These striking poems take the powerful themes of the Psalms and transpose them from a distant and ancient culture to a contemporary one with recognizable images and metaphors. Combining raw honesty with beauty and depth, they explore every human experience from rage at life’s cruelty to joy at life’s blessings.

Let your students experience the raw faith and rich praise in Israel’s national songbook--the Psalms.The 12 sessions in Creative Bible Lessons in Psalms (the latest in Youth Specialties’ Creative Bible Lessons series) unwrap this Old Testament book so your students understand the passion, anguish, and joy expressed by David and the other Hebrew songwriters--and then learn to love the same God that the ancient Jews loved.The meetings (which are perfect for high schoolers and middle schoolers alike) are arranged around kinds of Psalms, including—Torah Psalms Seeing God at work in your personal historyComplaint Psalms When you’re attacked, is God always your bulletproof vest?Royal Psalms Jesus in the PsalmsTrust Psalms The God who really knows you, inside and outPenitential Psalms Shedding old skin--forgiveness and renewalThanksgiving Psalms Gratitude is next to godlinessOracle Psalms How to hear GodTaunt Psalms Battle lines are drawnAnd each session is loaded with options galore: clips from easy-to-get videos, games for mixing and games with a purpose, in-depth and ready-to-use questions for small-group discussions, original role plays, low-prep scripts, talks for you to give--activities to choose from that give your students not only a memorable time in youth group, but a taste of both the quiet trust and the boisterous celebration that the Psalms overflow with.Perfect for Sunday school teachers, youth workers, volunteers, CE directors, DREs, associate pastors--whoever wants to minister to real teenagers in a real world.

These striking and memorable poems are contemporary reworkings of an ancient collection of poetic texts, the Psalms. The Psalms are noted as much for their raw honesty as for their beauty and depth. No human experience or emotion is considered off-limits and the writers rage at God for life’s incomprehensible cruelty as freely as they exult in life’s blessings. Carla Grosch-Miller takes these powerful voices and themes and transposes them from a distant and ancient culture to a contemporary one with recognizable images and metaphors. Some sixty refreshed Psalms reflect the wrestling that accompanies new understandings of God. Others are wholly new and are written for specific occasions and events in modern life. Psalms Redux is not intended to supplant the Psalms that are the poetry of our faith. Rather they are aids for those who are seeking to refresh their vocabulary of prayer and worship.

Holy Habits is an initiative to nurture Christian discipleship. It explores Luke's model of church found in Acts 2:42-47, identifies ten habits and encourages the development of a way of life formed by them. These resources, which include an introductory guide, have been developed to help churches explore the habits in a range of contexts and live them out in whole-life, missional discipleship.

Holy Habits is an initiative to nurture Christian discipleship. It explores Luke’s model of church found in Acts 2:42–47, identifies ten habits and encourages the development of a way of life formed by them. These resources, which include an introductory guide, have been developed to help churches explore the habits in a range of contexts and live them out in whole-life, missional discipleship.

When tragedy strikes a community, it is often unexpected with long-lasting effects on the people left in its wake. Too often, there aren’t adequate systems in place to aid those affected in processing what has happened. This study uniquely combines practical theology, pastoral insight and scientific data to demonstrate how Christian congregations can be helped to be resilient in the face of sudden devastating events. Beginning by identifying the characteristics of trauma in individuals and communities, this collection of essays from practitioners and academics locates sudden trauma-inducing tragedies as a problem in practical theology. A range of biblical and theological responses are presented, but contemporary scientific understanding is also included in order to challenge and stretch some of these traditional theological resources. The pastoral section of the book examines the ethics of response to tragedy, locating the role of the minister in relation to other helping agencies and exploring the all-too-topical issue of ministerial abuse. Developing a nuanced rationale for good practical, pastoral, liturgical and theological responses to major traumas, this book will be of significant value to scholars of practical theology as well as practitioners counselling in and around church congregations.

Holy Habits is an initiative to nurture Christian discipleship. It explores Luke’s model of church found in Acts 2:42–47, identifies ten habits and encourages the development of a way of life formed by them. These resources, which include an introductory guide, have been developed to help churches explore the habits in a range of contexts and live them out in whole-life, missional discipleship.