Six New Things – Week of January 11, 2021
One
Illustrated Ministry has a plethora of beautiful offerings:
- free resources that connect families to RCL texts through ’til Lent
- six-week Lord’s Prayer or Beatitudes online Sunday school curricula;
For Lent:
- Psalms Coloring Posters, Coloring Pages, and Devotional Guide
- Lenten resources for families (includes devotions, activities, coloring pages, and more)
- Stations of the Cross and Seven Last Words devotions and activities
- Alleluia illustrations
- and – coming soon! – Where Your Heart Is, for youth and young adults
You can download a free Lenten pdf and sample; find Lent and Easter at-home kit tips and ideas on their Facebook page ; and join their Jan. 12 (12:00 PM CST) webinar on Practical Resources for Churches.
Not to be outdone, Sparkhouse also has an introductory special (through 03.31.21) exclusively available on Lent, Holy Week & Easter Digital Activity Kits, with age-appropriate crafts, activities and resources in kits for different ages. Coming soon: a free Lenten Youth Devotional App! View a sample and sign up to get it!
Two
Rev. Michael W. Waters just published Something in the Water: A 21st Century Civil Rights Odyssey (Chalice). You can join Rev. Waters and Beto O’Rourke (who wrote the foreword) in their live book launch, Tuesday, Jan. 12 (7:00 PM CST). See ideas for generating interest and intent on Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday (find liturgy ideas in our Anti-Racism as Community Event Great Idea) and featuring Something in the Water in intergenerational and community-wide study, faith formation activities and social action in our African American History Stations Great Idea.
Three
A Sanctified Art shared Sarah Are’s Epiphany poem – a liturgical piece appropriate throughout the season; re-shared their at-home Election Season liturgy, the poetry, prayers and liturgical elements of which may be helpful in these transitional times; and they’re offering 10% off their Again & Again Lenten bundle, which includes liturgical elements, sermon prompts, images and more for worship and devotions.
Four
PC(USA) Store has compiled a Lenten Resource Guide, (and share a few free excerpts), where you’ll find Wendy Farley’s Beguiled by Beauty: Cultivating a Life of Contemplation and Compassion (WJK), which is referenced in our Calm Yourselves Great Idea, where we also recommend Traci Smith’s two free pdfs [from her book, Faithful Families: Creating Sacred Moments at Home (Chalice)].
Build on the calm with Ellie Roscher and Heidi Barr’s 12 Tiny Things (Broadleaf), which invites us “to take one tiny action at a time to open up growth and renewal”.
If you’re looking for wisdom, calm and hope, you might also appreciate Steven Charleston‘s Ladder to the Light: An Indigenous Elder’s Meditations on Hope and Courage, which we’ve added to our Leader Renewal lib guide.
Five
Additional tools for leaders can be found in Meta Herrick Carlson’s Church Anew blog post, Coming Back Together: Church and Consent Culture in 2021 – with helpful post-Covid hospitality thoughts; Doug Powe and Ann Michel’s post 8 Trends Impacting Church Leadership in 2021; and The Many’s Jesus Says Go – just for leaders.
Six
OnBeing shared a list of podcasts from diverse writers/thinkers that would inspire fantastic adult small group discussions:
- Grace Lee Boggs, A Century in the World
- Vincent Harding, Is America Possible?
- angel Kyodo williams, The World Is Our Field of Practice
- Arlie Hochschild, The Deep Stories of Our Times
For further discussion: the ever-evocative Brian McLaren has a new book out, Faith after Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do about It (St Marten’s Essentials) – possibly a good summer group read.
