With this memoir doubling as an exercise in theological reflection, Mark Lloyd Taylor invites readers to explore the work and play of a year of preaching. A turbulent and supersaturated year of life in the world, featuring parish departures and resilience, a housing crisis in neighborhood and city, the inauguration of Donald Trump as president with attendant social/political/economic issues. ISIS, Iraq, and Syria. Displaced people at the southern border. Sexual violence against women. Race in America. Feminist, womanist, and process theologies propel Taylor’s twelve sermons across the 2016–17 church year (Lectionary Year A). But at its most imaginative, the adult work of preaching becomes child’s play. Sermons carried by verbal and visual and tactile images. Walking makes the way. Straying beyond fences of hatred and staying beyond. A broken porcelain bowl mended with gold. A seven-foot-tall assemblage of kimchi pots no longer buried by fear. An icon of the great faith of the Canaanite woman, great enough to convert Jesus. Every single one of us a little baby Sophia, living and moving and having our being in the universal womb of God, our mother. All to fill corners and empty spaces in our imaginations.

God can do anything, but did you know He has already done everything? Instead of asking the Lord to do something for you - revive you, heal you, bless you, prosper you - accept what He has already done for you through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God has left you precious promises in His Word and those promises belong to...

Too often believers pray for healing but never experience it. They pray for prosperity but never receive it. Why? Because they don’t know how to use a godly imagination correctly. They don’t see themselves healed. They don’t see themselves prosperous. They don’t see themselves victorious. In The Power of Imagination...

Scouting Our Way celebrates a century of the Boy Scouts of America's rich, faith-based heritage. It embraces the spirit of Scouting and renews the religious bedrock of Lord Robert S.S. Baden-Powell's pioneering experiment in shaping good character in youth and preparing them to do their best. His founding moral principles and ideals embodied in the Boy Scouts of America's Oath and Law are brilliantly illuminated in the book through prayers and devotions from over thirty religions and denominations. Scouting Our Way includes an extraordinary selection of traditional and favorite Scout prayers and devotions arranged by program and activity suitable for personal reflection and group gatherings. There is also a prayer journal inside the book for Scouts to record their personal and favorite prayers. At the end of each chapter are Set My Compass interactive, theme-based adventures where the reader can engage with unique chapter topics through faith-building activities. Each Set My Compass exercise is an enlightening, personal, and sharing experience for Scouts to appreciate the blessings and value of reverence, duty, and fellowship. These chapter tasks are readily adaptable for age and program and are an ideal complement to earning advancement, service or religious honors requiring an understanding and the role of a Scout's duty to God. Scouting Our Way also features a journey of prayer in America from the country's foremost leaders and personalities during landmark events in our nation's history. Included, as well, are inspiring words from the presidents of the United States opening with Theodore Roosevelt to the current chief of state speaking on the importance of religious diversity and fellowship among all citizens in building this great nation. Scouting Our Way is distinctive in the body of published works on religious diversity and interfaith understanding. It is an indispensable resource for meditation and spiritual growth. Scouts, leaders, parents, teachers, and mentors will also find it essential for use at meetings, outings, ceremonies, and special events where people of one or many faiths come together to celebrate the spirit and adventure of Scouting.

The everything-you-need to know adult guide to the Episcopal Church. This updated and revised edition incorporates new initiatives and changes in the Episcopal Church, including marriage, inclusion of LBGTQ+ persons, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s call to join the Jesus Movement, and taking our faith out into the world. A Leader Guide is included in this revised edition in addition to the “transformation questions” that follow each chapter. Easy to read but with substance for newcomers, adult formation groups, and lifelong Episcopalians, this book is for all who desire to know more about the Episcopal Church.

The most ancient form of prayer is probably petition. Scot McKnight has set out to understand this better, and guide pray-ers and churches to reinvigorate their practice of asking God. To You All Hearts Are Open begins with the Collects of the Book of Common Prayer – timeless prayers that have been used by Christians for centuries, are rooted in the Catholic tradition of prayer, and are deeply biblical. These prayers common to churches of nearly every denomination illustrate five elements of prayer itself: addressing God, asking God, reminding God of how God has acted in the past, expecting God to answer, and accessing God through Christ. They are the Bible’s pattern of petitioning God which Scot McKnight seeks to rediscover a reliable path to relationship and true conversation with God.

Alice Bass helps Christians break through creative blocks and establish an environment that nurtures creativity. Exercises for groups or individuals are included.

An account of the author's training and experience in parish healing ministry, along with history, practical advice, and guidance. For Christians, the ministry of healing prayer goes back to our deepest roots, to Jesus of Nazareth, who cared for those suffering in body and in spirit. As his followers, we are challenged—and empowered—to do the same. Members of mainline Christian denominations, however, may be skeptical about this ministry, as author Avery Brooke was at first. She tells the surprising story of healing prayer in her own life and that of her church in Connecticut. With clarity and thoroughness, she traces the history of healing prayer, examining it as part of the larger “landscape of prayer.” This book provides a foundation—and a wealth of practical information—for clergy and lay people to explore healing prayer in their own lives and parishes.

This vividly illustrated devotional offers fifty-two profound images and reflections on great women and men of faith from Polycarp in the first century to the martyrs of Sudan in the twenty-first. These saints from every continent and century will spark your imagination, helping you to be faithful in our own age.

Visit America’s favorite small town one book at a time. From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Jan Karon, this is the new ecollection of novels six through nine in the beloved Mitford Years series, plus Home to Holly Springs, the first novel in the Father Tim series. Readers have come to feel at home in Mitford, the little town with the big heart. As this charming mountain village works its magic, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll quickly make friends who feel like family—for the residents of Mitford are the most ordinary people who live the most extraordinary lives. And in Home to Holly Springs, you will travel back with Father Tim to his childhood Mississippi home, where he discovers the awesome power of love and forgiveness.