Six New Things – Week of May 05, 2025

Replace terror and chaos with the beauty of justice and truth-telling in Spirit-filled community.

ONE

With the ‘playful and light-hearted story’, Wind, Stop Blowing! (Skinner), all ages will be inspired to move from ‘despising and detesting’ change to the wiser path of making peace with the winds of change.

[Find more on Change/Conflict in our lib guide.]

We’ve added Wind, Stop Blowing! to our Pentecost lib guide where you’re also find Illustrated Ministry’s new Special Sunday Resources: Pentecost, which is rooted in Acts 2:1-21 and focuses on ‘how the Spirit shows up in powerful, surprising, and deeply communal ways’.

[Illustrated Ministry is also promoting a 25% off sale on their Pride Stickers, Buttons, Backpack Tags, and more!]

TWO

Rev. Cameron Trimble urges us to Hold the Line, in support of which Micro Practices for Justice Ministry: Doing Little Things for the Common Good (Upper Room), might be useful.

Why do we need to ‘hold the line’? Because so much is being torn down and thrown away. See Brendan Carr’s F.C.C. Has Been Busy. Plus, Rewriting the History of Watergate (WNYC Studios) for a glimpse as Brooke Gladstone interviews Bryan Stevenson (at 29:26), who asserts that we, ‘deny ourselves the beauty of justice when we refuse to tell the truth’.

Find more support for these times in our Adaptive Leadership lib guide.

THREE

Tell the truth in your context with So Many Years: A Juneteenth Story (Clarion), which ‘explains the history behind Juneteenth celebrations’ as it ‘acknowledges the history of slavery in the US as well as the astonishing Black resilience that has led to an enduring legacy of Black joy’.

Find more in our Anti-Racism: Adults: Past & Present and Children & Families: History of Race in America lib guides.

FOUR

Expand appreciation for diverse truths with The Gathering Table (Knopf), a ‘joyful picture book’ that ‘reveals how Gullah Geechee culture contributes to a family’s love, and reminds us of the importance of building community one gathering at a time’.

[Learn about the Gullah Geechee culture here. Find more in our Multicultural/Multiracial Congregation lib guide.]

Strengthen your own families – and empower ‘social healing and world peace’ – with Sacred Parenthood: Spiritual Practices for the Highs and Lows of Parenting (Herald), a collection of ‘stories and spiritual practices for the inner and communal lives of parents in a beautifully diverse world’.

Find more in our Pastoral Care and Faith Formation Parenting lib guides; and our Family, Small Group, & Congregation Spiritual Practices lib guide.

FIVE

We Can Do Hard Things – from Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle – offers ‘the wisest, most life-changing answers’ to ‘life’s 20 Questions’ for all of us who ‘want wise company on the path of life’.

Find more in our Pastoral Care: Grief & Trauma and Care for Caregivers lib guides.

If the ‘hard things’ are piling up for you and yours, Old & New – Revelation (Church Anew) invites you to ‘hear a word of hope in a disorienting and chaotic world’. This seven-part video-based Bible study is led by local theologians: Rev. Dr. Jia Starr Brown, Rev. Dr. Adam White, Rev. Matthew Ian Fleming, Rev. Andrea Fosse-Metcalfe, Rev. Tyler Sit, and Joe Davis.

[Find more in our Adult Bible Study: Apocalypse/Justice/Revelation lib guide.]

SIX

In her Climate Emergency and Faith-Based Activism Earth Day interview on Kwok Pui Lan’s, Kwok ‘n’ Roll podcast, Dr. Cynthia Moe-Lobeda also ‘asks us to wake up to the climate crisis’ as she ‘offers wisdom from the Bible about human beings’ relationships with the environment and describes faith-based activism’ introducing the next Building a Moral Economy volume, ‘Climate Justice, Climate Hope’

Encourage seniors to dig into climate activism with Th!rd Act, ‘a community of Americans over sixty determined to change the world for the better’.

We list their upcoming events in our Community Opportunities list.