In today's highly charged social and political environment, we often don't know how to talk well with others--especially with people whose backgrounds differ from our own. C. Christopher Smith, coauthor of the critically acclaimed and influential Slow Church, addresses why conversation has become such a challenge in the 21st century and argues that it is perhaps the most-needed spiritual practice of our individualistic age. Smith likens practicing conversation to the working of the human b...

A moving account of how one church learned to center their life together around the practice of conversation and became a beacon of hope along the way.Englewood Christian Church was once a thriving megachurch, but as its surrounding urban neighborhood declined, so did the church.Today, both the church and neighborhood are thriving, and ECC's impact far outweighs the size of its congregation. The ECC story upends the common wisdom ab...

Grab your Bible, a cup of something warm, and settle in with this diverse collection of classic and contemporary poetry, meant to stir your imagination and deepen your experience of scripture in the season ahead.Corresponding with the Revised Common Lectionary Year A (November 2025-May 2026), this volume includes 4 classic and 4 contemporary poems for every week of the church year, from Advent through Pentecost Sunday.Poets include Paul Laurence Dunbar, Emily Dickinson, Mar...

2014 Readers' Choice Award Winner 2014 Best Books About the Church from Byron Borger, Hearts and Minds Bookstore Fast food. Fast cars. Fast and furious. Fast forward. Fast . . . church? The church is often idealized (or demonized) as the last bastion of a bygone era, dragging our feet as we're pulled into new moralities and new spiritualities. We guard our doctrine and our piety with great vigilance. But we often fail to notice how quickly we're capitulating, in the structures and practice...

Many young idealists, after a few failures, burn out and return to status quo lives. Not so with the seven radicals in this book, who met in an interracial house church and intentional community on Chicago's West Side during the civil rights era. Here you will make the acquaintance of a Church of the Brethren pastoral couple who tried to bring communal life to the black ghetto; a fashionable socialite who trashed her curlers and joined the simple life; an elite Stanford graduate who cast h...

Nikole has a new neighbor, who has many more luxuries than herself. Although she envies them, she knows not what it took for them to acquire these things. Will this be her downfall?

The prism world of Analesia is in danger. Dangolo the Ice Lord has frozen many of the plants and creatures living there and plans to freeze the whole world. But an unlikely hero is summoned from our world to save Analesia and its inhabitants.Preteen Sally has just discovered an odd Celtic charm in a thrift store with her nana but is unprepared for what the charm expects of her. She is thrust into Analesia and told she is the next Light Princess, a hero destined to save Analesia. Sa...

Once, I was a broke college student. Now, it seems I'm destined to rule as the Lightbringer--queen of the demon realm. Except I have competition in the form of Orion, the Lord of Chaos.Like me, he has been marked as a leader. We can't keep our hands off each other, even if he swore an oath to kill me. It seems we both want the same thing--the crown. And in this battle of wills, only one of us will be left standing.Performed by Laura C. Harris, Gabriel Michael, Shanta Parasu...

"Everyone's favorite lethal SecUnit is back in the next installment in Martha Wells's New York Times bestselling Murderbot Diaries series.Am I making it worse? I think I'm making it worse.Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, t...

The Skull Throne of Krasia stands empty.Built from the skulls of fallen generals and demon princes, it is a seat of honor and ancient, powerful magic, keeping the demon corelings at bay. From atop the throne, Ahmann Jardir was meant to conquer the known world, forging its isolated peoples into a unified army to rise up and end the demon war once and for all.But Arlen Bales, the Warded Man, stood against this course, challenging Jardir to a duel he could not in honor refuse....

For the first time, an epic account of a boy born into a struggle for survival on the harsh and unforgiving American frontier, the story behind the legend of Smoke Jensen. . .On the eve of the Civil War, Kirby Jensen is the youngest of three children living on a hardscrabble ranch in Southwestern Missouri. But in 1861, shots were fired in Charleston harbor, and Kirby's father and brother went to war. Smoke Jensen The Beginning follows the Jensen clan during these volatile years, fr...

From the New York Times best-selling author of the Night Huntress series comes a breathtaking new journey to the dark side of desire.The night is not safe for mortals. Denise MacGregor knows all too well what lurks in the shadows - her best friend is half-vampire Cat Crawfield - and she has already lost more than the average human could bear. But her family’s past is wrapped in secrets and shrouded in darkness - and a demon shape-shifter has marked Denise as prey. Now her survival ...