Description

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Winner of a 2019 Illumination Book Award

Jesus' first disciples and modern-day Christians face the same question: How do we share the good news of Christ that we have experienced with the people we meet in the course of our daily lives? The Book of Acts details how the early disciples overcome the challenges of spreading the gospel in the midst of failing institutions, theological differences, and widespread uncertainty. With a focus on Acts Chapter 8, editors Susan Brown Snook and Adam Trambley and contributors from across the Episcopal Church discuss how these lessons from Christ's earliest followers apply to the mission Jesus still gives us today: to be his witnesses in our churches and neighborhoods and to the ends of the earth. The authors explore essential elements of church mission, including worship, proclamation, loving and serving, repentance, and knowing the community.

Framed by reflections from church leaders Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows and Gay Clark Jennings, the book provides encouragement and practical suggestions to help individuals and groups move from Acts to action.

Contributors include: Joseph Alsay, Carrie Boren Headington, Frank Logue, Brendan O'Sullivan-Hale, Steve Pankey, and Holli Powell.

About the Author

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The Rt. Rev. Dr. Susan Brown Snook is Bishop of the Diocese of San Diego. Before entering seminary, she worked as a certified public accountant, and later as a director of Christian education and a director of lay ministries at an Episcopal church in Arizona. She was ordained as an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Arizona in 2003 and served as an associate at two churches in the Phoenix area after ordination. In 2006, the bishop of Arizona called her to plant a church in the northern suburbs of Phoenix and Scottsdale. From 2006 to 2017, she served as the church planter, vicar, and then rector of the Episcopal Church of the Nativity, Scottsdale, leading it through a process of growth to a program- sized parish and through a building process that created a permanent home for the vibrant congregation. In 2019, she was elected as the Fifth Bishop of the Diocese of San Diego, and was ordained and consecrated on June 15, 2019. Adam Trambley is an Episcopal priest who has served more than a decade as rector of St. John's in Sharon, Pennsylvania. Growing up near the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, he saw the power a praying Christian community has in transforming the lives of those around them. A year spent in St. Petersburg, Russia, taught him the importance of sharing the love of Jesus with those who had never experienced it. He is committed to helping congregations thrive by reaching out into their communities with the love and good news of Jesus Christ. Adam has served as Vice-President of Sharon City Council and been on the board of the local library, foodbank, and Chamber of Commerce. He is active in local ecumenical efforts. His doctoral thesis project involved taking community leaders on prayer walks to see where God is at work in the city. When not working on community redevelopment or church revitalization, Adam is probably in a ballet studio. He and his wife, Jane, have two grown daughters.