Faith in God plus therapy are the combination that leads to wholeness. Tune's story of his faith/therapy path to authenticity with God will empower you for your own life journey. Tune is the son of a drug-addicted single parent mother, who herself, inherited deeply ingrained obstacles to self-love. He found his way out of poverty via the military. He graduated from Howard University and Duke School of Divinity. He was a minister, a sought-after speaker, and social entrepreneur. Outwardly, he was successful, an overcomer. Yet, his past, hidden childhood trauma would sometimes revolt, causing self-sabotage that threatened to destroy the life he was creating. He worked hard to keep the emotional brokenness caused by the challenges of his upbringing carefully hidden -- especially from the church. His mother, with whom he successfully reconciled after she was finally free from addiction, died of lung cancer. Then he divorced -- a second time. Feeling like a failure, questioning his faith and will to live, he made a choice not to give up but to examine his life and seek counseling. Dubbed "Brother Brown" (a Black man's Brene Brown), his book shares his process of applying therapy and faith to anger, shame, self-doubt and plaguing memories. Romal learned that the pursuit of success was not the key to healing the inner turmoil but it was in learning to accept the love of God and learning to love the wounded child within. His past pain was redeemed as self-worth and he finally found inner peace. No longer carrying the weight of secrets, guilt and shame, he emerged emotionally free and more powerful than ever. His book will empower others to stop living a past driven present by healing their stories, embracing the love of God, and learning to truly love themselves.

Whether the issue of the day on Twitter, Facebook, or cable news is our sexuality, political divides, or the perceived conflict between faith and science, today’s media pushes each one of us into a frustrating clash between two opposing sides. Polarizing, us-against-them discussions divide us and distract us from thinking clearly and communicating lovingly with others. Scott Sauls, like many of us, is weary of the bickering and is seeking a way of truth and beauty through the conflicts. Jesus Outside the Lines presents Jesus as this way. Scott shows us how the words and actions of Jesus reveal a response that does not perpetuate the destructive fray. Jesus offers us a way forward—away from harshness, caricatures, and stereotypes. In Jesus Outside the Lines, you will experience a fresh perspective of Jesus, who will not (and should not) fit into the sides.

A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.

Christians have not always presented an inviting picture to the world. Too often we have failed to show the beauty of authentic Christian love. And the world has disregarded Christianity as a result. Francis A. Schaeffer challenges Christians to respond compassionately to a needy world and to show the mark of Christ in all their actions.

The ministry of reconciliation is the new whole in holistic ministry. It must be if the Christian mission is to remain relevant in our increasingly fractured world. This book offers a fresh treatment of holistic ministry that takes the role of reconciliation seriously, rethinking the meaning of the gospel, the nature of the church, and the practice of mission in light of globalization, post-Christendom, and postcolonialism. It also includes theological and practical resources for effectively engaging in evangelism, compassion and justice, and reconciliation ministries. Includes a foreword by Ruth Padilla DeBorst and an afterword by Ronald J. Sider.

Interest in recent years in reconciliation and conflict transformation has witnessed a great deal of attention to building a future through forgiveness and preventative measures in order to impede egregious wrongdoing. This effort for a reconciled future is absent reflection on the nature of cruelty. Cruelty has always been apparent in massive acts of wrongdoing and yet is repeatedly concealed in our assessment of the acts themselves. This book is a theologically honest and deep-structure exploration of cruelty in its personal, communal and institutional encounters in human life. Drawing on Nietzsche's challenge of cruelty to the western tradition, the work offers a comprehensive study of how cruelty undermines care, trust, respect and justice – all those elements of human reciprocity that mark our lives as interdependent beings. The work concludes with a tightly written Epilogue on interpreting the theological meaning and accessibility of reconciliation today.

In Worthy, college professor Melanie Springer Mock sifts through the shape and weight of expectations that press Christians into cultural molds rather than God’s image. By plumbing Scripture and critiquing the ten-billion-dollar-a-year self-improvement industry, Mock offers life-giving reminders that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Set free from the anxiety to conform to others’ expectations, we are liberated to become who God has created us to be.If you’re worn out from worrying that you’ve missed God’s One Big Calling, and if you’re tired of trying to fit yourself into some cookie-cutter Christian mold, step away from the expectations and toward God’s heart.

Like falling in love, this book argues that a relationship with God begins with surprise, proceeds with discovery, and shapes a life that comes to share a story of love. This book does not describe God, but pursues the nature of personally relating with the triune God. Consequently, it also engages how we relate with humans made in God's image. We finish the Face-to-Face series with this most mysterious and fulfilling encounter--a personal engagement with the Relational God, known as a community of persons who invite us to share in their life.

With 1,500 churches and denominations in the United States, the church is fragmented. Jesus calls us to be one, even as He and God are one. This is a great challenge, because we now go our separate ways in a peaceful coexistence. We can unify, not on all of the details that define each church or denomination, but on the simple commands Jesus gave us. Even the Jews had four sects at the time of Jesus, but they were all Jews and at least agreed on the Torah. If we can agree on a few commandments, we will have taken one giant step toward enjoying unity, even as Jesus enjoyed being one with the Father.