Mostrando resultados por autor "Geoffrey Schmitt" en Todas las categorías

What if faith is not about arriving at certainty, but learning how to walk faithfully when answers are incomplete? A Rule of the Road offers a gentle, lived approach to Christian spirituality shaped by decades of ministry, marriage, loss, prison chaplaincy, and pastoral presence. Rather than presenting doctrines to master or techniques to perfect, this book offers a set of guiding commitments — a rule of life for those walking the long road of faith. Each chapter explores a simple but demanding choice: presence over answers, relationship over results, love before usefulness, being before ...

We Hold These Truths explores the relationship between the Declaration of Independence and the biblical moral imagination that shaped it — without claiming that America is a Christian nation or that Scripture belongs to any political system. Through careful reflection on truth, human dignity, unalienable rights, moral law, accountability of authority, liberty, responsibility, and formation, this book traces how biblical ideas influenced foundational American ideals — and how Scripture continues to judge, refine, and challenge those ideals today. Written from a pastoral rather than ...

Learning to See with Faith: More Than Just Optimism explores the quiet, transformative work of faith as a way of seeing the world truthfully and lovingly—especially when certainty is elusive and outcomes remain unresolved. Rather than equating faith with positive thinking or religious certainty, this study invites readers into a deeper vision shaped by humility, endurance, community, suffering, and love. Drawing on Scripture, pastoral experience, prison ministry, hospice work, long marriages marked by illness, and ordinary moments of grace, the author shows how faith matures not by ...

Just a Fool for Christ is a gentle, story-driven exploration of joy, presence, and holy foolishness, told through the unexpected lens of clown ministry. Drawing on decades of experience as a priest, chaplain, hospice caregiver, prison volunteer, and clown—known affectionately as Pockets—Geoffrey Schmitt reflects on how laughter lowers defenses, silence creates space for grace, and vulnerability opens doors that authority cannot. From churches and hospitals to prisons and nursing homes, he discovers that the most faithful ministry often happens when performance is laid aside and presence...

What if the faith you started with was never meant to last? In The Faith I Did Not Start With, priest and chaplain Geoffrey Schmitt tells the story of a faith that had to be dismantled before it could become real. This is not a story of rebellion or abandonment, but of maturation—where borrowed belief gives way to truth, truth alone proves insufficient, and faith is slowly re-formed through encounter, loss, love, and presence. Schmitt writes candidly about early disillusionment, a profound encounter with God, a call to ministry, and the long road of formation that followed. Seminary study...

Walking Alone in Community: The Paradox of Faith explores one of the quiet tensions at the heart of the Christian life: faith is deeply personal, yet never meant to be lived in isolation. Drawing from Scripture, prison ministry, hospice chaplaincy, aging, suffering, and decades of pastoral walking, Geoffrey Schmitt guides readers along roads where solitude and companionship meet. From the Emmaus road to prison walls, from Communion to grief, from listening to responsibility, this book names what many feel but rarely articulate: some stretches of faith must be walked alone — and yet none ...

Walking with God is one of the most familiar images of faith — and one of the most misunderstood. In Walking with the Lord: Learning to Share the Road — One Step at a Time, priest, chaplain, and writer Willingheart, Geoffrey Schmitt, invites readers into a deeply personal, pastorally grounded exploration of what it truly means to walk with God across a lifetime. Drawing from decades of ministry in congregations, prisons, hospice care, and ordinary daily life, this book traces the spiritual road through beginnings and callings, companionship and solitude, detours and valleys, stumbles ...

The Ministry of Touch: Faith You Can Feel explores one of the most overlooked yet powerful dimensions of Christian faith: embodied presence. Drawing on decades of pastoral ministry in parishes, prisons, hospitals, hospice care, and retreat settings, Geoffrey Schmitt invites readers to rediscover how God works through hands, proximity, restraint, and sacrament. From holding a trembling hand to anointing with oil, from baptismal water to bread broken in communion, this book traces how grace is not only believed—but felt. With honesty and reverence, Schmitt also addresses necessary ...

Lives That Teach Character Lessons from the Bible is a reflective Bible study exploring how God forms character through real lives—faithful, flawed, and redeemed. Rather than presenting idealized heroes or simple moral lessons, this study invites readers into the honest, often complicated stories of people whose lives continue to teach because they mirror our own struggles with trust, fear, pride, mercy, repentance, and hope. Drawing from both Scripture and decades of pastoral, hospice, and prison ministry experience, Geoffrey Schmitt walks alongside biblical figures such as Abraham, ...

Pilgrimage: Walking with God through Life, Loss, and Sacred Places by Geoffrey Schmitt This book invites readers on a journey—not only across ancient trails and holy destinations, but into the deeper spiritual landscape of the soul. Blending biblical reflection, historical insight, personal storytelling, poetry, and guided questions, Pilgrimage explores both the metaphor and the practice of sacred journeying. Part One traces the inner path we walk as believers: from the initial call to follow, through wilderness and weeping, up mountaintops, and into a clearer sense of purpose. Part Two ...

Bible is filled with powerful truths — but it’s also full of puzzling, strange, and even troubling moments. Why was Cain’s sacrifice rejected? Who were the “sons of God” in Genesis 6? Why did God almost kill Moses right after calling him? And what is the “unforgivable sin” Jesus spoke about? In Bible’s Most Puzzling Moments: Strange and Troublesome Stories in Scripture, Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Schmitt takes readers on a guided tour through 21 of the Bible’s most curious events. Each chapter offers: The biblical passage in focus. A plain-language retelling of the story. ...

Sacred Geography: Encountering God Through the Land of the Bible By Geoffrey Schmitt What if the places of the Bible weren’t just backdrops—but invitations? From Eden to the wilderness, from Mount Sinai to Jerusalem, from exile to the quiet terrain of your own heart, this book explores how God reveals Himself in places—and how those places become holy when He is present. Blending rich biblical insight, personal stories, meditations, poetry, and questions for reflection, Sacred Geography invites readers to: Discover the spiritual meaning of key biblical landscapes Reflect on how ...

Ecclesiastes: Meaning in a Meaningless World is a journey through one of the Bible’s most enigmatic and powerful books. With poetic reflections, personal stories, and pastoral insight, Dr. Geoffrey Schmitt helps readers wrestle with life’s hardest questions: Is there purpose in my pain? Why does injustice persist? What’s the point of wisdom or work? How do we live in a world that often feels upside down? Drawing from decades of ministry and personal grief, the author guides readers toward a faith that isn’t afraid of doubt—but finds God in the middle of it. Whether you’re new to...

“I was in prison and you came to visit me.” —Matthew 25:36 Prison walls may separate men and women from society, but they do not separate them from the love of God. Breaking Chains: The Gospel and Prison Ministry is a powerful call to action for individuals, churches, and communities to engage in life-changing prison ministry. This book explores: • The biblical foundation for ministering to the incarcerated. • The spiritual needs of inmates and the power of redemption. • How individuals and churches can step into prison outreach. • The impact of movements like Kairos Prison ...

Contentment: Finding Peace in Every Circumstance In a restless world that constantly urges us to chase more, Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Schmitt — known to many as Willingheart — invites readers to discover the calm strength of contentment. Drawing from Scripture, personal stories, ministry experiences, and hard-won wisdom, he explores how peace can be found not in perfect conditions but in a trusting heart. Through six thoughtful chapters — The Shepherd’s Provision, The Wisdom of Enough, Learning in the Hard Places, Comparison and the Thief of Joy, The Peace of Letting Go, and The Joy of ...

The Mystic Way explores the ancient yet accessible path of living every moment in God’s presence. Through Scripture, reflection, story, meditation, and real-life encounters, Geoffrey “Willingheart” Schmitt guides readers into a deeper awareness of the God who is always near. This book reveals that mystics are not unusual heroes but ordinary believers who see with love and live with attentiveness. Both timeless and deeply personal, The Mystic Way is an invitation to discover the holy hidden in everyday life.

Apologetics: Foundations of Faith—Why We Believe explores the meeting place between belief and understanding. In a world of doubt, division, and distraction, Geoffrey Schmitt (Willingheart) offers a thoughtful and pastoral guide to defending the faith not with argument alone, but with integrity, humility, and hope. Across ten chapters, this study journeys through revelation, reason, science, morality, suffering, the witness of the Church, and the enduring evidence of hope. Drawing insight from Scripture, C. S. Lewis and the Inklings, historical theology, and the author’s own conversion ...

Beasts, Birds, and the Breath of God: The Role and Symbolism of Animals in the Bible From the Garden of Eden to the throne room of Revelation, animals walk, fly, crawl, and soar through the pages of Scripture. They are not merely background scenery—they are companions in creation, participants in prophecy, and even messengers of God’s mercy. In this rich and devotional exploration, Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Schmitt invites you to rediscover the creatures of the Bible—not just as symbols, but as sacred signs. Each chapter explores the role of animals in major biblical themes: creation, fall, ...

The Twelve Days of Christmas: Living the Gift invites readers to slow down and rediscover the sacred rhythm that begins on Christmas Day and leads to Epiphany. In twelve beautifully crafted devotional chapters, Geoffrey “Willingheart” Schmitt explores the lasting gifts Christ brings — Light, Peace, Joy, Love, Hope, Faith, Family, Worship, Service, Forgiveness, Gratitude, and Eternal Life. Blending Scripture, personal reflection, poetry, and prayer, this book helps believers carry the meaning of Christmas into the new year. Each chapter ends with questions for reflection and a “...

Step back into the earliest centuries of Christianity and sit at the feet of those who first carried the gospel into a world hungry for truth. The Fathers Speak: Understanding Scripture with the Early Church Fathers invites readers to explore the Bible alongside the voices of the men and women who helped shape the faith in its formative years. Drawing on the wisdom of Athanasius, Augustine, Basil, Chrysostom, and many others, this study presents thirty rich, thematic chapters — each blending Scripture, a quote from the Fathers, clear teaching, meditation, personal reflection, poetry, ...