We desire to be transformed, to grow more and more like Christ. But for many of us, our strategies for change don’t work. We misperceive God as a judgmental Father, leaving us demoralized and paralyzed by shame. Stumbling toward Wholeness offers a new strategy for spiritual growth and life transformation: regularly returning to the arms of a kind and loving Father. There are many books that explore the parable of the Prodigal Son, but few approach it with the personal vulnerability and psychological insight of Andrew Bauman. Andrew shows how taking the time to identify with each of the brothers in this story can help us come to terms with our own brokenness and the need for God revealed in it. We discover a process of change that applies to each of us and a healing journey that moves us toward the likeness of the Father in how we love the people around us and address the pain others have caused us.

This innovative guide to the chakras explains how grief and trauma impacts on every level of our being, and provides the tools to help clients experiencing trauma and grief by influencing, balancing and nurturing the chakra system. The book provides thorough and clear explorations of each chakra, their connections to each other, and tantric ways of working with energy. It features over 100 expressive and experiential exercises to remedy the ill-effects of grief and trauma, including yoga poses, mudras, pranayama (breath exercises), journaling, creation of ritual, use of essential oils and crystals and stones. Drawing on expertise as a licensed counselor, psychotherapist and yoga therapist, and personal experience as a bereaved mother, the author shares the teachings, practices and philosophies of yoga's ancient wisdom in a new way, and shows how to sustain personal chakra balancing that will resonate through all areas of life.

Disciplines is also available now in enlarged print! The enlarged print edition contains the full contents of the regular print edition of Upper Room Disciplines 2004.

"In recent years, theological education and training for both lay and ordained ministry have been reconceived in terms of ministerial formation. But what is the origin of this paradigm and what difference does it actually make to both teachers and learners? This study not only addresses these questions but also, offering perspectives from the Eastern Christian traditions and from empirical research, uncovers a dynamic role for prayer in the learning process. It explores how different types of prayer have the potential to be a significant integrative, cognitive, healing, empowering influence in ministerial formation and to enable a transformative process of 'deep learning'." "It will prove not only to be a reference book for all practitioners in the field of theological education, but also a practical workbook for teachers and students as its questions for individual or group use challenge present practice and open up new possibilities for the healing of the historic divide between theology and spirituality. The book identifies elements for the development of a rich theology of ministerial formation which will enhance and energize the practice of theological education. Seeking to re-balance training and formation, it invites a rethink of current functionalist approaches to professionalized lay and ordained ministry in terms of discovering creative and surprising functions of spirituality within the learning process. The book thus has implications for the teaching of spirituality, highlighting the need to articulate an integrated spirituality of education. It also addresses important aspects of the Church's mission in society and the imperative of resourcing clergy and lay ministers for their engagement with the rising interest in spirituality in today's culture." --Book Jacket.

In her previous books, Oriah Mountain Dreamer has challenged readers to live with passion and honesty, to embrace the true, fallible, human self. What We Ache For is a moving and eloquent call to delve deeply into our creative selves, to do our creative work, and offer it to the world. The creative process is essential to human nature. It is as essential as spirituality and sexuality, and in fact all three are deeply intertwined. What We Ache For is a practical book allowing readers to embrace the urgency and necessity of their creativity, whatever their medium -- writing, painting, sculpture, dance, music, or film. As Oriah says, "Doing creative work allows us to follow the thread of what we ache for into a deeper life, offering us a way to cultivate a life of making love to the world." Following Oriah through this journey in such chapters as "The Seduction of the Artist," "Learning to See," and "Risk and Sacrifice," What We Ache For challenges and inspires readers to fully embrace their artistic selves as a way of forging a path of spiritual unfolding.