Writing a review of the Justice Praise website which features the music of Phil Carver has been on my to-do list since The Daily Voice began. In part, I have put it off because I couldn’t decide how to begin!

Every so often, a book comes into my life and acts like the hand that shakes a snow globe, disturbing all of the molecules of my existence and rearranging my internal landscape. My college textbook for my Intro to New Testament class, Henri Nouwen's Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life, Parker Palmer's To Know as We are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey, and a handful of others have gone beyond being engaging or thought-provoking to being truly transformational forces in my life. To that short list, I'll add a new one: Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus by Robin R. Meyers. It's a book that really needs to come with a warning label on it, like, "This book will either change your life, your ministry, your faith, your friendships, and just about everything else...or, you'll be too afraid to let it do so!"

I admit it. I bought The Porpoise-Given Life by Chris B. Hughes because I liked the title. I am a fan of puns and simply couldn’t resist. To my delight, it turned out to be an interesting read, with (thankfully) a different theology than the book which inspired its title.

Congregations that use resources from Living the Questions (LTQ for short) frequently do so because there are few video-driven resources for progressive congregations, and LTQ offers strong (though not always perfect) small group resources. Many other congregations would like to use them but can't justify the fairly significant licensing fees. So, the question that arises when considering First Light: Jesus and the Kingdom of God, the newest study from LTQ, is: Will I get my money's worth? And the answer? Well, keep reading...

For the past three years, I have been actively involved in the interfaith assistance agency in my community as a board member. We provide emergency rent, utility, and food assistance to persons in our county. Twenty-plus congregations, plus a couple of community organizations, each contribute funds and support to the organization. In addition to this work, I sometimes work the overnight shift at the homeless shelter in my town.

I tell you this not to toot my own horn, but to give you a bit of the context I bring to reading the book in today's review, Loving Our Neighbor: A Thoughtful Approach to Helping People in Poverty, by Beth Lindsay Templeton (2008, iUniverse). This is the resource I really wish I had had before I began to be involved in poverty assistance, because it is comprehensive, relevant, and grounded in personal (not theoretical) experience. Along with the companion study video which I previously reviewed, it should be part of every church's set of resources.

I have been engrossed in three books over the past two weeks, and two of the three are definitely worth a look. As soon as possible I hope to add longer reviews of each one to the website, but for now, I hope these quick looks will—well, tickle your fancy and interest.

What does it mean to advocate for children? What are the needs of children today? Why should I be concerned for children? What can I do? What can my church do? How do we get started? Diane C. Olson and Laura Dean F. Friedrich address these questions and others in their book Weaving a Just Future for Children: An Advocacy Guide.

Christmas is a fun time to be involved in children’s ministry. The Christmas story, complete with angels, shepherds, wise men following a star and a newborn baby, appeals to children of all ages. When it comes to teaching children the Easter story, things get a little more complicated.

In what seems like a lifetime ago, many of the best resources available for churches were from Ecufilm, an ecumenical producer and distributor of resources. The "Faces on Faith" series, for example, brought laypeople face-to-face with some of the top theologians of the world long before Krista Tippett began bringing their voices to public radio.

Over time, sadly, Ecufilm produced far fewer resources and instead became a great source for videos from other companies. Now, though, they have released a new resource that fills a HUGE hole in the market. It's called Servant or Sucker: Wise/Compassionate Ways to Help the Poor. 

We have two reviews for you today which connect with this historic time, one below (Barack Obama: An American Story) and one (a short film called, "What Makes Me White") on our website.