Audiobooks by Aimee Byrd

Saving Face: Finding My Self, God, and One Another Outside a Defaced Church

Read by the author. May the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you… We have received the blessing countless times, but what does it mean for the Lord to shine his face upon us in a time when many Christians are disillusioned with their faith, wrestling to reframe their relationship with God and with the church? But another inner struggle often lurks unacknowledged, unconfronted-the struggle to rediscover one's own identity and relearn one's own story. Aimee Byrd finds this experience best described in the metaphor of finding one's face. Through this beautiful meditation, Byrd shows how the church has 'been defaced' by its own spiritual abuses, by its loss of imagination and wonder, by empty words without actions. The author of Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood has often asked hard questions of the church. In Saving Face, she develops her reflections still further, daring to wonder: what if the crises in the church today are not because we don't have the right doctrine, but because we have lost sight of something much deeper? What if we are spending all our time pointing fingers at those we consider 'wrong,' when we should be looking in a mirror instead? What if God has something to reveal to us there? Perhaps we should be seeking the presence of Christ in our own reflections just as we look for him in the faces of the others. Creatively weaving together stories, memories, journal entries, and Scripture meditations on the divine face, Aimee invites the church to seek the face of Christ by recovering the values of beauty, contemplation, and deep relationship.

Aimee Byrd (Author), Aimee Byrd (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Hope in Our Scars: Finding the Bride of Christ in the Underground of Disillusionment

Aimee Byrd peels back the church's underlying and pervasive theology of power to face the shame that lurks there and find the lasting hope of belonging in Christ. Some things happening in the church these days should provoke our anger. It's racked with scandals of fraud, abuse, cover-up. It's embroiled in racism, misogyny, marginalization, and hatred. The truth is that we have to fight to love Christ's church. Many of us are left wondering what kind of hope can the church offer if its leaders will not care for its wounds, admit their complicity, and move toward true reconciliation with God's people. From the author of Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood comes a passionate plea to work through our disillusionment with the church and rediscover what's true and beautiful about our covenantal union with Christ. Having tread her own path of disillusionment, Aimee Byrd invites us to see Christ among the chaos so apparent in his church. Along the way, Aimee guides us through deeply theological and personal reflections on how we can: - Cultivate healthier forms of trust by recognizing power structures at work. - Understand the limits of authority, and free ourselves from tribes and celebrity culture. - Take appropriate social risks by speaking up when we're uncomfortable. - Rediscover how our stories matter to God. This book is written to those who have been wounded by the church. To those who have suffered abuse at the hands of church leaders and are left with deep scars. To those who are disillusioned or deconstructing their faith, The Hope in Our Scars offers a way forward with a God who walks with us in our affliction and wants to make it into something beautiful.

Aimee Byrd (Author), Aimee Byrd (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Sexual Reformation Audio Study: Restoring the Dignity and Personhood of Man and Woman

The Zondervan Reflective Audio Study series provides a unique audio learning experience. Unlike a traditional audiobook's direct narration of a book's text, The Sexual Reformation Audio Study include high-quality live recordings in which the author teaches the content of the book, discusses important points, and introduces additional sources. The end result is an engaging audio study focused on learning. Since the Reformation, Protestants have confessed that the church is reformed and always reforming. But do we really believe this? Especially when it comes to sexuality? What if, in trying to be faithful to the beauty of God's design for man and woman, the church has instead latched onto a pagan concept of human nature and missed the theological meaning of our sexes? Through an exploration of the Song of Songs, Aimee Byrd examines what this often-ignored book can teach us about Christ, his church, man, and woman. The church is ripe for a sexual reformation, and recovering a good theological footing is imperative to it. Byrd invites you to enter into the Song's treasures as its lyrics reveal the point of it all-not a list of roles and hierarchy, but a love song. Session Titles and Runtimes: 1 - Intro: Reformation Looks Forward (10 min) 2 - Do We Really Need a Reformation? (18 min) 3 - We Are Singing the Wrong Song (16 min) 4 - Our Bodies Speak (17 min) 5 - The Woman's Desire and the Desirous Woman (19 min) 6 - Sexuality as Gift (21 min) 7 - Sometimes the Last Man Standing Is a Woman (16 min) 8 - Male and Female Voice (17 min) 9 - Outro: Eschatological Imagination (19 min)

Aimee Byrd (Author), Aimee Byrd (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Sexual Reformation: Restoring the Dignity and Personhood of Man and Woman

Since the Reformation, Protestants have confessed that the church is reformed and always reforming. But do we really believe this? Why, then, are we so shocked to hear that the church itself needs a sexual reformation? That the church has been fighting to uphold biblical distinction between the sexes against a culture that is rapidly and aggressively challenging this, is certainly one reason. But in trying to be faithful to the beauty of God's design for man and woman, the church has instead latched onto a pagan, Aristotelian concept of man and woman--that woman is by nature inferior to man--which robs us of the dignity of personhood as man and woman created in the image of God. Much of the evangelical teaching on the sexes is based on cultural stereotypes and an unbiblical ontology of male authority and female subordination. While some try to correct this, they often flatten the meaningful distinctions in the feminine and masculine gift. We end up missing the beautiful message that our bodies, and our whole selves as men and women, tell: the story of the great joy in which Christ received his gift of his bride, the church. Having taken on flesh, he is bringing her to the holy of holies, ushering her behind the veil, and securing communion with his bridal people in sacred space. He gave himself as the ultimate Gift and he loves us to the end. We see this highlighted in the book placed right in the middle of our Bibles. The Song of Songs enfleshes our hope as it poetically sings the metanarrative of Scripture. In this book, Aimee Byrd invites you to enter into the Song's treasures as its lyrics reveal a typology in God's design of man and woman, one that unfolds throughout the canon of Scripture. The meaning of man and woman extends beyond biology, nature, and culture to give us a glimpse of what is to come. Our bodies are theological. They are visible signs that tell us something about our God. This often-ignored biblical book has much to teach us about Christ, his church, man, and woman. It teaches us the whole point of it all. And what it teaches us is not a list of roles and hierarchy, but a love song. We are ripe for a sexual reformation in the church, and recovering a good theological anthropology is imperative to it. We desperately need to peel away the Aristotelian mindset of man and woman that still pervades much of the teaching on gender and sexuality in the church today.?The Holy Spirit is speaking to us in his Word to bring about a sexual reformation. He invites us to sing an eschatological song. In doing so, we find ourselves in it. We participate in it. We find beauty in it. We persevere by it. It changes us. Discussion questions and language comparisons are available in the audiobook companion PDF download.

Aimee Byrd (Author), Charity Spencer (Narrator)

Audiobook

Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: How the Church Needs to Rediscover Her Purpose

While evangelicalism dukes it out about who can be church leaders, the rest of the 98% of us need to be well equipped to see where we fit in God's household and why that matters. Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is a resource to help church leaders improve the culture of their church and disciple men and women in their flock to read, understand, and apply Scripture to their lives in the church. Until both men and women grow in their understanding of their relationship to Scripture, there will continue to be tension between the sexes in the church. Church leaders need to be engaged in thoughtful critique of the biblical manhood and womanhood movement and the effects it has on their congregation. Do men and women benefit equally from God's word? Are they equally responsible in sharpening one another in the faith and passing it down to the next generation? While radical feminists claim that the Bible is a hopelessly patriarchal construction by powerful men that oppresses women, evangelical churches simply reinforce this teaching when we constantly separate men and women, customizing women's resources and studies according to a culturally based understanding of roles. Do we need men's Bibles and women's Bibles, or can the one, holy Bible guide us all? Is the Bible, God's word, so male-centered and authored that women need to create their own resources to relate to it? No! And in it, we also learn from women. Women play an active role as witnesses to the faith, passing it on to the new generations. This audiobook explores the feminine voice in Scripture as synergistic with the dominant male voice. Through the women, we often get the story behind the story--take Ruth for example, or the birth of Christ through the perspective of Mary and Elizabeth in Luke. Aimee fortifies churches in a biblical understanding of brotherhood and sisterhood in God's household and the necessity of learning from one another in studying God's word. The troubling teaching under the rubric of 'biblical manhood and womanhood' has thrived with the help of popular Biblicist interpretive methods. And Biblicist interpretive methods ironically flourish in our individualistic culture that works against the 'traditional values' of family and community that the biblical manhood and womanhood movement is trying to uphold. This audiobook helps to correct Biblicist trends in the church today, affirming that we do not read God's word alone, we read it within our interpretive covenant communities--our churches. Our relationship with God's word affects our relationship with God's people, and vice versa. The church is the school of Christ, commissioned to discipleship. The responsibility of every believer, men and women together, is being active and equal participants in and witnesses to the faith--the tradents of faith. Discussion questions and accompanying charts are available in the audiobook companion PDF download.

Aimee Byrd (Author), Charity Spencer (Narrator)

Audiobook

Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: Audio Lectures: How the Church Needs to Rediscover H

The Zondervan Biblical and Theological Lectures series provides a unique audio learning experience. Unlike a traditional audiobook's direct narration of a book's text Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: Audio Lectures include high-quality live recordings of college-level lectures that cover the important points from each subject as well as relevant material from other sources. While evangelicalism dukes it out about who can be church leaders, the rest of the 98% of us need to be well-equipped to see where we fit in God's household and why that matters. The Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: Audio Lectures will help improve the culture of our churches and disciple men and women to read, understand, and apply Scripture together within them. Until both men and women grow in their understanding of their relationship to Scripture, there will continue to be tension between the sexes in the church. These lectures explore questions such as: Do men and women benefit equally from God's Word? Are they equally responsible in sharpening one another in the faith and passing it down to the next generation? Do we need men's Bibles and women's Bibles, or can the one, holy Bible guide us all? Is the Bible, God's Word, so male-centered and authored that women need to create their own resources to relate to it? The Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: Audio Lectures, featuring author and speaker Aimee Byrd, explore the feminine voice in Scripture as synergistic with the dominant male voice. Lessons fortify believers in a biblical understanding of brotherhood and sisterhood in God's household and the necessity of learning from one another in studying God's Word. This series helps to correct biblicist trends in the church today, affirming that we do not read God's Word alone, but within our interpretive covenant communities--our churches. The responsibility of every believer, men and women together, is being active and equal participants in and witnesses to the faith.

Aimee Byrd (Author), Aimee Byrd (Narrator)

Audiobook