When All Else Fails is a book of poetic reflections that taps into the hopes and anxieties of a humanity that is no longer as self-assured as it once was. Marked by a pandemic and loss of faith in our political systems, the workplace, and the faith community, we are all struggling for a surer pathway for our feet. While When All Else Fails is no cheap recipe for recovery, it does provide a deep probe for finding a way forward through new heart attitudes that will shape a gentler world.
Most agree the church needs to change, but how can this be brought about? Innovations and openness to new ideas are all around us, but in the church there seems to be a way of thinking and behaving that has written change out of the agenda. As a result, many have left the church, or as Charles Ringma says, go to church "out of habit or guilt, but are frustrated, alienated and don't participate in its life." In Catch the Wind, Charles Ringma answers questions such as: . How can people be empowered for change? . Can they become responsible for their own spiritual growth? . What is the shape of the church of the future? . How can churches be organized as if people mattered? . How can our experience of church be a family one? Catch the Wind doesn't offer a single "model" for the church. But it does make a case for a more dynamic, less structured and risk-taking approach to our life together that builds people up and equips them for mission in the world. Charles R. Ringma is Professor of Missions and Evangelism at Regent College. He has previously done mission work among the Aborigines in Australia, was the founder and director of the Good News Centre which worked with alcoholics in Brisbane, and was Australian founder and executive director of Teen Challenge, also in Brisbane. He has taught at the Asian Theological Seminary in Manila and is the author of Gadamer's Dialogical Hermeneutic, Cry Liberation: With Voices from the Developing World, and Seek the Silences: With Thomas Merton.
How are we to sustain activism and compassion amidst the never-ending crises of the twenty-first century? While the concern for social justice is deeply biblical, cynicism, burnout, and despair are all too common side effects when action is divorced from contemplation. To effectively serve as the hands and feet of Jesus, the church must attend to the revitalization of its inner life through the spiritual practices which feed, support, and sustain the work of the kingdom. Rather than the fragmentation and dualism that have led denominations to choose between prayer and service, evangelization and justice, the church must integrate heart, mind, and body in order to fulfil its calling to transform the world from within. Drawing from Scripture and a wide range of Christian traditions – from the monastic to the evangelical – this book inspires its readers to integrate spiritual renewal and prophetic witness for the glory of God and the good of his creation.
In The Art of Healing Prayer, Charles Ringma and Mary Dickau invite us to enter the realm of God’s curative love to aid those seeking the wholeness of Christ. Implicit in this invitation is the understanding that we have opened up our own lives to God’s healing grace. For this is a costly ministry, in which precious time and resources will be required of us as we pray biblically, imaginatively and sensitively for someone who may be on a very difficult journey to restoration. Although often carried out behind the scenes of much of the Church’s activity, the healing ministry is one of joy and transformation. A person released from long-standing inner woundedness – from the prison of reaction, bitterness, self-pity, self-protection and fear – is one who can grow to inhabit new wide spaces of love and forgiveness. In turn, they may become a source of goodness and healing, as the ‘magic’ of God’s grace results in eddies of life-giving love for others.
We are living in challenging times. And it is easy to escape, pine for the “good old days,” or unrealistically dream our way into the future. Instead, we are invited, in this book, to face our troubled world, to identify our inner struggles of faith, and to voice our anxieties and pain. And most importantly we are invited to wrestle with the God who so often seems absent. Living with a fragile hope, we are called by the gospel to nurture an inner life that responds with faith and courage to the brokenness of our world and the woundedness of our inner being.
Living in challenging times it is easy for us to become nostalgic or disgruntled. However, we can also become more reflective and empowered. With Your Latte is a small resource to help you move in the direction of hope and human agency. Here is a little wisdom for your engagement to lighten your way.
Living in challenging times it is easy for us to become nostalgic or disgruntled. However, we can also become more reflective and empowered. With Your Latte is a small resource to help you move in the direction of hope and human agency. Here is a little wisdom for your engagement to lighten your way.
The book of Judges marks an important transition in the life of Israel. It shows the cycle of deviancy and repentance, heroic actions and social collapse, the misuse of power and the marginalization of God. This commentary seeks to help readers navigate the many strange stories and characters of Judges by providing an overall framework for reading it and by explaining a way of entering its stories so that they can be appropriated in an Asian context. This commentary challenges the reader to pray and work for a spiritual revitalization, building a new social fabric in a world marked by injustice, pragmatism, and the loss of a God-centered way of life.
We are living in an age of confusion and uncertainty. This has also impacted the Christian church. It is important, therefore, to get some ground under our feet. And we will need more than only a Sunday service. There are things we will need to do ourselves to strengthen our faith. A Pocket Christian Catechism may be of help. It contains the basics of the Christian faith, such as prayers, creedal statements, and reflections on the work of Christ, as well as the blessing of the Holy Spirit, the church, the sacraments, and our engagement with the world. Like taking part of the church into daily life and work, this book can be read while on public transportation, having a coffee break, or going for a walk. If used regularly, A Pocket Christian Catechism can nurture one’s inner being. What is held in one’s heart gives solid ground to one’s feet.
When All Else Fails is a book of poetic reflections that taps into the hopes and anxieties of a humanity that is no longer as self-assured as it once was. Marked by a pandemic and loss of faith in our political systems, the workplace, and the faith community, we are all struggling for a surer pathway for our feet. While When All Else Fails is no cheap recipe for recovery, it does provide a deep probe for finding a way forward through new heart attitudes that will shape a gentler world.
In this volume of short reflective pieces, Thomas Merton acts as a conversation partner for the author, who draws on Merton?s monastic experience in order to help us reflect on the motivational centre out of which we all live, work and serve. Seek the Silences is not a call to a spirituality that pulls us towards God but removes us from the pain, need and challenges of the world. Rather it highlights that it is necessary to be still before God in order to hear and then do; to disengage in order to be empowered; to be embraced in order to serve.
There is a hunger in the modern world for spirituality. One vast resource of spiritual wisdom comes from the pre-Reformation church--from the martyrs of the first centuries of Christianity, through the long tradition of monasticism, to the medieval Christian mystics. These are the deep wells of Christian reflection from persons such as John Chrysostom, Augustine, Benedict, Francis of Assisi, Bonaventure, Bernard of Clairvaux, Meister Eckhart, Hildegard of Bingen, and Julian of Norwich, to mention just a few. The spiritual insights of over seventy men and women of pre-Reformation Christianity are found in these pages. From these figures we can learn more about the practices of prayer and contemplation, a life of following Christ, the relevance of community, the challenge of asceticism, the movement of withdrawal and engagement, the love of God for God's own sake, living the gospel, sacrificing for the kingdom of God, the longing for union with God, the practices of justice, and a life of prophetic witness. For us, so embedded and shaped by the modern world, this ancient wisdom will come as refreshing water and as a breath of fresh air, with the wings of the Spirit and whispers of angels.
Spirituality cannot be an escape from reality. Jesus Christ empowers us to live in the world in ways that glorify God, enhance the well-being of others, and transform our world. We are encouraged to take life seriously in all its dimensions: personal, social, economic, cultural, political and spiritual. Here are 110 faith-stretching reflections on many issues of daily living. Each is an encouragement to live life realistically, proactively, and with hope. Charles Ringma is Professor of Missions and Evangelism at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. He has previously done mission work among the Aborigines in Australia, and was Australian founder and executive director of Teen Challenge in Brisbane. He has taught at the Asian Theological Seminary in Manila and is the author of C
This devotional of 365 meditations by theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer helps you see that it is possible to impact that world if we allow ourselves to be transformed into the likeness of Christ. Experience the power of Bonhoeffer’s words in a way that challenges you to live out your discipleship daily—combining personal spirituality with an active concern for those around you.
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