The Christian journey is far more complex than an evolutionary upward movement. There are strange contours in the road. Faith has its uncertainties, and our healing is far from complete. This meditational reader seeks to reflect something of this kind of textured picture of the Christian journey. Charles Ringma is Professor of Mission and Evangelism at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. He has previously done mission work among the Aborigines in Australia, and was Australian founder and executive director of Teen Challenge in Brisbane. He has taught at the Asian Theological...

Mother Teresa once said she wanted to "do something beautiful for God." Looking back at her decades of service and recognition--including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize--Mother Teresa's life indeed proved to be a work of art in its purest form. Charles Ringma's 150 daily reflections, based on her life and service among the poor, allow you to look for ways you, too, can do something beautiful with your life.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. inspired his generation with a dream and a promise. His unwavering vision of a more equitable, just society permanently changed the lives of millions around the world. One of the greatest men of the twentieth century, Dr. King's faith, conviction, and strength continue to inspire us today. In 120 daily readings, Charles Ringma encourages us to reflect on Dr. King's powerful legacy. Find a moment each day to ponder his words and dare to dream.

Through 365 challenging and stirring reflections based on the bold message of French philosopher and theologian Jacques Ellul, Charles Ringma invites you to consider the profound connections between personal faith and social responsibility. Resist the Powers with Jacques Ellul will encourage you to pursue an active faith that resists the powers of our age by embracing a vision of the kingdom of God that brings together head, heart and hands.

Description: What practices might a community of faith take up that will bear witness to the alternative world Jesus envisions and calls us towards? That is the question that Grandview Calvary Baptist Church, an initially small and fragile group of Christ followers, has kept asking over the last twenty years. Along the way, this small group has spawned a vibrant community of faith that has traveled along four trajectories towards a shared life in community, radical hospitality, justice for the least, and confession leading to transformation. In a culture where individualism, consumerism,...

Against the Tide, Towards the Kingdom is the story of the Urban Vision community in New Zealand. This book recounts the story of a group of young Christian adults who over the last fifteen years have relocated to the colorful ends of their city to share life with those who are struggling, homeless, sick, poor, neglected, or otherwise marginalized. The community has grown over time to seven neighborhoods where on any given day you may find "Urban Visionites" growing vegetables amidst the concrete, teaching English to refugees, offering alternative education programs to out of school teenagers,...

Synopsis: In his acclaimed book Christi-Anarchy, Dave Andrews explored the ugly ruins of Christian history, and outlined the radical vision of Jesus for personal and community renewal. In 'Not Religion but Love' he shows how that vision can become a reality. With poignant, real-life stories drawn form his Brisbane backyard, Dave Andrews gives us a practical guide to working out Jesus' agenda for love and justice in our own lives and neighborhoods. Complete with group exercises and an ample collection of extra resources for study, Not Religion but Love is a book to read at your own risk: it...

Description: University is a major way that our society prepares professionals and leaders in education, health, government, business, arts, church--all components of our communal lives. Although the beginnings of the first universities were Christian, academia has become more and more adrift from these foundations. We have lost not only the union, the interwovenness of theological and academic understandings, but also the relational and communal process of learning which teaches students to be other-centered in their practice. A Glimpse of the Kingdom in Academia tells the story of the...

Synopsis: There is a hunger in the modern world for spirituality. One vast resource of spiritual wisdom comes from the pre-Reformation church--from the martyrs of the first centuries of Christianity, through the long tradition of monasticism, to the medieval Christian mystics. These are the deep wells of Christian reflection from persons such as John Chrysostom, Augustine, Benedict, Francis of Assisi, Bonaventure, Bernard of Clairvaux, Meister Eckhart, Hildegard of Bingen, and Julian of Norwich, to mention just a few. The spiritual insights of over seventy men and women of pre-Reformation...

In this volume of short reflective pieces, Thomas Merton acts as a conversation partner for the author, who draws on Mertons monastic experience in order to help us reflect on the motivational center out of which we all live, work and serve.

Seek the Silences is not a call to a spirituality that pulls us towards God but removes us from the pain, need and challenges of the world. Rather it highlights that it is necessary to be still before God in order to hear and then do; to disengage in order to be empowered; to be embraced in order to serve.