Jim Palmer's critically acclaimed Divine Nobodies was only half the story - the deconstruction and shedding of a religious mentality that hindered his knowing God. In his next book, Jim takes the reader along into the wide open spaces of exploring and experiencing God beyond religion. Jim writes, "It is no secret that God can be lost beneath the waving banner of religion. Divine Nobodies is my story of how this happened to me. Sometimes you have to disentangle God from religion, even Christ from Christianity, to find the truth. With the help of some unsuspecting nobodies, I uncovered a new starting line with God. As I've put one foot in front of another, I've experienced God in ways that are deeply transforming." Each chapter revolves around a central question related to knowing God on fresh terms: Is God a belief system? Is the Bible a landing strip or launching pad? Can what we're feeling inside be God? Are we too religiously minded to be any earthly good? Brian McLaren wrote, "I am tempted to say that Jim Palmer could well be the next Don Miller, but what they have in common, along with an honest spirituality and extraordinary skill as storytellers, is a unique voice." The Library Reviews said of him, "Jim Palmer's casual, yet compelling writing style cuts through the religious rhetoric and gets to the real issues...readers will love this author! His sense of humor is alternately mixed with shocking sentences and poignant moments. Laced throughout is a refreshing honesty that ties his ideas together with a ribbon of reality...each turn of the page strips away a little more of the contrived mystery of Christianity until the simplicity and sincerity of it stands in realistic splendor." More and more people seek a deeper spirituality beyond status-quo religion. Others are left empty and weary from a shallow and narrow pop-Christianity. Palmer says that God's kingdom of love, peace, and freedom can be a present reality in any person's life. He proclaims that God is indeed in the process of birthing something deep and wide among unlikely people in unconventional ways, which is changing the world...one "nobody" at a time.

Beth Booram helps us to identify and learn from the landscapes of our lives

How does God call us? The answers are as different as we are. Sometimes God summons us through the Church and sometimes in spite of the Church. In the depths of loss and confusion God speaks to us, beckoning us to follow an unexplored path. While we are heading in one direction, God surprises us with an undeniable invitation to go another way. Wide Open Spaces includes essays by women who have experienced and responded to God's call in all of these ways. The ministers and Christian educators whose stories fill this book testify to God's grace in the midst of their lives as single people in family-centered contexts, as women whose callings also include parenthood and marriage, and as those who the Church refuses to fully accept. Discrimination, harassment and homophobia pierce the narratives in this book. Yet this is not a book about defeat.

Wide Open Spaces details the author's journey to discovering a God who lives outside the walls of a church building. A God who is present 24/7 at work, home, or on the road.This book is about friendship with a God who wants to hang out with us. He wants to thrill us with His presence and abundant love. He wants to speak to us and encourage us. He wants to fill us up with His love so much so that it overflows to those around us. The author describes this journey of discovery and freedom to love God and others in simple yet practical ways. He invites you to join him and discover your own wide open spaces.

Quality Over Quantity Means a Great Life Whew! You can multitask like a pro—you prove it every day. But while you’re used to being pulled in multiple directions, that doesn’t mean you like it. You yearn for something more…not on your to-do list, but in the heart of daily living. Now Living Simply shows you how to make this ideal life your real life today! Joanne Heim’s refreshing perspective and pointed guidance address specific areas you’d like to transform, from family and friendships to meals and celebrations. This book responds to the longings of your heart not with pat answers, but with practical solutions. Never have such simple changes yielded such sweeping results! Errands to run. Friends to meet. Laundry to fold. Dinner to cook. Messages to check. Calls to make. Gas tank to fill. Lists to do. Notes to self. Bills to pay. Dog to walk. Appointments to make. Schedules to keep. Lunches to pack. Party to plan. Enjoy true abundance! “This is the book I wanted to write, but was too busy simplifying my life. I laughed out loud and am provoked to action. Well done, Joanne.” -Lisa Ryan “If you find yourself living a full life rather than simply living life to the fullest, this book is for you.” -Lisa Whelchel Story Behind the Book “Simplicity is not just about cooking a month’s worth of meals in one day or learning how to speed clean your kitchen,” says Joanne Heim. “Women long for a better quality of life, but we wonder just how to get it. In Living Simply , I ponder what it takes to slow down and downsize while living in a culture that supersizes everything from french fries to SUVs. I want more meaning and less stuff, and simplicity is a means to a better quality of life. Choosing this isn’t about turning my back on the world or lowering my expectations, but about making wise choices and finding the abundant life promised by Jesus.”

Lent is an ideal time to step back and reflect on the deeper movements of the spirit, and Elizabeth Caldwell helps readers do this through a simple but profound approach. Pause: Spending Lent with the Psalms invites us to take up the spiritual practice of encountering, sinking into, and deeply engaging with one psalm each week during Lent and Holy Week. The season of Lent encourages Christians to consider a different pace—one of slowing down, noticing, pausing—than what our dominant culture values. The invitation to pause with the Psalms begins on Ash Wednesday, starting with a mark of ashes on our foreheads that reminds us that in spite of our failures—things we have done or failed to do—we belong to God. Readers are then guided into an exploration of Psalm 51 and the theme of a clean heart. Each chapter helps readers to connect an image drawn from that psalm, such as paths, faces, blessing, tables, waiting, thanksgiving, listening, being alone or abandoned, and hands, with their own lives. At the close of each chapter, readers are invited to try a different prayer practice to help them continue to reflect on the theme and psalm each day. This intentional engagement—without feeling burdensome—opens just enough space and time for a creative spiritual practice to flourish, sustaining the life of faith during the Lenten season in ways that can make a difference in God’s world. Reflection and discussion questions are included with each chapter The book includes a leader's guide at the end for study groups. Download more resources for group study, sermon series, and worship services, including illustrated visual aids, at www.wjkbooks.com/Pause.

A New York Times Best-Seller Jesus is ____. How would you finish thatsentence? The subjectis there, and so is the verb, but what comes next? Your answer could shed lighton the path to becoming who you were made to be. In thesepages, Judah Smith fills out that sentence again and again, each time furtherrevealing the character of Jesus. He writes as if to a friend, illustrating theimportance of Christ's message to modern men and women. This is a book for newbelievers, for lifelong followers, and for the merely curious. Judah Smith shows us the Jesus that somber paintingsand hymns fail to capture. With passion, humor, and conviction, he shows thatJesus is life. Jesus is grace. Jesus is your friend. Jesus is a new and betterway to be human.