It Doesn't Have to Be This Weird

When it comes to relationships between men and women, we have more questions than answers:

• How do we keep relationships with the opposite sex healthy--and still hug each other after small group?
• Is it possible for married men and women to be friends with people of the opposite sex?
• What does it mean to be a woman if you're not a wife, or a man if you're not a husband?

Jesus' pattern for church living was one of family--of brothers and sisters living in intimate, life-giving community with each other. With story, sensitivity, and hope, Beyond Awkward Side Hugs invites us to leave behind eroticized, fear-based patterns and move toward gendered, generous relationships between men and women of character as we love one another as Jesus did.

"Beyond Awkward Side Hugs is a deep well of biblical wisdom, and Lea has written with nuance and clarity, humor and grace."

--Jen Pollock Michel, author of Surprised by Paradox and Keeping Place

"The church desperately needs a bigger vision for how men and women can flourish together in ministry and friendship, and Bronwyn Lea paints a vivid picture for how we'll get there."

--Steve Wiens, author of Shining Like the Sun, Beginnings, and Whole