Social Ministry

When the Universe Cracks is a sweeping, multifaceted look at the role of crisis in the life of faith from an esteemed gathering of pastors, faith leaders, and experts. You’ll find honest and realistic reflections to help you navigate a present trouble or anticipate changes. Inspired by a global pandemic, these writers examine the whole history of God’s people and offer a fresh perspective for every time the universe cracks.

A gospel of hope, inclusion, and defiance. If God gets everything God wants, and if what God wants is you, can anything stand in God’s way? Too many Christians have been taught that core aspects of who they are - their gender, their sexual orientation, their politics, their skepticism - prevent God from loving them fully. For these individuals, church has been a painful experience of exclusion, despite the reality that Jesus was the embodiment of God’s radical inclusion.

Walk out your front door and you’ll find our “new Samaria”―a land of immigrants, refugees, and people of countless cultures and backgrounds longing for us to welcome them and to share the good news. Dr. Alejandro Mandes has dedicated his life to helping bridge cultural gaps in the church. He shares his vision for the church “to see, love, reach, and ultimately be the new Samaria in a way that brings true transformation to our churches and communities.”

The Bible has been hijacked. We’ve all seen examples of sacred scripture being used to justify racism, sexism, reactionary politics, and violence. If you have ever found yourself wondering what Bible some of your fellow believers are reading, then you are not alone. With a foreword from Brian McLaren, Who Stole My Bible?: Reclaiming Scripture as a Handbook for Resisting Tyranny shows how the Bible is an inspiring handbook for finding your voice for speaking truth.

Pastor Kevin Wiebe grew up below the poverty line, with his mother hunting for change in the couch to buy food for the baby. Wiebe now pastors a “low resource” church of mostly immigrants - a congregation that transcends definitions of the helper and the helped and that doesn’t fit neatly into any stereotype of poverty. In Faithful in Small Things, Wiebe shows listeners that writing big checks isn’t the only - or even the best - way to alleviate poverty.

Using the incredible story of how Pastor Choco chose to “love them anyway” to transform the crime-ridden community of Humboldt Park in Chicago, Love Them Anyway will inspire you to love in a way you never have. This book will pave a compelling path for you to both express and experience a truly transformative love on a deep level. It will tap into your deepest desires, expose your hesitations, connect you deeper with God's love, and help you take bold steps to love the people around you - and your love will change lives.

Modern man has a problem with knowledge. He cannot accept God's word about the world or anything else, so anything that points to God must be called into question. Man, once he makes himself ultimate, is unable to know anything but himself. Because of this impasse, modern thinking has become progressively pragmatic. This book will lead the listener to understand that this problem of knowledge underlies the isolation and self-torment of modern man.

After a dramatic election amid a raging pandemic, racial violence, economic collapse, and historic national divisions that have threatened our democracy, Joe Biden succeeds Donald Trump as the 46th president of the United States. For Catholics, this is a momentous occasion in US public life, as he is the second Catholic to be elected to the nation’s highest office, joining John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

In arguably one of the most divisive and polarizing eras, evangelicals are faced with a profound crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that has many dimensions - political, biblical, and theological - as well as a crisis of spiritual formation and discipleship. What ultimately is at the root of this crisis? Mark Galli encourages us to turn our attention away from the politics of the moment, the social issues being discussed online, and the debate du jour among Christians. He asks us instead to take a long and hard look at what’s missing in our spirituality.

Throughout her nearly 40 years in ministry, Heidi Neumark has strived to make the communities she was part of sanctuaries amid the turmoils of life. Now, with the social and political upheaval of the years since Donald Trump was elected president, Neumark believes the true Christian calling is to live out a counterpoint to today’s prevailing spirits of exclusion and hatred. Using her own bilingual, multicultural congregation as a model, she moves through the seasons of the church calendar to reflect on what it looks like to live out essential Christian convictions.

The deeper I grow in my own faith as a Christian, the greater my desire to explore. My faith whets my appetite for discovering what God is doing in and through the world each and every day. This book is a chronicle of some of the most important lessons I have learned thus far. I write to encourage my fellow nomads who, like me, so often feel alone in their wanderings yet are a part of a much larger caravan of fellow wanderers seeking to discover for ourselves the meaning and mysteries of life.

[Un]Intentional shows how our obsession with screens often takes us - unintentionally - to places we regret. It reveals the way many apps, games, and videos are designed to entice us to make decisions and form harmful habits that profit the creators at our expense.

Our nation faces perilous times economic uncertainty, natural disasters, terrorist threats, and an overall spiritual and moral decline. To withstand these storms and keep our nation from falling, we must have a solid foundation for the next generation to build upon. Orphaned by the loss of natural and spiritual leadership, an entire generation is searching for something real to hang onto during life's storms. By demonstrating the love and nature of our Heavenly Father, the people of God can bring hope to a fatherless generation, setting them upon the rock foundation of Christ.

Charlie Dates, Romell Williams, George Parks, Jr., Terry D. Streeter and a cast of pastors and preaching professors collaborate to demonstrate the power of exposition in the cradle of the Black pulpit. The contributors in this volume give examples of African American biblical exposition in every section of the Old Testament and New Testament. They also explain how to preach from narrative, poetical, prophetic, epistolary, and apocalyptic genres throughout the Scriptures.

For the last several decades, Western churches have focused the bulk of their resources on the early stages of discipleship - children’s Sunday school, youth group, college ministry. While these are all important, we have neglected the spiritual growth of those in the second half of life. In fact, an outside observer might think that after the growth of the college years, the goal is simply to coast through the rest of your Christian life.

When a tragic drowning accident leaves 15-year-old Jacob in a coma, the faith of his family and community is shaken. Medical experts used phrases like persistent vegetative state and said Jacob would never wake up. Without sugar-coating the realities of pain and suffering, Parting the Waters presents the heart-warming, true story of what can happen when a community rallies around one wounded family.

In Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk: A Christian’s Guide to Engaging Politics, Cho encourages listeners to remember that hope arrived—not in a politician, system, or great nation—but in the person of Jesus Christ.

Ida B. Wells was a powerful churchwoman and witness for justice and equity from 1878 to 1931. Born enslaved, her witness flowed through the struggles for justice in her lifetime, especially in the intersections of African Americans, women, and those who were poor. Her life is a profound witness for faith-based work of visionary power, resistance, and resilience for today’s world, when the forces of injustice stand in opposition to progress.

"Make America Great Again" has quickly become one of the most divisive phrases in our nation. It most certainly begs the questions when was America great, what things made it great, and what things need to be done to restore its greatness? The answers to the questions above have driven me back to study the Founding Fathers' vision of America and what they set out to achieve. I am a born-again Christian. This audiobook is written for those who profess the lordship of Jesus Christ and acknowledge the inerrant doctrinal authority of the Bible.

Fears. Faults. Failures. Frailties. Every woman at some point wonders, "Do I have to get past all my weaknesses before God can use me?" Wendy Pope is happy to tell listeners: No! You don’t have to overcome, correct, rise above, or get strong before you are qualified to be part of God’s plan. He can use you right now. You are a worthwhile possibility. In Hidden Potential, listeners see that they can be faithful, even in fear; included in God’s plans, even in weaknesses; worth something, even in failure; and valuable, even in pain.