Based on fifteen years of experience treating survivors of family violence, James Leehan provides this excellent resource to aid all individuals trying to overcome the effects of abusive behavior--behavior that is often supported by religion and generates spiritual conflicts for survivors. He helps survivors identify their feelings and behaviors and examines Jewish and Christian religious resources that can promote healing and spiritual growth. Leehan also reviews the spiritual dimension of the pain that survivors of family violence confront daily and the special skills they developed to survive in a hostile environment.

Cutting-edge social science research into what young adults want out of a faith community Purpose and meaning, healing and growth, community and fellowship—these values have traditionally been found in church. Though young adults are leaving the pews in droves, they are still seeking these spiritual benefits. How can churches entice them to return? Jeffrey F. Keuss thinks that’s the wrong question to ask. Instead, his multigenerational team of scholars investigated how faith communities can make themselves more hospitable to the next generation of Christians. Backed by five years of qualitative and quantitative research, the Pivot NW research team offers practical recommendations for involving young adults in the community, including: • loosening demands for church membership • involving young adults in leadership earlier • addressing the economic difficulties of millennials • understanding religious trauma Defiant Hope, Active Love encourages church leaders to let go of nostalgia for old ecclesiological norms and embrace something new, inclusive, and authentic. With thorough research and incisive analysis, this groundbreaking book contains a wealth of resources to promote the health of faith communities.

We all spend a lot of energy reaching for happiness, but we're never quite able to hang on to it. Real life happens, and our circumstances take us on an emotional rollercoaster. Oftentimes, the Bible's call to "be joyful always" seems out of reach--but it doesn't have to be. We are called to live. And, miraculously, to live with joy. Join bestselling author Stasi Eldredge as she shows us how to choose a joy that stands against the tides of life's real and often overwhelming pain. Defiant Joy reminds us that a joy that is defiant in the face of this broken world was meant to be ours. This joy isn't simply happiness on steroids, it's the unyielding belief that sorrow and loss do not have the final say. It's the stubborn determination to be present in whatever may come and interpret both goodness and grief by the light of heaven. Defiant Joy will give you the encouragement you need to: Finally experience daily joy Learn how to have a posture of holy defiance when circumstances threaten to weigh down your soul Find new perspectives on the painful circumstances you've faced In Defiant Joy, Stasi invites us with courage, candor, and tender vulnerability to a place beyond sadness or happiness, leading the way as we learn how to maintain a posture of holy defiance that neither denies nor diminishes our pain but dares to live with expectant, unwavering hope.

Losing means grieving. Grieving means choices. Choices mean hurt or healing. You’ve lost someone you love. Or you’re on the brink of losing your marriage. Your dreams. Your health. Or perhaps the trauma of your past pursues you into the present. Your life’s going to change. Which way it goes won’t be decided by your loss, but by the choices you make. At the crossroads of grief, one road will lead to hope and healing. The other, to more hurt. Hope When Your Heart Is Breaking is an honest look at both roads, and how your greatest loss can lead to your greatest gain. Author Ron Hutchcraft writes from the deep well of his own devastating loss and grief, and points you to the practical steps that lead to peace and wholeness. This book is a pathway to hope—a roadmap through the pain of grief and loss. Discover new strength through a new closeness to others and to God. And make the decisions that lead to comfort, growth, and life.

First Published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

World Magazine Book of the Year Creative Quarterly Professional Graphic Design Runner-Up Christianity Today's Book of the Year Winner ECPA Top Shelf Book Cover Award "This book will make no attempt to defend God. . . . If you are looking for a book that boasts triumphantly of conquest over a great enemy, or gives a detached philosophical analysis that neatly solves an absorbing problem, this isn't it." Too often the Christian attitude toward suffering is characterized by a detached academic appeal to God's sovereignty, as if suffering were a game or a math problem. Or maybe we expect that since God is good, everything will just work out all right somehow. But where then is honest lament? Aren't we shortchanging believers of the riches of the Christian teaching about suffering? In Embodied Hope Kelly Kapic invites us to consider the example of our Lord Jesus. Only because Jesus has taken on our embodied existence, suffered alongside us, died, and been raised again can we find any hope from the depths of our own dark valleys of pain. As we look to Jesus, we are invited to participate not only in his sufferings, but also in the church, which calls us out of isolation and into the encouragement and consolation of the communal life of Christ. Drawing on his own family's experience with prolonged physical pain, Kapic reshapes our understanding of suffering into the image of Jesus, and brings us to a renewed understanding of—and participation in—our embodied hope.

When she launched the world's first social stock exchange, Durreen Shahnaz started more than a financial system; she sparked a movement. Defiant optimism means changing how systems work--and who they work for. In these pages Shahnaz offers strategies for placing women, the underserved, and the planet at the heart of financial systems.