Missio Alliance &
IVP Book Series
In partnership with InterVarsity Press, we are pleased to offer a line of books authored by a diverse range of theological practitioners. The books in this series are selected based on the important ways in which they address and embody our values of:
- Comprehensive Mutuality: Advancing the partnered voice and leadership of women and men among the beautiful diversity of the body of Christ across the lines of race, culture and theological heritage.
- Hopeful Witness: Advancing a way of being the people of God in the world that reflects an unwavering and joyful hope in the lordship of Christ in the church and over all things.
- Church in Mission: Advancing a vision of the local church in which our identity and the power of our testimony is found and expressed though our active participation in God's mission in the world.
Confronting Sexism in the Church
by Heather Matthews
Despite real progress, women continue to be silenced, wounded, and relegated to the sidelines in our churches. But we can learn to do better. Exploring the history and culture of sexism in our contemporary evangelical world, Heather Matthews offers simple, practical steps for how Christians can actively fight sexism in its many forms.
Faithful Politics
by Miranda Zapor Cruz
Christians who share similar faith convictions can arrive at different political conclusions. In this nonpartisan overview, Miranda Zapor Cruz shares ten theological approaches Christians throughout history have used to navigate political participation, helping us form a vision of faithful citizenship in an increasingly polarized society.
Plundered
by David W. Swanson
Pastor and activist David Swanson knows that racial and environmental injustice share an origin story rooted in greed and oppression. Here, he shows how Christians can become communities of caretakers in dynamic relationship with our Creator that restore our relationship with creation and each other, and the holistic justice that can result.
Humility Illuminated
by Dennis R. Edwards
The modern church is immersed in a competitive, polarized, and status-driven society. It's hard to have conversations about important issues when so many are defensive and unwilling to learn. Too often, Christians fall into these same traps. The health and witness of the church urgently depend on recovering an essential biblical virtue: humility.
Finding Freedom in Constraint
by Jared Patrick Boyd
The constraints of the spiritual life, practiced in community, are what set us free and shape us into the way of Christ. Re-anchoring spiritual practices within monasticism, religious orders, and the early church fathers, these six core practices from Jared Patrick Boyd form in us greater freedom to become people who love as God loves.
Centering Discipleship
by E. K. Strawser
The church often lacks maturity and missional impact because discipleship is at its periphery. To get discipleship to the center, leaders need a locally rooted, culturally contextual discipleship pathway. This gutsy, practice-based guidebook is for leaders doing the hard work turning spectators into missional, mature followers of Jesus.
Join the Resistance
by Michelle Ferrigno Warren
Faith-rooted justice advocate Michelle Ferrigno Warren equips Christians to join Christ's restorative work in the world. From grassroots to grass tops, Warren invites us to understand our place in this moment and learn from the poets and prophets who call us to resist oppression and injustice.
Having the Mind of Christ
by Matt Tebbe and Ben Sternke
Despite our deep desire to live in the freedom that Christ offers, we are acutely aware of the gap between a transformed life and our reality. While behavioral changes can bear good results, true transformation requires a change in paradigm. Pastors Matt Tebbe and Ben Sternke share eight axioms that help us open ourselves to the transformational change that God wants for our lives.
Speaking by the Numbers
by Sean Palmer
It's not just what you say, but how you say it. Combining communication principles with Enneagram wisdom, Sean Palmer teaches leaders, pastors, and teachers how to convey content in ways that both inspire and connect with their audiences. Providing real-life examples of speeches, Palmer develops communication strategies that lead to connection, transformation, and mobilization.
Struggling with Evangelicalism
by Dan Stringer
Many today are discarding the evangelical label, and as a lifelong evangelical, Dan Stringer has wrestled with whether to stay or go. In this even-handed guide, he offers a thoughtful appreciation of evangelicalism's history, identity, and strengths, and also lament at its failings, showing how we can move forward with hope for our future together.
Together in Ministry
by Rob Dixon
Is it possible for churches and organizations to foster healthy mixed-gender ministry collaboration? Longtime ministry leader Rob Dixon casts a compelling—and encouraging—vision for flourishing partnerships between women and men. With research findings, biblical examples, real-life stories, and practical next steps, this roadmap equips teams and individuals with next steps for making that vision a reality.
Radiant Church
by Tara Beth Leach
In an era where the church has lost much of its credibility, pastor Tara Beth Leach casts a vision for Christians to rediscover a robust, attractive witness and form the radiant communities God intends. Challenging idolatrous false images of God and calling out toxic patterns, she shows how we can recover a winsome picture of a kingdom of abundance and goodness.
Uncommon Church
by Alvin Sanders
In urban ministry, Christians too often treat the poor as goodwill projects instead of people. How can the people of God develop healthy, local, urban churches that will seek the common good of their communities? In this essential resource, Alvin Sanders engages hard truths about urban neighborhoods and provides a model for how to do ministry in difficult conditions.
Tempered Resilience
by Tod Bolsinger
Tempered Resilience by Tod Bolsinger is about forming resilience so leaders can lead through the resistance that always accompanies change. This eight-session study guide is designed to lead to honest conversations for self-discovery as well as offer practices that leaders and their teams can take on together.
Rediscipling the White Church
by David W. Swanson
Confronted by the deep-rooted racial injustice in our society, many white Christians instinctively scramble to add diversity to their churches and ministries. But is diversity really the answer to the widespread racial dysfunction we see in the church?
A Sojourner's Truth
by Natasha Sistruck Robinson
Experience the journey of a young African American girl from the United States Naval Academy into her calling as a speaker, mentor, writer, and teacher. Intertwining Natasha Sistrunk Robinson's story with the story of Moses, this prophetic memoir invites you to bring along your story as well—to discover your own identity, explore your truth-revealing moments, live unafraid, and gain a deeper sense of purpose.
What Does It Mean to be Welcoming?
by Travis Collins
Is your church wrestling with LGBT questions? Travis Collins has walked congregations through the complex issues surrounding gay Christians. In this practical resource, readers will hear from gay friends and dig into Scripture with interpreters on both sides, considering the implications of their convictions for life and ministry. Let's examine how we might welcome everyone into the church while calling for all to be transformed.
Seven Practices for the Church on Mission
by David E. Fitch
Jesus gave his followers seven key practices. When we practice these disciplines, God becomes faithfully present to us, and we in turn become God's faithful presence to the world. Pastor and professor David Fitch shows how these seven practices can revolutionize the church's presence in our neighborhoods, transform our way of life in the world, and advance the kingdom.
God Is Stranger
by Krish Kandiah
Have we missed the Bible’s consistent teaching that God is other, higher, stranger? Krish Kandiah offers us a fresh look at some of the difficult, awkward, and even troubling Bible passages, challenging us to replace our sanitized concept of God with a more awe-inspiring, true-to-the-Bible God. Allow yourself to be surprised by God as you find him in unexpected places doing the unexpected.
Emboldened
by Tara Beth LeachWomen are central to the mission of God. Pastor Tara Beth Leach issues a stirring call for a new generation of women in ministry: to teach, to preach, to shepherd, and to lead. Providing practical advice and encouragement, Leach shows how God not only permits women to minister—he emboldens, empowers, and unleashes them to lead out of the fullness of who they are.
White Awake
by Daniel Hill
You may be white, but don't think you have no culture. Charting his own journey toward understanding his white identity, Daniel Hill shows us the seven stages we encounter on the path to cultural awakening. This timely book will give you a new perspective on being white and also empower you to be an agent of reconciliation in our increasingly diverse and divided world.
Paradoxology
by Krish KandiahMany of us have big questions about God that the Christian faith seems to leave unanswered. But what if that tension is exactly where faith comes alive? Paradoxology boldly claims that the paradoxes that seem to undermine belief are actually the heart of our vibrant faith, and it is only by continually wrestling with them that God is most clearly revealed.
Embrace
by Leroy Barber
God's call to the church is to love not just those who are easy to love, but also those we would rather avoid or ignore. Leroy Barber, a leading voice in reconciliation and justice, provides a rousing exhortation to build relationships across barriers, offering practical advice on how to do so. Embrace the challenge to show a divided world the bridge-building power of God's love.
Faithful Presence
by David E. FitchHow can the church engage the world, not by judgment nor accommodation but by becoming the good news in our culture? Offering seven distinct spiritual practices, David Fitch helps you re-envision church, what you do in the name of church, and the way you lead a church. Reimagine the church as the living embodiment of Christ, reflecting God's faithful presence to a desperate world.
The Church as Movement
by JR Woodward and Dan White Jr.
JR Woodward and Dan White Jr. have trained church planters all over North America. In this interactive field manual, they help you and your team gain eight key competencies crucial for church planting so that you can create churches that flourish and launch their own sustainable missional and incarnational congregations.
Redeeming Sex
by Debra Hirsch
Nothing has exposed the gap between the church and the broader society quite like the volatile topics of sexuality, relationships, identities, orientations and even gender. With a pastor's heart and a missiologist's mind, Debra Hirsch helps us discover a holistic, biblical vision of sex and gender that honors God and offers good news to the world.