Tony Jones

The New Christians

Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier / 2008 / Buy Now

“Reading these words you feel things bursting back to life inside of you. It is some kind of re-enlightenment; an awakening in the most noble and holistic sense of the word, a thing coming to take hold. Tony's writing is generous and clear.”

David Crowder, singer, songwriter, leader of the David Crowder Band

Jones provides the single best introduction to the Emergent Church movement. The mainline denominations are dying, and the hyperindividualism of evangelicalism is unsatisfying, so many young evangelicals have decided to recreate church for postmodern times. He passionately defends the emergent movement from criticism. In particular, critics are wrong to claim that emergents don't really believe in the Bible; emergents passionately love the Bible, says Jones, but also know that finite human beings cannot definitively articulate truth. The strongest sections put flesh on these theoretical bones by taking readers into actual emergent churches. Jones's writing is brisk and conversational.

The Sacred Way

Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life / 2005 / Buy Now

“The Sacred Way effectively links past and present, scholarship and humor, high church and low church into a practical guide that takes the Christian deeper into his or her own soul to meet with God. Used in a class or small group…The Sacred Way welcomes those with a 30-minute quiet-time spirituality and bumper sticker theology into a much larger world.”

Leadership Journal

This book mines the rich history of the church for spiritual disciplines that have been largely forgotten in the practice of Christianity. After introductory material that considers the human longing for spirituality and setting a working definition of the term ("To be enlivened by God's Spirit is the goal of Christian spirituality."), there are historical and theological explorations of sixteen different ancient practices including silence and solitude, the Jesus prayer, centering prayer, and pilgrimage.

Postmodern Youth Ministry

Exploring Cultural Shift, Creating Holistic Connections, Cultivating Authentic Community / 2001 / Buy Now

“One of the seminal books in 21st century youth ministry.”

Mark Oestreicher, president, Youth Specialties

The rules have changed. Everything you believe is suspect. The world is up for grabs. Welcome to the emerging postmodern culture. A "free zone" of rapid change that places high value on community, authenticity, and even God—but has little interest in modern, Western-tinged Christianity. Postmodern Youth Ministry addresses these enormous philosophical shifts and shows how they’re affecting teenagers. Postmodern Youth Ministry will help guide your youth ministry through a culture where trusted spiritual anchors like the Bible and absolute truth are sometimes seen by teenagers as outdated. Here's a provocative, well-rounded, and highly informative reference for college, seminary and youth ministry professionals committed to connecting with postmodern teenagers.

Divine Intervention

Encountering God through the Ancient Practice of Lectio Divina / 2007 / Buy Now

Divine Intervention teaches readers how to engage their faith through the time tested practice of lectio divinia—sacred reading.

If you want to know Jesus and what He’s all about, you’ve got to know how to do these four things—read, think, pray, live. It’s how your faith can grow. Lectio divina, or sacred reading, is a time-tested method used by believers to experience God in a personal and real way. Tailored for today's readers, this book teaches you how to engage your faith. Learning from a teaching that has worked for hundreds of years, you’ll find yourself challenged and encouraged to get to know God in brand new ways.

Ask Seek Knock

Prayers to Change Your Life / 2008 / Buy Now

Prayer. It's good for the soul.

What do Abraham, Moses, Deborah, and King David have in common? They all prayed and saw amazing results. Our reasons for praying are similar to those of these heroes of the Bible: sorrow, joy, guidance, and relationship. How can we get amazing results? Walk through the earliest models of prayer and discover how our Israelite forebears prayed. A prayer guide is included to help you use the same prayers in your own life. Your reasons for praying are similar, but are your methods? Begin praying the way the saints prayed. The results will amaze you.

An Emergent Manifesto of Hope

2007 / Buy Now

An indispensable treasury of the diverse voices in the emergent movement.

Many have heard of the emerging church, but few people feel like they have a handle on what the emerging church believes and represents. Is it a passing fad led by disenfranchised neo-evangelicals? Or is it the future of the church at large? An Emergent Manifesto of Hope represents a coming together of divergent voices into a conversation that pastors, students, and thoughtful Christians can now learn from and engage. This unprecedented collection of writings includes articles by some of the most important voices in the emergent conversation. It also introduces some lesser known but integral players representing "who's next" within the emerging church. The articles cover a broad range of topics, such as spirituality, theology, multiculturalism, post-colonialism, sex, evangelism, and many others. Anyone who wants to know what the emerging church is all about needs to start here.

Soul Shaper

Exploring Spirituality and Contemplative Practices in Youth Ministry / 2003 / Buy Now

A primary resource for introducing teenagers to spiritual disciplines.

This book is a primer for more than a dozen powerful, practical ancient spiritual disciplines such as sacred reading, the Jesus prayer, the Ignatian Examen, spiritual direction, pilgrimage, service, and more. All have their roots deep in the history of the Church. These are not gimmicks to foist upon your students as spiritual exercises in the middle of a program but rather spiritual and contemplative practices that will benefit your teenagers—and especially your own soul.

You Converted Me

Augustine's Confessions / 2006 / Buy Now

“You Converted Me makes Augustine's classic Confessions accessible and available to readers today—young or old, religious or not.”

Brian McLaren, author/activist

"I think it has the makings of a great movie, a classic coming-of-age story. A boy grows into a man, getting into the kind of mischief that a lot of boys do (messing around with girls, stealing, getting in trouble at school). Meanwhile, his over-protective Christian mother prays fervently for the salvation of his soul…"

So begins Jones's introduction to one of the most famous true stories of all time. This young man, born in 354 and named Aurelius Augustinus, turned out to be one of the greatest heroes for God in the history of the Christian Church. In these pages, Augustine lets it all spill out—from the deep trust he had in his mother, to feeling guilt-ridden after stealing from a neighbor, to his ultimate and dramatic conversion at age thirty-three. Whether you are fifteen or fifty, this edition of Augustine's Confessions will open up the life and wisdom of the first, famous, Christian rebel—a man whose heart was set on fire for God.

The Most Difficult Journey

John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress / 2006 / Buy Now

“A terrific, modernized version of a classic…accessible to everyone.”

Will Penner, executive editor, Journal of Student Ministries

The Pilgrim’s Progress is arguably the most-read book in the English language after the Bible. This new, contemporary translation of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress retains the author’s enchanting prose. Helpful annotations throughout invite a new generation of readers to join Christian and his companions, Faithful and Hopeful, as they travel from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. This is no pie-in-the-sky story. The Christian life is hard. There’s no easy passage from our first experience of God’s love to that final reward of entrance into heaven. There are obstacles and temptations at every turn. But, there is also help along the way, and the journey is gloriously worthwhile!

Practicing the Presence of God

Learn to Live Moment-by-Moment / 2007 / Buy Now

“Jones has captured the passion of Brother Lawrence's soul!”

Mike Kozlarek, national director, NavFusion (The Navigators)

Brother Lawrence's Practice of the Presence of God has stood the test of time because it chronicles the life of a very ordinary person who became an extraordinary Christian. Through a life of humility and service, Brother Lawrence achieved something that many Christians aspire to: he was so concentrated on God that God became a part of his every breath. Whether deep in prayer or peeling potatos in the kitchen, he knew God's presence. This readable translation, replete with enlightening background notes, will appeal to today's reader in ways that no other edition has been able to do.

The Teaching of the Twelve

Believing & Practicing the Primitive Christianity of the Ancient Didache Community / 2009 / Buy Now

“In a world lacking moral conviction, and a Christianity deficient in the art of discipleship, we turn to the sources of earliest Christianity for guidance. And because Tony does a great job in bringing these ancient texts to life, the reader is drawn into the nascent energies that flowed in the early church.”

Alan Hirsch, author of The Forgotten Ways

"The Didache is the most important book you never read," begins Tony Jones, in this engaging study. The Didache is an early handbook of an anonymous Christian community, likely written before some of the New Testament books were written. It spells out a way of life for Jesus-followers that includes instruction on how to treat one another, how to practice the Eucharist, and how to take in wandering prophets. In The Teaching of the Twelve, Jones unpacks the ancient document, and he traces the life of a small house church in Missouri that is trying to live according to it.

Practicing the Presence of God

Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier / 2007 / Buy Now

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