Designed for More calls every Christian to consider how, through collective movement, they can bring about Christ's daring vision for unity in the Church to impact the world like never before.Our world is divided and fragmented.Even among followers of Christ, God's great story of reconciliation has been crippled because the messengers of that story are unreconciled.But God designed us for so much more. Thankfully, He has hidden incredible le...

Designed for More calls every Christian to consider how, through collective movement, they can bring about Christ's daring vision for unity in the Church to impact the world like never before.Our world is divided and fragmented.Even among followers of Christ, God's great story of reconciliation has been crippled because the messengers of that story are unreconciled.But God designed us for so much more. Thankfully, He has hidden incredible le...

“Greg Paul tells of whores and crazies, misfits and rejects that sound as if they stepped out from the pages of the Bible.” –Eugene PetersonSam has survived physical, sexual, and substance abuse, terrible violence, and life on the streets. Wendy lives for the next high on crack, oblivious to her boyfriend’s love. Neil is dying of AIDS.These are the people of inner-city Toronto. Look into their distorted, obscure faces, their fractured lives, and catch a glimpse of ...

Even the least technical among us are being pressed from all sides by advances in digital technology. We rely upon computers, cell phones, and the Internet for communication, commerce, and entertainment. Yet even though we live in this “instant message” culture, many of us feel disconnected, and we question if all this technology is really good for our souls. In a manner that’s accessible, thoughtful, and biblical, author Tim Challies addresses questions such as: • How has life—and faith—c...

Discover how you can bring light--not heat--to cultural conversations.We live in a reactionary culture where divisive issues arise, people on either side throw stones, and everyone ends up more entrenched in their opinions than in reaching common ground--or even exhibiting common courtesy! If there ever was a time for Christians to understand and communicate God's truth about controversial and polarizing issues, it is now.In Culture Shock, bestsell...

In Creation, Power and Truth, N. T. Wright invites readers to consider the crucial ways in which the Christian gospel challenges and subverts the intellectual, moral, and political values that pervade contemporary culture.In doing so, he asks searching questions about three defining characteristics of our time:Neo-gnosticismNeo-imperialismPostmodernityEmploying a robust Trinitarian framework, Wright looks af...

In the dark corners of the inner city, the most destitute people in society are searching for anything to numb their hurting souls. And there are some who display the most extreme mix of need and anticipation: the twenty-piece shuffle, a jittery walk marked by wide-eyed desperation, named after the street tag for a piece of crack cocaine.But the addiction to whatever will numb a troubled spirit is not confined to the streets. Suffering is not bound by social class, and pain is not ...

The world has a love affair--with itself. Armed with Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, we think of ourselves as mini celebrities, and we use consumption and technology to convince our friends that this facade is who we are.Veneer illustrates that consumption is more than just acquiring more stuff; it is a potentially dangerous mindset--a mindset turning everything, even people, into products. According to authors Timothy Willard and R. Jason Locy, there is evidence of consumpt...

Now with a new chapter!"Everywhere militants were blowing up Christians, their churches, their shops. They threatened them with kidnapping. They promised to take their children. The message to these 'infidels': You have no place in Iraq. Pay a penalty to stay, leave, or be killed."Sweeping from Syria into Iraq, Islamic State fighters (ISIS) have been brutalizing and annihilating Christians. How? Why? Where did the terrorists come from, and what can be done t...

All of us say we want peace, but only a few are willing to prove it.John Dear, SJ, has been arrested more than seventy-five times. He has spent more than a year of his life in jail. He has been mocked by an armed and angry U.S. National Guard battalion standing outside the doors to his New Mexico parish. All this because he so fervently believes in peace.A Persistent Peace, John Dear's autobiography, invites readers to follow the decades-long journey and spiritual growth of this nationally kn...

Missio Alliance Essential Reading ListHearts Minds Bookstore's Best BooksRELEVANT's Top 10 BooksEnglewood Review of Books Best BooksWhen Soong-Chan Rah planted an urban church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his first full sermon series was a six-week exposition of the book of Lamentations. Preaching on an obscure, depressing Old Testament book was probably not the most seeker-sensitive way to launch a church. But it shaped their communit...

For decades Americans have turned to the Commerce Department's Index of Leading Economic Indicators to spot trends in the economy. The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators brings a similar kind of empirical analysis to the moral, social, and behavioral condition of American society from 1960 to the present--a vivid, clearly accessible portrait in numbers of who and where we are as a nation.First published in 1994 and now completely updated and considerably expanded...