Outskirts Press, INC.

God doesn’t need spectators.
God invites you into the action.

What do arguments at the dinner table over religion and politics, attending school board and town council meetings, volunteering in your community and issues of church and state have in common? They are all aspects of public life. We might expect Scripture to have something to say to us about this controversial part of life, and indeed it does. But we have to dig a bit for its guidance. Turns out, all sorts of Bible characters were called by God out of private life into the challenges of public life—from slaves to prophets, from shepherds to judges, from peasant girls to beauty queens, from learned rabbis to unlettered fishermen. Most of them did not go willingly! Bible characters have much to teach us about trying to be faithful to Jesus Christ now in the world he came to love, serve and bring back into relationship with God. This book explores their adventures of faith and invites us to have some adventures of our own. Whether for personal reflection or group study, “Going Public” will get you thinking about and acting on your beliefs in new ways, giving you resources you didn’t even know you had for being a person of faith in a democracy today.