GOD IS NEAR: TRUSTING OUR FAITH by Michael Morwood

If there's one book you'll give this year to a friend who's disillusioned with religion, make it this one. Michael Morwood is an adult faith formation professional with the rare gift of being able to speak to adults with honesty, simplicity, and candor. In God Is Near, Morwood sums up the frustration so many us of have with organized religion by stating that the God we've been taught to worship is a distant God and not the God that Jesus Christ knew, loved, and told the world about. In straightforward, non-technical language, Morwood shows how a felt-presence of God and God's love for us are not only the true message of Jesus and the Scriptures, but our very birthright as Christians. God Is Near is both a mission statement for adult Catholics frustrated with the hierarchical model of the church and a program for life-long growth in the Christian essentials of prayer, communal worship, social justice, and evangelization.