How can the church honor a person's profound experience of struggle, change or celebration? How can corporate worship link to the unique and real-life needs of the people in the pews? God wants us to be whole. One of the purposes of the church is to encourage that. However, in seeking to provide something for everyone, corporate worship traditions may have lost a personal touch that members need. Perhaps your most dedicated parishioner, for whatever reason, looks outside the congregation for support or growth. Positive change comes from these efforts, but often the much needed spiritual element is left unaddressed. In Gathered Together: Creating Personal Liturgies for Healing and Transformation, Norberg offers ideas for creating tailor-made liturgies that connect daily life with the rituals of worship. "Individualized healing liturgies are not psychotherapy but a wonderful adjunct to an inner journey that may include therapy," Norberg writes. "…Personal liturgies can bring a vital component to the life of the church. [They] offer an exciting, effective, even necessary, contribution to personal growth—a natural addition to healing ministries." Norberg details more than two dozen custom liturgies she has designed and led among the “ad hoc church,” honoring such specific events as finding a vocation, recovering from illness, giving up false hopes and receiving first car keys. These liturgies are truly faith in action—intimate, honest and deeply transformative—as a congregation of close friends participate with the celebrant in a service uniquely designed around a personal need. Her wise, creative guidance will inspire pastors to widen the scope of the liturgy and encourage laypeople to seek an authentic bridge between the personal journey and church life.

Tracing the interactions among evangelicals, Catholics, and Mormons from the 1950s to the present day, We Gather Together recasts the story of the emergence of the Religious Right, showing that it was not a brilliant political strategy of compromise and coalition-building hatched on the eve of a history-altering election. Rather, it was the latest iteration of a much-longer religious debate that had been going on for decades. Evangelicals, Catholics, and Mormons found common cause and pursued similar ends in debates about abortion, school prayer, the Equal Rights Amendment, and tax exemptions for religious schools, but they were far from a unified bloc, cracks in the alliance shaped the movement from the very beginning. This provocative book will reshape our understanding of the most important religious and political movement of the last 30 years.

Jim Morrison... We all know the stories, but does anyone know the real man? If you don't know where the truth ends and the fiction begins, you're not alone. A misinformation barrage that started when Morrison was alive grew toxic in the years after his death. In an effort to disprove the lies and rumors, Frank Lisciandro, Jim's friend and film collaborator, gathered together more than a dozen of Morrison's friends for a series of interviews and conversations. From the transcripts of those talks Jim Morrison is candidly brought to light by the people who knew him, who were his pals, colleagues, mentors and lovers. Jim Morrison: Friends Gathered Together confronts and sweeps away the fantasy to illuminate an extraordinary man and gifted creative artist. The interviews and conversations covered a multitude of topics. The people who share their stories were themselves active participants in the West Coast music scene: musicians, concert promoters, publicists and band managers. Readers will discover funny stories, secrets revealed and truths more astounding than the fabrications published during and after Morrison's life. From his first year in high school and his student days at UCLA to the formation of The Doors and his rise to fame, the book weaves an amazing tapestry of information about Jim Morrison the poet, the brilliant lyricist, and the iconic singer and performer of The Doors. The book is a feast for Jim's fans worldwide and for curious readers who want to know the true Jim Morrison story. The conversations also offer a unique oral history of the turbulent Sixties when L.A.'s Sunset Strip was the focus of a cultural renaissance and musical revolution. The book contains 57 original Frank Lisciandro photographs, many never published before. Jim Morrison: Friends Gathered Together focuses on issues and occasions that illuminate an extraordinary man and gifted creative artist. By weighing the observations of those who knew him, the reader can reach his own conclusions about who Jim Morrison was and what he achieved. The result is a more accurate rendering, a more humane and truthful portrait.

"Hosts of all kinds, this is a must-read!" --Chris Anderson, owner and curator of TED From the host of the New York Times podcast Together Apart, an exciting new approach to how we gather that will transform the ways we spend our time together—at home, at work, in our communities, and beyond. In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker argues that the gatherings in our lives are lackluster and unproductive--which they don't have to be. We rely too much on routine and the conventions of gatherings when we should focus on distinctiveness and the people involved. At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play. Drawing on her expertise as a facilitator of high-powered gatherings around the world, Parker takes us inside events of all kinds to show what works, what doesn't, and why. She investigates a wide array of gatherings--conferences, meetings, a courtroom, a flash-mob party, an Arab-Israeli summer camp--and explains how simple, specific changes can invigorate any group experience. The result is a book that's both journey and guide, full of exciting ideas with real-world applications. The Art of Gathering will forever alter the way you look at your next meeting, industry conference, dinner party, and backyard barbecue--and how you host and attend them.

Gilbert the opossum gets stuck with a tattletale "buddy" on a class trip to Pilgrim Town.