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Together at the Table
Together at the Table is the personal story and public message of Bishop Karen Oliveto, the first openly LGBTQ person to be elected a bishop in The United Methodist Church. Her election was and is controversial, with opponents seeking to have her removed and some even threatening violence against her. The denomination has been debating the inclusion of LGBTQ people for decades and will be gathering in February 2019 to determine whether it can agree to let conferences within the church ordain as they see fit and let congregations decide what weddings to hold or whether conservative and liberal factions will break off from the denominational body. Bishop Oliveto believes that the church can stay together--that people of different convictions can remain in communion with one another. Woven together with her own story of coming out and following God's call to ordained ministry is her guidance for how to live together despite differences--by practicing empathy, living with ambiguity, appreciating the diversity of creation, and embracing unity without uniformity.
Our Strangely Warmed Hearts
Coming out into one's authentic, God-created self fosters spiritual renewal and call to ministry.
Our Strangely Warmed Hearts
As John Wesley discovered his true spiritual identity, he experienced a strangely warmed heart. Through poignant stories and well-reasoned principles, Karen Oliveto discloses why and how spiritual renewal and a personal call to ministry emerge in the strangely warmed hearts of lesbian and gay Christians. In The United Methodist Church (and other Christian denominations), it is difficult or impossible for lesbian, gay, transsexual, and bisexual clergy or laity to become a visible and outward channel for God’s saving grace. This book traces the history of the church’s struggle with homosexuality, highlighting critical incidents in the culture and church polity which shape the church’s re...
Talking about Homosexuality
"Talking about Homosexuality is the first book in the new series Holy Conversations: A Study Tool for Theological Reflection around Debates in the Church that Considers Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience." "Over the course of six sessions, through conversation, study, and exercises participants reflect on their Christian beliefs and personal experiences guided by the categories of the Wesleyan quadrilateral: scripture, tradition, experience, and reason. The book includes a Facilitator's Guide."--BOOK JACKET.
Everything Good about God Is True
A better story of faith exists, and it has the capacity to heal the world--if we only embrace, articulate, and live it more courageously. You know what you don't believe: about the Bible, the church, and God. You don't agree with the doctrines of an exclusionary, dominant Christianity. But what if someone asked you: "What do you believe?" In this primer on progressive, expansive, generous Christianity, writer and pastor Bruce Reyes-Chow helps us reconsider--or consider for the first time--what it means to choose faith. What if we could articulate the gospel of love, kindness, humility, and justice? What if the Christian narrative both embraces contradiction and lays claim to deep, historic t...
Dream Like Jesus
Rebekah Simon-Peter explores her own spiritual journey and helps leaders learn to get past the "standard" Christianity and learn to dream like Jesus, thus inspiring individuals and congregations to dream and achieve dreams previously thought impossible.
A House Divided
In our current culture of conflict, Americans need a better way of relating to one another and responding to controversial issues; a way that transcends political partisanship and emphasizes universal care, mutual concern, and the flourishing of the common good. In A House Divided, Feldmeir suggests that the solution to our political entrenchment is a shared commitment to practicing a politics of compassion; the motivating, unifying ideals of the gospel that insist that we work together for the benefit of the common good. Feldmeir explores eight of the most divisive issues our day; climate change, immigration, medical aid in dying, Islamic extremism, racism, health care, homosexuality, and preventing suicide; through the lens of a Christian ethic of love, seeking to identify those shared values that affirm our commonality and inspire a more creative and collaborative approach to finding practical solutions and healing our divisions. Each chapter includes a study guide for small group conversations.
The Last Pastor
Gail Cafferata was heartbroken when the church she pastored voted to close its doors. It may have been the right decision, but it led to a million questions in her mind about her call, leadership, and future. She began to think that other pastors who close churches perhaps go through this same experience. This led her to conduct a sociological study of over 130 pastors in five historically established denominations (Episcopal, Lutheran, United Methodist, Presbyterian, and United Church of Christ) who were called to serve churches that closed. This book tells the results of that study, which consisted of many interviews, and the hard-won lessons learned by these courageous pastors.
For Better, For Worse
For Better, For Worse discusses the shame narratives tied to divorce, rooted in Christian theologies of marriage and U.S. political landscapes of marriage rights and regulation. Using interdisciplinary methods, Natalie E. Williams investigates the current conflict between social practices that normalize divorce and religious and political rhetorical narratives that continue to shame those who divorce. Williams's work seeks to understand current attitudes and policies related to divorce and to shape Christian ethical responses that resist the use of shame, relying instead on commitments to truth-telling and a cultivation of “shamelessness” to support flourishing across a spectrum of family forms.
Faith Working through Love
“For in Christ Jesus . . . the only thing that counts is faith working through love.” —Galatians 5:6, NRSV Faith Working Through Love invites us to revisit and reclaim essential Christian beliefs and practices as United Methodists. In an easy to follow question and answer format, the study recaps basic teachings and practices of Christian faith and underscores the core convictions of United Methodists. ~~~ Why Read This Book? People are struggling to cope with everyday life and our societies are divided and broken. Some wonder if lifting up the core doctrines of Christian faith divide us and cause further disagreements. But to the contrary, it is in times of uncertainty that we yearn t...
