Inspiration from those who have walked before

There’s a strong biblical connection between people and trees. They both come from dirt. They’re both told to bear fruit. In fact, arboreal language is so often applied to humans that it’s easy to miss, whether we're talking about family trees, passing along our seed, cutting someone off like a branch, being rooted to a place, or bearing the fruit of the Spirit. It’s hard to deny that trees mean something, theologically speaking.

This book is in many ways a memoir, but it’s also an attempt to wake up the reader to the glory of God shining through his creation. One of his first commands to Adam and Eve was to “work and keep” the garden (Genesis 2:15). Award-winning author and songwriter Andrew Peterson, being as honest as possible, seeks to give glory to God by spreading out his roots and raising his branches, trusting that by reading his story, you’ll encounter yours.

Hopefully, you’ll see that the God of the Garden is and has always been present, working and keeping what he loves. Sometimes he plants, sometimes he prunes, but in his goodness he intends to reap a harvest of righteousness.

While there are many books about writing, none deal first-hand with the intersection of songwriting, storytelling, and vocation, along with nuts-and-bolts exploration of the great mystery of creativity. In Adorning the Dark, Andrew describes six principles for the writing life:

serving the work | serving the audience | selectivity | discernment | discipline | community

There is a glory to life that most people-including believers-never see. In this insightful new book, John Eldredge presents the heart as central to life. Not only is the heart essential; the heart God has ransomed is also good. Building on these foundational truths, Eldredge shows readers why real Christianity is a process of restoration, where the broken parts of our hearts are mended and the captive parts are set free. Waking the Dead leads listeners to understand how to live from the heart, care for their heart like the treasures of the kingdom, and give from fullness instead of emptiness. This message also shows how living from the heart can energize people to love God and others in a way they've never experienced, revealing to them life's purpose: fighting for the hearts of others

After almost three decades of pastoring New Life Fellowship Church in the bustle of New York City, Peter Scazzero found two truths to be true: you can't be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature, and unless you slow and quiet your life down for a first-hand relationship with Jesus Christ, little change is possible. The integration of these two truths unleashed a spiritual revolution in Scazzero, in his church, and now in thousands of other churches. In this revised bestselling book, Scazzero outlines his journey and offers a roadmap for a discipleship with Jesus that is powerfully transformative.Topics include how to identify emotionally unhealthy spirituality, how to grow your soul through grief and loss, and how to develop into an emotionally mature adult. Offering new stories and principles, this updated edition will inspire readers to revolutionize their spiritual life.

A simple, beautiful way to integrate spiritual formation into your church or group.

Nine Practices to help your church experience deep transformation from the ground up. Each Practice is four weeks long and includes teaching, guided conversations, and spiritual exercises, all designed to integrate the Practice into your ongoing life.

Many of us have struggled with prayers that seem to go unanswered, and Pete Greig has been down that difficult road of doubt. This book is both intensely personal and deeply theological-a book born out of his wife Sammy's fight for her life after a horrifying diagnosis.

Silence in response to our most heart-felt prayers is the hardest thing for a person of faith to wrestle with. The world collapses. Then all goes quiet. Words can't explain what we're going through. People avoid you and don't know what to say. So you turn to Him and you pray. You need Him more than ever before. But somehow even God Himself seems on mute. And this sinks into us with a sense of futility...

But even in this crushing silence, there is a way forward. Here is a story of faith, hope, and love beyond all understanding.

How can time with God be a source of peace in a loud and distracting world? In Beholding, spiritual director and poet Strahan Coleman invites readers to discover the joy of being with God, not just working for Him. As they inhabit the art of resting in God’s presence, prayer becomes not only a place of seeking, but becoming.

In reaction to a Christianity they scarcely recognized, 4th century Church fathers fled to the Egyptian desert to model a different, radical style of discipleship, filled with sacrifice and continual prayer. Who are the new monks, the new punks, the new revolutionaries? The answer lies in an upsurge of 24-7 monastic communities around the world. Drawing influences from the Franciscans, the Celts and the Moravians, Pete Greig and Andy Freeman explore the counter-cultural and revolutionary force of monasticism and its relevance today.