Emersion Books

Outreach Resource of the Year Finalists

We just heard about the finalists for the Fifth Annual Outreach Resource of the Year Awards. A few Baker Publishing Group books are on the list:

Leadership Training category - The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church by Alan Hirsch

Global Outreach category - Hope in Troubled Times: A New Vision for Confronting Global Crises, by Bob Goudzwaard, Mark Vander Vennen, & David Van Heemst

Justice Evangelism category - Justice in the Burbs: Being the Hands of Jesus Wherever You Live by Will Samson and Lisa Samson

These titles will be reviewed in the May/June Outreach magazine. Find out more about these books on BPGs new website: www.bakerpublishinggroup.com.

Justice in the Burbs Video

Justice in the Burbs Review and Excerpt

By Will Samson (from http://willzhead.typepad.com/willzhead/)

Lisa and I just received a really great review for our upcoming book, Justice in the Burbs. That review [From Publisher's Weekly] is pasted below. After, there is a link for you to download the first two chapters of the book.

Justice in the Burbs: Being the Hands of Jesus Wherever You Live
Will and Lisa Samson. Baker Books, $14.99 paper (208p) ISBN 978-0-8010-6809-6

Award-winning Christian novelist Lisa Samson (Songbird; Quaker Summer) and her husband, sociology doctoral student Will Samson, intertwine fiction and nonfiction in this challenging and inspiring book about justice. Lisa Samson's novella features the Marshalls, a suburban family with all the accouterments: Matt climbs the corporate ladder, Christine cares for their three children, and both are busy with numerous church leadership positions. One day, however, Matt and Christine visit an inner-city mission, and their ideas about how they should be living gradually, but dramatically, change. The nonfiction portion of the book examines the issues these characters (and most of the book's readership) face. The Samsons talk about why God cares what we eat, where we live, how much electricity we use, and to whom we minister. Astonishingly, the authors manage to do this without hitting a sanctimonious note. On the contrary, they repeatedly highlight the heartbreak and complexity of what they refer to as "thinking and living in keeping with God's heartbeat of justice," and frequently acknowledge their own struggles and failures. The Samsons include short meditations at the end of each chapter written by a variety of Christian authors, as well as a series of helpful discussion questions at the end. (Aug.)

Download a free sample of Justice in the Burbs including the cover, table of contents, introduction, and Chapter 1 in PDF format:

(Download a sample of the book here)

Interview with Will Samson

Previously posted on the Emergent VIllage website: An Interview with Will Samson.

In this Fred Peatross interview, Will Samson talks about Emergent Village, environmentalism, and the upcoming book Justice in the Burbs — due out in August.

Justice in the Burbs Introduction

By Will and Lisa Samson

Will Samson has a seventeen-year career in politics, technology, and the church, working with Fortune 500 companies, universities, non-profits and political organizations. He is an active contributor to the efforts of Emergent Village. Lisa Samson has written seventeen novels, including the Christy Award-winning Songbird. Will and Lisa live in Lexington, Kentucky.

We are so excited about the concepts contained in Justice in the Burbs. A conversation is ever-growing in the Church about what it means to live justly and join God's work in the world. Some have been a part of this conversation for a long time. Some are just waking up to the notion that being a follower of Jesus involves more than just a prayer. Most of us find ourselves somewhere in the middle.

We (Lisa and Will) are products of the American suburban experience. Through a long series of events, some of which we talk about in the book, we began to ask how God's heartbeat for justice became so removed from being a follower of Jesus. 

We wished we could say that we have it all figured out, but we don't. As we state in the introduction, in some ways Justice in the Burbs is a confession of our insufficiency. But we are striving toward a goal of being "the hands and feet of Jesus wherever we live."

If you are already on this path, we are honored to join you on this journey. If you are struggling to understand what God is doing and how you can participate, please join us.

Justice in the Burbs Book Description

In the suburban world of nice homes, neat lawns, and new cars, it can be easy to forget about social justice issues. The poor and disenfranchised can become invisible as we go from garage to workplace and back again. In Justice in the Burbs, a social justice expert and a novelist collaborate to weave a story about a young couple from the burbs with reflections on how readers can engage in the work of justice. The authors show that opportunities for justice are everywhere if we have eyes to see. This work will be especially valuable for college and seminary students, who will discover they can be a force for social justice in the world.

In this unique book, readers will take a journey with a young couple from the burbs as they learn to notice and act on the issues of justice that abound no matter where you live. This engaging narrative helps readers kiss apathy and ignorance goodbye in favor of a life of concern and action in order to help our fellow human beings.

Will Samson has a seventeen-year career in politics, technology, and the church, working with Fortune 500 companies, universities, non-profits, and political organizations. He is an active contributor to the efforts of Emergent Village. Lisa Samson has written seventeen novels, including the Christy Award-winning Songbird. Will and Lisa live in Lexington, Kentucky.