Hold Tight, Friends. The Best Is Yet to Come.

Much love to you, my good people, this fine 14th day of February. If you’re looking for a Valentines Day post, I’m afraid I’ve come to disappoint. But here’s an I Hate Valentines Day offering from last year. (It’s less crabby than it sounds.) Plus there’s a little V-day book giveaway at the end of this post.

This year, I’m living and dreaming in Times New Roman and red-crinkly spell-check lines as I beat the deadlines on this last book project in a series.

While these books are faith titles, each one captures a facet of the drive for extraordinary relationships, and they’ll provide some extra blog topics plus some pretty cool chances to interact in the months to come.

Here’s the Books:

Portable Faith (Abingdon, March 2013)

In December, I put the finishing touches on Portable Faith: Taking Church to the Community. This book provides practical insights and dozens of hands-on experiences that small groups and churches can use to build relationships with the diverse groups of people in their communities. It hits the shelves in March of this year, thanks to Abingdon. If you’re interested in being part of a group who will get some of the exercises emailed to you for personal or group use, in exchange for sharing your feedback, please drop me a note on email (sarahraymondcunningham-at-gmail) or Facebook. Put something clever in the subject line to make me laugh.

Dear Church: An Updated Version (January, 2014)

In January, I wrapped up the the updates for a second edition of my first book ever, Dear Church: Letters From a Disillusioned Generation. The new version, which will have a new cover (so not the one to the left) may also be re-titled. It’s a handbook for the journey  beyond angst and cynicism to more healthy spiritual days.

 

The Donkey in the Living Room (B&H Kids, December 2013)

This week, B&H Kids signed on to take over the redesign and wider distribution of the children’s book I stumbled into writing this past Christmas, The Donkey in the Living Room. The book and an app will bring families together in ten days of holiday traditions prior to Christmas.

The Well Balanced World Changer (Moody, October 2013)

And then at the end of this month (or thereabouts) I’ll be completing The Well Balanced World Changer: A Field Guide for Staying Sane While Doing Good, which releases this fall with Moody Publishing. This book is a collection of wisdom aimed to support visionaries in maintaining health and balance as they aspire to nobility and greatness.

Don’t want to wait to read? Pick up Picking Dandelions (Zondervan, 2010), a quirky non-fiction narrative about evangelical childhood and an ever-changing faith. [Read an excerpt]

Or check out Inciting Incidents, a book I curated for Moody which we launched at STORY last September.

You can read an excerpt of Inciting Incidents here. Or grab a free, full copy of the e-book for a limited time when you subscribe (via email) to the Moody Collective.

You can also listen to the NPR-style stories we pulled together around this series for Moody Radio or catch the flighty pregnant version of yours truly in the promo video. Prepare to be amused.

So please hold tight. Good things are in the works. After a few sparse weeks and a slower blogging rhythm, more of the regular relationship-loving blog content will be on its way, including occasional themes related to these titles.

And not long after that, I’ll be pursuing a whole different direction in my writing that flows out of the current themes of this blog. More to come…

Until then, I’m in production mode and, even more importantly, event planning a V-day toddler sleepover for my 3 year old and his cousins. So raise your glass of strawberry milk and heart-shaped cookie in cheers to what’s ahead.

Interested in any of these books? Leave a comment on which book appeals to you most and I’ll select a random winner to send a sample package (Dear Church, Picking Dandelions and Inciting Incidents) for Valentines Day.