Local books: At the Feet of Jesus, Holy Hurt, Hope Beyond Our Sorrows . . .

This is my second local books round-up of 2025, covering nine new books from the local Christian community.

Again there is a range of topics. The write-ups are primarily from Amazon and publisher / author sites.

The first three books will be on the shelves in March / April, the fourth in June. The others are already out.

• Bruce & Carolyn Hindmarsh: At the Feet of Jesus: A Guide to Encountering Christ in the Gospels (InterVarsity Press)

Transform your prayer life and draw closer to Jesus. At the Feet of Jesus isn’t just another book about prayer. It’s a guided adventure into the heart of the gospel story, inviting you to step into the lives of some of Jesus’ closest friends – Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

Picture yourself sitting at Jesus’ feet in faith, just like Mary did, or finding hope and love in his presence, just as Martha and Lazarus experienced. At the Feet of Jesus makes these timeless stories come alive, offering you a chance to experience Jesus’ love in a profoundly personal way.

At the Feet of Jesus was written to bring you into a deeper, more intimate relationship with Jesus, transforming your daily routine into a spiritual retreat.

Unique features:

• Prayerful readings of Scripture: engages you with the Word of God in a way that speaks directly to your heart.
• Personal and group retreat guide: perfect for individuals wanting a solitary retreat or groups looking to grow together in faith.
• Experiential exercises: thought-provoking activities that encourage you to encounter Jesus personally and profoundly.

Open the door to a more profound prayer life and a closer relationship with Jesus as you embark on a daily spiritual retreat that will enrich your faith and transform your daily life.

Bruce Hindmarsh, DPhil (Oxon), is the James M. Houston Professor of Spiritual Theology and professor of the history of Christianity at Regent College. His previous books include The Spirit of Early Evangelicalism and Amazing Grace. Carolyn Hindmarsh, DMin (Fuller Seminary) teaches New Testament Greek and spiritual theology at Regent and is a trained spiritual director. Together the couple has led numerous retreats on praying at the feet of Jesus.

• Hillary L. McBride: Holy Hurt: Understanding Spiritual Trauma and the Process of Healing (Brazos Press)

Too often the institutions and communities that are meant to be the most holy in our lives end up deeply hurting us.

In Holy Hurt, clinical psychologist Hillary McBride sends a sincere and profound message: spiritual trauma is real and impacts us all. She also reassures us that we can remake ourselves and heal in its aftermath.

McBride expertly and compassionately shows that acknowledging the impact of spiritual trauma in our lives allows us to begin to repair our wounds individually and collectively, experiencing reconnection with ourselves and others.

She draws on clinical research, trauma literature, insightful interviews with experts and poignant first-person stories of spiritual trauma, ending each chapter with a short practice to begin healing.

McBride empowers those who have lived through spiritual trauma or witnessed it, as well as those who want to develop healthier church environments and prevent abuse.

Hillary McBride (PhD, UBC) is a registered psychologist and an award-winning researcher who has hosted the Other People’s Problems and Holy/Hurt podcasts. She is a sought-after speaker and retreat leader, and an ambassador for Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries. McBride is the author of The Wisdom of Your Body, Practices for Embodied Living and Mothers, Daughters and Body Image. Her work has been recognized by the American Psychological Association and the Canadian Psychological Association.

• Richard J. Goossen: What’s My Point? Solving My Life Points Puzzle

Ask yourself, “What’s my point?” In other words, what gives you ultimate meaning or purpose? If you can’t answer that question in 50 words or less, you’re probably living your life below its potential.

What’s My Point provides a framework in which to ponder your own lived experience and how to make sense of it. It’s a tool to help you discover your meaning.

Do you think of your skills, gifts and experiences as disconnected, nothing more than a disjointed tangle of life-long happenstances? That’s not true. In fact, there’s a cord that runs through everything you’ve done and experienced, a continuity that’s shaped the unique purpose of your life. It’s something only you – and you alone – can pursue and achieve.

If you’re wrestling with the big questions, whatever your age or stage of life, this book will give you the means of getting answers through guided self-reflection. The ‘Life Points Puzzle’ provides you with a clear approach that you can apply to your life, to help you realize true fulfillment and meaning.  

Rick Goossen is Chairman of the ELO Group, which has grown since 2005 to provide comprehensive resources for meaning-driven entrepreneurial leaders: family business / strategic planning consulting; forums (i.e., conferences), peer advisory group network; and a week-long leadership program at the University of Oxford. He is a sought-after strategic counsel and chair / advisory board member working with a range of clients (from small specialized consultancies to billion dollar enterprises) and industry (manufacturing, retail, high tech, etc.). 

•  April Yamasaki: Hope Beyond Our Sorrows: Learning to Live with Life-Changing Loss (Herald Press)

When April Yamasaki and her husband married, they were 21 and full of dreams. After almost 45 years of marriage, those dreams fell apart as April found herself grieving the death of her husband.

How could life go on without him? Yet even in the depths of her sorrows, she experienced God’s goodness and mercy – big enough for her soul’s lament, longer and deeper and wider than our laments can ever be.

Whether you’re grieving the loss of a loved one, a job, a marriage, a church community or a dream, you too may find yourself wondering, How can I go on? What hope is there for the road ahead?

Whatever loss you’re living with, you will find comfort in these short, easily digestible readings, accompanied by prayers and spiritual practices, from a seasoned devotional writer.

Grounded in Scripture, personal experience and a pastoral heart, Hope Beyond Our Sorrows invites readers to journey with grief, find a new way forward and live with faith and hope beyond their broken dreams.

April Yamasaki is an ordained minister with over 25 years of experience in congregational ministry, an editor and the author of Sacred Pauses, Four Gifts, On the Way with Jesus, This Ordinary, Extraordinary Life and other books on living with faith and hope. She currently serves as resident author with Valley CrossWay Church in Abbotsford; edits the daily devotional magazine Rejoice!; has a new role as a spiritual formation mentor; and often speaks in other churches and settings. April holds a Master of Christian studies from Regent College.

• Peter Twele: Clinging on to Hope: The Story of Anita Rothert Twele and Her Tenacious Family During WW2 (independently published)

Life was turned upside down for Anita when Hitler’s Nazi regime occupied Łódź, Poland in September 1939. Near the end of WW2, as the Russian forces advanced toward Łódź, Anita’s family was scattered as her mother and younger siblings were forced to leave before Anita and her sisters.

They joined millions of other civilians of German descent who hoped to find safety within Germany’s borders. Clinging on to Hope relates the experiences of Anita and her family during WW2, their escape from Poland and their drive for survival as they wandered from village to village as refugees clinging to the hope that one day they would all be reunited again.

Peter Twele is a researcher, writer and teacher whose primary focus is on the Middle East; he travelled there 40 years ago and has lived there for 11 years. Although he now resides in this area, he continues with his Middle East focus, regularly working with people from that region, and often travelling there. He has authored several books: Rubbing Shoulders in Yemen (2012), Iraq on Their Doorstep (2014) and Guilty by Association (2021).

• J. Aaron Miller: Witnesses of These Things: Faithfulness Here and Now (Cascade Books)

The risen Jesus sends his disciples out as “witnesses of repentance and the forgiveness of sins” in his name. In a time of uncertainty for the western church – particularly for ‘mainline’ congregations – this commission offers a simple framework for faithful, contextual work and witness, growing in the way of the God who sets captives free and raises the dead.

One part call to action, one part celebration of the miracle that is the local church, Witnesses of These Things is an invitation to grab hold of the life that is truly life for which each one of us and this God-beloved world are made.

Jason Byassee, Senior Pastor of Timothy Eaton Memorial Church in Toronto (and formerly a professor at Vancouver School of Theology) said of the book:

The great Martin Marty used to say that the renewal of the church will come from the left of the right, and the right of the left, and I don’t mean the middle. Aaron Miller is precisely on those risky, dangerous edges. He’s the sort of pastor you want at your bedside and preacher you want at the mic when someone must say just the right thing. His first book is a must-read.

Aaron Miller is an ordained United Church of Canada (UCC) minister, serving University Hill United Church – which meets at the Vancouver School of Theology’s Chapel of the Epiphany – and is the UCC campus minister at the University of British Columbia.

• Hyuk Cho: Relation without Relation: Intercultural Theology as Decolonizing Mission Practice (Peter Lang)

Who is the ‘Other’? In a culturally and religiously diverse world, how can the church build just relationships with the ‘Other’ without compromising each party’s unique identity? In Relation without Relation, the author presents intercultural theology as a decolonizing approach to mission practice.

He employs key concepts from Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida and Homi Bhabha to provide a philosophical foundation. He advocates for an ‘Altruistic Model’ of interfaith dialogue, which enriches missiology and mission practices, aiming to cultivate an intercultural church. 

Relation without Relation offers valuable resources for churches seeking to become intercultural and to practice mission alongside others, whether they are people of faith or not. While sustaining identities, participants create a welcoming third space where genuine dialogue occurs, fostering shared concern for justice.

Carmen Lansdowne 44th Moderator, The United Church of Canada, wrote: 

Relation without Relation seriously considers the implications of what it means to commit to interculturalism in Christian community in the 21st century. Engaging soundly with established models of Christian mission, Cho makes a clear and compelling case for why ministry in the face of the Other has the potential to create hybrid spaces of welcome in the church.

Rev. Dr. Hyuk Cho is an Associate Professor of United Church Formation and Studies at the Vancouver School of Theology. He researches and teaches the history and theology of the United Church of Canada, along with constructive theology. His recent work focuses on intercultural theology, ecumenism, missiology, interfaith dialogue and decolonizing theology. He is an ordained United Church minister and serves as a central committee member of the World Council of Churches.

VST Faculty Book Launch

The Vancouver School of Theology will host a Faculty Book Launch today (February 27, 1 pm) at Epiphany Chapel to celebrate recent publications from the VST teaching team, including a collection of sermons co-published by faculty members.

The previous two books (above) will be included, and I have written about these three already (follow links):

• Rob James: 50 New Testament Stories
• Ross Lockhart: West Coast Mission
• Ray Aldred & Matthew Anderson: Our Home and Treaty Land

Two others are:

• Ray Aldred (& three others), editors: Cultivating Transformative Reconciliation: Are TRC Processes Enough? (Pickwick Publications)
• Joni Sancken et al: Getting to God: Preaching Good News in a Troubled World (Cascade Books) Joni Sancken was teaching at United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio when this book was published in 2023.

• Ron Unruh: Colossal Grace: Ephesians (independently published)

The term Colossal Grace evokes the sense of immense scale, grandeur, vast generosity – suggesting that this grace is not just abundant but extraordinary and almost incomprehensible in its scope.

This phrase will resonate with readers as a poetic and commanding description of God’s unmerited favour, emphasizing its transformative and all-encompassing nature. It might also evoke a sense of humility and wonder in response to such immense and undeserved kindness.

What if God’s eternal plan could transform your life, your relationships and your community? Colossal Grace uncovers the Apostle Paul’s sweeping vision in Ephesians, a call to unity, love and purpose rooted in Christ.

With fresh insights into scripture, practical guidance and reflections on today’s challenges, the book invites you to embrace your identity in Christ and live out God’s plan. Start your study today!

This book is written for pastors, group leaders and teachers, and eager Bible students.

About Ron Unruh: “Ambition to be a graphic artist was displaced 57 years ago by a plan to study theology and to engage in altruistic service. Art became my pastime as visual images conceded to word pictures. I acquired Master’s and Doctoral degrees along the way. A career consisting of 34 years as a pastor and six years as a denominational executive concluded in ‘2008. My faith and principles remain firm as I paint and write.”

• Jon Coutts & Heather Renée Morgan, editors: Looking Back, Leaning Forward: Wrestling with a Church’s Story (New Leaf Press)

Through a collection of essays and responses, Looking Back, Leaning Forward explores the context of a Canadian church by wrestling with the past story in light of the current realities.

On one hand, this book is for a denomination. It is structured in two parts; first, it revisits issues related to the “fourfold gospel” and then it offers a look at crucial conversations in this specific context. At another level, this book is for more than just a denomination.

It is for those in (or on the margins of) other churches across Canada, and even for eavesdroppers beyond. The gospel is universal in scope, but this universality is not mediated by abstract principles. It is mediated by a living Lord Jesus Christ who engages with us in context.

Two of the contributors are local: Mardi Dolfo-Smith and Ray Aldred.

Go here for earlier round-ups of local books.