An Australian gateway

to an unapologetically

liberal alternative to the alpha course ...

LIVING THE QUESTIONS 2 (revised & expanded)

Cost: $325.00 (incl GST and postage/handling)

LtQ2 is the completely revised and expanded version of Living the Questions, the popular video & internet-based small group exploration of progressive Christianity featuring premier religion voices of our day.

Now available.

LtQ2 is an open-minded alternative to studies that attempt to give participants all the answers and instead strives to create an environment where participants can interact with one another in exploring what's next for Christianity. Comprised of 21 sessions, LtQ2 may be offered in sequence or as three independent flights of seven units each: Invitation to Journey, Reclaiming the World and Call to Covenant. Like its prequel, LtQ2 includes downloadable and printable leader and participant guides with weekly readings and discussion questions. Each session may be conducted in one hour or expanded to include a meal and personal sharing. The 20-minute video segments include conversations with leading voices of faith, sermon and lecture clips, digital stories illustrating aspects of an evolving faith, and concrete spiritual practices and disciplines. The flexible DVD and resource materials can be used in variety of class, retreat, and other formats.

LtQ2 features all the contributors from the original Living the Questions: Nancy Ammerman, John Bell, Marcus Borg, Minerva Carcaño, John B. Cobb, Jr., John Dominic Crossan, Lloyd Geering, Culver "Bill" Nelson, Siyoung Park, Stephen Patterson, Tex Sample, John Shelby Spong and Emilie Townes. In addition, LtQ2 also features Rita Nakashima Brock, Walter Brueggemann, Ron Buford, Yvette Flunder, James Forbes, Matthew Fox, Hans Küng, Amy-Jill Levine, Meagan McKenna, Rebecca Ann Parker, Helen Prejean, Barbara Rossing, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Bernard Brandon Scott, Rick Uford-Chase, Winnie Varghese and Mel White.

Invitation to Journey
1. An Invitation to Journey
2. Taking the Bible Seriously
3. Thinking Theologically
4. Stories of Creation
5. Lives of Jesus
6. A Passion for Christ: Paul
7. Out into the World: Challenges Facing Progressive Christians

Reclaiming the World
8. Restoring Relationships
9. The Prophetic Jesus
10. Evil, Suffering & a God of Love
11. The Myth of Redemptive Violence
12. Debunking the Rapture
13. Practicing Resurrection
14. Reclaiming the World

Call to Covenant
15. A Kingdom without Walls
16. Social Justice: Realizing God’s Vision
17. Incarnation: Divinely Human
18. Prayer: Intimacy with God
19. Embracing Mystery
20. Compassion: The Heart of Jesus’ Ministry
21. Creativity & Transformation

Purchase of LtQ 2.0 includes a one-year license to the downloadable written materials. At the end of the first year, the license to use the written materials can be renewed annually for US$50.00. Please see LtQ policy page for additional information.

Registered users may order additional sets for $95.00 (incl. GST and P&H). An additional copy is licensed for use only by the same purchaser/site and is to be used in conjunction with a registered copy of Living the Questions. All groups using any additional copies would access the same user account as the original order for downloading online resources. Due to the low margins on these discounted copies payment must be made by cheque or direct deposit (no PayPal orders). Email us for information or to place an order.

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SAVING JESUS

Cost: $325.00 (incl GST and postage/handling)

Availability: Now available in PAL edition.

Ever feel like Jesus has been kidnapped by the Christian Right? Saving Jesus is a revolutionary dvd-based small group exploration of Jesus Christ for the third millennium. Featuring leading religious voices of our day, the 12-week program includes a printable participant reader and a facilitator guide offering discussion questions. The basic format for each weekly 1 – 1 1⁄2 hour session includes conversation around the readings, a 20-minute video segment and guided discussion. Join Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, Matthew Fox, Amy-Jill Levine, James Forbes and a host of others for a conversation around the relevance of Jesus Christ for today.

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ECLIPSING EMPIRE: PAUL, ROME AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Cost: $325.00 (incl GST and postage/handling)

Availability: PAL edition now available

Join preeminent New Testament scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan on location in Turkey as they trace the Apostle Paul's footsteps throughout the Roman Empire. This 12-session DVD and web-based study explores fresh insights into Paul's message of the Kingdom of God, its challenge to Roman imperial theology, and the apostle's radical relevance for today.

Eclipsing Empire includes downloadable and printable leader and participant guides with weekly readings and discussion questions. Each session may be conducted in one hour or expanded to include a meal and personal sharing. Each 20-minute video segment features a brief travelogue on a location significant for the study of Paul. The flexible DVD and resource materials can be used in variety of class, retreat, and other formats.

The themes for the twelve sessions are:

1. Empire
2. Jesus
3. Paul's Mission
4. Paul's Character
5. Paul's Vocation
6. Cities
7. Paul's Letters
8. Paul's Ethics
9. Paul's Theology
10. Paul's Eschatology
11. Icons
12. Eclipse

Participant Guide written by John Dominic Crossan.

Filmed in High-Definition across Turkey, Greece, and Italy.

Purchase of Eclipsing Empire includes a one-year license to use the downloadable participant and leader guides. At the end of the first year, the license to use the written materials can be renewed annually for $50.00. Please see policy page on the Living the Questions web site for additional information.

Contributors
	Marcus Borg - Hundere Professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University. Author of over ten books including The Heart of Christianity, and Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary. Dr. Borg lectures extensively throughout North America and overseas. His work has been translated into five languages. For nearly ten years, Borg has led an annual Pauline Pilgrimage together with John Dominic Crossan and The Rev. Canon Marianne Wells Borg of The Center for Spiritual Development.
	John Dominic Crossan - Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at De Paul University. Widely regarded as the premier historical Jesus scholar in the world, Dr. Crossan has authored over 20 books, including God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now and In Search of Paul: How Jesus' Apostle Opposed Rome's Empire with God's Kingdom -- a groundbreaking study on Paul co-written with archeologist Jonathan Reed. A Roman Catholic monk for nineteen years and a priest for twelve years, Crossan is a former co-chair of The Jesus Seminar and chair of the Historical Jesus Section of the Society of Biblical Literature.

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JOHN DOMINIC CROSSAN ON PAUL

Cost: $135.00 (incl GST and postage/handling) (reduced from $275.00)

Paul: an appealing or appalling apostle? In this 50-minute dvd introduction to Paul, Crossan addresses challenges to understanding Paul, three different "Pauls," Paul's character and theology, and gender balance and imbalance in the New Testament. Contains a bonus sermon by Crossan entitled, "Justice as Love."

Victory and Peace or Justice and Peace? With nearly four hours of dvd content and discussion guide, this dvd-based study featuring John Dominic Crossan explores the juxtaposition of Roman Imperial Theology and the Kingdom of God. Ideal for Advent and Lent. Flexible in format, "Victory and Justice or Justice and Peace?" can be conducted over 4, 6, 8 or 12 weeks.

Please note that these DVDs are supplied in NTSC format. They will play in most recent model digital players, but we cannot guarantee quality on all players.

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COUNTERING PHARAOH'S PRODUCTION-CONSUMPTION SOCIETY TODAY

Cost: $135.00 (incl GST and postage/handling) (reduced from $195.00)

Availability: Now available in PAL edition

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It is a journey from slavery to covenant that we keep making over and over again ...
[because] Pharaoh has immense power always to draw us back into slavery. —Walter Brueggemann

A new study for Progressive Christians. Ideal for Advent and Lent, flexible in format, Countering Pharaoh can be conducted over four to six sessions. The two-hour dvd includes a discussion guide.

WARNING: THIS PROGRAM MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR CHURCH, SOCIETY AND THE AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE, AND COULD POTENTIALLY HELP RESTORE THE MEANING OF ADVENT.

Walter Brueggemann is an Old Testament scholar and retired professor from Columbia Theological Seminary. Also a United Church of Christ minister, Brueggemann has authored hundreds of articles, several biblical commentaries and more than 50 books, including The Prophetic Imagination, Genesis: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, Finally Comes the Poet, and Theology of the Old Testament.

JOHN SHELBY SPONG—JESUS FOR THE NON-RELIGIOUS

Cost: $32.95 (incl GST and postage/handling)

Availability: Now available in PAL edition

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A perfect companion piece to the bestselling author’s book of the same name, the Jesus for the Non-Religious DVD is a 68-minute distillation of Bishop Spong’s understanding of the Godpresence in Christ. In this lecture, Spong explores the meaning of "Christ," images of Messiah, how Christ has been experienced through the ages, and how the divinity of Christ has its ultimate expression in a fulfilled humanity.

“Jesus calls you to be whole, not religious. Jesus calls you to be real, not religious. Jesus calls you to be loving, not moral and righteous. Jesus calls you to be inclusive, not hating everybody that disagrees with you and claiming your superiority over them. That’s what this Jesus portrait is about and that’s why people believed that they experienced all that God is in the life and in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.”

—John Shelby Spong
From Jesus for the Non-Religious DVD

TEX MIX: STORIES OF EARTHLY MYSTICISM

Cost: $95.00 (incl GST and postage/handling)

You've heard of tall tales - Tex definitely has a few of those. But these tales are more on the order of deep and wide. This DVD includes 20 tales tailored for your teaching, preaching, and devotional use with Tex Sample - the consummate storyteller. In addition, the DVD also includes Tex 's introduction to storytelling and a downloadable guide with points to ponder, related Scripture texts and discussion questions. Cost - $95.00, incl GST & postage

Avalability: This compilation of stories by the popular LtQ presenter, Tex Sample, is currently shipping from the US with delivery expected early April.

Please note that these DVDs are supplied in NTSC format. They will play in most recent model digital players, but we cannot guarantee quality on all players.

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Tex Sample - Author, and emeritus Professor of Church and Society at the St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, MO. Tex is his real name, not a nickname. His father named him after Texanna Gillham, an African-American woman who was born in slavery and helped raise his father near Center, Texas.

MATT & LUCY'S VERSION BIRTHS A Children's Christmas Pageant for Progressive Communities

Cost: $57.00 (incl GST and postage/handling)

Little did Matt & Lucy know when they agreed to help out with this year's Christmas pageant that the director would give them each a different script and leave them to work out their differences... "Confounded Christmas Fun!" Written by Rev. Dot Saunders-Perez, with original music by Janet Allyn.

Synopsis
There are four "canonical" gospels in the Bible. While Matthew and Luke are the only gospels to tell the story of Jesus' birth, their stories are very different from one another. Our play opens as Matt & Lucy volunteer to help with this year's Christmas pageant. Little do they know that the Director will give them each a different script and leave them to work out how to put on a play with conflicting story lines, characters, and settings. As the play ends, the Director explains how having two stories gives us an appreciation of the diversity of ways early Christians expressed their understanding of who Jesus was.

Program
Matt & Lucy's Version Births can be as simple or elaborate as you decide. There are four speaking parts for youth and eight delightfully singable songs for young children (aged 3 and up). The LtQ Equip-kit includes two CDs: a TRAX music CD containing separate instrumental and vocal tracks of the eight musical selections, and a CD-ROM with printable pdf files of the script, production notes and lead sheets (arrangements) of the songs.

Matt & Lucy's Version Births CD TRAXS

Cost: $29.50 (incl GST and postage/handling)

This 10 (ten) CD pack of the Matt & Lucy's Version Births CD TRAX music disc are exactly the same as the TRAX music disc in the Matt & Lucy's Version Births LtQ Equip-kit and are affordable enough to distribute to all pageant participants to aid them in practicing the music with the Instrumental and Vocal tracks and the Instrumental tracks alone.

Play sample song: A Christmas Truth

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