College boys, freshmen, American twinks - Mark Lynch has had all these boys in front of his lens. This is his debut publication.

A second edition of Memories, Hopes, and Conversations is now available! With helpful updates throughout, the new edition features five new chapters on Appreciative Inquiry applied in real congregations. When First Presbyterian Church in Altadena, California, was asked to provide a mission study report for its pastor nominating committee, the congregation was afraid they would find themselves engaging in busy work and producing a report that would wind up in a file gathering dust. They then asked professor Mark Lau Branson to consult with them on writing this report. He invited them to join in a process of Appreciative Inquiry--a transformational organization change process--which resulted in a major shift in congregational conversations and a new sense of hope. Memories, Hopes, and Conversations recounts the experience of First Presbyterian and outlines a process that any congregation can utilize to harness the energies of the congregation at all levels of its common life. Branson first leads readers through the foundations of Appreciative Inquiry and bracingly explores biblical texts for understanding the practice in a faith context. He then outlines and illustrates a four-step process--Initiate, Inquire, Imagine, Innovate--that creatively employs constructive conversations and questions to evoke storytelling and spur imaginations. Branson persuasively demonstrates how concentrating on needs and problems can mire a congregation in discouragement and distract it from noticing innate strengths. By focusing on memories of the congregation at its best, members are able to construct "provocative proposals" to help shape the church’s future. Grounded in solid theory and real-life practice, Memories, Hopes, and Conversations is a groundbreaking work of narrative leadership and the first book to apply the principles of Appreciative Inquiry to the lives of congregations.

This insightful work examines the variety of ways that collective memory, oral tradition, history, and history writing intersect. Integral to all this are the ways in which ancient Israel was shaped by the monarchy, the Babylonian exile, and the dispersions of Judeans and the ways in which Israel conceptualized and interacted with the divine-Yahweh as well as other deities.

DIVMark Rosen was hired by WCCO television at the age of 17 and has been a part of the ’CCO team for more than 40 years. During that time, he has become one of the most popular and esteemed sports media celebrities in the region—a true icon on the Minnesota sports scene. In this first-person account, Rosen shares his experiences working with athletes, journalists, and a variety of local notables. He describes the most memorable moments from the playing fields and behind the scenes, and he offers insights gleaned from four decades in the business./divDIV /divDIVIn Best Seat in the House, Rosen tells of joining the fast-paced world of television journalism as a wide-eyed high schooler and then traces his journey to becoming one of the most recognized and respected names in local sports broadcasting. He shares his experiences meeting heroes like Harmon Killebrew and Bud Grant, covering iconic sporting events like the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” and the Twins’ World Series victories in 1987 and ’91, and breaking the big stories about the Vikings, Twins, Timberwolves, Lynx, Wild, and Gophers. /divDIVThe stories and anecdotes contained in Best Seat in the House offer a rare, exclusive look into the worlds of sports, media, and even politics from the perspective of someone who has been at the center of it all./div

Annice Booth shares her friendship and student/teacher relationship with Mark L. Prophet who was a twentieth-century prophet. She shows us Mark as a man of mysticism, miracles and tremendous spiritual mastery, yet still profoundly human.

Third Day guitarist Mark Lee is no stranger to heartache and hopes deferred; the road to success is never traveled without missteps along the way. Life is messy and uncertain and full of surprises. And one of the best things he's ever done is let go of his expectations about how life should be in order to embrace life as it is: a moment-by-moment walk with God. Hurt Road is the engaging true story of a man who, as a teen, found in music a refuge from the uncertainties of life. Who set out to discover a better way to live than constantly struggling to make sure life turned out the way he planned it. Who stopped substituting what's next for what's now and learned the truth--that coming or going, God's got us. Poignant, funny, and thoughtful, Hurt Road dares anyone feeling knocked down or run over by their circumstances to give up control to the One who already has the road all mapped out. Includes black and white photos.

We often regard the author of the Gospel of Mark as an obscure figure about whom we know little. Many would be surprised to learn how much fuller a picture of Mark exists within widespread African tradition, tradition that holds that Mark himself was from North Africa, that he founded the church in Alexandria, that he was an eyewitness to the Last Supper and Pentecost, that he was related not only to Barnabas but to Peter as well and accompanied him on many of his travels. In this provocative reassessment of early church tradition, Thomas C. Oden begins with the palette of New Testament evidence and adds to it the range of colors from traditional African sources, including synaxaries (compilations of short biographies of saints to be read on feast days), archaeological sites, non-Western historical documents and ancient churches. The result is a fresh and illuminating portrait of Mark, one that is deeply rooted in African memory and seldom viewed appreciatively in the West.