Sparkhouse

Remind Me Again Facilitator Guide: 41 Sessions Based on the Poetry of Joe Davis

Have meaningful discussions about Joe Davis’s Remind Me Again in small groups with your community. This facilitator guide provides 41 lessons, one for each poem. Designed to be flexible for short gathering times or hour-long sessions.

9781506498270

Unscheduled Grace: 40 Devotions and Prayers for College Students

This collection of devotions and prayers accompanies college students through the many changes, challenges, and joys of college living.

9781506496771

Open: Unorthodox Thoughts on God and Community

This book boldly articulates an open theology--progressive approaches that promote unorthodox theological reflection and the creation of inclusive communities. Brad Braxton outlines Christianity's capacity to foster healing, hope, and restorative justice through embracing pluralism and radically inclusive love.

9781506488813

In the Midst of Chaos: Caring for Children as Spiritual Practice

In the Midst of Chaos, by Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, explores parenting as spiritual practice.

Both honest about the difficulties and attentive to the blessings present in everyday life, it explores how parents might use seven daily practices, such as play, reading, chores, and saying goodbye or goodnight, as rich opportunities to shape both parent and child morally and spiritually.

9781506454597

Psalms for Sojourners

"The Psalms address the days of our lives, in times of hurting as well as happiness, helping us to learn how to pray and also how to praise," says James...

9780800634667

Welcoming and Affirming: A Guide to Supporting and Working with LGBTQ+ Christian Youth

A handbook for pastors, youth workers, church leaders, educators, and other adults in Christian settings, this guide provides answers to the most pressing questions about sexuality, gender, mental health, safe sex, and more. You'll walk away with a lot of insight, prepared to love, affirm, and accept the LGBTQ+ teens in your community the way God does--exactly as they are.

A companion book to Queerfully and Wonderfully Made: A Guide for LGBTQ+ Christian Teens.

9781506464985

Ordinary Blessings: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Everyday Life

The ordinary moments of life can be sacred, if we simply take a moment to notice. From gifted poet and empathetic pastor Meta Herrick Carlson, Ordinary Blessings is a collection of prayers, poems, and meditations offering a brief respite from the hectic, harried pace of our days. Pause, take a deep breath, and open these pages to find that you've been standing on holy ground all along.

9781506450612

Let the Children Come: Reimagining Childhood from a Christian Perspective

In Let the Children Come, Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore explores the question, What does faithful parenting look like today? As she addresses this query, she updates outmoded and distorted assumptions about and conceptions of children in popular US culture. She also shows important insights and contributions religious traditions and communities, Christianity in particular, make as we examine how to regard and treat children well.

9781506454573

Is That Poop on My Arm? Parenting While Christian

God meets us, and our kids, in the mess
Parenting is messy business. Joyful, but messy. When faith is combined with parenting, we double down...

9781506433004

You Can Change: Stories from Angola Prison and the Psychology of Personal Transformation

Can people make positive changes in their lives that really last? To answer this question, Dr. Mark W. Baker wound up interviewing inmates in the largest maximum-security prison in the United States, located in Angola, Louisiana. Baker uses stories from inside Angola, along with his decades of experience as a clinical psychologist, to show all of us how to change our lives for the better--no matter who we are or what we've done.

9781506455648

Love and Quasars: An Astrophysicist Reconciles Faith and Science

In Love and Quasars, Paul Wallace shows how faith and science are pitted against one another, and he explains how the standard ways of reconciling them don't work. He then proposes a reasonable, thoughtful approach that will appeal to Christians and students of science alike. Readable and wise, Love and Quasars is an indispensable resource for people who wonder if faith and science can coexist.

9781506448435

Praying through Grief: Poems and Meditations for Healing

"They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies." William Penn With classic texts from the Bible...

9781506458311

The Heavenly Party: Recover the Fun, Life-Changing Celebrations for Home and Community

The Heavenly Party is the ideal resource for Christians looking to reintroduce fun, joy, and playfulness into their spiritual lives. Drawing upon her rich Jewish...

9781506458151

40-Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The 40-Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer introduces Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a well- known and courageous German theologian and Lutheran pastor, who during the...

9780806653686

Outlove: A Queer Christian Survival Story

In Outlove, Julie Rodgers details her deeply personal journey from a life of self-denial in the name of faith to her role in leading the take-down of Exodus International, the largest ex-gay organization in the world, to her marriage to a woman at the Washington National Cathedral. Rodgers's story sheds light on the debate between Evangelical Christians and the LGBTQ community, ultimately casting a hopeful vision for how the church can heal.

9781506464046

Reclaiming Rest: The Promise of Sabbath, Solitude, and Stillness in a Restless World

What does pressing pause look like? In Reclaiming Rest, Kate H. Rademacher explores the gifts of solitude, stillness, and Sabbath rest in a world of motion and noise. Ultimately, Rademacher claims, pausing for sacred rest pierces our illusions of self-reliance and control--and that's good news. What if keeping the Sabbath is not only a command to obey but a gift to reclaim?

9781506465999

You Can Talk To God Like That: The Surprising Power of Lament to Save Your Faith

In You Can Talk to God Like That, pastor Abby Norman shows us that we can talk honestly to God, despite what we may have been told. You'll be encouraged to express your anger and pain to God and feel relief that you can be honest even when things are not okay. Learn to reclaim this ancient practice of lament and refresh your relationship with a God who has always wanted your whole self.

9781506469065

Love Makes Room: And Other Things I Learned When My Daughter Came Out

When Christian singer and speaker Staci Frenes learned her teenage daughter was gay, she found her dreams for the future--along with her lifelong faith--collapsing around her. Coming to terms with a new reality offered an invitation to make room for many things: the inevitability of uncertainty, hope in the midst of loss, awkward and tough conversations, an expanding faith, and a greater understanding of how people are more the same than different.

9781506468631

Make a Move: How to Stop Wavering and Make Decisions in a Disorienting World

Facing big decisions can lead to frustration, anxiety, and confusion. "It would be so much easier if life just came with a road map!" But life doesn't work like that--it's full of twists and turns, the unexpected and the unforeseen.

In Make a Move, Stephanie Williams O'Brien offers practical steps for moving through the experiments of life, so that we can narrow down the choices and discern God's leadership.

9781506465920

Fulfilled: Let Go of Shame, Embrace Your Body, and Eat the Food You Love

Today's culture has distorted how women view our bodies. But God longs for you to embrace your body, eat with freedom, and live with a deep confidence that you (and your body) are loved exactly as you are. In Fulfilled, nutrition expert Alexandra MacKillop explores physical, mental, and spiritual health through a non-diet lens, encouraging you to respect your body, honor your hunger, and embrace the unique size and shape that God created for you.

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