Books published by Abingdon Press

Explore why Jesus died on the cross and how it brings us salvation

Saving Grace: A Guide to Financial Health is a program to help people of faith create healthy relationships with money and possessions. Participants will move through six sessions covering such topics as saving, earning, giving, spending, and debt, along with helpful strategies for achieving a sustainable financial life. Adapted from the best-selling Freed Up Financial Living from the Good Sense Movement, this study is based on Wesleyan values and provides text and tools to help participants address life concerns and reach personal financial goals.The Leader Guide contains session plans, outlines, discussion questions, and everything needed to guide a six-week group study on a faithful approach to financial health.

Saving Grace: A Guide to Financial Health is a program to help people of faith create healthy relationships with money and possessions. Participants will move through six sessions covering such topics as saving, earning, giving, spending, and debt, along with helpful strategies for achieving a sustainable financial life. Adapted from the best-selling Freed Up Financial Living from the Good Sense Movement, this study is based on Wesleyan values and provides text and tools to help participants address life concerns and reach personal financial goals.A 40-day devotional offers spiritual support for a new approach to financial health. The short devotional essays bring reassurance, encouragement, faith, and prayer to complement the work of finding strength in faith to make life changes.

Have you ever thought you had life under control--until you didn't? Perhaps thinking "God is in control" but living as if you are. It's like walking around with a hot cup of coffee, afraid that with one wrong move it will spill and be a burning hot mess. Then you realize what little control you have and how dependent on God you truly are.In Lose Control, Mary Shannon Hoffpauir takes you on a six-week journey through the Book of First Samuel, which is an epic story about a fight for control. Despite God's warnings through the prophet Samuel, the nation of Israel was determined to take control by having their own king. As you dig into the saga of King Saul and David, who would become the next anointed king of Israel, you will discover that no plan or purpose of God can be thwarted by human beings. Even the worst of circumstances can be used by God to accomplish His purposes in your life.In her no-nonsense, authentic teaching style that endears her to women of all ages, Mary Shannon encourages you to lose control so that you can find your soul through a trusting relationship with your faithful God.Components for this six-week Bible study, each available separately, include a Participant Workbook, a Leader Guide, and a DVD with six 25-minute segments (with closed captioning).An in-depth six-week exploration of the entire Book of 1 Samuel.Study includes five days of homework for each week.Encourages women to exchange their desire for control for God's gift of faith.Helps women gain a deeper love and grace for others.DVD features dynamic, engaging teaching in six 25-minute segments.

Saving Grace: A Guide to Financial Health is a program to help people of faith create healthy relationships with money and possessions. Participants will move through six sessions covering such topics as saving, earning, giving, spending, and debt, along with helpful strategies for achieving a sustainable financial life. Adapted from the best-selling Freed Up Financial Living from the Good Sense Movement, this study is based on Wesleyan values and provides text and tools to help participants address life concerns and reach personal financial goals.A special clergy module addresses financial issues unique to pastors. This three-week study brings together faith and vocation while attending to the unique financial details of living as a pastor and being employed by the church. The clergy workbook contains worksheets and downloadable planners.

Have you ever thought you had life under control--until you didn't? Perhaps thinking "God is in control" but living as if you are. It's like walking around with a hot cup of coffee, afraid that with one wrong move it will spill and be a burning hot mess. Then you realize what little control you have and how dependent on God you truly are.In Lose Control, Mary Shannon Hoffpauir takes you on a six-week journey through the Book of First Samuel, which is an epic story about a fight for control. Despite God's warnings through the prophet Samuel, the nation of Israel was determined to take control by having their own king. As you dig into the saga of King Saul and David, who would become the next anointed king of Israel, you will discover that no plan or purpose of God can be thwarted by human beings. Even the worst of circumstances can be used by God to accomplish His purposes in your life.In her no-nonsense, authentic teaching style that endears her to women of all ages, Mary Shannon encourages you to lose control so that you can find your soul through a trusting relationship with your faithful God.Components for this six-week Bible study, each available separately, include a Participant Workbook, a Leader Guide, and a DVD with six 25-minute segments (with closed captioning). An in-depth six-week exploration of the entire Book of 1 Samuel. Study includes five days of homework for each week. Encourages women to exchange their desire for control for God's gift of faith. Helps women gain a deeper love and grace for others. DVD features dynamic, engaging teaching in six 25-minute segments.

Know God better through a study of His names.

Few things make us feel as helpless as living with a story we don't like. Maybe one that involves the loss of a loved one, an unwanted transition, a difficult diagnosis, or a dream that fell through. At one time or another, we all deal with disappointments and feelings that life is unfair or that we are being punished.In Renewed, a four-week study of the Book of Ruth, women glean wisdom from Naomi's perspective, a woman who lived a story she didn't choose or like. Forced to chart a new path as she mourned the loss of her husband and two sons, Naomi learned that the journey from bitterness to renewed hope and joy was rooted in God's promise of redemption.With insight from her own journey of living with a story that is not easy, Heather teaches women to flourish even as they live hard stories through a willingness to trust that God can transform them and trade their heartache for hope. They will learn to rely on God's movement in the details of their story, even when it can't be seen, gain confidence to act in the part of their stories that they can change, and watch expectantly for God to redeem the parts they can't.Components for this four-week Bible study, available separately, include a Participant Workbook with Leader Helps and a DVD with four 20 to 25-minute segments (with closed captioning). A four-week study of the Book of Ruth from Naomi's perspective. This shorter study is ideal for in-between or busy times. Helps women find the courage to live with a story they don't like and trust in God. Participant Workbook with Leader Helps includes group sessions guides, discussion questions, prayers, video viewer guides, and more. DVD features dynamic, engaging teaching in four 20 to 25-minute segments.

Preachers increasingly see the need for to deliver sermons that are "e;dangerous"e; in a variety of ways, the way they challenge hearers' comfort levels and challenge established powers and hierachies. Thomas helps readers understand those dangersespecially the forces of power and hierarchy that are so intrinsic in our everyday lives and in society as a whole. He teaches how to anticipate and navigate those forces, to open opportunities for dangerous preaching, and to mitigate negative impact on congregants, the preacher, and the preacher-congregation relationships. Surviving a Dangerous Sermon is a logical follow-up to Thomas's previous book, How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon.It equips preachers to say what must be said, in a way that it is heard, so that the sermon has a chance to do its work on human hearts, without negative consequences.

Women are fierce and fed-up, and they have been joining hands together for the purposes of societal change for as long as there has been injustice. Women of faith are guided by the Holy Spirit to work together to bring down these injustices, to build on the foundation Christ laid for the beloved community of God on earth. This book is women joining together to speak and act in new ways in response to the increasing challenges of our day. This book offers to all women the sustenance needed to face blatant racism, bigotry, sexism, heterosexism, and xenophobia in the world and in the church. The writers of Speaking Truth greet these challenges knowing that the Good News of Jesus Christ is bigger than any societal ill and that God has called us to play a part in God's work of transformation. When we pray together and act together, we claim a new vision for how things can be - a vision God gives us through Scripture. We can support both ourselves and other women as we learn to find and claim our voices and end the silences imposed upon us. Speaking Truth- Provides inspirational writings by women for women to face the societal challenges specific to today.- Includes prayers, devotions, scriptures, and inspirational quotes for special challenges.- Encourages women supporting, advocating, and praying for other women.

What exactly is a disciple, and how will we know if we have made one? There are three core values that a disciple embodies: undiluted devotion to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, a Kingdom of God worldview, and a missional lifestyle.In Revolutionary Kingdom: Following the Rebel Jesus, author and Pastor Mike Slaughter explores why we must exchange comfortable cultural worldviews and values for the radical requirements of living out the Kingdom of God on Planet Earth. When God's people get serious about this call, it's revolutionary. Jesus himself was the most radical revolutionary who ever lived and provided us a vision of a kingdom worth dying for. Welcome to the revolution!The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the six-week study including session plans, activities, and discussion questions, as well as multiple format options.

The Book of Revelation contains passages of great beauty and comfort, as well as passages that strike the casual reader as bizarre, bewildering, and sometimes frightening. How are readers today to discern God's message in this peculiar part of the Bible?Breaking the Code Revised Edition provides a trustworthy guide to the rich symbolism of this important biblical book. Noted biblical scholar Bruce M. Metzger presents the fruits of solid scholarship in a non-academic style. This revised edition includes updates based on current biblical research, as well as additional teaching from author and respected New Testament scholar David deSilva. The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the six-week study using the DVD and book, including session plans, activities, and discussion questions, as well as multiple format options. It also includes alternatives for adapting the study to 4 or 8 weeks to fit your group's needs.

Jesus demonstrated the presence and power of God by performing miracles. He turned water into wine, healed the sick, calmed the storm, opened blind eyes, and raised the dead. While these beloved stories draw our attention to divine power, Christ's miracles signify something deeperthey're windows into God's grand story of human desperation and redemption. Every time we see Jesus performing a miracle, we also get a glimpse into the gift of desperation, a gift that opens us to the dramatic power of God through our desperate need for him. By explaining the meaning and significance of these miracles, Jessica LaGrone shows us their relevance for our lives today. She unpacks how understanding the meaning of Christ's miracles will help us better grasp the salvation God has brought into the world, see that our weakness is an invitation for God to work powerfully in our lives, and remind us that we need God on our best days just as much as we do on our worst.

We live in a world full of bad news. The media recounts stories of natural disasters, violence, and conflict. In the midst of all this heartbreak, we can't lose sight of the fact that God has given us good news. We call it the gospel. It reminds us that God loves us and longs to redeem our suffering. He stepped out of eternity and into time to send us His one and only Son. The gospel truths shared with the early church at Rome echo into our day, reminding us that we still have good news to embrace personally and to share with others. In this six-week study of the Book of Romans, we will be highlighting significant concepts regarding the good news about faith, grace, daily life, God's plan, relationships, and eternity. Whatever bad news we may receive, in Romans we will find good news to encourage and transform us. Join Melissa in taking a posture of listening and learning as we approach this powerful book packed with good news. Let's ask God to do a mighty work in and through us as we study so that we might be inspired with a spiritual renewal that spreads to those around us!"e;All too often, God's Word can seem intimidating and hard to understand even, especially with books like Romans. In this study Melissa helps us take in the truths of Romans in a way that makes a difference in our lives today. Getting beyond the surface of reading God's Word for feel-good feelings, Melissa helps us read to know God better and, as a result, build godly confidence that will stand no matter what may come in our lives."e; Lynn Cowell, Author of Make Your Move and Brave Beauty, and Proverbs 31 Ministries speaker and writerIn a bad-news world, how deeply we need to bathe our hearts afresh in the good news of the Gospel! Melissa's beautiful study on Romans makes room for an invigorating encounter. Her teaching and insight caused the words to leap off the page, leaving me more deeply enthralled with this important book of God's great narrative.Allison Allen, Speaker and Author of Shine and Thirsty for More: Discovering God's Unexpected Blessings in a Desert SeasonOther components for the Bible study, available separately, include a Participant Workbook, DVD, and boxed Leader Kit (an all-inclusive box containing one copy of each of the Bible study's components).

Will Willimon is widely acclaimed as one of the top ten preachers in the world. For each Sunday of the Christian year, Will provides just what you need to begin the journey toward a sermon. This guide will stoke, fund, and fuel your imagination while leaving plenty of room to insert your own illustrations, make connections within your congregational context, and speak the Word in your distinctive voice. Guidance from Will Willimon is like sitting down with a trusted clergy friend and asking, "What will you preach next Sunday?" Year A Part 2 is part of a six-volume set that includes years A, B, and C (2 volumes per year) in the Revised Common Lectionary. Part 1 includes the Pentecost through the end of the church year, Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday.Each week of sermon resources includes:1.Readings2.Theme title3.Introduction to the Readings4.Encountering the Text5.Proclaiming the Text6.Relating the Text

Victor Hugo's Les Misérables is a truly epic story. Whether you've tackled the 1,400-page 19thcentury novel, witnessed the Broadway musical (and memorized its soundtrack), or seen the several screen adaptations of it, you already know the power of its story.In the six-week Lenten study The Grace of Les Misérables, author and pastor Matt Rawle dives into six ideals found in the story--grace, justice, poverty, revolution, love, and hope--each represented by a character in Hugo's story. As these imperfect and relatable characters interact, we can see how these ideals work together (perhaps even in spite of each other) out in the world.In keeping with his previous works, Matt Rawle brings us to the intersection of Church and Pop Culture by drawing parallels between the iconic story and musical and our Christian calling, inspiring us to both understand our faith and live it out in the world.The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the six-week study including session plans, activities, and discussion questions, as well as multiple format options.