Reformed Journal Annual Fundraiser
Generous Reformed Christians Supporting Generous Reformed Thought
Friends—
As has been our custom, the Reformed Journal is offering not one, not two, but three books to donors who make a gift of $300 (US) or more between now and the end of 2025 or who sign up to give a monthly gift of $25 (US) or more for 2026.Â
Here Are the Books:
You Can Trust a God with Scars
Faith (and Doubt) for the Searching Soul
By Jared Ayers
How do you balance the tension between doubt and faith?
Can you really trust God, considering the suffering, injustice, and hypocrisy you see in the news (and in your own life)? Can the Christian faith resolve your deepest longings? You are not alone if you feel spiritually adrift and directionless. Questions about God, faith, life, and the disillusionment toward church and religious leaders are widespread.
You Can Trust a God with Scars invites you to experience the broader Christian story. In these pages, the yearning and questions of your own story become grounded with a God who does not avoid pain but enters into it, bearing wounds of His own. In this timely book, Rev. Dr. Jared Ayers offers a guided tour of the Christian Story for you who may be unfamiliar, skeptical, hurting, and disillusioned, lingering in the borderlands between faith and doubt. With a fascinating mix of theology, art, Scripture, music, and literature, he invites you into a conversation about a Christianity that embraces doubt, mystery, and a God who understands suffering intimately.
Whether you are a Christian seeking to draw closer to Jesus amidst pain, have been hurt by the church, or are an agnostic or atheist, in You Can Trust a God With Scars, you will find:
- A series of conversations about Christian faith that are honest, hospitable, and intellectually compelling
- A meaningful framework to help you work through your beliefs
- Questions at the end of each chapter to guide reflection or discussion
Here is a safe, compassionate space to reawaken hope and find meaning in the Christian story, despite living in a fractured world.
Jared Ayers
Jared Ayers serves as the senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church in North Palm Beach, Florida. He is a graduate of Western Theological Seminary and the Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination. Jared and his wife Monica have been married for 20 years, and have been graced with two sons and a daughter. His first book is forthcoming from NavPress in Fall 2025.
The Soulwork of Justice
Four Movements for Contemplative Action
By Wes Granberg-Michaelson
Former politico, long-time activist, and faith leader Wes Granberg-Michaelson (Without Oars: Casting Off into a Life of Pilgrimage) looks at a life in activism. advocacy, and ministry to reveal four key discernable movements of a lifelong soul journey to God’s justice. He’s also witnessed these elements consistently in the lives of others devoted to both soul-care and justice. Now he offers these four key movements for anyone at any age wanting to step into the entwined lineage of justice and soul work. While all experience it, few justice leaders talk about in the often exhausting effort of their work, and how critical soulwork–spiritual formation–is for sustaining a life of outward social witness.
Culled from the wisdom of decades of leadership experience in global ecumenical initiatives, religious organizations, and social justice movements, this book combines tenacity of vision with the groundedness of soul that has sustained Granberg-Michaelson even as it offers support to others engaged in the work for a lifetime and beyond.
Wes Granberg-Michaelson
Wes Granberg-Michaelson is General Secretary Emeritus of the Reformed Church in America. His forthcoming book is The Soulwork of Justice: Four Movements of Contemplative Action. (Orbis Books)
BOOK COVER COMING SOON
Roosevelt Park Resurrection
(Tentative Title)
By Reggie Smith
In 1994, Reggie Smith was called to be the pastor of the Roosevelt Park Community Christian Reformed Church on the west side of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He made denominational history as the first African American pastor of a majority white church in the CRC. What could go wrong being the Black pastor of a dying white church in a Latino neighborhood? Roosevelt Park Resurrection (tentative title) is Reggie’s memoir of his two decades as the church’s lead pastor and his wider work for three decades as president of the Roosevelt Park Neighborhood Association. Reggie’s story is sometimes harrowing, sometimes hilarious, and always fascinating.
This book will be published by RJ Books by the summer of 2026.
Reggie Smith
Reggie Smith is a diversity consultant for the Christian Reformed Church in North America. For over two decades he was pastor of the Roosevelt Park Community Christian Reformed Church and for almost three decades he was president of the Roosevelt Park Neighborhood Association. He lives in the Roosevelt Park neighborhood of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
You will love these books.
You Can Trust a God with Scars and The Soulwork of Justice will be sent to qualifying donors early in 2026. Roosevelt Park Resurrection will be sent upon its publication, which is anticipated by the summer of 2026.
Because of exchange rates and international shipping charges, we have had to make an adjustment for Canadian donors. This year we are asking for a gift of $450 (Canadian) or $38 monthly. Because of shipping rates, Canadian donors will receive all three books in one package in the summer of 2026.