Steven Garber – författare

Voted one of Christianity Today's Books of the Year

All kinds of important choices are made during the college years. Young men and women explore what they really believe about the nature of the world and the purpose of life. They choose their work. They build friendships or even choose to marry. They develop goals and adopt habits that may very well last a lifetime.

Yet late modernity is not a welcome environment for the emotional, intellectual and spiritual formation that occurs during these critical years. Society is increasingly fragmented. And the educational system itself, fragmented and specialized, may disintegrate more than it integrates.

Professors, campus ministers, parents, youth pastors and others who are concerned with college students face an immense challenge in these days. How do they help Christian students, during one of the most eventful and intense periods of life, learn to connect what they believe about the world with how they live in it?

Drawing on the history of ideas, ethics, sociology and a host of examples from contemporary popular culture, Steven Garber vigorously engages just that question. His book, The Fabric of Faithfulness, is must reading for all those who work on campuses and care about today's students.

Foreword Review's Annual INDIEFAB Book of the Year Finalist

Outreach Resource of the Year

Christianity Today Award of Merit

Leadership Journal Best Books for Church Leaders

Book of the Year from Byron Borger, Hearts and Minds Bookstore

Is it possible to know the world and still love the world?

Of all the questions we ask about our calling, this is the most difficult. From marriages to international relations, the more we know, the harder it is to love. We become cynics or stoics, protecting our hearts from the implications of what we know. But what if the vision of vocation can be recovered-allowing us to step into the wounds of the world and for love's sake take up our responsibility for the way the world turns out?

For decades Steve Garber has come alongside a wide range of people as they seek to make sense of the world and their lives. With him we meet leaders from the Tiananmen Square protest who want a good reason to still care about China. We also meet with many ordinary people in ordinary places who long for their lives to matter:

Vocation is when we come to know the world in all its joy and pain and still love it. Vocation is following our calling to seek the welfare of the world we live in. And in helping the world to flourish, strangely, mysteriously, we find that we flourish too. Garber offers a book for everyone everywhere-for students, for parents, for those in the arts, in the academy, in public service, in the trades and in commerce-for all who want to discover the virtue of vocation.

Christianity Today Book Award winner

Imagine the scenarios:

Now imagine a parade in the streets for each event. That's the vision of Proverbs 11:10, in which the tsaddiqim-the people who see everything they have as gifts from God to be stewarded for his purposes-pursue their vocation with an eye to the greater good.

Amy Sherman, director of the Center on Faith in Communities and scholar of vocational stewardship, uses the tsaddiqim as a springboard to explore how, through our faith-formed calling, we announce the kingdom of God to our everyday world. But cultural trends toward privatism and materialism threaten to dis-integrate our faith and our work. And the church, in ways large and small, has itself capitulated to those trends, while simultaneously elevating the "special calling" of professional ministry and neglecting the vocational formation of laypeople. In the process, we have, in ways large and small, subverted our kingdom mandate.

God is on the move, and he calls each of us, from our various halls of power and privilege, to follow him. Here is your chance, keeping this kingdom calling in view, to steward your faith and work toward righteousness. In so doing, you will bless the world, and as you flourish, the world will celebrate.

We all need help navigating the politics of ministry."Politics" is often considered a dirty word. It brings to mind lies and manipulation, accusations and scandals. But at its most basic level, politics is simply the everyday activity of getting things done with other people: understanding their interests, recognizing the power dynamics at play, and learning how to negotiate relationships and institutions to achieve a common goal.These realities are as true in ministry settings as anywhere else. In The Politics of Ministry, Bob Burns, Tasha Chapman, and Donald Guthrie combine their long ministry experience with sociological research on the topic. Filled with real-life stories taken from a variety of ministry settings, this book sets out wise principles and practices that help us see more clearly the political dynamics at play in our churches and parachurch ministries.All ministry is political. As servants of Christ's kingdom, we are called to navigate the politics of ministry with grace, wisdom, and charity. This book shows us how the gospel of Jesus changes the way we work with those around us toward our common goal.

We all want to make sense of life, of who we are and why we are, and to know that what we do-day in and day out-matters. But daily demands often lead to a life that feels void of meaning and disjointed from our deepest beliefs.

Steven Garber challenges us to move beyond our fragmented sense of reality and begin to see all we are and all we do-our work, play, relationships, worship, and loves-as significant to God. Once we discover that there is no chasm between heaven and earth, we are able to understand the coherence of the work of God and of our lives in the world. This is the seamless life-to see the truest truths of the universe woven into the very meaning of life, labor, learning, and liturgy.