Emmaus Fourth Day Reading

Transformed by Grace

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 13:17:12 GMT

A Year of Prayer, Rooted in Wesleyan Faith.

In the devotional classic Praying in the Wesleyan Spirit, renowned Wesleyan scholar Paul Chilcote invited readers to experience the spiritual depth of John Wesley's sermons through devotional prayer. Now, in Transformed by Grace: 52 More Prayers in the Wesleyan Spirit, Chilcote continues this journey, offering a fresh collection of weekly prayers inspired by Wesley's later sermons. As in the first volume, Chilcote pairs each prayer with a beloved hymn by Charles Wesley, offering readers an opportunity to sing as they pray.

While Praying in the Wesleyan Spirit focused on Wesley's "standard sermons" and their theme of salvation, this new volume explores a broader range of spiritual themes. Traditional theological topics like the Trinity, creation, the image of God, faith, and perfect love are included here, but more fall into the broader category of spiritual formation and examine practical questions of every Christian related to topics like temptation, patience, conscience, simplicity, and zeal.

In Transformed by Grace, Chilcote takes on some of Wesley's most challenging sermons for modern readers and artfully conveys their original purpose: to touch the heart and inspire change. Whether you are a lifelong Methodist, a pastor seeking inspiration, or a person of faith longing to grow in grace, Transformed by Grace will be a treasured resource as God speaks to you through the insights of the Wesleys and their vision of the Christian way.

Walk with Christ through these prayers, both read and sung, and invite the Holy Spirit to be your companion along the way.

Also available: Praying in the Wesleyan Spirit: 52 Prayers for Today

Transformed by Grace

Fri, 02 May 2025 16:20:37 GMT

A Year of Prayer, Rooted in Wesleyan Faith.

Walk with Christ through these prayers, both read and sung, and invite the Holy Spirit to be your companion along the way.

Also available: Praying in the Wesleyan Spirit: 52 Prayers for Today

Pastoral Pause

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 19:55:43 GMT

Take a break before you shatter.

In the demanding realm of pastoral ministry, where energy fades and the threat of burnout is ever-present, pastor Greg Pimlott offers a lifeline. With disarming humor and refreshing honesty, Pimlott invites us into his own transformative journey from burnout to spiritual revitalization, providing encouragement, inspiration, and practical tools for other pastors on the brink of exhaustion and considering a renewal leave.

From his candid account of the moment he realized he needed a break, to a life-changing encounter deep in the New Mexico desert, Pimlott shares poignant glimpses of life before, during, and after his leave to inspire his fellow clergy. Along the way, he provides spiritual and practical resources such as renewal leave checklists, budget-planning tools, book lists, reflection prompts, liturgies, and devotions to equip others on their journeys.

Pastors, facing the challenges of strained relationships, waning creativity, and diminishing spiritual reserves, will find solace and guidance in this invaluable and relatable resource. Take a break before you shatter — Pastoral Pause is your indispensable companion on the journey to self-renewal.

Read a sample.

Looking Inward, Living Outward

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 15:12:35 GMT

In a world of so much hurt, how can we create communities of care and healing?

While many contemporary Christians focus on a spirituality of the afterlife and individual salvation, Jesus calls us to create communities that enact justice and bring peace here on earth as it is in heaven. In his revelatory new book Looking Inward, Living Outward, popular spiritual leader Daniel Wolpert calls us back to a life of prayer and twelve specific spiritual practices that re-orient our gaze outward in acts of social transformation.

Drawing from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, one of the most radical speeches in human history, this encouraging and practical guide connects acts of contemplation with action, providing biblically based and spiritually grounded practices for living into the beloved community today.

Discover how spiritual practices can change the way you interact with the world and inspire lasting change.

Key Takeaways:

Learn practical spiritual practices to live a life molded by a deep spiritual connection.
Explore the nature of the spiritual life and how it can become a guiding force in our daily lives.
Understand the teachings of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount as a blueprint for living in community and society.
Discover the importance of communities of practice in reorienting our actions and promoting compassion in a world filled with challenges.

READ A SAMPLE.

NEW Small Group Guide — download now!

Pastoral Pause

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 15:27:03 GMT

Take a break before you shatter.

Read a Sample.

Looking Inward, Living Outward

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 14:38:19 GMT

In a world of so much hurt, how can we create communities of care and healing?

Discover how spiritual practices can change the way you interact with the world and inspire lasting change.

Key Takeaways:

Learn practical spiritual practices to live a life molded by a deep spiritual connection.
Explore the nature of the spiritual life and how it can become a guiding force in our daily lives.
Understand the teachings of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount as a blueprint for living in community and society.
Discover the importance of communities of practice in reorienting our actions and promoting compassion in a world filled with challenges.

READ A SAMPLE.

NEW Small Group Guide — download now!

Creating a Life with God, Revised Edition

Wed, 05 Jul 2023 15:34:25 GMT

Over the past four decades, author Daniel Wolpert has answered the question "What do you do for a living?" with "I am a student of the spiritual life." In the original foreword to Creating a Life with God, Wolpert was called a “Pray-er” — someone who knew how his life was altered and transformed by prayer and someone who accepted the invitation to join Jesus in prayer to tend the longing in his heart. Both statements are still true today.

In the twenty years since this book was first released, Wolpert's work has inspired many to reflect on the life of prayer and what it means to be intentional about creating daily life with God. The longevity of the book speaks to a deep hunger for the practice of prayer and contemplation. Over the years, interest in spiritual life has grown stronger, both within the church and within popular culture. In the face of a world filled with chaos, uncertainty, and constant change, spiritual practices and prayer shape us into people who can provide healing, love, and compassion in response.

The twelve prayer practices in this book will help you take your relationship with God to a new level by:

Inviting you to solitude and silence
Inviting you to use your mind and imagination
Inviting you to use your body and your creativity
Inviting you to connect with nature and community.

Creating a Life with God invites you to join traveling companions like Julian of Norwich and Ignatius to help illuminate each of these prayer practices. This 20^th Anniversary Edition includes two new chapters and two new companions: Saint Brigit, who invites us to take a spiritual look at climate change, and Howard Thurman, noted pastor, author, and contemplative, who invites us to explore how spiritual practices inspire social transformation. These new chapters build on the original twelve prayer practices and ask how we can use the practice of prayer to engage a world in crisis.

Alongside these traveling companions, you will discover how classical approaches to God can deepen your prayer life and help prepare you to engage the world as a fearless ambassador for God's goodness.

The Godbearing Life, Revised Edition

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:38:20 GMT

A generation ago, The Godbearing Life charted a new course for youth ministry to fuel the faith both of young people and the adults who minister with them. It is founded on the truth that we are all Godbearers to one another, and therefore youth ministry is more about people than programs. Youth ministry is ministry that invites young people into deep soul work and spiritual friendships.

Like the original, The Godbearing Life, Revised Edition is conversationally written, grounded in scripture, and grows out of all three authors' own pastoral experience. The update addresses the profound shifts in society and ministry over the past twenty-five years—from the interconnection of technology to the professionalization of youth ministry. This book reimagines the means of Godbearing youth ministry in a post-pandemic digital age in the twenty-first century while holding on to the fact that young people are continuously transformed by the message.

The Godbearing Life, Revised Edition offers a new generation of church leaders the same depth of spiritual wisdom that shifted the ground for youth workers two decades ago. The basic message is this: young people need adults who practice faith alongside them.

Sacred Conversation

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:38:09 GMT

God created humans with the desire to both know others and be known. People weren't meant to go it alone on their spiritual journeys, and God has provided many fellow travelers to accompany us.

Some of these fellow pilgrims—spiritual directors—are called to walk the spiritual path with others. The spiritual director, however, does not seek to tell their counterpart how to live out the faith. Instead, the spiritual director accompanies others on their spiritual journey and helps them discover how God may be working in their lives. The spiritual director listens, notices, encourages, asks questions, and prays for the person receiving spiritual direction.

In Sacred Conversation, readers will learn what spiritual direction is and what it isn't. They will explore spiritual practices that have helped people for hundreds of years develop a closer relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Marsha Crockett introduces readers to seven gifts of spiritual direction: awakening, hospitality, story, pilgrimage, silence, meditation, and belonging.

Each chapter contains reflection questions for individuals to use in conversation with their spiritual director, as prompts for journaling, or for sharing with small groups.

Everyday Contemplative

Wed, 18 May 2022 20:38:01 GMT

What does it mean to live a contemplative life? How does someone become contemplative? Does being contemplative mean sitting around thinking about God all day? Does it require living a simple or even austere life, like a monk or a nun?

Roger Owens challenges readers to expand their definition of contemplative living to encompass all ways of seeking to be more open, available, and responsive to God. God may be found just as easily in an office cubicle, a donut shop, or a laundry room as in a monastic cell.

In Everyday Contemplative, Owens presents seven characteristics of contemplative living: longing, attention, patience, playfulness, vulnerability, nonjudgment, and freedom. One ingredient he considers essential to the contemplative life is sharing it with others, and this book invites readers to discover the joys of contemplative living.

For the Common Good

Wed, 18 May 2022 14:56:46 GMT

For the Common Good reminds us that the Holy Spirit gives each Christian one or more spiritual gifts to be used for the common good. It guides readers to discover their own particular gifts and learn to use their gifts to serve others.

Examining key passages in Paul's writings, author Christine Harman leads readers through a personal spiritual gift assessment. She names 20 distinct spiritual gifts—including discernment, compassion, and evangelism—and helps people explore scripture references on each one. After identifying their particular gifts, clergy and laypeople will learn how to apply them for the good of their church, community, and the world. This book is ideal for both group study and self-discovery. The book also includes suggestions for how to build a ministry team or assign people to committees based on the gifts of each individual.

This book is the text for a Lay Servant Ministries advanced course on spiritual gifts. It also can be used for a small-group study.

A Leader's Guide is available for this book.

Way to Live

Sat, 14 May 2022 03:54:56 GMT

"I want to find a way to live that keeps me involved in what God is doing in me and in the world around me. Do you know a way to live that is like that?"

Eighteen teens and 18 adults tackle that question in Way to Live: Christian Practices for Teens. Their different points of view and personal stories make living a Christian life real.

"This book invites you into a community of people who don't just go with the flow," say the editors. "This community's image of 'the good life' is not about having lots of stuff or being more successful than other people. Instead, it's about getting involved in the loving, challenging life of God."

Find out how Alexx dealt with all his stuff, how Marie expressed her creativity with a paint roller, what Jack learned about play. These are just a few of the Christian practices this team of writers explores.

Some ancient Christian practices turn up as ways to deepen awareness of God's presence in our lives today. Discover how to use your imagination when reading the Bible—á la Saint Ignatius—and practice tuning in to God like Brother Lawrence of the 17th century.

This fun, graphics-filled book will start teens on the spiritual journey of a lifetime!

A FREE LEADER'S GUIDE filled with engaging, doable things to encourage teen Christian practices is HERE. (Size: 542 KB. Download times will vary.)

Accountable Discipleship

Fri, 13 May 2022 23:50:08 GMT

Accountable Discipleship: Living in God's Household is a book about pastoral leadership in the Wesleyan tradition. Pastoral leadership is the ministry of caring for the household of God. Both laity and clergy are called to this ministry.

Those who read and study this book will be invited to discover their own ministry as pastoral leaders. All who follow Jesus Christ and seek to obey his teachings to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind," and "love your neighbor as yourself"* have the potential to be pastoral leaders for their congregation. They are pastoral leaders because others see and experience the grace of Jesus Christ through their lives. They are spiritual, servant leaders who follow the example of Jesus. These are ordinary people. They are laity and clergy. They are people like you.

A foundational piece for anyone involved in Accountable Discipleship ministries, this resource explores a systematic approach for undertaking and accepting the challenge of personal discipleship for life. It is designed for leaders of Accountable Discipleship ministries, members of Covenant Discipleship groups, class leaders, and clergy.

*Matthew 22:37, 39 (NLT)

Click here for the Leader's Guide.

Praying in the Wesleyan Spirit

Thu, 05 May 2022 20:51:22 GMT

John Wesley (1703 - 1791), one of the greatest preachers of all time, preached more than 40,000 sermons. Wesley's sermons centered on God's unconditional love, freely offered to all through Christ. Wesley preached at coal mines and in fields and sparked a great spiritual renewal. Wesley's published sermons instructed the people in Christian discipleship and explained the core understandings of the Methodist movement.

Praying in the Wesleyan Spirit offers contemporary readers an approach to Wesley's spiritual depth. Author Paul Chilcote has transposed 52 of Wesley's standard sermons into flowing devotional prayers that are written in contemporary language, yet faithful to Wesley's message. A scripture reference and a hymn by Charles Wesley accompany each prayer. The prayers offer a means of reflecting on such topics as salvation by faith, yearning for God, and Christian perfection. Like Wesley's sermons, these prayers show a concern to reveal how God works in the world. The prayers also engage the head and hands and heart in the same way that Wesley understood Christian discipleship.

With 52 prayers, readers may pray one prayer a week for a year and immerse themselves in a short course in Wesleyan thought and theology. This one-of-a-kind prayer book will introduce readers to a rich heritage of Christian discipleship and is a must have devotional book for those active in the Wesleyan tradition. A Scripture Index and a Hymn Index are also included.

Also available: Transformed by Grace: 52 More Prayers in the Wesleyan Spirit

Conflict and Communion

Thu, 05 May 2022 20:46:30 GMT

In this broken world, community is rare. Sadly, this is sometimes true even in the church.

Conflict confronts us in just about every corner of our lives — from personal to familial, from congregational to denominational, from national to international. "We desire community but so often react out of brokenness," writes one reviewer, "Conflict and Communion points to the Lord's Table as the place where true harmony can be experienced."

Porter sets the stage for the book by naming the conflicts that were present at the Last Supper — conflicts among the disciples, conflicts among those in authority.

Then as now, the Eucharist and its spiritual power propels much-needed transformation in individuals and in congregations to heal our greatest needs. The 10 essays, written by a diverse group of church leaders, reflect on practical ways to live the sacrament in the everyday and extraordinary life of congregations.

Contributors include:

William Everett
Gayle Carlton Felton
Larry Goodpaster
Marjorie Thompson
Peter Storey
Thomas Porter
Marcia McFee
Jan Love
Stephanie Hixson
David Hooker

Reclaim the radical restorative justice and interdependent community available through the Table of Holy Communion. As the editor writes, "Through the practice of reconciliation empowered by the liturgy of Holy Communion, we hope that the Table will become for all of us and for our world a source of healing, transformed life, reconciled relationships, with God and with one another."

Talking in the Dark

Thu, 05 May 2022 20:43:59 GMT

Have you ever stopped praying?

When life seems unfair and prayer doesn't seem to make any difference, you may quit praying. Most people who admit that they stopped praying for a while, including the author, say they felt as if they were suffocating after a period without prayer.

"Sometimes I think God has called me to speak, write, and teach about prayer so I won't give up on it altogether," writes Harper. "After more than forty years of praying, I still don't understand prayer. …Prayer does not come easily for me."

"In the pages of this book," Harper continues, "I will ask you to roll up your sleeves and confront your problems with prayer—and then keep praying. Sometimes you will feel as though you are talking in the dark. But the fact is, sound travels in both darkness and light."

If you're frustrated in your prayer life and wonder whether prayer is worth the effort, this book is for you. Nothing daunts Harper in this wrangle with God. No doubt, experience, or unholy feeling is out of bounds as he considers life and prayer's dark patches.

No matter how lost or lonely you feel, he offers assurance. During days when you feel the number one problem with prayer is an unresponsive God, you'll have the strength to dig deeper and surrender to the mysterious sustenance God offers.

As you read Harper's brutally honest stories and follow his advice on how to cultivate a prayer life, you'll discover the kind of prayer that makes you want to continue even though everything in you wants to quit.

We Are the Church ... Let's Act Like It

Thu, 05 May 2022 20:40:06 GMT

Earthshaking. Status-quo challenging. World transforming. That's what the church was intended to be.

"An excellent resource for energizing your local church..."
—Mike Slaughter, Author and Pastor Emeritus, Ginghamsburg Church, Dayton Ohio

Problems in the church are nothing new; the book of Acts is full of them. In We Are the Church..., Pevey offers encouragement that today's church can truly be a transformative presence in the world, just as the early church was in the book of Acts.

While some feel the church is a social club with little impact on the world, that very idea runs contrary to God's plan. In We Are the Church... Let's Act Like It, Pastor Linda Tower Pevey offers churches practical and biblical ways to live out their mandate to make disciples and make a positive impact on their community and the world.

We Are the Church... takes readers through a 7-week Bible study of the book of Acts, looking at what it means to be the world-changing church that Jesus Christ intended. The study guides readers through weekly topics that empower them to take action — Act with . . . Power, Generosity, Acceptance, Creativity, Perseverance, Courage, and Witness.

Energize your entire congregation by using We Are the Church... as a churchwide small-group study. A built-in Leader's Guide makes it easy to lead this book in a small-group or Bible-study setting. The book is also suitable for individual use. Expect to see your church energized and renewed by We Are the Church ... Let's Act Like It!

A Wakeful Faith

Thu, 05 May 2022 20:38:06 GMT

In the harried, expect-the-unexpected flow of everyday life, faith seems far away for many people. Your car breaks down. The bills are due. The kids need school supplies. The business report remains unwritten.

In A Wakeful Faith, Jenkins asserts that living awake to God in all of our daily affairs is the answer. Only when we become consciously aware of God's gracious activity in the details of the day can we transform and find purpose in our lives today.

"Each day brings a flood of demands for our time and attention," writes Jenkins. "Deep down, many of us feel the pace is killing us, but we do not admit it very often. After all, everyone else seems to get along okay. Something is killing us, but it is not the pace. It is the inattention to our deepest desire, the desire for God."

Filled with humor and grounded in scripture, A Wakeful Faith calls us to a refreshed sense of God's presence, which can lead to spiritual well-being in all dimensions of life. Jenkins offers practical suggestions to rouse our spiritual wakefulness and alertness to God in daily living by showing how Jesus trained disciples to perceive the kingdom and to know God.

Appropriate for individuals and small groups, A Wakeful Faith contains questions for reflection and discussion at the end of each chapter.

Devotional Life in the Wesleyan Tradition

Thu, 05 May 2022 20:37:25 GMT

This workbook describes major features in John Wesley's devotional life, and it illustrates how you can apply his ministry to your own life.

Structured around Wesley's "Means of Grace," the 7-week study covers prayer, scripture, the Lord's Supper, fasting, Christian conferencing, and providential means of grace. Developed for individual or group study, the workbook also offers suggestions for organizing an initial group meeting and developing a successful group study.

Also available in Spanish as La Vida de Devoción en la Tradición Wesleyana and in Korean.

Transforming Community

Thu, 05 May 2022 20:37:09 GMT

Drawing from the strength of their previous book, Transforming Evangelism, Henry Knight and Douglas Powe show us a Wesleyan way to form missional communities and congregations. Drawing from John Wesley's own organizing abilities, this will better equip today's congregations to be more transfomational. Each chapter also has study questions.

This is the Participant's Book. Click here for the Leader's Guide, Leading Missional Small Groups.