Synopsis: Against the Tide, Towards the Kingdom is the story of the Urban Vision community in New Zealand. This book recounts the story of a group of young Christian adults who over the last fifteen years have relocated to the colorful ends of their city to share life with those who are struggling, homeless, sick, poor, neglected, or otherwise marginalized. The community has grown over time to seven neighborhoods where on any given day you may find "Urban Visionites" growing vegetables amidst the concrete, teaching English to refugees, offering alternative education programs to out of school teenagers, fostering children, doing church with the homeless, offering friendship to the mentally ill, roasting fair trade coffee, running kids clubs, moms groups, tenant meetings or just sharing yet another cup of tea with their neighbors. In fact sharing is a good summary of the whole shape of this exciting movement. They share homes, food, money, vehicles, jobs, prayers, dreams, conversations, fun, tears, pain, hope, healing, transformation . . . they share the whole of life with each other and with their neighbors. They live the gospel, this good news of Jesus. Endorsements: "As you flip through these pages, you feel your soul start to breathe better. It is a call to break free from all that suffocates us and to live with the recklessness and innocence of the lilies and sparrows. Justin and Jenny not only invite you to reject the counterfeit splendor and empty promises but they point you towards new rhythms and holy habits that move the world a little closer to God's dream for it." -Shane Claiborne author, activist, recovering sinner "Honest and deeply reflective, Jenny and Justin Duckworth have granted us a window on the beauty, the mess, the joy, and the pain of missional community. What they have discovered is that we can live fuller, more gracious lives in community, mission, and contemplation than we can by living in our nuclear family fortresses. This journey against the tide of a consumption-oriented culture will require us to put to death our tiresome and lonely lives of delicious self-absorption, but the promise of discovery and adventure in our voyage to a more sustainable and simplified life of shalom is painted for us with such striking honesty and beauty that we are compelled to set out on the waka. This is not a book, it is an invitation. I urge you not just to read it, but to accept it." -Scott Bessenecker Associate Director of Missions InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA Author Biography: Jenny and Justin Duckworth were founders of Urban Vision movement.

The Christian journey is far more complex than an evolutionary upward movement. There are strange contours in the road. Faith has its uncertainties, and our healing is far from complete. This meditational reader seeks to reflect something of this kind of textured picture of the Christian journey. Charles Ringma is Professor of Mission and Evangelism at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. He has previously done mission work among the Aborigines in Australia, and was Australian founder and executive director of Teen Challenge in Brisbane. He has taught at the Asian Theological Seminary in Manila and is the author of Catch the Wind, Life in Full Stride and Seek the Silences with Thomas Merton.

Description: What practices might a community of faith take up that will bear witness to the alternative world Jesus envisions and calls us towards? That is the question that Grandview Calvary Baptist Church, an initially small and fragile group of Christ followers, has kept asking over the last twenty years. Along the way, this small group has spawned a vibrant community of faith that has traveled along four trajectories towards a shared life in community, radical hospitality, justice for the least, and confession leading to transformation. In a culture where individualism, consumerism, injustice, and autonomy shape us all, these practices have re-shaped not only the people of this church but also the neighborhood they inhabit in the East side of Vancouver, British Columbia. For anyone wanting to recover ancient but newly shaped practices of the first disciples, Plunging into the Kingdom Way offers renewed hope. By relating their story in conversation with a host of theologians, sociologists, and philosophers, Tim Dickau sparks the imagination for how you and your friends, your community, or your church can live out the radical vision of Jesus in your neighborhood today. Plunge in and you will discover renewed hope that you can actually follow the way of Jesus today. Endorsements: ."" . . a deeply compelling and engaging portrait of a community that practices hospitality and justice while nurturing a strong spiritual and communal life. Tim Dickau's careful description of a single congregation gives his readers excellent resources for imagining what a fuller commitment to a Kingdom way might look like in their own contexts."" -Christine D. Pohl Professor of Social Ethics, Asbury Theological Seminary Author of Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition ""It is one thing to 'talk the talk.' It is quite another to 'walk the walk.' This book exhibits the way in which Grandview Calvary Baptist Church (led by Tim Dickau) walks the walk in freedom and courage and wisdom. The current crisis in the church leads us to fall back on specific narratives, so that we may learn what is true and transferable from one community of discipleship to another. Dickau offers a full measure of practical theology that is permeated with justice, generosity, hospitality, and forgiveness. This book will guide and empower others to walk by faith where our sight increasingly fails us."" -Walter Brueggemann Columbia Theological Seminary ""The story that Tim Dickau tells here is the story of a congregation that has heard and received the good news: 'The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.' That is, this congregation has dared to submit their life to this coming kingdom and its Lord. In doing so, they have learned to serve where they have been placed. The life that they have found in this submission has not been hoarded or protected behind high walls and thick doors. Instead this life has been given away in their neighborhood, on their streets, in their homes, coffee shops, and markets. It is a public faith shaped in community by joyful and hard discipline. The story is not complete but its end is certain because the vision that empowers their witness is the crucified and risen Messiah sent by the love of the Father and present today in the power of the Holy Spirit. Anyone who reads this story takes the risk of being captured by that same vision and called to deeper life in the kingdom. Surely that is the good news of Christ."" -Jonathan R. Wilson Carey Theological College Author, Living Faithfully in a Fragmented World ""Multiculturalism is on everyone's lips these days, but we are still struggling with entrenched barriers that perpetuate exclusion and suspicion. This book shows us why diversity must be pursued along with hospitality, repentance, and justice. Tim Dickau warns us that the kingdom of God is no simple excursion and has provided a pilgrim's roadmap honed by prayer, failures, awkwardness, su

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. inspired his generation with a dream and a promise. His unwavering vision of a more equitable, just society permanently changed the lives of millions around the world. One of the greatest men of the twentieth century, Dr. King's faith, conviction, and strength continue to inspire us today. In 120 daily readings, Charles Ringma encourages us to reflect on Dr. King's powerful legacy. Find a moment each day to ponder his words and dare to dream.

Through 365 challenging and stirring reflections based on the bold message of French philosopher and theologian Jacques Ellul, Charles Ringma invites you to consider the profound connections between personal faith and social responsibility. Resist the Powers with Jacques Ellul will encourage you to pursue an active faith that resists the powers of our age by embracing a vision of the kingdom of God that brings together head, heart and hands.

Mother Teresa once said she wanted to "do something beautiful for God." Looking back at her decades of service and recognition--including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize--Mother Teresa's life indeed proved to be a work of art in its purest form. Charles Ringma's 150 daily reflections, based on her life and service among the poor, allow you to look for ways you, too, can do something beautiful with your life.

In a post-Christendom world, young people continue to be vitally interested in matters of spirituality and justice, despite their lack of engagement with the Christian faith and church. This situation calls for new forms of communication and a reconsideration of the claims of the Christian faith. This book for searching minds does just this. A series of letters written by theologian Charles Ringma to his 19-year-old granddaughter, Finding Naasicaa addresses ultimate issues of life, faith, spirituality and social transformation accessibly, unpretentiously and winsomely.