Somewhere along the way, we turned the faith of martyrs into a massage chair.
We shop for churches the way we shop for mattresses — firmness, parking, cupholders. We keep our Bible-reading streak the way we keep our step count. Brick by comfortable brick, we have built a Christianity with all the sharp corners sanded off and a very nice coat of paint.
It’s Not About You. It’s All About You. is a warm, funny, uncomfortably accurate look at how we made faith into a self-improvement project — and the far better news hiding underneath. With the help of George and Mendy of the Padded Pew (who are, it turns out, all of us) and one Dr. Skylor Brandt of the Holy Experience™ Megaplex — Bluetooth sandals, priority baptism scheduling, an emotional support peacock — it traces the soul-stroking instinct from the megachurch stage to the prayer app that tells you exactly what you want to hear.
But this isn’t a book that wags its finger. It’s one that finally lets you put something down. Because the exhausting secret of modern faith is that we made ourselves the point — and we were never strong enough to carry it.
It’s not about you.
And that is the best news you’ve ever been given.
If you had walked the dusty roads of Galilee with Jesus, who would you have been?
The one who spoke first and thought later? The quiet friend always bringing someone new to meet the Teacher? The skeptic who needed honest answers before he could believe? The careful one running the numbers? The faithful servant whose name almost no one remembers?
Jesus didn’t choose twelve copies of the same dependable man. He chose a wonderfully mismatched collection of fishermen, brothers, a tax collector, a political zealot, a doubter, and a handful of others who agreed on almost nothing — except one extraordinary invitation: Follow Me.
With warmth, humor, and a thoroughly biblical heart, The Motley Twelve introduces you to the personalities, the failures, and the surprising transformations of the men who became the foundation of the Church — along with the wider circle around them: the women who would not leave, and the enemy who became an apostle.
These were not saints in stained glass. They were ordinary, exasperating, deeply human people that Jesus called, shaped, corrected, and loved.
Follow Me — the two words that turned a motley crew into a Church.
Includes a “Going Deeper” study guide with every chapter — perfect for personal reflection or small groups.
After the Resurrection, the world is changing faster than anyone can keep up with.
The disciples are traveling, churches are springing up in unexpected places, and every week seems to bring a new crisis, a new visitor, or a new reason to trust God.
In Bethany, two sisters discover that ministry can look very different from one person to another.
Mary still prefers listening before speaking, praying before planning, and searching for the deeper meaning behind every challenge.
Martha still believes that if people are hungry, somebody should feed them; if travelers need a bed, somebody should make one; and if there are twenty dirty dishes in the courtyard, somebody should wash them.
Together they establish a small ministry of hospitality, service, friendship, and faith—where unexpected guests, everyday mishaps, and occasional divine interruptions become opportunities for grace.
Warm, humorous, and uplifting, Dirty Dishes and Divine Interruptions is a charming tale of two sisters learning that God’s work often happens somewhere between contemplation and casserole, between prayer and practicality, and sometimes right in the middle of a sink full of dishes.
They were the most learned men in Jerusalem — hand-picked for one quiet task: to investigate the rumors that the Messiah had come, and to make sure nothing came of it.
A Pharisee who footnoted his prayers. A Sadducee who forecast catastrophe before breakfast. A tax collector assigned to audit the miracles, who could never make the numbers work. For three years they surveilled, assessed, and filed their reports — and missed him, gloriously, over and over.
They were watching him the whole time. They never suspected he was watching them.
Warm, funny, and quietly profound, Messiah Squad is the story of the men who set out to debunk the Gospel and stumbled, one by one, into its truth. You’ll laugh at these earnest, blundering men — and somewhere along the way, you may catch a glimpse of yourself.
What if Jesus kept a diary?
Not a gospel. Not theology. Just the evening notes of a man at the end of long, dusty, extraordinary days — written, as it were, before sleep.
The Secret Diary of Jesus imagines exactly that: the private journal behind the public story. Here is the carpenter who made the cedars learning to sand a stool. Here is the friend who wept at a tomb he already knew he would open. Here are twelve well-meaning disciples arguing about who’s the greatest while the answer kneels in front of them with a basin and a towel. And here, threaded through all of it, is a Jesus who is delighted, exhausted, fond, funny, and achingly tender — a God who could lay down every limitation and chooses, out of love, to feel the cold and the grief and the weight of being human.
Warm, witty, and quietly profound, M.G. ‘Doc’ Woodworth’s reimagining will make you laugh on one page and stop you cold on the next. It walks you straight through the Gospel stories — honoring them at every turn, never replacing the real account, only daydreaming lovingly about the voice behind it — and sends you back to Scripture seeing it freshly.
A book to read alone before bed, or aloud with people you love. Complete with a guide for reading together.
“You think you are reaching for me. You will discover, when you finally get up the tree, that I have been walking toward you the entire time.”
