Showing results by narrator "Adam Verner" in All Categories

A Bigger Table invites listeners to envision a church that is big enough for everyone, by holding up a mirror to the modern church and speaking clearly on issues at the heart of the Christian community: LGBT inclusion, gender equality, racial tensions, global concerns, and theological shifts. John Pavlovitz shares moving personal stories, his careful observations as a pastor, and his understanding of the ancient stories of Jesus to set the table for a new, positive, more loving conversation on these and other important matters of faith.

Do you - as a believer - have a "deceitful" and "wicked" heart? Should your heart be tested, not trusted? If that's what you believe, your spiritual experience will be one of duty and obligation, only a faint imitation of what Jesus promised. This provocative book invites you to a radically different approach, an inspiring move from head to heart that affects every aspect of your life.

In life, we have moments in time in which we have an opportunity before us to make a change or to respond to a situation. According to D. Michael Lindsay, president of Gordon College, what follows these instances will depend intrinsically on the decisions we make and the actions we take. These are what he calls "hinge moments" - opportunities to open (or close) doors to various pathways of our lives.

Discover how to integrate meditation practices into your modern Christian life. Explore a wide variety of meditations, paired with scriptural passages and prayers that you can make your own. The open-ended topics in this meditation journal can apply to your own experiences at work, at home, or at church. 

Author A. J. Sherrill still remembers the moment when his life was forever changed by a word he didn't even understand at the time: Enneagram. A personality theory that includes nine different "types", the Enneagram has become a popular tool for self-awareness and improvement. But in this book, Sherrill goes deeper, exploring with Christians how the Enneagram can be a pathway to profound spiritual transformation. 

Millions are getting lost in the evangelical maze: inerrancy, indifference to the environment, deterministic Calvinism, purity culture, racism, LGBTQ discrimination, male dominance, and Christian nationalism. They are now conscientious objectors, deconstructionists, perhaps even "none and done". As one of America's leading academics speaking to the issues of religion today, David Gushee offers a clear assessment and a new way forward for disillusioned post-evangelicals. 

Do you have what it takes to become a next-level Catholic hipster? Building on the overwhelming popularity of The Catholic Hipster Handbook, Tommy Tighe is back with a new cast of fellow hipsters - including Haley Stewart, Samantha Povlock, Matthew Sewell, Fr. Damian Ferrence, and Patrick Neve - to share overlooked saints, forgotten prayers, and profound practices that define the countercultural Catholic lifestyle, inspiring you to live your faith in radical ways.

Frederick Buechner has long been a kindred spirit to those who find elements of doubt as constant companions on their journey of faith. He is a passionate writer and preacher who can alter lives with a simple phrase. Reflecting Buechner's exquisite gift for storytelling and his compassionate pastor's heart, Secrets in the Dark will inspire laughter, hope, and bring great solace. Start listening and rediscover what it means to be thoughtful about faith.  

Today's young people stand on the brink of unprecedented opportunity and influence. The problem is, many feel misunderstood and dismissed by older generations. Frustrated, they seek answers for how they can effectively influence change in the world when the gaps between generations grow wider and our shared experiences fewer. They want to make a difference, and they remain open to influence from adults who are willing to help them learn what they'll need to succeed. 

A fallen world is full of reasons to lose heart. From the large-scale tragedies of war, famine, and natural disasters, to the more personal tragedies of broken relationships and broken dreams, it can be difficult to avoid discouragement - even for the believer. And yet, Scripture calls us to a life of hope, based not on wishful thinking or avoiding our problems but based on who God is, what he has done, and what he is still doing. Pastor Jason Meyer shows you that though the reasons for discouragement seem strong, the reasons we have to take heart and hold on to hope are stronger yet.

Many bemoan the decline of the church. We hear a steady stream of reports about how droves of people, especially younger generations, are abandoning Christianity. But new research shows that unchurched Americans are surprisingly more receptive and open to the Christian faith than is commonly assumed. Researcher and practitioner Rick Richardson unveils the findings of the Billy Graham Center Institute's groundbreaking studies on the unchurched.

When an assassin burns innocents in New York, Zeb Carter knows they aren't the acts of a random killer. That close to the biggest event in the city, the G20 Summit, they are the signs of a terrorist planning to bring down the world order. The mastermind behind the terrorist is an old enemy, one who wants to bring the United States to its knees. And when Zeb uncovers his identity, it is war.

The fourth book in the epic Chaos Queen series. Many forces converge on the great city of Triah, bent on its destruction. By sea, Empress Cova of Roden sails with her armada, determined to bring the rival nation under her yoke. From land, Winter, the Chaos Queen, brings her tiellan army, set on revenge. And their advance brings a yet more terrible army still: awoken by the Chaos Queen's powers, daemons mass on the border between worlds, waiting for a way in.

A hundred years in the future, a war wages between the Five Dragons - five families that control the moon's leading industrial companies. Each clan does everything in their power to claw their way to the top of the food chain - marriages of convenience, corporate espionage, kidnapping, and mass assassinations. Through ingenious political manipulation and sheer force of will, Lucas Corta rises from the ashes of corporate defeat and seizes control of the moon. The only person who can stop him is a brilliant lunar lawyer: his sister, Ariel.

A sweeping Christian fiction epic, Maximus is part mystery, part detective story, and filled with intrigue. General Maximus is a battle-weary commander of one of Rome's finest legions. When he returns from a long, bloody campaign, he finds himself questioning his life. Word has reached Rome of a man named Jesus, who is causing a stir in faraway Judea. Maximus, disguised as a Jew, is sent to investigate the situation and assess his potential threat to Rome.

This deeply contextual biography centers on the tensions generated by the pope’s attempt to turn the Church away from power and tradition and outwards to engage humanity with God’s mercy. Through battles with corrupt bankers and worldly cardinals, in turbulent meetings and on global trips, history’s first Latin-American pope has attempted to reshape the Church to evangelize the contemporary age. At the same time, he has stirred other leaders’ deep-seated fear that the Church is capitulating to modernity.

When four recent high school graduates return home from a weekend of camping, they expect to go back to life as usual. Instead, the boys discover empty streets, abandoned cars, and utter silence - everyone has disappeared. As the friends attempt to solve the mystery, they stumble upon more questions than answers. Why won’t the electronics work? Where did the wind go? What do the notebooks full of gibberish mean? With each new discovery, they learn that nothing was ever quite what it seemed on Echo Island and that a deep secret is drawing them in - if only they'd surrender to it.

It’s been six months since Cha Ming’s clash with the White-Eyed Tiger Clan. His growth has stalled to nothing, and his search for an heir to the Golden Dragon has come up empty. When two angry city lords come looking for revenge, an unlikely group decides to shield him. The price for his safety is a single mission that requires no less than twisting the web of fate. 

The Inkwell Plane is a magical place. Daoist arts and technology work hand in hand, and transcendents are on friendly terms with demigods and demons. But not all is well. As a new ascendant, there aren’t many people who are weaker than Cha Ming. He must fight to prove his worth and carve out a place for himself in this dog-eat-dog world. To succeed, he may need to share more secrets than he’s comfortable with.

Frightened, my wife nudges me awake, certain that she heard a noise somewhere in the house. I hear the intruder a moment later. Our home is in a run-down part of town where burglaries and robbery have become commonplace. Worried about our 18-month-old in an adjoining room, I get up, grabbing a golf club I know to be in our closet, and go out to investigate. There's just sufficient light to illuminate the form of a man close to me in the hall.