Religion Community

This is a powerful collection of poems, calling out to contemplatives and interfaith grandmothers, church members, artists, athletes, patients, and all manner of humans desiring to sense the sacred in the many textures of life.

In Build Neighbors, Jimmy tells his story of discovering a life of community. What began as a simple effort to serve people in need led to relationships that not only changed his perspective of others, but also challenged his own inner brokenness. This collection of story-based lessons is aimed at helping anyone who wants to live more fully in community with friends and neighbors. Relational serving focuses on meeting physical needs but also sharing the love God holds for us.

This is the turbulent story of Naomi Parker, a courageous young woman who valiantly overcomes a series of devastating life experiences. She harbors a looming secret that dominates her thinking and negatively impacts her decision making. It infects her ability to process information and is compounded by a learning disability.

A Christianity Today survey identified the most common self-described leadership weaknesses to be in strategizing, visioning, and entrepreneurial skills. But there is a tension that exists between dreaming, vision-casting, and being able to actually pull it off. What is from God, what is from our own imaginations, how do we recognize the difference, and then what do we do with it? In Pastorpreneur, pastor and speaker John Jackson equips pastors to employ businesslike strategic planning and innovation skills to enhance their congregational leadership.

Imagine your family an image of God and your home a taste of heaven... Heaven in Your Home Letters and Guide has everything you need to lead your loved ones toward happiness and give them the very best things in life! Did you know that the family is a communion of persons in the image of the Holy Trinity? Starting with this scriptural insight and drawing from the riches of the Catholic faith, learn how your family can become an ever more radiant image of God by deepening your communion throughout the five levels of family life.

Emerging generations in the West are more diverse than ever—ethnically, socioeconomically, educationally, and politically. And as church attendance among younger generations declines rapidly, research shows that one of their primary sticking points is the lack of diversity in most churches. In Church for Everyone, pastors Dan Kreiss and Efrem Smith address this phenomenon head-on. In this research-based and theologically informed book, they explore the younger generations' expectations and disappointments with church and hold out a vision for true diversity taken from the pages of Scripture.

With all the hostility boiling just under the surface of our world, we need a renewed vision of Jesus as the Lamb of God who can lead us in the peaceable ways of the Kingdom. When we fail to keep Jesus at the center of our lives, we lean into the desires of our hearts more than the desires God has for us. As a result, our entire spirituality becomes driven by the self and for the self. We need renewed practices of centering Jesus in our hearts and minds. Derek Vreeland invites you to imagine what it looks like to keep Jesus as the Lamb of God at the center of three key areas of our lives.

The Church of Facebook will move listeners toward understanding God's work in the body of Christ, the church, by introducing thought-provoking questions through observation, humor, and heartfelt storytelling. It will also do this by challenging readers to consider new perspectives in regard to their social networking habits and how those habits may point to deeper heart issues and, ultimately, our hunger for Jesus.

In the Bible, God set Ezekiel down in the middle of a valley full of bones. If reviewed on a travel website, that valley wouldn’t get more than a single star. But many of us don’t stop at a visit. We pitch a tent and buy a tract of that desolate land for ourselves—before passing it on to our children and grandchildren. Generations become mired in the valley of dry bones.

When Lynda MacGibbon moved from a small city in eastern Canada to a high-rise apartment in Toronto, she decided to follow Jesus' famous commandment to "love your neighbor" a bit more literally. In the past, she would have looked first for friends at her new job or her new church. This time, though, she decided to look for friends among the strangers who shared her apartment building - her actual neighbors in her new "vertical neighborhood".

Do you want to love your neighbor as yourself but don’t know where to start? This practical, accessible guide to bridging the dividing lines of politics, race, and economics, both individually and as the church, will help you amplify Jesus in your community and build God’s kingdom.

Have you ever felt like life was finally going well, when suddenly life decides to throw you a curve ball? Life will knock you down when you least expect it. The important thing is not how or why we got knocked down, the important thing is how will we respond? In her early 40's, Nadine found herself to be a newly successful entrepreneur...and simultaneously...the mother of a heroin addict. She used this situation to create an out-of- the-box therapeutic travel recovery project which later evolved into establishing a nonprofit serving those choosing to live a lifestyle of recovery.

Pilgrimage is a sacred tradition that has existed around the world for centuries. Every year, more than 100 million devotees from different cultures and faiths embark on journeys to such holy sites as Santiago de Compostela, Mecca, and Banaras. For some, making a pilgrimage is a spiritual act, while for others it is a secular experience of personal restoration. And yet there has never existed a tradition of pilgrimage within the US. Cultural geographer James E. Mills makes a compelling case for the creation of a network of American pilgrimage routes to heal societal divisions....

The Evidence of Things Unseen: Faith Revealed in a Family, a Community and a Nation describes the evidence of faith first initiated in the family experience, then developed in the faith communities. The text illustrates how faith developed in evangelical communities will result in a certain view of our nation and its governance. This leads to the paradox that these views often conflict with biblical principles taught by those communities. The concluding section of this book suggests a reason for this conflict and a proposed remedy.

Indispensable Church provides you and your church real-world, hands-on steps to create a revolution of service to your local community in the name of Christ. By exploring the life of Jesus and the strategic ways he modeled serving the people around him, pastor Chris Sonksen shows you how to put love into action in your neighborhood and your city. The step-by-step instructions, biblical challenges, and teaching resources will help you take love to the streets and make an impact right where you live.

Pastor Mike Mather arrived in Indianapolis thinking that he was going to serve the poor. But after his church’s community lost nine young men to violence in a few short months, Mather came to see that the poor didn’t need his help - he needed theirs. This is the story of how one church found abundance in a community of material poverty. Viewing people - not programs, finances, or service models - as their most valuable resource moved church members beyond their own walls and out into the streets, where they discovered folks rich in strength, talents, determination, and love.

Today, a new movement is under way, bringing Christians of every denomination, age, race, and sexual orientation together around dinner tables. Men and women nervous about stepping through church doors are finding God in new ways as they eat together. Kendall Vanderslice shares stories of churches worshiping around the table, introducing listeners to the rising contemporary dinner-church movement. We Will Feast provides vision and inspiration to listeners longing to experience community in a real, physical way.

Why eat? For energy? For health? Comfort or community? Roger W. Lowther invites you to explore how the delicious and creative foods of Japan give hints of Christ's love and care for us every day. Taste Gods beauty and grace in each of these wonderful Japanese culinary traditions.

Estamos viviendo una epidemia de soledad. Sin embargo, estamos predestinados a ser vistos y amadosEn un mundo cada vez más conectado y, paradójicamente, a la vez más aislado, a menudo sentimos la necesidad de estar solos, ya sea porque estamos muy ocupados o porque las relaciones pueden llegar a sentirse complicadas y difíciles. Pero la ciencia confirma que tener una conexión constante y significativa con los demás brinda un impacto poderoso a nuestro bienestar. .

Thomas York challenges evangelical doctrines on homosexuality and advocates for a more humane, Jesus centered approach to sexual and gender identity. This study includes an analysis of ethical concepts in the New Testament by frequency of use and an examination of biblical passages and theological arguments often cited in relation to homosexuality and the church.