Augsburg Fortress

The Forgotten Books of the Bible: Recovering the Five Scrolls for Today

You're probably missing some of the most interesting books of the Bible.

The five books known as "The Five Scrolls" perform a central liturgical function in Judaism. The Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentation, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, together with the five books of the Torah, orient Jewish life and provide the language of the faith.

In the Christian tradition, by contrast, these books have largely been forgotten. But they deserve much more attention, since they address issues like sexuality, grief, existential despair, ethnic identity, and power. Williamson guides readers into these overlooked books of the Bible, showing their surprising relevance to contemporary life.

9781506406268

Waiting for Good News: Living with Chronic and Serious Illness

Sally Wilke has lived with and through the serious chronic illness of someone she cared deeply about. And she has provided pastoral care to individuals and families in similar situations. Waiting for Good News captures her hard-won, helpful, and hope-filled wisdom. Wilke also offers tools, tips, ideas, and resources for obtaining or providing additional support.

9781506434230

Nurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care in the Twenty-First Century

Lynne Baab discusses seven trends in pastoral care with stories about Christian caregivers meeting those challenges in creative ways. Baab also presents four practical skills pastoral carers need: to understand common stressors, to listen, to pray with others, and to nurture their personal resilience. In each chapter, she offers discussion question as well as tips for readers who are training other pastoral carers.

Nurturing Hopebrings readers hope for their caring role and their own spiritual journey.

9781506434278

They Don't Come with Instructions: Cries, Wisdom, and Hope for Parenting Children with Developmental Challenges

Hollie M. Holt-Woehl offers insights for the journey with a developmentally challenged child. As the mother of a son with an autism diagnosis, she also offers ways to keep hope.

The book focuses on the challenges of parenting children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD), and/or Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS).

Readers who seek to understand what it is like to live with a developmentally challenged child will appreciate Holt-Woehl's down-to-earth and compassionate approach.

9781506427416

Jobs Lost, Faith Found: A Spiritual Resource for the Unemployed

Jobs Lost, Faith Found is for those who feel alone due to job loss. It is also for those who offer respect, companionship, guidance, and resources to the unemployed. Mary C. Lindberg draws on her family's experience of unemployment and the wisdom of many others to help readers discover a sense of worth and purpose on their way to a new job. Prayers, insights, stories, and reflections take readers from uncertainty to hope.

9781506427393

True Connection: Using the NAME IT Model to Heal Relationships

From their years of counseling individuals, couples, and families, George Faller and Heather Wright show how to repair conflict and discover God's movement in our life and relationships.

Using the NAME IT (Notice, Acknowledge, Merge, Embrace, Integrate, and Thank) model, first we connect with our own hearts and stories, then understand the other person's position, and finally merge those two truths (or versions of what is happening), giving birth to a new connection.

9781506431772

Outside the Lines: How Embracing Queerness Will Transform Your Faith

God's love for us breaks every boundary. So should our love for each other.

Mihee Kim-Kort is a wife, a mom, and a Presbyterian minister. And she's queer. But instead of pushing her away from God, her queerness has brought her closer to Jesus and taught her how to love better. Outside the Lines shows us how God, in Jesus, loves us in a queer and radical way. Whenever we love ourselves and our neighbors with the boundary-breaking love of God, we live out queer spirituality in the world.

9781506408965

Honoring Our Neighbor’s Faith: A Lutheran Perspective on Faith Traditions in America, Revised Edition

Hundreds of Christian denominations and dozens of non-Christian traditions have followers in the United States. How do we view this wide variety of beliefs and practices? How does the Lutheran tradition compare with others?

9781506400587

Rising: The Amazing Story of Christianity's Resurrection in the Global South

Pundits regularly declare that Christianity is dying—its golden age of influence is long gone in Western Europe, and similar trends are happening in North America. But while it slowly dies in the West, Christianity has been coming to life in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Now immigrants, refugees, and missionaries from the Global South bring their vibrant faith to our shores. They are bringing the gospel back to us in new and surprising ways. Christianity is rising, you just have to look around.

9781506421827

The Last Blues Preacher: Reverend Clay Evans, Black Lives, and the Faith that Woke the Nation

Zach Mills's lively and powerful biography, The Last Blues Preacher, brings the life and work of Reverend Clay Evans into our time and examines how current national conversations on race, religion, politics, and popular culture can and should inform contemporary activism.

9781506428178