Attendance in US churches continues to sharply decline. As church leaders struggle to identify both root causes and possible responses, they often feel a sense of despair... but there is hope!

Change is inevitable. Make it transformational. Find transformation in unexpected changes, in your life and your congregation

We've been thinking about leadership the wrong way. What if good leaders lead like God? And what if God's leading is open and relational?

For two hundred years, scholars have been analyzing one of the most important books ever written—the Bible—and overturning much of what we once thought we knew. Everyday Christians, however, are not privy to this deeper conversation. It is for these people that renowned bishop and author John Shelby Spong presents Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World, a book designed to take readers into the contemporary academic debate about the Bible.

Like Luther, I present 95 theses or in my case, 95 faith observations drawn from my 64 years of living and practicing religion and spirituality. I trust I am not alone in recognizing these truths. For me they represent a return to our origins, a return to the spirit and the teaching of Jesus and his prophetic ancestors, and of the Christ which was a spirit that Jesus' presence and teaching unleashed.

A guide for students, groups, and organizations seeking to foster interfaith dialogue and promote understanding across religious lines.

In this profound work, bestselling author and the former Episcopal Bishop of Newark John Shelby Spong offers a radical new way to look at the gospels today. Pulling back the layers of misunderstanding created over the centuries by Gentile ignorance of things Jewish, he reveals how a literal reading of the Bible is so far removed from the original intent of the Jewish authors of the gospels that it has become an act of heresy.

Decline and Dysfunction in the American Church, addresses the unprecedented and devastating decrease in membership, financial resources, respect and ministry suffered by congregations and judicatories throughout the nation and offers an explanation that has not yet been considered.

There is a problem in the black church. It is a problem with black bodies and a blues problem. This book addresses these problems head-on. It proclaims that as long as the black church cannot be a home for certain bodies, such as LGBT bodies, then it has forsaken its very black faith identity. The black church must find a way back to itself. Kelly Brown Douglas argues that the way back is through the blues.

Fostering Spiritual Depth in a Busy World • Small group materials help your members embed greater meaning in their lives. • Your participants quickly make deep connections with each other. • Proven materials and techniques help you lead your small group through transformation.

Tom makes the audacious claim here that faith communities are uniquely situated to lead the evolution of human consciousness to help create a more just, caring and sustainable world. Crazy Wisdom is dedicated to answering how we just might go about doing that.

During his thirty-year career as a parish minister and professor, Robin Meyers has focused on renewing the church as an instrument of social change and personal transformation. In this provocative and passionate book, he explores the decline of the church as a community of believers and calls readers back to the church’s roots as a community of resistance. Shifting the conversation about church renewal away from theological purity and marketing strategies that embrace cultural norms, and toward “embodied noncompliance” with the dominant culture, Meyers urges a return to the revolutionary spirit that marked Jesus’s ministry.

Reba Riley’s twenty-ninth birthday was a terrible time to undertake a spiritual quest. For one, she was sick. For two, her chronic illness was untreatable, and it was slowly dismantling life as she knew it. But when her incurable physical condition forced her to focus on the spiritual injury she could fix–a whopping case of Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome — Reba undertook the challenge anyway: Visit thirty religions before her thirtieth birthday. This was to be transformation by spiritual shock therapy. She planned to find peace and healing … if it didn’t kill her first.

An important and respected voice for liberal American Christianity for the past twenty years, Bishop John Shelby Spong integrates his often controversial stands on the Bible, Jesus, theism, and morality into an intelligible creed that speaks to today's thinking Christian. In this compelling and heartfelt book, he sounds a rousing call for a Christianity based on critical thought rather than blind faith, on love rather than judgment, and that focuses on life more than religion.

This book articulates a progressive faith that represents a true marriage of the academic work of the modern biblical critical movement and the historical Jesus work of the Jesus Seminar applied within the life of an active parish.

From Conservative Lutheran to Progressive Christianity How does someone evolve from a conservative Lutheran upbringing into a Progressive Christian? This book traces what

In his highly readable Living the Quaker Way, Philip Gulley graciously welcomes the curious reader into the Quaker faith. His introductory chapter, "What is a Quaker?" is friendly, open, kind, unpretentious, and folksy. I read on expecting a primer on Quaker history, beliefs and practices and was not disappointed. But then I was startled by the change in tone. As he begins to work through the core values of the Quaker faith - Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community and Equality - Gulley becomes eloquently and passionately critical of modern American life, criticism that I entirely agree with.

The church sign can be easily read by anyone driving by: “You can’t be a devoted follower of Jesus unless you are part of a local church.” Does the church that posts this sign not trust the people with Jesus’s message? What is the meaning of “incarnation” if not “embodiment” by individual persons of the spirit of the Christ? Is the “Body of Christ” for members only? The Apostle Paul created the metaphor of the “Body of Christ” as the community of followers. In 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, he explains the meaning of the ritually-shared meal: “The cup of God’s gracious benefits that we consecrate means that we are involved in the blood of the Anointed, doesn’t it? The bread that we break means that we are involved in the body of the Anointed, doesn’t it? That there is one loaf means that we who are many constitute one body, because we all partake of the one loaf.” In Romans 12:5 he says, “Just as each of us has one body with many parts that do not all have the same function, so although there are many of us, we are the Anointed’s body, interrelated with one another.”

Francis Macnab has been teaching the place of Faith in psychology and theology, in health and growth for decades. He claims that the churches have lost vast numbers of people because their Old Faith has lost empathy and relevance in the 21st Century. He advocates the need for a New Faith.

This book is a call to action for a new era of spirituality-infused activism. Authors Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox encourage us to use our talents in service of compassion and justice and to move beyond our broken systems--economic, political, educational, and religious--discovering a spirituality that not only helps us to get along, but also encourages us to reevaluate our traditions, transforming them and in the process building a more sacred and just world.

The Year of Matthew is the second in a series of commentaries on biblical scripture found in the three-year cycle of Christian liturgical readings of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Are there any fun theology books written with today's reader in mind? Contemporary Christian thought leader Phyllis Tickle says "imaginative theologically and charming as well as rigorous, Bound, an Earth Walker's Handbook is the best example I have ever seen of riveting and holy fun."

Welcome to Progressive Christianity, Rob Bell! A Review by Jim Burklo of Rob Bell’s new book: What We Talk About When We Talk

An examination of Social Awakenment, History-Long Vision, Holistic Social Understanding & Strategies of Transformation as viewed by five United States citizens in 2011. Though vast changes are necessary, we believe humanity can find a vision and plan of action that is both satisfying and realistic. Our aim is to fertilize the fruitful imagination and courage it will require to walk this Road to Eco-Democracy.

The conflict between an academic and a popular version of Christianity is the divide which exists between the clergy and the laity. It is his conviction that this divide threatens the "core of the church's mission" and is a major cause of the loss of membership among the mainline Protestant churches.

"Some Christians have the ability to make you want to be a Christian just by being who they are. They make the gospel alive, real, healing, and utterly attractive. I think Spencer Burke is just one of those people. In his writings he shares himself and his vision" -Fr. Richard Rohr, Center for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque, New Mexico

The necessary context of prophetic preaching, Walter Brueggemann argues, is "a contestation between narratives." The dominant narrative of our time promotes self-sufficiency at the national level (through militarism) and the personal level (through consumerism).

Many educated people shy away from the church because they cannot believe in these and other aspects of Christian tradition. And yet many of these same people search for what the church can offer: a caring community, supportive during people of grief and times of joy. James Adams reminds us that religious faith is not a matter of the mind, but of the heart.

The Pope’s War offers a provocative look at three decades of corruption in the Catholic Church, focusing on Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI.

Richard Wagner's latest book, SECRECY, SOPHISTRY AND GAY SEX IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH; The Systematic Destruction Of An Oblate Priest, provides an intimate and disturbing look into the unseemly inner-workings the Catholic Church.