The provocative church, 3rd ed.  With study guide. SPCK, 2008. Graham Tomlin. £9.99. The provocative church offers a liberating understanding of evangelism as a corporate activity, in which all the gifts needed to enact the life of the Kingdom – to stir people into asking ‘What does this mean?’ – are spread throughout the whole Church.  It encourages the development of a theology of conversion that sees beyond ‘becoming a Christian’ to bring each individual life increasingly under the rule of God.

Word of mouth: Using the remembered Bible for building community, Janet Lees. Wild Goose, 2007, £10.99. Word of mouth presents a method of using remembered (oral, not written) versions of the Bible with people of all ages and abilities. It describes remembered Bible study sessions that the author has conducted and gives examples of the liturgy, stores and prayers that have grown our of them. Remembering and telling the story of Jesus' ministry among the marginalised awakens connections between the gospel and daily lives. Telling the story and interpreting it become inextricably mixed. In her work of doing Bible study without written Bible, Janet Lees is practicing a 'world-shaking' pedagogy rather than a 'world-maintaining' one. It aims to disrupt deathly habits and patterns with new life-giving ones, and in embracing a contextual theology it opens us up to recognising the God we meet every day.