All the books listed below come recommended by one or more of our connectors.
![]() Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion by Gregory Boyle (Author) [Keynote speaker at our 2020 conference]
For twenty years, Gregory Boyle has run Homeboy Industries, a gang-intervention program located in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, the gang capital of the world. In Tattoos on the Heart, he distills his experience working in the ghetto into a breathtaking series of parables inspired by faith. Read more. |
![]() Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship
by Gregory Boyle (Author) [Keynote speaker at our 2020 conference] In a moving example of unconditional love in difficult times, Gregory Boyle, the Jesuit priest and New York Times bestselling author of Tattoos on the Heart, shares what working with gang members in Los Angeles has taught him about faith, compassion, and the enduring power of kinship. |

The Lifesaving Church: Faith Communities and Suicide Prevention.
by Rachael A. Keefe (Author) [Keynote speaker at our 2019 conference]
"There’s so much silence around suicide in the church that it is quite literally killing us.” — Rachael Keefe
Would you know how to respond if the person sitting next to you in your pew was contemplating suicide? Every year, millions of people engage in suicidal activity, including those in our faith communities. Yet the Church remains largely silent around the topics of mental health, depression, and suicide prevention. How can you and your faith community be prepared to recognize and respond to those struggling for their very lives in your church? Read more
by Rachael A. Keefe (Author) [Keynote speaker at our 2019 conference]
"There’s so much silence around suicide in the church that it is quite literally killing us.” — Rachael Keefe
Would you know how to respond if the person sitting next to you in your pew was contemplating suicide? Every year, millions of people engage in suicidal activity, including those in our faith communities. Yet the Church remains largely silent around the topics of mental health, depression, and suicide prevention. How can you and your faith community be prepared to recognize and respond to those struggling for their very lives in your church? Read more

The Recovery-Minded Church: Loving and Ministering to People With Addiction
by Jonathan Benz (author) [Speaker at our 2018 conference], Kristina Robb-Dover (Contributor)
You want to have vibrant and healthy relationships with those who struggle with addiction in your church and community. But you find yourself wondering how to meet their needs in a wise, helpful and God-honoring way. The Recovery-Minded Church addresses the pressing questions you are facing in ministering to those with addictions. Here you will discover a clinically informed, biblical and theological framework to love the addicts in your midst and also practical tools to help you succeed in doing so, including discussion questions after each chapter for use in small group settings. Read more
by Jonathan Benz (author) [Speaker at our 2018 conference], Kristina Robb-Dover (Contributor)
You want to have vibrant and healthy relationships with those who struggle with addiction in your church and community. But you find yourself wondering how to meet their needs in a wise, helpful and God-honoring way. The Recovery-Minded Church addresses the pressing questions you are facing in ministering to those with addictions. Here you will discover a clinically informed, biblical and theological framework to love the addicts in your midst and also practical tools to help you succeed in doing so, including discussion questions after each chapter for use in small group settings. Read more
Coming Out Proud to Erase the Stigma of Mental Illness: Stories and Essays of Solidarity
by Patrick W. Corrigan [Speaker at our 2017 conference] , Jon E. Larson, Patrick J. Michaels One of the most effective ways to erase stigma is by people with lived experience telling their stories of recovery: COMING OUT. Being in the closet with mental health experiences often leads to shame. COMING OUT replaces shame with a sense of authority and empowerment. COMING OUT promotes the fact that people with even the most serious of mental illnesses recover and do so by actively choosing their goals. This is a book about people COMING OUT, standing up and proudly hailing their life journey, highlighting challenges and accomplishments in the process. Read more. |

Sometimes Amazing Things Happen: Heartbreak and Hope on the Bellevue Hospital Psychiatric Prison Ward, by Elizabeth Ford, MD
When mentally ill inmates in New York City's Rikers Island jail become too sick, violent, delusional or suicidal for the jail to handle, they're sent to Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward for treatment. Ford began treating inmates at Bellevue in 2000 during an internship and eventually worked her way up to become director of the hospital's forensic psychiatric service. She revisits her experiences treating Rikers' inmates in her new memoir, Sometimes Amazing Things Happen. Read More
Questions for Study & Discussion
Dr. Ford quote from NPR Interview: "Of the patients I took care of, it was almost a universal experience that they have suffered abuse or significant neglect as children. I literally can't remember a patient for whom that didn't apply."
When mentally ill inmates in New York City's Rikers Island jail become too sick, violent, delusional or suicidal for the jail to handle, they're sent to Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward for treatment. Ford began treating inmates at Bellevue in 2000 during an internship and eventually worked her way up to become director of the hospital's forensic psychiatric service. She revisits her experiences treating Rikers' inmates in her new memoir, Sometimes Amazing Things Happen. Read More
Questions for Study & Discussion
Dr. Ford quote from NPR Interview: "Of the patients I took care of, it was almost a universal experience that they have suffered abuse or significant neglect as children. I literally can't remember a patient for whom that didn't apply."

A Relentless Hope: Surviving the Storm of Teen Depression. by Gary F. Nelson [keynote speaker at our 2016 conference]
Depression and related illnesses threaten to wreck the lives of many teens and their families. Suicide driven by these illnesses is one of the top killers of these young people. How do teens become depressed? What does depression feel like? How can we identify it? What helps depressed teens? What hurts them? How do families cope with teen depression? In A Relentless Hope, Gary Nelson uses his experience as a pastor and pastoral counselor to guide the reader through... read more.
Depression and related illnesses threaten to wreck the lives of many teens and their families. Suicide driven by these illnesses is one of the top killers of these young people. How do teens become depressed? What does depression feel like? How can we identify it? What helps depressed teens? What hurts them? How do families cope with teen depression? In A Relentless Hope, Gary Nelson uses his experience as a pastor and pastoral counselor to guide the reader through... read more.

Troubled Minds: Mental Illness and the Church's Mission
by Amy Simpson [Keynote speaker at our 2015 conference]
The 2014 Christianity Today Book Award Winner (Her.meneutics) Winner of a 2013 Leadership Journal Book Award ("Our Very Short List" in "The Leader's Outer Life" category) Mental illness is the sort of thing we don't like to talk about. It doesn't reduce nicely to simple solutions and happy outcomes. So instead, too often we reduce people who are mentally ill to caricatures and ghosts, and simply pretend they don't exist. They do exist, however—statistics suggest that one in four people suffer from some kind of mental illness. And then there's their friends and family members, who bear their own scars and anxious thoughts, and who see no safe place to talk about the impact of mental illness on their lives and their loved ones. Many of these people are sitting in churches week after read more
by Amy Simpson [Keynote speaker at our 2015 conference]
The 2014 Christianity Today Book Award Winner (Her.meneutics) Winner of a 2013 Leadership Journal Book Award ("Our Very Short List" in "The Leader's Outer Life" category) Mental illness is the sort of thing we don't like to talk about. It doesn't reduce nicely to simple solutions and happy outcomes. So instead, too often we reduce people who are mentally ill to caricatures and ghosts, and simply pretend they don't exist. They do exist, however—statistics suggest that one in four people suffer from some kind of mental illness. And then there's their friends and family members, who bear their own scars and anxious thoughts, and who see no safe place to talk about the impact of mental illness on their lives and their loved ones. Many of these people are sitting in churches week after read more

Wrestling with our Inner Angels:
Faith, Mental Illness, and the Journey to Wholeness
Author Nancy Kehoe [Keynote speaker at our 2013 conference]
Dr. Kehoe is a nun and a licensed psychologist. Her faith experiences and medical training together have helped her reach out to those with mental illness and those who would like to help by writing her experiences in this book.
Faith, Mental Illness, and the Journey to Wholeness
Author Nancy Kehoe [Keynote speaker at our 2013 conference]
Dr. Kehoe is a nun and a licensed psychologist. Her faith experiences and medical training together have helped her reach out to those with mental illness and those who would like to help by writing her experiences in this book.

The Mindful Way through Depression:
Freeing Yourself From Chronic Unhappiness
Authors: Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn
This book is a great way to start a support group. It comes with a CD that helps practice mindful ways of thinking about your life and how to focus on some of the positives but also how to transition out of the downturn of negative feelings and self talk.
Freeing Yourself From Chronic Unhappiness
Authors: Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn
This book is a great way to start a support group. It comes with a CD that helps practice mindful ways of thinking about your life and how to focus on some of the positives but also how to transition out of the downturn of negative feelings and self talk.

Souls in the Hands of a Tender God: Stories of the Search for Home and Healing on the Streets
Authors: Craig Rennebohm [Keynote speaker at our 2012 conference] with David Paul
Authors: Craig Rennebohm [Keynote speaker at our 2012 conference] with David Paul

In the Shadow of God's Wings: Grace in the Midst of Depression
Author: Susan Gregg-Schroeder [Keynote speaker at our 2011 conference]
Susan Gregg-Schroeder offers a bold statement about living with chronic depression and discovering gifts of God in the midst of that depression. Taking readers on her own personal journey into depression, Gregg-Schroeder relates the wisdom of experience and moves beyond her experience to offer universal truths concerning depression and spirituality.
Author: Susan Gregg-Schroeder [Keynote speaker at our 2011 conference]
Susan Gregg-Schroeder offers a bold statement about living with chronic depression and discovering gifts of God in the midst of that depression. Taking readers on her own personal journey into depression, Gregg-Schroeder relates the wisdom of experience and moves beyond her experience to offer universal truths concerning depression and spirituality.