Six New Things – Week of September 23, 2024

In the wake of the Autumnal Equinox, let’s embrace transformation of our personal attitudes, our congregational spirit, and our social systems – for the healing of humanity and the planet.

ONE

September 22-28 is Banned Book Week! Social Justice Books have updated their lists of Banned Books – encouraging folx of all ages to read, read, read!! Find their lists of ‘critically reviewed multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators’ here, broken into categories of:

Find more in our Social Justice: Banned Books lib guide – including books to borrow from our library!

TWO

Banning books is an adult version of bullying gone awry. We can interrupt bullies from the get-go when Littles learn that Fair Is Fair (Penguin Random). It’s part of the Berenstain Bears Gifts of the Spirit series which connects faith, self-awareness, and relationships (includes two Activity Books).

Find more on Antibullying and Friendship in our lib guide.

THREE

Our Founding Fathers had fairness in mind as they crafted our voting processes. Heather Cox Richardson’s post on the Electoral College is an eye-opener and hopefully inspires folx to get to the polls this election season!!

Find more to support your congregation’s efforts at getting out the vote and supporting free and fair elections in our Social Justice: Census, Elections, & Voting lib guide and several recent Great Ideas, including:

FOUR

Tired of divisiveness?

Eager for honest engagement?

Ready to contribute to discourse more gracefully, rather than wringing your hands on the sidelines?

We’re proud to offer Graceful Conversations: Building Arcs across Divided Perspectives, a 5-part series of learning, reflection, and practice to help participants make Graceful Conversations part of their core being.

Find Session I-V videos bundled here; find the whole Toolkit – with Facilitator Guide, Participant Handouts, and Additional Resources, here.

See also our Courageous Spaces: Congregations that Listen, Lament, and Repair Toolkit for additional inspiration and support.

FIVE

Grappling with the roots of division is essential to healthy community. Fire in the Whole: Embracing Our Righteous Anger with White Christianity and Reclaiming Our Wholeness (WJK), ‘explores the anger of Black Christians who feel betrayed by white Christianity’s complicity of perpetuating racism’ by empathizing with pain, giving words to powerful emotions, and providing ‘guidance for healing church-related wounds’.

[We’ve placed this in both our Christian Nationalism and Antiracism: Spirituality, Identity, & Healing …and the Church lib guides.]

Congregations still reluctant to confront white fragility might consider The Moral Teachings of Jesus: Radical Instruction in the Will of God (Cascade), which sees the, ‘growing movement of post-evangelicalism’ as an opportunity to ‘move on to a more examined and robust faith’.

[This went into our Adults: Bible Study & Other Curricula lib guide.]

Those ready to question everything will find inspiration in, When Freedom Is the Question, Abolition Is the Answer: Reflections on Collective Liberation (Beacon), which considers, ‘the complex idea of abolition as much more than a strategy or a set of tactics… abolition is an entire political framework, culture, and orientation.’

[This landed in our Leaders & Outreach: Prophetic Witness lib guide.]

SIX

When your congregation is ready to ‘abolish’ what has been in favor of new systems and practices, Funding Forward: A Pathway to Sustainable Models for Ministry (Fortress), recognizes that, ‘discernment and execution are much more challenging than the ideation process’ as it attends to the leadership challenges and pitfalls that are inevitable with innovation.

Don’t do this work alone! The Ministry Lab partners with Innovation Lab to bring our member congregations the Innovation Culture Index, the Community Discovery Package, and/or the full Ministry Transformation Lab. Let us accompany you and your congregation through a guided process of transformation. Contact Rev. Emily Meyer for details and to schedule your introduction!