We often think of the Christmas season as a time of good cheer, festive parties, and thoughtful gifts. But what happens when the reality of life stands in stark contrast to these expectations? Cancer diagnoses, divorce proceedings, and natural disasters do not care about calendar time. Smaller hardships create their own stress—travel woes, custody arrangements, money struggles, and political differences can strain our closest relationships. How do we live into the spirit of Christmas when things feel bleak?
From the coauthor of Comfort and Joy comes a gentle companion for a season that may not always feel like the most wonderful time of the year. Spiritual director Sherah-Leigh Gerber offers readers ways of noticing how God shows up in daily life amid our heartache, grief, and loss. With thoughtful reflections and compassionate blessings drawn from...
In our smallness and fragility, we can find God’s love. Six hundred years ago, Julian of Norwich lived in a world wrought by pandemic, persecution, war, and seismic change. As she prayed for reassurance...
There is an answer to white Christian supremacy that is centuries in the making.
For many oppressed and vulnerable people, Western Christianity has been a nightmare. Just centuries after the life of Jesus, the rise of Western Christendom contorted Christianity into an instrument of domination and violence. The church fused with the state, sanctioning empire-expanding crusades, colonization, and chattel slavery. Author Drew G. I. Hart challenges the church to wake up to how this past persists in the present, calling Christians to confront the living legacy of plundered people and lands in the name of Jesus.
Making It Plain offers a novel pathway for Christians to live out a decolonial and antiracist faith in the aftermath of Christendom: the convergence of the radical discipleship of the Anabaptist tradition and the prophetic witness of the Black church. In the witness of Black and Anabaptist Christian communities...
Born in Iowa in the 20th century, Joseph D. “J. D.” Graber was both a product of the Mennonite Church of his time and a visionary who helped shape Mennonite identity and engagement with the world. Nearly two decades of work in India reinforced Graber’s commitment to missionary witness and convicted him of the need for new attitudes and approaches for a postcolonial era—including in North America, where Graber cultivated the idea that congregations could be empowered to engage in local missions.
Sowing Seeds digs into Graber’s promotion of a “new day” in mission that shed colonial, paternalistic thinking and practice in favor of shared responsibility for missions. For Mennonites with a seclusionist posture, this new vision also offered a way to engage the world without forsaking faith values. Graber’s advocacy planted seeds for churches rooted in diverse ethnic traditions and cultures, nurturing commitments...
Jesus doesn’t shy away from our complexities or contradictions. Nor should we. We often sense a gap between who we are and who we could be, should be, or feel called to be. “I don’t understand...
When a shattered dream breaks your heart, how do you learn to hope again?
When April Yamasaki and her husband married, they were 21 and full of dreams. After almost 45 years of marriage, those dreams fell apart as April found herself grieving the death of her husband. How could life go on without him? Yet even in the depths of her sorrows, she experienced God’s goodness and mercy—big enough for her soul’s lament, longer and deeper and wider than our laments can ever be.
Whether you’re grieving the loss of a loved one, a job, a marriage, a church community, or a dream, you too may find yourself wondering, How can I go on? What hope is there for the road ahead? Whatever loss you’re living with, you will find comfort in these short, easily digestible readings, accompanied by prayers and spiritual practices, from a seasoned devotional writer. Grounded in Scripture,...
Rediscover the God who inspires passion in our hearts.
In the past several decades, a grassroots global movement has people rediscovering a Jesus-looking God who is raising up a Jesus-looking people to transform the world in a unique, Jesus kind of way.
This accessible introduction to understanding the character of God outlines what it means to be a Jesus-centered Christian and a Jesus-centered church. Authors Gregory A. Boyd and M. Scott Boren lay out the radical truth at the heart of this movement: the conviction that God looks like Jesus. In other words, in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, we see the embodiment of God’s very essence—a love that is humble, other-oriented, and self-sacrificial. This truth is the heart of the gospel. If we think it through thoroughly and live it out consistently, this truth has the power to transform the church and, through...
Spiritual Practices for the Highs and Lows of Parenting
by Aizaiah G. Yong and Nereyda Yong
Foreword by Yvette A. Flunder
$19.99 / CAD $27.19
ISBN: 9781513815411
Pub Date: 05/20/2025
How can we tend to our families in a world filled with distractions and difficulties? Between busy schedules, household tasks, and legacies of oppression, it can be difficult for parents and other caregivers of children to care for their inner selves, much less engage in spiritual contemplation. Then add to that the emotional challenges that can arise in the highs and lows of parenting, including fear, sadness, shame—and even joy and delight.
But there is a way to find the energy and grace to tend to our families, along with the world, from a place of spiritual wholeness. In parenting, we are repeatedly invited to discern how to live in right relationship with our kids, our partners or other adult family members, our communities, and ourselves. Parenting is part of living out God’s shalom. Authors and life partners Aizaiah G. Yong and Nereyda Yong...
Why is the church so important to God? What's really going on in the Bible? How can I make sense of my life?
Finding Ourselves in God's Story invites readers to join a conversation that covers questions about faith. It introduces Christian faith from an Anabaptist perspective and puts readers in touch with two stories that Christians are constantly hearing and telling. First, there is the Bible's story of God working to restore us—and all of creation—to wholeness. The center of this story is Jesus Christ, who lived, died, rose, and still lives—for us. The second story involves our own lives today. How do we connect with God's story? Where is God working in our lives? What will we do with Jesus' invitation to follow him?
This book addresses the pressing questions and concerns that today's youth bring to their faith. Drawing on direct, honest discussions with Mennonite teenagers, young...
500 years of faith. 500 years of service. 500 years of community. 500 years of Anabaptism.
A church begins a nonprofit to assist single mothers in their neighborhood. A baptism takes place in a barrel during a drought in a war-torn country. An urban congregation creates an intentional community of asylum seekers. Published in conjunction with the 500th anniversary of the Anabaptist Christian faith, Faith in Full Color introduces readers to a tapestry of creative expressions of contemporary Anabaptist witness in the world.
This book showcases the intersection of faith and life, showing how congregations, faith communities, and individuals express their faith. Together, these stories written and compiled by Jeanne Zimmerly Jantzi and accompanied by a diverse collection of photos address where we have been and, more importantly, where we are going as Anabaptist Christians: Where do we see God at work in our lives today? How have we seen...
