Students/Alums

This critical yet constructive assessment of the current state of higher education in America exposes the disconcerting causes and effects of failed campus life while posing real solutions for reforming today's colleges and universities.

Convinced that America's institutions of higher learning now face a crisis -- that they are not meeting the educational needs of their students, that faculty members can do better -- William H. Willimon and Thomas H. Naylor here propose bold changes in the nation's undergraduate educational system. By looking at academic life from the students' point of view -- the text is filled with real-life situations, reflections from students, and poignant illustrations -- The Abandoned Generation evaluates American colleges and universities on the basis of the quality of the lives that they are now producing.

Willimon and Naylor take an honest look at three realities of student life -- substance abuse, indolence, and excessive careerism. They then evaluate the underlying causes -- the sense of meaninglessness in student life and the absence of community. Finally, they build a provocative four-tier strategy for change -- restructuring the academy, teachers who actually teach, curriculum reform, and the creation of learning communities.

At the age of 19, scared and illiterate, James Pennington escaped from slavery in 1827 and soon became one of the leading voices against slavery prior to the Civil War. Just ten years after his escape, Pennington was ordained to the ministry of the Congregational Church after studying at Yale. Moving to Hartford, he became involved with the Amistad captives and founded the first African American mission society.

As he fought for equal rights in America, Pennington's voice was not limited to the preacher's pulpit. He wrote the first-ever "History of the Colored People" as well as a careful study of the moral basis for civil disobedience, which would be echoed decades later by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. More than a century before Rosa Parks took her monumental bus ride, Pennington challenged segregated seating in New York City street cars, for which he was beaten and arrested.

American to the Backbone brings to life this fascinating, forgotten pioneer, who helped lay the foundation for the contemporary civil rights revolution and inspire generations of future leaders.

stewed a minute, then flipped
like a flash card, tattered
edges crinkling in, linings so dark
with excessive bright

that, standing, waiting, at the overpass edge,
the onlooker couldn't decide

until the end, or even then,
what was revealed and what had been hidden.

Using a variety of forms and achieving a range of musical effects, Nate Klug's Anyone traces the unraveling of astonishment upon small scenes--natural and domestic, political and religious--across America's East and Midwest. The book's title foregrounds the anonymity it seeks through several means: first, through close observation (a concrete saw, a goshawk, a bicyclist); and, second, via translation (satires from Horace and Catullus, and excerpts from Virgil's Aeneid). Uniquely among contemporary poetry volumes, Anyone demonstrates fluency in the paradoxes of a religious existence: "To stand sometime / outside my faith . . . or keep waiting / to be claimed in it." Engaged with theology and the classics but never abstruse, all the while the poems remain grounded in the phenomenal, physical world of "what it is to feel: / moods, half moods, / swarming, then darting loose."

In this book Copenhaver covers basic themes--the Bible, church, ministry, sacraments, prayer, ethics--in a clear and inviting way. His approach creates a valuable resource for pastors, an accessible guide for seekers and new Christians, and a "refresher course" for longtime Christians who want to engage anew with what they believe.

Four unlikely teenagers are summoned by a mysterious stranger to save another world being destroyed by evil. Elli Adams and her friends Beatriz, Jamie, and Alex must overcome their own personal challenges of blindness, self-confidence, and Down syndrome as they struggle to fulfill their mysterious calling as Bairnmoor's last prophetic hope. Join them as they adventure through singing forests and stardust valleys full of mystical, glorious, and ferocious creatures, all of which test their resolve in the face of overwhelming adversity.

Eckblad's novel wrestles with the age-old questions of Good and Evil and the nature of the heroic life, even as it provides a fresh perspective on how we can have faith in the Good against every indication that Evil is prevailing -- and how each of us can be immensely more than we seem to be.

"With Elli and her friends we enter a convincingly imagined 'other world' of unforgettable creatures, piercing beauty, and exciting dangers. And in joining their heroic quest through this strange world, we discover, too, bracing portrayals of universal themes: choice and courage, freedom and destiny, good and evil. Stories of other worlds, it is said, may both delight and instruct; as with all good fantasies, Blackfire sends us back to our own world, refreshed and renewed." --David J. Gouwens Brite Divinity School

"This is a terrific story. The plot is riveting, and its unlikely heroes are people you care about. Woven throughout is a meditation on the nature of the conflict between good and evil, the meaning of faith, and the importance of the choices we all must make. To read it is to grow." --David Johnson Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

"Blackfire invites readers into a world of the familiar and fantastic. In this tale, we journey with those who could be our neighbors next door as they confront the daunting task of saving the world from ruin. Along the way, we gain insight into the ongoing human struggle to counter forces that lead to destruction and embrace those that lead to blessing. In tones reminiscent of C. S. Lewis, Eckblad composes a tale that will appeal to young readers open to discovering essential truths about the world, and themselves." --Karl Kuhn Lakeland College

In this provocative book, the author argues that American Christianity, especially evangelicalism, has been corrupted by the dominance of consumerism in modern life. The church's mostly uncritical adoption of this secular condition has resulted in an idolatrous morphing of the message of Christ into just another brand. With Brand Jesus, Wigg Stevenson names the growing concern felt by many Christians at the commodification of their faith.

Using Paul's letter to the Romans as a starting point, Wigg Stevenson 'reads' the letter to today's church, speaking to our consumerist situation through the parallels with Paul's Rome. Though rooted unapologetically in a love for the church, Brand Jesus does not shy away from provocative claims about the melding of Christian faith and consumer ideals; the rise of market-driven theology; the blurring boundaries between the law and religion; and other topics. Wigg Stevenson describes the current situation of both church and society and issues a challenge to it: When faith is a product for consumption, how can the church be faithful to Christ as living Lord, instead of as Brand Jesus?

With a positive theology of change, we can live as Christians known not for disagreements or self-interest, but for our love through difficulty.

"When congregations can move forward from conflict, weather change well and allow ourselves to move beyond old and outdated stories, then we are able to create a new story for our future.... Do we dare to ask God to lead us to a new place?"
--from the Benediction

Change and conflict are often feared in churches--but they don't need to be. When we learn to see these difficulties as normal, healthy parts of being a community, it is much easier to navigate them with a minimum of anxiety and bad behavior. We are able to let go of our fears and face change and conflict as catalysts for moving forward in the mission of showing God's love and justice to the world. In fact, there is no way to move forward in mission without change and conflict.

This warmhearted guidebook will help your church navigate change and channel conflict into deeper understanding and a stronger sense of community. Lay leaders, pastors and church staff will be empowered by creative, easy-to-implement strategies to: