Leonard Sweet, editor of Homiletics and Dean of the Theological School at Drew University, shares with us a credo in which he vows, "Don't give me that old-time religion. Don't give me that new-time religion. Give me that all-time religion that's as hard as rock and as soft as snow. I've stopped trying to make life work, and started trying to make life sing."

For Sweet, imagination, that little-used precious resource at the heart of all efforts to jump-start the Christian community, is what matters. On these pages, he challenges us to keep our clay moist so we'll be open to epiphanies. Sweet wants us to make our deeds of love into sweet-smelling aromas. "Our duty is not to see through one another, but to see one another through," he reminds us in a chapter devoted to the spiritual dimensions of relationships.

Fear has immobilized human beings for centuries and yet, according to Christian belief, the resurrection makes us into fear-resistant sons and daughters of God. Sweet admonishes us to accept change, to discover the meaning in suffering, and to give up our control games. "Jesus is calling the church to be a community of wave-riders-people who will lift anchor from whatever holds them in life's harbors." Sweet's A Cup of Coffee at the Soul Cafe reimagines Christian faith as a bold, fulfilling, and life-enriching adventure.