Redeeming The Screens

How does the future look to us? Well, clearly we realize we now live in a world of screens, from the microcosmic universe of to smartphone . . . to the imposing vigil of the multiplex giants, looming over us in Imax and 3-D--more "real" than real--and to all the screens in between, from computers to iPads, to muted, high definition flat-screens pouring out images in homes, restaurants, banks, businesses, schools, doctors' offices, and hospitals, and on and on everywhere we turn. We cannot change this reality, so what these Christians, and so many like them are doing is trying to find ways to redeem what we put on these screens: what message we are sending out in word and image to the watching world. So, clearly, our task, whether we have been called to create or not, is to join these artists as "screen redeemers," assisting the Holy Spirit in reconciling the world to God (2 Cor 5:18-19) through helping the pervasively influential means of the media adjust its goals to the mission of Jesus Christ.

Feeling overwhelmed and unproductive? The answer isn’t to do more. What image forms in your mind when you think of productivity? An assembly line? Spreadsheets? Business suits or workplace uniforms? In the ancient world, productivity didn't conjure images like these. Instead, it referred to crop yield and fruit bearing. This agrarian imagery helps us understand productivity through a biblical lens. Jesus taught, By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit (John 15:8). Who doesn’t want to have a truly productive life—to bear much fruit? But how does this happen in the places we hold dear—the home, workplace, and in our communities? We often feel overworked and overrun, defeated and discouraged. The world says be productive so that you can get all you can out of this life. The Bible says be productive so you can gain more of the next life. In Redeeming Productivity, author Reagan Rose explores how God’s glory is the purpose for which He planted us. And he shows how productivity must be firmly rooted in the gospel. Only through our connection to Christ—the True Vine—are we empowered to produce good fruit. This book shows how we can maintain the vitality of that connection through simple, life-giving disciplines. Readers will discover manageable applications like giving God the first fruits of our days. Additionally, Reagan discusses how our perspective on suffering is transformed as we see trials as God’s pruning for greater productivity.

Readers today often express an interest in reading something "real," just as many movie goers look for films "based on a true story." One cannot find anything more real than this book. Every contributor is invested in its vision, and each one personally offers to help readers. In this sense, this book's impact goes far beyond the pages. Joe DeFazio is the point person and his humbly expressed record of what he is able to accomplish for other suffering veterans is nothing short of heroic. Bruce McDaniel, a multi-decorated medic, is also an understated hero who, with his wife and family, has extended a life of compassion long after the Vietnam War's end into today, taking refugee children into their home to love and rear. His own thoughtful reflections on the war and its aftermath in his afterword to this book and his own Walk through the Valley: The Spiritual Journey of a Vietnam War Medic and The Hardest Part: Homecoming Stories from the Vietnam War bear out Joe's concerns and example. You won't come away from this brief book the same. It will widen your vision of how you too can help.

Empowering English Language Learners showcases strategies of those who teach English as a second language in pre-schools, graduate schools, secular public schools, and private Christian schools. What makes this book unique is the way each teacher evaluates teaching strategy through personal experience. This book explains what works and what doesn't. With additional contributions from: Dean Borgman Julia Davis Jean Dimock Cherry Gorton Seong Park Olga Soler Virginia D. Ward Gemma Wenger

Keeping the Dream Alive contains full-color images of Harriet Lorence Nesbitt’s art, giving an overview of her unique life and style. This monographic reflection explores the historical context of Nesbitt’s work. William David Spencer’s afterword contextualizes Harriet’s vision as an advocate for the mentally ill, an artist, and a political columnist, describing how and why Harriet’s life and art pulsed with vibrancy.

Berkeley Street Theatre chronicles Christian World Liberation Front's 1969-1975 ministry to the counterculture. Founded by Jack Sparks, CWLF was featured in the June 1971 Time Magazine's epic "Jesus Revolution" edition. Reverend Billy Graham sponsored the CWLF outreach and referred to CWLF as a highly effective outreach to the counterculture. The book included a foreword by David W. Gill, former CWLF leader, scholar, and author, contributing chapters from BST's members: Gene Burkett, Charlie Lehman, Susan Dockery Andrews, Father James Bernstein, and Jeanne DeFazio, editor of the book. Part Two of this work outlines Christian Guerilla theater following the timeline of BST with contributing chapters from: JMD Myers, Joanne Petronella, Jozy Pollock, Olga Soler, and Sheri Pedigo. William David Spencer's afterword details the cultural contributions of the Jesus movement. This book will appeal to the baby boom generation as well as millennials. It is a resource work for anyone interested in religious history, Christian theater and the arts, and in how baby boomers embraced the Jesus Movement. The photos of BST's Sproul Plaza performances will charm all readers.

From British interior designer Nicholas Haslam, a dazzling and witty account of a frenetic and full life—from the 1940s to the present—in Europe and America, in a crowd of friends and acquaintances that includes virtually all of the cultural icons of our time. Haslam has found himself at the center of some of the most interesting circles wherever he is—at parties, opening nights, royal weddings. In London in the late 1950s he crossed paths—and more—with Cecil Beaton, Francis Bacon, Diana Cooper, Greta Garbo, Lucian Freud, David Hockney, David Bailey, and Noël Coward. A time living in the still unspoiled south of France was an education in everything from the work of Buñuel to the style of toreros like Dominguín and Ordóñez. In Paris he met Jean Cocteau and Janet Flanner, and, in Saint-Tropez, danced with Brigitte Bardot. In the 1960s, in New York, he encountered Dorothy Parker, Cole Porter, Andy Warhol, Jack Kennedy, Joan Didion, and Marilyn Monroe while working in the art department at Vogue and later as art director, following Henry Wolf, at Huntington Hartford’s Show magazine. After Show, Haslam moved to a ranch in Arizona to raise Arabian horses—Truman Capote and John Richardson, among others, came to stay—and he began designing and commuting to Los Angeles to decorate for the stars. Back in England in the 1980s, he worked on David Bailey’s Ritz magazine, attended the wedding of his cousin Diana Spencer, and designed for everyone from the financier James Goldsmith to rock star Bryan Ferry. Redeeming Features is about much more than documenting a life among the celebrated and the eccentric: it is a vivid, at times humorous and moving portrait of a way of life that has all but disappeared. Haslam has an exacting eye for the telling detail and his story is a compelling and wholly fascinating document of our times.

How does God want to use you to have an impact? Most of us don't want to spend our lives being time-wasters, space-takers, binge-watchers, or game-players. We want to be difference-makers. But how do we do it? By revealing the way Jesus valued people, bestselling author Kyle Idleman shows us the Jesus way of changing the world--by loving people one at a time. Influencing just one person at a time may seem insignificant at first look. But as we better understand the surprising habits of Jesus, we unlock the power of small things done with great love and discover how God wants to use us to change the world one person at a time.