No one said pursuing justice would be easy. How do you stay committed to the journey when God's kingdom can seem so slow in coming? Kent Annan understands the struggle of working for justice over the long haul. In this book, he shares practices he has learned that will guide and strengthen you as you love mercy, do justice and walk humbly in the world.

In today's fast-food world, Christianity can seem outdated or archaic. The temptation becomes to pick up the pace and play the game. But Chris Smith and John Pattison invites us to leave franchise faith behind and enter the kingdom of God, where people know each other well and love one another as Christ loves the church.

Enter a simpler way of living by unhurrying your heart, embracing the relaxed rhythms of nature, and discovering the meaningful gift of growing slow. We long to make a break from the fast pace of life, but if we're honest, we're afraid of what we'll miss if we do. Yet when going big and hustling hard leaves us stressed, empty, and out of sorts, perhaps this can be our cue to step into a far more satisfying, sustainable pace. In this crafted, inspiring read, beloved author Jennifer Dukes Lee offers a path to unhurried living by returning to the rhythm of the land and learning the ancient art of Growing Slow. Jennifer was once at breaking point herself, and tells her story of rude awakening to the ways her chosen lifestyle of running hard, scaling fast, and the neverending chase for results was taking a toll on her body, heart, and soul. But when she finally gave herself permission to believe it takes time to grow good things, she found a new kind of freedom. With eloquent truths and vivid storytelling, Jennifer reflects on the lessons she learned from living on her fifth-generation family farm and the insights she gathered from the purposeful yet never rushed life of Christ. Growing Slow charts a path out of the pressures of bigger, harder, faster, and into a more rooted way of living where the growth of good things is deep and lasting. Following the rhythms of the natural growing season, Growing Slow will help you: Find the true relief that comes when you stop running and start resting in Jesus Learn practices for unhurrying your heart and mind every day Let go of the pressure and embrace the small, good things already bearing fruit in your life And engage slow growth through reflection prompts and simple application steps

By Nobel Prize Winner Peter Handke Provocative, romantic, and restlessly exploratory, Peter Handke is one of the great writers of our time. Slow Homecoming, originally published in the late 1970s, is central to his achievement and to the powerful influence he has exercised on other writers, chief among them W.G. Sebald. A novel of self-questioning and self-discovery, Slow Homecoming is a singular odyssey, an escape from the distractions of the modern world and the unhappy consciousness, a voyage that is fraught and fearful but ultimately restorative, ending on an unexpected note of joy. The book begins in America. Writing with the jarring intensity of his early work, Handke introduces Valentin Sorger, a troubled geologist who has gone to Alaska to lose himself in his work, but now feels drawn back home: on his way to Europe he moves in ominous disorientation through the great cities of America. The second part of the book, “The Lesson of Mont Sainte-Victoire,” identifies Sorger as a projection of the author, who now writes directly about his own struggle to reconstitute himself and his art by undertaking a pilgrimage to the great mountain that Cézanne painted again and again. Finally, “Child Story” is a beautifully observed, deeply moving account of a new father—not so much Sorger or the author as a kind of Everyman—and his love for his growing daughter.

If you’ve ever browsed the self-help sections of any bookshop, you’d be forgiven for thinking that all we need to do in order to have a better life is to work hard, take exercise and get thin. Yet Christian activism calls us to a bigger vision of what life is for. It dares to suggest that Christians change the world for the better. In 12 Rules for Christian Activists, Ellen Louden and a host of contributors present 12 accessible and practical principles to encourage a new generation to create a movement for positive social change. Each chapter combines clear theological insight with inspiring stories told by activists and practitioners, including Naomi Maynard (activist researcher), Richard Peers (spiritual director), Angus Ritchie (Director, Centre for Theology and Community), and Nadine Daniel (Church of England National Refugee Coordinator).

This book hails from decades of challenging trial-and-error work, abundant reading, and an enduring obligation to ministers, activists, and unsung lay heroes whose legacies matter. As there is little that actually addresses the elusive meanings, if not the dangers inherent in pursuing alleged spoils of "success," it is kairos time. Seemingly scarce resources and competition to make and maintain ministries in the city challenge those of us in the field, or on the sidelines, to speak, write, and communicate clearly, and convincingly--not only for ourselves and our "people," past and present, but for those who come along soon to receive the baton or wear the mantle. Concretely narrated, with unique case studies, a cast of dozens contribute their earthy, earnest testimonies and are, at long last, energetically affirmed. Specifically, this work proffers constructive attention to the critical cautions concerning subtle temptations to "succeed," including: commodification, cooptation, communalism, clientelism, and cowardice--and, not bailing on fierce charity-justice tensions (with benevolence protectively dominant). Narrative analysis and biography-as-theology, social ethics, biblical theology, and recent church history give apt attention to how a compelling case is possible for success, if justice is practiced, given a hopeful realism and perspective of prophetic eschatology.

Nicola Griffith, winner of the Tiptree Award and the Lambda Award for her widely acclaimed first novel Ammonite, now turns her attention closer to the present in Slow River, the dark and intensely involving story of a young woman's struggle for survival and independence on the gritty underside of a near-future Europe. She awoke in an alley to the splash of rain. She was naked, a foot-long gash in her back was still bleeding, and her identity implant was gone. Lore Van de Oest was the daughter of one of the world's most powerful families...and now she was nobody. Then out of the rain walked Spanner, an expert data pirate who took her in, cared for her wounds, and gave her the freedom to reinvent herself again and again. No one could find Lore if she didn't want to be found: not the police, not her family, and not the kidnappers who had left her in that alley to die. She had escaped...but she paid for her newfound freedom in crime, deception, and degradation--over and over again. Lore had a choice: She could stay in the shadows, stay with Spanner...and risk losing herself forever. Or she could leave Spanner and find herself again by becoming someone else: stealing the identity implant of a dead woman, taking over her life, and inventing her future. But to start again, Lore required Spanner's talents--Spanner, who needed her and hated her, and who always had a price. And even as Lore agreed to play Spanner's games one final time, she found that there was still the price of being a Van de Oest to be paid. Only by confronting her past, her family, and her own demons could Lore meld together who she had once been, who she had become, and the person she intended to be.... In Slow River, Nicola Griffith skillfully takes us deep into the mind and heart of her complex protagonist, where the past must be reconciled with the present if the future is ever to offer solid ground. Slow River poses a question we all hope never to need to answer: Who are you when you have nothing left?

Collaborative Spirit-Writing and Performance in Everyday Black Lives is about the interconnectedness between collaboration, spirit, and writing. It is also about a dialogic engagement that draws upon shared lived experiences, hopes, and fears of two Black persons: male/female, straight/gay. This book is structured around a series of textual performances, poems, plays, dialogues, calls and responses, and mediations that serve as claim, ground, warrant, qualifier, rebuttal, and backing in an argument about collaborative spirit-writing for social justice. Each entry provides evidence of encounters of possibility, collated between the authors, for ourselves, for readers, and society from a standpoint of individual and collective struggle. The entries in this Black performance diary are at times independent and interdependent, interspliced and interrogative, interanimating and interstitial. They build arguments about collaboration but always emanate from a place of discontent in a caste system, designed through slavery and maintained until today, that positions Black people in relation to white superiority, terror, and perpetual struggle. With particular emphasis on the confluence of Race, Racism, Antiracism, Black Lives Matter, the Trump administration, and the Coronavirus pandemic, this book will appeal to students and scholars in Race studies, performance studies, and those who practice qualitative methods as a new way of seeking Black social justice.

Having retired after a teaching career of more than thirty years, having taught across multiple grade levels and various content areas, The Collapse of the Church: Reversing the Challenges That Threaten the Gospel Message is the product of an enriching ministry experience in the local church, having served as a teacher, deacon, and pianist for both Spanish-speaking and English-speaking congregations. It is a research-based study with a pragmatic and practical perspective on the current needs and issues of the believers of the twenty-first century. The gospel message is clear, and the members of the body of Christ have a responsibility to "encourage one another and build each other up" (1 Thess. 5:11 NIV). The message of our Lord Jesus Christ is as real today as it was centuries ago: "I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest" (John 4:35 NIV), and this includes believers in the local churches. Many believers in the local congregations need the support of other members of the body of Christ, an attitude and practice that has been neglected and abandoned for superficial religious activities. Observe and listen to their silent cries as revealed in The Collapse of the Church: Reversing the Challenges That Threaten the Gospel Message. Jesus knew the importance of reaching out to those who were in distress, debilitated, and desolate: "Now he had to go through Samaria" (John 4:4 NIV). In Samaria, he met the Samaritan woman, and through her, her village and her town received the good news about the Messiah: "Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony" (John 4:39 NIV). His own disciples were blind to her need; they were subject to the day's misconceptions and misinterpretations and biases. Many believers in the local congregations are experiencing similar hurts. Paul said, "Carry each other's burdens," and, "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers" (Gal. 6:2, 10 NIV). The Collapse of the Church: Reversing the Challenges That Threaten the Gospel Message is an invitation to attend to the needs of individuals who have been abandoned, forgotten, and rejected by addressing their spiritual, social, emotional, psychological, and financial needs. Solomon said, "Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act" (Prov. 3:27-28 NIV).