasts, sinners, wayward children, the lepers of today, us.

Selina Lennox is a Bright Young Thing. Her life is a whirl of parties and drinking, pursued by the press and staying on just the right side of scandal, all while running from the life her parents would choose for her. Lawrence Weston is a penniless painter who stumbles into Selina's orbit one night and can never let her go even while knowing someone of her stature could never end up with someone of his. Except Selina falls hard for Lawrence, envisioning a life of true happiness. But when tragedy strikes, Selina finds herself choosing what's safe over what's right.

For decades the accepted wisdom has been that America's mainline Protestant churches are in decline, eclipsed by evangelical mega-churches. Church and religion expert Diana Butler Bass wondered if this was true, and this book is the result of her extensive, three-year study of centrist and progressive churches across the country. Her surprising findings reveal just the opposite - that many of the churches are flourishing, and they are doing so without resorting to mimicking the mega-church, evangelical style. Christianity for the Rest of Us describes this phenomenon....

Do you ever feel like your life is moving at the speed of light? Are you constantly trying to "keep up" with all of your commitments and responsibilities? As a wife, mother, and co-pastor of Lakewood Church - America's largest church - Victoria Osteen knows as well as anyone that operating in so many different roles can be extremely demanding, yet she has managed to find balance, living her life in the unforced rhythms of grace.

Alice Spencer was born in 1560 to a family on the rise. Her grandfather had amassed a sizeable estate of fertile grazing land and made a small fortune in sheep farming, allowing him to purchase a simple but distinguished manor house called Althorp. With her sizable dowry, Alice married the heir to one of the most powerful aristocratic families in the country, eventually becoming the Countess of Derby. Though she enjoyed modest renown, it wasn’t until her husband’s sudden death that Alice and her family’s future changed forever.

When one of Nora Bunstruggle’s friends is murdered in cold blood, it sends the Coochie Hole burlesque club on Megalopolis into shock. It soon becomes clear that the police have zero interest in the death of a burlesque dancer. But what if the twisted killer strikes their troupe again? And who is going to exact justice for the victim’s now motherless child? Nora and the gang from the Coochie Hole realise that if they want to get to catch their faceless murderous foe, they are going to have to roll their sleeves up and kick some backsides themselves.