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Faith Formation: Exploring God

Resources including: Children & Family Curricula & Storytime; Confirmation/Affirmation of Baptism; Denominational Resources; Tween & Teen Mental and Spiritual Health; Sexuality & Identity; and Online/At-Home Tech

Children's Books

Dear Mama God cover mockup     cover.gif     God Is Just Like Me     God's Coming to Visit!     God's Holy Darkness     A beautifully illustrated Bible for 4-8,encouraging children to wonder about our great God.          Maybe God Is Like That Too     Mother God     Picture of My Love, God Is Everywhere     Nisha's Just-Right Christmas Tree     Picturing God     The Story of Us     What If I Can't Explain God?     What Is God Like? by Rachel Held Evans and Matthew Paul Turner     What Is God's Name? (Early Childhood Sprituality): Sasso, Sandy Eisenberg,  Stone, Phoebe: 9781893361102: Amazon.com: Books     Wherever You Are     Wonder Awaits!     This affirming book celebrates the curiosity and thought-provoking questions children ask.     

This family discussion guide accompanies Picturing God.

Tweens & Teens Books

9781640654822: Bad Things, Good People, and God: A Guide for Teens     Girl/Friend Theology | God-Talk with Young People (Baker)          Goddess     Let There Be Light by Liana Finck

Adult Books

All the Ways Our Dead Still Speak: A Funeral Director on Life, Death, and the Hereafter     The Autism of Gxd     Biblical Names for God     The Empathic God: A Clinical Theology of At-Onement     BL_EverythingGoodAboutGodIsTrue_Cover_9781506495699c          BL_AFaithOfManyRooms_Cover_9781506481456c     The Father and the Feminine     God and Wonder          Godbreathed               The Heart at the Heart of the World: Re-visioning the Sacred Heart for the Ecozoic Era     I Am Diosa     Jesus Sophia     Let the Light In     Let There Be Light by Liana Finck          The Mystics Would Like a Word by Shannon K. Evans     Red Lip Theology by Candice Marie Benbow     The Relational Power of God     Scapegoats: The Gospel through the Eyes of Victims     Signposts of the Spiritual Journey by John Siddique     Ten Ways to Weave the World: Matter, Mind, and God, Volume 1     Upside-Down Apocalypse

The understanding of God that many Christians insist is so clear in the Bible makes faith seem like an all-or-nothing proposition. When much of that rigid projection seems in doubt, it’s not surprising that many people leave behind this take-it-or-leave-it religion. Pastor Mark Feldmeir offers an introduction to a God that many people weren’t aware existed—a mysterious, uncontainable, still-active God who loves and cares for real people with real problems. Life after God offers glimpses of the ineffable God, who can emerge when we forget what we think we’re supposed to believe about God and open us up to the mystery, wonder, and compelling love we crave.

Perfect for book clubs! Download the Reading Group Guide.

 

Blogs, Podcasts, & Articles

A People's Theology | Podcast on SpotifyMason Mennenga (he/him/his) is an aspiring theologian, podcaster, YouTuber, and the Internet’s youth pastor.

He is the podcast host of A People’s Theology. A People’s Theology explores inspiring and liberating theologies that transform you and the world.

He is also the podcast host of The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine. In this podcast, he and his co-host and best friend, Cullen, interview musicians, artists, and other creatives about their art, life, faith, and much more.

Sunday Musings: King Jesus. Really?

Diana Butler Bass; Nov. 20, 2022

Womanist biblical scholar, the Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney, shares Biblical Language for a God who Transcends Gender - along with pretty much every book, blog post, and article she's written.

This TheoEd lecture by Dr. Gafney is a marvelous introduction to this scholarship.

Murmurations: Returning to the Whole

adrienne maree brown

JUN 29, 2022

To heal ourselves, we must remember that we are a small part of a much greater whole.

 Rev. Dr. Michael Piazza reflects on Our Non-Binary God.

A painting of God as a Black woman in a cosmic setting by Annelie Solis

God in Feminine Form

By Daneen Akers of Watchfire Media

Heresy is Good

The “Heresy Is Good” podcast is about fighting back against the right-wing evangelicals’ disinformation and distortion of the gospel, their hypocrisy, and their willful ignorance of Christian history.

Daily Meditations has numerous takes:

Why follow Jesus if you don’t believe all of scripture?

by Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers

AND

God Is No Longer a Working Number: Rethinking Christianity for the Twenty-first Century

by Martin Thielen

Both include helpful insights when walking youth through faith and the Bible.

AND

Why God Imagery Matters

by Thomas Lindell on April 12, 2023

Related Studies

Faithward.orgThree Ways Churches Can Be Hospitable in a Time of Deconstruction is a brief blog that points to the more in-depth Deconstruction Toolkit, Deconstructing Faith and Christianity: What It Is, Why It Happens, and How to Get through It, which includes lists of Faith deconstruction books, articles, and resources.

All the Best Questions!: And Some Answers, Too

Multimedia

Religionless Studios was inspired by the musings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theologian and activist, who imagined a “Religionless Christianity” – A Christianity that captured the heart of Christ’s teachings without all of the dogma and doctrines that religion has added.

Religionless Studios hopes to continue to imagine and embody this “Religionless Christianity” by creating a progressive and liberative Bible commentary. 

Every Sunday (starting October 6th), leaders on Progressive Christianity's YouTube channel will move verse by verse through the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures to interpret it through the lens of Liberation Theology. 

In addition to their weekly video Bible commentary, people can gain access to Progressive Christian resources (devotionals, study guides, and digital community) through Progressive Christianity's Patreon.

Children - In Our Library

Adriana's Angels          

Tweens & Teens - In Our Library

All the Best Questions!: And Some Answers, Too     9780829816167: Doing Girlfriend Theology: God-Talk with Young Women     The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to the End Times: Theology after You’ve Been Left Behind     The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to God: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know about the Almighty     The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to the Holy Spirit: Hand-Raisers, Han, and the Holy Ghost     The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to Jesus: Lord, Liar, Lunatic . . . Or Awesome?     Man's Search for Meaning: Young Adult Edition

Adults - In Our Library

     51% Christian: Finding Faith after Certainty     African American Theology     Before the Amen | Creative Resources for Worship (Tirabassi & Tirabassi)          Beyond Belief by Elaine Pagels     Cover for A Brief Introduction to the New Testament                    Gifts in Open Hands | More Worship Resources for the Global Community (Tirabassi & Eddy)     The God We Never Knew                    In God's Presence: Theological Reflections on Prayer     Making Paper Cranes: Toward an Asian American Feminist Theology     Intersectional Theology: An Introductory Guide          On the Mystery: Discerning Divinity in Process     Praising God     A Prayer Book for the 21st Century  -     By: John McQuiston II     Re-Membering and Re-Imagining     Wearing God     Worship in the Spirit of Jesus