Books to Inspire Faithful Innovation and Creative Spiritual Growth
Welcome to our curated collection of transformative books designed to support leaders, communities, and individuals who are reimagining faith and deepening spiritual life in today’s world. Whether you’re pioneering new ways of church, embracing diversity, or seeking creative paths toward wholeness, you’ll find resources here to guide and inspire your journey.
Books for Faithful Innovators
Our Faithful Innovators series offers practical wisdom and fresh frameworks for starting new churches, nurturing diverse communities, and leading with faithfulness in changing cultural landscapes. From rethinking church planting beyond old models to building ecosystems that empower diverse leaders, these books challenge the status quo and equip readers to engage God’s mission with new imagination and courage.
Supply Lines: Why Pastors Need More Than Prayer
Pastors give everything to support their communities—but who supports them? Supply Lines reveals the startling truth: 70% of pastors lack a close friend, and 40% have considered leaving ministry. Church planters are especially vulnerable, facing isolation and burnout after the initial launch.
Grounded in Scripture and research from the U.S. and Canada, author Scott Nelson offers a clear theology of pastoral support and practical tools for building it. Learn to overcome common barriers and develop five essential “supply lines” for long-term health and sustainability in ministry. Whether you’re a pastor, planter, or movement leader, this book is your guide to building lasting support—for yourself and others.
Deconstructing Church Planting: Reimagining How We Start Churches
There’s no single way to start a church—and the old ways aren’t always the best. For too long, church planting in the West has followed a colonizing, industrial model that stifles creativity and replicates harm. Today’s missional leaders need more than recycled strategies—they need a new imagination.
Deconstructing Church Planting challenges inherited paradigms and offers fresh frameworks rooted in justice, creativity, and faithfulness. Through theological reflection and real-world stories from practitioners, this book helps church starters move beyond harmful models and toward Spirit-led, contextual approaches. This is a guide for innovators ready to plant churches without planting the baggage of the past.
Building a Garden of Churches: Ecosystems for Thriving Churches
The world is changing—and the Church must change with it. In our diverse, post-Christendom culture, planting cookie-cutter churches no longer works. While some long for a return to the past, others are moving forward—empowering diverse leaders to follow God’s call and start new kinds of churches for new kinds of people.
Building a Garden of Churches offers a practical vision for how churches, judicatories, directors, and coaches can work together to create ecosystems that support healthy, Spirit-led church starters. Learn how to build structures that sustain discernment, spiritual health, and long-term success. This is a guidebook for anyone ready to join the movement of God by cultivating communities that reflect the fullness of the gospel.
Faithful Innovation: Beginning a Conversation for a Post-Covid Church
The Church is at a crossroads. Covid-19 disrupted nearly every aspect of congregational life—and left many wondering how to move forward. In Faithful Innovation, Cyclical Inc. brings together diverse voices from its global network to reflect on God’s activity in this moment, reimagine the future of the Church, and reframe leadership for what comes next.
Part theological reflection, part practical guide, this book invites church leaders, pastors, and practitioners to join a vital conversation about what it means to be Church in a post-Covid world.
The Missional Disciple-Making Handbook: Growing as Disciples and Innovating Together
The Western Church is struggling to connect with its neighbors and make new disciples. The Missional Disciple-Making Handbook offers a hopeful path forward by recovering a relational, missional approach to forming followers of Jesus.
Designed for personal reflection and group discussion, this practical guide helps individuals and churches foster micro-cultures of innovation—communities willing to experiment and move beyond rigid, outdated models. Whether you’re a pastor, church planter, or everyday disciple, this handbook invites you to reflect, respond, and take meaningful next steps in reimagining disciple-making for today’s world.
Making the Intercultural Journey: From Monocultural to Intercultural Church
In a divided world, the Church is called to be a community of reconciliation. Making the Intercultural Journey challenges churches to move beyond monocultural norms and embody God’s vision for unity in diversity. Following Jesus’ example of crossing cultural boundaries, this book offers practical guidance for creating mutuality across race, class, and culture.
Readers will discover how becoming intercultural deepens spiritual growth and strengthens the Church’s witness in a polarized world.
Rediscovering Vitality: A Practical Guide to Relevance and Renewal
The Church is no longer the center of community life, and many pastors and leaders are searching for ways to reconnect with a changing culture.
Rediscovering Vitality offers a hopeful, hands-on process for churches seeking renewed purpose. Using Appreciative Inquiry and Asset-Based Community Development, this workbook guides churches through the Proto Narrative process to identify strengths, rediscover core values, and discern a path forward. Instead of chasing more resources, this guide helps leaders see how God has already equipped their congregations for meaningful impact and fresh vision in their neighborhoods.
10 Pitfalls in Starting New Churches: Avoiding Hazards on the Way to Health
Starting a new church is exciting—but it’s also full of common challenges that can stall or even derail the mission. 10 Pitfalls in Starting New Churches guides church starters and their teams through ten critical obstacles that often impede new church initiatives. Each brief chapter clearly defines a common pitfall, offers practical strategies to overcome it, and poses key questions for team reflection and coaching.
From neglecting missional theology to undervaluing diverse leadership and skipping vital spiritual practices, this booklet equips church planters to navigate the journey with greater clarity, health, and purpose.
Creative Spirituality Books
Our Creative Spirituality collection invites you to explore faith and creativity as a path to healing and growth. These books guide you through reflective writing, poetic lament, and innovative liturgies that uncover hidden stories and engage God in fresh ways.
A Liturgy for All Bodies: New Words for a New World
Who writes the liturgy that shapes your worship? A Liturgy for All Bodies is a powerful resource for communities seeking to engage Scripture and the teachings of Jesus in ways that challenge the status quo. This collection amplifies voices often marginalized—poor, queer, disabled, neurodivergent, and BIPOC writers—who bring fresh, embodied insights to ancient stories.
Rejecting tired images of conquest and narrow metaphors, this liturgy embraces the wisdom of those who have experienced oppression, trauma, and healing. It’s a patchwork of God’s Spirit from the margins, inviting all bodies into worship and truth.
Writing Toward Wholeness: A Journey of Creative and Spiritual Healing
We all seek wholeness and connection to God’s life-giving power, yet some parts of our stories remain hidden or hard to express. Writing Toward Wholeness gently guides you through creative writing exercises designed to unlock those difficult places and nurture spiritual healing.
Filled with inspiring stories from the author’s workshops and plenty of space to write, this brief workbook invites you to explore your inner life and move toward greater wholeness through the power of words.
Alas! A Lament for the United States of America
Alas! is a modern poetic take on the Biblical book of Lamentations, reflecting on America’s struggles with COVID-19, racism, and deep questions of faith. Drawing on over 250 Scripture references, it invites readers to embrace lament as a spiritual practice—crying out to God, confessing pain, and seeking hope.
This work offers honest expression and healing for a nation in crisis, reminding us that God’s faithfulness endures. All profits support Hagar’s Community Church inside Washington’s largest women’s prison.