Recommended Resources
Below you will find just some of the resources that we have found incredibly helpful in our own work of reimagining a more holistic spirituality in Christ. We hope they inspire you in wildly wonderful ways.
Our Un-Forming: De-Westernizing Spiritual Formation
Cindy S. Lee
“In Our Unforming: De-Westernizing Spiritual Formation, Cindy S. Lee proposes that we as the church need a new way to engage in spiritual formation. To thrive in our increasingly diverse contexts, we need an unforming and a reforming of our souls. We need to unform the ways Western-dominated church leaders have understood formation. We need to reform--to imagine and create a more intricate spirituality that includes diverse experiences of God.”
Church Together
Traci Smith and David Csinos
“Many ministry leaders today watch as their congregations separate into age based groups and miss the profound beauty of worshipping as one body. You want a community where the youngest children and the oldest adults grow together in faith, but the path from age segregation to intentional connection often feels overwhelming. Church Together provides the essential roadmap you need to transform your faith community into a vibrant home for every generation.”
Liturgies for Resisting Empire
Kat Armas
“In Liturgies for Resisting Empire, Cuban American theologian and writer Kat Armas provides a roadmap for Christians seeking a countercultural way of living that prioritizes community and humanity over dominance and power. Armas combines spiritual practices and biblical theology to help us create authentic belonging to God, ourselves, each other, and creation.”
The Book of Belonging
Mariko Clarke
“A beautifully illustrated Bible storybook to help the next generation of kids understand the rich diversity of God’s people, emphasizing identity, contemplation, and wonder.”
Shalom and the Community of Creation
Randy Woodley
“Materialism. Greed. Loneliness. A manic pace. Abuse of the natural world. Inequality. Injustice. War. The endemic problems facing America today are staggering. We need change and restoration. But where to begin? In Shalom and the Community of Creation Randy Woodley offers an answer: learn more about the Native American 'Harmony Way,' a concept that closely parallels biblical shalom. Doing so can bring reconciliation between Euro-Westerners and indigenous peoples, a new connectedness with the Creator and creation, an end to imperial warfare, the ability to live in the moment, justice, restoration -- and a more biblically authentic spirituality. Rooted in redemptive correction, this book calls for true partnership through the co-creation of new theological systems that foster wholeness and peace.”
Crisis Contemplation: Healing the Wounded Village
Barbara A. Holmes
“In Crisis Contemplation, the Rev. Dr. Barbara Holmes addresses two entry points into contemplation which have seldom been addressed: contemplation during crisis, and how we contemplate as a community. Engaging deeply with both history and current events, Holmes addresses the emergence of crisis contemplation, especially through the lenses of BIPOC peoples. After exploring existing communal contemplative experiences and several types of crises (pandemics, earthquakes, and systemic abuses), she examines the resulting traumatic wounds which manifest across generations.”
Meek Squad
“In the North Street Neighborhood of Durham, NC, we are receiving a way of togetherness through a common life of friendship and mutuality amongst people with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities. Daily we gather to pray and sing. These songs have grown out of a personal experience of the Gospel embodied in beloved community. They are part of a communal discovery of our life in Christ and an expression of the unity given to us in the Spirit. We hope as you listen that you are drawn into the mystery of your own belonging in the oneness of love - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.”
Center for Action and Contemplation
“We support those seeking healing within themselves and in the world around them through everyday Christian contemplative wisdom and practices.
Founded by Richard Rohr in 1987, our work is rooted in a long tradition of Christian contemplation but presented in ways that meet people where they are today. Whether through teachings, practices, or community engagement, our goal is to help people live out this wisdom in practical ways—so that they become instruments of love, peacemaking, and positive change in the world.”
CoGenerate
“We’re living in the most age-diverse society in human history — and one of the most age-segregated. We’re missing out on the complementary skills and talents people of all ages can bring to the table, the power and energy they can create, the divides they can bridge, the communities and country they can build together. No more. At CoGenerate, we envision a world where older and younger people join forces to solve problems, bridge divides and co-create the future.”
Braiding Sweetgrass
Robin Wall Kimmerer
“Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.”
The Jesus Way
Karen Keen
“For 500 years the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises have spiritually nourished people across the globe. Developed by Ignatius of Loyola in the 16th century, the Exercises focus on the life of Jesus, our God-given purpose, and spiritual discernment to make everyday decisions guided by the Holy Spirit. This 36-weeks adaptation of the Exercises offers daily options for prayer, Scripture reading, and reflection. The retreat follows Ignatius's intent closely, while still being accessible. Important Ignatian concepts, like inner freedom, are clearly explained. This is an opportunity to be shaped by the story of “God with us.” The world offers many narratives, but not all lead to life. What fills your imagination is what you become. In the Spiritual Exercises you allow Jesus to saturate your reality and invite you into a life of purpose.”
Jesus and the Disinherited
Howard Thurman
“Thurman lifts Jesus up as a partner in the pain of the oppressed, and the gospel as a manual of resistance for the poor and disenfranchised. In this view, the example of His life shows us that hatred does not empower—it decays. Only by recognizing fear, deception, contempt, and love of one another can God’s justice prevail. With a new foreword by acclaimed womanist theologian Kelly Brown Douglas, this edition of Jesus and the Disinherited is a timeless testimony of faith that demonstrates how to thrive and flourish in a world that attempts to destroy one’s humanity from the inside out. Having witnessed firsthand the depths of white supremacy and the heights of human civility, Thurman reiterates the inherent dignity of all of God’s children.”