Ragamuffin Too

So, who was Jesus? A vagabond. A nobody from the middle of nowhere. Perfectly positioned for insignificance. And yet, this itinerant teacher changed the world. He came to set the record straight—to expose the lies and reveal the truth; to teach us how to live a life of joy, peace, and purpose; to be our guide. Jesus offers a new life, charged with supernatural power and sealed with an eternal guarantee. Our destinies are connected, each one a modest but essential element in a much grander narrative, a chronicle filled with brokenness and failure but also with rescue and redemption. We innately understand that our lives are part of a larger, more beautiful story. This book is about exploring that story and discovering a brave new world. A world where guilt and shame are sent to die and where love and grace rise from the grave. Discover the truth and allow Jesus to set you free.

Previously published: Sisters, Or.: Multnomah Publishers, c2000.

Imagine an organizational model for church leadership that enables the entire team to unleash their full potential. The joy and vigor coming from a collective strength, intelligence, and skill in the community of leaders not only brings greater potency but better yields for your ministry. What would it be like to see this kind of healthy leadership reproduced into the second, third, and fourth generation, on multiple strands? Leveraging the metaphor Ori Brafman popularized in his NYT best-selling book, The Starfish and the Spider, Rob Wegner, Lance Ford, and Alan Hirsch show: How to take a close look at your church's organizational structure and how to adapt instead of simply adopt a certain kind of structural approach. How churches can function without a rigid central authority, making them nimbler in reacting to external forces. How seeding starfish networks inside today's churches will prepare the church of tomorrow to be agile while maintaining the accountability to be effective. The Starfish and the Spirit is about creating a culture where church leaders view themselves as curators of a community on a mission, not the source of certainty for every question and project. It's about creating a team of humble leaders "in the middle" of the church, not at the top--leaders who naturally reproduce multiple generations of leaders, from the middle out.

Experience Rich Mullins's Legacy of Joy and Real Compassion Beloved contemporary Christian musician Rich Mullins lived his life with abandon for God, leaving the spotlight to teach music among a Navajo community. An accident cut his life short in 1997, but his songs and ragamuffin spirit continue to teach many. In honor of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Rich's homegoing, this edition of Rich Mullins: An Arrow Pointing to Heaven delivers an intimate look at the experiences that sparked praise hits and the values behind his Christ-like candor. James Bryan Smith captures just what Rich wished for when he said, "I hope I would leave a legacy of joy—a legacy of real compassion." See the layers of his story through reflections from friends and family, an afterword by Rich's brother David Mullins, and Smith's own bond with him. And in remembrance, be inspired to enjoy God's world as Rich did.

1920s OXFORD: HOME TO C.S. LEWIS, J.R.R. TOLKIEN... AND ANNA FRANCIS, A YOUNG GREEK REFUGEE LOOKING TO ESCAPE THE GRIM REALITY OF HER NEW LIFE. THE NIGHT THEY CROSS PATHS, NONE SUSPECT THE FANTASTIC WORLD AT WORK AROUND THEM. Anna Francis lives in a tall old house with her father and her doll Penelope. She is a refugee, a piece of flotsam washed up in England by the tides of the Great War and the chaos that trailed in its wake. Once upon a time, she had a mother and a brother, and they all lived together in the most beautiful city in the world, by the shores of Homer’s wine-dark sea. But that is all gone now, and only to her doll does she ever speak of it, because her father cannot bear to hear. She sits in the shadows of the tall house and watches the rain on the windows, creating worlds for herself to fill out the loneliness. The house becomes her own little kingdom, an island full of dreams and half-forgotten memories. And then one winter day, she finds an interloper in the topmost, dustiest attic of the house. A boy named Luca with yellow eyes, who is as alone in the world as she is. That day, she’ll lose everything in her life, and find the only real friend she may ever know.

Saltwater Redemption is a fictional memoir concerning the life experiences of its protagonist, Mayson Darcy, set in in Avalon, New Jersey. The plot tracks Mr. Darcys attempt to rediscover the golden innocence hed experienced as a kid growing up down the shore, revolving around his nineteenth summer living with a group of new friends and old acquaintancesa group of gender-segregated collegians who pick themselves to live in a summer shore house and have their lives recorded by a mad diarist. It explores the romance and magic of seashore living, as well as the perennially relatable themes of ones search for God, romantic love, and friendship. The novel begins with Maysons first recollection of swimming in the ocean, out past the drowning waters with his mother as a young child in Avalon, and ends with him venturing forth, out beyond the bow into an eternity of moonlight. In between, the narrative recounts some chronologically hopscotching recollections, including his enduring (and at times unrequited) love for three graceful ladies: Grayce Bateman, Lyrica Le Fay, and Sadie McGoldrick. Saltwater Redemption highlights the timelessness of certain settings: places to which we often return to escape from the manifold insanities and belittlements of the world in order to discover where we essentially belong. Above all else, Saltwater Redemption is poetically written filled with much humor and heartbreak, as well as a deep-seated admiration for the ocean and its manifold heroines, concerning a life inevitably crested in one timeless Arthurian locale.

Have you ever felt that even when your life is “gratefully going good” that “something’s glow” is still missing? Then, Life Is How YOU Look At It is just the book for you! I invite you to explore my sacredly revealed memoirs like Dare To Make A Difference ... where you’ll uniquely uncover how we’ve “each been born with both the gifts and the gusto to make an imprint on this earth!” Lastly, it is my hope that this enlightening path will take you three-fold as well. From a point of once “woe me” into the faith-filled fork of “Why NOT me?” to finally just “surrendering your life’s walk to God’s when-ready timing,” amidst immersing yourselves in the Light of The Lord to live wholesomely ever after!