Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Iowa

A History

Looks at images of heaven developed in poetry, art, literature, and popular culture, and describes the concept of heaven in modern Christianity

Heaven

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New church starts. Includes DVD #newchurch

Creating New Faith Communities Revised Edition with Updated Statistics and Instructional D

NextChurch. Now

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Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

A Celebration of Jewish Being and Thinking

To Life!

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Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Creating Your Mission Statement for Work and for Life

The author of Jesus, CEO combines powerful spiritual insight and inspirational, practical advice on how to achieve one's highest goals and potential in business and in life, discussing the three key elements of a successful mission statement and explaining how to fulfill a mission.

The Path

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A True Story

Now including a new chapter for the paperback edition. “A masterpiece.” --Publishers Weekly “In the beginning there was a question. ‘Will you do my eulogy’ As is often the case with faith, I thought I was being asked a favor. In truth, I was being given one...” “An absolute wonder—tender, transporting, and deeply moving.” --Scott Turow, author of Presumed Innocent “The nonfiction equivalent to Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist.” --Sydney Morning Herald “A faith journey that could become a classic.” --Jim Wallis, author of The Great Awakening “Albom helps show the true definition of ‘Church.’ It is not the building, it is the people and their faith.” --Bishop T.D. Jakes, Chief Pastor, The Potter’s House “Everybody should read it.” --Hoda Kotb in People, Best Book of 2009

Have a Little Faith

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A Novel

Rebelling against medieval strictures forbidding the education of women, young Joan assumes the identity of her murdered brother and is initiated into the monastery of Fulda, where she distinguishes herself as a great Christian scholar before relocating to Rome and becoming a powerful force in religious politics. Original.

Pope Joan

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He Who Wept

Jeremiah

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The Man Who Saw Tomorrow

Daniel

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Ms. Beatrice Hempel, teacher of seventh grade, is new--new to teaching, new to the school, newly engaged, and newly bereft of her idiosyncratic father. Grappling awkwardly with her newness, she struggles to figure out what is expected of her in life and at work. Is it acceptable to introduce swear words into the English curriculum, enlist students to write their own report cards, or bring up personal experiences while teaching a sex-education class?
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum finds characters at their most vulnerable, then explores those precarious moments in sharp, graceful prose. From this most innovative of young writers comes another journey down the rabbit hole to the wonderland of middle school, memory, daydreaming, and the extraordinary business of growing up.


Ms. Hempel Chronicles

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A Memoir in Books

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • We all have dreams—things we fantasize about doing and generally never get around to. This is the story of Azar Nafisi’s dream and of the nightmare that made it come true. For two years before she left Iran in 1997, Nafisi gathered seven young women at her house every Thursday morning to read and discuss forbidden works of Western literature. They were all former students whom she had taught at university. Some came from conservative and religious families, others were progressive and secular; several had spent time in jail. They were shy and uncomfortable at first, unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds, but soon they began to open up and to speak more freely, not only about the novels they were reading but also about themselves, their dreams and disappointments. Their stories intertwined with those they were reading—Pride and Prejudice, Washington Square, Daisy Miller and Lolita—their Lolita, as they imagined her in Tehran. Nafisi’s account flashes back to the early days of the revolution, when she first started teaching at the University of Tehran amid the swirl of protests and demonstrations. In those frenetic days, the students took control of the university, expelled faculty members and purged the curriculum. When a radical Islamist in Nafisi’s class questioned her decision to teach The Great Gatsby, which he saw as an immoral work that preached falsehoods of “the Great Satan,” she decided to let him put Gatsby on trial and stood as the sole witness for the defense. Azar Nafisi’s luminous tale offers a fascinating portrait of the Iran-Iraq war viewed from Tehran and gives us a rare glimpse, from the inside, of women’s lives in revolutionary Iran. It is a work of great passion and poetic beauty, written with a startlingly original voice. Praise for Reading Lolita in Tehran “Anyone who has ever belonged to a book group must read this book. Azar Nafisi takes us into the vivid lives of eight women who must meet in secret to explore the forbidden fiction of the West. It is at once a celebration of the power of the novel and a cry of outrage at the reality in which these women are trapped. The ayatollahs don’ t know it, but Nafisi is one of the heroes of the Islamic Republic.”—Geraldine Brooks, author of Nine Parts of Desire

Reading Lolita in Tehran

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A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother

An African American man describes life as the son of a white mother and Black father, reflecting on his mother's contributions to his life and his confusion over his own identity

The Color of Water

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In a companion volume to the bestselling A Retreat With Thomas Merton, Bowman has compiled practical and specific approaches for contemplating and meditating upon the spiritual writings of the great Franciscan monk, Saint Bonaventure.

A Retreat with St. Bonaventure

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An Experiential Guide

THE #1 BESTSELLING INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON - NOW WITH A NEW PREFACE

You have never read a book like this before--a book that comes along once in a lifetime to change lives forever.

In the rain forests of Peru, an ancient manuscript has been discovered. Within its pages are 9 key insights into life itself -- insights each human being is predicted to grasp sequentially; one insight, then another, as we move toward a completely spiritual culture on Earth. Drawing on ancient wisdom, it tells you how to make connections among the events happening in your life right now and lets you see what is going to happen to you in the years to come. The story it tells is a gripping one of adventure and discovery, but it is also a guidebook that has the power to crystallize your perceptions of why you are where you are in life and to direct your steps with a new energy and optimism as you head into tomorrow.

Praise for The Celestine Prophecy
"A gripping adventure story filled with intrigue, suspense, and spiritual revelations." - Commonwealth Journal

"A spiritual classic...a book to read and reread, to cherish, and to give to friends." - Joan Borysenko, PhD, author of Fire in the Soul

"In his inimitable style of great storytelling, Redfield opens us up to a world of insight, inspiration, synchronicity, and power." - Deepak Chopra


The Celestine Prophecy

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Solving Communication Quandaries in Congregations

Knowledge is power, and the way knowledge is shared in a congregation can build up or break down community. When congregational leaders are sensitive to the ways that information should be shared, the congregation can become safe and strong. Unfortunately, congregations can easily fall into patterns of communication that lead to disastrous interpersonal and organizational outcomes. Even in times of crisis, however, congregations can learn and practice new skills and healthy communication management. Congregational consultants Kibbie Ruth and Karen McClintock show clergy and laity how to appropriately handle information. From proper ways to respond to rumors to relating information about a staff firing to the congregation, Healthy Disclosure is filled with step-by-step ideas for handling different types of sensitive material. It helps clergy and other congregational leaders understand levels of disclosure, including how and when to reveal information, the difference between privacy and secrecy, legal issues related to public knowledge, and the power of secrets from a congregation's past. What we don't know can hurt us. The more conscious congregational leaders are of the information they have and how they pass it along to others, the better off the congregation will be. Information management is both a technical process and a spiritual undertaking. Leaders need the ability to spiritually discern, not just intellectually decide, the solutions to congregational dilemmas. Ruth and McClintock guide readers in developing the skills needed to create a congregational environment of healthy disclosure.

Healthy Disclosure

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Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

New York Times bestselling author Rob Bell, whom The New Yorker describes as "one of the most influential Christian leaders in the country," does for the concept of God what he did for heaven and hell in his book Love Wins: He shows how traditional ideas have grown stale and dysfunctional and how to return vitality and vibrancy to lives of faith today.



Pastor Rob Bell explains why both culture and the church resist talking about God, and shows how we can reconnect with the God who is pulling us forward into a better future. Bell uses his characteristic evocative storytelling to challenge everything you think you know about God. What We Talk About When We Talk About God tackles the misconceptions about God and reveals how God is with us, for us, ahead of us, and how understanding this could change the entire course of our lives.

What We Talk about When We Talk about God

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Return to the Good Life

Simplicity is in; according to the Trends Research Institute, 15% of America's 77 million baby boomers will have joined the movement by the end of the decade. Inwardly rich and outwardly simple, voluntary simplicity is both a reaction and an antidote to the spiritually void, harried and materialistic lifestyle that pervades our culture.

In Seattle, the mecca of the movement, Cecile Andrews is renowned for her workshops on voluntary simplicity and her seminars on creating simplicity circles (groups dedicated to pursuing simplicity in their own lives). In The Circle of Simplicity she explains how, instead of working to exhaustion, we should focus on our creativity, participate in community life, and be more concerned about the planet. In the end, simplicity means different things to different people. For some it means changing careers; for others it's deciding to walk to work. Regardless of how we adopt the principles of simplicity, Andrews asserts, we will be able to live a more satisfying, rewarding existence.

The Circle of Simplicity

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Further Thoughts on Faith

With the trademark wisdom, humor, and honesty that made Anne Lamott's book on faith, Traveling Mercies, a runaway bestseller, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith is a spiritual antidote to anxiety and despair in increasingly fraught times.

The world is a more dangerous place than it was when Lamott's Traveling Mercies was published five years ago. Terrorism and war have become the new normal; environmental devastation looms even closer. And there are personal demands on Lamott's faith as well: turning fifty; her mother's Alzheimer's; her son's adolescence; and the passing of friends and time.

Fortunately for those of us who are anxious and scared about the state of the world, whose parents are also aging and dying, whose children are growing harder to recognize as they become teenagers, Plan B offers hope in the midst of despair. It shares with us Lamott's ability to comfort, and to make us laugh despite the grim realities.

Anne Lamott is one of our most beloved writers, and Plan B is a book more necessary now than ever. It will prove to be further evidence that, as The Christian Science Monitor has written, "Everybody loves Anne Lamott."

Plan B

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Reflections on Healing, Wholeness, and Restoration

This is a collection of sermons which explores Christian understandings of healing, wholeness, and restoration. Among the contributors are Walter Brueggemann, Barbara Brown Taylor, Maxie Dunnam, Barbara Lundblad, William Sloane Coffin, and Reginald Mallett. The editor of the volume, G. Scott Morris, is a physician and an elder in The United Methodist Church. He is founder and executive director of the Church Health Center in Memphis, Tennessee, the largest faith-based, not-for-profit primary health clinic in America.

I Am the Lord Who Heals You

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In Prayer and the Common Life, pioneering theologian Georgia Harkness argues that in response to the troubles of the world around us--one that is consumed with materialism, constantly at war, and filled with social injustices of all kinds--what is most needed is a revitalization of "vital, God-centered, intelligently grounded" prayer.  Instead of prayer that merely insulates one from the world, focusing on psychological states or absolving a person from taking action, Harkness advocates prayer that "makes a difference in the common life"--that is, prayer that transforms both the person praying and the world for which he or she prays.  The problem, says Harkness, is that many people simply have never experienced this kind of transforming prayer and have become skeptical about the effectiveness of prayer in their lives.  She therefore describes "vital" prayer from three directions. The "foundations" of prayer relate prayer to the basic structures of Christian faith and show how prayer includes elements of adoration, thanksgiving, confession, petition, intercession, commitment, assurance, and ascription to Christ.  The "methods" of prayer include hindrances to prayer as well as suggestions of how it may be engaged in both private devotions and congregational worship.  And the "fruits" of prayer center on the ways vital, transforming prayer can contribute to peace in one's life and in the world.  Written in the same accessible style that characterizes her other works, Georgia Harkness's Prayer and the Common Life addresses concerns that are still relevant to today's readers.            "Scholarship and fine writing are united with a devotional approach to the supreme experience available to the human soul."      -- Christian Herald             "One of the most simple, comprehensive, and helpful books on prayer that we have."    -- Journal of Bible and Religion "This marches straight toward its goal, which is to provide a manual ... for people who want to pray but know not how."-- Christian Century "This book is a rare combination of information and inspiration. It answers the whats, whys, and hows of prayer. It will inspire the slothful to new zeal in prayer; it will help the dissatisfied to find satisfaction in prayer; it will give the zealous new joy in prayer. . . . Deserves a place in every preacher's library."                                                   -- Review and Expositor

Prayer and the Common Life

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A Short Course in the Art of Self-Determination

Mother Goose, the Three Little Pigs, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel. How often have we read these tales, told the stories, seen the movies and cartoons? And how often have we dreamed of a fairy-tale life for ourselves? Of course, most lives are nothing like fairy tales. But does that mean that fairy tales are only for children?Mother Goose Meets A Woman Called Wisdom takes classic fairy tales and Bible stories and gives them a modern spin. Acknowledging that the timeless messages we desperately need to hear are often obscured by images and metaphors we just can't understand, Linda Hollies gets these messages across by telling stories we can relate to today. Her colorful sense of humor and engaging style make this book enjoyable to read and truly meaningful, and her practical insights allow us to apply the wisdom of these stories to our everyday lives.

Mother Goose Meets a Woman Called Wisdom

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Seeing God in Surprising Places, Even the Church

The phrase "I'm spiritual but not religious" has become a cliché. It's easy to find God amid the convenience of self-styled spirituality -- but is it possible (and more worthwhile) to search for God through religion?

Minister and celebrated author Lillian Daniel gives a new spin on church with stories of what a life of faith can really be: weird, wondrous, and well worth trying. From a rock-and-roller sexton to a BB gun-toting grandma, a church service attended by animals to a group of unlikely theologians at Sing Sing, Daniel shows us a portrait of church that is flawed, fallible -- and deeply faithful. With poignant reflections and sly wit, Daniel invites all of us to step out of ourselves, dare to become a community, and encounter a God greater than we could ever invent.

Humorous and sincere, this is a book about people finding God in the most unexpected of places: prisons, airports, yoga classes, committee meetings, and, strangest of all, right there in church.

When "Spiritual but Not Religious" Is Not Enough

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Having Hope, Finding Forgiveness, and Making Miracles

Arguing that everyday problems and challenges of life offer a unique opportunity to find God, the author explains how to open our hearts and minds to find the spiritual wisdom that can transform lives and build faith.

Everyday Grace

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A pastor and his wife are the main characters in this novel which shows how verbal and emotional abuse destroys a woman's belief in her own abilities.

You Know I Don't Love You

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Healthy Practices for Layfolk

When serious conflict surfaces in a congregation, lay people are usually stunned. They feel frightened, angry, and helpless. Congregational Fitness explores why congregations are prone to conflict and describes healthy behaviors lay people can practice to manage conflict constructively. Goodman argues that since it is members of the congregation who carry on from one pastor to another, it is important for them to know and practice positive behaviors continually, rather than reacting out of emotion and anxiety to an unexpected situation. Designed for use by individuals, study groups, and retreat participants.

Browse by categories

Colleen McDannell; Bernhard Lang

Heaven

Craig Kennet Miller

NextChurch. Now

Harold Kushner

To Life!

Laurie Beth Jones

The Path

Mitch Albom

Have a Little Faith

Donna Woolfolk Cross

Pope Joan

Thom Lemmons

Jeremiah

Thom Lemmons

Daniel

Sarah Shun-lien Bynum

Ms. Hempel Chronicles

Azar Nafisi

Reading Lolita in Tehran

James McBride

The Color of Water

Leonard Bowman

A Retreat with St. Bonaventure

James Redfield; Carol Adrienne

The Celestine Prophecy

Kibbie Simmons Ruth; Karen A. McClintock

Healthy Disclosure

Rob Bell

What We Talk about When We Talk about God

Cecile Andrews

The Circle of Simplicity

Anne Lamott

Plan B

G. Scott Morris (Editor)

I Am the Lord Who Heals You

Georgia Harkness

Prayer and the Common Life

Linda H. Hollies

Mother Goose Meets a Woman Called Wisdom

Lillian Daniel

When "Spiritual but Not Religious" Is Not Enough

Marianne Williamson

Everyday Grace

Margaret Horn

You Know I Don't Love You

Denise W. Goodman

Congregational Fitness

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