Where God Meets Man

by Gerhard Forde

This book about Luther's theology is written out of a two-fold conviction - first, that many of our problems have arisen because we have not really understood our own traditions, especially in the case of Luther; and second, that there is still a lot of help for us in someone like Luther if we take the trouble to probe beneath the surface.

The Meaning of Jesus, Two Visions

by Marcus J. Borg and N.T. Wright

Two leading Jesus scholars take us inside the current conversation regarding the historical Jesus.  One works from a traditional Christian perspective, while the other presses us to see the historical Jesus with fresh eyes:  the conversation is respectful, faithful, and absolutely enlightening.

What's So Amazing About Grace?

by Philip Yancey

"There is nothing we can do to make God love us more. There is nothing we can do to make God love us less." We speak of grace often. But do we understand it? More important, do we truly beieve in it...and do our lives proclaim it as powerfully as our words?

Reading Mark, Engaging the Gospel

by David Rhoads

A book that opens the Gospel of Mark to all who read its pages or hear it proclaimed publically.  Whether one is new to the study of scripture or has many years of study experience, David Rhoads is an excellent guide into the world of Mark’s gospel.

Peculiar Treasures

by Frederick Buechner

This book profiles more than 125 of the Bible's most holy and profane people - and one whale. In his lively and witty prose, Buechner brings to life such moments as: ...Lazarus' first impressions upon rising from the dead. To read this book is to realize that many of these ledgendary figures are not who we thought they were. But they are - in thier human dreams, ambitions and imperfections - very much like us.

Velvet Elvis

by Rob Bell

Luther's contemporaries used a very specific word for the endless, abslutely necessary process of change and growth. They didn't use the word reformed; they used the word reforming. This distinction is crucial. They knew that the things they said and did and wrote and decided would need to be revisited. Rethought. Reworked.

The Return of the Prodigal Son

by Henry Nouwen

A chance encounter with a reproduction of Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal Son catapulted Henri Nouwen on a long spiritual adventure. Here he shares the deeply personal and resonant meditation that led him to discover the place within where God has chosen to dwell.

Listening to the Spirit in the Text

by Gordon Fee

"These essays show Gordon Fee at his characteristic work, fusing exegetical accuracy and evangelical passion. Words are never mere words for this master exegete. I think of him as our 'resurrection scholar' calling the words out of the text and setting them before us pulsing with life." Eugene Peterson.

The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls

by James Vanderkam and Peter Flint

A great book that provides a comprehensive look at the famous Dead Sea Scrolls.  The authors chart the discovery of the scrolls, give insights into life in the Qumran community, explain the relationship of the scrolls to both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, and offer perspectives on the controversies surrounding the scrolls.

One to One

How to Share Your Faith With a Friend

by Michael Green

Evangelism. Ther very word makes some people cringe. We realize we shouldn't keep a good thing to ourselves, but we struggle to find the words. How can we discuss our beliefs with both sensitivity and conviction?

Life of the Beloved

by Henry Nouwen

While Nouwen writes this book to a personal friend - who wants to live a spiritual life in this secular world - he in fact, found a language that speaks clearly and convincingly to all who search for the Spirit of God in the world.

Bound and Free:  A Theologian’s Journey

by Douglas John Hall

Both autobiographical and theological, Hall writes of how one becomes a theologian and practices a serious conversation with both our contemporary situation and the vast sweep of Christian history.  It is a great book for helping all of us think through our faith for life in the 21st century.

Traveling Mercies

by Anne Lamott

With an exuberant mix of passion, insight and humor, Lamott takes us on a journey through her often troubled past to illuminate her devout but quirky walk of faith. In a narrative spiced with stories and scripture, with diatraibes, laughter, and tears, she tells how, against all odds, she came to believe in God and then, even more miraculouly, in herself.

Why Christian?

by Douglas John Hall

In these dialogues with doubt, Hall enters into an earnest search with a young inquirer - a composite of undergraduates, graduates, clergy, working people, his own children - who is on the edges of Christian faith. Half-famliar with superfical aspects of Christianity, hopeful of there being greater depth than found so far. Such a perosn is asking, Why be Christian?"

The Heart of Christianity

by Marcus Borg

Borg argues that ...Christian ethics bind Christians to care foremost about those in need, yet contemporary American Christianity seems mainly to care about itself. Taking the Kingdom of God seriously means taking the systemic causes of human suffering seriously.

Signs of Belonging

by Mary Hinkle

Hinkle reminds us that the church is neither a country club nor a political action group. It is a body of imperfect people who will not stop practicing God's forgiveness in the church until they get it right for the sake of the world. She uses Luther's seven marks of the church to clearly illustrate points of connectedness between the individual and the larger church community.

Sleeping With Bread

by Dennis, Sheila & Matthew Linn

This book is about asking two questions: For what am I most grateful? For what am I least grateful? These questions help us identify moments of consolation and desolation. We call this process the examen. For centuries people have found direction for thier lives by identifing these moments.

Amish Grace

by Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt, and David Weaver

The story of the response of the Amish community to the shooting of ten students in October of 2006 at Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania.  The book explores the counter-cultural dynamics of forgiveness practiced by the Amish community.

Reading the Bible From the Margins

by Miguel De La Torre

The author shows how "standard" readings of hte Bible are not always acceptable to people or groups on the margins. THe poor and those who are targets of discrimination because of their ethnic group or gender may have quite different insights and understandings of biblical texts that can be of value to all readers.

Grace at the Table

by David Beckmann & Arthur Simon

Hunger has been hidden in America for too long. This book makes clear how we can overcome hunger in our country and worldwide.

Christianity Rediscovered

by Vincent Donovan

The extraordinary story of how an American missionary, who spent 17 years in Tanzania among the Massai, rediscovers the Gospel message.

Out of the Salt Shaker & Into the World

by Rebecca Manley Pippert

"Christians and non-Christians have something in common, we're both uptight about evangelism." So begins this book on evangelism as a lifestyle. Through stories, biblical insight and plain common sense, Rebecca helps us feel relaxed and enthusiastic about sharing our faith.

Irresistible Revolution

by Shane Claiborne

Shane invites you into a movement of the Spirit that begins in the heart and extends through our hands into a broken world. Shane stirs up questions about the church and the world, challenging you to live out an authentic Christian faith.

How Much is Enough?

by Arthur Simon

Because possessions may capture the heart, but they cannot nourish the soul, this book maintains that only the source of joy can give us joy. It points you away from captivity ot things toward fulfullment in following Christ.

God of the Empty-Handed

by Jayakumar Christian

Jayakumar, who has worked among the poor in India for more than 30 years, explores the reationship of poverty to powerlessness, integrating anthropology, sociology, politics and theology. He avoids easy answers; instead he offers a new paradigm that can shape our responses to the poor and provide a workable framework for grassroots practitioners.

Listening Hearts

by Morehouse Publishing

This book explores the themes of call, discernment, and community as they relate to each other. It asks us to listen to our hearts so that we may discover ourselves. It then guides us on how we can remain faithful and accountable.

The Centered Life

by Jack Fortin

Through richly described stories and theological insight, Fortin provides for us a compelling and accessible case for a centered life - a life not just of being in balance but a life that begins to see the profound richness of our faith in the concrete particulars of our work, home, congregation and community.

Let Your Life Speak

by Parker Palmer

"Is the life I am living the same as the life that wants to live in me?" With this searching question, Palmer begins an insightful and moving meditation on finding one's true calling.

Relationships

by Drs. Les & Leslie Parrott

Today more than ever, people long for connection. In an age marked by isolation and loneliness, we've come to realize that riches are best measured in relationships that offer belonging, acceptance, vulnerablity, honesty, closeness, and commitment. And what we most want to know is how to make bad relationships better and good relationships great.

Parents & Grandparents

As Spiritual Guides

by Betty Shannon Cloyd

Anyone concerned about the future well-being of children should read this thoughtful and practical guide to the spiritual mentoring of children. It is wise, down-to-earth, and sensitive to the ways God works through adults in the lives of children.

Facing the Facts:

The Truth About Sex and You

by Stan and Brenna Jones

Your body and its sexual nature are beautiful and exciting gifts from God that he wants you to understand and appreciate. Reading this book and talking about it with your parents will help you be ready for the coming physical changes, equip you to handle the sexual pressures you'll encounter throughout your life, and give you a better understanding of God's perfect design for sex.

(Ages 8-11)

What's the Big Deal?

Why God Cares About Sex

by Stan and Brenna Jones

What's the Big Deal was written to help kids like you find the answers you need. It explains the basic facts about sex and related issues. (Ages 11-14)

Passing on the Faith

by Merton Strommen & Richard Hardel

This book makes an effective, credible ase for partneship between families and their churches in the faith formation of young people. It is extensively researched, well organized and filled with models and ideas for the home and the congregation.

Prodigal Sons & Material Girls

by Nathan Dungan

Dungan offers a two-fold approach to young consumerizm. Part I outlines the disturbing facts about America's possession-crazed youth and the consumer-oriented society that has distorted their views. Part II offers a creative "share-save-spend" approach to help your children break free from the materialism that has become ingrained in our society.

Captivating

by John & Stasi Eldredge

The message of Captivating is this: Your heart matters more than anything else in all creation. The desires you had as a little girl and the longings you still feel as a woman - they are telling you of the life God created you to live.

The Care and Keeping of You:

The Body Book for Girls

by Valorie Lee Schaefer

The "head-to-toe" guide to answer all your questions, from hair care to healthy eating, bad breath to bras, periods to pimples, and everything in between. (Preteen)

The Wonderful Way Babies are Made

by Larry Christenson

Uniquely set against the backdrop of God's creation and our role in it, this book is an excellent place to begin presenting the information, feelings, and attitudes you would like to share with your children about the truly wonderful way babies - and families - are made.

Velveteen Rabbit

by Margery Williams

"What is Real?" the question the stuffed rabbit asks the toy horse. "Does it hurt?...Does it happen all at once?" "It doesn't happen all at once, you become. It takes a long time...Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

Barefoot in the Snow

Saving the Ants

Scolding the Snakes

by Ruth Gilmore

These three books by Gilmore are created as a resource for children's sermons but make great family devotions for home.

Jesus, This Is Your Life

Stories & Pictures by Kids

edited by Jeff Kunkel

A delightful collection of New Testament stories, retold and illustrated by kids.

Amazing Science Devotions

by Group Publishing

Help your kids experience, explore and experiment with God's wonderful world. Use their natural curiousity to involve them in fun10 to 15 minute devotions. Then help them discover more about the powerful God who created all of nature.

The Kissing Hand

by Audrey Penn

Chester Raccoon and his mother illustrate the ways love works to reassure us and give us strength in a sometimes scary world. This is a great book for a young child going away to camp or entering school for the first time, or any occasion where a child will be temporarily separated from home.

You Are Special

by Max Lucado

Every day the small wooden people called Wemmicks do the same thing: they stick either gold stars or gray dots on each other. If you are pretty and talented you get gold stars; if you can't do much and have chipped paint then you get gray dots. Eli the woodcarver, helps Punchinello (a wooden Wemmick) understand that he is special too. The message is that regardless of how the world views us, God cherishes us just as we are.

Water, come Down!

The Day You Were Baptized

by Walter Wangerin, Jr.

Beautifully told and illustrated, this is a wonderfully imagined story of God's power and love joined with the baptism event.

Prayer

by Richard Foster

The truth of the matter is, we all come to prayer with a tangled mass of motives. Frankly , this side of eternity we will never unravel the good from the bad. But what I have come to see is that God is big enough to receive us with all our mixture. We do not have to be bright, pure, filled with faith , or anything. That is what grace means, and not only are we saved by grace but we live by it as well. And we pray by it.

Keeping the Sabbath Wholly

by Marva Dawn

Dawn explores themes of ceasing , resting, embracing and feasting, calling both Christian and Jews to recover the rhythms of God's holy world. She offers a refreshing , wholistic perspective that embodies the biblical vision of shalom.

Mudhouse Sabbath

by Lauren Winner

Despite her conversion from Orthodox Judaism to Christianity, Winner finds that her life is still shaped by the spiritual essences of Judasim. She illuminates eleven spiritual practices that can transform the way we view the world and God.

The Cloister Walk

by Kathleen Norris

Norris takes us through a liturgical year, as she experienced it both within the monastery and outside of it. She shows us, from the rare perspective of someone who is both insider and outsider, how immersion in the cloistered world - its liturgy, rituals and sense of community - can impart meaning to everyday events and deepen our secular lives.

Freedom of Simplicity

by Richard Foster

Simplicity is not merely a matter of having less stress and more leisure. It is rather an essential spiritual discipline that we must practice for the health of the soul. Here Foster explores the foundation of this discipline and how it has been manifested and taught by God's saints throughout Christian history. This beautiful, moving manifesto on incorporating simplicity into our hectic lives, still rings true.

Found Through Loss

by Nancy Reeves

Reeves' tales are tenderly told and her suggestions for further reflection, journaling and prayer are simple and effective. All readers will find their experiences of loss illuminated and transformed by this wise and compassionate book.

Mourning into Dancing

by Walter Wangerin, Jr.

We learn from this book that the way to dancing is through the valley of mourning, that grief is not so much an enemy as it is a reminder of the fullness of life that awaits us and is available to us even now.

The Hungering Dark

by Frederick Buechner

These powerful reflections point up the truth that the darkness of doubt is often necessary to provoke a hunger for God. Drawing on Biblical texts, we are invited to discover the hidden face of God, the manifestation of his grace revealed in stillness, in unexpected places. It invites us to say yes to the possibility of God and to "recover this fantastic hope that the future belongs to God...that holiness will return to our world."

Praying Our Goodbyes

by Joyce Rupp

This is a book for anyone who has experienced loss, whether it be a job change, the end of a friendship, the death of a loved one, a financial struggle, a mid-life crisis, or an extended illness. It is designed to help readers reflect, ritualize, and re-orient themselves - to help heal the hurts caused by goodbyes and the anxieties encountered by change.

When God is Silent

by Barbara Brown Taylor

God deflects our attempts at control by withdrawing into silence, knowing that nothing gets to us like the failure of our speech. When we run out of words, then and perhaps only then, can God be God.

The Cup of Our Life

by Joyce Rupp

This creative guide for individual or group prayer offers six weekly themes based on different images of the cup. The open cup, the chipped cup, the broken cup, the blessing cup...each in turn becomes a teacher in prayer.

With Open Hands

by Henri Nouwen

With simplicity and challenging insight we are invited to embark on a prayerful journey, to release our tightly clenched fists and open our hands to God. He leads us to confront our fear of silence, to let go of our false securities and to enter the stillness of God's presence.

My Utmost for His Highest

by Oswald Chambers

Born in 1874, Oswald became known as an opponent of fuzzy thinking. In addition to his extensive teaching history and over 30 titles that bear his name, this best selling work has been continuously in print in the United States since 1935. It has become a Christian classic.

Seasons of Your Heart

by Macrina Wiederkehr

Marcrina shares her seasonal struggle with God and encourages us to recognize those same peaks and valleys in our own spiritual life. Using biblical passages, poetry, and excerpts from her journal, she provides meditative ideas and prayers as postures for realizing and apporaching the holy in our daily lives.

Read, Think, Pray, Live

by Tony Jones

Jones uses Lectio Devina - an ancient form of sacred reading - as a guide to hearing the bible in a new way. Engage your faith. Learn from a teaching that has worked for hundreds of years and you'll find yourself challenged and encouraged to get to know God in brand new ways.

Hunger for the Word

editor Larry Hollar

Weekly reflections on the lectionary readings for Year B from the standpoint of a concern for hunger and justice. See how God's word can nourish us in the struggle to feed the hungry.

The World's Religions

by Huston Smith

This book explores the essential elements and teaching of the world's predominant faiths, including: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity and the native traditions of Australia, Africa, Oceania and the Americas.

Einstein’s Cosmos

by Michio Kaku

A highly readable exploration of Albert Einstein’s thought and impact on our modern understanding of the cosmos.  The book includes both Einstein’s personal history as well as his contributions to science.