February 2024 | LISLE, IL— Outreach magazine named Learning Humility by Richard J. Foster as one of two 2024 Spiritual Growth Resources of the Year. Three additional IVP titles made the shortlist for the “Also Recommended” resources in the categories of apologetics, social issues, and spiritual growth.
The Outreach Resources of the Year aims to highlight valuable resources for church leaders and bring deserved attention to tools that can help churches better engage in effective outreach to share the gospel and reach their communities for Christ.
Spiritual Growth Resource of the Year
In Learning Humility: A Year of Searching for a Vanishing Virtue Richard Foster, the founder of Renovaré, insists that humility is central to the journey toward character formation and spiritual transformation. For this reason he decided to spend a year studying the virtue of humility.
Using the Lakota calendar as a framework, Foster provides us with a look into the insights he gathered from sources ranging from Native American culture to Julian of Norwich to Scripture to personal friends. By engaging with both the spiritual classics and Foster’s own experiences, Learning Humility provides profound insight into what humility can look like in our current cultural climate.
James Bryan Smith, author of The Good and Beautiful God, said, “Destined to be another classic from Richard J. Foster, Learning Humility is a gift from a gifted writer. In this book we get to walk with Richard not only on the trails of Colorado but also on the terrain of the soul. Richard is a true scribe of the kingdom who brings forth treasures old and new (Matthew 13:52). . . . This is one of Richard’s signature gifts: he makes us long for difficult things by helping us see that virtues, like humility, are the pearl of great price, worth giving all we have to obtain it. This book is an engaging and insightful gem, and I am the better for having read it.”
Apologetics Resource of the Year, Also Recommended
In Humble Confidence: A Model for Interfaith Apologetics Benno van den Toren and Kang-San Tan present a model of apologetics as crosscultural dialogue and accountable witness, then explore how it plays out in relation to specific contexts and the major world religions—including primal religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, secularism, and late-modern spiritualities. Building on recent developments in apologetics and missiology, as well as their experience teaching internationally in Europe, Asia, and Africa, Van den Toren and Tan offer an approach that is conversational, patient, holistic, and embodied.
Mark R. Teasdale, E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, said, “Drawing on their rich epistemological, intercultural, and interreligious knowledge and experience, Van den Toren and Tan guide us to greater awareness of God, self, and others that, true to the title, equips us with humble confidence to participate persuasively in an apologetic dialogue with people from any and every background.”
Social Issues Resource of the Year, Also Recommended
In The Offensive Church: Breaking the Cycle of Ethnic Disunity Bryan C. Loritts calls Christians to proactively and intentionally live out the embodied reality of a people at one with one another. We play offense by practicing a robust gospel, preparing reliable leadership, and providing relational environments so that the church becomes the aroma of Christ to our culture and gains ground against the demonic foothold of racism in all its forms.
“If the church in North America does not discover the New Testament ethos of multiethnic community, the church in North America will fail in accomplishing its mission,” said Vance Pitman, president of Send Network and founding pastor of Hope Church Las Vegas. “I know of no better voice to show us the way than my friend Bryan Loritts. In his new book The Offensive Church, Bryan shows us the way forward rooted in a gospel-centered missiology of making disciples in community. This is a must-read for anyone serious about joining in God’s activity in North America and the nations!”
Spiritual Growth Resource of the Year, Also Recommended
In Nourishing Narratives: The Power of Story to Shape Our Faith writer and professor Jennifer L. Holberg engages with words from the likes of Dante, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Flannery O’Connor, Marilynne Robinson, and more while also offering some of her own stories to reflect on the importance of story to our lives and our faith.
“Pull up a chair and let this master storyteller gently question and correct the destructive stories we often rely on to make sense of our lives,” said Jeffrey Bilbro, associate professor of English at Grove City College and author of Reading the Times. “In an age marked by narratives of stress-inducing scarcity and individual achievement, Jennifer Holberg invites us to instead live out truer narratives of abundant friendship and restorative hope. As the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre has written, if we want to rightly answer the question, What am I to do? we must first answer the question, Of what story or stories do I find myself a part? Holberg is a wise guide to the faithful, life-giving stories that Christians are called to inhabit.”
For a complete list of IVP award-winning titles visit ivpress.com/award-winners.
Contact | Krista Clayton | kclayton@ivpress.com
