Jason Byassee
Biography
Jason Byassee wrote Surprised by Jesus Again, An Introduction to the Desert Fathers, and Praise Seeking Understanding.
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Apologetics
“I’m not sure who else alive could have written this book. Scholars are not usually this accessible. Pastors not usually this sharp-eyed. Critics not usually this devastating. Advocates not usually so beautiful. This unusual book calls to mind Augustine’s heart, Aquinas’s mind, Day’s activism, Temple’s leadership. You say I exaggerate? Take up and read before you tell me I’m wrong.”
Church Leadership & Ministry
“Imagine an interpreter of Scripture with trustworthy credentials. Now imagine a musician who enchants with creativity. Next imagine a pastor who can mobilize a community to bless a neighborhood. In Mark Glanville, all three of these are one person. Read, listen, and imagine what more may be possible.”
Preaching & Worship
“Eliana Ku’s book is a cure for what afflicts so much North American preaching: our stupefying, inveterate cheerfulness. If we are afraid of pain, we’ll never break through to hope. Go ahead and weep in sermons. Jesus does.”
Church Leadership & Ministry
“"It is rare that our wisest commentators on matters churchly and cultural are also our funniest. Ross Lockhart has wisdom and humor to spare. These essays are somehow both impatiently prophetic and graciously pastoral. They're also delightful. You won't put the book down more cynical. You'll put it down more ready to serve.”
History & Biography
“Is there a way to be Christian without the pope and without sola scriptura as a sort of distorted image of the papacy? These essays suggest there is, that we have good news to share from Jesus Christ to the world God loves, stewarded in our traditions, back to the apostles. However you lean liturgically and on authority, and on congregation-based small groups and discipleship, these essays will enlighten, challenge, and delight you.”
Church Leadership & Ministry
“This journal is a long lament on the annus horribilis of 2020. Like all good Christian laments, it upends optimism and leaves us in hope: Christ will have a church. We still don’t know what the COVID-19 and Trump year mean. But counsel as wise as this from Michael Gehring can help us see again. I couldn’t put the book down.”
Marriage, Sex, and Procreation
Theology
“As my denomination has struggled with questions about inclusivity, traditionalists have often claimed that inclusion is not a theological argument. Meanwhile their opponents often implicitly grant this claim, refusing to draw on Christian doctrine at all—it’s the problem, after all. Schafer’s book shows otherwise. Four theologians within the Augustinian tradition, with different appetites along a spectrum from fidelity to revision of that tradition, are presented here without pontification or even pronouncing a ‘winner.’ This book would be extremely helpful in a classroom, a Sunday school, or around a family dinner table as we wrestle with Christ’s commands to love all, enemies especially, even ourselves.”
Church Leadership & Ministry
“You think you know what a pastor is? What a pastor is for? Think again. Michael Plekon introduces us to a wild ensemble of some of our best practitioners from across the ecclesial gamut, showing that pastoral work is ultimately about God’s work and God’s nature.”
Preaching from the Old Testament
Preaching & Worship
“I read Walter Brueggemann and it makes me want to preach. If a text feels lifeless or heavy in my hands, I hear his scratchy, adamant voice and I listen anew for the voice of God. I defy you to read these words and not long to love God and God's people and God's world more profoundly.”
Theology
“The retrieval of figural exegesis has lacked a homiletics text until now. I pray a generation of seminarians will learn to preach from Annette Brownlee.”
Church Leadership & Ministry
“I wonder where this book has been all my ministry? All my life? For decades evangelicals planted churches. Now the cool kids want to turn around failing churches. But it's so much harder. Josh Hayden has the scars to show he knows it. And 'revitalize'? I'll never use the word again. Hayden's 'remission'? More of this, please, Lord Jesus.”
World Religions
“Rabbi Laura makes me want to love the local, overlooked creatures, theology with question marks, my difficult neighbor, and even myself better. I rejoice to recommend a book so human as this.”
History & Biography
“James Howell is simply incapable of thinking of his life without thinking of the uproarious and creative grace of God. That's why this book is such a treasure. That God still sends us such preachers is a sign we've not been abandoned.”
Christian Living
“James Harnish is the best of United Methodism. He is anchored in Jesus, soaring in song, conversant with the saints, fired by the Scriptures. When the history of the Protestant recovery of Mary is written centuries hence, Harnish’s work will get a chapter.”
Christian Living
“It's a plot too fitting to be believed: a sage wise beyond his years writes the book on dying and then dies himself, leaving a widow and four young children. But reality is like that. Face death, Rob insists, and live in light of Christ's promised resurrection. His beloved Clarissa's incandescent afterword marks her emergence as a writer in her own right, situating Rob's masterful book for posterity. Read this book only if you want your life changed, bettered.”
Preaching & Worship
“Imagine if we asked the average passerby what they thought of Christianity and they responded, ‘I don’t know if what they’re saying is true, but wow, is it ever beautiful’? If more of our preaching resembled what Pasquarello describes here, if it beat with the ‘heart of the church’s doxological vision,’ we could imagine such a response. Would that what we say, and how we say it, would startle and stagger with God’s radiance once more.”
Ethics, Culture & Social Issues
“I love Jenell Williams Paris's suggestion that we not stuff anyone into any identity box other than the one for those Jesus calls beloved. It's exceedingly hard to say a fresh word on these matters. Paris has done so with wisdom and gentleness.”
Evangelism & Missions
“Richard Osmer has written the definitive book on evangelism today and likely for years to come. It is biblically rigorous, theologically erudite, lucidly written, and often quite moving. His remarkable students at Princeton Seminary have taught him how to think about the good news in ways that are full of profound hope. And now that crucible of learning is available to us between these covers. This is essential reading for anyone in practical theology, Scripture, Barth studies, soteriology, or anyone who wants to share good news with their neighbor without coming off as a creep, or just to be a human being in love with God and others.”
Prayer & Spiritual Formation
“Warren Smith is the kind of teacher whom local churches hope their pastor will take. He takes seriously the Bible, the early church, Wesley, prayer, and good humor. All are on display in this accessible volume written with the whole church in mind. Read--and find yourself praying.”
History & Biography
“Charles Featherstone could have turned to blowing things up. Instead we get this little eruption of grace. I find his voice hauntingly beautiful. Maybe it takes a modern-day 'holy fool' to profess to hear the voice of God. Others will too through this wise work of testimony.”
NOTE: Only includes books currently in our catalog; not necessarily a complete list.
An Introduction to the Desert Fathers
Prayer & Spiritual Formation
Church Leadership & Ministry
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
Theology
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
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