Most believers live in the state of “being a Christian” without ever being deeply formed by Christ. Our pace is too frenetic to be in union with God, and we don’t know how to quiet our hearts and minds to be present. Our emotions are unhealthy and compartmentalized. We feel unable to love well or live differently from the rest of the world—to live as people of the good news.

New York pastor Rich Villodas says we must restore balance, focus, and meaning for our souls. The Deeply Formed Life lays out a fresh vision for spiritual breakthrough following five key values:

• Contemplative Rhythms Value: slowing down our lives to be with God.
  
• Racial Justice Value: examining a multi-layered approach to pursuing racial justice and reconciliation.
  
• Interior Examination Value: looking beneath the surface of our lives to live free and love well.
  
• Sexual Wholeness Value: exploring how our sexuality connects with our spirituality.
  
• Missional Presence Value: living as the presence of Christ in a broken world. 
  

Helping us to understand how character is formed and where Jesus does his most significant work on our spiritual and emotional health, this book changed a generation’s mind about what it means to follow Jesus―not a matter of sin management but a matter of drawing near and letting ourselves be shaped into the eternal people of God.

With reflections on the book’s impact over its life from family, friends, and admirers of Dallas, and supplemental resources for the first time in print, Renovation of the Heart will continue its ministry of liberation-by-formation for years to come.

Are you longing for life-changing transformation in your relationship with God?

Get ready to find fresh illumination for your faith journey in this short and practical guide. Exploring over 60 carefully chosen selections from renowned author Dallas Willard’s bestseller Renovation of the Heart, this book offers powerful brief lessons for character formation.

With devotional-sized quotes and rigorous daily experiments, this book will challenge and encourage you to dive deeper than ever before in your relationship with the Creator. Perfect for group or individual study, this guide is for anyone and everyone, no matter the stage of your Christian walk.

Working through Dallas Willard’s plan for spiritual renovation of the whole person, this book covers a wide range of topics, such as:

• What “death to self” looks like
  
• The crucial role of good thinking
  
• The interplay of will, thoughts, and feelings
  
• Being a person of joy and peace
  
• The body’s role in spiritual formation
  

Be inspired and strengthened as you enjoy the adventure of these experiments in spiritual transformation and grow an unshakeable faith.

*Recommended by Pastor John*

We are at war. Not with a foreign government or domestic terrorists or a creepy new artificial intelligence hell-bent on taking over the world. No, it’s a war we feel deep inside our own chests: we are at war with lies.

The problem isn’t so much that we tell lies but that we live them. We let them into our bodies, and they sabotage our peace. All around us in the culture and deep within our own body memories are lies: deceptive ideas that wreak havoc on our emotional health and spiritual well-being, and deceptive ideas about who God is, who we are, and what the good life truly is.

The choice is not whether to fight or not fight, but whether we win or surrender.

Ancient apprentices of Jesus developed a paradigm for this war; they spoke of the three enemies of the soul: the devil, the flesh, and the world. Live No Lies taps into this ancient wisdom from saints of the Way and translates the three enemies for the modern era, with all its secularism and sophistication. As a generation, we chuckle at the devil as a premodern myth, we are confused by Scripture’s teaching on the flesh in an age where sensual indulgence is a virtue not a vice, and we have little to no category for the New Testament concept of the world.

Is prayer the most challenging area of your Christian journey? It doesn’t have to be. Pete Greig, one of the founders of 24-7 Prayer International, is passionate about introducing people to simple, honest, relevant conversations with God.

How to Pray is a raw, real, and relevant look at prayer for everyone―from the committed follower of Jesus to the skeptic and the scared. Full of biblically sound wisdom, How to Pray will offer honest encouragement and real-life methods to refresh your spirit and help you practice life-giving and lifechanging prayer.

Revolutionize your prayer life by learning:

• How to start praying
  
• How to keep prayer simple
  
• How to ask God for things
  
• How to cope with unanswered prayer
  
• How to pray without words
  
• How to hear God
  

Nothing could possibly matter more than learning to discern the authentic voice of God, but few things in life are more susceptible to delusion, deception, and downright abuse. When life falls apart and we need God's comfort; in moments of cultural turmoil when we need his clarity; facing formidable decisions when we need his guidance; desiring a deeper faith when we need God to say something, anything, to turn the monologue we call prayer into a genuine conversation.

Having addressed God's silence in God on Mute, and then How to Pray in his previous bestseller, Pete Greig is back to bring wisdom and guidance to one of the most pressing and perplexing aspects of universal Christian experience--How to Hear God. Exploring the story of Christ's playful, poignant conversation on the road to Emmaus, Pete draws deeply from the insights of a wide range of Christian traditions. He weaves together the evangelical emphasis upon hearing God in the Bible, and the charismatic commitment to hearing God in the prophetic, with the contemplative understanding of God's "still, small voice" within.

A road map for discipleship with Jesus that is powerfully transformative.

Peter Scazzero learned the hard way: you can't be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. Even though he was the pastor of a growing church, he did what most people do--avoid conflict in the name of Christianity; ignore his anger, sadness, and fear; use God to run from God; and live without boundaries.

Eventually God awakened him to a biblical integration of emotional health and the spiritual practice of slowing down and quieting your life for to experience a firsthand relationship with Jesus. It created nothing short of a spiritual revolution in Scazzero, in his church, and now in thousands of other churches.

In this updated edition, Scazzero shares new stories and principles as he outlines his journey and the signs of emotionally unhealthy spirituality. Then he provides seven biblical, reality-tested steps to become emotionally mature:

• Become your authentic self
  
• Break the power of the past
  
• Let go of power and control
  
• Surrender to your limits
  
• Stop to breathe by practicing rest and Sabbath
  
• Learn new skills to love well
  
• Love Christ above all else
  

In a unique narrative approach, Sprinkle begins by looking at how the story of God as a whole portrays violence and war, drawing conclusions that guide the reader through the rest of the book.With urgency and precision, he navigates hard questions and examines key approaches to violence, driving every answer back to Scripture. Ultimately, Sprinkle challenges the church to "walk in a manner worthy of our calling" and shape our lives on the example of Christ.
 
Nonviolence: The Revolutionary Way of Jesus is biblically rooted, theologically coherent, and prophetically challenging. It is a defining work that will stir discussions for years to come.

An expert in ancient Israelite society and economy as well as biblical theology, she walks readers through passages familiar and not-so-familiar, showing how significant environmental theology is to the Bible's witness. She then calls Christians to apply that message to today's environmental concerns.

Richter is a master Bible scholar. Each chapter draws out a biblical mandate about humanity's responsibility to care for the land, domestic and wild creatures, and people on the margins. She is also a master storyteller. Well informed on present-day environmental challenges, Richter includes case studies that connect the biblical mandates to current issues.

Though modern political alliances may tempt readers to sever Christian faith from environmental stewardship, in this concise and accessible book, Richter urges us to be driven by God's values instead.

Spiritual Classic A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life by William Law proclaims that God does not merely forgive our disobedience, He calls us to obedience and to a life completely centered in Him. Law exposes pious hypocrisy and the corruption of the Church. His writing is fresh and sharp, as he vividly illustrates the holy Christian life as one lived totally for God. “Devotion signifies a life given, or devoted, to God. He, therefore, is the devout man, who lives no longer to his own will, or the way and spirit of the world, but to the sole will of God ... by doing everything in the name of God, and under such rules as are conformable to His glory.”

This book is the fruit of Fr. Dubay's many years of study and experience in spiritual direction and in it he synthesizes the teachings on prayer of the two great doctors of the Church on prayer--St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila--and the teaching of Sacred Scripture.

But the teaching that Fr. Dubay synthesized is not collected from Teresa and John for contemplatives alone. It is meant for every Christian and is based on the Gospel imperative of personal prayer and the call to holiness. All the major elements of these great teachers are ordered, commented on and put in the context of their scriptural foundations. Here is an outstanding book on prayer and the spiritual life written by one of the best spiritual directors and retreat masters of our time, and based on the writings of the Church's two greatest mystical doctors.

Edited by Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, this version incorporates all six traditions, or "streams," that comprise a healthy and holistic life of Christian faith. The fifty-two selections in Devotional Classics have been organized to introduce the reader to the great Christian devotional writers over the course of one year, through an introduction and meditation by Foster, a related biblical passage, discussion questions, and individual and group exercises. Devotional Classics is indispensable for those looking for a deeper and more balanced spiritual life.

In Irresistible Revolution, Shane Claiborne describes an authentic faith rooted in belief, action, and love, inviting us into a movement of the Spirit that begins inside each of us and extends into a broken world.

"The irresistible revolution isn't just about going to heaven when you die but bringing heaven down as you live. The love we're talking about is big enough to set both the oppressed and the oppressors free. It's about healing our broken hearts, healing our broken streets, and healing our broken world. The revolution we are talking about begins inside each of us and extends to the ends of the earth." --Shane Claiborne

Anabaptist Christians have been around for almost 500 years. But what does Anabaptism look like when not clothed in Mennonite or Amish traditions? Writing from Great Britain, Stuart Murray peels back the layers to reveal the core components of Anabaptism and what they mean for faith in his context and ours. It's a way of following Jesus that challenges, disturbs, and inspires us, summoning us to wholehearted discipleship and worship. Read this book, and catch a vision for living a life of radical faith!

*Recommended by Dr. Raj Nelson*

A Furious Love Is Hot on Your Trail! 

Many believers feel stunted in their Christian growth. We beat ourselves up over our failures and, in the process, pull away from God because we subconsciously believe He tallies our defects and hangs His head in disappointment. In this newly repackaged edition—now with full appendix, study questions, and the author’s own epilogue, “Ragamuffin Fifteen Years Later,” Brennan Manning reminds us that nothing could be further from the truth. The Father beckons us to Himself with a “furious love” that burns brightly and constantly. Only when we truly embrace God’s grace can we bask in the joy of a gospel that enfolds the most needy of His flock—the “ragamuffins.” 

In God Has a Name, John Mark Comer takes you line by line through Exodus 34:6-8--Yahweh's self-revelation on Mount Sinai, one of the most quoted passages in the Bible. Along the way, Comer addresses some of the most profound questions he came across as he studied these noted lines in Exodus, including:

• Why do we feel this gap between us and God?
  
• Could it be that a lot of what we think about God is wrong? Not all wrong, but wrong enough to mess up how we relate to him?
  
• What if our "God" is really a projection of our own identity, ideas, and desires?
  
• What if the real God is different, but far better than we could ever imagine?
  

No matter where you are in your spiritual journey, the act of learning who God is just might surprise you--and change everything.

Much of our faith and practice is about words―preaching, teaching, talking with others. Yet all of these words are not enough to take us into the real presence of God where we can hear his voice. This book is an invitation to you to meet God deeply and fully outside the demands and noise of daily life. It is an invitation to solitude and silence.

The beauty of a true invitation is that we really do have a choice about embarking on this adventure. God extends the invitation, but he honors our freedom and will not push himself where he is not wanted. Instead, he waits for us to respond from the depths of our desire. Will you say yes?

Learn the secret of living with contentment, peace, and security.

Pause for a moment and ask yourself what your life would be like if it were completely without fear? If you did not fear death. If you did not fear life and what it might bring. If you did not fear any man, or woman, or any living creature. Would you live differently?

In this unique work of never-before-published teaching, Dallas Willard revolutionizes our understanding of Psalm 23 by taking this comfortably familiar passage and revealing its extraordinary promises: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.... I will fear no evil.” The psalmist claims to live without any need and without any fear. How is that possible?

For much of recent history individuals and institutions could plan, execute, and flourish with their visions of a better world. Volatile, complex forces could be addressed and confronted with planning and management. But crisis is a great revealer. It knocks us off our thrones. It uncovers the weaknesses in our strategies and brings to light our myths and idols. Our past strategies run aground, smashed by unpredictable and chaotic waves. Yet in the midst of the chaos of a crisis comes opportunity. The history of the church tells us that crisis always precedes renewal, and the framework of renewal offers us new ways forward. A Non-Anxious Presence shows how that renewal happens and offers churches and leaders strategic ways to awaken the Church and see our culture changed for Christ.

The Anticipated Christ is a six-week Advent and Christmas devotional that takes the reader from the first Sunday of Advent through Epiphany in a collection of daily meditations.

In the Christian calendar Christmas is anticipated by four weeks of waiting. This is Advent—a word derived from a Latin word meaning “arrival.” During Advent we await the arrival of the Messiah of whom the Hebrew prophets spoke. During Advent we allow the messianic poems of the Hebrew prophets to seep deeply into our soul. With Isaiah and the great company of Hebrew prophets we wait for the one who will bruise the serpent’s head. We wait for Immanuel—the one who is God with us. We wait for the ruler to arise in Bethlehem who will shepherd God’s people. We wait for the child born unto us upon whose shoulders the government will rest; we wait for the Prince of Peace in whose kingdom the lion lays down with the lamb. Advent is about waiting—a practice most of us in our secular age struggle with, but a holy practice we would be wise to cultivate.

The Unvarnished Jesus is a forty-six day Lenten journey taking the reader from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday on a quest to encounter Jesus in a new and startling way. These forty-six daily meditations on the life and ministry of Jesus drawn from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are a spiritual solvent to help remove the layers of lacquer comprised of political and cultural assumptions that prevent us from seeing just how challenging and compelling Jesus of Nazareth really is. The Unvarnished Jesus is a forty-six day project to restore the incomparable image of Christ.

In a time of compromise and disillusionment, God is calling his people to a movement of beautiful resistance.

We live in a time when our culture is becoming increasingly shallow, coarse, and empty. Radical shifts in the areas of sexuality, ethics, technology, secular ideologies, and religion have caused the once-familiar landscape of a generation ago to be virtually unrecognizable.

Yet rather than shine as a beacon of light, the church often is silent or accommodating. This isn’t a new phenomenon. During World War II, pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was deeply troubled by the compromise in the German church. Their capitulation to the Nazi party brought shame and dishonor to the gospel. In response, he helped create an underground movement of churches that trained disciples and ultimately sought to renew the church and culture of the day.

In our compromised church, we need new underground movements of discipleship and resistance. Widely respected New York pastor Jon Tyson unveils a revived vision for faithful discipleship—one that dares to renew culture, restore credibility, and replace compromise with conviction.

For all who have felt this conflict in the soul between who we are and who God calls us to be, Beautiful Resistance is a bold invitation to reclaim what’s been lost—regardless of the cost.

Initially written for a Jewish friend, Life of the Beloved has become Henri Nouwen’s greatest legacy to Christians around the world. This sincere testimony of the power and invitation of Christ is indeed a great guide to a truly uplifting spiritual life in today’s world.

*Recommended by Crest Pastors*

M. Robert Mulholland Jr. defines spiritual formation as "the process of being formed in the image of Christ for the sake of others." Compact and solid, this definition encompasses the dynamics of a vital Christian life and counters our culture's tendency to make spirituality a trivial matter or reduce it to a private affair between "me and Jesus." In Invitation to a Journey, Mulholland helps Christians new and old understand that we become like Christ gradually, not instantly. Not every personality is suited to an early morning quiet time, so Mulholland frees different personality types to express their piety differently. He reviews the classical spiritual disciplines and demonstrates the importance of undertaking our spiritual journey with (and for the sake of) others. This road map for spiritual formation is profoundly biblical and down to earth. In the finest tradition of spiritual literature, it is a vital help to Christians at any stage of their journey. This edition is revised and expanded by Ruth Haley Barton with a new foreword, spiritual practices and study guide, to provide spiritual direction for individuals and groups seeking spiritual companionship for one another on the journey of transformation.

Once upon a time, people knew their neighbors. They talked to them, had cook-outs with them, and went to church with them. In our time of unprecedented mobility and increasing isolationism, it's hard to make lasting connections with those who live right outside our front door. We have hundreds of "friends" through online social networking, but we often don't even know the full name of the person who lives right next door.

This unique and inspiring book asks the question: What is the most loving thing I can do for the people who live on my street or in my apartment building? Through compelling true stories of lives impacted, the authors show readers how to create genuine friendships with the people who live in closest proximity to them. Discussion questions at the end of each chapter make this book perfect for small groups or individual study.

With Open Hands, Henri Nouwen's first book on spirituality and a treasured introduction to prayer, has been a perennial favorite for over thirty years because it gently encourages an open, trusting stance toward God and offers insight to the components of prayer: silence, acceptance, hope, compassion, and prophetic criticism. Provocative questions invite reflection and self-awareness, while simple and beautiful prayers provide comfort, peace, and reassurance.

Since its first publication, The Way of the Heart has helped millions of men and women cast off the anger and greed that trouble the world—and find love, compassion, and peace in the heart of God.

Inspired by the ancient teachings of St. Anthony and the Desert Fathers,The Way of the Heart clears before us a spiritual path consisting of three stepping-stones: Solitude (learning not to be alone but to be alone with God); Silence (the discipline by which the inner fire of God is tended and kept alive); and Prayer (standing in the presence of God with the mind in the heart).

*Recommended by Pastor Kent*

Many Christians believe our future in heaven is all that really matters. But that's not what the Bible teaches. In this six-session small group Bible study, Surprised by Hope, premier Bible scholar N. T. Wright brings you inside the Scriptures to grasp the full, breathtaking hope Jesus offers the world, and its impact on your life today.

Gain an exciting new vision for your life on earth in light of your future in heaven. Wonderful as is the promise of heaven, a glorious hereafter is just part of what salvation is about.

In The Divine Conspiracy, Willard gracefully weaves biblical teaching, popular culture, science, scholarship, and spiritual practice into a tour de force that shows the necessity of profound changes in how we view our lives and faith.

Willard refutes "fire escape" mentality by exploring the true nature of the teachings of Jesus, who intended that His followers become His disciples, and taught that we have access now to the life we are only too eager to relegate to the hereafter. The author calls us into a more authentic faith and offers a practical plan by which we can become Christ-like. He encourages faith by embracing the true meaning of Christian discipleship.

More than ever, Walter Wink believes, the Christian tradition of nonviolence is needed as an alternative to the dominant and death-dealing "powers" of our consumerist culture and fractured world. In this small book Wink offers a precis of his whole thinking about this issue, including the relation of Jesus and his message to politics and nonviolence, the history of nonviolent efforts, and how nonviolence can win the day when others don't hesitate to resort to violence or terror to achieve their aims.

Ignorance is bliss―except in self-awareness.

What you don't know about yourself can hurt you and your relationships―and even keep you in the shallows with God. Do you want help figuring out who you are and why you're stuck in the same ruts?

The Enneagram is an ancient personality typing system with an uncanny accuracy in describing how human beings are wired, both positively and negatively. In The Road Back to You Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile forge a unique approach―a practical, comprehensive way of accessing Enneagram wisdom and exploring its connections with Christian spirituality for a deeper knowledge of ourselves, compassion for others, and love for God.

Witty and filled with stories, this book allows you to peek inside each of the nine Enneagram types, keeping you turning the pages long after you have read the chapter about your own number. Not only will you learn more about yourself, but you will also start to see the world through other people's eyes, understanding how and why people think, feel, and act the way they do.

In the last four decades, desegregation has revolutionized almost every aspect of life in the United States: schools, businesses, government offices, even entertainment. But there is one area that remains largely untouched, and that is the church. Now comes a major new call for multiracial congregations in every possible setting--a call that is surprisingly controversial, even in the twenty-first century.

In United By Faith, a multiracial team of sociologists and a minister of the Church of God argue that multiracial Christian congregations offer a key to opening the still-locked door between the races in the United States. They note, however, that a belief persists--even in African-American and Latino churches--that racial segregation is an acceptable, even useful practice. The authors examine this question from biblical, historical, and theological perspectives to make their case. They explore the long history of interracialism in the church, with specific examples of multiracial congregations in the United States. They cite examples ranging from the abolitionist movement to an astonishing 1897 camp meeting in Alabama that brought together hundreds of whites and blacks literally into the same tent. Here, too, is a critical account of the theological arguments in favor of racial separation, as voiced in the African-American, Latino, Asian-American, Native-American, and white contexts. The authors respond in detail, closing with a foundation for a theology suited to sustaining multiracial congregations over time.

Faith can be the basis for healing, but too often Christian faith has been a field for injury and division. In this important new book, readers will glimpse a way forward, a path toward once again making the church the basis for racial reconciliation in our still-splintered nation.

If the Bible isn't a science book or an instruction manual, then what is it? What do people mean when they say the Bible is inspired? When Rachel Held Evans found herself asking these questions, she began a quest to better understand what the Bible is and how it is meant to be read. What she discovered changed her and it will change you too.

Drawing on the best in recent scholarship and using her well honed literary expertise, Evans examines some of our favorite Bible stories and possible interpretations, retelling them through memoir, original poetry, short stories, soliloquies, and even a short screenplay. Undaunted by the Bible's most difficult passages, Evans wrestles through the process of doubting, imagining, and debating Scripture's mysteries. The Bible, she discovers, is not a static work but is a living, breathing, captivating, and confounding book that is able to equip us to join God's loving and redemptive work in the world.

The question of why God would allow pain and suffering in the world has vexed believers and nonbelievers for millennia. Timothy Keller, whose books have sold millions of copies to both religious and secular readers, takes on this enduring issue and shows that there is meaning and reason behind our pain and suffering, making a forceful and ground-breaking case that this essential part of the human experience can be overcome only by understanding our relationship with God. 

One of the most important theologians of the twentieth century illuminates the relationship between ourselves and the teachings of Jesus.

What can the call to discipleship, the adherence to the word of Jesus, mean today to the businessman, the soldier, the laborer, or the aristocrat? What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will for us today? Drawing on the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer answers these timeless questions by providing a seminal reading of the dichotomy between "cheap grace" and "costly grace." "Cheap grace," Bonhoeffer wrote, "is the grace we bestow on ourselves...grace without discipleship....Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the girl which must be asked for, the door at which a man must know....It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life."

Philip Yancey probes the very heartbeat of our relationship with God: prayer. What is prayer? Does it change God's mind or ours or both? This book is an invitation to communicate with God the Father who invites us into an eternal partnership through prayer.

Polls reveal that 90 percent of people pray. Yet prayer, which should be the most nourishing and uplifting time of the believer's day, can also be frustrating, confusing, and fraught with mystery.

Tradition has painted a portrait of a Savior aloof from governmental concerns and whose teachings point to an apolitical life for his disciples. How, then, are we to respond today to a world so thoroughly entrenched in national and international affairs? But such a picture of Jesus is far from accurate, argues John Howard Yoder. 

Using the texts of the New Testament, Yoder critically examines the traditional portrait of Jesus as an apolitical figure and attempts to clarify the true impact of Jesus' life, work, and teachings on his disciples' social behavior. 

The book first surveys the multiple ways the image of an apolitical Jesus has been propagated, then canvasses the Gospel narrative to reveal how Jesus is rightly portrayed as a thinker and leader immediately concerned with the agenda of politics and the related issues of power, status, and right relations. Selected passages from the epistles corroborate a Savior deeply concerned with social, political, and moral issues. 

Self-initiation is killing our young men. Without strong mentors, boys are walking alone into a wilderness of conflicting messages about who they should be as men. It's no wonder that our sons are confused about what the world expects from them and what they should expect of themselves.

The Intentional Father is the antidote. This concise book is filled with practical steps to help men raise sons of consequence--young men who know what they believe, know who they are, and will stand up against the negative cultural trends of our day. Jon Tyson lays out a clear path for fathers and sons that includes specific activities, rites of passage, and significant "marking moments" that can be customized to fit any family.

It's not enough to hope our sons will become good men. We need them to be good at being men. This book shows how fathers, grandfathers, and other male mentors can lead the way.

*Recommended by Pastor John*

Efforts at colorblindness and antiracism have not been very effective in addressing racial tensions in the United States. Colorblindness ignores the realities of race and the history of injustice. On the other hand, antiracism centers racial concerns and in so doing often alienates people who need to be involved in the process. Sociologist George Yancey offers an alternative approach to racial relations where all parties contribute and are mutually accountable to one another for societal well-being. He provides empirical rationale for how collaborative conversations in a mutual accountability model can reduce racial division. History and societal complexity mean that different participants may have different kinds of responsibility, but all are involved in seeking the common good for all to thrive. Avoiding unilateral decisions that close off dialogue, Yancey casts a vision for moving beyond racial alienation toward a lifestyle and movement of collaborative conversation and mutuality.

*Recommended by Pastor John*

Why the call to Love Thy Body? To counter a pervasive hostility toward the body and biology that drives today's headline stories...

In Love Thy Body, bestselling author Nancy Pearcey goes beyond politically correct slogans with a riveting exposé of the dehumanizing worldview that shapes current watershed moral issues.

Pearcey then turns the tables on media boilerplate that misportrays Christianity as harsh or hateful. A former agnostic, she makes a surprising and persuasive case that Christianity is holistic, sustaining the dignity of the body and biology.

Throughout she entrances readers with compassionate stories of people wrestling with hard questions in their own lives--their pain, their struggles, their triumphs.

*A Recommended Read by Crest Community*

How to Live as Jesus Lived

Dallas Willard, one of today's most brilliant Christian thinkers and author of The Divine Conspiracy (Christianity Today's 1999 Book of the Year), presents a way of living that enables ordinary men and women to enjoy the fruit of the Christian life. He reveals how the key to self-transformation resides in the practice of the spiritual disciplines, and how their practice affirms human life to the fullest. The Spirit of the Disciplines is for everyone who strives to be a disciple of Jesus in thought and action as well as intention.

*Get to know the Brethren in Christ*

A collection of 10 essays on the central beliefs and values of the Brethren in Christ. Each chapter includes discussion questions.

Hope and practical help for parents whose greatest longing is to shepherd their children into a vibrant faith in God.

For Christian parents, there is no greater joy than seeing their children learn to walk with the Lord. And there is no greater fear than that their children will walk away from God.

After serving together in pastoral ministry and raising their now-grown children, Phil and Diane Comer know those hopes and fears well. Like all new parents, they were intimidated and unsure about how to take on the task of spiritually training their young children. But now, with all four of their children grown and establishing their own households of faith, Phil and Diane have embarked on a quest to help the next generation of parents raise passionate Jesus followers.

Drawing on years of pastoral counseling, teaching, leading, and decades of watching families from the perspective of pastors and leaders in ministry, Phil and Diane instruct, guide, encourage, and offer hope and practical help to Christian parents.

Raising Passionate Jesus Followers is a manual full of practical, biblically based, and time-tested guidelines that parents will be able to turn to again and again through every stage of their children's development, including . . .

• Formulating a plan
  
• Laying the foundation, ages 0-5
  
• Doing the framing, ages 6-12
  
• Installing the functional systems, ages 13-17
  
• Completing the finish work, ages 18-22
  
• And keeping the front door open for your grown children
  

An invitation to an ordinary yet radical way of life, using historic Christian practices as both inspiring vision and practical instruction for how to encounter the wondrous, mysterious, living God through prayer. 

Prayer is the source of Jesus's most astonishing miracles and the subject of Jesus's most audacious promises, and yet, most people--even most Bible-believing Christians--find prayer to be boring, obligatory, disappointing, confusing, or, most often, all of the above. 

If you've ever felt this way, Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools is your invitation to trade your conceptions and misconceptions about prayer for prayer in its purest form: a vital, sustaining, powerful connection with God that is more real and alive than you could have ever imagined. In these pages, Tyler Staton--author, pastor, and national director of the 24/7 Prayer movement--addresses common roadblocks to prayer and gives you the confidence to come to God just as you are. 

Through biblical teaching, powerful storytelling, and insights on historic Christian practices, Staton helps you . . .

• Express your doubts and disappointments about prayer
  
• Discover and practice multiple postures of prayer, including silence, persistence, confession, and more
  
• Understand and embrace the wonder and mystery of prayer in everyday life
  
• Realize that prayer is a powerful invitation to partner with God in the redemption of a fallen world
  
• And, ultimately, open or reopen the line of communication with your Creator and experience afresh his divine power on earth
  

What would you do for twenty-four hours if the only criteria were to pursue your deepest joy?

Dan Allender's lyrical book about the Sabbath expels the myriad myths about this "day of rest," starting with the one that paints the Sabbath as a day of forced quiet, spiritual exercises, and religious devotion and attendance. This, he says, is at odds with the ancient tradition of Sabbath as a day of delight for both body and soul. Instead, the only way we can make use of the Sabbath is to see God's original intent for the day with new eyes. In Sabbath, Allender builds a case for delight by looking at this day as a festival that celebrates God's re-creative, redemptive love using four components:

• Sensual glory and beauty
• Ritual
• Communal feasting
• Playfulness

Now you can experience the delight of the Sabbath as you never have before—a day in which you receive and extend reconciliation, peace, abundance, and joy.

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