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Book SynopsisNadia Bolz-Weber weaves personal narrative, hilarious rants and powerful spiritual insight as she relates her unusual journey of faith, offering a fresh and uncompromising look at the transformative power of grace. As one of today's most provocative Christian leaders, she blends sardonic irreverence and brilliant theology to offer a portrait of faith that is edgy, outrageous and, above all, real. Smart-mouthed and heavily tattooed, Nadia Bolz-Weber didn't consider herself ‘religious leader material’ and didn't expect to find her vocation leading a funeral in a smoky, downtown comedy club. But surrounded by recovering alcoholics, depressives, and comedians, she realized these were her people and maybe she was meant to be their pastor. Bringing together the bracing and beautiful, this revised updated edition reminds us that we need the grace of a loving, forgiving God now more than ever. Please note this book is published under the title 'Pastrix' in certain territories.Trade Review'This is an astonishing book...contagious, honest, captivating...a rare gift... I realize that I'm gushing, but that's what you do when a book inspires and moves and touches you like this one does.' -- Rob Bell'Funny, raw, and packed with truth, this books is offensive in all the right ways... This book reminded me of why I am a Christian. I wept when I finished it.' -- Rachel Held Evans'A gifted writer, a liturgical acrobat, an honest and outspoken sinner-saint, a deep, engaging, and surprising speaker - I could only be talking about Nadia Bolz-Weber.' -- Brian McLaren'Fierce, funny, faithful, and very old-school in her passion for the Word, Nadia Bolz-Weber is a preacher of power. Read her, listen to her, and get fired up to follow Jesus.' -- Sara Miles, author of Take this Bread and Jesus Freak'The passion behind Nadia's words is as deeply pastoral as it is God-drenched and liberating... thus the affection as well as the respect that attend her and her work wherever she goes.' -- Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence

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Book SynopsisAdvent is a season of waiting and anticipation in which the waiting itself is strangely rich and fulfilling. Poetry can help us fathom the depths of Advent's many paradoxes: dark and light, emptiness and fulfilment, ancient and ever new. For every day from Advent Sunday to Christmas Day and beyond, the bestselling poet Malcolm Guite chooses a favourite poem from across the Christian spiritual and English literary traditions and offers incisive seasonal reflections on it. In the spirit of the season, he blends the familiar and the new, ranging from from spiritual classics such as Edmund Spenser, John Donne, George Herbert and Christina Rossetti, to contemporary voices Luci Shaw and Scott Cairns. His own acclaimed sequence of sonnets for the great Advent antiphons are also included.

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Book SynopsisAn obscure little religious teacher operating in a back of beyond place called the Galilee. Preacher, healer, leader, life transformer, befriender, largely unknown and unnoticed in his own time. And yet today Millions, all over the world Follow him, love him, are inspired by him And experience him. Meet Jesus The most significant, mysterious and attractive person who has ever lived. Here are 100 greatest hit stories from the Gospels. All explained with a contemporary voice.

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Book SynopsisThe story of an unexpected and terribly inconvenient Christian conversion, told by a very unlikely convert, Take This Bread is not only a spiritual memoir but a call to action. Raised as an atheist, Sara Miles lived an enthusiastically secular life as a restaurant cook and writer. Then one morning, for no earthly reason, she wandered into a church. She ate a piece of bread, took a sip of wine, and found herself radically transformed, embracing a faith she’d scorned and which would lead to feeding others in a way that she’d never imagined. Sara started a food pantry giving away literally tons of food from around the same altar where she’d first received the body of Christ, and providing hundreds of hungry families with free groceries each week. Take This Bread is rich with real-life Dickensian characters–church ladies, millionaires, schizophrenics, bishops, and gangsters – all blown into Miles’ life by the relentless force of her new-found calling. Here, in this beautiful, passionate book, is Christ’s living communion.Trade Review‘The finest confession of faith I’ve read in years. . . . This is the kind of book I would wish to write, were I wise enough or skilled enough or candid enough to do so.’ -- Phyllis Tickle, author of The Divine Hours and former religion editor for Publishers Weekly‘Energized . . .. [There are] many tasty morsels in this surprising book.’ * O: The Oprah Magazine *‘A memoir that blew me away . . . I am going to foist this on every single hard-core left-wing religious nut I know. And make no mistake: there are many of us.’ -- Anne Lamott * Time *‘Not since I read The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton, or Augustine’s Confessions, have I read such a powerful autobiographical account. This book is a gem. . . . How this story ends will remain with you forever.’ * The Decatur Daily *

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