Library

Filter by Topic
198 Methods of Nonviolent Direct Action
Advent
Animal Welfare
Book Excerpt
Book Reviews
Church
Compassion & Relief
CSA History
Current Events
Disability Advocacy
Economic Justice
Environmental Justice and Creation Care
Faith & Public Life
Film Reviews
Foreign Policy
Gender Justice
Heroes of the Faith
Holistic Ministry
Human Rights
Human Sexuality
Immigration and Seeking Refuge
Interview
Lent
LGBTQIA
Mass Incarceration
Nonviolence & Peacemaking
Oriented to Love
Podcasts
Politics and Public Policy
Prayer
Racial Justice
Reconciliation & Dialogue
Ron Sider
Simple Living
Social Justice
Spiritual Formation
Suffering
Filter by List
Black/African American Authors
Covid-19 Pandemic
Women Authors
Women of Color Authors

Subscribe to the CSA Newsletter
CSA’s free weekly publication, a carefully curated collection of original articles at the intersection of spiritual formation and social action.

Church + Most Vulnerable = Hope

By Grace Sandra
I’m sitting on a double-decker, red-eye Megabus, Nashville bound, nonstop from Chicago. My friend bought me a ticket so I can join her at a retreat she created

Church + Frailty = Hope

By Jon M. Sweeney
I see in the church today a fresh sense of brokenness and uncertainty, a people who remember the hegemony of the past and the power-broking position

Church + Unsung Heroes = Hope

By Sarah Bessey
If I am intentional about holding space for the stories of pain and despair and wounding, I am also intentional about holding space for the hope and the victory.

The Gift of Financial Transparency

By Jonathan W. Hancock

In 2000, I sat down and calculated how much my wife, Beverly, and I had earned since our marriage in 1986. I found we were approaching a million dollars in earnings, with a shared average annual income of $63,000.

Church + the Lord’s Table = Hope

By Ken Pettigrew
When I look at the church today, what gives me hope is a renewed emphasis on the centrality of the Lord’s Table in worship. Our culture is fragmented by racial,

St. Francis: Caring for Creation in the Particular

By Jon Sweeney

You have to slow down if you want to be caring. St. Francis was careful with human beings, but his practice, of course, went way beyond people. His reputation as the “environmental saint” is well deserved, based upon nearly one hundred stories from his life.

Church + Humility (x 2) = Hope

By Ken Wilson

When I look at the church, what gives me hope?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer complained that the Protestant mainliners he met in the United States during his visit to Union Theological Seminary were light on theology and preoccupied with defining themselves as “not those fundamentalists.” Something analogous could be said for evangelicals whose identity is tied up in not being (or worse, becoming) ‘those liberal Protestants.’ I’m hopeful that this old narrative, a cheap form of tribal identity in both groups, is losing power.

Tool #8: Guiding Characteristics of Local Mission

Every church is to be a witness, instrument, and sign of God’s kingdom – but every church does this in a unique way. Each church will respond differently to the missional question, ―How can our congregation embody God’s character and carry out Christ’s work in our particular context?” The types, scale, scope, and style of activities that churches undertake as an expression of local mission will be different.

Holistic Ministry Tool #6: Qualities of Holistic Congregations

The church is God’s chosen vessel for modeling and sharing the Good News of Christ in our world. There is an indescribable quality about a church committed to living out the gospel that whispers to your spirit: Yes, this is how Christ meant his followers to live, love and serve together.

Holistic Ministry Tool # 3: Personal Preparation for Ministry Action (P.R.A.Y.E.R.)

Launching a new ministry can be personally rewarding, but also draining. Like athletes warming up before a sporting event, ministry leaders can intentionally prepare to enter the ministry arena. This personal preparation will pay off not only by enhancing the ways that God can use you to bless others, but also by cultivating the soil of your own life for God’s ongoing work within you.