A straightforward, easy-to-understand introduction to the Episcopal Church. What are we as Episcopalians? This concise booklet explores five main areas of Episcopal life: identity, authority, spirituality, temperament, and polity. A great introduction to the Episcopal way of thinking in readable prose for any newcomer or seeker in the Episcopal Church who may wonder what makes Episcopalians different than Roman Catholics or other protestants.

Attract kids to church, the logic often goes, and you get parents in the pews. All that's left, then, is to get the kids out of the way. Here children's ministers David Csinos and Ivy Beckwith draw on research in human development and spiritual formation to show how children become disciples and churches become centers of lifelong discipleship. For too long, the local church has focused primarily on programs for children rather than ways of doing ministry with children. But in light of emerging missional movements, the church is changing and forming a new kind of ecclesial culture. And children's ministry must follow suit. Csinos and Beckwith propose a new way of thinking for these modern churches--they suggest that children can contribute to our theological understandings, as well as invest in and practice Biblical justice just like adult church members. Here is a unique resource that explores children's ministry in light of true spiritual formation and discipleship.

Episcopalians consider themselves to be people whose individual and corporate lives are shaped by the Book of Common Prayer, but aside from worship on Sunday morning, few know what fills its nearly 1,000 pages. John Westerhoff, Episcopal priest and Christian educator, walks readers through the ways in which the contents of the Prayer Book can (and should) shape the lives of those who call themselves Episcopalians. An excellent resource for parish study or reading in advance of seminary training, Westerhoff explores a brief history of the Prayer Book, and the ways in which it shapes us as pilgrims and prayerful people. How Episcopalians live into their baptism, live a Eucharistic and reconciling life, as well as a life of wholeness and health, are explored in detail. All of this, as Westerhoff writes, helps us lead a holy life, and one day, to a holy death.

As a people whose faith is formed and nourished by the Bible's stories of creation and fall, salvation and redemption, Christians hunger to order their lives by the church's story and their own. Our journey to God leads us through the cycle of the church year from Advent and Christmas to Easter and the season called "ordinary time" as we tell and retell God's story and make it the story we live by. In A Pilgrim People John Westerhoff looks at the gospel texts season by season and relates their teachings not only to Christian life and ministry but to the life cycle of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. In teaching the lessons of the church year, Westerhoff starts not with Advent but with Holy Week and Easter, which marks the birth of Christian faith and its vision of a dream come true. Commenting briefly on each of the gospel readings for each Sunday, he moves from Eastertide through Ascension and Pentecost, the season after Pentecost, Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, and Lent, offering useful themes for preaching and education. The final chapter incorporates a radical proposal for Christian education to reform the church's organization, worship, education, and outreach.

Originally written in 1976, revised in 200, and translated in six languages, this classic critique of Christian education is newly revised and expanded and includes Westerhoff's overview and perspective on the state Christian education over the past forty years-plus his role in that history. According to Westerhoff, instead of guiding faith formation within the family, the church, and the school, we relegate religious education to Sunday morning classes. There, children learn the facts about religion, but how will they learn or experience faith? How can we nourish and nurture the faith of children, instead of only teaching the facts?"

John Westerhoff offers this resource to help preachers and teachers revitalize their lives and ministries. Noting that the health of our spiritual life is based on our image of God, he asks readers to open their imaginations to new ways of knowing. Recognizing that the spiritual life can be fostered in many ways, he helps readers recognize which types of spiritual formation are most compatible with particular personality types.