Debra Rienstra

An Extra Mile

Fiction

“Sharon Garlough Brown has once again given us an irresistible page-turner, bringing this series to a satisfying close while celebrating that life with God is always unfolding anew. Rarely in fiction are we invited so deeply and generously into the secret contours of the spiritual life. Through the realistic stories of these four women, readers experience what it feels like to enter the darkest places of loss, resistance, and frustration, and find there the abundant grace of God.”

Catching Hope

Christian Living

“No need to be a fishing enthusiast to find this little gem utterly compelling. In vivid prose, and with vulnerable wisdom, Father Pete Nunnally tells his story of coming alive--to waters and winds and fishy creatures with their wily ways, but even more, to God. Currents of memoir and hard-won spiritual insight flow deftly through these chapters, offering spiritual seekers and yearners plenty to celebrate and ponder.”

Creation Care Discipleship

Theology

“Steven Bouma-Prediger has the heart of a good teacher, and here he blends decades of reflection, teaching, and scholarship into a comprehensive study. By reexamining the biblical witness and gathering a whole congregation of authoritative Christian voices, Creation Care Discipleship patiently addresses distorted perspectives and ideas, presenting instead a decisive case that creation care is necessary, not optional, to faithful Christian practice.”

Following Jesus in a Warming World

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“While fellow Christians remain apathetic or dismissive, Christians concerned about the climate crisis can feel they are walking a lonely journey. For these lonely journeyers, Kyle Meyaard-Schaap is a patient, trustworthy, experienced encourager. His irresistible passion calls us back from deceptive narratives into the real story of God's redemptive love for all creation. This book is a deeply scriptural call to advocacy for people and planet as both moral necessity and spiritual discipline. What a gift! Finally, Christians can take courage and hand this book to others, saying, 'This. Read this.'”

Helping Our Children Grow in Faith

Christian Living

“Robert Keeley combines biblical grounding, educational research, and much experience to create this down-to-earth guide. Readers will find here not only practical advice but also a wise proposal about changing our congregational cultures in ways that benefit young and old.”

Jesus Girls

Women

“Nothing sentimental or triumphant here. These essays peel back the veneer and speak the messy truth about evangelicalism's quirks and pieties, its hypocrisies and failures. Thoughtfully varied and inventively organized, this collection creates a rare space for young women to find the wit in witnessing and put testimony to the test. Evangelicals, beware--beware young women. They are watching, they think for themselves, and they will speak.”

Love in a Time of Climate Change

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“We have not yet fully reckoned with the strength and depth of love required of us in this time of climate crisis and threadbare hope. Sharon Delgado skillfully brings the riches of the Wesleyan tradition to bear on this reckoning, explaining in clear and patient prose how Christians and all people of good conscience must hear the groans of creation and the cries of vulnerable people as the same cry. How long till our compassion and sense of justice finally awaken? The time is now, and now more than ever, we need the urgent call in this book.”

Mulled Psalms

Arts & Literature

“Marjorie Gray's compressed, muscular language consistently startles into insight. Intriguingly fresh, yet biblical, names for God and thoughtfully modernized images challenge the reader to enter these ancient poems as living, ever-renewing texts. Gray's achievement here is remarkable and rare on both a literary and devotional level. So psalm lovers will surely want Mulled Psalms on their shelves as a resource for study, prayer, and worship. But this is also a winsome volume for readers who have not yet fallen into the psalms, who have wondered what all the fuss is about.”

Shades of Light

Fiction

“What a consolation this novel will be for those who have known the darkness! Too often church people approach mental illness with fear, simplistic theology, and useless spiritual bromides. By telling Wren's story, Sharon Garlough Brown instead gently welcomes us into a companionship of sorrow where we can glimpse the dark beauties of grace. There's bracing truth here about the stubbornness of mental illness, the spiritual and practical implications, the helpless ache of those who love but can't fix. But there's also beauty of soul, which emerges for readers through Wren's sensitive dwelling in the paintings and writings of Vincent van Gogh. And as we learn to dwell in Wren's world, to enter that circle of sorrow, we find at the center of it the compassionate, Gethsemane presence of Christ.”

Weathering Change

Christian Living

“Courtney Ellis's Weathering Change teems with a tumble of life: sage thrashers and ocean tides, falcons and microbes, bears and goldfinches. Amid this kaleidoscopic tour of the earth's wonders, Ellis reveals a shimmering thread of wisdom about managing change. At a moment in history when change feels overwhelming and pervasive, Ellis's witty and gentle prose brings nature's wisdom to bear on our human experience, drawing from her own family life and pastoral ministry as well. Spend a little time with this congenial companion, reveling in delight and wonder and God's provision, and you will feel more at ease with change—and less alone.”