Six New Things – Week of February 27, 2023

President’s Day, pulpit supply demands, and The Blizzard prevented posting last week. But the resources are so promising with regard to turning the tide on hurt and trauma, that we’re rolling two weeks together – bridging African American History Month and Women’s History Month.

ONE

At the close of Black History Month – to use at any time and/or keep on tap for next year:

28 Days of Black History Daily Emails for Black History Month: a subscription gains access to the full archive: read all the 5-minute emails sent thus far, including:

  • A cultural artifact: represents the impact of Black people and culture in US history
  • Action steps: donating to an organization, getting involved in your community, or more
  • Discussion questions: to drive conversation and learning with others

TWO

For a deeper dive into Black history and liberation:

We Will Be Free: The Life and Faith of Sojourner Truth (Eerdmans) offers the leader’s powerful voice in an ‘evocative narrative of faith in action’.

In Liberation and the Cosmos: Conversations with the Elders, Revised Edition (Fortress), Barabara Holmes’ imagined dialogues, ‘offer a unique vantage point for understanding the luminaries of liberation down through the generations’.

While the title: Resistance Stories from Black History for Kids: Inspiring People and Events that Every Kid Should Know (Ulysses) – says it all; perfect  for middle-grade readers.

THREE

If history inspires action, Ibram X. Kendi’s line-up of antiracist books, journals, and workbooks for all ages may be the next step.

FOUR

Youth are bearing the brunt of hate-filled ideologies.

Springtide Research has an enlightening line-up for Navigating Injustice: A Closer Look at Race, Faith & Mental Health:

See The Girls Are Not Okay: And Evangelical Theology Bears a Significant Part of the Blame for Diana Butler Bass’s compelling history and connections between a rise in depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among teen girls and LGBTQIA2S+ youth with the rise in white Christian nationalism.

FIVE

Help Littles develop resilience by deepening their awareness of the Divine ‘in the ordinary people and places of everyday life’ with Gleynys Nellist’s latest, Wherever You Are (Beaming) and by comforting fears through prayer: see I Am Not Afraid: Psalm 23 for Bedtime and Sparrow’s Prayer (both Beaming)

Support parents in Raising Healthy Teenagers: Equipping Your Child to Navigate the Pitfalls and Dangers of Teen Life (Baker) and Finding Our Way Forward: When the Children We Love Become Adults (Herald).

And please join our FREE Teen Mental Health and Church Culture webinar with Melissa Weinhandl, LMFT. Develop tools to support your own mental health; learn to see signs of struggle in the youth you serve; support parents and youth at home; and create a congregational culture supportive of mental well-being. Learn more and register here.

SIX

Let Post-Traumatic Jesus: A Healing Gospel for the Wounded (WJK) support healing among all who are hurting; download the Reading Group Guide for small group use.

Find additional resources for Trauma-Informed Hospitality in our lib guide.

Encourage your congregation to integrate their justice commitments into their financial practices with Serving Money, Serving God: Aligning Radical Justice, Christian Practice, and Church Life (Fortress), ‘the first Christian stewardship and finance book written from an explicitly anti-racist, decolonize, feminist, ecological, and class-critical standpoint’, highlighting, ‘the importance of creativity, imagination, and a sense of hope-filled adventure in engaging this work’.

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We hope there are pieces in here to help you and those you serve bridge African American History Month and Women’s History Month. It seems like a good time to: Learn. Pray. Act. Heal. Repeat.