Exploration Resources

Check out our Sunday messages from the The Abundant Community here.

Find an overview of our resources on Waiting in Expectation here.

Use the Lectio 365 app for prayer prompts & practices to access throughout your day. Download it wherever you get your apps.

Find a guide here for incorporating prayer throughout your day.

Using scripture, poetry, reflections, personal stories, and quotes from a rich array of spiritual teachers for many religions, Wiederkehr helps readers become more attuned to living in the present moment and develop a kindred spirit with the rich tradition of the sacred hours. Find it here.

Find a guide to practice the Prayer of Examen here.

Find tools for practicing Imagination here, including the prayer of Imagination and the Aro App we are using to reclaim our distracted time.

The Divine Commodity, by Skye Jethani, explores spiritual practices that liberate our imaginations to live as Christ's people in a consumer culture opposed to the values of his kingdom. Find it here.

Tim Chester brings to light God’s purposes in the ordinary act of sharing a meal―how this everyday experience is really an opportunity for grace, community, and mission. Chester challenges contemporary understandings of hospitality as he urges us to evaluate why and who we invite to our table. Find it here.

This book by Jay Y. Kim grapples with the ramifications of a digital church, from our worship and experience of Christian community to the way we engage Scripture and sacrament. Find it here.

This book by Ron Sider looks at churches expanding their view of ministry, imagining a more holistic approach. Find it here.

Our October formation practice is Generosity. Generosity is another one of our values and is a practice that extends beyond our finances. We invite you to fill out our 2025 Commitment Card and prayerfully discern what giving generously to Redemption in 2025 means for them.

Find the Bible Project's look at the theme of generosity found throughout the Bible.

This book by Rob Martin looks at fundraising and giving in the 21st Century. Find it here.

This book by Mark DeYmaz looks at how to creatively find solutions for sustainable giving in the church. Find it here.

Ruth Haley Barton writes on experiencing transformation in community. Find it here.

Our September formation practice is Commitment. Fill out a commitment card here to indicate how you might commit to Gather, Give, Serve, and Care for a Community.

Find an overview of Colossians from the Bible Project here.

Find Jesus for President, by Shane Claiborne, here.

In August we’re practicing Contentment through Awe. Find the guide here.

Find the worksheet to write your own Psalm 23 here.

Walking through Psalm 23 phrase by phrase, therapist and author K.J. Ramsey explores the landscape of our fear, trauma, and faith. When she stepped through her own wilderness of spiritual abuse and religious trauma, K.J. discovered that courage is not the absence of anxiety but the practice of trusting we will be held and loved no matter what. Find it here.

Find it here.

The book of Psalms has been central to God's people for millennia, across all walks of life and cultural contexts. In reading it, we discover that we are never alone in our joys, sorrows, angers, doubts, praises, or thanksgivings. We learn about prayer and poetry, honesty and community, justice and enemies, life and death, nations and creation. Open and Unafraid shows us how to read the psalms in a fresh, life-giving way, and so access the bottomless resources for life that they provide. Find it here.

In this Psalm 23 devotional, author K.J. Ramsey invites us to journey word-by-word through the Psalm to experience how the Good Shepherd is with you and for you, even in life’s valleys. Find it here.

Find a guide to walk you through the Prayer of Examen here.

Listening in Response to the Cries of Our Day – by Nate D. Ledbetter.

••This is meant to be printed front and back on 8x11 sheets. From there, they fold three times: half sheet, quarter, and then down to a pocket-size booklet.

Simple Steps for Honoring the Story of Others – by Abara Borderland Connections

••This is meant to be printed front and back on 8x11 sheets. From there, they fold three times: half sheet, quarter, and then down to a pocket-size booklet.

On Exploration Sunday (April 2024), Nate Ledbetter shared art from Kelly Latimore to illustrate the 5 Cries we can listen and respond to. He referenced these paintings: Christ in the WIlderness, Tent City Nativity, Our Lady of the Journey: Mothers, Mother of God: Protectress of the Oppressed, The Parable of the Mustard Seed, Glitch Transfiguration, Christ in the Rubble, Christ: Swords into Plowshares.

Find his art here.

By Walter Brueggeman. Find it here.

A Video by the BibleProject. God is a generous god, but throughout the Bible, humans hoard God’s good gifts. In this video, we look at how to live by God’s generous example.

This Lent we are practicing Visio Divina as we head into our Fasts. You can find the images in your inbox – and a guide here!

Find resources here for our Lenten fasting together.

Aaron Damiani chronicles his discovery of the freedom and power of the Lenten season. He provides a history, helpful tools to practice, and its theological significance rooted in the gospel.

This devotional takes readers through the Lenten and Eastertide seasons providing reflections rooted in the ecumenical and historical Christian tradition. This volume provides guides through the Advent journey who identify as Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Evangelical, Baptist, and everything in between. Celebrate the breadth and depth of the Christian tradition as we commemorate Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.

Throughout Holy Week, two competing approaches to peacemaking collide. Let's journey together day-by-day through Jesus' final week and discover anew why he is called the Prince of Peace.

Tsh-Oxenreider provides a multi-sensory guide for experiencing the Lenten season. She provides reflections, prayers, art, and a Spotify playlist! This is a great devotional to set aside alone time or space with friends and family (kids too!) to engage this season.

Often, we experience the Lenten season as either a mindless ritual or self-improvement program. In this short volume, priest and scholar Esau McCaulley introduces the season of Lent, showing us how its prayers and rituals point us not just to our own sinfulness but also beyond it to our merciful Savior.

This is the study our Redemption Women followed in their fall study. Find it here, and listen to their learnings here.

A podcast with Jen Wilkin on Exodus.

Bearing God’s Name reminds us of how the story of Israel informs our life in Christ. Find it here.

In this short guide to the book of Exodus, Biblical scholar Peter Enns doesn't just break down the story for the average person to understand but takes us behind the story—to the history and traditions that led us to the story as we have it today.

An accessible exploration of Exodus from renowned Old Testament scholar, John Goldingay.

Women on both sides of the Nile exhibited a subversive strength resisting Pharaoh and leading an entire people to freedom. Defiant explores how the Exodus women summoned their courage, harnessed their intelligence, and gathered their resources to enact justice in many small ways and overturned an empire.

Videos and articles on the Book of Exodus.

This is “a Conversation on the Language of Jesus in His Stories and Prayers.” Peterson points to Jesus' engaging, relational way of speaking as a model for us today – and invites a participating imagination from listeners. Find it here.

Christine Pohl offers a theology of community by exploring four specific Christian practices -- gratitude, promise-keeping, truth-telling, and hospitality -- that can counteract the destructive forces that keep us apart and help churches and individuals build and sustain vibrant communities. Find it here.

This classic by renowned Christ-follower, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, explores the power and miracle of Christian community. Speaking from lived experience, Bonhoeffer offers hope and encouragement for sustaining and participating in the family of God. Find it here.

In the beginning, the church ate together, traveled together and shared in all facets of life. Centered as they were on Jesus, these seemingly mundane activities took on their own significance in the mission of God. In Slow Church, the authors invite us to leave franchise faith behind and enter into the ecology, economy, and ethics of the kingdom of God, where people know each other well and love one another as Christ loved the church. Find it here.

In the overlooked moments and routines of our day, we can become aware of God's presence in surprising ways. How do we embrace the sacred in the ordinary and the ordinary in the sacred? Framed around one typical day, this book explores life through the lens of liturgy—small practices and habits that form us.

The Every Moment Holy series of books brings new liturgies for the ordinary events of daily life, such as "A Liturgy for Feasting with Friends" or "A Liturgy for Laundering" or "A Liturgy for the First Hearthfire of the Season." These prayers are ways of reminding us that our lives are shot through with sacred purpose even when, especially when, we are too busy or too caught up in our busyness to notice. Browse the series here.

Engage with Scripture in fresh and creative ways with the dynamic videos, classes, and podcasts on the Bible Project app. There are dozens of studies, reading plans, and ways to pursue wonder as you explore Scripture. Download the App.

Pastor and liturgist, Aaron Niequest, guides readers through the power of an embodied faith by encouraging us to move from head knowledge to a practice-based faith. Find it here.

A companion for all who feel the immense joys and challenges of the journey of faith, this collection of prayers says it all aloud, giving readers permission to recognize the weight of all they carry. These writings also offer a broadened imagination of hope—of what can be restored and made new. Sarah Bessey edits this powerful collection with contributions from brilliant women of faith and hope written for anyone who longs for prayers of authenticity and honesty. Find it here.

For Parents – Every Season Sacred is an invitation to ask big questions, embrace faithful rhythms, and experience God’s mysterious, loving presence together. You don’t have to have all the answers―and if we’re honest, many answers aren’t ours to have. This is the beauty of faith. As you parent your children and explore your questions together, may God reveal sacred moments to you―in each season of your life. Find it here.