Showing results by author "Todd Hunter" in All Categories

We live in a fearful, anxiety-driven age where the problems and challenges of the world assault us from every direction and every media source, and they far exceed our abilities to respond to them. The sense of desperation that often comes of this leads to discord and violence: from bitter, cutting remarks to the atrocities of war; from pervasive racism to knee-jerk micro-aggressions. It contributes to our current, peace-bankrupt social discourse, leading to patterns of dismissing, dividing from, condemning, or hating people.

Big Hot Kisses is a wingy collection of tawdry, "true" tales of lust, sex and passion. So come along on an irreverent, often humorous journey through some everyday "love" stories, where at some point you may surprisingly find yourself confronted with a familiar mirror image called real life.

Drawing from his leadership and ministry experience as president of Alpha USA and Vineyard Churches USA and from his own life experiences as an ordinary Christian, Hunter calls us to reframe our salvation and discipleship. He believes that God intends us to become cooperative friends of Jesus, living in creative goodness for the sake of others through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Many of us feel unsteady, disoriented, even crushed after an endless string of scandals within the walls of a place meant to offer compassion and safety. Others feel forced to draw back or distance ourselves from the church. All the while, our instincts tell us this is not what Jesus wanted for his people. But what did he intend? After four decades of ministry, Anglican bishop Todd Hunter is no stranger to betrayal and pain in the church. Still, he has hope. He believes more than ever that Jesus is who the world needs and that Jesus has plans for his followers.

The constraints of the spiritual life, practiced in community, are what set us free. Practicing spiritual disciplines can seem difficult, especially when we undertake them as isolated individuals. But we were never meant to practice them alone. Jared Patrick Boyd reveals how the constraints practiced in Christian community shape us into the way of Christ. He re-anchors the practices of constraint within the ascetic tradition of monasticism, religious orders, and the early church fathers.