Resources for Communal Discernment
This resource page will be a living document, meaning that the pastoral staff will update it as we come across invaluable resources that help us think through the issues of our time and place. We will continue to expand the topic list as As a Fellowship of Differents,* we seek to understand each other, not to conquer each other. Followers of Jesus come in all shapes and sizes, and it is the fellowship of the body of Christ that makes us one.
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Discipleship
Prayer
Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and Enuma Okoro
To You All Our Hearts are Open: Revitalizing the Church’s Pattern of Asking God, Scot McKnight
The Lord’s Prayer, Nijay Gupta
Praying with the Psalms, Eugene Peterson
Spiritual Formation
Invitation to a Journey, A Roadmap for Spiritual Formation, M. Robert Mulholland
Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster
The Wounded Healer, Henri Nouwen
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, Pete Scazzero
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Women in the Church
Women in Ministry
The Blue Parakeet, 2nd Edition: Rethinking How You Read the Bible, by Scot McKnight.
The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth, by Beth Allison Barr.
Women of the Bible, & Biblical Scholarship
Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church, by Nijay Gupta.
Nobody's Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament , by Sandra L. Glahn.
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Marriage & Sexual Ethics
Sex & Marriage
The Great Sex Rescue: The Lies You've Been Taught and How to Recover What God Intended, by Sheila Wray Gregoire, Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach.
She Deserves Better: Raising Girls to Resist Toxic Teachings on Sex, Self, and Speaking Up, by Sheila Wray Gregoire, Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach.
Theological Treatments of Human Sexuality.
That is, these are books that look at different arguments for and against a diverse array of topics regarding Christianity and sex.
The Meaning of Sex: Christian Ethics and the Moral Life, by Dennis P. Hollinger
Sex & Love in the Home: A Theology of the Household, by David Matzko McCarthy
Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics, by Margaret A. Farley
Church and LGBTQ+ Issues
Wherease many of the titles above may lightly address the topic, the resources below engage directly with the church and the LGBTQ+ community. They seek to help the church think through topics like inclusion, affirmation, accomodation, and offer differing perspectives for how the church can find a healthy way forward in love, inclusion, and Christlikeness. Wisdom requires understanding, and understanding requires listening .
Oriented to Faith: Transforming the Conflict over Gay Relationships, by Tim Otto
Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues, by Joshua D. Chatraw, & Karen Swallow Prior
Two Views on Homosexuality, the Bible, and the Church, by Zondervan
God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships, by Matthew Vines.
People to Be Loved: Why Homosexuality Is Not Just an Issue, Preston Sprinkle and Wesley Hill.
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Church History
Early Christianity, Pre-Constantinian
The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, Alan Kreider
The Rise of Christianity, Rodney Stark
Destroyer of the gods, Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World, Larry W. Hurtado