The characters in Scripture are often portrayed as one-dimensional--as caricatures instead of human beings with real needs, authentic pain, and compelling fears.
Given a life spent in scholarship and controversy, it is easy to forget how much energy Martin Luther devoted to helping the common person understand and take comfort from Gods word.
Celebrating the spirit of songIn A Song to Sing, a Life to Live, Don and Emily Saliers help readers see the connections between Saturday night music and Sunday morning music by exploring the spiritual dimensions of music itself.
Reminiscent of Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship, Jennifer McBride’s Radical Discipleship utilizes the liturgical seasons as a framework for engaging the social evils of mass incarceration, capital punishment, and homelessness, arguing that to be faithful to the gospel, Christians must become disciples of, not simply believers in, Jesus.
Neighbor Love through Fearful Days is a reflection on pandemics--the Covid-19 pandemic, the accompanying economic collapse, a summer of climate chaos, and the pandemic of white supremacy--as well as on the calling to "e;serve thy neighbor"e; and work toward the common good, even and especially in times of crisis.
In this newly revised edition of Sexuality and Holy Longing, author Lisa Graham McMinn beautifully describes how people are created by God for relationship, and our sexuality guarantees that we will long for and be drawn toward others.
The Protestant Reformation emphasized the centrality of scripture to Christian life; the twentieth-century liturgical movement emphasized the Bible‘s place at the heart of liturgy.
Dennis Jacobsen brings his many years of experience doing congregation-based organizing for justice into conversation with unique spiritual reflections.
This book combines a rich description of the (Lutheran) Formula of Concord (1577) with experiences in today's Lutheran parishes to demonstrate how confessional texts may still come to life in modern Christian congregations.
Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth explores how Christian spirituality and practice must adapt to prepare for life on a climate-altered planet.
In this handbook, author Gordon Lathrop guides preachers as they think about the central matters and purposes of preaching and engage in preparation for this important task.
Turning Ourselves Inside Out emerges from the Thriving Christian Communities Project started by the authors in 2015, as well as from a Facebook conversation where someone asked, "e;We always hear about the problems in our churches.
A Future without Walls offers a comprehensive and complex analysis of Othering, while unveiling the connections between our divisions and the roots, forms, and consequences of the walls that have been erected.
Shining like the Sun offers seven mindful practices--attentiveness, ordinariness, simplicity, rhythms, conversation, delight, and restoration--that guide readers to wake up to God as a living reality and to come alive in their bodies, minds, hearts, and deep in their souls.
Bread for the Day is a daily-use devotional resource filled with rich treasures: -A brief scripture reading (NRSV texts) for each day following the daily lectionary developed by the Consultation on Common Texts and presented in Evangelical Lutheran Worship -Dated for January 1, 2018, through December 31, 2018 -A prayer and hymn for each day -Brief yet helpful introductions to the seasons -Table graces/meal prayers for the holidays and seasons -Household blessings for special times throughout the year, including Anniversary of a Baptism, Blessing for the New Year, Blessing for a Home at Epiphany, Blessing of the Household for Thanksgiving Day, Remembering Those Who Have Died, Lighting the Advent Wreath, Blessing of the Christmas Tree -Monthly pages for recording prayer requests -Notes on festivals and commemorations -Simplified forms for morning and evening prayer -Waking prayers and bedtime prayers, including prayers with children
Use Bread for the Day for personal, household, or group devotions.
Aging and Loving: Christian Faith and Sexuality in Later Life aims to address the social, ethical, physical, and spiritual issues related to sexuality and aging.
Tesfaye Gabbiso, prominent Ethiopian soloist, began composing song texts and tunes as a young lad in the early 1970s during a period of social and political upheaval in Ethiopia.
This volume by Gracia Grindal introduces English-speaking readers to several significant yet unsung Lutheran women hymn writers from the sixteenth century to the present.
Incline Your Ear: Cultivating Spiritual Awakening in Congregations introduces faith communities and individuals to the centuries-old principles and practices of spiritual direction.
Called: Recovering Lutheran Principles for Ministry and Vocation explores vocation and the call to ministry from a Lutheran perspective and reveals their promise for the wider church.
Journalist and pastor Mark Wingfield describes how the congregation he serves undertook a detailed study of how the church should respond to the inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender members.
Companionship for the lifelong journey of recoveryIn Addiction and Recovery: A Spiritual Pilgrimage, Martha Postlethwaite--pastor and a person in recovery--reflects on her pilgrimage of healing through valleys of despair and vistas of resurrection.