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God's people are meant to be a blessing to others. Yet in the Scriptures, throughout history, and in our own times we too often see the people of God causing harm to people on the margins. Rather than caring for the widowed and the orphaned or loving the sojourner, too often we see abuse of power that breaks spirits and inflicts lasting harm. For anyone who has felt left out or pushed out of the church, Othered is your invitation to find spiritual rest and belonging in a God who loves, restores, and blesses the outcast and the marginalized. Jenai Auman draws on her experience growing up as a biracial kid in the American South as well as working within toxic ministry environments to reveal a hopeful, trauma-informed way forward. This book illuminates how hurt and betrayal in the church are longstanding problems that God neither sanctions nor tolerates. It offers holistic responses to the grief, anger, and trauma that come with being ostracized or oppressed by the church. And it shows how God provides shelter and provision in the midst of the wilderness. Because God sees, hears, and loves you--even if the church has failed you.
What if belonging isn't something to attain, but someone to become? Sarah E. Westfall takes our longing to belong as an invitation to embrace and extend God's love. Teaching a posture of welcome in the way of the Father, she guides us toward a deep connection where our humanity draws us closer to people and envelops us in the heart of God.
Cultural identity matters—to us and to Jesus. Culture is all around us. Nothing we think, do, or say exists outside of it. But the story of God is clear: We are all made in God’s good image, and God’s people are meant to be a diverse community. Looking to the example of Jesus, author J. W. Buck offers practical insights into how cultural identity fits into our walk as Christians. No matter where we come from and no matter how complex our cultural narratives, the Scriptures point to the One who embodied a particular identity—of a Jewish man in first-century Palestine—in order to shape our own. Jesus teaches those formed by majority culture to humbly embrace their identity as they foster space for others. And he empowers those from minority cultures to resist pressure to assimilate in unhealthy ways and instead live into their God-given identity. God dignifies our culture and wants us to shape it to look more like Jesus. We are meant to be like Jesus in our home culture, in our heart language, and throughout our collective journey to understand how our diversity points us to a better expression of God’s good image.
Following the way of Jesus should lead us into authentic and life-giving relationships. The Jesus Way calls us into community with others to form a new kind of family--a forged family. In an era when our relationships with our families of origin are more complicated than ever, pastor T. C. Moore shows us how following the way of Jesus can lead us to forged families that are authentic and life-giving. Our forged families are the ones who love us for who we are and show up for us when we're in desperate need. Our forged families are the ones with whom we've worked through conflict. Our forged families make us who we are, strengthen our faith, and sustain us through life's many challenges. Forged weaves together stories from the author's over twenty years of experience with urban, multiethnic ministry all over the US, principles from Scripture, and his own experience as an ex-gang member turned church planter and pastor to propose a way of approaching faith in community that rejects hierarchical, bureaucratic structures in favor of formative, inclusive friendships that last.
"I've always felt unfit as a Korean but somehow too Korean everywhere else." Tasha Jun has always been caught between worlds: American and Korean, faith and doubt, family devotion and fierce independence. As a Korean American, she wandered between seemingly opposing worlds, struggling to find a voice to speak and a firm place for her feet to land. The world taught Tasha that her Korean normal was a barrier to belonging--that assimilation was the only way she would ever be truly accepted. But if that were true, did that mean God had made a mistake in knitting her together? Told with tender honesty and compelling prose, Tell Me the Dream Again is a memoir-in-essays exploring what it means to be biracial in America today the joy and healing that comes with embracing every part of who we are, and how our identity in Christ is tightly woven with the unique colors, scents, and culture he's given us. We are not outsiders to God. When we let all the details of ourselves unfold--when we embrace who we were divinely knit together to be--this is when we'll fully experience his perfect love.
After assuming the rapid pace and stress of city living in the States, Jodi Grubbs realized God was bidding her to return to the "island time" of her childhood home. Evoking the gentle rhythms of Bonaire in the Caribbean, Jodi invites you to a life anchored by the forced pauses of spiritual practices and an openhandedness before God.
When a woman caught in the act of adultery was thrown down at Jesus’ feet, the bloodthirsty crowd filled their hands with rocks and demanded she be put to death. That confrontation still reverberates in our lives today. Surely we can relate with the shame of the woman and her exposed sin. Unfortunately, we can also relate with the hypocritical crowd, reveling in the rejection of “the other.” But can we fully relate with Christ, the God who intervened to save her? For those who’ve become wary of tired and sometimes even offensive Christian dogmatism, Carlos Rodríguez may be the spark that ignites the flames of faith in the true Jesus. He tells it like it is, with a desire to motivate those who feel ready to engage the world around them, not through political or religious agendas, but through grace and love. Drop the Stones invites followers of Jesus to drop their religious rocks, and, with open hands, engage in the rewarding lifestyle of a Jesus-styled love.
Why does God feel so far away? The reason--and the solution--is in your attachment style. We all experience moments when God's love and presence are tangible. But we also experience feeling utterly abandoned by God. Why? The answer is found when you take a deep look at the other important relationships in your life and understand your attachment style. Through his years working in trauma recovery programs, extensive research into attachment science, and personal experiences with spiritual striving and abuse, licensed therapist Krispin Mayfield has learned to answer the question: Why do I feel so far from God? When you understand your attachment style you gain a whole new paradigm for a secur...
An accessible, expert introduction to one of the greatest minds of nineteenth century. Whether you're completely new to him, or if you're already familiar with his work, Kierkegaard: A Single Life presents a fresh understanding of his life and thought. Kierkegaard was a brilliant and enigmatic loner whose ideas permeated culture, shaped modern Christianity, and influenced people as diverse as Franz Kafka and Martin Luther King Jr. Though few people today have read his work, that lack of familiarity with the real Kierkegaard is changing with this biography by scholar Stephen Backhouse, who clearly presents the man's mind as well as the acute sensitivity behind Kierkegaard's books. Drawing on ...