James Bryan Smith – författare

This beginning workbook for Spiritual Formation Groups features guidelines for starting a group, study plans for the first nine sessions, and a questionnaire that helps map the way ahead. Based upon six major dimensions of the spiritual life found in the life of Christ and Christian tradition: The Contemplative Tradition - The Holiness Tradition - The Charismatic Tradition - The Social Justice Tradition - The Evangelical Tradition - and The Incarnational Tradition, this workbook program provides all the necessary ingredients to start and maintain a Spiritual Formation Group.

Successfully used by thousands of Spiritual Formation Group participants, A Spiritual Formation Workbook has been completely revised to correlate with Richard J. Foster's Streams of Living Water. Its new and updated exercises and teachings offer fresh perspectives on Christian faith and practice.

Christian in perspective and ecumenical in breadth, RENOVARÉ (from the Latin, meaning "to renew") is an effort committed to the renewal of the Church. Founded by bestselling writer Richard J. Foster, RENOVARÉ provides individual churches with a balanced, practical, effective small-group strategy for spiritual growth.

In one tragic blow after another, accomplished Christian writer Tim Hudson lost his mother, his close friend, and his two-year-old daughter. Now he’s on the brink of losing his faith.

Room of Marvels takes readers on a silent spiritual retreat with Tim where he is swept up in a dream vision of heaven and given a guided tour by those he has lost. Reminiscent of the C. S. Lewis classic, The Great Divorce, the book carries a contemporary voice that made Library Journal declare it “a good companion to Mitch Albom’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven.”

Remarkably, Room of Marvels mirrors author James Bryan Smith’s own heart-wrenching season of loss when his mother (Wanda), close friend (“Awesome God” singer Rich Mullins), and two-year-old daughter (Madeline) passed away within months of each other.

Updated with a new cover design and epilogue by Smith, the 2007 edition of Room of Marvels will continue to comfort those touched by grief and stir the hunger for heaven in every reader.

Endorsements

“A delightful fantasy.” —Cecil Murphey, coauthor, 90 Minutes in Heaven

“If you’ve ever felt the sting of death from the loss of one you love, Smith’s book will lead you into a warm, inviting room.” —Knight Ridder

“One of those profound, special books that only comes along once in awhile.” —InfuzeMag.com

Curiosity is essential to growth.A little curiosity moves us deeper into the lives of the people around us.A little curiosity leads to opportunities we never knew existed. A little curiosity helps us understand our own strange emotions.A little curiosity, if focused on Jesus, will make us more like him.Pastor and spiritual director Casey Tygrett loves to ask questions. "There's a difficult line to walk between what we need to know and what falls into the realm of mystery," he writes. "Walking that line often wears on our nerves and causes incredible tension, and so we settle for easy answers. We stop asking questions. We give up. We begin to lose the one thing that fiercely energizes the transformation of our souls-something beautiful, poetic, joyful, and happily disruptive: curiosity.?When we make curiosity a spiritual practice, we open up to new ways of knowing God and knowing ourselves as well. Come and discover the power of asking questions.

We are told, "Look out for yourself first" and "Nice guys finish last." But following that path leaves us feeling isolated and anxious, and can even take us to a place of ruin. This is not a magnificent journey.

There is a road to life in the unshakeable kingdom of God, but it's not an easy journey.

"We cannot enter into the kingdom unless we take our cross and die to ourselves," writes author James Bryan Smith. "We often assume that this will be painful. And of course it is. But what is the alternative? I can, for example, choose to navigate my life, choose to live as I want, and aim at fulfilling all of my desires. This will result in that despair Kierkegaard wrote of, the sickness unto death. . . . The wisest choice, then, is to surrender."

In The Magnificent Journey, the author shows us the better road, the road less travelled, but the road full of riches. Along the way he introduces us to new spiritual practices that will provide the sustenance we need for the deepest, most joy-filled journey of our lives-the journey into the heart of God.

Three deaths in three years. His mother. His best friend. And now, his two-year-old daughter. In this moving story a Christian author goes to a retreat center to grieve and face the hard questions about God that he is asking in the wake of these losses.

If you have ever felt alone, betrayed, abandoned-if you have found yourself asking God why-this novel may be a source of hope. And if you have ever wondered what heaven is like, this book provides a beautiful vision. Room of Marvels is a masterful, dream-like tale that speaks to the eternal in the midst of our most painful earthly losses.

This expanded edition of the beloved book has a new afterword from James Bryan Smith and a discussion guide for group use.

Finding your room of marvels will give you reason to live. Again.

The Christian faith is about much more than belief and practices - it's also about the kind of people that we become. Yet some of the biggest barriers to our transformation come from our own toxic narratives about ourselves, narratives that shape the way we see ourselves and the way we interact with the world. We are made with a deep longing in our souls to be wanted, loved, alive and connected to God. Healing our souls requires more than knowing what God thinks about us. Our healing comes not through reason alone, but through revelation. 'The best practice I have seen in Christian spiritual formation' was Dallas Willard's endorsement of the Good and Beautiful series a decade ago. Now this fourth book in the series, The Good and Beautiful You, addresses the self-narratives that hinder spiritual growth and the desires of the soul that only God can satisfy. James Bryan Smith reminds us how Scripture reveals the beauty and goodness of our own souls and how we long for healing that only God can provide. Complete with spiritual practices that help us live into that reality, The Good and Beautiful You will serve as a welcome companion on your journey to discover who you truly are in Christ.

The Christian faith is about much more than belief and practices - it''s also about the kind of people that we become. Yet some of the biggest barriers to our transformation come from our own toxic narratives about ourselves, narratives that shape the way we see ourselves and the way we interact with the world. We are made with a deep longing in our souls to be wanted, loved, alive and connected to God. Healing our souls requires more than knowing what God thinks about us. Our healing comes not through reason alone, but through revelation. ''The best practice I have seen in Christian spiritual formation'' was Dallas Willard''s endorsement of the Good and Beautiful series a decade ago. Now this fourth book in the series, The Good and Beautiful You, addresses the self-narratives that hinder spiritual growth and the desires of the soul that only God can satisfy. James Bryan Smith reminds us how Scripture reveals the beauty and goodness of our own souls and how we long for healing that only God can provide. Complete with spiritual practices that help us live into that reality, The Good and Beautiful You will serve as a welcome companion on your journey to discover who you truly are in Christ.

THE GOOD AND BEAUTIFUL COMMUNITY is the third book in the Apprentice Series, which along with three other titles forms ''a curriculum for Christlikeness''. THE GOOD AND BEAUTIFUL COMMUNITY focuses on helping us learn how to live as apprentices of Jesus in our ordinary, everyday lives. How do we live out Jesus'' kingdom vision in our families? What impact will our lives with God have on our lives at work? In what ways can we change the world we live in?Each chapter includes a ''soul-training'' exercise to help embed Jesus'' narratives into our minds, bodies and souls, along with questions that can be used for individual reflection or group discussion.

THE GOOD AND BEAUTIFUL LIFE is the second book in the Apprentice Series, which along with three other titles forms ''a curriculum for Christlikeness''.THE GOOD AND BEAUTIFUL LIFE introduces the reader to the kingdom of God and focuses on our inward character, dealing specifically with some of the most problematic vices: anger, lust, lying, worry, judging others and so on. Following the Sermon on the Mount, this book looks at the narratives behind these character flaws and replaces them with Jesus'' narratives about life in the kingdom of God.Each chapter includes a ''soul-training'' exercise to help embed Jesus'' narratives into our minds, bodies and souls, along with questions that can be used for individual reflection or group discussion.

''I noticed that single words from Colossians 3 began to bounce around in my mind, forming a new understanding of the gospel, and a new awareness of who I am, and who my brothers and sisters in Christ are.''Memorising a passage and studying it in depth can offer a deeper sense of the meaning of each word. James Bryan Smith has found Colossians 3:1-17 to be a rich resource for understanding what it means to have our lives hidden in Christ.Each of the thirty short chapters of this book bring out the main truth of just one word or phrase in this rich passage. You''ll also find a simple daily practice to take up, reflection questions and a guide for five weeks of group discussion.